Hong Kong: New conservation strategy suggested

Hong Kong should adopt a new conservation approach by identifying the land that should remain protected while recovering those that have been abandoned and deteriorated, Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan said today.

Mr Tse made the remarks during a media session after attending a radio programme this morning.

He pointed out that the city's current conservation strategy is a passive approach which does not work very well.

Our conservation strategy is done by assigning certain land to be undeveloped. For example, through the planning process, we may assign a certain piece of land to be a conservation area. In that area, no development will be allowed.

Of course, that has served the purpose of conservation to some extent, but actually we have also seen that because of lack of management and lack of attention, the conservation value of that piece of land can be deteriorating.

The second angle is that Hong Kong is a city where land is very scarce. We need land for development and if we do nothing and continue our current approach of conservation, then conservation will be under a lot of pressure.

He emphasised that Hong Kong should implement a more proactive conservation strategy that will enhance its ecological protection and achieve better biodiversity outcomes.

Under that strategy, we should identify those areas with high conservation value and try to recover the adjacent land which have been abandoned and deteriorated, and as such have lost its conservation value. We should recover those areas so that we can form a contiguous and larger piece of land for conservation.

Mr Tse said the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department is conducting a study on adopting the new approach in the Northern Metropolis project, under which a wetland park of around 2,000 hectares will be formed after the land to be protected is identified.

Through the study, they will identify where should be the core area to be protected, where should be assigned as the adjacent land to be recovered and where should be the boundary of the new wetland park.

The boundary of the wetland park may not be the same as the current boundary of wetland protection area or wetland buffer area. he added.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Global businesses eye new opportunities at consumer products expo

Xinhua) 09:11, July 31, 2022

Photo taken on July 26, 2022 shows the booth of cosmetics giant L'Oreal in the French pavilion at the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

HAIKOU, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China, sees the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) as a signal of the greater opening-up of the Chinese market.

The expo, which concluded on Saturday in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, attracted exhibitors from 61 countries and regions. Some 2,800 brands from 1,955 domestic and international enterprises participated in the exhibitions.

China is committed to opening up further and is increasingly determined to unleash the potential of its market by boosting consumption, Megarbane said. It was also the second time L'Oreal has exhibited at the expo, and it this year expanded its exhibition area to 625 square meters.

There were over 50 French companies and nearly 250 French brands participating in the expo held on the resort island of Hainan. France was the guest country of honor at this year's CICPE and, after China, the second-largest exhibitor.

French fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld and the Hainan Global Duty-Free Plaza on Feb. 26 signed a strategic cooperation agreement to share the opening-up opportunities and accelerate the expansion of Hainan's consumer market.

Durian, coffee, snacks and various delicacies exhibited by Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group were audience favorites during the event. "The expo is a very good platform and is in line with the development strategy of our company," said Xue Zengyi, senior vice chairman of the group's Agro-Industry and Food Business China Area.

Attracted by the preferential policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the group increased its investment in Hainan and established a global trade company in 2021. Xue said the company hopes to import the world's best consumer goods into Hainan and then push them from Hainan to the Chinese market, and, at the same time, bring high-quality Chinese consumer goods to the world.

Oranuch Wannapinyo, commercial consul of Commercial Section at the Thai Consulate-General in Guangzhou, said she believes that in participating in the expo, more premium and high-quality Thai brands will be promoted to the Chinese market and across the globe.

Foreign direct investment inflows, in actual use, increased 17.4 percent year on year to 723.31 billion yuan (about 107.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said that during the expo, the number of foreign exhibitors and brands increased significantly, the international exhibition areas expanded, and the quality of economic and trade activities also improved, which shows that the expo's platform role has become more prominent and the Chinese market has become more attractive.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
Reports that German-supplied artillery is not coping with the heavy use of Ukrainian forces are affecting Kyiv's shelling of civilian areas.

Der Spiegel, a publication located in Berlin, has stated that losses in Donbass have increased, and heavy weaponry is not working as promised.

Kyiv Forces Struggle With Damaged Artillery

After 30 days of usage, the long-range weapons that Volodymyr Zelensky ordered have major faults, the source claimed on Friday.

According to RT, the rapid rate of fire used in the field is wearing them down too quickly. The seven Panzerhaubitze 2000 guns allegedly started to wear out by the end of June, according to unnamed sources. Hardware emits alerts and needs immediate maintenance.

One explanation for the issue is that the Ukrainians are firing an excessive number of shells each day, which has damaged the howitzer's loading system, noted Hi India.

Indicators reveal that more rounds are fired than the authorized 100 per day (high use), contrary to recommendations.

Russia Outmatches Ukraine in Number of Shellings Fired Daily

Kyiv's forces are still only firing a small portion of the rounds that the Russian military is firing in response, despite it appearing that the German-supplied artillery is overloaded.

Early in the month, according to Ukrainian officials, they were only firing 6,000 rounds per day, compared to Russia's 20,000 counterfire.

Additionally, Russia possesses 15 artillery units to one; therefore, the 6,000 were used in smaller numbers of Kyiv's heavy weapons.

Read Also: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022: Did Trump Get Richer Since Leaving the US Presidency?

Because Ukrainian forces are deploying the incorrect rounds on German Howitzers due to a lack of ammunition, the situation in the fight is getting worse for Ukraine.

Berlin is seeking to establish a repair facility in Poland to put the howitzers back into service. Too many incompatible systems used is getting chaotic. Among the foreign weapons used against the Russian juggernaut that have failed are Germany's Panzerhaubitze 2000s.

According to allegations, the Ukrainian Azov, nationalists, and mercenaries used ineffective Javelin man-portable devices built in Washington and London for urban warfare. According to reports, battery problems with the NLAW prevent soldiers from using it.

Included in the numbers of malfunctioning hardware are Germany's Gepard anti-aircraft tanks; five of the units given have hit a snag. The units have a problem with Norwegian ammunition supplied with it.

Zelensky obtained his wish list of weapons, but there may be negative effects to having too many weapon systems. Ukrainian officials air their gripes about these weapons' platforms

One officer praised the US-HIMARS MLRS and criticized it for lacking the additional ability to attack targets considerably more precisely.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, who talked with Newsweek, the system is a nice place to start, but artillery bombardment is not as accurate, and they are firing without precision. He criticized it for lacking the additional ability to attack targets considerably more precisely.

After Ukraine threatened to attack the Crimean bridge with the 142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS, Mikhail Sheremet (Crimean MP) told the Ukrainians to dare it, but Kyiv will suffer a world of hurt.

German supplied artillery to the Ukrainian forces is wearing out faster, and so are other west supplied heavy arms, allegedly neutralized and ammunition destroyed as well.

Related Article: Ukrainian Military Launches Hiroshima-Like Attacks Using US HIMARS in Kherson, Officials Claim

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The (ED) on Sunday conducted a search at leader Sanjay Raut's residence in Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case, an official said.

The action follows two summons issued by the ED against Raut, the latest being on July 27.

Raut was summoned for questioning by the ED in a money laundering case linked to the alleged irregularities in the re-development of a Mumbai 'chawl' and related transactions involving his wife and 'associates'.

He had appeared before the agency in Mumbai to record his statement on July 1 in connection with the case. After that, the ED had summoned him twice, but he had skipped the summonses citing his engagement with the ongoing Parliament session.

At 7 am on Sunday, ED officials, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, reached Raut's 'Maitri' bungalow located in suburban Bhandup, and began the search.

The Rajya Sabha member, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp of the Shiv Sena, had denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted due to political vendetta.

"I swear by late Balasabheb Thackeray that I have nothing to do with any scam," Raut tweeted shortly after the ED action began.

"I will die but won't leave Shiv Sena," Raut added.

During the ED search, a large number of supporters gathered outside Raut's residence and staged protests against the agency's action. Holding safron flags and banners in their hands, the Sena MP's supporters also raised slogans against the ED.

Raut waved at his supporters from the window of his house.

At the ED office located in Ballard Estate area of south Mumbai, a large number of police have been deployed, an official said.

Roads leading to the agency office have been kept shut for vehicles and barricades have been placed, he 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.)
A US embassy delegation held talks with the trustees of Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) on the proposed mosque-hospital project at Dhannipur in district.

The two-hour long meeting with political officer Karen McCrea and Kavleen Chatwal, the economic and political specialist from the US Embassy, was held at a hotel in Lucknow on Friday, IICF secretary Athar Husain told PTI.

"We had a long discussion with the US delegation over the Babri Masjid and Ram Janmabhoomi issue that had a great impact on the political discourse of a vast population of South Asia. And after the verdict, there is hope that all such types of long standing issues can be resolved peacefully," Hussain said.

IICF president Zufar Farooqui said Muslims look up to higher judiciary on issues of dispute for justice.

"The situation post- verdict, where Muslims having faith in judiciary accepted the verdict with a hope to reduce the Hindu-Muslim divide arising out of Ayodhya dispute and emphasised that Muslims still look up to higher judiciary on issues of dispute for justice with high hope".

The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) was set up by the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque in Ayodhya's Dhannipur village following the Supreme Court's verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.

(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.)
While the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) is yet to be fully functional in terms of acquiring stressed loans from banks, state-run has said that accounts amounting to around Rs 2,500 crore are identified to be transferred in the first and second phase and NARCL is doing a due diligence on this.

The banks managing director and chief executive officer Shanti Lal Jain has said that out of the total eight accounts that were identified in the first phase, three were already resolved. The bank said that out of the remaining five accounts amounting to around Rs 1,241 crore, four are with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). NARCL (also known as bad bank) due diligence is going on all these. Further in phase 2, around nine accounts (Rs 1,280 crore) are identified. In the meantime, if we get a good OTS (one-time settlement) or good resolution then it will be settled, Jain said.

As per the plan, NARCL will acquire bad loans to the tune of around Rs 198,334 crore from lenders and will transfer it to India Debt Resolution Company (IDRCL) for resolution of those loans. When asked about when the bank will start transferring accounts, Jain said, Let the price and the offer come. According to the media reports, are expected to start transferring loans by the end of second quarter. Last week, Punjab National Bank had said that it will transfer eight accounts of around Rs 2,486 crore by the end of September quarter.

The NARCL will be acquiring these loans from under a 15:85 structure, where it will pay up to 15 per cent of the net asset value in cash and issue security receipts for the remaining part. Public sector (PSBs) have about 51 per cent stake in NARCL and has picked up around 13.27 per cent stake in it. The bank has invested around Rs 139 crore as equity in NARCL. IDRCL is a service company that will manage the asset and engage market professionals and turnaround experts. Both public sector banks will hold a maximum of 49 per cent stake in it and the rest will be with private sector lenders.

Jain said that the bank is expected to see improvement in its asset quality in the coming quarters of the financial year. During the first quarter of the financial year 2022-23, the gross non-performing assets of the bank decreased to 8.13 per cent from 9.69 per cent during the April to June quarter of the previous financial year, while net non-performing assets also dipped to 2.12 per cent from 3.47 per cent. We are hopeful that our GNPA and NNPA will further go down, he said. He said that going forward corporate slippages will go further down, while slippages will come mainly in the micro small and medium enterprises segment.
As health authorities all over the globe search for ways to stop the monkeypox outbreak, investors are snapping up shares of companies that could benefit from the race to quell the disease.

Shares of vaccine producers, antiviral drug makers and protective equipment manufacturers are in demand as investors tap a strategy that delivered gains during the coronavirus pandemic. Biotechnological company Bavarian Nordic A/S and pharmaceutical firm Siga Technologies Inc. are among the stocks in focus as well as medical tools supplier Precision System Science Co.

While nowhere as severe as the Covid-19 outbreak, the spread of monkeypox infections across more than 70 countries in just a few months has prompted the World Health Organization to declare it as a global emergency. This pronouncement may give the trade an extra tailwind.

At the moment, the world is relying on one manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, for the monkeypox vaccine, said Manish Bhargava, a fund manager at Straits Investment Holdings Pte in Singapore. To keep up with demand, we can expect other biotech firms to ramp up research and production. Its starting to reflect in the strong stock price performance for the sector.

Here are some sectors and companies that have been active:

Vaccines and antivirals

Shares of Bavarian Nordic have more than tripled from a low in May after governments began ordering the Danish companys monkeypox vaccine  the only one approved specifically to ward off the infection. The firm has raised its revenue guidance several times this year.

Analysts are taking note, with Citigroup Inc. increasing its target price for the companys stock by 20 per cent and flagging that there may be further upside if more orders come through. Shares of other companies making vaccines or antivirals for monkeypox have also caught the attention of US retail traders. The stock of Siga Technologies, which manufactures a treatment called Tpoxx, has doubled this year. The therapy is approved to treat smallpox in the US, and monkeypox and other viruses in the European Union and the UK.

Chimerix Inc.s Tembexa is a countermeasure that is used to treat smallpox, and the firm said in May it would sell the drug to Emergent BioSolutions Inc. On the vaccine side, Emergents ACAM2000 is a smallpox vaccine that can be utilized in some cases against monkeypox. Siga, Chimerix and Emergent are the key beneficiaries of the WHOs declaration that the monkeypox outbreak is a global emergency, according to Cowen Inc. analyst Boris Peaker. With increased resources allocated to contact tracing and testing in EU and US, we anticipate the case count to rise significantly over the next few months, potentially leading to more procurement of countermeasures, Peaker wrote in a note.




One of outgoing Boris Johnson's key loyalists and supporter of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as his successor, who has been very vocal in attacks against Rishi Sunak, was on Sunday facing criticism for retweeting a dangerous and distasteful image of the former Chancellor.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries re-posted a tweet on her social media account showing an image of Johnson dressed as Roman leader Julius Caesar and Sunak stabbing him in the back, a reference to his killer Brutus.

Business Minister Greg Hands, who is backing the British Indian ex-minister in the race, told Sky News' the post was appalling.

"I do find it distasteful and I do find it, less than a year after the stabbing of our colleague, in very, very poor taste, even verging on dangerous," he said.

Referring to the stabbing to death of Tory MP Sir David Amess by a constituent last year, he added: "It is not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David... so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even,"



But an unnamed ally of Dorries pointed out that it was obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar, photoshopped to provide political commentary.

"Some people of course will want to be wilfully offended," the ally said.

Dorries has previously attacked Sunak's expensive dress sense as a sign of not being in touch with the British electorate and accused him of leading a ruthless coup against his former boss.

"I am bitterly disappointed that was removed via a ruthless coup, as he was, led largely by Rishi Sunak, she has said.

It comes as a report in the Observer' newspaper claims Sunak's team is being urged to overhaul his general election-style campaign in favour of a grassroots effort, speaking directly to the estimated 180,000 Tory members in a last-ditch attempt to beat Liz Truss to the Conservative leadership.

Truss has been leading in the opinion polls and bookmaker's odds as the favoured candidate to succeed .

The vote is very soft, you don't have to do much to move it. We're making this far too complicated. There's brilliant people in charge, but I'm just worried we're fighting the wrong campaign, one Sunak supporting Tory MP told the newspaper.

Another MP said: The stuff they have their guys producing is social media stuff for a general election. This is about party members. It should just be about getting Rishi and key supporters to as many members as possible. They are trying to get MPs out for them, but it's mainly producing social media graphics.

A third ally said: I do think it's looking quite difficult for him but I can't give up hope yet. There are a lot of MPs talking to their associations. There's still time. It would be preposterous to just go through the motions for the next four weeks.

The postal ballots for the election will start landing at Tory members' addresses from next Thursday, with the deadline for receiving completed ballots set as the evening of September 2. The result will be declared on September 5.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russia's main rival and set out Russia's global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.

Speaking on Russia's Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg founded by Tsar Peter the Great, Putin praised Peter for making Russia a great sea power and increasing the global standing of the Russian state.

After inspecting the navy, Putin made a short speech in which he promised that what he touted as Russia's unique Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, cautioning that Russia had the military clout to defeat any potential aggressors.

Shortly before the speech, he signed a new 55-page naval doctrine, which sets out the broad strategic aims of Russia's navy, including its ambitions as a "great maritime power" which extend over the entire world.

The main threat to Russia, the doctrine says, is "the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans" and the movement of the NATO military alliance closer towards Russia's borders.

Russia may use its military force appropriately to the situation in the world's oceans should other soft powers, such as diplomatic and economic tools, be exhausted, the doctrine says, acknowledging that Russia does not have enough navy bases globally.

Russia's priority was to develop strategic and naval cooperation with India as well as wider cooperation with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other states in the region, according to the doctrine.

"Guided by this doctrine, the Russian Federation will firmly and resolutely defend its national interests in the world's oceans, and having sufficient maritime power will guarantee their security and protection," the document said.

Putin's speech did not mention the conflict in Ukraine, but the military doctrine envisages a "comprehensive strengthening of Russia's geopolitical position" in the Black and Azov seas.

Relations between Russia and the West have undergone deepening strain during the five months of the Ukraine conflict.

The doctrine also sets out the Arctic Ocean, which the United States has repeatedly said Russia is trying to militarise, as an area of particular importance for Russia.

Russia's vast 37,650 km (23,400 mile) coastline, which stretches from the Sea of Japan to the White Sea, also includes the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Putin said the delivery of Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles to the Admiral Gorshkov frigate would begin within months. The location of their deployment would depend on Russian interests, he said.

"The key thing here is the capability of the Russian navy... It is able to respond with lightning speed to all who decides to infringe on our sovereignty and freedom." Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound, and Russia has conducted previous test-launches of the Zircon from warships and submarines over the past year.

In Crimea, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said Ukrainian forces struck the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Russian-held port city early on Sunday, wounding five members of staff.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister has visited flood-ravaged province and assured the affected people of all possible help in their rescue and rehabilitation as the death toll from the monsoon rains and flash flooding across the country on Sunday reached 320.

province is the worst affected due to the heavy rains and flash floods and has recorded 127 deaths so far.

Prime Minister Sharif while talking to media after visiting Quetta on Saturday announced compensation packages for those killed or displaced during the heavy monsoon rains and flash flooding which have been going on across for the last five weeks.

Since mid-June, the monsoon rains have led to swollen rivers and damaged highways and bridges, disrupting traffic all across the country.

Sharif said that some 13,000 houses have been fully destroyed or partially damaged in Balochistan, which recorded the highest death toll, followed by Sindh including Pakistan's biggest city Karachi where around 70 people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents in five weeks.

According to the National and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), there have also been around 60 fatalities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and another 50 in Punjab.

visited the areas affected the most by the rain induced floods and met with affected people, promising them all possible help from the federal and provincial governments, including compensation packages of one million rupees for each victim.

Naseer Ahmed Nasar, the Director-General PDMA in Balochistan, said that till Saturday 127 fatalities had been reported across the province.

He said rescue workers found 11 more bodies in the Noshki, Lasbela, Chaghi, and Zhob districts of .

We know 46 children and 32 women are also among the dead," he added.

The Army, Frontier Corps, and rescue workers from the PDMA were carrying out rescue and relief operations in all floods affected parts of Balochistan.

Thousands of stranded people in the Lasbela and Jhal Magsi districts of Balochistan had been rescued in the operation so far while floods had damaged around 13,000 mud-walled houses in Quetta, Pishin, Jaffarabad, Khuzdar, Kohlu, Barkhan, Lasbela and Jhal Magsi districts of Balochistan.

The floods have also led to a suspension of train service between Pakistan and Iran after various portions of railway track between the two countries were washed away.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ukrainian and Russian officials blamed each other for the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in an attack on a prison in a separatist-controlled area. The asked to visit the prison to make sure the scores of wounded POWs had proper treatment, but said its request had not been granted so far.

Meanwhile, kept launching attacks on several Ukrainian cities, hitting a school and a bus station.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday the Committee of the and the United Nations have a duty to react to the shelling of the prison complex in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province, and he called again for to be declared a terrorist state.

"Condemnation at the level of political rhetoric is not enough for this mass murder," he said.

Separatist authorities and Russian officials said the attack Friday killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded another 75. Russia's Defence Ministry on Saturday issued a list naming 48 Ukrainian fighters, aged 20 to 62, who died in the attack; it was not clear if the ministry had revised its fatality count.

Satellite photos taken before and after the attack show that a small, squarish building in the middle of the Olenivka prison complex was demolished, its roof in splinters.

Both and alleged the attack on the prison was premeditated and intended to silence the Ukrainian prisoners and destroy evidence.

The ICRC, which has organised civilian evacuations and worked to monitor the treatment of POWs held by Russia and Ukraine, said it requested access to the prison "to determine the health and condition of all the people present on-site at the time of the attack."



"Our priority right now is making sure that the wounded receive lifesaving treatment and that the bodies of those who lost their lives are dealt with in a dignified manner," the said.

But the organisation said late Saturday that its request to access the prison had not been granted yet.

"Granting ICRC access to POWs is an obligation of parties to conflict under the Geneva Conventions," the ICRC said on Twitter.

Russia claimed Ukraine's military used US-supplied precision rocket launchers to target the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People's Republic.

The Ukrainian military accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said the competing claims and limited information prevented assigning full responsibility for the attack but the "available visual evidence appears to support the Ukrainian claim more than the Russian."



Moscow has opened a probe into the attack and the UN said it also was prepared to send investigators. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said "we stand ready to send a group of experts able to conduct an investigation, requiring the consent of the parties, and we fully support the initiatives" of the Red Cross.

Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, Russian rockets hit a school in Kharkiv and a bus station in Sloviansk, among other strikes. In southern Ukraine, one person was reported killed and six injured in shelling in a residential area in Mykolaiv, local officials said.

Russian and separatist forces are trying to take full control of the Donetsk region, one of two eastern provinces that Russia has recognised as sovereign states.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Saturday that Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk will face severe heating problems this winter because of the destruction of gas mains. She called for a mandatory evacuation of residents before the cold weather sets in.

The prison attack reportedly killed Ukrainian soldiers captured in May after the fall of Mariupol, a Black Sea port city where troops and the Azov Regiment of the national guard famously held out against a months-long Russian siege.

On Saturday, an association of Azov fighters' relatives dressed in black demonstrated outside Kyiv's St. Sophia Cathedral and called for Russia to be designated a terrorist state for violating the Geneva Convention's rules for the treatment of war prisoners.

A woman wearing dark glasses who gave only her first name, Iryna, was waiting for news of her 23-year-old son.

"I don't know how is he, where is he, if he is alive or no. I don't know. It's a horror, only horror," she said.

On the energy front, Russia's state-owned natural gas corporation said Saturday it has halted shipments to Latvia because of contract violations. Gas giant Gazprom said the shipments were stopped because Latvia broke "terms for extraction of gas."



The statement likely referred to a refusal to meet Russia's demand for gas payments in rubles rather than other currencies. Gazprom has previously suspended gas shipments to other EU countries, including the Netherlands, Poland and Bulgaria, because they would not pay in rubles.

EU nations have been scrambling to secure other energy sources, fearing that Russia will cut off more gas supplies as winter approaches.

(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 Russian Armed Forces will obtain Zircon hypersonic missile systems in the coming months, the country's President said on Sunday.

"The capabilities of the Navy ... are constantly improving. Suffice it to mention the latest Zircon hypersonic missile systems, which are unstoppable and have no analogues in the world. Dear comrades, their delivery to the Russian Armed Forces will begin in the coming months," Putin said during the Navy Day parade.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov will be the first to take up combat duty with this weapon on board, he added.

"The duty area of the ship equipped with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles will be determined based on the interests of ensuring Russia's security," he said.

Putin said earlier that a Zircon missile could have a speed of Mach 9 (over 11,000 kph) and a flight range of more than 1,000 km.

--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.)
Ukrainian President has asked civilians remaining in parts of eastern Donetsk, which is still under Kiev's control, to evacuate as Russia has intensified fighting in the region.

In his nightly video address to the nation on Saturday, the President said: "There are hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands of children... Many people refuse to leave... But it really needs to be done. This decision will have to be made... And the sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region, the fewer people the Russian army will be able to kill.

"The government has taken a decision to begin mandatory evacuation from Donetsk. It's all been organised: full support, full assistance, both logistical and financial. We only need those people who have not yet made this decision to make this decision at last.

"We are not Russia. That is why every life is important for us. And we will use all available opportunities to save as many lives as possible and to limit Russian terror as much as possible.

"At this stage of the war, terror is the main weapon for Russia. And that is why the main task of every Ukrainian, every defender of freedom and humanity in the world is to do everything to isolate the terrorist state and to protect as many people as possible from Russian attacks."

Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the government will introduce mandatory evacuation of residents from the unoccupied areas of Donetsk.

She added that if anyone refuses to leave, these people will be forced to sign a waiver form, that they understand all the consequences and are responsible for their life, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

"There is absolutely no gas supply in Donetsk, we repaired all the gas pipelines that could be repaired, but, unfortunately, the enemy again and again destroys everything that would help keep people warm in winter. In short, there will be no heat in the Donetsk region in the winter.

"There are 52,000 children in Donetsk Oblast, they need to be evacuated, they cannot be exposed to mortal danger in the winter without heat, without light, without the possibility of heating," the Deputy Prime Minister was quoted as saying.

The development comes as Moscow invited UN and Red Cross officials to investigate the deaths of 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in another part of Donetsk region held by Russian-backed separatists.

The troops were killed in unclear circumstances during an attack on a prison in Olenivka, with both sides blaming each other.

--IANS

ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In what the White House physician described as a "rebound" instance found in a small fraction of patients who take the antiviral medicine Paxlovid, US President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 once more on Saturday.

After testing positive on July 21, 79-year-old Biden was released from COVID-19 isolation on Wednesday and reported feeling better. According to the White House, he will now go back into strict isolation and postpone excursions to his home in Wilmington and a business trip to Michigan. There were no public appearances by Biden on Friday, just on Wednesday and Thursday.

Biden Returns to Isolation

The White House wanted to highlight some recent legislative successes to help raise Biden's dwindling poll numbers when he was forcibly isolated. The purpose of Biden's travel to Michigan was to celebrate the passing of legislation on Thursday that will help the US semiconductor chips sector, as per Reuters.

According to White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's positive test is thought to be a "rebound" that some COVID-19 patients who take the antiviral medication Paxlovid experience. Pfizer Inc.'s Paxlovid is an antiviral drug intended to treat high-risk individuals, such as elderly people.

O'Connor had spoken of the potential for a testing "rebound," which may happen on a tiny number of patients who, like Biden, utilized Paxlovid as part of their COVID-19 treatment. The COVID-19 response coordinator for the White House, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, disputes that the Paxlovid recovery rates are close to 50%. According to the doctor, the actual number of reinfections is "in the single digits."

People who have rebound don't wind up in hospitals, according to Dr. Jha. "They don't become very ill," the New York Times reported. Biden, who made his most recent public appearance on Thursday, was free on Friday and was planned to return to his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, where first lady Jill Biden has been living, on Sunday morning.

Read Also: [Report] China Warns To Shoot US Jets Escorting Nancy Pelosi If House Speaker Continue Plan To Visit Taiwan

White House Promotes Paxlovoid

According to the White House, Biden had the BA.5 type of the virus, which has recently caused an increase in cases all across the world. Biden held a number of rallies in support of a $52 billion plan to subsidize computer chip manufacturing and research to compete with China for American market share after testing negative for the first time since July 21.

As he recovered, Biden continued to work from home, having video calls with reporters and virtual meetings with international leaders. On Wednesday, the president took advantage of his initial improvement to promote Paxlovid in addition to the COVID-19 vaccination and booster shots.

Per Daily Mail, the medicine, which is thought to be the most effective therapy for the virus, has become popular with the White House in recent months. President Biden even made it free for anybody who was afflicted. Although others worry the protection may not be long-lasting, clinical trials indicated it might lower the risk of hospitalization or death from infection by 90% if given within days of the onset of symptoms.

Read Also: Monkeypox Outbreak: US Health Secretary Pleads for Cooperation To Fight New Disease; 780,000 Doses of Vaccine Available Friday

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
US House Speaker is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region.

However, there has remained a defeaning silence over her possible visit to .

"Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm America's strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region," Pelosi said.

"In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance. Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe," as per the press release.

Amid China's warning to her possible visit to Taiwan, US House Speaker said that she never talk about her travel as this poses significant danger, media reports said.

This statement by Pelosi comes after Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that there will be serious consequences if US goes ahead with Pelosi's visit to .

Lijian in a press conference had said, "If the US side insists on making the visit and challenges China's red line, it will be met with resolute countermeasures. The US must assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising thereof."

Pelosi said that after a fuel stop in Hawaii, there was a briefing from Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) Leadership, as well as a visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and the USS Arizona.

"Our Members paid our respects to the valiant Service members who perished in the brutal attack on Pearl Harbor. Throughout our travels, we will continue to convey the endless gratitude of Congress and the Country for our brave U.S. Servicemembers stationed abroad, whose service makes the region and world more stable and safe."

US House Speaker Pelosi pointed out, "It is my privilege as Speaker to lead this distinguished group of Members, which includes Chairs of Committees and Subcommittees of jurisdiction and champions of a strong U.S.-Asia Pacific partnership."

"We look forward to productive meetings that will continue to inform Congress's work to advance our values and interests and strengthen our partnerships in the region," she added.

Among the members of the delegation are Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Gregory Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Mark Takano, Chair of the House Committee on Veterans' AffairsCongresswoman Suzan DelBene, Vice Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and ReformCongressman Andy Kim, Member of the House Armed Services Committee; Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to meet 'face to face' in near future, as decided during the fifth phone call between the two leaders on Thursday, a senior White House administration official said.The phone call comes amid heightened tensions between the geopolitical rivals with Beijing issuing warnings against the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's scheduled visit to in August.Addressing a media briefing, House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "The conversation was substantive, it was in-depth, and it was candid.""President Biden has continually emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to ensure that the and China manage our differences and work together on areas of shared interest. This call was part of our ongoing efforts to do that," she added."They also discussed the value of meeting face-to-face and agreed to have their teams follow up to find a mutually agreeable time to do so," the statement added.US President noted that US-China cooperation benefits not only the two peoples but also people of all countries.The official further said that it is important for the and China to work together on areas where our interests align, even when we have substantial differences or are engaged in competition in a number of different areas."But this is what responsible nations do. They manage areas where they have differences, and they find ways to work together for the good of their own people and for the common good of the people of the world, she added.The official further revealed that during the phone call, the two leaders held a detailed discussion of areas where the two countries can work together, with a particular focus on climate change and health security, as well as counternarcotics.Biden also raised the need to resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China, as well as longstanding concerns about human rights.

"The two leaders had an in-depth discussion about Taiwan. President Biden reaffirmed the United States' commitment to our One China Policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances." Jean-Pierre said.Biden underscored to President Xi the United States opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo by either side and commitment to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."He reiterated that the one-China policy of the US has not changed and will not change and that the US does not support "Taiwan independence", Jean-Pierre added.On contrary, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden, not to 'play with fire' over Taiwan and asked the US to abide by the One China principle."Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this. The US should honour the one-China principle and implement the three joint communique both in word and in deed."Xi stressed that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China and that China firmly opposes separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence".He said that the US should abide by the one-China principle, which is the political foundation for China-US relations, an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry quoted Xi."China firmly opposes separatist moves toward 'Taiwan independence' and interference by external forces, and never allows any room for 'Taiwan independence' forces in whatever form", Xi said, adding, "the position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent, and resolutely safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people."The phone call between the two leaders comes after their conversation on March 18 and a series of conversations between high-level US and PRC officials.Biden made the call from the Oval Office and in the room were the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan; Secretary of State Blinken; Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer; Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell; and Senior Director Laura Rosenberger.Xi Jinping held the phone conversation with Biden at the request of the latter. This was the second talk since they had a video call in March.Their fifth call since President Biden took office last year came amid heightened tensions among the geopolitical rivals.Pelosi possible visit to Taiwan during the congressional recess in August would make her the highest-ranking American politician since 1997 to visit the island.Even the US President cast doubt on Pelosi's trip to Taiwan. Biden said the US military believes it is not a good idea for Pelosi to travel to Taiwan as planned."The military thinks it's not a good idea right now," Biden said on Wednesday as quoted by the White House press pool.

(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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The on Sunday asserted it will fight from the streets to to ensure the guarantee of for farmers and firmly oppose the "anti-people policies" of the government.

The assertion was made by the party after a two-day meeting of the office-bearers of the All India Kisan whose newly-appointed chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira said he will undertake a nationwide tour to know the problems of farmers and labourers, and support them.

Khaira said he will fight the battle of farmers and labourers with promptness from the road to the House.

He said the government can "misuse" institutions like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation as much as they want to but the party will not be distracted and will firmly oppose the "anti-people" policies of the Centre.

Khaira lauded the work of outgoing chairman of Kisan Nana Patole and his team. He said he would soon reorganise the organisation and anyone who has worked diligently in the last four years would definitely be promoted.

He said that a big programme would be organised by the Kisan Congress in the coming time in which top party leaders would participate.

Khaira alleged that the government had "cheated" the farmers and laborers of the country with regard to three farm laws.

Till date, neither the MSP has been guaranteed nor has the aggrieved farmers been given assistance, he said.

Even the committee constituted by the Centre for MSP includes people who have been in favour of the three farm laws, so the Samyukta Kisan Morcha has rejected this committee outright, he said.

The Kisan Congress will fight to get the guarantee of MSP for the farmers of the country on the basis of the C2 (cost to the crop) formula of the Swaminathan Commission report without delay, Khaira asserted.

(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.)
Union Home Minister on Sunday exhorted workers to strive towards achieving yet another victory for Prime Minister in 2024 Lok Sabha polls "with an even bigger majority", a senior party leader said.

Addressing the valedictory session of the first-ever joint national executive meeting of all seven wings (morchas) of the party held here, Shah asked workers to raise, "at booth level", public awareness about Modi's political backing to weaker sections like Dalits, tribals and OBCs.

"Shah asked workers to devote four days, from August 9 to 12, for spreading patriotic sentiments in view of the Amrit Mahotsav (75 years of Independence)," said Arun Singh, national general secretary, at a media briefing.

"Party workers have also been told to start preparing for 2024 polls and ensure PM Modi's return to power for the third consecutive term. They have been given the target of winning more seats than the last time," said Singh.

Notably, the 2019 Lok Sabha polls saw the putting up its best-ever performance and grabbing more than 300 seats.

Singh said Shah has also asked workers to apprise the common people of "facts like SCs, STs and OBCs enjoying their highest-ever representation in the Union cabinet. Representation of those from rural backgrounds has also gone up".

"Shah has stressed that BJP believes in representing interests of all sections of the society. Thanks to Modi, the underdogs are finally getting their due. A tribal woman has risen to the top constitutional post," said Singh referring to Droupadi Murmu's election as President.

The aforementioned points were included in the resolution passed on the occasion.

Shah, widely regarded as the BJP's principal strategist, arrived here in the afternoon. The valedictory session was attended, among others, by national president J P Nadda who had inaugurated the two-day event on Saturday.

Singh also said more than 600 delegates from across the country, including far-off states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Meghalaya, attended the meeting.

Replying to a query, he asserted, "The BJP believes in coalition dharma. We are looking forward to contesting the general election and the assembly polls of 2025 in alliance with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U)."



The function was followed by a brainstorming session at the party's Bihar headquarters where Shah and Nadda met key leaders of the state, including members of Parliament and legislature.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The on Sunday claimed that the Trinamool Congress workers "involved in scams and other illegal activities are worried" after West Bengal Chief Minister "dumped" .

West Bengal co-incharge tweeted, "After dumped Partha, her close confidant, every criminal in the Trinamool, from minister to ordinary worker, who are involved in scams, rapes and murders, are worried. They acted on the assurance that Mamata would protect them but now they feel slighted. Law is supreme."

The ED has arrested Chatterjee in the SSC scam and recovered around Rs 50 crore, several kilograms of gold, and documents of several properties from his close associate Arpita Mukherjee.

On Thursday, Chatterjee was removed from the state cabinet and the party.

Earlier Malviya had asked why West Bengal minister of state for education Paresh Adhikari has not been sacked after an FIR was filed against him. "The rot of SSC Scam is so deep that the Calcutta High Court had to cancel illegal appointment of Ankita Adhikari, daughter of Paresh Adhikari,... Why has he not been sacked? Will explain," he had said.

"It is abundantly clear that Mamata Banerjee is feeling the heat. Obscene amount of cash recovered has exposed the dark underbelly of the Trinamool government. Getting rid of is an admission that the noose is tightening and it is just a matter of time before it ropes in Mamata," Malviya had added.

--IANS

ssb/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.)
Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Ajit Pawar, on Sunday wondered why the (ED) repeatedly wants to investigate MP .

spokesman Sachin Sawant said the ED conducting a search at Raut's residence in depicts a "sorry picture" of democracy and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to "silence" all the Opposition parties.

Nationalist Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule this issue will be raised in Parliament.

"Many people got notices from the Income Tax, ED, and the Central Bureau of Investigation. Only Raut will be able to tell why the probe agency (ED) wants to investigate him repeatedly," Pawar touring flood-affected areas in Maharashtra told reporters.

Sule expressed confidence there will be no injustice and that Raut will cooperate with the probe agency.

At 7 am on Sunday, ED officials, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, reached Raut's 'Maitri' bungalow located in suburban Bhandup, and began the search.

The Rajya Sabha member, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp of the Shiv Sena, had denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted due to political vendetta.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korean tech giant has announced a new feature called Repair Mode to its Galaxy devices to ensure that the personal data on your Galaxy smartphone remains secure even when the repair technician is working on it.

The Repair Mode allows users to selectively choose which data they wish to disclose when their phone is in for repair, reports SamMobile.

Users are always concerned about their private data getting leaked or stolen from their smartphones when they send them for repair.

This mode is here to bring peace of mind, at least for Galaxy users. So, for example, if you wanted to keep the photos and videos on your device off limits, you could do that in Repair Mode, the report said.

Once the Repair Mode is activated, which can be found in Settings, then Battery and Device Care menu, the smartphone gets rebooted.

After that, nobody will be able to access your data, including photos, messages, accounts, etc., and only default apps will be accessible.

To come out of the Repair Mode, the user needs to exit the mode by rebooting the device and authenticating through fingerprint or pattern recognition.

According to the newsroom post, Samsung Repair Mode will arrive via an update to the Galaxy S21 series phones, and later will be expanded to more models in the future.

The feature will be available in South Korea other regions should also receive the feature soon.

--IANS

vc/ksk/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A heatwave in China has brought drought to regions that rely on the Yangtze river, the countrys longest. In Southwest Chinas Chongqing, local media reports more than 600,000 people and 36,000 hectares of crops are affected. Further east, the extreme weather is also threatening crops in Jiangxi province. Local authorities have issued warnings for high temperatures and carried out drought relief measures in parts of the country

Aug 17, 2022 05:59 PM
Pope Francis described the trip as a "test" that included a 10-hour trip across the Atlantic, an eight-hour time difference, and nine talks in five different Canadian cities.

It was a lot for the 85-year-old pope who can hardly walk by himself due to severe knee pain.

Retiring is a "Normal Option," Says Pope Francis

Thinking about retiring, according to him, is a "normal option." That reflected other remarks he had made in which he stated that if his health prevented him from leading the church, he would be willing to retire.

Pope Francis saw both periods of sturdiness and vulnerability throughout his six days in Canada. Despite his jet lag, he consistently gave speeches and relished moments of obvious humor, including when he requested a detour from his wheelchair to approach a throng outside of a church, according to Washington Post.

But he also had to deal with constraints that were very different from those of his early pontificate. He was wheeled to the edge of a wooden pathway that led to a cemetery as he was visiting an Indigenous village on the plains of Alberta and making an apology for the cruelty of Canada's residential school system. He was unable to maneuver amid the burial markers, which were all placed on grass.

Pope Francis has been quite healthy for the majority of his papacy, but during the past 18 months, he has had agonizing sciatica flare-ups, had colon surgery, and most recently, knee inflammation that has virtually rendered him wheelchair-dependent.

He has had to rethink his hands-on approach to becoming pope because to his decreased mobility. Before his voyage to Canada, he lamented how difficult it was for him to fit in with large groups of pilgrims as he formerly did.

The pope stated that native peoples' forced absorption into Christian civilization ruined their customs and split their families when on a visit to Canada while donning an indigenous feathered headdress.

"With shame and regret, I humbly seek pardon for the atrocity done by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples," he said in apology for Christians' backing of the "colonising mentality" of the time, Sky News reported.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 native children in Canada were compelled to attend state-funded Christian schools in an effort to separate them from the influence of their families and cultures and "Christianize" and integrate them into mainstream society.

Read Also: Brittney Griner Update: Russia Issues Stern Reminder After US Publicizes Prisoner Swap Offer

Pope Francis Seen in Pain During Trip in Canada

Following his first trip, during which he was forced to use a wheelchair, walker, and cane to get around, severely restricting his schedule and his capacity to interact with audiences, Pope Francis was barraged with inquiries regarding the course of his pontificate.

He had injured the ligaments in his right knee earlier this year, and as he was still receiving laser and magnetic therapy, he had to postpone his trip to Africa, which was supposed to take place the first week of July. The travel to Canada was challenging, and there were multiple times when Pope Francis was visibly in pain as he struggled to get up and down from seats.

Despite spending a long day Friday driving to the edge of the Arctic to once again apologize to Indigenous peoples for the abuses they endured in Canada's church-run residential schools, he seemed upbeat and energized at the conclusion of his six-day journey.

Per CBS News, Pope Francis decided against having surgery on his knee because he felt it wouldn't necessarily be beneficial and because "there are still remnants" of the effects of the more than six hours of anesthesia he had to endure to have 13 inches of his large intestine removed in July 2021.

Related Article: Anthony Fauci Confidently Dares Republicans To Investigate Him, Days After Pledging To Resign Before End of Joe Biden's First Term

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@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Former president Donald Trump does not believe that trading the "Merchant of Death", an arms dealer, for Brittney Griner, a top player for the WNBA, is a "very good trade."

Additionally, Trump stated that Viktor Bout would receive a "free card" as a consequence of the proposed swap. It was previously widely reported that the Russian government demanded Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan as well as the release of Viktor Bout from US custody.

Brittney Griner Case

Griner was detained in February at the airport in Moscow when hash oil-containing vapes were discovered in her luggage. The gold medalist from the Olympics has plead guilty and may spend ten years in jail.

Whelan, a Marine Corps recruit and veteran of the Iraq War, was detained in Russia in 2018 and charged with spying. The ex-police officer and sheriff's deputy came to the nation to celebrate a fellow Marine veteran's wedding, as per Daily Mail.

He was given a 16-year jail term, some of which must be served in a work camp. While Bout was found guilty in 2011 of planning to kill Americans. He is presently incarcerated for 25 years.

The precise number of hashish oil vape cartridges that Griner is allegedly trying to smuggle into Russia has not been disclosed by Russian authorities. Her attorneys contend that she has a prescription for the medication and put it inadvertently in her luggage.

The primary psychoactive component of cannabis, THC, is present in high concentrations in hashish oil. In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump's former secretary of state Mike Pompeo echoed the former Apprentice host's views.

Read Also: [Report] China Warns To Shoot US Jets Escorting Nancy Pelosi If House Speaker Continue Plan To Visit Taiwan

US Says Prisoner Swap Offer With Russia is "Unofficial"

Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren, one of Trump's most ardent media fans, concurs with Pompeo. " Everyone knows President Trump would have negotiated Brittney Griner's release by now," Ohio GOP congressman Jim Jordan tweeted in June.

Trevor Reed, a US citizen who was set free by the Russian government in April 2022, made fun of this. "Yeah big thanks to President Trump for getting myself and Paul Whelan out. Not," Reed said in response to Jordan's post.

According to reports, the Kremlin wants to include another killer in the deal that would release Griner and Whelan. A recent CNN report claims that Russia wants to include hitman and convicted FSB agent Vadim Krasikov in the agreement.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Chechen spy, was assassinated by Krasikov in a Berlin park in 2019 during the day. This past December, Krasikov was given a life term in jail in Germany.

CNN reported that US authorities do not "consider it as a genuine counter" offer for Griner and Whelan's freedom because this request was made through an informal route. An official from the German government confirmed to CNN that US representatives have contacted their Berlin colleagues to inquire about the prospect of releasing Krasikov.

Related Article: Brittney Griner Update: Russia Issues Stern Reminder After US Publicizes Prisoner Swap Offer

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Photo: Contributed

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on the way British Columbians eat. In 2020, we saw a significant increase in food delivery after restaurants were compelled to adapt to changing dynamics. Even groceries made their way to our homes, severely limiting our ability to personally pick and choose what to purchase.

Now, as restaurants are once again open and the provinces residents are ready to experience dining out, Research Co. and Glacier Media reviewed our relationship with nutrition. The findings show a public that may be growing more conscious about what to purchase at the supermarket, but an inability to maintain the same procedures when someone else prepares the food we eat.

Across the province, more than a third of British Columbians (37 per cent) say they frequently check labels to review the nutritional content of products when they buy groceries for themselves or others in their household. Women are more likely to be in this group (40 per cent) than men (33 per cent).

Our ability to analyze harmonized labels is a huge factor in this level of awareness from British Columbians. We can spend ample time looking into the nutritional content of breakfast cereals or ice cream tubs, and emerge ready to make a decision right then and there.

Restaurants currently lack the same standards that we enjoy at grocery stores. From 2012 to 2020, the province had a voluntary Informed Dining database for commercial foodservice businesses. Right now, few venues feature nutritional data on menus or websites. It is no surprise that only 14 per cent of British Columbians say they frequently check menus when dining out to review the nutritional content of specific dishes.

There is an even steeper decline when British Columbians are asked about their behaviour when ordering food delivery. Just 11 per cent check menus or apps to review nutritional content, with the proportion dropping to just six per cent among those aged 55 and over.

Our tendency to turn away from learning more about the food we consume if we are not the ones who prepare is also present on other items. While 29 per cent of British Columbians frequently check the total calories of the products they buy at the grocery store, the proportions drop dramatically for menus at restaurants (14 per cent) and food delivery (11 per cent).

A similar decline is observed on two other components: sodium (from 32 per cent at the grocery store, to 14 per cent at restaurants and to 10 per cent in food delivery) and fat (from 29 per cent at the grocery store, to 13 per cent at restaurants and to 11 per cent in food delivery).

Many factors help explain these fluctuations. For some British Columbians, dining out or ordering in is a chance to escape. They may not want to be deterred or demoralized by finding out the caloric content of the cheeseburger they crave after a long day of work. However, the lack of standards for restaurants and apps is also an issue.

A quick look at some of the apps reveals a significant difference. For companies that also have operations in Ontario, the nutritional information is easy to access. Businesses based in British Columbia are not meeting these requirements, even less so now that Informed Dining has been summarily abandoned.

In Ontario, it is mandatory to display calories on any menu that lists or depicts standard food items offered for sale by a regulated foodservices premise. Three in four British Columbians (76 per cent) support implementing a similar regulation in their province, while only 13 per cent are opposed to it.

The food outlets that are already providing this information in British Columbia are the ones that have operations in Ontario. It is easier for companies like Starbucks and McDonalds to rely on the same billboards and software that they already use in the most populous province. Other companies have been slow to react.

The availability of this information matters more now than four years ago. The proportion of British Columbians who rely on an activity tracker to monitors fitness-related metrics  such as distance walked, exercise and/or calorie consumption  increased from 41 per cent in 2018 to 45 per cent in 2022.

There is growth across all three age groups, with a majority of British Columbians aged 18 to 34 (53 per cent, up six points) now relying on activity trackers. The numbers are also up among their counterparts aged 35 to 54 (47 per cent, up six points) and aged 55 and over (36 per cent, up six points). It is clear that more residents of the province are paying attention to these metrics. It is time for the provincial government to seriously consider what is now mandatory in Ontario.

Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

Results are based on an online study conducted from July 4 to July 6, 2022, among 800 adults in British Columbia. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of errorwhich measures sample variabilityis plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed Mohammed Khalifa

The U.S. Department of Justice says a Saudi-born Canadian citizen was sentenced to life in prison Friday for conspiring to provide support resulting in death to the terrorist organization ISIS.

The Department of Justice statement says Mohammed Khalifa, 39, pleaded guilty last December in District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to a charge of conspiring to provide material or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death.

The statement says Khalifa was a lead Islamic State propaganda official who served as the English-speaking narrator on more than a dozen violent ISIS videos.

It also says Khalifa, who was captured in Syria in 2019, served as an ISIS fighter and executed two Syrian soldiers on behalf of the terrorist organization.

The Department of Justice Statement says Khalifa narrated two of the most violent ISIS videos: "Flames of War: Fighting Has Just Begun" and "Flames of War II: Until The Final Hour," both depicting executions of prisoners and terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Global Affairs Canada was not immediately available to comment on the sentencing.

"During the time Khalifa was a prominent member of ISIS, the terrorist organization was conducting a brutal hostage taking and ransom demand campaign involving journalists and humanitarian aid workers who came to Syria from across the globe," says the statement.

"Between Aug. 19, 2014 and Feb. 6, 2015, ISIS killed eight American, British and Japanese citizens in Syria as part of the hostage scheme."
Photo: The Canadian Press A person holds a combination American and Canadian flag at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial before a march at a demonstration, part of a convoy-style protest participants are calling "Rolling Thunder, in Ottawa, on Friday, April 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The sacrifices of Canadians who fought and died for democracy and freedom during the Korean War were honoured during a small ceremony last week at the National War Memorial.

The ceremonial plaza, located a stones throw from Parliament Hill and which includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, was built for such acts of remembrance.

This year, though, Canadians have seen far different images of the memorial, including acts of vandalism, and as a rallying point for those opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It has sparked concern about the sacred site dedicated to Canadas war dead being used for political purposes, and a debate around what steps could be taken to better protect it.

Last weekend, someone was seen draping Canadian and American flags on the tomb as part of a ceremony streamed live online. Photos and video were widely shared on social media before the accounts, which appeared linked to supporters of the "Freedom Convoy," were closed.

It sparked an outcry, including from Defence Minister Anita Anand, who called it a "desecration."

It also prompted calls for more security, including from the Royal Canadian Legion, which had first made such a demand after the memorial was seen as disrespected, including through public urination, near the beginning of the three-week protest that seized downtown Ottawa this winter.

On the eve of Canada Day, army reservist James Topp addressed hundreds of people gathered by the cenotaph and compared himself and others fighting vaccine mandates to the unidentified Canadian soldier killed in the First World War whose remains were buried in the tomb.

Facing a court martial for publicly criticizing federal vaccine requirements while wearing his uniform, Topp had arrived at the tomb following a four-month march from Vancouver, during which he became a celebrity to many people opposed to vaccines and the Liberals.

Thats us. We are the Unknown Soldier, Topp told the crowd, which included a number of people wearing military headgear and medals to indicate their status as veterans.

What did we have in common with that person?  We had courage.

A group called Veterans 4 Freedom, which supported Topps march and includes members with links to the Freedom Convoy, also organized a rally at the memorial during the "Rolling Thunder" event in April, where members gave speeches against vaccines and pandemic restrictions.

Canadians have to sacrifice to keep our freedom, one speaker told the crowd. They went to France. They fought in the South Pacific, the Battle of Britain. They sacrifice with their lives. But nowadays, we have to sacrifice in a different way.

Veterans 4 Freedom declined to comment. Topp referred to his June 30 speech.

David Hofmann is an associate professor at the University of New Brunswick and co-lead of the government-funded Network for Research on Hateful Conduct and Right-Wing Extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces.

He said political movements need symbols to succeed, and that it perhaps shouldnt be a surprise that some groups in Canada are now trying to turn the National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to such purposes.

It is a powerful symbol, Hofmann said. You have the Unknown Soldier, the ultimate martyr, someone who can't even be remembered for their name. And you have these individuals  trying to equate what they're doing with a sense of martyrdom.

Retired brigadier-general Duane Daly, who was instrumental as head of the Royal Canadian Legion with the creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier more than 20 years ago, disagreed with those wanting use the site as a centrepiece for political dissent.

Thats a tomb, he said. If they want to make a statement like that, go to Parliament. Thats what its for, not the tomb.

Others have suggested some of those using the memorial to amplify grievances against the government actually represent the opposite of the selflessness for which the sites are dedicated.

The Unknown Soldier died for his country. He died in a selfless act, said Youri Cormier, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute think tank.

When you honk and scream about an idea of personal freedoms that excludes ones duty to his or her nation, obeyance of the law and  respecting the principle that ones freedom ends where it infringes on the freedoms of others, its putting self before nation.

It is in this context that some such as the legion and Cormier, who noted that the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va., is defended around the clock by armed military members, have called for greater security at the memorial.

No one is allowed to usurp or appropriate the sacred ground of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for some stunt or campaign, Cormier said. This sacred space is not for the taking.

Public Services and Procurement Canada says the site is monitored 24-7, but wouldnt comment on calls for more security. While the Canadian Armed Forces has a ceremonial guard at the memorial for tourists, Ottawa police are responsible for site security.

The killing of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo by an Islamic State sympathizer in October 2014 prompted a review of security at the memorial, and the eventual placement of military police. But their job is to protect the ceremonial guards while they are on duty.

Exactly what type of security measures should be adopted now isnt clear.

Most experts agree authorities should not limit or restrict public access to the memorial, partly because the vast majority of visitors to the site are respectful ? but also because such a move could play into the hands of some groups.

In some respects, that's more dangerous because it feeds into the victim mentality that we're being silenced, that we're being oppressed, said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre of Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University.

Officials erected fences around the memorial at the start of the Freedom Convoy after a woman stood on the tomb. But they were later taken down by protesters. Many of them identified themselves as veterans and said they were reclaiming the site  a message repeated as a reason for gathering at the cenotaph during the "Rolling Thunder" event this spring.

Retired lieutenant-general Mike Day also pushed back against the idea of American-style restrictions at the memorial, such as ropes and fences preventing the public from getting close.

All national monuments need to be accessible. I accept that comes with a cost," said Day.

But I think the cost of walling them off and not making them accessible is greater. I accept, therefore, that there will be individuals like weve seen who will take advantage of that.
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses delegates during the 2017 United Nations Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday November 15, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The Liberal government is giving itself more time to fulfil a key peacekeeping promise to the UN first made five years ago.

The commitment involves the provision of a 200-soldier quick reaction force to the UN.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced the pledge during a major peacekeeping summit in Vancouver in 2017.

The government at the time said the force, intended to provide response to emergencies on peacekeeping missions, would be deployed within five years.

Yet the Department of National Defence says cabinet recently gave itself another year to meet the commitment.

The government has not explained why the force has yet to materialize even though the UN says there is an ongoing need for such units.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan is a poor man's 'Trump' as he is creating his own version of new truth about the political system, calling all his opponents thugs, declaring he was the only option to save the state, just like the former US President Donald Trump and is leading Pakistan into a sinkhole with a bunch of lies and myths.

The country continues to witness biased courts, a divided Army, controversial politicians, and a paralysed Parliament, US-based publication Global Strat View said.

As many as 70 per cent of the people in Pakistan live under the poverty line and the ongoing economic crisis in the country shows that the country is on the brink of collapse and heading towards a path like the economic downfall of Sri Lanka.

The country has a debt of more than USD 250 billion, as per United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The article read that the foreign reserves of the country fell to USD 8.24 billion leading millions of people into poverty and increasing the threat of social unrest.

Political uncertainty has been on the rise which was evident during the bye-elections in the Punjab province.

Pakistan Muslim League's (PML-N) Hamza Sharif was sworn in as Chief Minister, only to be de-seated by the Supreme Court the next day, and PTI-backed Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) was declared elected, it added.

Notably, Hamza and Suleman, the sons of the incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, were booked by the Federal Investigation Agency in November 2020 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti-Money Laundering Act.

During his three years in power, the former Prime Minister said that he was unprepared to run the government, and his team had no idea how to run the country while addressing public gatherings.

Imran Khan does not have any vision or a plan of action, the article read.

According to critics, Pakistan started losing friends in the international community because of Khan's ill policies.

Even friendly nations like China, Saudia Arabia, Turkey, and others are frustrated because Imran Khan tries to drag them into domestic politics for his support.

"Imran Khan is dragging the nation into mental and intellectual isolation. We supported Imran Khan in thin and thick, but the truth is that he failed to deliver," a top Pakistani politician said.

"Honesty? I am sorry his honesty cannot bring food to the table. Why will the Army support him? He (Imran Khan) is unpredictable," a former Army General said.

"When Pakistan was doing relatively better, the UAE and Saudi Arabia always helped Pakistan get out of short-term crises. But if you look back on the last few years, the Pakistani financial crisis has lingered on and on.

There is fatigue running among donors, supporters, and friends. How long will you be bailing out a country that doesn't want to bail itself out?" Former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) convener and head of US-based advocacy group Voice of Karachi, Nadeem Nusrat said.

Former Pakistan Senator Enver Baig said that the country has to maintain good relations with all parties concerned, particularly the United States to build Pakistan's economy, and Imran Khan's outbursts against America do not help.

"If we see the big picture, the success of Imran Khan will be a big failure for the nation. If he loses in the coming elections, he will not accept it, and if he wins, he will not be able to govern," a former top Pakistani diplomat in Washington said.

(ANI)

Also Read: Wickremesinghe urges parties to find ways to repay loans as unrest delayed IMF- Sri Lanka deal


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NATO prepares for warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors

By Andre Damon

July 30, 2022: Information Clearing House -- " WSWS " At the conclusion of this weeks NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, the members of NATO, including most European states as well as the United States and Canada, adopted a strategy document outlining plans to militarize the European continent, massively escalate the war with Russia, and prepare for war with China.

The document pledges to deliver the full range of forces needed for high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors.

An excerpt from the strategy document

In a sea change from the last strategy document, first published in 2010, the new NATO strategy document proclaims that the Euro-Atlantic area is not at peaceall but declaring that the alliance is at war. This is despite the fact that none of the members of the NATO alliance have declared any war within the Euro-Atlantic area.

The document declares that The Euro-Atlantic area is not at peace.

The strategic framework document openly adopts the language of power politics, better known by its German name, Machtpolitik. It references the word interests seven times, declaring that both China and Russia challenge the Alliances interests.

The previous NATO strategic framework, published in 2010, used the word interests only once, in pledging to enhance the political consultations and practical cooperation with Russia in areas of shared interests.

While the 2010 document named Russia a partner, this year's strategic framework proclaims Russia a threat and China a challenge. The new NATO strategy document explicitly justifies these designations by declaring that these countries challenge our interests.

It declares that The PRC [Peoples Republic of China] seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains. It uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.

The document asserts that Chinas economic development (expressed as control) conflicts with the interests of NATO members.

In order to preserve their interests, the allies pledge to significantly strengthen deterrence and defense.

Critically, the document asserts that the series of actions that triggered the war in Ukraine have been a success, declaring NATOs enlargement has been a historic success. The Kremlin justified its invasion of Ukraine by claiming that Ukraines efforts to join NATO and the deployment of nuclear weapons on Russias border constituted a threat to its national security.

The NATO document doubles down on the expansion of the military alliance, declaring, We reaffirm our Open Door policy.  Our door remains open to all European democracies that share the values of our Alliance. It adds, Decisions on membership are taken by NATO Allies and no third party has a say in this process.

The war now raging in Ukraine is the largest in Europe since the Second World War, and has already killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. In describing the expansion of NATO as having been a success, the alliance effectively declares that these deaths, and many more to come, are acceptable costs for protecting the interests of the alliances members.

In response to the challenges to the alliances interests, the NATO members have pledged a program of militarization that will affect all aspects of society. It declares, In an environment of strategic competition, we will enhance our global awareness and reach to deter, defend, contest and deny across all domains and directions, in line with our 360-degree approach.

The document further states, As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance, and the alliance pledges to ensure a substantial and persistent presence on land, at sea, and in the air, including through strengthened integrated air and missile defense. The document adds that NATOs nuclear deterrence posture also relies on the United States nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Europe and the contributions of Allies concerned.

The achievement of the goals set out in the document requires a massive expansion of the troops, munitions, and supply chains necessary for war fighting. We will deter and defend forward with robust in-place, multi-domain, combat-ready forces, enhanced command and control arrangements, prepositioned ammunition and equipment and improved capacity and infrastructure to rapidly reinforce any Ally, including at short or no notice.

The NATO strategy document does not acknowledge or recognize any competing priorities for military resources. The words hunger, poverty and unemployment do not appear, nor is there any reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed tens of millions worldwide and 1 million in the United States alone.

The comments of US president Joe Biden were fully consistent with the tone of this document.

At a post-summit press conference, Biden boasted: We provided Ukraine with nearly $7 billion in security assistance since I took office. In the next few days, we intend to announce more than $800 million more, including a new advanced Western air defense system for Ukraine, more artillery and ammunition, counter-battery radars, additional ammunition for the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system weve already given Ukraine and more HIMARS coming from other countries as well.

He added that the total commitment of the US allies included nearly 140,000 anti-tank systems, more than 600 tanks, nearly 500 artillery systems, more than 600,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, as well as advanced multiple launch rocket systems, anti-ship systems, and air defense systems.

Yet when asked about the costs to the American public of the war, Biden did not indicate that this was even taken into consideration.

At the press conference, Biden was asked by a reporter, G7 leaders this week pledged to support Ukraine, quote, for as long as it takes. And Im wondering if you would explain what that means to the American peoplefor as long as it takes. Does it mean indefinite support from the United States for Ukraine? Or will there come a time when you have to say to President Zelenskyy that the United States cannot support his country any longer?

Biden replied, We are going to support Ukraine as long as it takes.

Another reporter asked about the high price of gasoline in the United States and around the world  How long is it fair to expect American drivers and drivers around the world to pay that premium for this war?

Biden reiterated, As long as it takes.

Biden: Gas prices will be high for As long as it takes.

Bidens declaration is effectively an unlimited pledge of social resources for the war effort. Having gutted COVID-19 funding, meaning that uninsured workers will be forced to pay out of pocket for vaccines and COVID-19 hospitalization, the American ruling class is pressing ahead with funneling vast social resources into the war effort.

The plans outlined in the latest NATO strategy document will have incalculable consequences, not only for the war itself, but also in the endless diversion of social resources to military spending, which will be coupled with the slashing of spending for health care and pensions, and reductions in workers wages.

As workers enter into struggle all over the world against the surging cost of living, it is critical that they take up as a critical demand the struggle against war and militarism.
A man was busking on the Walnut Street Bridge and afterward found a pill with his tips. He turned it into police. It was Buprenorphine Hydrochloride and was submitted to Property to be destroyed.

* * *

While on patrol on E. 13th Street, an officer saw a vehicle parked inside a fenced-in private business. After verifying the vehicle's registration, the officer saw a man inside the car. He was identified and said he is homeless but works at the business. He said he had permission from his boss to stay on the property during the night. He had no wants or warrants.

* * *

Police were dispatched to 12th Avenue for a disorder where a highly intoxicated woman said her son was yelling at her while she was trying to relax. She called the police and then her son left in a white pickup truck.

* * *

Police were sent to Mega Star gas station to check on a woman who was reported to be locked in a bathroom but no one was found. Police checked on her residence on Wauhatchie Pike where there were three cars but no one answered the front or rear door of the home. Dispatch did a ping on the phone and found that the phone was pinging in Knoxville.

* * *

Security for the Hamilton County Courthouse at 625 Georgia Ave. told police a man was continuously approaching the front door of the building and attempting to buzz into the secured facility. Security said he needed to leave for the rest of the night. Police informed the man to leave for the night, to which he complied.

* * *

A man on Citico Avenue told police there was a woman in his apartment who was refusing to leave. The man said when he went to take his trash out, the woman walked in behind him into the apartment and it was his roommate's ex-girlfriend. When police arrived, she had already left and the man said he no longer needed police assistance.

* * *

Police spoke with a man panhandling at 1900 Broad St. He was asked to leave the customers alone and shown which way he needed to go to get back to the Community Kitchen where he usually frequents. He left the area without incident.

* * *

A man on Citygreen Way told police he left his car unlocked overnight and noticed in the morning that someone had been inside of it. The suspect stole $40 cash out of his wallet and a Smith & Wesson Shield 9mm worth $330. He said the handgun was all black and had nothing special about it. He found a gray tablet on the passenger seat of his vehicle that doesnt belong to him. The officer asked him if he touched the tablet and he said yes, but there were other prints visible on it that weren't his. Police put the tablet into a paper bag so it could be taken to property for auto crimes investigators. The stolen handgun was entered into NCIC.

* * *

A man at the Community Kitchen at 727 E. 11th St. told police he left his phone on the charger plugged into the wall in the Day Center. He left his phone unattended to use the restroom and while he was gone someone stole it. This a frequent theft that re-occurs with several people and typically has the same story.

* * *

A woman on S. Lovell Avenue told police she discovered some damage on her vehicle while she was at a friends house. The driver side front headlight was broken out and there was a dent in the front bumper just underneath it. She's not sure how the damage was done.

* * *

A woman at Comfort Inn on Parker Lane told police someone had entered her unlocked 2016 Mercedes DLE 350 SUV and emptied all of the compartments inside. The only thing she can tell that was taken was her Peoples Alliance Credit Union checkbook.

* * *

A woman told police she was at Aldis at 5510 Highway 153 and obtained a grocery buggy and then returned to her car. She placed the buggy near her car and, while she was sitting in her car, a woman walked by and took the buggy, which had several of the first womans bags in it. She also reported that a pair of her prescription sunglasses were in the buggy. As the second woman walked away with the buggy, the first woman yelled to get her attention. She immediately returned the buggy and said that she was sorry and continued into the store. Police reviewed security footage, which revealed that, although the second woman walked away with the buggy, she did not remove any items from it. Contact was made with the second woman at her residence, where she explained that she believed the buggy to have been left, at which time she took it, not knowing it belonged to the other woman. Once she realized that the buggy was hers, she returned it without tampering with any of the items in it. Due to these facts, it is believed that the first woman had misplaced her glasses.

* * *

A woman on Cowart Street told police someone entered her unlocked 2015 BMW X3 and opened the glove box and console. She said they stole $2 of loose change and a pair of sunglasses.

* * *

A man on Gateway Avenue told police he left his apartment in the morning and, when he returned home in the afternoon, he noticed that two of his suitcases and two tablets were stolen, all worth $500-$600. He had a woman named Felicia stay the night at his house and she was still there when he left in the morning. He believes she stole all the items. He did not have any further information on Felicia. The man didnt have his license with him and gave police his name and date of birth. Police couldnt find his information, and the number he gave was not working.

* * *

A man told police he was at a car wash on Hixson Pike and as he went through it, a roller came loose and damaged the left side of his vehicle. He says he cannot even open the door due to the damage. He spoke with management and they are refusing to pay for the damage.
I have known Weston since he was six years old, and Coty since she was four. I've known Zach when he had hair.

I was involved in Zach's first Congressional campaign and then worked for Zach's Congressional campaign office for 17 years, then onto the Governor campaign for two years and even in his official Congressional office.

I've spent many times around political leaders as well as other influential citizens from both sides of the aisle. That being said, I have had the opportunity that most people have not had...to see the Wamp family up close and personal, in good times and bad times.I've spent many times around political leaders as well as other influential citizens from both sides of the aisle.

Former Congressman J.C. Watts, from Oklahoma once said, "Character is what you do when nobody is looking." (I believe he borrowed that from someone, yet, so true).

I've watched Weston grow up, mature, be a successful businessman and an awesome dad himself. If there were ever any time Weston would have spoken in a racist or bigoted manner, I believe I would have known. You don't spend 20 years of your life, a lot of that time 24 hours a day, being around someone and not know them, and I mean really get to know them.

These latest last minute efforts to try and show Weston in a negative way are some of the reasons I left politics after Zach lost the August 2010 Primary for governor. There will always be naysayers and others who always wake up on the wrong side of the bed, hellbent on destroying that what is good and decent. Weston's detractors fall into that category. It must be terrible to put pen to paper and write things you know are not true and then attempt to have others believe it and even follow-up with their own negative words.

While Weston was growing up, never did I even imagine he would be so ostricized for his beliefs that ultimately save his fellow citizens from the hastily spending of hard-earned tax dollars. Sure, a new stadium is wanted, a new stadium site on the Southside with new construction for retail, housing and other amenities would be awesome for Hamilton County's tax base...but let's not ram this down the throats of hard-working Hamilton Countians and Chattanoogans.

Mayor Coppinger is to be commended for getting this ball rolling, but let's take our time, get more input before we rush in and find out later we should have waited. The Wheland Foundry site isn't going anywhere and Mayor Coppinger will still get that feather in his cap for his diligent foresight. The new stadium will come to fruition, but let's not rush into it.

I've already voted for Weston and I would like to encourage others, from both sides, to vote for Weston Wamp as Hamilton County Mayor.

Rick Tucker

Hixson

* * *

Im pleased to support Weston Wamp for mayor.

Cindy Baker
Olivia Wilde has come a long way since her days on TVs The O.C. and House. Shes appeared in dozens of movies and even made her feature directorial debut with 2019s Booksmart. But Wilde is about to get a second chance at playing a fan-favorite DC Comics character. Heres who she voices in the animated film DC League of Super-Pets and her history with DC.

Olivia Wilde steps into an iconic role in DC League of Super-Pets

DC League of Super-Pets follows a group of super-powered pets  led by Supermans dog, Krypto (Dwayne Johnson)  who must rescue the Justice League. The heroes themselves are voiced by actors like John Krasinski, Keanu Reeves, and Jameela Jamil, who play Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, respectively. But Wilde plays a key role as well.

The actor told MTV back in 2009 that she always wanted to play Wonder Woman. This time around, Wilde doesnt take on that role. However, she does voice Lois Lane, intrepid Daily Planet reporter, and Supermans longtime love interest, in DC League of Super-Pets. Ironically, if things had gone differently, Wilde might have played Lois Lane nearly a decade earlier.

The actor nearly played Lois Lane in 2013s Man of Steel

Olivia Wilde attends CinemaCon 2022  Warner Bros. Pictures The Big Picture Presentation at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 26, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for for CinemaCon)

According to Latino Review and countless other reports, Wilde was among the many actors who tested for the role of Lois Lane in Zack Snyders Man of Steel. Other stars up for the part reportedly included Kristen Stewart, Jessica Biel, Rachel McAdams, and Kristen Bell. Of course, Amy Adams ultimately won the role opposite Henry Cavill in that 2013 blockbuster.

Man of Steel did a lot more than give Adams the chance to step into Margot Kidders shoes as the big-screen Lois Lane. It launched the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which continues in 2022 with Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Adams reprised the role in 2016s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and both versions of Justice League.

Olivia Wilde is set to direct a mysterious Marvel movie for Sony

It looks like actress and Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is directing a Spider-Man universe film for Sony. https://t.co/jIvaYeYN89  Nerdist (@nerdist) August 26, 2020

Rumors are swirling that 2023s The Flash could reset many elements of the DCEU. If thats the case, theres always the chance Wilde could take over the role of Lois Lane going forward. After all, Cavills future as Superman is uncertain. And Ben Affleck exited the role of Bruce Wayne, leaving space for Robert Pattinsons version (and possibly others).

But Wilde might be too busy to commit to such a huge franchise. She has a new movie called Dont Worry Darling, which she directed and starred in, out in September 2022. And beyond that, Wilde will direct a mysterious Marvel movie for Sony. Rumors indicate this could be a big-screen adaptation of Spider-Woman, though details are hard to come by at the moment.

DC League of Super-Pets hits theaters on July 29, 2022.

RELATED: How Olivia Wilde Inspired Jason Sudeikis to Create Ted Lasso
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What does a lifetime of fruitful public ministry look like? Last Sunday, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) tried to answer this question in a video montage marking the end of Nicky Gumbels 46 years of leadership at the London multisite church.

Images of people whose lives had been impacted by the senior pastor and author flashed across the screen as one incredible statistic after another scrolled past: 30 million people introduced to the Christian faith through the Alpha Course, across 140 countries and 170 languages; 2 million people fed spiritually by a Bible reading app; and 2 million meals delivered during the pandemic from HTB alone.

The July 24 video was a fitting homage to a nowadays unusual career, spanning almost five decades in the same congregation. It is rare in Anglican churches in the United Kingdom for a trainee leadership position to last more than the minimum requirement of three years, with many moving regularly to the next parish. But Nicky sat under the tutelage of HTBs then senior leader, bishop Sandy Millar, for 19 years. He was 49 years old when he took over the church, and admitted to uncertainty about it allfeeling both too young and too old to do so.

Humility is carved into Nickys resume. He likes to remind people that he did not start the Alpha course he is most famously associated with. Before it was transformed into the worlds most widely-used and effective evangelistic tool, it already existed as a short course to help believers ground their faith. Nicky once admitted to me that he had been resistant to Alpha going online during the pandemic; however, when he saw how effective it was, he was excited, quoting a favorite line from G. K. Chesterton: In order to stay the same you have to change.

Nicky is clearly an innovator and an entrepreneur, but at heart he is an enthusiastic evangelist and a servant leader. A few days before delivering his final sermon at HTB last Sunday, he completed leading his 96th consecutive Alpha course. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his involvement in practical, personal service and his willingness to talk with and, perhaps more importantly, listen to others. As a result, his last sermon included story after story from the Alpha group that had just ended.

I have seen firsthand Nickys genuine interest inand inclusion ofthose around him. In my work with refugees and newcomers to the UK, he was one of the first senior church leaders to back a welcome initiative for tens of thousands of arrivals from Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the British armed forces relocated thousands of Afghani families, before long I was hearing that Nicky was among the volunteers spending time with evacuees being temporarily accommodated in hotels not far from HTB.

He did this without any fuss or fanfare, and when I asked him about it afterwards, he referred back to his own family historywhich included Jewish relatives who had escaped from Germany in the Second World War to the UK (with the help of Albert Einstein, no less).

As Nicky stepped up to the front of the sanctuary following the video montage, he did so with his wife Pippa at his side. Having shared much of their public ministry, it was clear that she would be as much of a loss to the church as her husband.

I was curious to hear what Nicky would say in his last sermon to a congregation he has served longer than most of its members have been alive. Would he offer any insights into his success at a time when it seems that most prominent church leaders end their careers in scandal or in burnout rather than in celebration?

Nickys chosen text was from Pauls farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, but his resounding theme was one that punctuates the whole of Scripture: The best is yet to come.

There it is again: that wonderful humility. Nicky is not expecting to leave a hole at HTB, nor giving the impression that he is abandoning a sinking ship. He is not secretly hoping that everything will fall apart when hes gone, thereby ensuring that he is associated with the church at its pinnacle of success.

Not at all. He seems eager to see the church flourish without him. He has nothing but praise and hope for the congregation as he hands it over to Archie Coates, a former trainee at HTB who has been leading a church plant in Brighton. Nicky is moving on to develop some innovative programs to support other emerging leaders, particularly those marginalized by racism, elitism, sexism, and agism. Above all, Nicky entrusts the church to the God he has devoted his life to serving and worshiping.

I join with HTB in thanking God for Nickys ministry: for his dedication, perseverance, warm and gracious humility, and unwavering ambition to see the good news of Jesus faithfully and clearly communicated in word and deed. In this time of great leadership turmoil within the church, it is right and good for us to celebrate those who make it to the finish line and inspire others to follow suit.

Krish Kandiah is director of Sanctuary Foundation.
Death toll rises in flood-stricken areas of Kentucky as search and rescue teams look for missing

UPDATED at 6 p.m. ET: At least 28 people are confirmed dead following last week's flooding in Kentucky.

Original report:

The death toll from devastating flooding in Eastern Kentucky has risen to at least 26 as search and rescue teams look for the stranded and missing, while more rain is expected in some areas already hit hard.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Sunday that the death toll had risen to 26 in a Sunday morning update.

"There is widespread damage with many families displaced and more rain expected throughout the next day," the governor wrote on Twitter Sunday.

"I know of several additional bodies, and we know it's going to grow," the governor told NBC News. "We are going to be finding bodies for weeks."

Those who have died in the severe flooding that began Thursday include 10 adults and four children in Knott County, four in Breathitt County, three in Perry County, two each in Clay County and Letcher County, the governor's office said in a statement Saturday while the state remained in an active search and rescue operation.

First responders not only from Kentucky but also from Tennessee and West Virginia were able to rescue at least 1,432 Kentuckians and over 300 people displaced by the flooding were being temporarily housed at state parks.

For many residents reaching a safe place for the rescue was tough.

My daughter is safe, wrote Terry Adams, a resident, on Facebook. She saved her dog by putting her in a container that would float and then swam with her to a neighboring rooftop. She waited hours until she could be rescued. She is a hero. I love you Chloe. You are simply amazing We lost everything todayeverything except what matters most.

A friend commented on the post, saying, My goodness, I cant imagine your worry and heartbreak. Thank the Good Lord shes okay! Prayers.

The governor said the search for potential victims of the flooding may carry on for weeks, suggesting that the death toll could rise further.

We continue to pray for the families who have suffered unfathomable loss, Beshear said. We also pray for the first responders. This mission has been especially challenging, and what they are experiencing firsthand is tremendously stressful and difficult. We thank all those involved for their tireless efforts.

Dozens of roads were blocked by debris, many water systems were partially or completely out of service, 17,000 were without power and about 700 natural gas connections were not functioning, The Weather Channel reported.

The governor announced that the states flood relief fund had received donations worth about $684,000 and that some of the funds would be allocated for the funeral expenses of those who died in the flooding.

This isnt over, Beshear said. While we are doing search and rescue, there are still real dangers out there, he continued, adding that flooding had not crested in some places and more rainfall was expected early this week.

More storms are expected Sunday, so, unfortunately, flash flooding will remain a concern through the weekend at least, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said.
Pope Francis says he may 'step aside' and retire, but only if it's God's will

Speaking to journalists on a return flight from Canada, Pope Francis said he should slow down on his international travel and possibly consider retiring, but only if he discerns that it's Gods will.

I think that at my age and with this limitation, I have to save myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church. Or, alternatively, to think about the possibility of stepping aside, Francis told journalists during an in-flight press conference on his return flight from Iqaluit, Canada, on Saturday, AFP reported.

The Lord will say when it is time to retire, the 85-year-old pope added, according to Catholic News Agency. The door is open. Its one of the normal options, but up to today I havent knocked on that door.

He clarified that he wasnt actively thinking of retiring and that he was just open to it. But maybe that doesnt mean the day after tomorrow I will start thinking.

As a Jesuit, the pope said he will rely on discernment.

The newswire said journalists asked the pope several times about the possibility of him resigning due to his health limitations. Francis has been suffering from knee pain and sometimes uses a wheelchair.

Knee surgery is not planned in my case. The experts say yes, but there is the whole problem of anesthesia. Ten months ago I underwent more than six hours of anesthesia and there are still traces. You don't play, you don't mess around with anesthesia, he said.

Francis said he would still make efforts to travel so that he could be close to people because I think it is a way of service.

The pope added that he would like to go to Ukraine and is planning a trip to Kazakhstan in September to attend the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

His Q&A with reporters came after a week-long trip to Canada in which he traveled to Edmonton, Quebec, and the city of Iqaluit in the Canadian territory of Nunavut on what he called a penitential pilgrimage to apologize to the countrys indigenous communities.

On Monday, Francis apologized for the alleged abuses at government-supported Catholic residential schools as he met with Native American tribal leaders.

"I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry," he said. "I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the [Catholic] Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools."
Justice Samuel Alito strikes back at Boris Johnson, Prince Harry in religious liberty speech

At a religious liberty summit in Rome, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dismissed criticism by foreign leaders, including U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Harry of the ruling he authored overturning Roe that returned abortion laws back to individual states.

I had the honor this term of writing, I think, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law, Alito said in his first public remarks since the June 24 decision.

Speaking at the conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame Law School on July 21, the justice alluded to Johnson's recent resignation in a quip, saying he paid the price for his comments.

Johnson, whose former mistress had an abortion, called the 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overruled Roe v. Wade, a big step backwards.

But what really wounded me  what really wounded me  was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine, Alito added in the speech.

When Harry spoke to the U.N. last week, he claimed that returning abortion laws back to the states was rolling back of constitutional rights here in the United States.

Much like Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called the Supreme Court decision horrific.

My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion. I can't imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now, Trudeau wrote in a social media post.

New York Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Justice Alitos speech.

The Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis, she tweeted. Remember: it was Alitos opinion that leaked. That fact paired with his politicized remarks ... should be alarming to anyone.

On religious liberty, Alito said, The problem that looms is not just indifference to religion. Its not just ignorance about religion. Theres also growing hostility to religion or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors.

The challenge for those who want to protect religious liberty in the United States, Europe and other similar places is to convince people who are not religious that religious liberty is worth special protection and that will not be easy to do.

After the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, former first lady Michelle Obama said she was heartbroken.

However, Author and Pastor Rick Warren praised the Supreme Court's decision.

The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade ending the federal support of abortion! Millions of unborn Americans say thank you! he wrote on Twitter at the time.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the decision a massive victory for life and the beginning of a new chapter in American history.

In a series of tweets, he said decision will save the lives of millions of innocent babies.

The decision reverses one of the most egregious departures from the Constitution and legal precedent the United States has ever seen, and one that has resulted in the deaths of 63 million American children.
Postcard from Marble, Colorado

The only church in Marble serves as a visible reminder of the towns past.

With a population of just 133 souls at the last census, Marble is small even when compared to other mountain towns across Colorado.

Like the church, there is only one restaurant and one inn. The nearest gas station and post office are 30 miles away. If you include Schofield Pass, a seasonal mountain pass that requires four-wheel-drive vehicles, there are two roads in and out of town.

The limited road access also makes Marble an exclave in Gunnison County. Outside of summer, when a well-maintained shortcut that regular cars can easily take, the drive to the county seat of Crested Butte is at least 150 miles. By contrast, the ritzy ski resort of Aspen, seat of Pitkin County, is just 58 miles away.

Given the isolated location, it may seem like there is little reason for the town to exist. While that may be true today, the history of its existence lies in the mining of the towns namesake.

Marble quarried at 9,500 feet in elevation from deep inside the mountains was used to build iconic buildings and monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, the Roman Catholic cathedral in Denver and the state capitols of Colorado, Arkansas and Utah. It's also why that church is here.

The churchs simple carpenter Gothic architecture is a clue that the building is old. In fact, its actually older than Marble itself.

Originally built in 1886 as St. Johns Chapel for Episcopalians in Aspen, it was dismantled, transported by rail car and rebuilt at its present-day location in 1908. The tower and narthex, the latter of which also functions as a breezeway, were added a few years later.

Rededicated as St. Pauls Church, the space was also used by Roman Catholics and Congregationalists until 1941, when a series of natural disasters combined with the economic pressures of the Great Depression and American entry into World War II resulted in the closure of the quarry and mill. Almost overnight Marble became a ghost town.

By 1950, the shuttered church was once again being used for worship after the Marble Community Church received permission from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. A subsequent dispute with the diocese locked out the interdenominational congregation until the 1970s, when it was finally allowed back inside. However, the Episcopalians wouldnt deed over the National Register of Historic Places-listed building until 1985.

While additions and renovations have occurred over the ensuing years, much of the church, including the pump organ and altar, is original to the late Victorian era. The building is also a good representative of the wooden churches that gradually disappeared as congregations across denominations expanded and built larger churches out of stone or brick.

Unfortunately, Marble Community Church isnt open to visitors outside the weekly Sunday service at 10 a.m.

If you go

Learn more about the town at the Marble Historical Museum, which is housed within a circa 1910 former high school. While cluttered and in need of a more professional curation, it has a range of exhibits and artifacts that give visitors a better understanding of life in a Colorado mountain town in and around the turn of the last century.

Book a room at the Inn at Raspberry Ridge. Marbles only bed-and-breakfast faces the Crystal River and is an easy walk from the only restaurant, Slow Groovin' BBQ.

The closest airport with significant commercial flights is about two hours away in Grand Junction.

Dennis Lennox writes a travel column for The Christian Post.
By Caitlin Johnstone

July 30, 2022: Information Clearing House -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued to pour gasoline on the foreign policy dumpster fire that is her planned visit to Taiwan next month, now reportedly encouraging other members of congress to come along for the ride.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has invited a small group of lawmakers on her official trip to Taiwan, including the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, NBC News reports.

This trip, which Beijing perceives as an egregious transgression of Washingtons longstanding one-China policy, is already so incendiary that the Pentagon is now planning to send in fighter jets and other war machinery to protect Pelosis plane in case of attacks by the Chinese military.

AP reports:

While U.S. officials say they have little fear that Beijing would attack the U.S. House speakers plane, they are aware that a mishap, misstep or misunderstanding could endanger her safety. So the Pentagon is developing plans for any contingency. Officials told The Associated Press that if Pelosi goes to Taiwan  still an uncertainty  the military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region. They declined to provide details, but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there.

This risk alone would be reason enough to cancel the trip, but adding to the concern is the fact that the Chinese government has begun warning against it using the same red line language that Russia was using in the lead-up to its invasion of Ukraine.

We have repeatedly made clear our our firm opposition to Speaker Pelosis potential visit to Taiwan. If the US side insists on making the visit and challenges Chinas red line, it will be met with resolute countermeasures, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said Wednesday. The U.S. must assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising thereof.

China has been using this same language since news first broke about Pelosis planned trip, with Chinese state media Global Times saying last week that visiting Taiwan is definitely a red line that Pelosi must never cross.

During the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia was issuing similar warnings using the same phrase. Putin warned over and over again that the west was taking Moscows red lines on Ukrainian neutrality too lightly, and Washington brazenly dismissed those warnings while continuing to float the possibility of future NATO membership for Ukraine.

I dont accept anybodys red lines, President Biden told the press in December of last year when asked about the warnings.

Weeks later Putin made good on his threat, launching a horrific war that has killed thousands and which could easily have been prevented with a few low-cost concessions.

This is that red line that I talked about multiple times, Putin said. They have crossed it.

Was it worth it?

Of course not.

Failing to learn from history is one thing; failing to learn even from the last five months is quite another. Pelosi and whoevers orchestrating her trip should abort those plans immediately, because the dangers that are being toyed with here are not worth the moral victory of being able to say that China didnt make you swerve in the stupidest game of chicken that has ever been played.

And thats exactly whats happening here. Chinas red line warnings make it clear that Pelosi landing in Taiwan will at best kick up brinkmanship between the two nations another notch, while Republicans are aggressively pushing the narrative that if the trip doesnt happen it will mean that Communist China is winning. The political pressure is on the side of escalation, with even progressive Democrats supporting Pelosis move and calls for de-escalation and detente becoming increasingly relegated to the sidelines.

We shouldnt have to deal with this. We shouldnt be watching a whole new country added to the potential flashpoints for nuclear armageddon just because some octogenarian in congress is too old to care if her plane gets shot down. We shouldnt be risking another deadly conflict which stands to benefit no ordinary person over what amounts to nothing more than petty egoic chest-pounding.

We shouldnt have to hope that the worlds most powerful people dont take some idiotic risks for no good reason which could hurt us all or even end up getting us all killed. We should not have systems in place which can allow the worst things imaginable to happen if the tyrants who rule over us dont happen to make the wisest decision on any given day.

Our futures shouldnt depend upon the better angels of the worst monsters. Those with power have far too much of it, and the ordinary people of this world have not nearly enough.

Caitlin's articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast, throwing some money into her hat on Patreon or Paypal, or buying her book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. https://caitlinjohnstone.com
Brooklyn pastor robbed of jewelry being sued for allegedly scamming parishioner of life savings

Bishop Lamor Whitehead of Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Brooklyn, who claims he and his congregation lost jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars during a livestreamed robbery at his church on Sunday, allegedly scammed one of his parishioners of her life savings, which he's accused of using to purchase a $4.4 million mansion in New Jersey, according to a lawsuit filed in the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

He is now being sued by parishioner Pauline Anderson, 56, for $2.45 million in actual and punitive damages for taking $90,000 of her savings to secure a house for her, but he used the money to secure a home for himself instead.

According to the lawsuit, filed last September and first cited publicly by The City, Whitehead promised to help Anderson purchase a home after she was rejected by two mortgage lenders because her credit score was too low. Anderson had co-signed for a student loan for one of her children which was in arrears, the lawsuit said.

When she failed to secure a home loan through traditional methods, the desperate Anderson who joined Whiteheads church in January 2020, warily gave him a check for $90,000 in November 2020 when he said he could help her secure a home. She told Whitehead that she was wary in handing over her money because that was all she had to live on. Whitehead offered to give her $100 per month for her living expenses at that point to live off until the purchase and renovation of the property he promised was complete. Whitehead did not give Anderson a receipt for the $90,000 she paid him.

The lawsuit said Anderson trusted Whitehead with her money partly because he was her pastor. When she joined his church in 2020, she had just recovered from a life-threatening surgery and Whitehead, who was introduced to her by her son, Rasheed Anderson, had prayed for her. She further trusted Whitehead to help her find a home because he had also previously helped her son secure a home.

Whitehead allegedly took Andersons money to purchase a $4.4 million mansion in Saddle River, New Jersey.

The Premises is a large, palatial estate with an inground pool with a waterfall, outdoor fountains, hot tub, gym and wine cellar, among other luxury amenities. It is located in the upper-class neighborhood of Saddle River, New Jersey, one of the highest per-capita income markets in the country, the lawsuit said.

Upon information and belief, LWI and Mr. Whitehead fraudulently converted Ms. Andersons investment of $90,000.00 as part of his down payment on the Contract to purchase the Premises as a personal residence for Mr. Whitehead himself, the lawsuit continued. Ms. Anderson was instead left with nothing but a vague promise by Mr. Whitehead to pay the funds back in the future followed by an assertion that he had no further obligation to do so.

Whitehead, who ran a failed campaign to become Brooklyn borough president, also did not give Anderson the monthly $100 he promised, and when she inquired about her money he allegedly told her in text messages dated May 19, 2021, that anything that was given to me is a Donation unless its attached to a contract! I was making investments thats what I Do!

Information from the New York City Police Department cited by The New York Post said three masked gunmen burst into Whitehead's church at around 11:14 a.m. on Sunday. A video of the incident shows Whitehead quickly surrendering to the gunmen as they relieved him, his wife and their congregation of their precious stones.

While police sources cited by The New York Times said the stolen jewelry was worth more than $1 million, other reports pegged the value at about $400,000.

In a statement during an Instagram Live session Monday, Whitehead, who is now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen, said reports that the value of the stolen jewelry exceeds $1 million are incorrect.

"And just to clear things up. I know CNN has reported and also the [New York] Post, that over a million dollars of jewelry was stolen. That's inaccurate, said the Brooklyn bishop who was arrested in 2006 for a $2 million identity-theft scam. Whitehead, 44, who served some five years in prison but was released in 2013, claims he was "falsely convicted and arrested for a crime I did not commit."
Uber driver charged with murder of Texas pastor in road rage shooting

Police in Houston, Texas, have charged a 23-year-old Uber driver with murder in the death of the Rev. Ronald K. Mouton who was killed in a road rage shooting.

The Uber driver, identified as Deshawn Longmire, was charged with murder on Friday and is being held in Harris County Jail on a $500,000 bond, according to the Harris County District Clerks Office.

Mouton, who served as the pastor of East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, was shot and killed on the Gulf Freeway at Gould Road on June 24.

Longmire, who was driving for Uber in his black Honda sedan, was seen by a witness at a stoplight on the Gulf Freeway arguing with the 58-year-old pastor who was in his white BMW. When both started moving, Longmire stretched his arm out of the driver window with a pistol in his hand and allegedly shot Mouton and took off, according to witness accounts, Click 2 Houston reported.

A surveillance video from Pusch and Nguyen Injury Lawyers showed Moutons vehicle crashing at a curb.

The pastors family released a statement after the suspect's arrest.

The horrific loss of our beloved, Rev. Dr. Ronald Mouton Sr., is painful beyond words, the family said, according to Click 2 Houston.

We are still grief-stricken over this senseless tragedy. We want the man who took his life to understand the seriousness of his crime. He took the life of a husband, a father. Our confidence and hope is in the proficient work the of police. We also hope the work of the entire criminal justice system is done thoroughly and that justice is duly served. We understand the public interest in this case, but we are not ready to speak publicly.

On the Sunday after the incident, current and former members of the church set up a memorial at the site where the pastor died. He left behind his wife, four children and 10 grandchildren.

He was such a wonderful man, Sonja Gilmore-King told ABC 13 at the time. He was a man of God. He loved family, his church, and this community. I had to come over to see, was it true? I couldnt believe a man of God who loves so hard was taken away from us. We cant believe it because this man would give you anything, the shirt off his back literally, and for this to happen to him, none of us could believe it.

Wendell Hutchins II, the founding pastor of the Church of Champions in Houston, called Mouton a brilliant man who demonstrated his love for his people on a daily basis.

I mourn the loss of a great man that was such a fixture of faithfulness in our Houston communities. Our prayers are lifting the Mouton family in their hour of grief, he wrote on Facebook at the time. Were also praying for the entire East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church family as they mourn the sudden loss of their pastor.

Bishop James Dixon, a close friend of Moutons, told ABC 13, He was not just a great man inside the church, but outside the church walls. He was a family man, a loving husband, and father, and just a great human being, raised by a great father and mother.
Pro-life doctor warns of dangers as European org. ships abortion pills to Americans

As doctors in Europe continue to ship abortion pills to Americans as some states ban the drug after the U.S. Supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, a pro-life doctor is warning that mailing from overseas is a "dangerous" way to distribute the drug.

Dr. Donna Harrison, CEO of the 6,000-member American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has offered her concerns as a group called Aid Access has worked to provide chemical abortion pills to the U.S. for four years and vows to continue doing so.

Since the Supreme Court overturnedRoe last month, concluding that there is no constitutional right to abortion and returning the issue to the states, Aid Access has reported that it receives 4,000 requests a day for abortion pills, up from 600 to 700 a day.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Harrison said that in ordering the pills online, women may not know exactly how far along their pregnancy is, which means there is a lack of informed consent.

The doctor also noted that about one in 50 pregnancies in the United States end in an ectopic pregnancy, a life-threatening condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the side effects of taking the abortion pill can include heavy and painful bleeding.

Chemical abortions require patients to take two drugs  mifepristone and misoprostol. The drugs are approved by the FDA to terminate pregnancy up to 10 weeks gestation.

"The symptoms of a Mifeprex abortion are exactly the same as a rupturing ectopic pregnancy," Harrison said.

"So a woman who is having pain and bleeding will go on the internet, say, 'Oh, yes, I should expect pain and bleeding from this operation,' not knowing she's got a rupturing ectopic pregnancy, and then she dies from an internal hemorrhage."

Aid Access is led by Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gompers, who founded the organization in 2018. The organization consists of four doctors supervising a team of about 10 medical staff members.

Potential patients visit Aid Access's website and answer a series of questions, such as how far along they are in pregnancy and whether anyone is forcing them into the abortion. The medical team then sends a prescription for the abortion pill to the pharmacy.

As NBC reported, it's been difficult for U.S. authorities to stop Aid Access from mailing abortion pills, even to states with strict abortion laws, because the organization operates outside the country and ships pills from India.

"We will continue to serve women who need it. We're not going to stop," Gompers said in a statement. "We are expanding again our capacity, so we can help with all the requests that we get."

In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Aid Access calling on it to "immediately cease causing the introduction of these violative drugs into U.S. commerce."

"By facilitating the sale of unapproved mifepristone and misoprostol to consumers in the U.S., Aidaccess.org causes the introduction of unapproved new drugs into U.S. commerce in violation of the FD&C Act," the letter stated.

"These drugs are also new drugs ... because they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for their labeled use. New drugs may not be legally introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce without prior approval from FDA."

Harrison, an adjunct professor at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, believes that distributing abortion pills online is a "dangerous" way to administer such a drug.

With chemical abortion pills being available online, Harrison also stated that it could be easy for a boyfriend or even a sex trafficker to order them and force women to undergo a chemical abortion without her consent.

Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, promotes chemical abortion as "really safe and effective" on its website, stating that millions have used it safely. The organization contends that complications after an abortion are rare and typically happen in special circumstances, such as a woman ending a pregnancy for health reasons or if she has a history of mental health problems.

Other sources, however, have questioned the validity of data available on the complications from abortion pills.

A peer-reviewed study published in May by the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute, which Harrison co-authored, suggests that multiple cases of complications from the abortion pill were mischaracterized as miscarriages.

The study consisted of a 17-year longitudinal analysis of 423,000 confirmed abortions and 121,283 confirmed subsequent visits to an emergency room within 30 days of the abortion. Researchers assessed women over 13 years of age with at least one identifiable pregnancy between 1999 and 2015.

According to the study, "of the women with miscoded abortion pill complications who were admitted to the hospital, 86% needed surgery for [retained products of conception]." The rate was 2.5 times higher than women who underwent surgical abortions and were miscoded as miscarriage patients.

A 2009 study titled "Immediate complications of medical compared with surgical termination of pregnancy" purports that the need for emergency surgery to complete abortion for women who take Mifeprex before nine weeks of pregnancy is four times greater than the risk of surgical abortion.
Catholic school can fire counselor for being in a same-sex marriage, 7th Circuit rules

A federal appeals court panel has ruled that a Catholic school in Indiana can lawfully refuse to renew the contract of a guidance counselor because she was in a same-sex marriage, which violated Catholic teaching.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Thursday in favor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Roncalli High School, rejecting a lawsuit from former guidance counselor Lynn Starkey and upholding a lower court ruling.

Circuit Judge Michael Brennan authored the panel opinion, concluding that Starkey fit the legal description of a minister and could be dismissed by the school for rejecting Catholic teaching on marriage based on a ministerial exception.

The ministerial exception is a legal principle that protects churches and religious institutions from legal action taken by employees who perform religious functions. The exception is designed to protect religious institutions from government influence.

"She was identified as a 'minister of the faith' in her job description and employed under a 'Ministry Contract' beginning in the 201718 school year," wrote Brennan.

"For more than 30 years, Roncalli's employment contracts included a morals clause, and all evidence shows that the school considered Starkey a minister and entrusted her with religious duties."

Brennan, a Trump appointee, concluded that "Starkey was a minister because she was entrusted with communicating the Catholic faith to the school's students and guiding the school's religious mission."

As a result, the panel did not feel a need to address arguments over Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The majority opinion cited the Supreme Court's decisions in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020) and Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Evangelical School v. EEOC (2012).

Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook, a Reagan appointee, authored a concurring opinion arguing that the archdiocese and the school could justify their actions based on Title VII.

Specifically, Easterbrook detailed how Title VII "permits a religious employer to require the staff to abide by religious rules," including any prohibitions on same-sex unions.

"A religious school is entitled to limit its staff to people who will be role models by living the life prescribed by the faith," wrote Easterbrook.

"Our circuit has never embraced the position that 702(a) permits religious discrimination but not sex discrimination that has a religious footing. Section 702(a) will not resolve all claims made by employees of religious organizations, but it resolves many  including Starkey's."

The panel opinion upheld a lower court decision from last August by U.S. District Judge Richard Young, who argued that the state could not interfere in the affairs of the Catholic school.

"When the state interferes with these types of employment decisions, it violates both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment," wrote Young at the time.

"The ministerial exception is not limited to claims of religious discrimination; it bars all claims of discrimination under Title VII, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."

Young also concluded that Starkey's "work in helping shape Roncalli's educational and spiritual environment weigh heavily in favor of applying the ministerial exception."

"Moreover, that Starkey characterizes her work as a guidance counselor in purely secular terms does not change the result because it would be inappropriate for this court to draw a distinction between secular and religious guidance offered by a guidance counselor at a Catholic school," he added.

Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at the religious freedom legal group Becket, praised the appellate court's decision.

"Religious groups have a constitutional right to hire individuals who believe in their faith's ideals and are committed to their religious mission," said Goodrich in a statement. "Our justice system has consistently ruled that the government cannot intrude on a religious organization's choice of who will pass on the faith to the next generation."
Archbishop's arrest upon return from Israel upsets Lebanon's Christians

Lebanon's Maronite Christian community has voiced its concern over the arrest and interrogation of their Archbishop Musa al-Hajj in his own country as he returned from an aid trip to Israel, reports say.

The arrest at the border crossing and the interrogation had been ordered by the Military Court's Government Commissioner, Judge Fadi Akiki, on July 19, according to the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy.

Musa al-Hajj is not only the archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land but also the patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, the Palestinian Territories and the Hashemite Kingdom, the group noted in a statement.

The archbishop's trip to Israel involved visiting the Christian Maronite community, many of them refugees from the 1975-1990 civil war.

AMCD claims Al-Hajj was interrogated "on the flimsy excuse" that he may have helped some Lebanese people struggling under their collapsing economy obtain some relief from relatives who had fled to Israel, according to AMCD.

Arab News reports the archbishop was accused of bringing in a large sum of U.S. dollars to Lebanon and was detained for 11 hours before the involvement of church officials and the judiciary led to his release.

According to International Christian Concern, Al-Hajj received a summons for military court interrogations and a travel ban imposed by military courts.

An official close to the case told AFP, that Hajj ignored the military court summons issued for allegedly violating boycott laws imposed on Israel and money laundering.

AMCD reports that "Lebanese sources believe this is an attempt to pressure (Maronite) Patriarch al-Rahi to change his position in favor of UN resolution 1559 regarding the disarming of all militias and liberating Lebanon from all foreign meddling, specifically from the domination of the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah."

AMCD is concerned about the use of Lebanese military courts against civilians.

"This military court has issued many other arrest warrants against those opposing the terrorist organization Hezbollah, even against American citizens, in an apparent effort to stifle their activism and freedom of speech. This abuse of power has been going on for some time but has escalated recently," the statement added.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi and other clerics called the arrest a "charade."

"We demand... the confiscated aid be returned to the archbishop so that it can reach its beneficiaries," they said in a statement, according to AFP.

On Sunday, Christians gathered in protest in the courtyard of the patriarchs place of residence in Dimane.

Over 60 percent of Lebanon's population is Muslim, mostly from Sunni, Shi'a and Alawite sects. Christians form over one-third of the population.

Under a decades-old power-sharing agreement in Lebanon, the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian while the premier is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim.

The patriarch has spoken publicly about the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for October, which will select a new Maronite president, as well as concerns about the political coercion of Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy, ICC noted.

In a Sunday sermon, Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reportedly said Christians want a president "committed to the Lebanese cause, national constants, Lebanon's sovereignty and independence, and who abides by the principle of neutrality."

"We cannot call for Lebanon's neutrality and choose a president who is biased toward certain axes," he said.

Lebanon's former President Amin Gemayel also commented on the archbishop's arrest.

"Arresting Al-Hajj while on a pastoral and humanitarian mission and summoning him for investigation before the military court constitute a harsh blow by a political-judicial-security narrow-minded thinking against the role represented by the archbishop of the holy land through his care for the conditions of the Maronites, as well as all other Christian and Muslim denominations in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories," Gemayel said in a statement shared with Arab News.

Maltese Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, the Vatican's envoy to Lebanon, said the arrest sets a "dangerous" precedent, according to All Arab News.

Samir Geagea, leader of the growing Christian-backed Lebanese Forces, said in a statement the archbishop's detainment was "not comprehensible at all."
Judys uncle Dick died last week, just shy of his 100th birthday.

Richard J. Dinning was the last of the Greatest Generation in our family, the last of the men who went to war and the women who served on the home front in the 1940s.

He grew up in Flint and, interestingly enough, he proposed to his wife under the tree in front of the big farmhouse on Eldridge Road. Every time he came up north we would drive by the "Engagement Tree to make sure it was still there. It still is.

At 22 years old he found himself as the pilot of a B-17 flying bombing raids from Polebrook, England over Germany. Whenever they headed for Cologne, they were told, If you hit the cathedral, dont come back. They saved the cathedral, and they came back. He promised his crew he would get them home safely and he did. Up into his 80s he continued to meet with the bomber group, until the few remaining members were too old to gather.

Once he started flying, I guess it was in his blood. After the war he became an executive with Allegany Airlines, which became USAir before he retired, but he never stopped flying. He would fly his Mooney along with the team from the Collins Foundation traveling around the nation with their B-17. He called himself the living relic, a docent telling the stories of World War II and the planes that won the war while fascinated kids crawled around the old cockpit.

We are losing them quickly, these men and women who served their nation and saved the world from the terror of Nazism and fascism, from the aggression of Japan and the brutality of Hitler. Uncle Dick will no longer be around to regale us with his often-repeated reflections, so it will be up to us to tell our grandchildren and pass on the stories of this incredible time, these incredible men and women.

It was Tom Brokaw who labeled them The Greatest Generation, a well-deserved title. Here is a paragraph from his book which I have used beside flag-draped coffins at numerous funerals over the years of my ministry. I offer it today in honor of all of them, and particularly in memory of our beloved uncle Dick.

At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific. They answered the call to save the world. They succeeded on every front. They won the war. They saved the world.

"They came home to joyous and short-lived celebrations and immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world they wanted. As they now reach the twilight of their adventurous and productive lives, they remain for the most part, exceptionally modest, because in a deep sense they didnt think what they were doing was all that special, because everyone else was doing it too.

"They gave us the world as we know it and the lives we have today. They remain the Greatest Generation any society has ever produced. (Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation)

Fly high, uncle Dick, and may our generation live up to the legacy your generation has left behind. Thanks be to God for the Greatest Generation.
LONDON (AP)  A retired British geologist jailed in Iraq for antiquities smuggling has been freed and has left the country, his family said Sunday.

Jim Fitton, 66, was sentenced in June to 15 years in an Iraqi prison. A Baghdad appeals court overturned the conviction and last week ordered his release.

Fitton has now been reunited with family in Malaysia, where he lives. Son-in-law Sam Tasker said Fitton arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport on Friday, and the family was absolutely over the moon. Fitton missed wedding for his daughter Leila and Tasker in May while he was imprisoned.

Fitton was arrested in March at Baghdad Airport and charged under antiquities laws that carried the possibility of a death sentence.

His case drew international attention after he was convicted of picking up shards of pottery and other fragments from an ancient site in southern Iraq while on an organized geology and archaeology tour. Fitton told the court that he had no criminal intent, and some of the pieces he picked up from an unguarded site were no larger than a fingernail.

Many feared the incident would deter tourists from visiting Iraq, where the government hopes to grow the nascent tourism sector.

Frustrated by perceived inaction on the part of the British government, Fitton's family started a petition that garnered more than 350,000 signatures.

Tasker said the public support was evidence that the actions of the many can move the needle in situations like this, you spurred us on when we were struggling to find hope.

We as a family will never again doubt the kindness of strangers," he said.
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THE VILLAGE, Okla. - Adam Graham had been mayor less than a month when he saw them: Two police officers from the next city over, the wealthiest in Oklahoma, stopping a Black driver in his middle-class community.

As the first openly gay leader of The Village, he'd pledged to create a "welcoming" city. And for years, he said, residents had told him about being racially profiled, especially when they passed through the mansion-lined streets of Nichols Hills.

So, on that late May evening, Graham, 29, said he slowed to a halt in his black SUV, lowered the window and asked: "What are you doing, officers? Are you aware that you're in The Village?"

What happened next fiercely divided this community of nearly 9,000, drawing international scrutiny that felt humiliating to some and cathartic to others as simmering frustrations burst into the open. Oklahoma lost one of its six LGBTQ elected officials when Graham announced this month he was stepping down, citing harassment and fear for his safety.

At a time of deepening polarization in the United States, the fallout in The Village points to troubling consequences on the cul-de-sac level: Not even old friends are immune to the forces pitting us against each other.

Polls reveal perceptions of major events - the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, the protests ignited by the death of George Floyd - vary widely along partisan lines. Less explored is the impact in our own backyards, the strains on bonds that are supposed to trump politics.

"Unfortunately, certain elements of the population have recently become emboldened to pursue threats and attacks bordering on violence," Graham wrote in his July 18 resignation letter. "I no longer feel safe to serve in my capacity as mayor."

- The traffic stop

Before he said someone had followed him on the street, before he suspected someone had slashed one of his tires, before he said a man threw coffee at him and called him a gay slur, the police lights caught Graham's eye.

"My gut, my heart - every part of me told me to do it," he said in an interview at his ranch-style house. "My gut told me: 'Just go over there and ask a question, Adam.' "

In a clip of body-camera footage provided by the Nichols Hills police to The Washington Post, Graham can be seen pulling up in his Volkswagen Tiguan SUV across the street from what officers later described as a traffic stop.

"Excuse me?" asked one officer, a White man, apparently to Graham.

"You need to go on. Go on," said the other officer, a Black woman.

A passenger in the stopped car appears to be saying: "I just want to go home."

No other dialogue can be heard in the 32-second footage. "Nothing can be heard from Mr. Graham as he was too far away for the body cameras to pick up his voice," Nichols Hills Police Chief Steven Cox said in an email. Some audio was muted, he added, to protect the privacy of the passengers.

In a second clip, the White officer walks to Graham's car. Graham's dog, a goldendoodle named Ralph, is visible first on the screen, his fluffy head protruding from the back seat window. Then Graham comes into focus behind the steering wheel. His expression is neutral.

"Okay," the officer says. "Okay. Well, I appreciate your understanding of where we are because I know exactly where I am as well."

"Okay," Graham said.

"When I turn to stop somebody and they continue on from Nichols Hills into The Village," the officer said, "I have a right to continue stopping them."

"All right," Graham said.

"Thank you, sir," the officer replies. The footage ends.

Following that exchange, Graham said he left the scene. Cox, the police chief, said there is no more footage of Graham. When asked for a transcript of the former mayor's words in the muted segments, Cox said the body cameras didn't capture any other dialogue.

That night, Corporal Brandon Edwards sent an email to the police chief, flagging what he called "Mr. Graham's very unprofessional interference in my traffic stop."

The officers had pursued a car traveling 43 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone, Edwards wrote. A man who had identified himself as the mayor of The Village was "extremely rude and confrontational" to the point where Edwards doubted he was actually the mayor, "considering how unbecoming his actions were."

The officer with Edwards on the scene said she'd heard Graham yelling: "Get out of here. Get out of this city."

"His presence directly agitated an already uncooperative driver," Edwards wrote, according to a copy of the email shared by Nichols Hills police, "and put our safety at risk when it didn't need to be."

The Nichols Hills city manager soon told his counterpart in The Village about it, passing along Edwards's email.

Most of The Village's city council members thought Graham should apologize - or at least issue a statement explaining himself. They found the actions outlined in the email inappropriate, even dangerous, and feared losing backup from Nichols Hills. The two cities had long helped each other out, and The Village had maybe three officers on patrol at any given time.

"He distracted them when he did that," one council member, 75-year-old C. Scott "Bubba" Symes, said. "In my mind, anything could have happened."

Symes had a "heart-to-heart conversation" with Graham, he said, telling him that he knew several officers personally. It was unfair to paint all cops as bad guys, he said. Remember the Oklahoma City bombing? He'd been close enough to feel the impact. Remember who was running into harm's way?

The police are trained to use "deadly force against deadly force," Symes recalls telling Graham. "When you interfere, somebody could have pulled out a gun and shot you - or the police officer."

Though the council member was an old friend, Graham said he felt threatened by that conversation. He remembers Symes saying: "If that would have happened in The Village, I would hope they'd have shot you." (Symes denied saying that.)

Graham also disputed the Nichols Hills officers' version of events. In his memory, he was calm yet direct - not "extremely rude." He said he didn't yell at the officers and does not remember identifying himself as mayor. But his custom license plate features his initials, AG. Many people in that neighborhood, he added, know his car and Ralph.

- The harassment

After George Floyd's death launched protests worldwide, Graham said he'd thought a lot about how police have historically treated Black people. Black men make up 4 percent of Oklahoma's population, but they represent 21 percent of those killed in police shootings since 2015, according to Washington Post data.

According to data shared by the Nichols Hills police, 30 percent of people who received citations and warnings in Nichols Hills from June 30 of last year to July 1 were Black, despite the city being less than one percent Black. Cox said officers don't stop vehicles based on race or "any other reason than a violation of law," adding that a diverse population drives through Nichols Hills, which borders Oklahoma's biggest city.

"I see young Black men pulled over by the Nichols Hills police all the time," Graham said. "I worry about them."

As someone who began a slow process of coming out in his mid-20s, Graham said he understood the toll of discrimination. Getting into politics, he said, was his way of trying to protect the vulnerable. He won a city council seat in 2018 before his fellow members appointed him mayor, a title they voted on each year.

Graham's day job was running campaigns for pro-LGBTQ candidates in the South. As mayor, he had declared June as Pride Month in The Village and vowed to outlaw conversion therapy, a practice still underway in parts of Oklahoma.

His colleagues described him as cordial with law enforcement, recalling a time he'd hand-delivered BBQ to The Village's police department.

Graham said he'd thought about apologizing to the Nichols Hills officers. Perhaps he should have stuck to recording video.

Then the local newspaper published a front-page story: "Village Mayor Interrupts NHills Traffic Stop With Verbal Altercation."

People yelled at him during the next city council meeting, saying he was anti-law enforcement and behaving in a way that embarrassed them. Graham's sexual orientation never came up, but the intensity of the criticism was disturbing, said Tammy Conover, 59, an artist in The Village.

"If he was a straight man, nothing ever would have been said," Conover said. "All the time people are saying, 'We're Christians,' but we are so hateful. So mean."

Graham told the city council that he did not want to comment. Privately, he felt the meeting had gotten too heated and worried saying more could fuel the fire.

The next week, he said, he discovered a four-inch gash in one of his tires. He suspected someone had slashed it. But Symes's comments kept him from seeking a police report, he said.

After that, he noticed a man in a plum-colored Toyota truck trailing him one evening while he was walking Ralph. Graham said he motioned for him to pass, he said, but the man just silently stared at him.

"I felt shock," Graham recalled, tears welling. "To be followed while walking, I felt very vulnerable. I should have called somebody  I just didn't feel safe. I just wanted it to go away."

Then came the breaking point. Graham said he was heading to his car in the parking lot behind the Starbucks in Nichols Hills on July 16 when a man said, "You're the f----t mayor" and tossed an iced drink at his pants. Graham said he remembers only the humiliation, no witnesses, and hurried home.

Two days later, he handed his resignation letter to the city manager and posted a copy on Twitter.

"In the last month, I've been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking my dog, harassed at Starbucks and have had my tires slashed," he wrote in his letter. "Unfortunately, these malicious, bad-faith attacks are escalating."

Reporters called from around the world. "Good Morning America" reached out. The Village's website crashed.

"I had a choice," he said. "I could issue a blanket apology that doesn't mean jack crap, or I could issue a statement that I believed to be true and factual and from my heart."

Council members said they felt blindsided. People questioned the veracity of Graham's claims on Facebook, accusing him of exploiting his sexual orientation for attention.

"A small city in Oklahoma chased out a gay mayor?" asked Symes. "It's such a farce. We may be Oklahomans, there may be some cowboys out here, but we don't think like that anymore."

The council appointed a new mayor, 36-year-old Sonny Wilkinson.

He didn't doubt that Graham dealt with bigotry. As a straight man, he said, he didn't know what that's like. Any issue involving the police, meanwhile, was a recipe for discord.

"It's the divisiveness," he said. "You're either for the police or against the police."

Wilkinson played a voice mail that The Village police chief had received after Graham quit: "What did you do to protect the mayor?" the anonymous caller said. "Nothing! You sat on your bald, fat, homophobic ass and did nothing!"

"We are just not having conversations anymore," Wilkinson said. "We are just yelling."

- The listening session

Monday evening, July 25. The Village Library. For those who still need to be heard.

Twenty-eight people filed into the air-conditioned confines of Room B, which someone had decorated with a purple construction-paper octopus. The city council member who called this meeting, 58-year-old Sean Cummings, joked that he was not responsible for the ocean theme, but please, take a seat.

"Let's just do a circle," he told the group. "Get those feelings out there. Try to keep it civil."

They'd go counterclockwise with the microphone. A retired teacher who introduced herself as Connie went first.

"I have been really happy with Adam," she said. "He cared - more than any of the other board members "

Next was Tricia, who runs a summer program at a Catholic school. Graham had told her about the Starbucks incident, she said. He had sounded so upset. So shaken.

"I do not understand," she said, "how people cannot believe the things that have happened to this man."

The woman to Tricia's left scrunched up her face. She took the mic and countered: "He brought national attention to us for his own agenda that started with his own wrongdoing."

Next went a man who said his family worked in law enforcement. He wondered: Was the relationship with Nichols Hills police still intact?

Next went a college student named Jakob, who has worked on political campaigns with Graham. He wore winged eyeliner and black high heels.

"I just wanted to show my face, so that you all see that I am human and so is Adam," he said. "It is not easy to be gay, especially openly gay in Oklahoma - and especially as an elected official."

Next went a woman who said The Village didn't deserve this reputational hit. People here mow each other's lawns for free.

"It's the best place to live," she said.

Next came Melodie, an Air Force veteran, who said she'd lived here for 29 years.

"Some of you don't know your history if you think The Village has always been wonderful," she said.

Remember segregation? Remember the public pools filled with concrete so Black kids couldn't use them?

"As a Black woman, I can tell you," she said. "I worked at the mall as a kid, and my mom used to tell me: Don't drive through Nichols Hills. And don't drive through The Village."

Then came time for the city council member to take the mic. Closing remarks.

"He resigned on freakin' Twitter," Cummings said, raising his voice. "I found out my mayor resigned on Twitter. Come on, man! Are we not supposed to be upset about that?"

The uproar has nothing to do with his sexual orientation, he said.

"I don't give two hoots whether he's gay!"

Graham could have been arrested, Cummings said. He could have gotten somebody killed. And regarding the harassment, where were the police reports? What could anyone do about slashed tires without a police report?

"Let's pretend that all the harassment occurred," Cummings said. "We don't know if it has anything to do with  whatever  and we don't know if it happened."

"Are you saying that it didn't happen?" interjected a young man.

The room erupted in shouting.

"Will you open your ears?"

"He was!"

"We don't know."

"I'm trying to get to the reality. I don't know what it is."

- - -

The Washington Post's Steven Rich contributed to this report.
PADANGBAI, Indonesia (AP)  Hundreds of people wearing white shirts and traditional clothes gathered along the coast of Padangbai port on the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a mass cremation ceremony taking place in their village for the first time.

Families in Padangbai are sending off 117 deceased. They were previously buried in a public cemetery, not far from the cremation site.
Assetplus Investment Management Chairman and CIO Kang Bang-cheon / Newsis



By Anna J. Park



Hailed as one of Korea's investment gurus, Assetplus Investment Management Chairman and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Kang Bang-cheon has been a frequently sought-after guest at various investment lectures and media interviews. He's well-known for his legendary investment story of increasing his principal investment of 100 million won ($76,510) to 15.6 billion won in less than two years during the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis.



The famed value investor suddenly announced last Friday that he'd leave his chief post at the company that he founded in 1999, saying that it is about time for him to resign.



"I made the decision, as it feels like the time is ripe. I'd like to spend the rest of my time in my passion where I can contribute to society and the capital market, such as in discovering talented investors, educating and nurturing capable fund managers," he expressed his wish for resignation after 23 years at the post in his recent letter to the firm's investors.



Kang will be stepping down from his post at the firm's board of director meeting and general shareholders' meeting in August, according to a firm official.



Yet, his departure from the leading post coincides with breaking media reports over the weekend that the financial authority is currently preparing sanctions against Kang over allegations of borrowed-name investments.



According to the financial industry, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) conducted a regular inspection into Assetplus Investment in November last year through which the FSS detected suspicious investment activity and launched an investigation into it. The agency is currently examining the matter before referring it to the Sanctions Deliberation Committee.



"It's true that the FSS conducted the regular inspection into the firm late last year, and it is in the process of discussing sanctions procedures. Yet, nothing has been decided for now, and it will be determined after completing internal examinations on the matter," an official from the FSS told The Korea Times, Sunday.



Kang is allegedly involved in borrowed-name investment or self-trading, as he lent his personal money to an office sharing business, where he himself is the largest shareholder and his daughter the second largest. Furthermore, he is suspected of managing the business corporation's assets using a corporate name. The act could be regarded as a violation of the Securities Exchange Act, under which employees of brokerage firms or asset management companies are subject to various forms of limitations on their investment activities.



Chairman Kang has flatly denied the allegations.



"I am confident that the act never constituted self-trading," he said during an interview with a local media outlet. "I think the FSS is taking an excessive approach," explaining that the profit and loss from transactions does not belong to him at all, but only to the corporate entity.


President Lisa Kluge called to order the July 22 meeting of Jacksonville Noon Rotary Club at noon at Hamiltons.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and "America" was sung.

Volunteers were thanks, including Rick Kluge, Kevin Heitz, Alberta Robinson and Jan Ryan, greeters and 50-50; Dave Fisher and Steve Holt, sergeants-at-arms; Tiffany Warmowski, Reflection; note taker Anne Jackson; song leader and tech guru Dan Lepper; and pianist Sharon Zuiderveld.

Announcements:

 The Polio Plus Jars are on the tables.

 Clip boards are being circulated. Please help where you can.

Upcoming events:

 July 23: Neighborhood Improvement

 July 24: Ferris wheel, 4-6 p.m., sponsored by Kiwanis.

 July 27: Museum volunteer opportunity. See Ginny Fanning.

 July 29: No meeting

 July 29: Social at Community Park hosted by the Wahl family. Fried chicken will be provided, as will table service. Bring a dish to share and a lawn chair. RSVP to Cathy Jo by June 27. The wheel will be running!

 Aug. 1: First Monday, 5 p.m. at Bahan's.

 Aug. 1: Membership Committee meets at noon

 Aug. 1: Community Service Committee will meet at The Salvation Army

Woo-hoo: Oktoberfest will be from noon to 7 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Morgan County Fairgrounds. Food! Beer! Music! Games! Fun! Save the date. All Rotarians are asked to sign up to help!

Steve Warmowski was inducted as the newest member of Jacksonville Noon Rotary Club.

We welcomed visiting Rotarians Dan OBrian and Bill Durall. Lisa Kluge brought her husband, Rick. Tiffany Warmowski brought her husband, Steve. Scott Boston was accompanied by Tiffany Whitaker

District Gov. Bill Durall gave an interesting and uplifting program.

Jan Ryan drew unsuccessfully for the 50/50 drawing. The Four-Way Test was recited and the meeting was adjourned at 1 p.m.

 Submitted by Anne Jackson

Jacksonville Sunrise Rotary Club

On a beautiful, clear Tuesday morning, nine Rotarians and two visiting Rotarians gathered in the Holiday Inn Express meeting room.

Those in attendance were Don Pigg, President Linda Meece, Cindy Boehlke, Sonie Smith, past president Jane Becker, Jay Jamison, Brittany Nickel, Sarah Robinson and Sarah Edmiston, with District Gov. Bill Durall and District Gov.-nominee Dan OBrien.

All chatting and joking subsided when President Linda gently tapped the July 19 meeting to order at 6:58 a.m. Then Sarah Edmiston led the Pledge of Allegiance, Cindy led the reciting of the Four-Way Test and Sonie gave the invocation.

Linda reminded members that not only is next weeks meeting a business meeting but we are asked to bring donations for the Special Needs Pantry at First Baptist Church. This is in memory of Rotarian Barb Baker for her birthday.

District Gov. Bill gave a wonderful speech about International President Jennifer Jones' four strategic goals for the year. The first is to increase impact. Using the Troop-on coupon project as an example, Bill describing its importance to members of the military with his many years in the Air Force stationed all over the world. The governor also encouraged us to increase membership. The second goal is to expand reach, perhaps with a group of nonmembers the club can depend on during service projects. The third goal is to enhance participation, and the fourth is to increase ability to adapt. Next, we all discussed ways to increase Rotarys presence on a national level with the international presidents background in communications. We learned that there have been commercials on TV recently and that Rotary has a YouTube channel.

Next, Bill did his due diligence and reminded the club about the upcoming Rotary Day at the Ballpark on Aug. 6 (Cardinals vs. Yankees). The district governor emphasizes polio projects this year, especially something along the lines of Pints for Polio. Sonie pointed out the New Unbreakable Polio Jar we have to replace the glass Polio Jar the club has used for years until it shattered. Bill reminded the club of the district conference in Collinsville on Nov. 4 and 5.

Next, the district governor described the Zambia farming project and the Rotary grant toward mechanization. He is asking clubs to donate toward a planter. The club, with a generous donation, presented the governor with a check for $500. President Linda, whose husband is integral to the Zambia project, presented the donation and pictures were taken before she verbally rang the meeting to a close at 7:58 a.m.

The business meeting will be at 7 a.m. July 26 in the Holiday Inn Express meeting room. All visiting Rotarians and guests are welcome.

 Submitted by Sarah Edmiston

Jacksonville Sunrise Rotary Club

On a rainy Tuesday morning, 11 Rotarians and one visiting Rotarian gathered in the Holiday Inn Express meeting room. Per the announcement at last weeks meeting, toiletries, laundry supplies and other items were donated in honor of Barb Bakers birthday this week. Don Pigg donated the use of his truck bed for transport. The necessities were donated to the Personal Needs Pantry at First Baptist Church. Barb was a longtime Rotarian and the Personal Needs Pantry was very important to her.

Those in attendance were Don, President Linda Meece, Brittany Nickel, Sarah Robinson, Pat Pennell, Sonie Smith, Gordon Jumper, Jane Becker, Jay Jamison, Ella Scaggs, and Sarah Edmiston, with guest speaker Judy Tighe of Jacksonville Main Street. President Linda gently rang the July 26 meeting open at 7 a.m., then Gordon led the Pledge of Allegiance, Jay led the reciting of the Four-Way Test and Pat gave the invocation. Former member Ella was welcome back to the club. She thanked us for the pin. Rotations were made by Sarah Edmiston, Sonie, Don, Gordon, Sarah Robinson, Pat, Jane, Jay and Ella. Next, Jay made sure everyone, including Judy, had an opportunity to donate to the scholarship fund. Then Pat gamely volunteered to take on Recognitions for August.

Jay recounted the story of the grant for the Zambia farming project. More than 100 Zambian farmers have joined a co-op and enough money was raised for the planter. Eric will be traveling to Zambia soon to purchase a tractor, planter and other much needed equipment. With two articles in the Journal-Courier, our tiny club got plenty of publicity, even if none of us has traveled to Africa.

Judy used the theme of publicity to segue into her brief but succinct update on activities downtown. We learned about an upcoming downtown awards concert, the Pumpkin Festival, Santa Stroll and Christkindl Market. A pop-up business incubator and a branding project are in the works. After asking for questions, the club thanked her with an appreciative round of applause.

Next, Sarah Edmiston gave the treasurers report, while members shared copies of the report. After Sarah gave a dues update and answered questions, Jay made a motion to accept the report and Gordon seconded the motion. The motion passed. While Sarah had their attention, she reminded members about the Rice Packet Assembly event on Aug. 6 at Grace United Methodist Church. It starts at 9:30 a.m. and all volunteers are welcome.

Linda thanked members for working the gate during the Morgan County Fair. Jane said she still is waiting on prices for the pork bundle tickets. Ella invited everyone to come to the River Country Quilt Show at Jacksonville High School on July 29 and 30. Don announced that we will meet on Aug, 23 at Morgan County Health Department for a tour. Sarah Robinson passed around a price/color list for shirts, if anyone wanted to order embroidered Rotary shirts.

Linda closed the meeting at 7:45 a.m. The next meeting will be at 7 a.m. Aug. 2 in the Holiday Inn Express meeting room. All guests and visiting Rotarians are welcome.

 Submitted by Sarah Edmiston
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP)  Dubuque County Conservation has been making steady progress in developing its canoeing and kayaking infrastructure, with the intended destination of a full, countywide water trail in the coming years.

The development of kayaking opportunities was identified as a top priority through public input gathered during the departments long-term strategic planning process in 2020. In response, Dubuque County funded a recently completed project at Bowstring Wildlife Area to create better water access for paddlers and further the countys water quality improvement goals.

The conservation department recently finished a streambank stabilization project in the wildlife area along Lytle Creek, a project that included seeding the banks with prairie grasses. Workers installed a crossing on the creek so conservation staff can maintain the prairie, but it also will serve as a kayak launch point.

We have a graveled path down to the creek and are in the process of developing a parking lot so people can put in or pull out more easily, said Brian Preston, Dubuque County Conservation executive director.

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports the effort fits in with plans to establish a state-designated water trail in Dubuque County. Preston said parking and ease of access for paddlers are some of the things a water trail can provide.

A water trail is similar to a hiking trail where you have a designated route for people to access and get in, he said. Its really to make it safer. People are already using those streams. So we want to keep people from parking on roadways, getting them safe, apparent access points.

County conservation staff applied for and received an Iowa Department of Natural Resources water trail development planning grant, through which the state pays for the creation of a plan for a county to establish a water trail. Preston said the planning effort will incorporate the North Fork of the Maquoketa River, Lytle Creek and the Little Maquoketa River.

The DNR selects one county each year for this planning grant, which state Water Trails Coordinator John Wenck said can cost $60,000 to just over $70,000.

Wenck said early efforts in the planning process include gathering stakeholder feedback, which has been done in Dubuque County.

The plans are designed to create community around the river, he said. We end up communicating with all the land managers. We talk to them about issues they might be having. We bring in the paddlers. We talk with law enforcement and hear any concerns they have.

Conservation staff also have been holding public paddles, where they allow participants without their own kayaks and canoes to rent county-owned ones for $10. This helps inform the public of local paddling opportunities while conservation staff gather feedback from attendees.

Preston said information gleaned from input his department receives eventually will help keep paddlers and the public safe and protected.

We want to inform people on what is allowed on our water, he said. Most of it is through private property, so getting out of the stream and going through private property is not allowed, for instance. This will also allow us to put up signage, especially about hazards  like a log jam or something if its in the way.

Korrin Schriver helped co-found the Dubuque Kayak and Paddlers group on Facebook with her husband, Sean Schriver. She said she was excited about the countys efforts.

This will help people who maybe dont have consistent access to kayaks know these systems are here, she said. (Public paddles are) a great way to get people exposed to kayaking and canoeing. And the more new launches they put in, the easier it is going to be for people  especially those with mobility issues  to get started.

Having a plan and designated state water trail can help secure future funding from the Iowa DNR.

We have a pot of money every year that goes to funding projects like new accesses, ease of access improvement, Wenck said. The grants are scored in such a way that favors designated trails.

Dubuque County will be the second area county to finish a water trail plan. Delaware County officials previously developed one for the Maquoketa River, which helped lead to the development of Manchester Whitewater Park.

They had a little head dam they mitigated and created a whitewater park instead of it, Wenck said. There were a lot of funding sources for that, but we were one.

Wenck said the amount of money given to the states water trails program by the state Legislature has fluctuated. The current fiscal years budgeted amount is $1.5 million.

Wenck said he is excited to help showcase Dubuque Countys unique water features.

Dubuque County is unique in that these rivers or water bodies theyre developing as water trails are narrow, sinuous, he said. Its going to be hard to rate many of those as beginner, but people come from out of state to these stretches.
ELWOOD, Ind. (AP)  A young Indiana police officer was killed early Sunday when a man got out of his car during a traffic stop and opened fire, authorities said.

The suspect was caught roughly 30 minutes later after a car chase, state police said.

Noah Shahnavaz, 24, was an officer at the Elwood police department, 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis. He stopped the driver of a Buick LaCrosse just after 2 a.m.

For an unknown reason, the suspect exited the Buick and fired multiple rounds, striking the officer at least one time, state police said.

Shahnavaz was a U.S. Army veteran who had been an Elwood officer for 11 months.

A senseless act of violence robbed this young man of the life and career he deserved, Mayor Todd Jones said.

People placed flowers next to a patrol car outside the police department.

"The cop didnt deserve to die like that," resident Donna Williams said.

The 42-year-old suspect has a criminal record, which includes a conviction in 2006 for firing a gun at Indianapolis officers, said Andrew Hanna, Madison County's chief deputy prosecutor.

Sheriff Scott Mellinger told The Herald Bulletin that the shooting made him go from being prayerful to being angry.

"Prayers. Senseless act. Please join us in holding up Elwood PDs officers and their families," the sheriff's office said on Facebook.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  Beneath a warm July sun, 19-year-old Aaron Schultz scrubs away at a veterans headstone in Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, darkened and weathered by the elements and time.

Hes joined by Madonna White, 67, who uses a stool to sit so she can better get up as she scrapes and sprays the dull-looking headstones.

Between Schultz and White, both slightly pink in the face as they work in the afternoon heat, they have restored an estimated 100 or more headstones.

It started when Schultz was walking around a Solon cemetery last year to visit the gravesite of a neighbor. He discovered a ground-level headstone that was all black. Another that Schultz recognized to be an expensive blue pearl granite was practically buried beneath the ground.

That made me really sad, because you look in the National Cemetery, (the headstones are) completely preserved, he told the Press-Citizen.

He wondered if there was a way to clean it. He found help in a niche community on YouTube, Tik Tok and more.

While Schultz was looking at those videos, he discovered the story of Andrew Lumish, dubbed The Good Cemeterian, who restores headstones and had his story publicized through multiple news outlets in 2015.

Thats how Schultz, a Kirkwood Community College student, began cleaning headstones.

Schultz and White clean headstones by first spraying them with water. The pair use scrapers to remove the lichen and mold that grows on the headstones and rinse the headstones. They spray the headstones with D/2 Biological Solution, a biodegradable liquid that removes the stains caused by mold, mildew and more. The solution further removes whatever is left on the headstone as they scrub again before they let it sit and rinse it off. Then, they spray the headstones with D/2 one final time.

Their work isnt complete until they stick a new, vivid American flag to the side of the headstone.

Visitors can be certain that when they visit the Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, the flags lining some of the headstones are from Schultz and White.

White learned of Schultz restoring headstones in the Johnson County area through a Facebook group called the Forgotten Iowa Historical Society.

I was very moved by the fact that he had felt that strongly about doing this, she said.

So she joined him.

Whites father retired as a lieutenant colonel. Her husband is a Vietnam era veteran and remains involved in veterans activities in Iowa City. Her son is a captain in the U.S. Army, and her nephew is also in the military.

Schultzs father served in the Navy. His great-grandfather served in World War II and the Korean War  a lifer. His great-grandfathers uncle served in World War I. Schultzs uncle is active-duty military.

Though they share something in common with their many military connections, the duo continue to learn about each other.

We have great conversations about all kinds of stuff, White said. We dont have exactly similar political views, but that doesnt make us not be able to sit here and talk and figure out whats going on and talk about current events, past events.

Schultz wants to continue working with headstones. He currently works part-time at Memorials by Michel in Solon, which creates headstones and monuments for those burying a loved one.

I told them what I was interested in and they were like, Oh, weve never had anyone actually willingly want to do this, he said.

The interest in Schultzs and Whites work ranges from young to old.

Schultz said hes had elderly people walk by inquiring what hes doing and young people saying theyve seen something similar on Tik Tok.

One of those interested individuals was Coralville resident Chris Peters.

Peters, a veteran and doctor at Corridor Vein Center, began doing genealogy research a few years ago and learned that some of his relatives lived and died in Johnson County.

He visited their headstones. His wife made a remark about making the headstones look better, as they were barely able to read the writing on Peters great-grandfathers headstone.

A few months later, Peters came across an article about Schultz and White, and connected with the two.

On July 13, Peters, Schultz and White cleaned up his relatives headstones.

Now, Peters is pursuing this work with three others as part of a rotary group. They are in the early stages of deciding how theyll approach this.

This project is just to hopefully get (a) service project organized through rotary where we can go out  on a Saturday, pick an area of a cemetery and clean a bunch of headstones, Peters said.

Schultz and White have a GoFundMe to raise $1,000 to pay for cleaning supplies, everything from D-2 and brushes to the flags they place at a veterans headstone. People are also welcome to join the duo on their restoration adventures.

Whites been using her own money to pay for the supplies, wanting to help her young friend in the ways that she can.

He has this drive that you dont see in so many young people, she said.

Restoration is also an opportunity for remembrance.

For example, Johnny Hendricks, a 12-year-old drummer boy in the Civil War buried at the Oakland Cemetery. Hendricks grave lies with other Civil War veterans, headstones that both Schultz and White have worked on.

Theres also Raymond W. Woods, a 37-year-old World War II veteran. He died in 1959, one year after his father, Walter R. Woods, a World War I veteran. Theyre also buried in the Oakland Cemetery.

Schultz researches some of the names on the headstones he comes across. He is active on Find a Grave, an online database of cemetery records, and Newspapers.com, an archive of newspaper clippings. He pieces together information on the people who sometimes have left behind nothing more than a name  and older gravestones often have just a first name initial and a last name  and date of death on their headstone.

I love history, always have, especially ancient history. And anything thats tied to Johnson County, to me, is even more fascinating, White said.

While the work White and Schultz are doing may not be for everyone, part of it comes down to perspective.

Its about how people view cemeteries, Schultz said, adding that some may find them morbid.

I think its a great place to learn about the history of humanity and where you live, he said. The people that lived here before you, they were just like us.
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HICKORY, N.C. (AP)  In an exhibit designed to reveal the person through his work, the life of Philip Moose comes into focus in artifacts and paintings.

The exhibition, at the Hickory History Center (also known as the Harper House), takes visitors on a journey through the life of the late Newton-born artist Moose, starting in his days in the United States Army.

Moose was deployed to Bury St. Edmunds, England, at the time of World War II and the green exhibition walls hold sketches from his surroundings while overseas from 1942 to 1945.

A colorful piece that appears to be created with watercolor or gouache paint hangs in the center of his charcoal sketches. The painting is titled Inside Hut 14 and gives visitors a look into Mooses military barracks.

Sydney Ball, interning curator and an University of Kentucky student, explained that Moose was a radio technician overseas for the Army Air Forces.

Moose later taught art classes at Davidson College and then Queens College in Charlotte. The exhibit features photos of Moose throughout his teaching experience along with his passport for traveling, which was a significant part of his life.

Through his higher education journey, Moose received the Fulbright scholarship which sent him to study in what was then West Germany for a full year. He also spent a month studying in Taiwan.

Mooses studies abroad section displays his scholarship certificates as well as artifacts including personalized Taiwanese ink stamps.

In 1967, Moose embarked on a trip that took him to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, the Balkans, Europe (including the Greek islands), Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji and more.

In his later years, Moose returned to North Carolina. He settled in Blowing Rock, where he often painted pictures of the mountainous scenery.

Tucked in the right corner of the exhibit is a large painting of the Blue Ridge Mountains sitting on an easel that Moose used. Also featured is the reference picture he used for the piece.

Moose eventually moved back home to Newton, where he lived until he died in 2001. Ball said that the artifacts from Mooses estate were largely donated by his close friend and neighbor Frank Sherrill.

Lilly Underwood, interning curator and a North Carolina State University student, said the Catawba County Historical Associations Moose exhibit is unique because it features behind the scenes sketches from throughout his life.

Underwood said Mooses work has been displayed all over the world, but as historic curators, she and Ball wanted to capture the person instead of just his art.

Mooses artwork has been displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the N.C. Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Underwood and Ball worked together since the beginning of June to curate the exhibition.
EDWARDSVILLE  An East Alton woman and a Cottage Hills man were indicted last week for fentanyl trafficking by a Madison County grand jury.

Alyssa A. Vinson, 32, of East Alton, and Jonathan C. Metz, 38, of Cottage Hills, were indicted July 28 on one count each of controlled substance trafficking, both enhanced Class X felonies; and unlawful possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and unlawful possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, both Class 1 felonies.

The case was originally presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

According to court documents, on July 12 Vinson and Metz allegedly brought fentanyl into Illinois with the intent of distributing it. They allegedly were found to be in possession of at least 1 gram of fentanyl with intent to deliver as well as 5-15 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

In an unrelated case, Joseph W. Wallace Jr., 33, of Granite City, was indicted for burglary, a Class 2 felony, and theft under $500 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony.

The charges were filed in two separate cases by the Granite City Police Department and the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

According to court documents, on April 5 Wallace allegedly entered a building in Granite City, to commit theft and, on March 30, Wallace and another man took scrap metal valued at less than $500 from another person.

It was noted Wallace has a prior conviction for burglary out of Madison County in 2008.

Joseph T. Shimchick, 53, of East Alton, was indicted for escape, a Class 3 felony.

The case was originally presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

According to court documents, on May 27 Shimchick allegedly failed to return to the Madison County Jail after receiving a furlough for a 2021 domestic battery conviction. Bail was set at $103,000.
Pentwater.

Baldwin.

Manistee.

Custer.

See more See video and more photos of Chickie with this story online at manisteenews.com. See More Collapse

White Cloud.

These are all northern Michigan towns where the local social media sensation Chickie had been sited since the end of April. Five counties in at least three months.

Chickie was given her name by Mason County Mutts president Sara Lutz, because the young hound mix had a chicken feeder stuck on her head.

The nonprofit organization, which helps "make Mason County a more dog friendly community through community projects, education and animal welfare," worked with multiple animal control agencies to finally aid in the capture of the approximately 1-year-old dog this week in Manistee County.

Teresa Swist, vice president and secretary of Mason County Mutts, told the News Advocate on Friday via email that according to a time stamp on a photo that was shared with the nonprofit, Chickie had been out and about since at least April 30 when a photograph was taken of her in White Cloud with the chicken feeder on her head.

She had a chicken feeder stuck on her head. Someone had stated they saw her in Baldwin before she had that on her head. So obviously she was looking for something to eat before being spotted in all these other places," Swist said.

She said it was a good thing, though, that it was a chicken feeder and not a regular bucket.

"Because the bucket  even though the feeder part was around her head  she was still able to eat and drink with it on. If it had been a closed end bucket  she wouldnt have lasted more than a couple of days," Swist said. "The biggest concern was she couldnt see really well with that on and it was just a matter of time that shed end up getting hit by a car."

Swist said her group began seeing reports of the hound about a month ago and they encouraged people to contact their local animal control.

"The dog was always on the move," she said.

After months on the run and sightings reported throughout at least five counties, Chickie is now under the care of the Manistee County Animal Control.

Dillon Rosa, Manistee County Animal Control officer, also began to hear about Chickie about a month ago.

That was pretty much keeping eyes on it. We knew that we couldnt approach it because it was just too afraid of people at that time. It was in that flight mode," he said. "And it was covering such a large amount of distance that we couldnt pinpoint it enough to trap it. So we were more or less observing it, keeping eyes on it until we could figure out an area to possibly trap it."

Rosa said animal control's role is to safely capture an animal when needed.

"My role is more  in this circumstance  is more of approving, selecting and directing other agencies or nonprofits. We certainly were involved with the different scenarios. We had talked about tranquilizing the animal but were weighing out the pros and cons of doing that," he said. "... However, the animal  at the time that we were exploring the option of trapping it  was running too much. It was covering too far of distance between sightings, and we usually like to set a trap in an area that we see the animal over the course of a couple days and that just wasnt happening for us at that time up until recently."

Earlier this week, an opportunity came along.

Last week Chickie was spotted on U.S. 10 and Schoenherr Road, said Swist. The dog then made her way to Custer.

"I took a ride that way and didnt see her. I was heading home and caught site of her on Custer Road," she said. "It was like, 'Holy cow that dog was in Pentwater and is now on Custer Road.' She was in flight mode at that point. When I saw her, she was just running and running, and there was no way we were going to get her to stay anywhere long enough. The next day Chickie was spotted near Hogue Road and then the Bungalow Inn in Manistee. Then they got a break when hearing from Sheri Pefley.

"We received a message that she had been seen up near Walgreens most recently, and the woman got a hold of us. She was waiting to hear back from someone with a live trap," said Swist, who was available at the time and in possession of a trap.

Swist got in touch with Mason County Animal Control Officer Sarah Colbrook who reached out to Rosa.

Swist and Colbrook arrived in Manistee and got close to Chickie, who was "laying lower underneath a motor home." Chickie ran off at that time after hearing other dogs barking, said Swist.

"There was no way you were going to physically catch her with your hands  she needed to be trapped," said Swist.

She then showed Pefley how to use the trap and what to do if a different animal was caught instead. The next morning, on Tuesday, Pefley reported that a raccoon had been trapped. After letting it out and resetting the trap, Pefley reported to Swist about 10 minutes later that Chickie was in the trap.

From what we have seen of her and the rounds she had been making, she would be seen somewhere in an area for two days and then take off," said Swist. "So it was really important that shed been hanging out in this one spot for a few days. She needs to get caught or shes going to be on the move again and end up who knows where.

Pefley "played a huge part in this, said Swist.

At that point, Rosa took control of Chickie and got her to a veterinary clinic for a wellness exam.
BARRE, Mass. (AP)  One by one, items purportedly taken from Native Americans massacred at Wounded Knee Creek emerged from the dark, cluttered display cases where they've sat for more than a century in a museum in rural Massachusetts.

Moccasins, necklaces, clothing, ceremonial pipes, tools and other objects were carefully laid out on white backgrounds as a photographer dutifully snapped pictures under bright studio lights.

It was a key step in returning scores of items displayed at the Founders Museum in Barre to tribes in South Dakota that have sought them since the 1990s.

"This is real personal," said Leola One Feather of the Oglala Sioux Tribe as she observed the process as part of a two-person tribal delegation earlier this month. "It may be sad for them to lose these items, but it's even sadder for us because we've been looking for them for so long."

Recent efforts to repatriate human remains and other culturally significant items such as those at the Founders Museum represent significant and solemn moments for tribes. But they also underscore the slow pace and the monumental task at hand.

Some 870,000 Native American artifacts  including nearly 110,000 human remains  that should be returned to tribes under federal law still are in the possession of colleges, museums and other institutions across the country, according to an Associated Press review of data maintained by the National Park Service.

The University of California, Berkeley tops the list, followed closely by the Ohio History Connection, the state's historical society. State museums and universities in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois and Kansas as well as Harvard University round out the other top institutions. (The Illinois State Museum holds more than 44,000 such objects, some 7,500 of them human remains, according to the park service.)

And that's not even counting items held by private institutions such as the Founders Museum, which maintains it does not receive federal funds and therefore doesn't fall under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, the 1990 law governing the return of tribal objects by institutions receiving federal money.

"They've had more than three decades," says Shannon O'Loughlin, chief executive of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a national group that assists tribes with repatriations. "The time for talk is over. Enough reports and studying. It's time to repatriate."

Museum officials say they've stepped up efforts with added funding and staff, but continue to struggle with identifying artifacts collected during archaeology's early years. They also say federal regulations governing repatriations remain time-consuming and cumbersome.

Dan Mogulof, an assistant vice chancellor at UC Berkeley, says the university is committed to repatriating the entire 123,000 artifacts in question "in the coming years at a pace that works for tribes."

In January, the university repatriated the remains of at least 20 victims of the Indian Island Massacre of 1860 to the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County, California. But its Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology still holds more than 9,000 sets of ancestral remains, mainly from Bay-area tribes.

"We acknowledge the great harm and pain we have caused Native American people," Mogulof said. "Our work will not be complete until all of the ancestors are home."

At the Ohio History Connection, officials are working to create an inter-tribal burial ground to help bury ancestral remains for tribes forced to move from Ohio as the nation expanded, says Alex Wesaw, the organization's director of American Indian relations.

The institution took similar steps in 2016 when it established a cemetery in northeast Ohio for the Delaware tribes of Oklahoma to re-bury nearly 90 ancestors who had been stored for centuries in museums in Pennsylvania.

Complicating matters, some of its more than 7,000 ancestral remains and 110,000 objects are thousands of years old, making it difficult to determine which modern-day tribe or tribes they should be returned to, Wesaw said.

At the Founders Museum, some 70 miles west of Boston, among the challenges has been determining what's truly from the Wounded Knee Massacre, says Ann Meilus, the museum's board president.

Some tribe members maintain as many as 200 items are from massacre victims, but Meilus said museum officials believe its less than a dozen, based on discussions with a tribe member more than a decade ago.

The collection was donated by Barre native Frank Root, a 19th century traveling showman who claimed he'd acquired the objects from a man tasked with digging mass graves following the massacre.

Among the macabre collection was a lock of hair reportedly cut from the scalp of Chief Spotted Elk, which the museum returned to one of the Lakota Sioux leader's descendants in 1999. It also includes a "ghost shirt," a sacred garment that some tribe members tragically believed could make them bulletproof.

"He sort of exaggerated things," Meilus said of Root. "In reality, we're not sure if any of the items were from Wounded Knee."

More than 200 men, women, children and elderly people were killed in 1890 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in one of the country's worst massacres of Native Americans. The killings marked a seminal moment in the frontier battles the U.S. Army waged against tribes.

The U.S. Department of Interior recently proposed changes to the federal repatriation process that lay out more precise deadlines, clearer definitions and heftier penalties for noncompliance.

Tribe leaders say those steps are long overdue but don't address other fundamental problems, such as inadequate federal funding for tribes to do repatriation work.

Many tribes also still object to requirements that they explain the cultural significance of an item sought for repatriation, including how they're used in tribal ceremonies, says Brian Vallo, a former governor of the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico who was involved in the 2020 repatriation of 20 ancestors from the National Museum of Finland and their re-burial at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

"That knowledge is only for us," he said. "It's not ever shared."

Stacy Laravie, the historic preservation officer for the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska, is optimistic museum leaders are sincere in seeking to rectify the past, in the wake of the national reckoning on racism that's reverberated through the country in recent years.

Last month, she traveled with a tribal delegation to Harvard to receive the tomahawk of her ancestor, the Native American civil rights leader Chief Standing Bear. She's also working with the university's Peabody Museum to potentially repatriate other items significant to her tribe.

"We're playing catch up from decades of things getting thrown under the rug," Laravie said. "But I do believe their hearts are in the right place."

Back at the Founders Museum, Jeffrey Not Help Him, an Oglala Sioux member whose family survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, hopes the items could return home this fall, as the museum has suggested.

"We look forward to putting them in a good place," Not Help Him said. "A place of honor."
RITTMAN, Ohio  Mandi, a kindergarten teacher in Ohio, had already done what she could to secure her classroom against a gunman.

She positioned a bookcase by the doorway, in case she needed a barricade. In an orange bucket, she kept district-issued emergency supplies: wasp spray, to aim at an attacker, and a tube sock, to hold a heavy object and hurl at an assailant.

But after 19 children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, she felt a growing desperation. Her school is in an older building, with no automatic locks on classroom doors and no police officer on campus.

We just feel helpless, she said. Its not enough.

She decided she needed something far more powerful: a 9 mm pistol.

So she signed up for training that would allow her to carry a gun in school. Like others in this article, she asked to be identified by her first name because of school district rules that restrict information about employees carrying firearms.

A decade ago, it was extremely rare for everyday school employees to carry guns. Today, after a seemingly endless series of mass shootings, the strategy has become a leading solution promoted by Republicans and gun rights advocates, who say that allowing teachers, principals and superintendents to be armed gives schools a fighting chance in case of attack.

At least 29 states allow individuals other than police or security officials to carry guns on school grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. As of 2018, the last year for which statistics were available, federal survey data estimated that 2.6% of public schools had armed faculty.

The count has probably grown.

In Florida, more than 1,300 school staff members serve as armed guardians in 45 school districts, out of 74 in the state, according to state officials. The program was created after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.

In Texas, at least 402 school districts  about one-third in the state  participate in a program that allows designated people, including school staff members, to be armed, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. Another program, which requires more training, is used by a smaller number of districts. Participation in both is up since 2018.

And in the weeks after the Uvalde shooting, lawmakers in Ohio made it easier for teachers and other school employees to carry guns.

The strategy is fiercely opposed by Democrats, police groups, teachers unions and gun control advocates, who say that concealed-carry programs in schools  far from solving the problem  will only create more risk. Past polling has shown that the vast majority of teachers do not want to be armed.

The law in Ohio has been especially contentious because it requires no more than 24 hours of training, along with eight hours of recertification annually.

That, to us, is just outrageous, said Michael Weinman, director of government affairs for the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, the states largest law enforcement organization. By comparison, police officers in the state undergo more than 700 hours of training. And school resource officers  police assigned to campuses  must complete an additional 40 hours.

Supporters say 24 hours is enough because while police training includes everything from traffic tickets to legal matters, school employees tightly focus on firearm proficiency and active-shooter response.

Studies on school employees carrying guns have been limited, and research so far has found little evidence that it is effective. There is also little evidence that school resource officers are broadly effective at preventing school shootings, which are statistically rare.

Yet arming school employees is finding appeal  slight majorities among parents and adults in recent polls.

Of the five deadliest school shootings on record, four  in Newtown, Connecticut; Uvalde; Parkland; and Santa Fe, Texas  have happened in the past 10 years.

It was this possibility that brought Mandi and seven other educators to a gun range tucked amid the hayfields and farm roads of Rittman, in northeast Ohio.

Over the course of three days, Mandi practiced shooting, tying a tourniquet and responding to fast-paced active-shooter drills. Her presence on the range, firing her pistol under the blazing sun, cut a contrast to the classroom, where she dances to counting songs with 5-year-olds, dollops out shaving cream for sensory activities, and wallpapers her classroom with student artwork.

That she was being trained at all spoke to the countrys painful failure to stop mass shootings and to the heavy responsibilities piled onto teachers  catching students up from the pandemic; handling mental health crises in children; navigating conflicts over the teaching of race and gender; and now, for some, defending their schools.

Mandi, in her 40s, arrived at the training with nervous anticipation. She had been a teacher for a dozen years and has children of her own. She wanted to be sure she could carry her gun safely around students. I get hugs all day long, she said.

And then there was the prospect of confronting an actual gunman. Could three days of training prepare her for the unthinkable?

Time Is All That Matters

The educators had come from Ohio and as far as Oklahoma for a 26-hour course by FASTER Saves Lives, a leading gun-training program for school employees. It is run by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a Second Amendment organization that works alongside a major gun lobbying group in Ohio. The lobbying group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, supported the new state law for school employees.

Over the past decade, the foundation estimates it has spent more than $1 million training at least 2,600 educators.

Its approach aligns closely with an argument that has become a hallmark of the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

In this view, teachers are the ultimate good guys.

We trust them with our kids every day, said Jim Irvine, an airline pilot and a longtime advocate for gun rights who is president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation and volunteers as a director with FASTER.

Their philosophy is that saving lives during school shootings is a matter of speed and that schools cannot afford to wait for the police.

At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown in 2012, the first 911 call was made after about five minutes, and the first officers arrived at the school less than four minutes later. Still, 20 children and six adults were killed. In Parkland, the gunman killed 17 people in just under six minutes.

Even in Uvalde, where the police have been criticized for waiting on site for more than an hour, the gunman is believed to have fired more than 100 rounds within the first three minutes, according to a state report.

Time is all that matters, Irvine said. Its that simple.

Of the eight school employees being trained, Mandi was in some ways an anomaly. She was the only woman in the group. Several others were administrators  a superintendent, a principal  rather than teachers.

In other ways, she was typical.

Everyone had some comfort with guns. Mandi described hunting with her husband and shooting at a gun range on weekends. She said she had taken other firearms classes, including concealed-carry training, one of the prerequisites to participate in FASTER.

Like others, she worked in a rural area, where carrying guns in schools is more common, in part because of longer response times by police. One group in the training, from Oklahoma, estimated the response time in its area was at least 22 minutes.

The last thing I want is for people to think we are just a bunch of gunslinging teachers who want an excuse to carry guns in schools, said Mark, a middle school teacher in Ohio who described measuring his schools hallway to determine how far he needed to learn to shoot.

I love my kids, he said. Im going to do everything I can to keep them safe.

School districts typically require anonymity as a tactical and safety strategy so that would-be gunmen cannot plan around armed employees. Although the school community may know someone on campus has a gun, employees and parents will not be told who.

That makes the choice of candidates especially crucial.

We dont always consider an individual thats like, hey, jumping up and down, said Malcolm Hines, an assistant superintendent in Suwannee County, Florida, where armed employees must pass a psychological screening and complete 144 hours of training. My Spidey senses always go up on that  if someone is too eager.

In Mandis school district, the superintendent said candidates must be approved by the school board. In addition to going through the FASTER training, they must meet annually with the sheriffs department and may be removed if their skills are not up to par.

At the FASTER program, much of the training focused on firearm proficiency. The group practiced shooting for hours  up close and far away, right-handed and left-handed, small circular targets and life-size human silhouettes.

I want to be perfect, Mandi said, noting that accuracy would be paramount if she ever needed to fire her gun in school.

Instructors offered safety and technical critiques, timed individuals shots, and urged teachers and administrators to be assertive.

All of it was aimed at one thing: stopping a gunman in the act.

This is a very reactive way to think about gun violence prevention, said Sonali Rajan, an associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, who studies school gun violence.

School gunmen are often teenagers in suicidal crisis. To intercept them beforehand, experts recommend mental health support; systems to identify children who may become threats; and tighter gun laws, including mandates on safe storage.

Its one of the laws that has the best evidence, said Andrew Morral, a lead gun policy researcher for the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan think tank.

In the face of an attack, one effective strategy is to lock classroom doors. More and more school districts have also hired school resource officers.

Still, campus police have not reliably prevented mass violence.

In one infamous example, a school resource officer present at the high school in Parkland stayed outside during the attack. In Uvalde, the school district had added officers to its police force and doubled spending on security in recent years.

If trained law enforcement couldnt stop that, what makes you think an ill-trained teacher or other school employee would be able to? said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, the states largest teachers union, which opposed the new law.

This Is Only a Test

FASTER touts its programs rigor.

Although not required by state law, some districts require teachers and administrators to pass the FASTER course, which includes a shooting qualification test  with distances ranging from close up to as far as 50 feet. To pass, participants must make at least 26 out of 28 shots.

Some, like Mandi, scored 28 out of 28.

Shooting in a controlled environment on the gun range, though, does not necessarily translate to high-stress, real-world scenarios. Even police officers lose accuracy on the street, with hit rates below 50%.

I would consider those to be marksmanship tests, to show you can handle the firearm safely, but they are not combat shooting, said Pete Blair, executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University, which specializes in active-shooter training.

A more dynamic environment came later, when Mandi and her classmates practiced simulated scenarios in an empty school building. Experts say these kind of live scenarios offer more realistic preparation.

Mandi said she heard gunshots  blank shots  ring out in the hallways. Peering into a classroom, she saw a role player pointing a gun and threatening to shoot amid teacher and student actors. She aimed at the role player with a rubber bullet and was encouraged, she said, that she did not miss. (Because of media restrictions on campus, The New York Times was unable to attend this portion of the training.)

Other scenarios called for de-escalation. In one example, two role players tussled over a gun, making it difficult to tell who had brought the firearm and who was a bystander.

We learned that it is just as important not to pull the trigger, Mandi said.

The program did not include formal training on how implicit bias might affect decision-making.

Black and Hispanic Americans are killed by police at significantly higher rates than white Americans, and in school, Black students experience the highest rates of suspension of all racial groups.

At one point in the program, the group fired at a row of paper targets showing a photo of a Black woman holding a handgun. Later, the targets showed a white man with a rifle.

But some experts say that targets should show a greater mix of race, gender and age so as not to reinforce stereotypes or prime the mind to see particular groups as a threat.

If you are trying to look at bad guys, then there should be an array of bad guys, said Tracie Keesee, a co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity. We also know the prominent folks who do the types of shootings in schools are not Black women.

Irvine said the training is meant to focus on risk, not race. Shooting is warranted only if there is an imminent threat to innocent people, he said.

For critics, the everyday dangers are among the most worrisome.

Mass shootings, for all their heartbreak, remain exceedingly rare in a country with nearly 130,000 schools and 54 million schoolchildren.

Teachers, principals and janitors, on the other hand, interact with students every day.

Arming teachers doesnt make kids safer, said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a network of parents fighting for stronger gun laws. In fact, it increases the chances that a teachers gun will fall into the wrong hands or discharge unintentionally.

Laws vary by state but often are not specific about how teachers must carry or store guns.

In one case, two first graders in Ohio found a gun after an employee in a concealed-carry program left it in an unlocked case near her desk. Students have also discovered guns on buses and in school bathrooms, according to news reports.

A Growing Stealth Force

By the end of the program, Mandi and her classmates had enough training to carry a gun in school under the new Ohio law. They are part of a growing and somewhat experimental stealth force in schools.

The outcome is far from known.

Although there have been anecdotes of armed citizens intervening in public shootings, such as the recent case at an Indiana mall, that is an anomaly, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oswego, who studies mass shootings.

Most mass shootings end when a gunman is shot or subdued by police, dies by suicide or leaves the scene.

FASTER officials said they were not aware of any graduates of their program who had responded to a school shooting.

Jennifer, a school custodian who volunteers as an instructor with FASTER, said that in four years of carrying in her school, she had never needed her weapon. She does not doubt her ability, she said, but believes the hardest part would be using her firearm on a student. She recalled a time when a middle schooler she had been mentoring threatened to bring a gun to school.

My heart just dropped, she said, adding that administrators were able to intervene.

For Mandi, the decision to be armed in the classroom seemed like a better solution than wasp spray or a tube sock.

She has worked through logistical details, such as how she will carry her pistol: inside her waistband, in a holster meant to prevent accidental discharge. She did handstands to check that her gun remained secure. When students come for hugs, she plans to turn her hip to direct them to the other side of her body.

To keep up her training, she goes to the gun range each week, she said.

And although she acknowledged that other important policies could help prevent school shootings, she did not feel she could afford to wait for change.

Weve got to help the kids right now, she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Over the last two years, universities across Texas and the rest of the country have worked hard to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on their campuses with virtual classes, masks and increased cleaning of public spaces.

Now, as colleges prepare for students to return to campus next month, a new disease is gaining steam around Texas and the country: monkeypox.

State health experts say universities should start communicating with students ahead of the fall semester about how to identify symptoms and avoid contracting the virus. They also say schools should consider how they would respond to an outbreak on campuses where students live in close proximity engaging in intimate behaviors and sharing beverages or food.

College and university [students require] a very specific kind of messaging and those messages need to be prepared now so they can be reaching those students before they return to school, said Rebecca Fischer, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M University. When school comes back, we need to be ready to roll out messaging if something happens on campus.

[Monkeypox is spreading in Texas. Heres what you need to know about causes, symptoms and treatment.]

Monkeypox is much harder to contract via casual conversation or in a classroom setting than COVID-19, and health experts say the risk of exposure to monkeypox is currently low. So far, the virus has mainly spread between men who have sex with men, though anyone can get the virus though close contact. While it is not a sexually transmitted infection, it most easily spreads through skin-to-skin contact and is often passed along during sexual activity.

The virus is not deadly and hospitalization is rare, but Fischer said it is an unpleasant and painful virus. State and national health experts believe the number of cases will continue to rise exponentially and will spread. The virus causes painful, pus-filled blisters and lesions on the skin, along with fever and swollen lymph nodes in the early stages of infection. It can last from a few days to a month.

One of the most important things is this communication plan and I think that this is something were failing at currently in the United States, Fischer said. People are becoming afraid because they dont understand monkeypox.  What theyre hearing is we have cases in our community. What they are not hearing is what is my personal risk?

Some university spokespeople said leaders are starting to think about the fall, though they are mainly relying on local health departments for guidance. None of the universities have the monkeypox vaccine. The state has received 14,000 doses of the vaccines, which are being provided to the local health departments.

Representatives for Baylor University and Texas A&M said their health care providers have been trained to spot symptoms and possible cases among patients who come into campus clinics. The University of Texas at Arlington said it will be able to test symptomatic individuals for monkeypox and plans to distribute health information closer to the start of the school year.

Multiple schools, including Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Dallas said they are meeting this week to discuss monkeypox mitigation and response plans for the fall. The University of Texas at Austin, which had one positive case of monkeypox confirmed earlier this month, did not respond to questions. But a spokesperson told the Chronicle of Higher Education, the risk to the greater campus community remains low.

And on its health center website, UT-Austin acknowledged it anticipates more cases.

Just as we have seen with other communicable diseases, we expect campus to mirror the community with the incidence of this virus, the website reads.

Beyond these early steps, few universities shared specifics for how campus leaders plan to handle positive cases on campus, including where the school plans to quarantine a student who tests positive for the virus, how students would continue with classes or if the university would conduct contact tracing. Fischer said schools should begin making these plans.

Im not alarmed, but Im moderately concerned about containment and mitigation efforts, Fischer said. We dont want to get caught with our pants around our ankles. Having the plan to respond and the best way to contain disease spread is to have aggressive plans to roll into action up front.

One school, the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, said it would isolate an infected student and handle each case on an individual basis while following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On its website, the CDC recommends providing isolation spaces with a dedicated bathroom for people who live in close spaces like student housing.

David Lakey, vice chancellor for health affairs and chief medical officer at the University of Texas System, said many schools are still in the planning phase and are putting together messages to send students. He said schools must find a way to educate students without stigmatizing the group of people among whom the virus is currently being spread: men who have sex with other men.

We need to make sure were careful to reach out to groups letting them know that this is occurring, Lakey said. Thats not going to be the only way that it can be spread, but thats the population thats being spread through right now.

Misinformation has also made providing accurate information about the monkeypox virus especially vital.

Last week, a lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas drew condemnation from students after he said on Twitter Can we at least try to find a cure for homosexuality, especially among men? and said that anal sex can lead to a variety of diseases. Health officials say one of the main ways monkeypox spreads is through prolonged physical contact, but it is not a sexually transmitted disease.

The university said it was investigating complaints about the professors statements and has allowed students signed up for the professors fall classes to switch to new course sections taught by different professors.

Disclosure: Baylor University, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of Texas - Arlington, University of Texas - Dallas, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.




Nearly 1.4 million people have visited the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae since it opened to the public on May 10, data showed Thursday.







A total of 1,396,859 people, including 5,055 foreigners, visited the complex in central Seoul through Wednesday since its public opening, according to data from the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) submitted to Rep. Kim Seung-su of the ruling People Power Party.







The figure is far bigger than the number of visitors to the Gyeongbok and Changdeok palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), some of the most popular tourist attractions in the capital, recorded over the past year.







More than 89 percent of visitors were satisfied with tours of Cheong Wa Dae, with 87.5 percent willing to recommend the program to other people, according to a poll of 1,000 visitors conducted by the CHA from June 22-26.







Kim said Cheong Wa Dae can become one of the most popular spots for foreign visitors, adding he will work to preserve and create more content related to the complex.







Cheong Wa Dae had been the presidential office and residence for the past 74 years before Yoon relocated the top office to the former defense ministry building in Yongsan in central Seoul.







Last week, the culture ministry announced its plan to transform Cheong Wa Dae into a multipurpose cultural complex. (Yonhap)






WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Severe Weather Statement

National Weather Service Las Vegas NV

442 PM PDT Sat Jul 30 2022

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR WEST CENTRAL SAN BERNARDINO

COUNTY WILL EXPIRE AT 445 PM PDT...

The storm which prompted the warning has moved out of the area.

Therefore, the warning will be allowed to expire. Gusty winds and

frequent cloud-to-ground lightning will continue south of Barstow

between Barstow and Victorville.

The National Weather Service in San Diego has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 530 PM PDT.

* At 446 PM PDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near I-15 Between

Victorville And Barstow, moving southwest at 10 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Victorville, Apple Valley, I-15 Between Victorville And Barstow and

Oro Grande.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Las Vegas has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

Southwestern Inyo County in south central California...

* Until 945 PM PDT.

* At 717 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or

expected to begin shortly along Highway 190 east of Olancha and

areas surrounding Owens Lake.

HAZARD...Life-threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life-threatening flash flooding of low-water

crossings, creeks, normally dry washes and roads.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Olancha, Lone Pine, Keeler, Darwin, Cartago, Panamint Springs,

Diaz Lake and Portagee Lake Campground.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 815 PM PDT THIS

EVENING FOR SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY...

At 720 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicates that the thunderstorms have

dissipated, but spotty light rainfall continues. CalTrans reports

that SR 247 was closed northbound from Lucerne Valley. The rain will

come to an end shortly, but flood waters will take time to recede.

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...

Apple Valley, Lucerne Valley, Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake, Hwy 18

Between Running Springs And Big Bear, Hwy 18 Between Baldwin Lake

And Lucerne Valley, Hwy 173 Between Lake Arrowhead And Hesperia,

Fawnskin, Green Valley Lake and Cedar Glen.

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 745 PM PDT

FOR SOUTHWESTERN INYO COUNTY...

At 720 PM PDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Olancha, and is

nearly stationary.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, trees, and power lines. Reduced

visibility on area roadways due to blowing dust possible.

Locations impacted include...

Olancha and Cartago.

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Las Vegas has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

West Central Mohave County in northwestern Arizona...

Southeastern Inyo County in south central California...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

Central Clark County in southern Nevada...

* Until 300 PM MST /300 PM PDT/.

* At 104 PM MST /104 PM PDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms

producing heavy rain across the warned area. Flash flooding is

ongoing or expected to begin shortly.

HAZARD...Life-threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life-threatening flash flooding of low-water

crossings, creeks, normally dry washes and roads.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Henderson, Boulder City, Jean, Primm, Searchlight, Anthem,

Southern Highlands, Enterprise, Mountains Edge, Green Valley,

Paradise, Blue Diamond, Spring Valley, The Strip, Sam Boyd

Stadium, Cima, Lake Las Vegas, Summerlin, East Las Vegas and Red

Rock Canyon.

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.

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING WILL EXPIRE AT 115 PM PDT THIS AFTERNOON FOR

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY...

Flood waters have receded. The heavy rain has ended. Flooding is no

longer expected to pose a threat. Please continue to heed remaining

road closures.

A Flood Watch remains in effect until 1000 PM PDT Sunday for

portions of southeast California and southern Nevada.

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM PDT THIS

AFTERNOON FOR SOUTHEASTERN INYO AND SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES...

At 106 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy

rain across southeast Inyo County including Death Valley National

Park. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly.

HAZARD...Life-threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing

flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life-threatening flash flooding of low-water crossings,

creeks, normally dry washes and roads.

Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Furnace Creek, Panamint Springs, Stovepipe Wells, Texas Springs

Campground, Death Valley Junction, Highways 190, 127 and 178, and

Homewood Canyon-Valley Wells.

Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where

you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become

killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or

creeks.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO PHOENIX Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

Riverside County in southern California...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 115 PM PDT.

* At 1053 AM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Between 0.5 and 1.5 inches of

rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts up to 0.5 inches are

possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected

to begin shortly.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams,

urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

northwestern sections of Joshua Tree National Park

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Stay away or be swept away. River banks and culverts can become

unstable and unsafe.

Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where

you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become

killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or

creeks.

...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY

AFTERNOON...

* WHAT...Isolated thunderstorms possible at the beaches this

weekend. Dangerous rip currents and breaking waves due to

elevated surf of 3 to 6 feet expected from Sunday night

through Wednesday.

* WHERE...Malibu Coast and Los Angeles County Beaches.

* WHEN...Through Wednesday afternoon.

* IMPACTS...The threat of lightning may prompt beach closures.

There is an increased risk of ocean drowning. Rip currents can

pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Waves can wash people

off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats nearshore.

Remain out of the water due to hazardous swimming conditions, or

stay near occupied lifeguard towers. Rock jetties can be deadly

in such conditions, stay off the rocks.

elevated surf of 3 to 5 feet expected from Sunday night through

Wednesday near Rincon Point.

* WHERE...San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County Beaches.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

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Maja Lee Langvad speaks during a press conference held in Mapo District, Seoul, July 7. Courtesy of Nanda Publication



In newly translated book, 'She is Angry,' Korean Danish author urges Korea to stop 'exporting' babies, calls for more financial support for unwed moms



By Lee Yeon-woo



Being lauded as "heroes" during the Korea's industrialization period, manufacturing workers were commonly portrayed as a key driving force behind Korea's dramatic rise from a war-torn country to one of world's fastest-growing economies in the 1970s.



Although their contribution was forgotten, however, there is another unknown group of people who also played a part in Korea's rapid economic growth: adoptees.



From 1956 to 1994, many Korean babies were sent North American and Western European countries through international adoption. Korea's uncontested status as the world's largest exporter of babies was later replaced by other developing countries.



In a report titled "Comforting an Orphan Nation," lecturer and author Tobias Hubinette says Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark adopted the most Korean children per capita during that the period. In Denmark, nearly 8,000 Korean babies were adopted between 1970 and 2021, according to Danish International Adoption (DIA).



In the book titled "Hun Er Vred" in Danish, which can be translated into English as "She is Angry," author Maja Lee Langvad shares her life as a Korean adoptee in Denmark. Her book was translated recently into Korean and published here. "She is Angry" is the Korean adoptee's personal account of her and fellow adoptees' lives in Europe and the traumas of adoption.



Born in 1980, Langvad said she was raised hearing that she would have struggled in poverty and hunger if she had not been adopted. Ever since she came out as a lesbian, people began to tell her that she was so lucky to get the chance to live in Denmark, a country more "open" to sexual minorities.





The cover of "Hun Er Vred" by Maja Lee Langvad. Courtesy of Nanda Publication



She has observed that those attitudes toward Korean adoptees reflect a sense that developed countries are superior to developing countries.



"I was asked to feel grateful for being adopted for my whole life," Langvad said.



But, she said, she has different feelings about her life as a Korean adoptee in Denmark.



She calls herself a victim of transnational adoption, a term she chose to use instead of "international adoption," claiming that it better shows the structural inequalities between countries.



"She is angry because she was imported. She is angry because she was exported," Langvad writes in the book. The author said she uses the third person to refer to herself instead of the first person, because she believes that what she felt and experienced while growing up can be generalized to what other adoptees went through.



"She thinks contemplating children's nationalities for adoption is no different from choosing wines in department stores based on their countries of origin," the author added.



She is sharply critical of the nature of transnational adoption, as she says that it is a business and adoption agencies are cashing in by "selling children overseas."



"Even though national adoption is better for children in most cases (as adoptees share the same nationality and national culture of their adoptive parents), those agencies indiscriminately send children abroad to get higher brokerage fees," Langvad said.



According to Rep. Kim Sung-ju of the Democratic Party of Korea, private adoption agencies get paid an average of 2.7 million won for each national adoption and 20 million won to 30 million won for each international adoption. Holt International is known to charge around 48 million won to 68 million won for adopting a Korean child abroad.



The adoption agencies denied the allegation, claiming that the money goes to operating orphanages and employees' salaries.





An orphanage in Korea operated by Holt International Korea Times file




By Ko Dong-hwan





The Baby Shark character and its family / Courtesy of Busan Metropolitan City
MONTANA

US to plant more trees as climate change kills off forests

BILLINGS  The Biden administration on July 25 said the government will plant more than one billion trees across millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands in the U.S. West, as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation's forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of climate change.

Destructive fires in recent years that burned too hot for forests to regrow naturally have far outpaced the government's capacity to plant new trees. That has created a backlog of 4.1 million acres in need of replanting, officials said.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said it will have to quadruple the number of tree seedlings produced by nurseries to get through the backlog and meet future needs. That comes after Congress last year passed bipartisan legislation directing the Forest Service to plant 1.2 billion trees over the next decade and after President Joe Biden in April ordered the agency to make the nation's forests more resilient as the globe gets hotter.

Much of the administration's broader agenda to tackle climate change remains stalled amid disagreement in Congress, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority. That has left officials to pursue a more piecemeal approach with incremental measures such as the announcement.

To erase the backlog of decimated forest acreage, the Forest Service plans over the next couple years to scale up work from about 60,000 acres replanted last year to about 400,000 acres annually, officials said. Most of the work will be in western states where wildfires now occur year round and the need is most pressing, said David Lytle, the agency's director of forest management.

Blazes have charred 5.6 million acres so far in the U.S. this year, putting 2022 on track to match or exceed the record-setting 2015 fire season, when 10.1 million acres burned.

Many forests regenerate naturally after fires, but if the blazes get too intense they can leave behind barren landscapes that linger for decades before trees come back.

WYOMING

Governor certifies trigger abortion bill

CHEYENNE  Gov. Mark Gordon issued a letter on July 22 to the Wyoming secretary of state, stating Gordon has certified the trigger abortion prohibition bill.

The governor's action will take effect in five days, meaning that, in most cases, abortions will be prohibited in the state.

In a one-paragraph letter to Ed Buchanan, the current and outgoing secretary of state, Gordon wrote that he was certifying the results of the attorney general's review "stating that enforcement of" the Wyoming statute "is authorized under the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court."

This was in response to a report sent a day earlier to his office and to the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Judiciary Committee by state Attorney General Bridget Hill. She reviewed the final Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade at the end of June, and she determined the enforcement of Enrolled Act 57 would be fully authorized under the decision.

"I believe that the decision to regulate abortion is properly left to the states." Gordon said in a separate statement.

He also said that as a pro-life governor, his focus will continue to be on ensuring the state is doing all it can to support Wyoming mothers, children and families.

States rig counts little changed, up from last year

CHEYENNE  The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the state is little-changed from the previous month, yet they have more than doubled in count from a year earlier, recently released Wyoming statistics show.

The rig count in recent days was 21, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission reported this past week. In a similar report issued by the agency about a month ago, the figure was 19, which itself was unchanged from a month before that.

However, in keeping with recent trends, the latest figures are significantly up from a year ago. The most recent rig count of 21 compares to 10 at this time last year, the oil and gas commission said. It cited Baker Hughes historical records.

The energy industry has rebounded somewhat as prices for gas, oil and other energy commodities have risen. High prices at the gas pump have attracted considerable attention locally and throughout the nation.

In the state overall, most of the rigs currently deployed are for oil, an Oil and Gas Conservation Commission spokesperson said by phone on July 15. She noted that the latest figures are from recent days, as reported by a subscription-based energy information tracking service.

NEW MEXICO

FBI: 170 missing Native Americans in state, reservation

ALBUQUERQUE  In an effort to address the crisis of missing Indigenous people, the FBI announced on July 25 it is releasing a list of more than 170 Native Americans it has verified as missing throughout New Mexico and the Navajo Nation that stretches into Arizona and Utah.

FBI officials said at a news conference that the effort is being publicized to help locate the missing individuals, increase transparency and encourage relatives of missing Indigenous persons who aren't on the list to reach out to local law enforcement and file a report.

The project is in addition to the FBI's continuing efforts to call attention to unsolved Indigenous homicides and missing person cases it is investigating.

FBI officials said the list is the result of almost six months of work combining and validating different databases of missing Indigenous persons in New Mexico.

The FBI plans to update the names monthly.

Partners involved in the project include the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, New Mexico's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force, New Mexico Attorney General's Office, New Mexico Department of Public Safety, New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office and the City of Albuquerque Office of Equity and Inclusion.

States tax changes benefit lower-income residents

SANTA FE  The tax burden for funding state government and public schools in New Mexico is shifting slightly toward wealthier residents as the state stops collecting taxes on most Social Security benefits.

The legislature's budget and accountability office estimates that recent state tax reforms will reduce state income by about $94 million during the budget year that began July 1. New Mexico this month stopped collecting income taxes on social security benefits for individuals who make $100,000 or less, or joint tax filers who report $150,000 or less in annual income.

The estimates were published July 19 as the legislature's lead state budget-writing committee met in Silver City to discuss tax policy, wildfire recovery efforts and trends in crime and crime prevention.

New Mexico will ramp down income tax collections further through an exemption for military pensions, the creation of a child tax credit and an expansion of other tax credits aimed at low-income households.

As a result, state government will forgo an estimated $403 million in annual income for the fiscal year starting in July 2023.

The analysis indicates that tax changes will benefit lower income residents more than those in upper income brackets.

At the same time, the state's direct financial reliance on the energy industry  dominated by fossil fuels  is expected to increase.

New Mexico, the nation's No. 2 producer of crude oil behind Texas, is experiencing a windfall in state government income tied to oil and natural gas production through a variety of taxes, royalties and lease sales as energy prices surge.
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The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
UN political affairs chief warns of bleak prospects for ending Russia-Ukraine conflict

Xinhua) 09:26, July 31, 2022

Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, speaks during the UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, July 29, 2022. DiCarlo said on Friday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ending, despite an "encouraging" grain deal. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, said on Friday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ending, despite an "encouraging" grain deal.

Ambassadors were briefed by the UN political affairs chief, who pointed to the recent agreement on the safe resumption of grain exports via the Black Sea as a bright light in the conflict, though acknowledging the dim prospects for peace.

"The grain agreement is a sign that dialogue between the parties is possible in the search to ease human suffering," said DiCarlo.

She added that the United Nations is making every effort to support implementation of the deal, which was signed last week in Turkiye.

The conflict's impact globally is "glaringly clear," said DiCarlo, noting that the consequences will only become more pronounced the longer fighting lasts, particularly with the onset of winter.

"Despite the encouraging developments on grain and fertilizers, we remain deeply concerned about the lack of prospects for a shift towards a meaningful resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the war," she told the Security Council.

"Escalatory rhetoric from any side, including about expanding the conflict geographically or denying Ukraine's statehood, is not consistent with the constructive spirit demonstrated in Istanbul," she said.

Photo taken on July 29, 2022 shows the UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York. Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, said on Friday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ending, despite an "encouraging" grain deal. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
President Yoon Suk-yeol and Indonesian President Joko Widodo hold a joint press conference at the presidential office in Seoul, Thursday, following their summit. Joint Press Corps



KF-21 conducts second flight test successfully



By Kang Seung-woo



Despite last week's summit between Korea and Indonesia, concerns over Jakarta's possible default on the KF-X joint fighter jet program still remain, after the meeting failed to come up with a clear-cut solution to the Southeast Asian country's overdue payment problem.



The KF-X, aimed at producing an advanced multirole fighter jet, was initiated in 2001 and the two nations signed a deal in 2010 to cooperate on the project. Indonesia agreed to finance 1.6 trillion won, amounting to 20 percent of the total development cost of 8.8 trillion won ($6.71 billion), in exchange for a number of planes to be manufactured there for the Indonesian Air Force as well as technology transfers. But Indonesia has been defaulting on the deal since 2017, failing to pay 800 billion won it promised so far.



In the lead-up to the summit, Thursday, there were expectations among the local defense industry that the visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, also known by the nickname Jokowi, to Seoul may serve as momentum to finding a breakthrough in resolving the overdue payment issue. In addition, the successful first flight of the domestically developed KF-21 Boramae fighter jet before Jokowi's arrival added to the anticipation. The KF-21 is made by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the nation's lone aircraft manufacturer.



However, the much-heralded summit appears to have turned out anticlimactic, with neither of the two leaders going into details about how to fix the problem, raising speculation that the payment issue may not have been high on the agenda during their talks, contrary to the presidential office's expectations that the payment issue would be settled soon.



"The two countries have reaffirmed their commitment to continue working together so that the joint fighter jet program can proceed smoothly until the end," President Yoon Suk-yeol said during a joint press conference after the summit at the presidential office.



According to Yoon's office, Widodo proposed to Yoon during the summit that the countries hold consultations to resolve the payment issue.



"Given that Jokowi made the proposal, it is time that working-level discussions be followed," said an official of Yoon's office.



However, while Yoon referred to Indonesia's commitment to the KF-X program, the Indonesian president did not mention issues related to the KF-X during the press conference.



Last November, as delayed payments for its share raised doubts about its sincerity of the program, the two countries newly agreed that Indonesia would make 30 percent of its total payments in kind, although the country has since reneged on the agreement.





A KF-21 Boramae fighter jet flies over Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province during its first flight test, July 19. Courtesy of Defense Acquisition Program Administration
Critical infrastructure companies in Australia must now report any critical cyberincident to the federal government within 12 hours of first becoming aware of it following the latest amendments to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act).

Only significant incidents, such as a unauthorised access or ransomware, need to be reported within the 12-hour timeframe to the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

The amended rule, which came into effect on 8 July, applies to 22 critical infrastructure assets that exist within 11 critical infrastructure sectors including financial services, communications, data storage or processing, defence, food and grocery, healthcare, higher education, transport, space technology, energy, and water and sewage. Previously, the SOCI Act categorised critical assets across only four sectors: gas, electricity, water, and ports.

The importance of the SOCI Act

The Australian governments decision to expand the coverage of the legislation from four to 11 sectors, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) cyber partner Garry Bentlin, will help make the Australian economy more resilient to cyberthreats.

What particular services would we not be able to go withoutand so how do we make them more resilient? And if companies are starting on that journey, having that legislation, that regulatory requirement, will just assist them to understand what they really need to do, he tells CSO Australia.

There is no doubt in Bentlins mind either that later down the track the legislation will be further expanded to cover additional sectors. I think, as the economy changes  because it always does with new products and services  the government would have to consider what things are going to be added to [the legislation] as part of it, he says.

IDC research manager John Feng agrees the latest version of the legislation is a necessary step in ensuring the Australian way of life and best interest of Australians are protected as digital technologies now permeates most if not all areas in the economy.

By expanding from the original four sectors covered in the Act  the amendment significantly expands the governments oversight of the critical infrastructures, Feng says.

Strengthening Australias cyberdefences

For EY cyber partner Mark Wroniak, the introduction of the amended SOCI Act signifies the next of evolution of strengthening the countrys national security efforts.

The government has obviously had a bit of a focus as far as things like making sure theres a baseline security that organisations have, but now theyre really focusing on the lack of social and economic stability of Australia by looking at the critical infrastructure and adding additional elements to ensure that, as a country, our national security is protected, Wroniak says.

Its an evolutionary step in Wroniaks view, and a lot of it companies should already have these things in place but there are a few new elements that have come to play that give the government a little bit more power to step in and help.

Telstra is one of thousands of Australian companies that are now obligated to meet the requirements under the SOCI Act and says the amendments lift the security maturity of the whole economy.

What changes with the SOCI Act

The legislation now brings to focus the responsibility of board members. Under the expanded compliance regime, boards are required to understand the consequences of a cyberattack, and can even be held personally accountable for a cyberbreach.

With increased accountability for boards under the SOCI Risk Management Program, it's a great opportunity to frame a conversation with your board around risk appetite and integrating cyber, physical, supply chain and personnel risk into your enterprise risk management framework, Telstra CISO Narelle Devine says.

She also noted that for a company like Telstra, which already operates in a highly regulated sector and is subject to a number of other security regulations, implementing frameworks to meet the obligations of the SOCI Act will be a fairly seamlessly process, but hints it may have not be so simple for some others. She believes Telstra has an opportunity to share its learnings about integrating new obligations into reporting and processes with other organisations.

While we cant speak to the experience of other organisations, what we do know is that, as a mature organisation, we are able to share our learnings around working with the board and the wider business to integrate new obligations into reporting and processes. We can also share how we've evaluated and classified our assets and developed strategies for awareness and compliance for the new obligations, she says.

PwC's Bentlin acknowledged as well that some markets such as the electricity and financial services sectors are likely to be fairly mature on their journey in terms meeting the required obligations under the new Act as these already deal with other regulations such as CPS 234 for financial services and the Australian Energy Sector Cyber Security Framework, but believes it will be a little bit of a new world for others.

"For the new sectors  healthcare, food and grocery, and transport and logistics  they previously didn't have obligations, so theyre having to uplift their cybersecurity programs from where theyve been to doing new things to meet some of those requirements, he says.

Some of that will depend on the framework that they use as well. The legislation contains a number of frameworks they can use, and they can choose one of those that they can execute against, Bentlin says.

Despite the potential short-term challenge that may be faced by some industries, Feng believes the legislation has been designed in a way that will encourage collaboration between government and companies. He says a collaborative approach to defending against cyberattacks is critical, particularly as they are often multi-faceted and impact a range of stakeholders.

Owners and operators are required to register the critical infrastructure assets with the government, and report cybersecurity incidents to the government. The Act also allows government to provide assistance in case of a significant cybersecurity incident. This ensures that critical coordination is in place when dealing with cyberattacks, he says.

Bentlin also pointed out the legislation has the potential to drive growth in the local cybersecurity sector.

We'll start seeing more uptake and more local development of cybersecurity. We'll start seeing tools come out of local companies providing solutions across the sector  there might be more opportunity for data hosting in Australia, for example, with companies providing local services to meet the data sovereignty requirements, he says.
In agreement with other public health officials, Connecticut commissioner of public health Manisha Juthani has said monkeypox should be renamed to avoid any racist insinuations.

Any naming of an infectious pathogen or clinical syndrome that implicates a nationality, ethnicity, region, or animal can be stigmatizing and harmful to the implicated group, she said by email.

The World Health Organization made a decision early in the coronavirus pandemic to call the coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, and, in a similar way, renaming of monkeypox, especially since it now has been declared a global emergency, is important to prevent further stigmatization that affected patients have experienced, Juthani said.

Juthani is joining a chorus of public health officials who believe monkeypox should be renamed. In New York City, for example, Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan sent a letter to WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus asking that the virus be renamed.

NYC joins many public health experts and community leaders who have expressed their serious concern about continuing to exclusively use the term monkeypox given the stigma it may engender, and the painful and racist history within which terminology like this is rooted for communities of color, Vasan wrote.

University of Connecticut virologist Paulo Verardi, a specialist in pox viruses, explained that the virus is called monkeypox because it was first identified in monkeys, though that is something of a misnomer.

It became clear over time that monkeys, just like humans, were incidental hosts, Verardi said. In nature, monkeypox virus is typically isolated from rodents in Africa, particularly squirrels, so it seems to be a rodent virus, not a monkey virus.

Though the disease is endemic to Africa, the current outbreak has not been tied to any African nation, and Vasan wrote to Ghebreyesus that using the term monkeypox could result in proliferation of stigma.

The goal, Verardi said, would be to avoid a linkage to certain geographical areas, in this case Africa, since the current outbreak is not directly linked to Africa, and also to avoid racist remarks and stigmatization of those affected by the disease.

Something similar happened with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, when early misinformation about the virus led people to believe that it was spread to humans after people in Africa engaged in sexual activity with monkeys, Vasan wrote.

This kind of false messaging created incalculable harm and stigma for decades to come, he wrote. Continuing to use the term monkeypox to describe the current outbreak may reignite these traumatic feelings of racism and stigma  particularly for Black people and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

Verardi said the WHO and other agencies have discussed an effort to rename the virus numerous times, but so far no action has been taken.

Ghebreyesus said in June that the WHO was considering changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes, though to date no name change has been announced.

That announcement came days after a group of 30 scientists issued a letter calling for a new name, that is non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing and aligned with best practices in naming of infectious diseases in a way that minimizes unnecessary negative impacts on nations, geographic regions, economies and people and that considers the evolution and spread of the virus.

Those scientists used hMPXV1 as a placeholder label for the virus, and suggested they believe this is an opportunity for a break with the name monkeypox and the historical associations attached to that name.
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  Voters in Senegal turned out Sunday for a legislative election, a vital test for opposition parties who are trying to minimize the ruling partys influence before the 2024 presidential election amid worries that President Macky Sall may seek a third term.

About 7 million voters are eligible to elect 165 deputies in the National Assembly amid a politically tense atmosphere in the West African nation. Violent protests broke out last year after Salls main opponent, Ousmane Sonko, was arrested on rape charges, and more than a dozen people were killed. Sonko, who came in third in the 2019 election, denies the allegations and his supporters have been vocal about their opposition to the president.

This year, he and another of Salls major opponents were disqualified as candidates, which sparked more widespread anger and protests in which three people died in June.

Senegal, with a population of 17 million, is known for its stability in a region that has seen coups in three countries since 2020 and where leaders have changed laws to remain in power for third terms.

Sundays election will give a clearer indication of what could happen in 2024. Final results are expected by Tuesday.

For (the ruling party), it is a question of doing everything to maintain an absolute majority in the National Assembly in order to be able to govern quietly until 2024  and guarding the possibility of passing certain laws to prepare for all eventualities at the end of Salls second term, said Mame Ngor Ngom, a political analyst.

Even though Sonkos candidacy was rejected by the Constitutional Council, he has organized opposition supporters across Senegal. A victory for the opposition would be synonymous with the rejection of a possible third candidacy for Sall and a probable victory in the next presidential election, Ngom said.

Salls Benno Bokk Yakaar ruling party currently holds 75% of the legislatures seats.

Serigne Thiam, a political science expert at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, says the opposition is pushing the subject of a possible third term over other issues.

If the opposition wins, the president will no longer be able to think of a third term. On the other hand, if the ruling power wins the ballot, its supporters can push the president towards a third term, he warns.

Sall hasnt talked about a third term but has promised to address the nation Monday, the day after the election.

Only the people have the last word, Sall said after casting his ballot in Fatick, his hometown 189 kilometers (117 miles) from Dakar. After having exercised their right to vote, everyone must go about their business quietly. Life goes on and the Senegalese nation is still united, strong."

Dissatisfaction with Sall has risen as possible adversaries  including the popular former mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, and ex-president Abdoulaye Wades son Karim Wade  have been targeted by the judiciary and disqualified from running for office. Many accuse Sall of using his power to eliminate opponents.

Anger has also grown amid economic worries as prices for fuel and food have skyrocketed due to the war in Ukraine.

Senegals former prime minister and head of the ruling party, Aminata Toure, appealed to the countrys youth to vote.

The youth must participate massively in the vote in thanks to the President Macky Sall for the extraordinary work he has done for Senegal, he declared in Kedougou, in the southeast.

___

Petesch reported from Chicago.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  There was already plenty of trouble to talk about when a major U.N. meeting on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was originally supposed to happen in 2020.

Now the pandemic-postponed conference finally starts Monday as Russia's war in Ukraine has reanimated fears of nuclear confrontation and cranked up the urgency of trying to reinforce the 50-year-old treaty.

It is a very, very difficult moment," said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Russia's invasion, accompanied by ominous references to its nuclear arsenal, is so significant for the treaty and really going to put a lot of pressure on this, she said. How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy.

The four-week meeting aims to generate a consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial  if any  agreement.

Still, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, prime ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, and more than a dozen nations' foreign ministers are among attendees expected from at least 116 countries, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly before the conference.

In force since 1970, the Nonproliferation Treaty has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement. Some 191 countries have joined.

Nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them, while nuclear-armed Britain, China, France, Russia (then the Soviet Union) and the United States agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday. All endorsed everyones right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

India and Pakistan, which didn't sign, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it.

Nonetheless, the Nonproliferation Treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (U.S. President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations by 1975) and serving as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.

The total number of nuclear weapons worldwide has shrunk by more than 75% from a mid-1980s peak, largely due to the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. But experts estimate roughly 13,000 warheads remain worldwide, the vast majority in the U.S. and Russia.

Meetings to assess how the treaty is working are supposed to happen every five years, but the 2020 conference was repeatedly delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Challenges have only grown in the meantime.

When launching the Ukraine war in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that any attempt to interfere would lead to consequences you have never seen and emphasized that his country is one of the most potent nuclear powers. Days later, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on higher alert, a move that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called bone-chilling.

The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility, he said.

The events in Ukraine create a tricky choice for the upcoming conference, said Patricia Lewis, a former U.N. disarmament research official who is now at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London.

On the one hand, in order to support the treaty and what it stands for, governments will have to address Russias behavior and threats, she said. On the other hand, to do so risks dividing the treaty members.

Another uncomfortable dynamic: The war has heightened some countries' apprehensions about not having nuclear weapons, especially since Ukraine once housed but gave up a trove of Soviet nukes.

Conference participants can stress other security strategies or emphasize the costs and dangers of acquiring nuclear weapons, but "it's important not to be too preachy, said Michael OHanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

The idea that we can just look other countries in the face and say, Youre better off without the bomb'  thats a bit of a hard argument to carry right now categorically," said O'Hanlon, a senior fellow specializing in defense and security.

Ukraine is hardly the only hot topic.

North Korea appears to have been preparing recently for its first nuclear weapons test since 2017. Talks about reviving the deal meant to keep Iran from developing nukes are in limbo.

The U.S. and Russia have only one remaining treaty curtailing their nuclear weapons and have been developing new technologies. Britain last year raised a self-imposed cap on its stockpile. China says it's modernizing  or, the U.S. claims, expanding  the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.

Daryl Kimball, who heads the nonprofit Arms Control Association in Washington, can't recall another time when the Nonproliferation Treaty has come up for review with "so many difficulties in so many different areas, and where we have seen such severe tensions between the major players.

U.S. Ambassador Adam Scheinman, the presidential special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, said Washington hopes for a balanced outcome that sets realistic goals and advances our national and international security interests."

You can have no doubt that Russias actions will affect the climate at the conference and prospects for an agreed outcome document. Other difficult issues may complicate this, as well. But Im prepared to be somewhat optimistic," he said in a telephone briefing.

The Associated Press sent inquiries to Russias U.N. mission about Moscows goals for the conference. There was no immediate response.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said his country wants to work toward improving global nuclear governance and upholding the international order and will "firmly safeguard the legitimate security and development interests and rights of China and the developing world.

If the world can't speak with one voice, disarmament advocates say a strong statement from a large group of countries could send a meaningful message.

In recent years, frustration with the Nonproliferation Treaty catalyzed another pact that outright prohibits nuclear weapons. Ratified by over 60 countries, it took effect last year, though without any nuclear-armed nations on board.

At a recent meeting in Vienna, participating countries condemned any and all nuclear threats and inked a lengthy plan that includes considering an international trust fund for people harmed by nuclear weapons.

Fihn, whose Geneva-based group campaigned for the nuclear ban treaty, hopes the vigor in Vienna serves as inspiration  or notice  for countries to make progress at the U.N. conference.

If you dont do it here," she said, were moving on without you elsewhere.

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and AP journalist Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
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YREKA, Calif. (AP)  Crews battling the largest wildfire so far this year in California braced for thunderstorms and hot, windy conditions that created the potential for additional fire growth Sunday as they sought to protect remote communities.

The McKinney Fire was burning out of control in Northern Californias Klamath National Forest, with expected thunderstorms a big concern Sunday just south of the Oregon state line, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman.

The fuel beds are so dry and they can just erupt from that lightning," Freeman said. These thunder cells come with gusty erratic winds that can blow fire in every direction.

The blaze exploded in size to more than 80 square miles (207 square km) just two days after erupting in a largely unpopulated area of Siskiyou County, according to a Sunday incident report. The cause was under investigation.

The blaze torched trees along California Highway 96, and the scorched remains of a pickup truck sat in a lane of the highway. Thick smoke covered the area and flames burned through hillsides in sight of homes. The fire Sunday cast an eerie, orange-brown hue, in one neighborhood where a brick chimney stood surrounded by rubble and scorched vehicles.

A second, smaller fire just to the west that was sparked by dry lightning Saturday threatened the tiny town of Seiad, Freeman said. About 400 structures were under threat from the two California fires. Authorities have not confirmed the extent of the damage yet, saying assessments would begin when it was safe to reach the area.

A third fire, which was on the southwest end of the McKinney blaze, prompted evacuation orders for around 500 homes Sunday, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office. The office said crews had been on the scene of the fire since late Saturday but that the fire Sunday morning became active and escaped its containment line."

Several people in the sheriff's office have been affected by evacuation orders due to the fires and they're still showing up to work so, (a) very dedicated crew, she said. A deputy lost his childhood home to fire on Friday, she said.

The McKinney fire remains 0% contained, the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post late Sunday night.

As the McKinney fire threatened, some residents chose to stay behind while others heeded orders to leave.

Larry Castle and his wife, Nancy, were among about 2,000 residents of the Yreka area under evacuation orders. They left Saturday with some of their prized possessions, including Larrys motorcycle, and took their dogs to stay with their daughter near Mount Shasta.

Larry Castle said he wasnt taking any chances after seeing the explosive growth of major fires in recent years.

You look back at the Paradise fire and the Santa Rosa fire and you realize this stuff is very, very serious, he told the Sacramento Bee.

In northwest Montana, a fire sparked in grasslands near the town of Elmo had grown to about 17 square miles (44 square km) after advancing into forest. Crews were working along edges of the fire Sunday, and aircraft were expected to continue to make water and retardant drops to help slow the fire's advance, said Sara Rouse, a spokesperson with the interagency team assigned to the fire. High temperatures and erratic winds were expected, she said.

A section of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo that had been closed was reopened with drivers asked to watch for fire and emergency personnel. Visibility in the area was poor, Rouse said.

In Idaho, the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest has burned on more than 75 square miles (196 square km) in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 21% contained by Sunday morning. Pila Malolo, planning operations section chief on the fire, said in a Facebook video update that hot, dry conditions were expected to persist Sunday. Officials said they expected fire growth in steep, rugged country on the fire's south side.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as the McKinney Fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid.

California law enforcement knocked on doors in the towns of Yreka and Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service.

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 110-mile (177-km) section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

In Hawaii, the Maui County Emergency Management Agency said a brush fire was 90% contained but a red flag warning was in effect for much of Sunday.

And in north Texas, firefighters continued in their effort to contain the 2-week-old, 10 1/2-square-mile (27 1/3-square-kilometer) Chalk Mountain Fire. The crews now report 83% containment of the fire that has destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth. No injuries have been reported.

___

Associated Press journalists Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Sam Metz in Salt Lake City; and Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.
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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.

Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula told The Associated Press on Saturday. He was 98.

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.

The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists and is credited with helping the U.S. win the war.

Samuel Sandoval was on Okinawa when got word from another Navajo Code Talker that the Japanese had surrendered and relayed the message to higher-ups. He had a close call on the island, which brought back painful memories that he kept to himself, Malula Sandoval said.

The Navajo men are celebrated annually on Aug. 14. Samuel Sandoval was looking forward to that date and seeing a museum built near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock to honor the Code Talkers, she said.

Sam always said, I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world," she said Saturday. That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy.

Sandoval was born in Nageezi near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after attending a Methodist school where he was discouraged from speaking Navajo. He helped recruit other Navajos from the school to serve as Code Talkers, expanding on words and an alphabet that an original group of 29 Navajos created.

Sandoval served in five combat tours and was honorably discharged in 1946. The Code Talkers had orders not to discuss their roles  not during the war and not until their mission was declassified in 1968.

The roles later became an immense source of pride for Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, who also was a Code Talker. The two became talented speakers who always hailed their fellow Marines still in action as the heroes, not themselves, said Merrill Sandoval's daughter, Jeannie Sandoval.

We were kids, all growing up and we started to hear about the stories, she said. We were so proud of them, and there weren't very many brothers together.

Sandoval was curious, always reading the local newspapers, and attending community, veterans, Code Talker and legislative meetings. He enjoyed traveling and sharing what he learned, grounded in his Dine beliefs and the Navajo way of life, said one of his daughters, Karen John.

It was engrained early in me, to be part of the community," she said. He was really involved in a lot, some of which I couldn't comprehend as a kid.

Samuel Sandoval often told his story, chronicled in a book and documentary of the same name  Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior  at the Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez, Colorado. He had a favorite folding chair there with vinyl padding and took coffee black, said executive director Rebecca Levy.

Levy said Sandoval's talks drew dozens of people, some of whom had to be turned away because of space limitations.

It was a great opportunity for people who understood how important the Navajo Code Talkers were to the outcome of the war, in our favor ... to thank him in person, Levy said.

Sandoval's health had been declining in recent years, including a fall in which he fractured a hip, Malula Sandoval said. His last trip was to New Orleans in June where he received the American Spirit Award from the National World War II Museum, she said. MacDonald, Kinsel and Begay also were honored.

Sandoval and his wife met while he was running a substance abuse counseling clinic, and she was a secretary, she said. They were married 33 years. Sandoval raised 11 children from previous marriages and in blended families, John said.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Sandoval will be remembered as a loving and courageous person who defended his homeland using his sacred language.

We are saddened by his passing, but his legacy will always live on in our hearts and minds, Nez said in a statement.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon said Sandoval's life was guided by character, courage, honor and integrity, and his impact will forever be remembered.

May he rest among our most resilient warriors, Damon said in a statement.

Funeral services are pending.

___

This story was first published on July 31, 2022. It was updated on July 31, 2022 to correct the name of Sandovals book and documentary. Its Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior, not Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrier.
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BRIDGEPORT  Black Rock residents who opposed a pair of new apartment buildings were handed a defeat last week when the city zoning commission voted to approve the controversial residential projects.

The decision paves the way for construction to begin as early as this year on a 44-unit building at the corner of Fairfield and Courtland avenues and a 123-unit complex about a half-dozen blocks away on the corner of Ellsworth Street.

But Gail Robinson, a member of the executive committee for Scale Back Black Rock, a group that vigorously opposed the apartment buildings, said the organization plans to continue their fight to block the project. She said the groups leadership will meet this weekend to plan out their next steps.

All of the options are going to be on the table, including litigation, Robinson, a real estate agent, said.

The recently-approved buildings have exposed a growing rift between residents and business owners in the historic harborside neighborhood that has traditionally been made up of single-family homes but has recently seen an influx in development along Fairfield Avenue, its main commercial thoroughfare.

Nearly 70 people attended the commissions meeting last week to urge the board to vote down the developments, arguing the projects are far too large for the neighborhood and will flood the already traffic-clogged roads with even more cars.

Were going in the wrong direction, Robinson said. We really need increased parking on Fairfield Avenue for our businesses. If anything, the city should buy those lots and turn them into a parking lot so that our businesses have more parking for the people who come in from outside the area and want to do business in Black Rock.

Others see it differently.

Luke Montanari, the manager of Hub and Spoke, said the Fairfield Avenue restaurant was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and has still not fully recovered from the economic disruption. He said he is hopeful the apartment buildings will increase the restaurants customer base sooner rather than later.

Having more people within walking distance would be better for us, he said. More in the neighborhood is only going to help.

City Councilman Matthew McCarthy, who represents Black Rock, echoed Montanaris comments. He said the new apartments will help boost restaurants and shops while ensuring the viability of grocery stores in the area.

These units are going to bring in people who are going to support local businesses in that corridor, which I think is a good thing, he said. Those residents will now be shopping at the Stop & Shop down the road, which has seen a significant decrease in customers over the years.

The four-story building at 3115 Fairfield Ave. will feature retail space on its first level and 43 parking spaces. The complex at 543 Ellsworth St., meanwhile, will stand at six stories and include 135 parking spaces, according to plans submitted to the city.

Daniel Roach, the owner of Mattys Corner, a Fairfield Avenue bar, said the buildings each pose their own pros and cons for the neighborhood.

Expansion is always a positive thing, Roach, who also serves as the head of the Black Rock Democrats and an aide to Mayor Joe Ganim, said. But I realized there were concerns regarding the density of both projects.

The developers behind the Fairfield Avenue building initially proposed to build a five-story structure with 51 units. The project was later scaled down to four floors and 44 units after developers consulted with the Black Rock Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, a community board created to promote the neighborhoods economic health.

Raymond Rizio, an attorney who represented the developers in both projects, said the buildings adhere to all of the citys zoning regulations and will withstand any legal challenges.

The commission did the right thing and we think it is certainly defensible in court, he said, noting the existing regulations allow developers to build even denser buildings with even fewer parking spaces on the same lots.

Rizio said the developers will now apply for building permits. He said construction, which will likely take months to complete, could start at each site by the end of the calendar year.

Still, Robinson said Scale Back Black Rock plans to pursue every option possible to derail the projects. She said she is mostly worried about losing Black Rocks village character and coastal seaport theme to what she called Frankenstein-like apartment buildings.

It's just too much, Robinson said. Its too much use on too little land. It just doesn't make sense for our community to have something that large right on Fairfield Avenue. It should be scaled down.

richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com




In this photo, provided by the defense ministry, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, left, and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, meet at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., Friday. Yonhap
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BRIDGEPORT  Fairfield University and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese are forging ahead with establishing a new college at the latters former St. Ambrose Catholic School, aiming for a late 2023 launch.

This week the partners successfully obtained a needed zoning change at the property, located at Mill Hill and Boston avenues by Bridgeport Hospital.

And they are moving too fast for some neighborhood leaders who had expected a public forum to be held first.

Its wrong and were going to do something about it, City Councilman Ernie Newton said.

The university and diocese in a joint statement to Hearst Connecticut Media said they have held meetings with the community to discuss the project, and will continue to meet with the community as we progress towards our goal to open in the fall of 2023.

Newton and other movers-and-shakers from the East End and Mill Hill neighborhoods were briefed a month ago on the concept for a two-year, affordably-priced commuter college at St. Ambrose. The plan had initially been proposed for diocese property in the North End but was withdrawn in late May in the face of some community and political opposition.

In interviews after that private late June meeting with representatives from Fairfield University and the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese, neighborhood leaders characterized the discussion as a preliminary one, with a gathering to be planned for members of the public to learn more and ask questions.

Were just in the talking stages. This is just an idea theyre throwing (out), Newton had said at the time.

It was just a preliminary conversation, Deborah Sims, vice-president of the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone civic group, had agreed.

Then, on Wednesday, the zoning commission at a regular, public meeting approved a zone change for the St. Ambrose site allowing a college to open there. More specifically, members voted to shift the property from an RX1 zone where residential, office and low-intensity commercial/production uses were allowed, to a P2 zone for civic/institutional facilities  houses of worship, cultural/arts/community centers and schools.

Attorney Raymond Rizio, who represents the diocese, in an interview afterward sought to emphasize the zoning commission did not formally endorse the college plan. He said members at his clients request re-zoned the site so that it was in line with similar properties around Bridgeport.

All we did was get the correct designation. It just so happens that permits universities, but theres a number of hurdles that still have to occur, Rizio said, from ensuring the new academic institution  dubbed Bellarmine  is accredited to obtaining building permits.

Rizio added the zone change will prove beneficial to the neighborhood and limits the address to less intensive uses.

Under the previous regulations, we could have put 200 units (of housing) with no parking, he claimed. That was an argument the diocese had made in the North End as well  that the property there on Jewett Avenue could accommodate a dense housing project in the future and the roughly 200 students expected to commute to Bellarmine would have far less of an impact on the area.

Rizio said he has been in repeated contact with East End and Mill Hill community leaders.

All impressions that were given to me was this was a good idea. If we were rejected outright we would not have filed the application, he said. The resistance was new to me. ... This was no spot zoning trying to fit a round screw into a square hole.

He did not at any point say ... that they were going to try to rush this thing through there like this, countered Newton.

Keith Williams, head of the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone group, whose leaders, along with their Mill Hill NRZ counterparts, participated in that late June meeting, attended Wednesdays zoning decision. Like Newton, Williams said he had expected a neighborhood forum would have been held first before the vision for the college became more of a reality.

Our concern was they came at the last hour, telling us about it (the college), Williams said afterward. And the community didnt get a chance to really voice their opinion. ... Before you talk about changing zoning and stuff like that, youve got people in the neighborhood living by the school, the traffics already bad over there as it is. (There) should have been a community meeting.

His complaints  lack of communication and increased traffic  echo what the university and diocese were confronted with in the North End, though in that situation the neighborhoods council representatives and others living there said they were never approached for even an initial conversation about the college.

In late June Nick Roussas, who heads the Mill Hill Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, said he kind of liked the idea of the college. But this week Roussas too was upset with Fairfield University and the diocese for moving ahead so rapidly.

At the end of the day we in our neighborhood have a lot that we put up with and wed like to be able to have a say in everything that goes on, Roussas said. It feels like they just took that away from us. ... Were a tight little community here and want to make sure what they do is good for us, too, not just them.

Backing the St. Ambrose location is Mayor Joe Ganim who, following the controversy that occurred in the North End, eventually urged the partners to choose another area of town.

As I previously stated in the past, I am in full support of this program, Ganim said Friday in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media. It benefits students of Bridgeport that may not have had an opportunity to go to college. This site is in a great location and is in an area that is accessible to many students.

Despite his criticism and the current unknowns, Williams acknowledged the college could be good for the neighborhood.

It could come in here, spend some money, clean the place up and fit right into the community, he said. Its just the way they did it.

Theres no hidden agenda here, said Rizio.
Over the next three weeks, the CT Mirror will explore the effects and challenges of Connecticut's cash bail system.

Jean Conquistador didnt expect to have to post bail.

Hed been accused of violating his probation by showing up at his girlfriends house, so he drove himself to the New Britain Police Department on the morning of Jan. 13, 2022, after learning that there was a warrant out for his arrest. Figuring hed be back home in a few hours, he didnt ask anyone to watch his 11-month-old pit bull, Papo.

But at his virtual arraignment later that morning, Judge Laura F. Baldini set his bond at $45,000, partly because of the seriousness of the charge for which hed been put on probation. If Conquistador posted bond, the judge said, hed be put on intensive pretrial supervision to ensure he complied with the terms of his release.

But first, hed have to come up with $45,000. He could post the full amount himself, which hed get back once his case was resolved so long as he showed up for court. Or he could pay a bail bondsman thousands of dollars to assume the risk of paying Conquistadors bond  a fee that would not be returned to him.

Conquistador told the judge that neither was an option.

Im not going to bond out, so Ill be incarcerated, Conquistador said, asking someone  anyone  to tell his family he was going to jail and ask them to take care of Papo and get his pickup truck, which hed parked on Pearl Street, so it wouldnt get towed.

I do not have the money to bond out, he said.

There were almost 450 people in Connecticut correctional facilities on Jan. 1 who, like Conquistador, were held on bonds between $20,000 and $50,000 while they awaited trial. If they posted bail, theyd be able to fight their case from outside the confines of a jail cell. If not, theyd stay locked up until the case was resolved  when charges are dropped, when they plead guilty or when a jury decides their fate.

Connecticut has made major strides in reducing the number of people in its prisons and jails, thanks to criminal justice reforms and falling crime rates.

For perspective: There were 19,894 people in prisons and jails on Feb. 1, 2008; On May 20, 2022, there were 9,880.

But a greater proportion of those in lock-up aren't there serving sentences. They're awaiting trial in prison, because they couldn't afford bail.

According to a CT Mirror analysis of monthly reports produced by the Department of Correction, the accused made up about a quarter of those behind bars in June 2013. In January 2022, they made up 42 percent of those locked up.

Staying in jail longer before trial

Those locked up pretrial are also spending more time in jail, according to another analysis by the CT Mirror, especially since the start of the pandemic.

Much of the change in the incarcerated population over the past few years is due to the pandemic, according to experts. The pretrial population actually decreased by 21 percent between 2010 and 2019, said Marc Pelka, the undersecretary for the Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division of the Office of Policy and Management.

There is a substantial number of people who never see their way to DOC [Department of Correction] following an arrest, Pelka said, explaining that not everyone who gets arrested remains locked up pretrial on a bond. At every kind of stage in the process, there's a review conducted to determine eligibility for diversion, discharge or some resolution.

But recent national research shows the increase in pretrial detention began well before COVID-19.

Between 1970 and 2015, there was a 433 percent increase nationally in the number of individuals who have been detained while awaiting trial, according to a report released earlier this year by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The report also notes that more than 60 percent of defendants are jailed pretrial because they couldnt afford bail.

Presumption of innocence is the bedrock of our criminal justice system, with liberty the rule and pre-trial detention intended to be a carefully limited exception, said Norma V. Cantu, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Under the current bail system, it has become the norm.

Research suggests being jailed pretrial makes people more likely to be convicted and receive harsher sentences than those who remain free until their case is resolved in court.

Imagine being held in jail for six months on a bond you cant afford, said Joshua Perldeiner, a deputy assistant public defender in New Britain and Conquistadors attorney. As those months tick by, you lose your apartment, your housing vouchers, your job, maybe even your family.

Your life has been turned upside down, Perldeiner said. Youve lost almost everything, but what you have gained is six months of jail credit, time that could be applied to your sentence. All you have to do is take a deal the prosecutors are offering you, collateral consequences of that conviction be damned.

So when the state turns around and says, Hey, you want to resolve this with a guilty plea, [youve] already done six months  You want to enter a plea for a year? That sounds very attractive, Perldeiner said. Cash bail uniformly punishes our clients.

In Connecticut, bail serves two purposes: to make sure people show up for court and to ensure good behavior if they are released while their case is pending.

The actual amount of a bond can be misleading because defendants dont need to post the full amount to get out of jail. They can post a surety bond through a bail bondsman, who, for a fee, will pay the bond if a defendant fails to show up for future court appearances.

Our role hasnt changed for 20 years that Ive been in the business, said Andrew Marocchini, the founder and general manager of BailCo Bail Bonds. It is our job to make sure that that defendant shows up to court. And if they don't, then we either have to pay the state to make the state whole, or produce the defendant, go out and find him or her and bring him back.

Connecticut enshrined the right to bail in the state constitution, even protecting criminal defendants from excessive bail. But a reasonable bond amount for someone with money could be unreasonable for someone who is poor.

Something that looks like a low bond on paper is not a low bond for somebody who does not have access to a lot of resources, Perldeiner said. The smaller your network of resources, the fewer people you can draw on, the more disproportionately these bonds affect your entire life.

Some lawmakers are interested in reforming  or reimagining  the system. Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, asked the Sentencing Commission in 2019 to explore alternatives to Connecticuts cash bail system.

For a long time, I have had grave concerns about our bail system and the fact that very many low-income people are in effect punished by the bail system as it is, said Looney.

Looney said he would be willing to propose legislation to move Connecticut away from a money bail system.

Perhaps cash bail might be necessary when a defendant has a history of failing to appear for court hearings, Looney said, but most of the time, he believes a persons ability to post bond should be based on something other than their access to financial resources.

Poor people are, of course, disadvantaged in the criminal justice system, and the way the bail system sometimes operates is an example of that, said Looney.

High bond amounts and long stays in pretrial detention disproportionately affect people of color. A U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report found that Black and Hispanic defendants were more likely to be detained on higher bond amounts and more likely to be incarcerated pretrial.

The reality is the people that suffer from the bail system are the Black and brown communities, because they don't have this luxury of cash laying around where they can bond their loved ones out of jail, said Jewu Richardson, one of the directors of the CT Bail Fund. If you're giving people bonds they can't afford to post, I mean, what are you really doing? This system is not working, and people are suffering.

Conquistador is Hispanic. In Perldeiners experience, clients who are racial or ethnic minorities typically get assigned higher bonds than those who are white. The reasoning is complicated and often obscured in court proceedings, but Perldeiner said minorities tend to have more contact than whites with the criminal legal system, which influences how theyre perceived in court and can impact their bond amount.

His record is worse, because he's Hispanic, he was under more supervision than he would have been if he was white, because he'd been arrested more times, Perldeiner said.

So all of these things add up, these little, like, tiny kicks as a result of being Hispanic, add up to a thing where you can't even point to it at the time of arraignment to say, 'Oh, well, it was the judge who was racist,' because all of these things are kind of mystified by the system, so each of the little strikes against him that happened before he got into the courtroom, by the time he's in the courtroom, they're all kind of whitewashed.

An unexpected jailing

Conquistador appeared in court on Jan. 13 via a video feed from lockup. He interrupted the judge to tell her he hadnt gotten along with the bail commissioner in his interview that morning.

He definitely called me a racist, said the bail commissioner, who isnt identified in the court transcripts.

The bail commissioner recounted Conquistador's criminal history. His rap sheet included multiple violations of probation. He had a pending case for breach of peace and violating a protective order. Hed posted a $15,000 bond through a bondsman to get out of police lockup for those charges, but he was tapped out; he couldn't afford to bond out of jail again. He also had previous convictions for threatening, falsely calling 911, and violating probation.

Despite his past, the bail commissioner recommended that the judge release Conquistador on a promise to appear.

Perldeiner sided with the bail commissioner. Conquistadors girlfriend had obtained a protective order against him, Perldeiner said, but it had been amended in 2018. Shed told the public defenders office shed be willing to sign a sworn statement that Conquistador hadnt bothered her the night he showed up at her house; it had been her mother who had called the cops.

Perldeiner ran through the details of Conquistadors life, condensing all he had going for him into a few sentences: Self-employed. Enrolled to complete training for a commercial drivers license. Doing well with his mental health treatment.

The states attorney, Danielle Koch, disagreed. She asked for a $50,000 bond at Conquistador's arraignment because Conquistador had violated his probation by getting rearrested for a domestic violence charge. And, Koch said, Conquistador was under investigation by the Berlin Police Department for a road rage complaint.

The judge sided with the prosecutor.

Certainly, given this history, the fact that hes been afforded the opportunity to avail himself of the rehabilitative aspects of probation before, has numerous violations of probation, hes got a new criminal matter  the allegation in the VOP warrant also indicates that he allegedly failed to report to probation, leads this court to set a bond in the amount of $45,000 cash or professional surety, Judge Baldini said.

"Your Honor, if I may?" Conquistador asked.

Baldini kept talking, outlining where Conquistador would be allowed to go without having to tell his probation officer, should he post bond. Baldini tried to set a date for the next court hearing when Conquistador interrupted her.

"Your  your  your Honor, if I may?" Conquistador said.

"What is it" Baldini asked.

"Please," Conquistador interrupted.

" That you would like to say, sir?" Baldini finished her sentence.

Conquistador mentioned his puppy and pickup truck. Perldeiner said he was going to call Conquistador's mother to take care of it.

Baldini asked Conquistador and Perldeiner to stop talking over one another.

"You've indicated that you have a pickup truck that's outside?" Baldini said. "Perhaps you can speak with your attorney about facilitating whatever needs to get done with regards to that."

Instead of going home later that day, like he expected, he was transported to Hartford Correctional Center.

Posting bond  or not

Marocchini said bonds were used more often in the late 1990s, when he first joined the bail bondsman industry, even for low-level criminal charges that are now considered innocuous.

Over time what was realized for relatively low-level charges for offenders without a history, the bonds werent really necessary. It didnt really change the outcome of whether they showed up to court, Marocchini said. From a businessman standpoint, I would rather have more bonds than not, but there's certain things that are good for society and certain things that aren't, and it's kind of hard to stand by those things that aren't proven necessary.

Societal change isnt the only reason there are fewer bonds these days.

Lawmakers passed reforms in 2017 that barred judges from setting money bail in most misdemeanor cases, the major exception being for crimes involving family violence. Two years later, Superior Court judges changed court rules to allow defendants to post 10 percent of the cash bail in misdemeanor cases where the bond is $20,000 or less, funds they would get back once their case is resolved. If they paid a bondsman, they wouldn't get the money back.

As Pelka said, those charged with crimes in Connecticut have multiple chances to get out of jail without having to post bail, plead guilty or hope their case gets dropped.

When suspects are arrested, police can either give them a bond or a promise to appear in court. Those who stay locked up are visited by bail staff with the Court Support Services Division, who can modify the bond after interviewing defendants. Those still jailed and held on a bond are then arraigned in a court hearing, where prosecutors, public defenders and bond support staff make a recommendation to a judge about what they think the bond amount should be. The judge uses all that information, often in a hearing lasting only a few minutes, to decide how high or low to set a persons bond.

At any stage in this process, individuals can bond themselves out of jail if they have the money or enlist the services of a bond agent.

A lot of times, I will say, Listen, I'm gonna put a bond on you. What can you make? said Joan Newton, an intake referral assessment specialist who works at the New Britain Courthouse. If they have zero means to post anything, I'm going to try to get them out."

Newton talks to defendants in lockup, using a six-page assessment tool that assigns a defendant a score and an appropriate bond amount that corresponds with the severity of their charge.

Most of the people Newton sees have mental health or substance use issues.

I am one of the first people that they see other than police, Newton said, explaining the role she plays in connecting people in the justice system with support systems and programs to help them recover. I think the end goal is so these people don't reoffend. We want to rehabilitate them and make sure that they get the services that they need."

IAR specialists, also known as bail commissioners, like Newton are only one voice in the courtroom during arraignments. Defense lawyers and states attorneys also make arguments in court, usually for higher or lower bond amounts.

Saving money by serving time

Money is a proxy for risk in Connecticuts cash bail system. The higher a persons bond amount, the greater the court considers them either a risk to public safety or likely to skip court appearances.

Conquistadors past aligns with a point made by many in the bail bonds industry: that those with criminal cases who get locked up on a bond generally have spent time incarcerated before.

The defendants by and large in Connecticut jails have lengthy records, the ones who stay in jail. So you know, the concept that you're just a first timer  sure, it happens, said Jeff Clayton, executive director of the American Bail Coalition. But generally, it doesn't happen very often. Most of the people that get stuck in there are there for reasons far beyond 'I can't afford it.

But not everyone who is incarcerated on a bond wants to post it. Edwin Ortiz, a New Britain resident, said he was in jail on a $150,000 bond from Nov. 2019 to Jan. 2021, for misdemeanor sexual assault and breach of peace charges.

I couldnt post that, no way, said Ortiz.

Ortiz priced some bail bondsmen while he was in jail, trying to figure out how much it would cost to get himself out. But he didnt want to dip into savings and knew his family was strapped for cash. So he sat behind bars as COVID-19 worked its way through the prison system.

After more than a year, he was released on a promise to appear and given an ankle monitor. Ortiz acknowledges that getting released on a promise to appear is evidence the system works, that he wasnt held indefinitely on a bail he couldnt afford and forced to plead out  even though he did sit in jail for more than a year on bond.

In the whole midst of that, I could have caught COVID and passed away, he said.

Ortiz said he has been through the court system before. He has posted bond for cases in the past, but sometimes, when he knows hes going to have to do prison time anyway, it doesnt seem worth it to spend the money to go home if hes just going to have to come back.

When I know I have to do time, why bond out, get sentenced and have to come back? he asked.

When Ortiz was in jail for those 14 months, hed see his peers borrow money to bond out, only to come back a few months later. Hed ask what happened, and theyd tell him they just got sentenced.

Now you have to start from scratch when all that time would have counted, said Ortiz.

Another chance

It took almost two months, but Conquistador got out of jail on March 3. His mother and two aunts pooled together money from their disability checks, along with help from a friend, to pay a bondsman to get him released.

Hed spent two months in jail on two bonds he couldnt afford  one in New Britain, and another in Meriden. By the time he was released, hed lost the home hed been renting. His landlord kicked him out while Conquistador was in jail, throwing all his belongings outside by a dumpster. Someone took Conquistadors chainsaw and pressure washer, expensive tools he needed for work.

He owed money for car insurance payments that had accrued while he was in prison, and he owed money to a bondsman, he said, for getting him out of jail in November 2021.

Conquistador arrived for a hearing at the New Britain courthouse on April 29. He was dressed in his work clothes  army pants and a reflective jacket  for his job as a residential contractor at his own business, Conquistador General Contracting, LLC. Hed told members of his church he might not make it to work later that day because he might be going back to jail.

To stay out of jail and comply with the terms of his supervision, Conquistador had been required to ask his probation officer for permission any time he wanted to go somewhere. That level of scrutiny proved difficult for Conquistador, Perldeiner said. Tthe probation officer told the court that Conquistador should be put back in jail and given a higher bond.

Conquistador had been trying to get his life back together since getting out of jail. Hed been passing drug tests, going to school and church and getting mental health treatment.

Im doing what Im supposed to be doing, he said before the hearing.

Conquistador lingered outside the courtroom before Judge Maureen M. Keegan called his name.

Im a little bit nervous, he said, because if he were given a higher bond, hed be stuck in jail again. I wouldnt be able to pay it this time.

All told, Conquistador said, hed done seven years in prison, mistakes stretching back to his teenage years. Now 34, Conquistador is trying to stay out of the system. He was first arrested at age 14, doing time in juvenile detention centers and prisons across Connecticut.

My lifestyle was selling drugs, using drugs, stealing cars, stealing car parts, he said. I was careless in doing whatever I wanted to do.

Then, during a two-year sentence around 2015, Conquistador decided he wanted to change. He wrote letters to community colleges from his prison cell, asking them for educational pamphlets. He has since earned 21 college credits, working toward his dream of becoming a lawyer.

Conquistador had asked Keegan for another chance. He apologized, explaining that he takes medications to treat bipolar condition and sometimes reacts impulsively. He told her he got his commercial learners permit that past week, that hes been in and out of prison for a while, but hes trying to change.

Im still the same person, but Ive come a long way, he said.

Keegan wound up giving Conquistador one more chance to show he could comply with the terms of his supervision.

Youve got family members who put up a lot of assets so you could be out, Keegan said. Why would you play with that?

Conquistador thought about all the times he got arrested growing up when he was hanging out with the wrong crowd. His family had never bailed him out of jail before  until last March.

"They dug into their piggy banks to bond me out," he said later. "They knew I needed help."

State records show that, despite his change of heart in 2015, Conquistador still wound up in jail again after he decided to leave his prior life behind. He did a monthlong stint in jail at the end of 2017, then went back for eight days in March 2018. He was readmitted on a probation violation on June 1, 2018, staying in until he was sentenced to time served in August 2019. He was never released, though, because he picked up a new charge in prison for threatening a correction officer.

I was basically pressured into pleading guilty because I couldnt afford to bond out, said Conquistador.

Conquistador was released on Feb. 10, 2020. He stayed out of jail for almost two years after that  his longest stretch since 2015  until he was admitted on Jan. 13, 2022, when he turned himself in and didnt expect to have to post bail.

Perldeiner sees situations like Conquistadors all the time, people resolving to change but still winding up incarcerated, stuck in a cycle of arrest and release, imprisoned on low-level charges for violating the terms of their probation.

They just cannot claw their way out of the system, he said. Once the court has its hooks in you, it has you for life.

Conquistador put on his aviator sunglasses as he left the New Britain courthouse on April 29. It was a sunny day, the kind where there isnt a cloud in the sky.

Conquistador talked about his plans for the future and his struggles for a few minutes before heading off to work.

The sun shimmered off his reflective jacket as he walked away.

This reporting was made possible, in part, through support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Friday there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine and dissolve it from the world map entirely.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council that the United States is seeing growing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including by installing illegitimate proxy officials in Russian-held areas, with the goal of holding sham referenda or decree to join Russia.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has even stated that this is Russias war aim, she said.

Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscows overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its unacceptable regime.

Apparently suggesting that Moscows war aims extend beyond Ukraines industrial Donbas region in the east comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.

Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the Security Council on Friday that The de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out in full.

There must no longer be a threat from this stage to Donbas, nor to Russia, nor to the liberated Ukrainian territories where for the first time in several years people are finally able to feel that they can live the way they want, he said.

Polyansky also warned Western nations supplying long-range artillery and MLRS surface-to-surface rockets that they were shifting the provisional security line further toward the west, and in so doing clarifying even further the aims and objectives of our special military operation.

Thomas-Greenfield went after countries that say one country's security should not come at the expense of another's," asking what they call Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She didn't name any country but this is a view China has repeated frequently, including Friday by its deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang.

He told the council, Putting one's own security above that of others, attempting to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute superiority ... will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make themselves less secure."

The U.S. ambassador also went after nations that call for all countries to embrace diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: Let us be clear: Russias ongoing actions are the obstacle to a resolution to this crisis. Again she named no countries but a significant number of nations in Africa, Asia and the Mideast take this approach.

Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of mounting atrocities including the reported bombings of schools and hospitals, the killing of aid workers and journalists, the targeting of civilians attempting to flee, the brutal execution-style murder of those going about their daily business in Bucha, the suburb of Ukraines capital Kyiv where local authorities said hundreds of people were killed during its occupation by Russian forces.

She said there is evidence Russia forces have interrogated, detained forcibly, deported an estimated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children -- tearing them from their homes and sending them to remote regions in the east.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

A recent Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the situation is more nuanced that the Ukrainians suggest, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again.

The United States has information that officials from Russias presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating filtration operations, Thomas-Greenfield told the council.

Polyansky countered that despite Ukraines efforts at intimidation of their citizens people are choosing the country that they trust -- Russia.

He warned that heavy weapons being poured into Ukraine by the West will spill over into Europe because of what he claimed is the flourishing corruption among Ukraines political and military leadership.

Polyansky said Western weapons are only dragging out the agony and increasing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

Addressing Western ambassadors, he said: The aims of our special military operation will be achieved either way, however much fuel you pour into the fire in the form of weapons.

___

Corrects quote in 16th paragraph to say the United States, not the United Nations, has information.
Students attend class at an elementary school in eastern Seoul's Gwangjin District, May 2. Joint Press Corps



Education ministry seeks to lower admission age to 5 from current 6



By Lee Hyo-jin



The government's plan to lower the age of entry to elementary school to five years old from the current six by as soon as 2025 is triggering hot debate among teachers, parents and civic groups.



During a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday, Education Minister Park Soon-ae said her ministry seeks to lower the school-entry age to five and thereby allow children to start public education a year earlier, with an aim to reduce the burden of education expenses on parents.



The ministry also viewed that changing the school admission age could help tackle the labor force shortage amid the rapidly declining birthrate and aging population, as it would allow children to begin their working careers earlier after college graduation.



Yoon gave a nod to the proposal and ordered Park to start working on it as soon as possible.



The education authorities will launch a survey on 20,000 students and parents in September to gather opinions. If they reach a social consensus, school admission will be gradually expanded to five-year-old children by as early as 2025 with an aim to fully implement the new system by 2029.





President Yoon Suk-yeol, right, receives a policy briefing from Education Minister Park Soon-ae at the presidential office in Seoul, July 29. Courtesy of presidential office



If implemented, it would be the first reform in elementary school admission age in 76 years since the establishment of the Education Act in 1949. Under the law, children are currently enrolled in elementary school on March 1 following the year in which they have turned six.



More opposition than support



The proposal immediately became the center of fierce public debate. While those supporting the plan view that "saving one school year" may help the country address its labor shortage, opposition outweighs support among teachers.



An elementary teacher in her 30s surnamed Lee in southwestern Seoul's Yangcheon District said she does not understand what benefits a child can get from entering school at a younger age.



"From my experience, many first-graders (who are six years old) find it challenging to adapt to school life. Not only in terms of keeping up with classes, but teaching them involves toilet training and even guidance in eating lunch. It would be far more challenging for five-year-olds," she told The Korea Times.



"And before adopting the new age system, there are so many things to prepare such as revising the school curriculum and providing adequate training to teachers, which would require a lot of time and resources."



The Korean Federation of Teachers' Association, representing about 130,000 schoolteachers nationwide, condemned the government's decision, which "does not seem to consider the developmental characteristics of children in early childhood."



"Reforming the school admission age will require tremendous financial input to increase the number of teachers as well as necessary resources," it said in a statement. "Similar proposals had been made during the previous Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations, but all fell through, only causing confusios in the process."





Students of Cheonggu Elementary School in central-eastern Seoul enjoy the start of summer vacation, July 15. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han
At a recent lunch hosted by the Oldie magazine, the Duchess of Cornwall was in an admirably robust mood.

'The Duke of Edinburgh's philosophy was clear,' Camilla declared. 'Look up and look out, say less, do more  and get on with the job.' And that is just what I intend to do.'

We can only imagine what the plain-spoken Philip might have said about his eldest son's latest folly: the news that Charles accepted 1million for his charity from the family of Osama bin Laden, the most destructive terrorist who has ever lived.

Camilla should adopt Philip's no- nonsense approach and give her husband a good talking-to. She could say, for example: 'What a damn fool you've been  again. You seem to be going out of your way to bring discredit on the monarchy. You can sometimes be a blithering idiot, Charles.'

For it seems the heir to the throne doesn't listen to anyone else. According to the Sunday Times, which has revealed the 1million gift from two half-brothers of Osama bin Laden in 2013, one of his own household told him that his acceptance of it would cause national outrage if the news leaked to the media. And so it has.

He simply has appalling judgment in such matters, combined with a kind of pig-headed arrogance. It is as though he believes that, as a consequence of his great importance, he is somehow exempt from the standards that govern the rest of us

Another adviser reportedly urged Prince Charles to return the money, and warned that he would suffer serious reputational damage if his name appeared in the same sentence as the terrorist, who was responsible for the murder of 67 Britons, along with thousands of Americans and others, on that dreadful day, September 11, 2001.

But Charles sailed on in a bone-headed way, just as he unwisely accepted a holdall stuffed with 1million from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani  a former prime minister of Qatar and not necessarily the most admirable man who has ever walked the face of the earth  during a one-to-one meeting in Clarence House.

That money, like the gift from the Bin Laden family, was destined for the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund. There is absolutely no suggestion that the prince is in any way venal or corrupt.

He simply has appalling judgment in such matters, combined with a kind of pig-headed arrogance. It is as though he believes that, as a consequence of his great importance, he is somehow exempt from the standards that govern the rest of us.

The opposite is the case. We look to our next King to provide an example of good sense  to be impeccable in his behaviour, just as his mother, the Queen, has been throughout her long reign.

If you were to ask 100 people down at the Dog and Duck whether they thought the prince should have accepted a gift from the family of a deadly terrorist (who was deservedly dispatched by American special forces in 2011), I wager that nearly all of them would say 'No'.

Would Charles accept a huge donation from the descendants of Heinrich Himmler or Adolf Eichmann were they in a position to make one? I don't imagine that even he would be so ill-advised.

We can only imagine what the plain-spoken Philip might have said about his eldest son's latest folly: the news that Charles accepted 1million for his charity from the family of Osama bin Laden, the most destructive terrorist who has ever lived

So why take 1 million from the Bin Laden family? If anything, it would be less obnoxious to accept money from the fairly distant relatives of monsters whose sins were committed 80 years ago than from the half-brothers of an evil terrorist who has cast such a shadow over our own era. It makes little or no difference that the Bin Laden family long ago disowned its homicidal offspring.

I'm afraid  monarchist as I am, and an admirer of Prince Charles in many ways  that I almost despair at his foolishness. I can't understand how a decent and intelligent man could have got something so badly wrong.

What is clear is that his charity has led him astray. Last year, it was claimed that Michael Fawcett, his closest confidant, offered to help a Saudi billionaire obtain a knighthood in exchange for generous donations to the Prince's Foundation, of which Fawcett was chief executive. There is no suggestion Charles knew about this. Police are still investigating the matter.

At the very least, the prince must show that his charitable causes will in future be conducted in a more respectable and transparent fashion, and that there won't be any more holdalls full of high-denomination euro notes changing hands, or large gifts from the family of an infamous mass murderer.

And, as the Duke of Edinburgh is no longer with us, it really does fall to the straight-talking Camilla to give her husband a good dressing-down  and for the prince to take a closer look at himself than he is wont to do.

My worry is that Charles may have been guilty of other acts of stupidity in the past which have not yet come to light, and that, if they do, there will be more damaging revelations.

Careless behaviour on the prince's part is bound, if repeated, to weaken the monarchy. How terrifyingly quickly the Queen's precious legacy could unravel.
A woman who can't recognise her husband or children's faces - and sometimes even struggles to identify herself in photos - due to an unusual condition has revealed how people thought she was just 'up herself'.

Lulu Rose, who lives near Auckland, suffers from prosopagnosia - also known as 'face blindness' that affects about one in 50 people.

While Lulu can see faces as normal, she can't remember them - even if she's seen them hundreds of times.

Instead, she uses other factors like a person's voice and smell to identify them.

Lulu Rose, who lives near Auckland in New Zealand, suffers from prosopagnosia - also known as 'face blindness' that affects around one in 50 people

Lulu has lived with the condition unknowingly for most of her life, thinking it was normal until 10 years ago, when, aged 40, she overheard someone discussing the condition on TV.

'Growing up I didn't realise it wasn't something that other people have,' she told FEMAIL.

'Ten years ago, I was with someone who was watching TV and this person was discussing how they were working in an office and when someone wasn't at their desk, they couldn't find them.

'My ears pricked up - I'd had the exact same experience.

'The person on TV then talked about meeting people at the airport. He was saying he had trouble.

'I had a huge revelation. Someone had put it into words what I'd always felt.

While she can see faces as normal, Lulu (centre, pictured with friends) can't remember them, even if she's seen them hundreds of times

'I googled it afterwards, and there was still a fair bit of information out there.

'I then did an online test. The results said I had that said I had face blindness, and I told my family and friends.

'They all said "no wonder" we always thought you were up yourself or too lazy to learn faces'.

What is prosopagnosia? Prosopagnosia, or face blindness, is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage. About two per cent of the population suffer from some sort of facial blindness Few successful therapies have so far been developed for affected people, although individuals often learn to use 'piecemeal' or 'feature by feature' recognition strategies. This may involve secondary clues such as clothing, gait, hair colour, body shape, and voice. Because the face seems to function as an important identifying feature in memory, it can also be difficult for people with this condition to keep track of information about people, and socialise normally with others. Advertisement

Lulu, who works as a flight attendant, often recognises people by their voice, what they're wearing, or from context.

Sometimes, if a person has a distinctive feature - such a big eyebrows or colourful glasses - she'll remember them that way.

'I won't say I have super powers, but I definitely have a heightened sense for voices', she said.

Growing up, Lulu found it extra difficult to recognise her friends as their faces changed.

She'd recognise them from the shoes they wore, and the hair ties they'd use.

'One would always have a green hair tie, another would use pink baubles, another had sandals'.

Today, she still uses a lot of context clues.

'If I walk into my house and a man who is 50-odd years old and is standing there, he's most likely my husband.

'If we got to a cafe and there are four men of his age in similar clothing, I couldn't tell who he was.

'It's like a game of Guess Who.

'I scan them quickly and deduce.

'Most of the time, he'll look at me and smile and I'll know.

'But sometimes he plays tricks on me and ignore me. There have been many awkward times where I've sat down with strangers.

'I use to sneak up behind and hug people, and I've done that with the wrong person before.

'But now I never make the first move, I never smile at anyone on the street.'

Lulu can't recognise her children or husband in a photo - and would struggle to even pick herself out of a line-up.

'If I remember the outfit, or it being taken, I'd be able to know it was me,' she said.

'Every time I meet someone I tell them beforehand "I'm wearing a red coat , black top" but they'll never say something similar back.

Lulu (pictured) also says that her children Lena, 29, and Alex, 31, would play tricks on her when they were teenagers.

'My first husband - who I had my two children with - would get frustrated.

'He knew everyone, he was the mayor of neighbourhood and didn't like it when I couldn't remember everyone we met.

'Whenever we watched TV as a family, I'd get lost, we'd have to rewind and everyone would gang up on me.

'But my second husband - I'd met him already when I was diagnosed - so he understands better. He'll pause the TV every 15 minutes to make sure I understand what's going on.;

Lulu also says that her children Lena, 29, and Alex, 31, would play tricks on her when they were teenagers.

'When they were little it wasn't so bad, I didn't know it was a thing.

'It was only when they got older and started dressing themselves, so I didn't recognise their clothes, that they'd play tricks.

Growing up, Lulu (pictured with her husband) found it difficult to recognise her friends as their faces changed. She'd recognise them from the shoes they wore, and the hair ties they'd use

'They would walk past me in crowds.

'My daughter use to have the same group of friends come round from high school.

'I'd recognise them by different features, there was a blonde one, a tall one, etc.

'I'd assign their names a feature, one was Matt with the hat.

'One time she had him over, but he wasn't wearing the that, and I said "you have to introduce me to your friend" and she said "Mum that's Matt, you've met him heaps of times".'

Dramatic hair cuts and makeovers can also leave Lulu confused.

'There was a guy at my university with long hair and a beard,' she says.

'One day he came and had a short hair and no beard.

'And I didn't recognise him!

'It took talking to him every day for a week to realise it was the same person.'

Lulu hasn't been to the doctor as 'there's nothing they can to do about it'.



'I haven't told people until recently, the main reason I want to tell my story is there are so many people with it that have sad reclusive lives. They won't go out and meet people because of the embarrassment.

'To my knowledge I haven't met anyone else with it.

'But I joined a Facebook group after I recognised someone by their feet.

'I told them they were similar to someone else's feet and they called me a "freak".

'But that's a good way to recognise people when you live in a place like New Zealand where people are often barefoot.

'There's varying degrees of it, some people can't recognise themselves in the mirror, mine is really just mild to moderate.'

Brad Pitt details his battle with self-diagnosed 'face blindness' condition prosopagnosia which makes it difficult to recognise people (even his own family!) Brad Pitt has detailed his struggle with a rare 'face blindness' condition - admitting that 'nobody believes' him when he talks about it. The actor, 58, believes he suffers from prosopagnosia, an inability to recognize faces that usually affects the person for most or all of their life. Many people with the condition can't even recognize family members, partners or friends and cope by using alternative ways to recognize people, such as remembering the way they walk, or their hairstyle, voice or clothing. While Brad has not been formally diagnosed with the condition he has long believed himself to be a sufferer and admitted he worries that it's led to people thinking he's remote or aloof around people. He told GQ magazine: 'Nobody believes me! I wanna meet another [person with the prosopagnosia].' Struggles: Brad Pitt has detailed his struggle with a rare 'face blindness' condition - admitting that 'nobody believes' him when he talks about it Brad previously spoke about his battle with the condition in 2013, telling Esquire: 'So many people hate me because they think I'm disrespecting them. 'Every now and then, someone will give me context, and I'll say, "Thank you for helping me." But I p**s more people off.' He continued: 'You get this thing, like, "you're being egotistical. You're being conceited." But it's a mystery to me, man. 'I can't grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.' In 2017 a study has found that children who were considered underweight when they were born are poorer at recognizing faces when they are older. Researchers believe having a low weight at birth is linked to impairments in the way parts of the brain develop, including those areas that deal with visual information. Aloof: Brad (pictured in 2016) has long believed himself to be a sufferer and admitted he worries that it's led to people thinking he's remote or aloof around people About 2.5 per cent of the population is thought to be affected to some degree, with comedian Stephen Fry and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt among those who have admitted suffering from face blindness. Elsewhere in his GQ interview, Brad gave a bleak assessment of the human condition as he moves on from the collapse of his five year marriage to actress Angelina Jolie. The Hollywood star embraced a life of abstinence that began shortly after their divorce was initiated in 2016, and explained his newfound positivity is tempered by the belief that all of us experience wrenching heartache at some point in our lives. 'I think all our hearts are broken,' he said. 'I always felt very alone in my life, alone growing up as a kid, alone even out here, and its really not till recently that I have had a greater embrace of my friends and family. 'Whats that line, it was either Rilke or Einstein, believe it or not, but it was something about when you can walk with the paradox, when you carry real pain and real joy simultaneously, this is maturity, this is growth.' Despite the overriding sense of isolation, he admitted to finding community and friendship through his decision to give up alcohol in 2016. Newly divorced, the actor spent 18-months attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while embracing the group's core principles of abstinence from all mind altering substances. 'I had a really cool mens group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,' he explained. 'Because Id seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts, and thats just atrocious to me.' Exes: Elsewhere in his GQ interview, Brad gave a bleak assessment of the human condition as he moves on from the collapse of his five year marriage to actress Angelina Jolie (pictured in 2007) Brad, a lifelong smoker, also made the decision to cut cigarettes out of his life, opting instead to substitute tobacco with nicotine flavoured gum. 'I dont have that ability to do just one or two a day,' he said of his past smoking habit. 'Its not in my makeup. Im all in. And Im going to drive into the ground. Ive lost my privileges.' However a sense of impending doom is ever-present, and Pitt admits he is frequently tortured by the same recurring dream, in which he is brutally stabbed. 'For a solid four or five years there, the most predominant dream I would experience would be getting jumped and stabbed,' he explained in an email to GQ. 'And I would awake in a terror. I didnt understand why it/they would want to hurt me. This stopped a year or two ago only when I started going straight back into the dream and asking simply why?' Advertisement
A prayer to God can be deeply personal, but these people have shared their secret conversations.

People from around the world took to US-based confessions app Whisper to reveal the thoughts, dreams and wishes they focus on when they say a prayer.

One woman admitted she asks her God to look out for her future husband, while another is asking for help in dealing with an unplanned pregnancy.

Elsewhere, some people said that praying to god was their favourite way to connect with their faith because they didn't agree with the restrictions of structured worship.

Here, FEMAIL lists some of the most revealing thoughts...

Heartbreaking! This woman from Colorado admits she hates her God for making her not want her child but ask God to help her get through it

This person in the US admits they thank God for every cute guy, by looking up to the sky and smiling saying 'Well done sir'

This Islamic woman from Ontario asks her God to forgive the sins of her future husband, and adds that someone out there is currently having their sins erased

Model looks! In Illinois there's someone who is desperate to become a model and asks God's help to fulfil the dream

A person in South Dakota left the church because of the rules and anti LGBTQ but they still speak to God every night believing he accepts everyone

This person in New Jersey doesn't go to church but still talks to God because it makes them feel better to cry and speak to him even if nothing changes

True love! A person in Texas prays for their boyfriend every night and asks God to protect him and help him on his everyday steps

Someone in Texas has been single for too long and asks God to find them a partner to love

This person in Mishawaka, Indiana, feels isolated from their friends and family but believes God will listen

Someone in Idaho says they prefer to pray to God than buy into the structure of the church because they don't always agree with the rule

This person admits they tried to end their life and asked God to give then a sign. They now feel blessed since that day and is sure he is listening
Fashion columnist and influencer Joanne Hegarty

When Im travelling I like to imagine what other people on my flight have packed and wonder what approach they take. Are they purely practical or, like me, a fantasy packer? What I mean by this is that I always throw in a few special pieces in case something unexpected and exciting happens.

I also pack for the best holiday version of myself  the one that frolics through lavender all bare-armed in pretty dresses (I rarely do but you get the picture).

Some may tut and say, Dont be so high maintenance! Who cares what they wear on holiday? If youre one of those nonchalant packers, I salute you.

We once went abroad with another couple and the husband packed just one pair of shorts for the entire week. I admired his Robinson Crusoe ingenuity. But for me, wearing a different wafty dress every evening is a huge part of the fun.

Wearing a dress by Zimmermann found on vestiairecollective.com. bag by bambien. shoes by ancient greek sandals

Last year in Southern France, my be-prepared-for-anything approach paid off  resulting in the most surreal coffee date of my life. We were staying near Saint-Remy-de-Provence and visited one of my favourite local stores  an eclectic boutique called Jeanne Bayol, crammed full of Indian cotton dresses, homeware, basket bags and jewellery (check out its beautiful Instagram @jeanne.bayol).

The owners, Jeanne and her daughter Irma, were delighted when designer John Galliano, who was staying nearby, popped in for a browse. Even better, they invited me to join them all for a cup of espresso. What do you wear for coffee with Galliano? Fortunately, I was road-testing a great dip-dye skirt from Cos and a black swimsuit.

Can you fantasy-pack without being hit by extra baggage charges? Yes! Heres how

Hone a hot list . Bring your favourite dresses  as long as theyre the right fabric for where youre going. I use a numbering system. If Im going for a week, Ill take five dresses. For two weeks, ten. Five pairs of shoes  all flats. I dont do holiday heels. Ill roll each item, instead of folding, and stack basket bags inside each other.

Ace accessories by organising earrings and cocktail rings in a jewellery roll. I always add an easy-to-pack fedora hat to protect my hair.

Consider zip-up cubes for neatly stowing toiletries, make-up and hair appliances.

Be versatile . Aim for a couple of swimsuits that can double up as stylish tops and two pairs of lightweight trousers. Now youre ready for anything!

ONE FOR YOUR DISH LIST...

Soho Home, the offshoot of Soho House members clubs, is a serious player in the interiors world, having just opened a new store in Westbourne Grove, West London. I love its online gifts, which include this stone bowl (95, sohohome.com).

MY KIND OF NORMAL

Daisy Edgar Jones, who wore Alexander McQueen for the London premiere of Where The Crawdads Sing, told the films producer Reese Witherspoon that when she landed the part, the first person she rang was her mum.

Daisy Edgar Jones pictured at the premiere of Where The Crawdads Sing wearing Alexander McQueen

Ancient Greek Sandals, 80, net-a-porter

FOR HAPPY FEET

Pool slides are loved in fashion circles for their versatility. This PVC pair by Ancient Greek Sandals (80, net-a-porter.com) is stylish and comfy.

MOST WANTED

Snake-inspired jewellery is a big summer hit with waiting lists on many pieces. Snap up this slick Harris Reed Serpent Ring (105, uk. missoma.com) before it slithers away.

Harris Reed Serpent Ring (105, uk. missoma.com)

Follow me on Instagram @thestylistandthewardrobe
After 20 years as a successful TV presenter and broadcaster, Fearne Cotton couldn't hide her battle with depression and bulimia any longer. 'I remember the BBC London DJ Jo Good saying to me, 'Oh, I look at you and think, 'She's got the world at her feet with the paparazzi all around her'.'

I had to say, 'Do you think ten men following me with cameras is a good thing?' It was horrendous. I didn't talk to anyone about how I felt. I just smiled. People would say, 'It's helping raise your profile', but as an introverted person it was a nightmare and on the days when the depression was severe, I'd just detach from my life and float off. I felt so tired.'

At the same time, the wider media saw her as fair game and were exceptionally cruel. 'I thought I was doing a good job but they were vicious.' In what way? 'On a Guinness World Records Smashed show with Ben Shephard we did a bungee jump and one TV critic said he wished the bungee rope had snapped.'

In the end it was Cotton who snapped. She walked away from one of the biggest jobs in broadcasting and in 2015 all but shut down her TV and radio career. Today her only regular TV gig is partnering with pal Gok Wan on Celebrity Gogglebox. Which is not to say her career is over. In fact, she has had that rarest of things in showbiz  a second act.

Dress, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi. Shoes, Terry de Havilland. Jewellery, Bee Goddess

Six years on, Cotton has 11.5 million social media followers and is bang on the zeitgeist with her Happy Place wellness brand, which has spawned four days of upcoming festivals in London and Cheshire.

A Happy Place app is on the way. There's a 180-episode-strong Happy Place podcast with guests including Stephen Fry, Hillary Clinton and the big names of wellness, such as Brene Brown and Wim Hof. There are eight self-authored books, plus a publishing imprint.

As well as the Happy Place work in the public eye, she partners with companies developing better mental health strategies. She has 15 women working 'with' her (not 'for' her, she is keen to point out). As second acts go, it's not bad.

'So many of my friends have suffered [with their mental health]. One lost her brother and was at zero with no support. I hope Happy Place can help people cope a little better in hard times.'

We talk for well over an hour, almost entirely about mental health: her grandmother's, husband's, mother's, cousins', the nation's, and, of course, her own. She doesn't hold back. The decade of bulimia, the long, debilitating depression followed by crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Yet, as we talk, I keep forgetting this sunny, apparently confident, articulate woman sitting beside me has any issues at all. She's had a lot of practice at hiding in plain sight.

Dress, slip and boots, Philosophy. Rings, Bee Goddess

Cotton, now 40, became famous at just 15 and she talks about this early success like a slow car crash through the lens of her eventual depression. Her friend Russell Brand describes celebrity as a sort of trauma, and I've heard other famous people say the same thing.

'It is,' she says, 'but you can't moan about it, that's not allowed. For me, fame was a source of trauma long before I became famous. I come from a working-class family. I went to an average state school [Haydon in Pinner, North London], Mum worked four jobs, Dad was a signwriter.

So I thought everyone on TV was it. I wanted to do that. I wanted to be in pop culture. I was this kid in bunches, pushing the school uniform rules with my shirt hoiked up so I could look like Denise Van Outen on The Big Breakfast. I'd be sitting in my English class looking out of the window daydreaming. School felt so grey.'

At the age of 12, she started at a dance and drama school. 'I lived for it and went every hour I could  I was totally focused. I was an excitable, happy, hyper kid.'

She auditioned for a number of TV presenting jobs, finally landing a role on The Disney Club. At first things were great: 'Young TV presenters are well cared for. I had this amazing producer called Maddy who was like a second parent  I was really nurtured.

Top and trousers, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi. Jewellery, Bee Goddess. Shoes, Jennifer Chamandi

'But when you turn 18 it all changes. It was terrifying. My chaperones were gone and I was on my own. As a kid I was just having fun with work, but as an adult, suddenly it was people saying: 'You'd better do this lads' mag so that people see you as a woman.'

I'd always been good at my work: I turned up early, I knew my lines, I never messed up. But it was still not enough. This sexy thing, it made me feel out of control. My default was to think I am getting it wrong. I felt a phony  I am not a sexy girl, and I was standing there in this Arena magazine shoot, head to toe in PVC. I just kept thinking: 'This is not me.' I still felt like a child. I was very innocent.

'I think this was the start of things chipping away at me. It kept my self-esteem low, and the TV industry really thrives on that fear that there's someone better waiting for your job in the wings.

'By 19 I was bulimic, I think because I was working with loads of really thin pop stars like this,' she holds up her little finger. 'Bulimia was my secret and no one could have any sway on it.' She didn't binge, just purged constantly. 'It was all day, every day, whatever I ate for three years.

My mum confronted me when she came over to my place after I'd been with her on Christmas Day. She knew, but I lied and said I was fine. I feel so awful for Mum now that I'm a parent.' The condition was so bad that all these years later she admits: 'I've still got gum damage from it.' With bulimia, teeth and gums are repeatedly exposed to stomach acid, which will likely give rise to a number of dental issues, including gum disease.

Fearne with husband Jesse and father-in-law Ronnie

The battles with bulimia and depression ultimately made Cotton feel she had no other option but to quit her jobs at the BBC. She says that decision was triggered by a specific event. It's something she has alluded to before but has never said exactly what it was. I invite her to tell me but she again refuses.

However, for the first time, she explains why: 'Even going near the subject now, years later, I feel myself starting to feel s**t. Until I'm at a place where I've made peace with what happened, even talking about it would be detrimental to my own wellbeing. Maybe one day I will feel absolutely nothing, and I know I do want to speak about it, because it will be helpful.

CUTTING IT FOR COTTON Trainers or heels? Trainers Tea or coffee? Coffee Shower or bath? Shower Indoor or outdoor? Outdoor Summer or winter? Summer Jeans or joggers? Jeans Night owl or early bird? Early bird Ikea or John Lewis? Neither, Ebay is more sustainable Sun or shade? Sun Red or white wine Red Netflix or night out? Netflix Champagne or beer? Mine's a G&T with cucumber Book or podcast? Book WhatsApp or phone call? WhatsApp Advertisement

I didn't talk about bulimia for 15 years because I felt so much shame. I almost scrubbed it from my memory, but now I don't feel traumatised talking about it. At the moment it's still something I am going through in therapy.'

Cotton has not relapsed in her bulimia since she was 29. 'You can absolutely heal and escape that cycle. The body dysmorphia is still there: I've always looked in the mirror and felt I was weird looking.' She is pretty and fine boned, and incredibly likable, so it's odd to hear her talk about herself this way.

When I ask her about this and the juxtaposition with her long struggles with mental illness, she says: 'Honestly, I think it's far less about me presenting some professional front and more about my lack of confidence about how I am received by other people. I've been in the public eye since I was 15  sometimes I wonder what a normal reaction should be.'

The Happy Place Festival, which takes place in August and September, features, among the workshops and sessions, a talk on ancestral trauma, which is the idea that we inherit our predecessors' pain. When I mention this to her she readily admits it may have contributed to her own struggles: 'All the women in my family have been impacted.

We loved our Nan but she had a horrendous wartime experience  as a child she was evacuated to the country and the people beat her, her sister died of TB, she had my mum at 18, and wasn't capable of parenting. She had regular nervous breakdowns. As a result Mum had no safe grounding of a maternal figure, and my grandad [her father] also suffered anxiety around safety  their bungalow had five bolts on the door. They had lived through unprecedented bad times.'

People start to hover and it is clear our interview is coming to an end. I mither a bit, so she stays to tell me about meeting her husband Jesse Wood. It was in Ibiza in 2011. They talked till eight in the morning and she was desperate to go to the loo but kept putting it off in case she came back and he'd gone.

She tells me how Jesse has his own trauma  growing up with little contact with his endlessly touring father Ronnie, guitarist in the Rolling Stones, and losing his mum Krissy to an accidental overdose of depression medication in 2005. Jesse self-medicated to cope, which Cotton admits she ignored in the early stages of their relationship, but says that when she got pregnant: 'Overnight he gave up alcohol, drugs, cigarettes.

He was remarkable. He just stopped. He knew it was time, there was too much to lose.' She also tells me her father-in-law Ronnie is 'the most hilarious character I ever met'. In the early days with Jesse (who lived with his dad in Shepherd's Bush) she'd find him singing opera on the landing outside their bedroom at 3am, completely sober.

As we're finishing up I realise that, in some strange way, depression made Cotton. It forced her to shut down her life and then come back stronger. When I put this to her, she gives an emphatic 'no'. Then adds, 'But it certainly took me away from a meaningless job that was just about how do I climb the ladder to be like Ant and Dec.

I thought, 'F*** that, I'm going to create my own thing where I am my own boss and I will listen to the audience and move with them.' That was Happy Place. I don't have to wait for the phone to ring to tell me whether I am worthy or not any more. I'm still a work in progress. But as soon as I did that, the anxiety I had for years went away.'
Is there anything more glorious than closing your front door and setting off on holiday, ready for days splashing in the pool and lashings of rose? Yes, there is  doing it with your dog.

Just ask Simon Cowell, who's been seen in Barbados with his yorkshire terriers. Or chef Gino D'Acampo, who flew his dachshund Snoop to Sardinia in April. Cats are jetting off, too: Kate Beckinsale has shared photos of her and her moggie Clive on a private jet.

Data suggests that over 3.2 million people in the UK have become pet owners since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number to 34 million. So is it any wonder we're factoring them into our summer breaks? (And in style!)

Enter dog-a-porter.com, 'the ultimate dog chauffeur' and brainchild of siblings Camilla Brillembourg and Hugo Mabbott. They've escorted dogs all over Europe since 2017 and are now expanding to the US.

Dogs  who must have a vet-issued Animal Health Certificate (see opposite) or an EU pet passport to travel abroad  are driven by either Mercedes SUV or Land Rover modified for comfort. It's safe (Hugo is certified in dog first aid), cosy and the trip is bespoke to your pooch's needs  there's no car sharing with someone else's pet. They'll stop at dog-friendly hotels along the way  France is full of them  and if your canine likes to sleep on the bed, no problem. Clients include celebrities and royals.

Is there anything more glorious than closing your front door and setting off on holiday, ready for days splashing in the pool and lashings of rose? Yes, there is  doing it with your dog

HOT SPOTS FOR HOUNDS Beadnell Towers Four-legged friends are more than welcome at this hotel in Northumberland  and will love long walks along the spectacular coast nearby. It has seven dog-friendly rooms. Doubles from 129 a night, beadnelltowers.co.uk. Hare and Hounds As its name suggests, dogs are valued guests at this pub in Berkshire, where pups find a bed, bowl and biscuits awaiting them. Double rooms from 90 a night, dogs 20 extra; hareandhoundsnewbury.co.uk Hotel de Bouilhac Treat Fido to the trip of a lifetime at this spa hotel in the Dordogne region of Southwest France, where dogs can dine with you in the medieval banqueting hall. Double rooms from 153 a night; dogs 13 extra; hoteldebouilhac.com Advertisement

Of course, none of this comes cheap; think 2,400 for Fido to be driven in luxury to the South of France. As Camilla says: 'You'll find owners forking out a couple of grand to get their dog to Saint-Tropez, while they fly EasyJet.'

Makes sense, especially if they're splashing out on any of the dog-friendly accommodation listed on luxury hotel website Mr & Mrs Smith, which now has an entire section dedicated to hotels and villas that will make man's best friends' 'tails wag on arrival'.

You don't have to travel abroad to treat your dog to a getaway. The UK has plenty to offer them, the travel industry having wised up to the fact that family doesn't simply mean children. Last year searches for dog-friendly holiday destinations in the UK soared by 665 per cent.

Only a few weeks ago, Storm, a fun-loving springbullsta (that's springer spaniel, bulldog and staffie mix) enjoyed a weekend at The Swan at Streatley, Berkshire (coppaclub.co.uk). After a spread of treats, she took a boat ride and behaved impeccably  until she spied some ducks and attempted to commit murder. She omitted this part of her stay from her entry in the hotel visitors' book  or maybe her 'pawrents' did.

She's not the only pooch taking advantage of the great British summer. Cas  a rescue dog, originally from Tobago  is currently frolicking on the beaches of Orkney, her owners having undertaken a two-day drive plus ferry to get there: great fun, especially with two under-fours.

Think your furry friend would enjoy beach life too? Then why not sign up for a dog-friendly surfing class with pawsonboard.co.uk in Dorset. Or if chilling is more your pet's thing, try The George Inn, in the Cotswolds (thegeorgebarford.co.uk), where room service includes a dog menu boasting ice cream, beer (yes, really) and toys, while in the bathroom there's luxury shampoo by Sniffe & Likkit (for your dog, obviously).

Still not sure what to book? Check out petspyjamas.com, which has over 18,000 UK doggie destinations on its books and an expert pet concierge to help you find your perfect trip.

Meanwhile, if you do have to go abroad  say, for a wedding  and can't take Fido, there's trustedhousesitters.com, whose membership has doubled since travel restrictions ended. For 99 a year for unlimited stays, TPS will find a sitter to live in your house in exchange for looking after your pet  sparing you the heartache of booking Fido in to the kennels.

Yet for some people even that is not enough. Friends of mine hosted their chosen sitter for the entire week prior to their getaway  taking him to the pub to meet the locals and ensuring he and their dog got on. They did. And now my friends are in Greece and just about managing to enjoy some calamari, guilt-free.

Nobody has dared raise Christmas with them for fear the sitter already has plans.
Once one of the hottest names on TV and radio, Fearne Cotton has told of how she had to walk away from stardom to save her mental health.

Speaking to You magazine today, she opens up about the decade of bulimia, debilitating depression and crippling anxiety she suffered by trying to climb the greasy pole of fame.

She says: The TV industry thrives on that fear that theres someone better waiting for your job in the wings.

(L to R) Ronnie Wood, Fearne Cotton and Jesse Wood attend a private view of 'Ronnie Wood: Faces

But stepping away to set up her wellness brand Happy Place transformed her life, she says. It certainly took me away from a meaningless job that was just about how do I climb the ladder to be like Ant and Dec?

I thought, F*** that, Im going to create my own thing where I am my own boss and I will listen to the audience and move with them.

That was Happy Place. I dont have to wait for the phone to ring to tell me whether I am worthy or not any more... As soon as I did that, the anxiety I had for years went away.

Speaking to You magazine today, Fearne opens up about the decade of bulimia, debilitating depression and crippling anxiety she suffered by trying to climb the greasy pole of fame

Fearne all but shut down her showbusiness career by 2015. Today her only regular TV spot is partnering Gok Wan on Celebrity Gogglebox.

In the seven years since, she has written eight wellness books, amassed 11.5 million social media followers and grown her brand to encompass a podcast, festivals and a forthcoming app. I hope Happy Place can help people cope a little better in hard times, the 40-year-old says.
The young royals have been showing off their glamorous style during their lavish sun getaways this year.

They have been making the most of the summer months, living it up on holidays in enviable spots such as Sicily, Paris and Majorca.

Lady Marina Windsor, 28, posed up a storm as she attended a friend's wedding in Majorca while her 26-year-old sister Amelia Windsor looked trendy as she enjoyed a city break in Paris.

Princess Talita Von Furstenberg, 23, of the German Princely family of Furstenberg also jetted off on a sun drenched trip where the beauty enjoyed sunset boat trips and snorkelling.

Young royals have been showing off their glamorous style during their lavish sun getaways this year, including Princess Talita Von Furstenberg, 23, who jetted off on a sun drenched trip

Amelia Windsor, 26, has been making the most of the summer months as she looked typically trendy during a city break in Paris wearing a See by Chloe dress bought at Sign of the Times

Princess Diana's niece Kitty Spencer, 31, looked typically elegant while in Italy for a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show.

Taking to Instagram the royals have shared a glimpse inside their extravagant summer getaways with their fans.

Lady Marina Windsor, who is the Duke of Kents granddaughter, looked summery in a bright pink satin dress as she attended a friends wedding in Majorca.

The royal, who was 25th in line to the British throne before being excluded in 2008 after she was confirmed as a Roman Catholic, posed for a poolside snap with friends.

Princess Diana's niece Kitty Spencer, 31, looked typically elegant while in Italy for a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show with friends

She joined by her friend and the Marchioness of Bath, Emma Weymouth, in another snap at the fashion extravaganza

Kitty Spencer was joined by her husband Michael Lewis, 63, at the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show in Sicily earlier this month

She showcased her toned midriff in a purple bikini top and patterned trousers in another holiday snap.

Earlier this month, her sister Amelia posed outside Tuileries Palace in Paris which is directly in front of the Louvre.

She looked relaxed in a colourful smock dress which she paired with white trainers.

Kitty Spencer was joined by her husband Michael Lewis, 63, at the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show in Sicily earlier this month and she shared snaps of the extravagant bash on Instagram.

Lady Marina Windsor, who is the Duke of Kents granddaughter, looked summery in a bright pink satin dress as she attended a friends wedding in Majorca (L-R Marina's friend Stephanie, Marina, Eugenie and Esther Compsty)

She showcased her toned midriff in a purple bikini top and patterned trousers in another holiday snap alongside friend Luke Birch

Amelia posed outside Tuileries Palace in Paris, she looked relaxed in a colourful smock dress which she paired with white trainers

Lady Kitty dazzled in a custom gold and silver D&G gown with intricate floral applique.

Michael also looked sharp in a tan suit and white shirt as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

She was joined by her friend and the Marchioness of Bath, Emma Weymouth, in another snap at the fashion extravaganza.

The Dolce & Gabbana showcase took place in Sicily over several days and involved a string of bashes celebrating the Italian fashion house's latest high-end fashion and jewellery collections.

Princess Talita, who is the daughter of Prince Alexander von Furstenberg and his first wife, Alexandra von Furstenberg, has been busy globetrotting around to many tropical destinations this year

Although the beauty likes to keep her locations under wraps she has shared stunning snaps from the luxurious destinations

In another snap the beauty showed off her toned physique in a cut out orange dress while surrounded by palm trees

Last week the royal took to Instagram to post numerous sizzling bikini clad snaps with her followers

Her boyfriend, Rocco Brignone, also featuring in the post as they enjoyed a summer trip away together

In another she donned a stunning white satin gown as she pose din front of a sunset over a desert

Princess Talita, who is the daughter of Prince Alexander von Furstenberg and his first wife, Alexandra von Furstenberg, has been busy globetrotting around to many tropical destinations this year.

Although the beauty likes to keep her locations under wraps she has shared stunning snaps from the luxurious destinations.

Last week she took to Instagram to post numerous sizzling bikini clad snaps with her followers.

Talita posed up a storm poolside for a breathtaking sunset picture, while in another she showed off her toned physique in a cut out orange dress.

The beauty sizzled in an orange dress for a breathtaking sunset picture on one of her many extravagant trips

Talita posed up a storm from the clear blue sea as she enjoyed a swim while on holiday this year

While Princess Maria Olympia of Greece (right) enjoyed the summer sun in the UK this year as she attended Glastonbury in Somerset ( pictured with her friend Alexia Mavroleon Left)

In another snap she posed in a show-stopping pink and orange dress on a lavish balcony overlooking a beautiful sea view.

Her boyfriend, Rocco Brignone, also featuring in the post as they enjoyed a trip away together.

While Princess Maria Olympia of Greece enjoyed the summer sun in the UK this year as she attended Glastonbury in Somerset.

She posed up a storm with mates at the five-day music festival last month and only recently shared the fun snaps with her Instagram followers.

In another, the fashion model, who is the oldest child and only daughter of Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller, showed off her modelling skills as she posed with friends in a black gown.

She posed up a storm with mates at the five-day music festival and shared the fun snap with her Instagram followers
Whats the point of getting braces when you are a grown-up in your 60s? Not to be morbid, but how many decent summers have I got left anyway? 20? 25?

Thats always been my attitude. Or it used to be until I realised how many contemporaries I have whove either had braces or are wearing them now. Im not talking train tracks, Im talking those transparent ones which nobody knows youve got on unless you tell them.

And its not just contemporaries. Case in point is the 80-something couple I know, parents of a good friend of mine, who recently had them fitted. A year on, braces out, my friend reports they are living their absolute best lives.

Not that my teeth are dreadful  I had train tracks as a child. But compared to my American friends teeth theyre very much wanting. And the older I get, the more wonky they look to me. Theres a reason, in other words, why I flinch when anyone tells me to smile for the camera.

Christa D'Souza has discovered the 21st century's answer to train track braces. The treatment involves a series of removable clear custom-built plastic trays. Christa is pictured here after her treatment

So it is I find myself at the Chelsea practice of Dr Rhona Eskander, 35, to have myself digitally scanned, X-rayed and fitted for Invisalign, the gold standard in clear aligners, the 21st centurys answer to my teenage train tracks.

The treatment involves a series of removable clear plastic trays that are custom-built to the shape of my teeth via a 3D printer, using painless but steady pressure over the course of several months to move them into the proper position.

As Rhona confirms, just as your face ages, so do your teeth. Not only do they get worn down over the years, but with inevitable bone shrinkage and a degree of gum receding, they can change position.

Im lucky to get an appointment with Rhona. As one of the UKs top dental influencers, she has a long, long waiting list.

I think its so interesting in the UK how people will rush for the Botox and filler without realising their teeth need rejuvenating too, she says.

Big sheepish hand up here, because that pretty much is me. Though I havent had it in a while, historically, Ive never shirked from the cosmeticians needle in the quest to look younger than I actually am.

People rush for filler  but teeth need rejuvenating too

But Rhona is right. The dentist, like the dermatologist, is just one more weapon in the anti-ageing arsenal. In many ways, it may even be a better one in that the effect doesnt wear off.

As you age, your hard tissue and soft tissue, especially round your jawline, diminishes, explains Rhona, This has a dramatic effect on the lower third of your face.

The structural changes that part of your face is experiencing often make the space between your nostrils and upper lip [the philtrum] lengthen, which in turn causes you to reveal less of your top teeth and more of your bottom ones. This effect is quite ageing.

She goes on to explain the importance of something called the buccal (pronounced buckle) corridor.

By that I mean the distance between the corners of your lips as you smile and your actual teeth. The more negative space you have [the dark spaces between where your teeth end and the sides of your mouth start], the older you look.

UK-based writer says that getting her teeth done has had both a physical and psychological effect and she now finds herself smiling a lot more. She is pictured here before her treatment

If you look at, say, Angelina Jolie or Margot Robbie, they have nice full buccal corridors, whereas youve got a lot of hollow negative space.

I notice youre a big-time tooth grinder, she goes on. I can tell this because your front teeth have those tell-tale cracks and have also significantly worn down at the bottom edges. Thats going to make those top teeth disappear even further when you smile.

Teeth grinding is a real issue for professional middle-aged women  their daily stress cant help but seep into their sleep patterns.

Rhona notes I also have a classtwo overbite where my upper front teeth protrude and project so far forward they create the appearance of a receding lip and chin.

Little ratty front teeth. Poor buccal corridor. Class-two overbite. Ulp. Further bad news is that Ive had a titanium implant, replacing the root of a tooth on the upper right-hand side, which means Rhonas ability to expand my palate arch (and thus increase the amount of teeth shown in my smile) is limited.

The good news is that a lot of supermodels have class-two overbites (Kate Moss is one of them) and I have reasonably healthy teeth.

I no longer flinch when smiling for the camera or hold my hand in front of my mouth

It will be another two weeks before the 34 pairs of plastic trays (one for your lower teeth; one for upper), which are transformed from digital scans into reality via a 3D printer, are ready; and its going to take wearing them for 22 hours every day for over a year, but Im on my way.

The cost? 4,500 including whitening and another 600 for the Vivera night-time retainers to wear after they come off.

The first week of wearing them is definitely weird. I feel terribly self-conscious, as I now have a lisp and possibly spit a little when I talk. Unable to eat or drink anything other than water when they are in, I am struck by how reliant I usually am on coffee, gum and sweets. Who can fit all their eating and coffee drinking into two hours? Not me.

Its extraordinary how no one notices Im wearing them until I take them out. And then, its even more extraordinary how many times the reaction is not, Arent you a bit past it? but How funny! Me too!

After week two, I have to get these little piranha-like hooks bonded on to my teeth, to give the aligners something to grip on to during the shifting process.

Christa looks on as Dr Rhona Eskander prepares retainers, top, created using a 3D printer. The whole thing costs 4,500 including whitening and another 600 for the Vivera night-time retainers to wear after they come off

They totally discombobulate my bite, catch on my inner cheeks and, at first, make eating anything solid almost impossible.

By week six, I feel more acclimatised and nothing actually hurts. My family are now used to them being left around the house and me wailing about not being able to find them. The weeks wear on, with me graduating to a new set of plastic trays every two weeks, and by the threemonth mark, it feels weird when I don't have them in.

To clean them I use sterilising tablets, which I think are also used for dentures, but a certain amount of discoloration, especially with my coffee addiction, is inevitable.

We go to a friends house who serves curry. Turmeric, apparently, is the worst ever thing in terms of staining braces, but I forget to rinse my mouth afterwards and they turn an indelible shade of yellow.

Im tempted to tear a new pair open prematurely (they come in packs like childrens lollies), but resist. Because a lot of the responsibility is placed on you, the client, you have to be strict with yourself and play it by the book if you want them to work.

I look in the mirror and see Donkey from Shrek!

Four months in, Rhona calls me in to have a look. Shes pleased with the progress, although I can barely see any change. To help the process she wants to file some space in between each tooth so they can move more. I shrink from this idea having such a low pain threshold, but she promises it wont hurt. It doesnt, but it is disconcerting  like one of those juddering machines they use to dig up pavements.

Once she does this, she assures me, Im going to start to see a big difference. OK, so yes, after five months, I am finally seeing some progress, but they have become very dingy.

Not that Im slovenly exactly, but in terms of brushing them after every meal, forget it, I simply cant be bothered.

Suddenly, all these orthodontic accessories start popping into my Instagram feed. Theres a sleek plug-in contraption you can buy magically to remedy a cloudy aligner which tempts me, but when I tell Rhona about it, she tells me theyre a waste of money. I darent tell her Ive started sucking boiled sweets on car journeys with my braces still in.

Summer is here and I spend a lovely weekend in France with a friends and their multitudes of children. As a bowl of fresh figs is brought to the pool, almost all the younger folk take out their braces and place them next to each other in a little circle, a little bit like handbags at the disco. I add mine and to my delight suddenly find myself part of their gang. Turns out braces are the best leveller.

According to a forecasting report in Fortune magazine, the global clear aligner market, which stood at 2billion in 2021, is projected to grow to 7.5billion by 2028.

Aligners: a step-by-step guide 1. After a consultation, your orthodontist maps out your bespoke treatment plan. 2. He or she will take an imprint of your teeth to create a series of clear, removable retainers to wear over them. 3. Every few weeks, you swap one set of aligners for a new set. Each moves your teeth until, after six to 12 months, you have a straight, healthy smile. 4. You must keep your aligners on for 22 hours a day, only taking them out to eat, drink and brush your teeth. Advertisement

The technology is constantly advancing. Hardcore types might even want to explore something called Accelerated Invisalign, which involves a vibrating contraption you put in your mouth for 20 minutes a day to stimulate the process. (Rhona doesnt recommend this for me.)

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other companies besides Invisalign that do it, like, for example, Smile Direct Club, where prices start from 1,639.

In the case of many brands, including Smile Direct Club, you dont even have to see a dentist, everything takes place via mail order, which, by definition, brings the price down considerably.

Rhona, though, strongly counsels that it is always better to go for a brand which involves physical visits to an orthodontist. Although most of the adults seeking orthodontic treatment are historically women, there has been a big increase in the past few years of men wanting to get their teeth fixed too.

This surely must have a lot to do with reality shows like Love Island where Turkey teeth  that is, fluoro-white, super-symmetrical teeth so called because they are often purchased for bargain prices abroad, like Turkey  are the norm for either sex.

Right from the get-go Ive told Rhona that I categorically dont want that Turkey teeth look. On the other hand, my standards have definitely been raised since I started the process. Friends naturally good teeth I used to admire, I dont so much any more.

Thirty-four sets of braces in and on my last plastic tray, its time to take those piranha hooks off and see where we are.

Theres no Damascene moment because Ive lived with this process for almost a year, but Im excited nonetheless. Also, I cant wait to be able to chew gum again and not to have to keep scrunching the braces up in a napkin on my lap during dinner. The amount of times Ive been on my hands and knees in a restaurant trying to find where Ive dropped them.

Whats interesting is how the process has made my two front ones look more stunted than ever. But then misaligned teeth hide a multitude of sins.

The straightening is actually only part of the process. Ive now got to have them whitened. And after two weeks of that I need some bonding on my front teeth. Partly because of all the nighttime grinding, they have been worn down to little squat stumps and are chipped round the bottom edges.

Proportionately, they dont take up enough space in my smile. They need more volume to increase their length, even out the bottom edges and dominate my tooth-scape, as flawless front teeth are supposed to do. Only then will I get the proper big reveal.

According to a forecasting report in Fortune magazine, the global clear aligner market, which stood at 2billion in 2021, is projected to grow to 7.5billion by 2028

I can, if I like, says Rhona, keep the aligners on for longer to get the twisted bottom tooth perfectly straight, but I cant be bothered. Besides, maybe having a slightly wonky one will ensure they dont look too done. The following week I meet with Stewart Beggs, Londons unofficial king of composite bonding.

Unlike veneers, composite bonding involves adding a layer to only part of the tooth (in my case the bottom edges of my two stumpy top teeth) and often looks more natural.

Each tooth costs 495 to bond. Stewart does the front four in order to make them symmetrical, so thats another 1,980.

Because Im a wimp I have lots of numbing spray and two local injections so I dont feel a thing. The whole process, adding resin to the bottom edges of my four top teeth and filling in the gap between the two centre ones, takes over two hours and Im impatient to see the final result.

Stewart is right, I look in the mirror and see Donkey from Shrek looking back at me. Theyre ludicrously long! But after some talking down from him, they start to look more and more normal and by the end of the week they feel completely in proportion.

It is only when Stewart sends me my before and after pictures that it becomes apparent what a profound difference theyve made. Did they really used to look like that? To think I thought they were relatively straight!

Getting my teeth done has had both a physical and psychological effect. I feel sure Im smiling more and, as scientific research shows, the act of smiling encourages your brain to release stress-fighting hormones and call happy neuro-transmitters such as dopamine and serotonin into play.

So maybe its not that they make me feel and therefore look younger, but that they make me feel better, which in turn cant help but make me look younger  a virtuous circle, if you like.

Looking through old pictures, I can see that a lot of times, if Im smiling, Ive either got my hand in front of my mouth or Im looking away. This is a long, ingrained habit itll take a while to get out of, but after having these pictures taken here, I can see how it might one day disappear.
A train platform at Seoul Station is crowded with people returning from their vacations, Sunday, as the summer vacation season hit its peak. Yonhap
When people ask me if the terrible, toxic divorce I describe in my new novel Is This Love? is based on my own, I have a standard answer: No, mine was much worse. I am, of course, being dramatic.

But I also know the facts of my own story are shocking. On the day my ex-wife told me she was ending our three-year marriage, she walked out of our house and to the hospital in London where we were having fertility treatment. She withdrew her consent for that treatment, and it was immediately terminated. I was two weeks away from the date of our embryo transfer.

For those who dont have experience of IVF, that means Id been on a months-long drugs regimen, shooting up hormones in bathrooms across the city and once, memorably, in the front seat of my car outside a gig in Brixton (no one batted an eyelid).

I had fresh and faded bruises  track marks  across my stomach from hip bone to hip bone. Id had many internal examinations by a changing rota of mostly kind gynaecologists, to the point where I no longer blushed to have a strangers head and shoulders between my elevated knees.

Catherine Riley (pictured) describes the painful experience of her ex-wife leaving her and terminating their IVF treatment two weeks away from the embryo transfer

Id been grateful for all of this, provided as it was then for free by our amazing NHS: a testament to how far wed come in the recognition of LGBTQIA+ peoples equal rights to a family life.

And Id been looking forward, desperately, to the date that all this hard work was leading to: the introduction to my 39-year-old body of the magical collection of cells that had been created in a lab  a living embryo, microscopic but so full of potential. My first  and only  embryo. The representation of my hopes and dreams.

Looking back, of course the signs were there. Shed been absent at scans and appointments, making excuses Id accepted because they didnt trouble my delusion that we were in this together.

Wed argued, and become distant. But Id put it down to my hormones: they were all over the place. Things would be different once the treatment was over and I was finally pregnant. Carrying a child to term and then raising it would be the easy bit.

Its fair to say I was very deluded. But you are when you really want something. You block out the doubts, the worries, the niggling inconsistencies. The great big lies.

You focus on the goal and try to make it happen. You think that hard work pays off, and you commit. And when it gets harder and harder, you redouble your efforts. You become single-minded. You stop listening, too.

On the same day we split, she withdrew consent

Its never just one persons fault. I wrote my novel because I wanted to explore that moment of breakdown. I was interested in the lies people tell each other, and themselves, about who they are and what they do.

I wanted to show that one persons truth is always subjective: there is never a definitive version of a moment, a relationship, a life. You can never know whos telling the truth about what takes place within the private confines of a marriage.

The novel is not just about divorce. Its about love. The story hovers in a liminal space between mad love and desperate rage as its protagonist J tries to work out their feelings about the wife who has walked away.

Almost every one of us will have been through a break-up, and no matter how much we might try to conduct ourselves with kindness, there is always a point where love turns to hate, however briefly.

I experienced it when my ex-wife phoned later that day to tell me what shed done. My memory of that call is vague now, rendered mercifully opaque by the passage of time.

Gay marriage was still very new and it wasnt clear who owned Catherine's foetus once her ex-wifes consent to being its parent had been withdrawn

I think, perversely, that I thought she was joking. I probably laughed. I can remember feeling panic, abject panic. I know the call was brief, and she was terse, and that it ended with me sobbing, alone, in our house.

I realised no one could help me, no one knew what to do. I told friends, then my family, and everyone was shocked. In shock. They all knew what it meant. Another ending, on top of my marriage. A body blow.

It seems incredible now, but after she phoned that day, my ex-wife and I never spoke about it again. She just refused any further conversation and so I was left to pick up the pieces alone.

For more than a week, we didnt see one another and communicated only via brief, painful text messages and emails.

During that time, I relied on the love and patience of friends who took turns to stay over with me, and my family who checked in every day.

My sister, a GP, gave advice on how I could best look after my body as the hormones Id been pumping into it drained away. I was supposed to sleep well, eat well, drink plenty of water ridiculous instructions in the circumstances, advice it was impossible to take.

After those first few days, I saw my ex-wife only once: a brief, agonising meeting in the place that had once been our home. Of course it was surreal: we outlined how the coming weeks and months might play out, where we would both stay, what we would both do. But not a word about what she had done.

Like I said, incredible. But that was the end. I guess there was just nothing more to say.

Catherine's novel is not just about divorce. Its about love. The story hovers in a liminal space between mad love and desperate rage as its protagonist J tries to work out their feelings about the wife who has walked away

At the fertility clinic, however, they werent sure of next steps. Gay marriage was still very new and it wasnt clear who owned my foetus once my ex-wifes consent to being its parent had been withdrawn.

A family friend spoke to a legal expert who expressed excitement at the potential precedent-setting of my circumstance. No doubt by now, six years on, other peoples traumas will have helped iron out those legislative wrinkles.

In the end I had to speak to the HFEA, the UKs fertility regulator, and after a pause I was given the go-ahead to try again with the embryo still on ice at the clinic. It was decided it was mine after all: my egg, donor sperm.

I hadnt planned on being a single parent, but there was never any question that I wouldnt try to see the process through. It was an easy choice to decide to do it all again.

I was told by my fertility team I needed to wait, to let my body recover from the first preparation cycle before restarting. They were anxious that I didnt do anything while I was stressed.

I was mid-divorce, I was trying to get pregnant on my own and had no idea what I was doing. Now, on the eve of turning 40, I couldnt wait until I wasnt stressed.

It takes a while for your body to recover after IVF. So although I was desperate to get going, it was five months before I began the drug regime again. Then another sevenweek build-up of hormones in my body, daily supplements, eating well and taking gentle exercise.

I was surprised to realise the process, doing it on my own, felt the same  Id been going it alone the first time. I thought about asking someone to come with me to the hospital for the transfer. Its very much like having a smear  instead of taking cells out of your body, they put them in  but I decided I didnt feel like sharing that experience with a friend.

They werent sure who owned my foetus

Instead, I made up an elaborate story in my head in case anyone asked why I was there alone: how Id always wanted to be a single parent, my dream of raising a child alone. Of course, no one asked.

It was weirdly underwhelming in the end. A sterile process, over in a few minutes. I went for dinner with friends that night and tried to avoid questions about how I was doing, what I was doing. I wasnt telling many people my plan. I wanted to hold my secret close. I dared to think ahead to announcing the good news further down the line.

Until then I just had to get through a two-week wait until a blood test at the hospital would confirm whether or not the transfer had been a success.

I knew before they told me that it hadnt worked. Like my marriage, it was never meant to be.

So, yes, my divorce story is pretty grim. Ive described it in broad strokes to others who have been left, or done the leaving, and felt rewarded by their openmouthed, slack-jawed disbelief.

Ive lapped up the sympathy, relished the condemnation. But I know that, in reality, its not that straightforward.

We were just on different paths. I wanted a child and, evidently, she did not. We stopped being able to talk, and we became entrenched, shut down. Me as well as her. And in that gradual erosion of communication, divorce set in.

Thats how it starts, and thats how it ended: two people unable to say what they wanted, too scared to face the truth. My ex-wife understood the legal ramifications of our marriage contract, and she wanted out.

In stark contrast, I believed our marriage would somehow hold us together. We were both trapped. She found us a way out of the entrapment.

Its strange, isnt it, that someone who once sat at the very centre of your life, upon whom you relied for happiness, validation, stability, can suddenly be the person you want to be farthest away from?

I have always been surprised by the brutality of breakups that end abruptly: the returning of keys, the swapping back of belongings, the deletion of phone numbers. Final farewells and then nothing more.

Walking away from pain is perhaps easier than staying on, trying to rebuild. Being friends is hard work and often ugly in the early stages as new rules are worked out and new boundaries are negotiated.

While Ive witnessed some brutal breakups, gay and straight. Ive more often seen my friends rescue something from the ending of their relationships, sustaining love and loyalty and morphing their shared history into a new form of commitment  the cliche of the lesbian trailing a line of her exes behind her exists for a reason!  and thats always made sense to me.

Among my friendship group there are overlapping histories and complicated timelines of women  and men  who were once together, but who now socialise as friends. So I wanted to write about a very different kind of ending. A hard stop.

The process of doing so made me realise there is rarely just a baddie and a victim.

In most divorces  and I suspect all family lawyers would agree  there is bad behaviour on both sides. The characters in my novel take that to extremes, but there is something about the formal process of divorce  engaging lawyers, citing unreasonable behaviours, listing the belongings you want to keep and those youre willing to share  that brings out the worst in everyone who goes through it.

Thats why people say you go through a divorce. It is a trauma and like any trauma it provokes extreme reactions  and leaves permanent scars.

So although I say my divorce story is worse than the one in my book, in reality its the same. Both are about losing the person you loved so much that you committed publicly to spending the rest of your life with them. Both are stories of betrayal, and of being hurt in unimaginable ways. And both are also stories of shared culpability, of mutual blame. All divorces are.

The good news is that scars heal. Pain recedes. On the night before that pregnancy test, I went for dinner with an old friend. Slowly, very slowly, she and I rekindled something that had once sparked between us. In time, we began to make plans for a family and I hope one day well get there  together.

Not all lesbian exes can end up friends, but things you thought you could never get over stop mattering, and life starts again.
A savvy mum has cleaned her daughter's filthy white sneakers using an affordable product from Amazon.

Sam, who runs the 'Addicted to Bargains' Instagram account, shared a video online demonstrating the process using the $7.50 (4.99) Eraser Daddy sponge.

'I love white shoes, but they get dirty super-fast. I gave the Eraser Daddy a go and it is super easy to use and does the job so well,' the Aussie mum wrote.

Scroll down for video

Australian mum Sam shared a video on Instagram demonstrating how she cleaned her daughter's filthy white sneakers. She opted to use the Eraser Daddy (pictured, right), which lifted the dirt stains in seconds

Within seconds the dirt was lifted and the shoes were left looking good as new (right)

The sneakers were covered in brown dirt, particularly at the front of the shoes, but the product made it easy to remove.

'I've added a paper towel underneath the shoe so any dirty residue can fall onto that. It is super easy to do,' Sam said in the clip.

She first dampened the sponge before cleaning the sneakers and within seconds the dirt was lifted.

The Eraser Daddy features a dual-sided design of 'tri-composite material' and 'backing of FlexTexture' to remove tough stains easily.

Sam said: 'It can also be used on household floors and walls, outdoor furniture and in your bathroom sink or shower.'

In the comments many seemed amazed by the swift transformation and how easy the shoes were to clean using the product.

'Worked a treat!' one person wrote, another added: 'My white shoes need this!'

A third added: 'Wow works like magic.'

It follows after a cleaning enthusiast has impressed hundreds online after opting to use toothpaste to clean her dirty Nike sneakers

It follows after a cleaning enthusiast has impressed hundreds online after opting to use toothpaste to clean her dirty Nike sneakers.

Carolina McCauley, from Perth, Western Australia, posted a video online encouraging others to try the lesser-known trick and demonstrated how it works.

'My secret for cleaning white shoes,' she captioned the clip showing the dark marks on her shoes.

In a TikTok video Carolina McCauley, from Perth, used a tiny dollop of toothpaste on an old toothbrush (left) then gently scrubbed the surface (right)

After a few minutes the toothpaste was wiped off using a clean damp cloth. The shoes were left looking brand new (pictured, right)

Carolina used a tiny dollop of toothpaste on an old toothbrush then gently scrubbed the surface.

She wiped the toothbrush in one motion starting at the front then worked her way to the back.

After a few minutes the toothpaste was wiped off using a clean damp cloth.

It's essential to only use non-gel white toothpaste on white-soled sneakers and test a small area of the shoe beforehand.

As toothpaste can help whiten and brighten teeth, the bathroom staple also worked wonders at cleaning Carolina's sneakers.

The simple trick would be ideal for those who take care of their sneakers but may still have a few dirt marks.

In the comments other Instagram users tagged their friends to share the hack further across the internet.

'Lots of good ideas here,' one person wrote.

'Awesome. Another cool trick is to use the 'Pink Stuff' paste and the Magic Eraser sponge,' another suggested.

Carolina has a gained a social media following of more than 4.8million people by sharing 'genius' cleaning videos.
A clever Kmart shopper has opted to use a wine rack to organise her food storage containers.

Mum Nicole, from New South Wales, was praised by others online for her 'genius' idea after sharing images to a popular Facebook group.

'Thought I would share my idea with you all (I am not a wine drinker) so used these storage containers to fill the wine rack in my kitchen island with all pantry food just need to label them,' she wrote in the caption.

'Really helps with things going back in the right spot.'

The photos show the 30 1.9L flip lock food containers fit perfectly into each compartment of the wine rack in Nicole's kitchen.

Mum Nicole stored 30 containers from Kmart in an unused wine rack (pictured)

'Thought I would share my idea with you all (I am not a wine drinker) so used these storage containers to fill the wine rack in my kitchen island with all pantry food just need to label them,' she wrote in the caption. The containers were used to store dry food, such as rice and pasta

Nicole used the handy $6.50 containers to store her dry food, such as pasta, nice, nuts and instant coffee.

In the comments she added how the containers keep the food fresh for at least five weeks.

Others part of the online community dubbed the idea as 'genius' and 'brilliant'.

'I am going to do this with my built-in wine rack too!' one woman wrote, another added: 'Aren't you clever!'

A third woman wrote: 'Could you turn them around? That way you can see what's in them too and less chance of accidentally opening one when you pull them out.'

Nicole listened to the tip and turned each one around, which not only looked better but made it easier to see the contents of the containers.

In the comments another woman suggested turning the containers around to view what's inside, which Nicole did to make it easier for herself (pictured)

Earlier this year another customer showed off her impressive fridge organisation using similar budget containers from Kmart.

Milk, cheese, and sauces were aligned neatly on the fridge door, while all other items were placed on the shelves.

'Loving the new clear containers from Kmart! My fridge looks amazing,' the mum wrote online.

All containers and products from Kmart cost less than $10 and have hundreds of positive reviews online.

Earlier this year a Sydney mum transformed her fridge using affordable Kmart containers (pictured)
A mum-of-two behind the multi-million-dollar hot sauce company 'Bunsters' says her latest business venture was inspired by downing too many Bloody Mary's during Covid lockdowns.

The Perth mum, 44, also decided to launch her own vodka infused with the company's Sh*t the Bed sauce after a premade cocktail left her with a bad rash.

'I got a hot, blotchy itchy rash after I drank a dodgy looking cocktail that was imported from the UK. I complained to the manager to find out what was in it and I'm still waiting to hear back from them,' the former television journalist said.

'I got one of those 'we'll get right back to you' emails but they still haven't told me what was in it, so I just don't know.

'I decided to create a better alternative called the Bloody Karen.'

Former TV journalist Renae Bunster, from Perth, (pictured) is the brains behind multi-million-dollar hot sauce company. Now she's announced her latest business venture

The Perth mum launched the business after drinking one too many Bloody Marys during the coronavirus lockdown - and since then the brand has been valued at $35million dollars

After a premade cocktail left the Renae in a bad rash, she was persistent with wanting to create a better alternative and crafted the latest offering dubbed the 'Bloody Karen' (pictured)

While Renae's idea seems simple, the mum admitted that making the vodka wasn't as easy as just 'pouring the hot sauce into the vodka'.

'When I was stuck in lockdown and home-schooling my kids I was drinking quite a few Bloody Marys and the vodka got me thinking one day 'how can I make these drinks even faster'?' Renae previously told FEMAIL.

'After researching, I came up with the idea to put the Sh*t the Bed (sauce) into the vodka.

'I actually got all of the ingredients, all of the fruit and the veggies and the things that are in the hot sauce, and seeped them into the vodka.'

Renae said she enlisted the help of some mixologists and professionals to make sure it 'tastes really good', including Alchemy Distillers in the Yarra Valley in Victoria.

'When I was stuck on lockdown and I was home-schooling my kids I was drinking quite a few Bloody Marys and the vodka got me thinking one day how can I make these drinks even faster?' Renae previously told FEMAIL. 'After researching, I came up with the idea to put the Sh*t the Bed into the vodka.' (pictured: sauce with Renae)

The result is a small batch premium vodka for $70 that has been infused with all of the natural, fresh ingredients that has made Sh*t the Bed such a global hit.

The same can-do mindset fuelled Renae's latest ready-to-drink cocktail infused with vodka, spicy tomato sauce and vitamins, containing two standard drinks per can.

Renae also realised some premix cocktails don't list all the ingredients included on the packaging, but the Bunsters beverages do.

'Other premixed cocktails on offer in Australia are really disappointing. They're either too weak, too small, too full of sugar or full of God knows what because they don't have ingredients on them,' Renae claims.

'Most of them will give you diabetes before they give you a buzz. My new premium range of ready to drink has addressed all the pain points I encountered with every single other pre-made cocktail on the market.'

Bunsters also sells a range of other cocktails including mojito, margarita and long black-tini

While her business is valued at $35million and Renae's personal share is $15million, she has no plans to spend her earnings.

'I have no interest in selling off the company now, we've only just got started. I think these cocktails have the potential to scale globally. There is no other company on the planet doing what we're doing,' she said.

'We're the first company in the world to put a Mango Daiquiri in a can! Can you believe that? And it's an unreal drink. It's our most popular seller.'

The Bloody Karen cocktail is available to purchase on the Bunsters website.

To celebrate the Bloody Karen cocktail, Bunsters is giving away $500 worth of Bunsters products to the person with the best Karen Haircut in Australia

To celebrate the Bloody Karen cocktail, Bunsters is giving away $500 worth of Bunsters products to the person with the best 'Karen' haircut in Australia.

Participants must be over 18 and the person in the photo must consent to being entered. The haircut doesn't even have to be current.

Those interested in taking part in the competition can enter by sending a photo to karen@bunstersworldwide.com.

Entries close August 12 and the winner will be handpicked by Renae.
A woman has been left scratching her head after finding two house-shaped objects stuck to a wall in her new rental.

Seeking advice Ruth shared a series of images to a popular Australian Facebook group - but others were just as confused.

'I just moved into a new house. The previous owners were VERY organised (far more so than me!) They had places and systems and nooks for everything,' she wrote.

'We can't work out what some of the things they installed are for.'

Seeking advice, Ruth shared images to a popular Australian Facebook group after she was left scratching her head over two house-shaped objects stuck to a wall in her new rental (pictured). Many were quick to guess if the item was a broom and umbrella holder or dog lead holder, but both were incorrect

Ruth said the identical objects looked like 'little plastic house-shaped' items placed on the side of the fridge wall.

In the comments many were quick to guess if the item was a broom and umbrella holder or dog lead holder, but both were incorrect.

After some investigation, another person said the products are key holders that once featured two birds perched inside the tiny houses.

After some investigation, another person said the products are key holders that once featured two birds perched inside the tiny houses (pictured)

Once the purpose was discovered, others asked why the previous tenants only took the bird key holders and not the entire wall device.

Ruth added: 'There aren't any birds among the keys they left behind.'

In the kitchen she was also stumped by a strange device stuck underneath one of the cabinets.

Ruth described it as a 'green flat thing with possibly some kind of blade or metal on one side'.

In the kitchen Ruth was also stumped by a strange device stuck underneath one of the cabinets (pictured). She described it as a 'green flat thing with possibly some kind of blade or metal on one side'

Unlike the key holder, many knew the product was a jar or lid opener

Unlike the key holder, many knew exactly what the object was and the purpose it serves.

Others online informed Ruth the product is a jar or can lid opener, and similar items can be purchased online today.

'Thank you!!! Now I just have to figure out how it works,' Ruth wrote.

Earlier this month bargain hunters were baffled by a bizarre metal gadget that 'looks like an old-fashioned torture device' that was spotted in a Sydney Op Shop.

Earlier this month bargain hunters were baffled by a bizarre metal gadget that 'looks like an old-fashioned torture device' that was spotted in a Sydney Op Shop. Amy, from Manly, posted a picture of the metal ornament to Facebook - asking if anyone knows what it is.

Shopper Amy, from Manly, posted a picture of the metal ornament to Facebook - asking if anyone knows what it is.

She showed a clip of device - which has scissor-like handles - moving and showing a serrated edge.

'I saw this in the op shop today and am trying to work out what it's for because it looks a torture device hahaha. Anyone know?' she wrote to Facebook group I Love To Op Shop.

Dozens of people were quick to comment, suggesting it could be a cigar cutter with others suggesting it could be a more risque device like a sex toy.

However, others rightly revealed it was an egg cutter, which is used to chop the top off from hard boiled eggs.
Three-quarters of Britons are not aware that kidney disease can affect the heart, a poll has found.

Roughly 1.8 million people in the UK suffer chronic kidney disease, where the organs dont function as well as they should.

But the condition can also put strain on the heart  with studies showing kidney disease sufferers are 20 times more likely than others to die from heart problems.

This is because the heart has to pump much harder than usual to deliver blood to malfunctioning kidneys.

Fiona Loud, policy director at the charity Kidney Care UK, said: Most people simply do not realise the vital role their kidneys play until they stop working properly. If detected early enough, further harm or deterioration can be delayed or even prevented.

Steps to lower the risk include stopping smoking, reducing salt intake and losing weight.

People who have chronic kidney disease are 20 times more likely to die of heart problems than people who don't (stock image)

Harmful levels of salt are lurking in healthy supermarket foods, experts warn.

Campaign group Action On Salt analysed 100 popular products and found that of 62 making health or nutrition claims, 23 (37 per cent) contained levels of salt above the level recommended by the Government.

Experts warned shoppers to beware the health halo effect, when manufacturers play up a positive aspect of a product and hope consumers dont look at the overall picture.

Cardiovascular expert Graham MacGregor said: Its a national scandal that big food companies are blatantly contributing to unnecessary strokes and heart disease.

Magic way to sweeten pills

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital have invented a novel technique to persuade sick children to take their medicine.

The patients turn old pill bottles into magic potions by writing their own labels such as This makes me a superhero, and describing how they want the medicine to taste.

Pharmacists secretly fill the bottles with sweets, and dispense them separately from their actual medication.

Richard Goodwin from the hospital said: Taking regular medicine can be quite daunting. This helps them develop a sense of control over whats happening and build their confidence to ask questions.

Whats the difference between measles and German measles?

The MMR vaccine (stock image) protects against both measles and German measles

Both are contagious diseases triggered by viruses. But the viruses are different and the two diseases have slightly different characteristics.

German measles, which is also called rubella, is caused by a togavirus. It sparks a red-pink rash made up of small spots. Patients also develop swollen glands in the neck and flu-like symptoms.

The rash can take as long as three weeks to appear after the patient becomes infected.

Measles is caused by a morbillivirus. Patients suffer a cough and a rash, which usually appears as a collection of red spots.

Cold-like symptoms come on roughly a week after infection, and the rash three to five days later.

The MMR vaccine protects against both diseases.
One day in late October, 2020, Bill Murrell walked into the backyard of his home at Beecroft in Sydney's north-west carrying a cut-down semi-automatic rifle he kept in the garage.

Murrell would later deny the test firing he conducted into a tree trunk was target practice - he hadn't used the .22 Ruger for a while and just thought he should try it out.

A few weeks later the then 73-year-old would fit the Ruger with a silencer and laser sight and drive the 10km to Wahroonga to ambush his 49-year-old son-in-law in a barrage of gunfire.

Before shooting ten rounds at his daughter Danielle's estranged husband Mirko Uskovic that morning, Murrell had lived a quiet life devoted to family.

Daily Mail Australia has pieced together Murrell's descent from one of Sydney's leafier suburbs to a cold prison cell, based on documents tendered in court.

Grandfather Bill Murrell donned a hood and mask before he fired ten shots at his son-in-law Mirko Uskovic in a daylight ambush at his home on Sydney's upper north shore. Murrell is pictured with wife Donna and their four granddaughters

Bill Murrell's first shot hit Mirk Uskovic in the neck (above) but nine more rounds missed his daughter's husband. Murrell told police he believed Uskovic had been taking money from his wife's account after she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and awarded $1.8million

Murrell's world changed in June 2019 when Danielle, a mother of four daughters who worked in marketing, was diagnosed with rapid onset motor neurone disease, a terminal illness.

Danielle Uskovic was diagnosed with early onset motor neurone disease in June 2019

Danielle would receive a $1.8million insurance payout as a result of the disease but there were other problems with Mirko, her husband of 22 years.

On September 19, 2020, police attended the marital home in Highlands Avenue, Wahroonga, after reports of an incident.

When officers returned to the address later that day they found 41 cannabis plants under the house.

Mirko, a part-time window cleaner, claimed the plants belonged to both him and Danielle and were being grown for medicinal purposes for his wife.

[Mirko would plead guilty to cultivating prohibited plants and be sentenced to a 14-month community correction order].

Later than month Danielle left Highlands Avenue with the couple's youngest child and moved in with her parents at Beecroft.

Wahroonga, one of Sydney's most prestigious suburbs, is on the city's upper north shore. Danielle and Mirko Uskovic lived at 25 Highlands Avenue with their four daughters

Murrell would tell detectives Mirko had 'virtually kicked her out' out her house, according to an agreed statement of facts tendered in court.

The same document states Mirko had been 'siphoning' money out of Danielle's account since he learnt she was unwell - taking $10,000 to $20,000 at at time for a total of $100,000.

Danielle paid Mirko $350,000 to vacate the Highlands Avenue property and he was supposed to be out by 4pm on November 12, the 18th birthday of the couple's oldest child.

The day before that deadline Murrell drove to Highlands Avenue and walked into the front yard wearing a high-visibility vest and black face covering.

When Mirko opened the door about 2pm he did not recognise his father-in-law - who was carrying something in front of him - as the man who turned and left the property.

Murrell fitted a laser sight and silencer to this shortened semi-automatic Ruger .22 rifle which he concealed in a blue blanket. He used the weapon in a daylight ambush on his son-in-law

Mirko Uskovic had been loading belongings in his Kia Carnival (above, with boot open) when his father-in-law opened fire. Police have placed markers where they located spent cartridges

Mirko warned the three children still living with him about what he had seen because they would be alone when he left the house.

The next day Murrell returned to Highlands Avenue about 9.30am and parked his Holden Captiva five doors down from his daughter and son-in-law's place.

He was wearing a high-visibility vest over a black hooded jumper, sunglasses, black gloves and a face mask.

Mirko had been ferrying belongings from the house to his black Kia Carnival which was parked in the carport next to a white Ford Focus.

About 10am, Murrell walked down the driveway, through the carport and towards the backyard with the Ruger concealed under a blue blanket and a seven-shot .22 Harrington & Richardson revolver in his pocket.

Bill Murrell's wife Donna is pictured with a friend outside Hornsby Local Court after one of her husband unsuccessfully applied for bail. He has pleaded guilty to shooting with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced in August

As Mirko walked out the front door and made his way to the Kia, Murrell swung around, raised the Ruger and opened fire from 3 to 4m away on his son-in-law.

When the first shot hit Mirko on the right side of the neck he yelled out, 'Somebody help me!' Murrell tried to get closer by walking around the vehicle between them but Mirko circled the car as he sought cover.

As Murrell kept firing shots - which all missed - Mirko picked up a long metal window-cleaning pole on the floor of the carport to defend himself.

Neighbour Scott Kirby heard Mirko's yelling and arrived on the scene to find the pair standing on opposite sides of the Ford Focus. Murrell was moving around the car towards Mirko, who shouted out: 'Call the police, he's got a gun'.

Mirko Uskovic used a window-cleaning pole visible in the bottom left of this picture to fight off his father-in-law while he shot at him. Numbered markers show where bullet casings were found

Stickers show where four of Murrell's bullets lodged in the car port of his daughter and son-in-law's Wahroonga home. Murrell told police he was only trying to scare Mirko Uskovic

As Kirby left to call police Murrell fired five or six more bullets which missed Mirko. When he lowered the weapon Mirko struck him in the face with the pole, knocking him to the ground and forcing him to drop the rifle.

Mirko then ran to his attacker and began punching and kicking him in an effort to keep him on the ground. The revolver fell from Murrell's pocket and when his face mask came off Mirko finally recognised his father-in-law.

Each time Murrell attempted to regain his feet Mirko kicked him in the face and said, 'Stay down'. Mirko kept calling for help and grabbed the revolver from Murrell who sustained fractures to his right eye socket, right collar bone and nose.

Police arrived and Mirko dropped the revolver when told to. Murrell was arrested and asked what happened by a detective senior constable.

'My daughter has a problem with him,' Murrell said. 'They've separated and I was asked to come in, he's moving out at 10, uh, 4 o'clock this evening... '

Murrell went to confront his son-in-law with this a seven-shot .22 Harrington & Richardson revolver in his pocket. The weapon fell out onto the ground during the pair's struggle

Police carry a brown paper evidence evidence bag containing the Ruger rifle after the shooting in Highlands Avenue, Wahroonga, on November 12, 2020

Murrell then claimed it was Mirko who had attacked him. 'When I was getting the best of him he started screaming, and I'm nearly 75, he got the best of me,' he said.

Detective: 'So he did this to you, is that what you just said?'

Murrell: 'Oh yep.'

Detective: 'And what have you done to him?'

Murrell: 'Nothing. There's isn't even a mark on him.'

Forensic officers found ten spent bullet casings at the scene after Mirko and Murrell were both taken to Royal North Shore Hospital. Four bullet holes were located in the brick wall of the car port.

Murrell had two bullet cases in his pocket and a single .22 cartridge was found in his Captiva, as well as 13.1 grams of cannabis in a resealable bag.

Murrell claimed it was Uskovic who had attacked him. 'When I was getting the best of him he started screaming, and I'm nearly 75, he got the best of me,' he said. The house is pictured

Murrell said he bought the Ruger rifle between 18 months and two years before he ambushed his son-in-law. The rifle is pictured inside a blue blanket at the scene next to a revolver

A search of his Beecroft home uncovered a .22 lever-action Winchester rifle, several boxes of ammunition and two silencers, one of which was inoperable.

Detectives began interviewing Murrell in his hospital bed about 4pm - the time Mirko had been due to leave the Highlands Avenue house.

It was then he claimed Mirko had kicked his daughter out of her own home and had been taking money from her account. He said he had been 'pretty irate'.

Murrell told police he had gone to Highlands Avenue to 'see that everything was OK', to ensure Mirko did not take anything from the house that was not his, to 'scare' him, and to tell him to 'back off'.

He had loaded the Ruger's ten-shot magazine before he left home and attached the laser sight because his eyesight was poor but it was not properly aligned.

He denied he had attempted to disguise himself and said he had not taken his mobile phone with him because he was 'an old school bloke' who only used it to make calls.

Murrell told police he had gone to Highlands Avenue to 'see that everything was OK', to ensure Mirko did not take anything from the house that was not his, to 'scare' him, and to tell him to 'back off'.

This Winchester Model 9422 XTR .22 lever-action rifle was found at Bill Murrell's Beecroft home. He told police the rifle belonged to a friend and he was considering buying it

'The offender went to confront the victim but when the victim saw him the victim started chasing the offender and attacking him with a long metal pole,' the statement of facts said.

'The offender had been holding the rifle in his arms, pointing down towards the ground, but when he was attacked by the victim he pointed the rifle at the victim and fired half a dozen times in response.

'He thinks he missed, he does not recall seeing the laser pointer dot on the victim and he did not have a clue where the bullets he fired went.'

Murrell later claimed the rifle had initially discharged when Mirko threw a pillow at him and his finger had jerked on the trigger.

'It was only after this that the victim got the steel pole and started attacking the offender, which led to the offender firing off half a dozen shots at him,' the statement of facts said.

Murrell said he did not know what harm he might cause but denied one of his bullets could have killed Mirko. 'I thought it just going off would have scared him and I would have taken off'

Murrell had then fired four to five more rounds to 'scare the hell out of him' and admitted, 'Look, more than likely the first one might have struck [Mirko] I don't know to quite honest.'

'He wanted to scare the victim because he was "relentless with my daughter" and he wanted to stop the victim from trying to get money off her,' the statement of facts said.

'He admitted that he didn't say anything to that effect to the victim, but that was his intention in shooting at him.'

Murrell said he did not know what harm he might cause but denied one of his bullets could have killed Mirko. 'I thought it just going off would have scared him and I would have taken off.'

When asked whether he had pursued Mirko while he was firing at him, Murrell said, 'Ah, no not really'. He had not been trying to improve his position to make clearer shots

When asked whether he had pursued Mirko while he was firing at him, Murrell said, 'Ah, no not really'. He had not been trying to improve his position to make clearer shots.

'If I stayed in one place I'd be, you know, at the close range I could have really hurt him,' he said. 'I mean, I could have really hurt him if I wanted to.'

He had gone to Highlands Avenue the day before the shooting to check if anything had been taken out of the house without his daughter's knowledge. That afternoon he had only been carrying a bag of tools, not a firearm.

On that occasion, Murrell had seen Mirko was growing cannabis, which made him 'pretty angry' as his granddaughters lived there, but that had nothing to do with the shooting.

Police found two silencers and several boxes of ammunition at Murrell's home. He has pleaded guilty to a raft of firearm offences. The silencers are pictured below boxes of bullets

Murrell had not held a firearm licence for years. He had bought the Ruger at least 18 months ago and the Winchester belonged to a mate.

William Terence Murrell, now 75, was originally charged with shooting with intent to murder but pleaded guilty to shooting at a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He has also admitted possessing a prohibited drug and a range of weapons offences including possessing an unauthorised pistol and prohibited firearm.

Mirko Uskovic has not been charged with any offence of dishonesty and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest he took his wife's money, only that Murrell alleged to police that he had.

Murrell is due to be sentenced in the New South Wales District Court in August.


Daily Mail Australia's Alisha Rouse (pictured in Melbourne on a more successful, and warmer, trip) was stuck in the city for three days

I'm one of the travellers who has been left stranded at an airport with no idea of what to do or where to go after being caught up in the chaos that is consuming Australia's airlines.

What was supposed to be a simple two-hour flight turned into a three-day nightmare.

And at no point during the entire ordeal we were provided with an offensively simple remedy - a dedicated customer service line.

My partner and I had booked to fly at 9.15pm from Melbourne Airport to Sydney on Monday night with Virgin Australia - but this flight was cancelled a few days prior.

Instead, we were put on a 7.30pm flight the same night, which was hardly more than a minor inconvenience.

Our experience began normally, heading to Melbourne Airport 90 minutes early because of the long security queues we had heard so much about.

We needn't have worried as there was staff everywhere making sure the process was quick. In fact, the screening was so efficient it led us to believe the airport drama had been exaggerated.

A glance at the board soon told us our flight was delayed by an hour. When we went to inquire, we were met with a kind Virgin Australia staff member who confirmed the delay, while looking moments away from bursting into tears.

She knew something we didn't.

We were stuck watching the plane which was supposed to be taking us home (pictured, right) sit on the tarmac. Three days later, we finally landed in Sydney (left)

Nearly two hours after our flight was scheduled to leave, the screens announced it was cancelled - and there was not a single staff member anywhere to be seen.

Passengers were shouting, crowding around the gate, with some crying as they realised they were now stuck at an airport with children late at night in a city they didn't know.

While some leeway must be given to airlines hit hard by a global staff shortages - not to mention the Federal Government's seven-day Covid isolation rule that put further pressure on rosters - the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to speak to someone, anyone, who could help was a shock.

With no real competition, the few major airlines which operate in Australia are being left to run amok, with feeble consumer laws leaving a gaping hole which demands a watchdog with teeth.

After being told the flight was delayed by an hour, we were among the hundreds of passengers told we'd be stranded in Melbourne - likely for several days (pictured, our gate in Melbourne)

When some unlucky Virgin staff came off an arriving flight, they quickly fastened up their black coats and scurried off, ensuring no one noticed their uniform and tried to ask for help.

A pilot, cornered by a group of upset young women, dutifully told the waiting mob that Virgin couldn't find a first officer to accompany him in the cockpit as the arriving flight had been delayed and he had run out of legal hours. He added that we should all go home.

We spoke to one young family who said the cancelled flight had been their rescheduled flight after having already spent two days living in an airport hotel with their three kids.

A quick look online finds similar stories everywhere - flights cancelled with no notice that has lead to missed weddings, festivals and hotel bookings.

And worst of all, passengers stranded for days and no-one to offer any help.

After being sent out into the cold Melbourne night after the cancellation on Monday, I received this message on Tuesday morning letting me know when my new flight was - on Thursday, and via Canberra

When a staff member finally arrived, she announced to the increasingly angry crowd that we were to 'go home' and Virgin would be in touch with our rescheduled flights 'in one or two days'.

She refused to answer questions, saying passengers should 'ask other Virgin staff in the airport' - which, at that time at night, only involved attendants trying to board their own flights.

There was no customer service desk or central location customers could go to to seek help.

Later that night, I got a text telling me I had a seat on another plane - 67 hours later, and with a stop in Canberra.

Prior to the airport chaos, we'd spent a lovely weekend in the Yarra Valley with two of our closest friends and their Australian bulldog, Hughie (pictured at a vineyard, looking as fed-up as I was by the time we finally made it home to Sydney)

FLYING IN AUSTRALIA: YOUR RIGHTS Jetstar: If the alternative flight offered to you after a cancellation is unacceptable, you can get a full refund. If a flight is delayed or cancelled, leaving you stranded overnight, you can claim $30 per food per day, up to $150 for a hotel room and any 'reasonable costs' - which could include new underwear, hygiene products, etc. if you're at your home airport and your flight is delayed or cancelled, you get a meal voucher - but nothing else. Qantas If the alternative flight offered to you after a cancellation is unacceptable, you can get a full refund. If a flight is delayed or cancelled, leaving you stranded overnight, you can claim $30 per food per day, up to $200 for a hotel room and any 'reasonable costs' - which could include new underwear, hygiene products, etc. If you're stranded for more than 12 hours overnight, you get $50 for food. If you're at your home airport, you get a meal voucher is the delay is two or more hours, and a cab fare if you have to go home and come back the next day. Virgin Australia If the alternative flight offered to you after a cancellation is unacceptable, you can get a full refund. If a flight is delayed or cancelled, leaving you stranded overnight, you can claim $50 per food per day, up to $220 for a hotel room and any 'reasonable costs' - which could include new underwear, hygiene products, etc. Rex Rex's policy is by far the least generous. You get nothing for any hotel you're forced to stay in after being stranded, and nothing for food either. If the alternative flight offered to you after a cancellation is unacceptable, you can get a full refund. If your flight is delayed by 90 minutes or more, they'll give you a snack - or maybe a meal voucher. Advertisement

Desperate for more answers and to find out what customer care was on offer including hotels, meals and compensation, I called Virgin's only contact number - only to be told there was no customer service team.

The only way of speaking to a member of customer service was to submit an online 'feedback form' and await their dutiful reply - hardly useful to hundreds of passengers stuck in a dark city in the rain with nowhere to go.

At least the poor woman tasked with answering my call was able to book me onto a direct flight nine hours earlier than the Canberra one, although lord knows why that wasn't my rescheduled flight in the first place.

After an inordinate amount of googling, I discovered what help Virgin can offer - $220-a-night for a hotel room, which is more generous than its competitors, and $50-a-day for food.

All of this has to be paid for out of the customer's pocket, which racked up a hefty bill by the time I finally boarded my flight home.

Qantas is no different, with shocking recent examples including moving a baby onto a different flight from her own parents and forcing countless passengers to wait days on end for their luggage.

In the US, Europe and many other jurisdictions, delays and cancellations prompt financial compensation from airlines - something airlines Down Under feel no need to offer.

Why would they? How else are you planning on getting to Broome?

Under EU law, any delay of more than three hours will get passengers up to $887 each, while in America many major airlines voluntarily offer cash as a way of apologising to customers.

Here in Australia? They owe you nothing.

Not a cent for lost work, not a cent for inconvenience, not a cent for their failure to deliver on a very simple contract - getting you to where you want to go in a reasonable amount of time.

If you fly with Rex, the airline won't even pay for an overnight hotel - even if the company is solely responsible for leaving you stranded.

There's no doubt Covid, as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers who have left Australia since the pandemic, have created a logistical nightmare for airlines here and across the world.

Qantas sources say the company is recording a sickie rate of a staggering 20 per cent every day.

Part of this is driven by the fact pilots can't wear masks in the cockpit for safety reasons, so often they are forced into isolation when they or a pilot catch Covid.

But after two-and-half years, shouldn't these multi-billion dollar companies be better prepared?

I got off lightly compared to other Australian travellers. Qantas moved the Braham family's 13-month-old baby girl (pictured) onto a separate flight after they were left stranded in Rome

This couple spent more than 20 hours on hold across 55 calls to Qantas' disastrous offshore support centres trying to fix the issue

With any other type of industry, customers would vote on their feet - but with only two major airlines dominating skies Down Under - there's just no competition.

It creates the perfect environment for airlines to run riot, blaming the pandemic for problems they've had years to come up with innovative ways to fix.

They could all start by bringing in a dedicated customer service line for stranded passengers, operating at all times when flights are scheduled.

It really is the least they could do.
Cops fear a full-scale war could break out between Australia's largest gang the Rebels and their bitter rivals the Comanchero after an alleged feud in a notorious bikie 'royalty' family.

The powerful Vella family, once a close-knit clan of Maltese-Australian brothers and cousins, is now split by senior Rebel Jess Vella's recent defection to the Comanchero.

Daily Mail Australia understands the NSW Criminal Groups Squad is on alert for fear of retaliation by disaffected Rebels after the July 15 switch by Jesse, the first member of the Vella family to leave the club.

The rebels have around 2000 members nationally and 70 chapters.

Jesse, 36, was lured over by new Comanchero boss Allan Meehan, who he had become good mates with when Meehan was also a Rebels club member.

The pair remained friends after Meehan's own defection from the Rebels, when he too was enticed by then Comanchero 'commander of the world' Mark Buddle to switch allegiances.

Jesse Vella was at the front of the church with his brother Johnny and cousin Damien Vella in January when burying his father Gino.

Australia's bikie 'royalty', the Vella family, has been torn apart by the defection of Jesse Vella from the Rebels to rival gang the Comanchero, sparking fears of a war of retribution

Jesse Vella (left) with his cousin, Rebels national president Damien Vella (centre) and Jesse's s brother Johnny Vella (right) looked the picture of club solidarity at the funeral of Jesse and Johnny's father, Gino in January

Allan Meehan and Gino Vella, who became friends when both were Rebels, are now united as Comanchero after rival club's new president enticed the Rebels 'royal family' member to patch over

Jesse Vella (left) embraces a fellow Rebel at his dad Gino's funeral six months before leaving the club which has reportedly been less of a 'family' after the exile of long term president Alex Vella Sr (right)

The solidarity between the three men was on display at the massive bikie funeral at Our Lady of Victories Church, Horsley Park, before hundreds of mourners for Gino, a senior Rebel and brother of the exiled former president, Alex Vella Snr.

Jesse Vella read a poem in tribute to Gino, who he said had shaped him as a man, and ended it with the club war cry 'RFFR' - 'Rebels Forever, Forever Rebels'.

However, it is understood there had already been tension among the three men which thereafter deepened, and that stresses within the club go back to the banishment of Jesse's uncle Alex Vella Snr.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting that members of the extended Vella family in Sydney are involved in the Rebels club or any other bikie gang.

One insider said that Jesse's switch of allegiances is partly due to a 'changed culture' in the club, but that his father Gino would be 'rolling in his grave' at the family rift.

Also known as 'the Maltese Falcon', he remains stranded in Malta after then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison cancelled his visa on the grounds of 'bad character' back in 2014.

Alex's son Damien Vella, took over as Rebels' national president, but a club insider told Daily Mail Australia that Damien lacked his father's charm and their difference in management styles had left more than one member disaffected.

The late Gino Vella (left) and his former national president brother Alex Vella created Australian bikie family 'royalty' with their sons as members, but the split with Jesse now makes police fear a gang war could erupt

Jess Vella (centre) delivered a poem to his late father which he ended with the club war cry 'Rebels Forever, Forever Rebels', six months before leaving for rivals, the Comanchero

Alex Vella and his son Alex Vella Jr (above) in happier days before the exile of the 'Maltese Falcon' by Scott Morrison, Gino Vella's sudden death and Jesse's defection

'The club just isn't the same as what it was in the old days,' he said. 'Some senior members are okay with Jesse leaving, others are not.'

The sudden death of Jesse's father Gino Vella - who is believed to have had six children - in January means another break-up of the Vella family's holdings in Horsley Park, the suburb 40km south-west of the Sydney CBD.

Jesse's grandparents Victoria and Gretzzu, who brought up 11 children in a cave in Malta, bought a strawberry farm at Horsley Park which is still in the family, as are hectares of land.

Before his permanent exile back to the country he was born in, Alex Vella Snr operated as national president of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club for four decades from a multi-million dollar property.

The then Rebels chieftan's two hectare compound was crammed with pristine 20th century Corvettes and dozens of customised Harley Davidsons from the then bikie boss's collection of 300.

Above the late Gretzzu and Victoria Vella with their 11 children including Alex (circled, right) and Gino (left) acquired large tracts of Horsley Park in western Sydney which will now be divided up

Rebels insiders say Gino Vella (left, his coffin at the funeral) and (right, fishing) would be 'rolling in his grave' at the split in the Vella family and the divided bikie club loyalties

Some Rebels members feel the country's biggest bikie gangs (anove at Gino Vella's funeral) is not the same anymore under the direction of Damien Vella, who took over when Alex Vella Sr had his Australian visa cancelled

Alex Snr also owned seven rental properties, but his legal expulsion has forced the family to sell up houses and possessions.

Gang squad police have cautioned Vella family members not to resort to violence or confrontation in the wake of Jesse's club desertion.

Last October, police put Allan Meehan on a warning when he became Commander of the Sydney Chapter of the Comanchero, which is seen as effectively the national president.

Meehan took over from Melbourne-based boss Mick Murray, who was arrested in April over the the 2019 gangland killing of Mitat Rasimi

Former Comanchero president Mark Buddle is currently under extradition order from Turkey, due to be deported back to Australia to face questioning over the 2010 shooting of Armaguard security worker Gary Allibon

Murray had taken over from Mark Buddle, currently under an extradition order from Turkey, who left Australia for the Middle East in 2016 over the 2010 shooting of Armaguard security worker Gary Allibon.

Police concern over gang warfare in Sydney escalated in May after the shooting of Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed, who escaped with serious injuries, and his brother Omar, who died at the scene.

Jesse Vella's new role as a senior Comanchero recruit has put him in the sights senior gang squad police.

Criminal Groups Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor, warned last year that Comanchero gang members would continue to be targeted,

This was after Allan Meehan had his home searched, days after posting a photo on Instagram of his club vest with his new title and boasting about about his appointment with the the words, 'U cant see the eyes of the demon, until him come a callin'.

The Rebels gang has been subject to a bikie group crackdown by police since before Alex Snr's visa cancellation.

Alex, who held Australian residency for 47 years but not citizenship, later had the revocation confirmed by the Federal Court of Australia ruling unanimously against his re-entering the country.

Police documents filed to the court at the time and obtained by Daily Mail Australia said some members of the Rebels club had been involved in drug dealing, money laundering, serious assaults, kidnapping, extortion, firearms offences, threatening law enforcement officers and intimidating court witnesses.
A mum who was kidnapped, bashed and held captive while three months pregnant has revealed how the terrifying attack caused her baby to be born prematurely - before later dying from a bleed on the brain.

Jorgia Forbes's baby girl, Hope, was born prematurely in August 2020, just four months after the nine-hour ordeal in which she was abducted by thugs and held at a Gold Coat apartment complex.

She was held at knife point, stripped and dragged over fences as the trio accused her of stealing drugs.

At one point she jumped out of a moving car before being chased and dragged back in, with onlookers on the street calling police.

Having survived the horrific ordeal and given birth prematurely, doctors delivered another crushing blow as they revealed a bleed on Hope's brain meant she had no chance of survival without being permanently on a life-support machine.

'I literally held her in my arms until she turned blue and died,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Ms Forbes (pictured with her older daughter, Ruby) said she thought of her daughter and prayed when she fell asleep after her all-night ordeal

'I could hear the police, I could almost see them, I heard the sirens', Ms Forbes (pictured) said after she was dragged through the Gold Coast streets at night while police looked for her

'It was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt, I honestly would not wish it upon my worst enemy.'

The 27-year-old said the horror began when agreed to help one of her attackers, Bodie John Collins, who she knew from buying marijuana.

Collins had been kicked out of where he lived so she organised accommodation for him at the Aloha Apartments in Surfers Paradise and helped him move house.

After heading home that evening she said Collins kept calling her and asked if they could meet because he 'wanted to hang out' with her.

When she went to meet him downstairs Ms Forbes said her other attacker, Patutahora Hakaria, 'jumped out of the bushes with a knife'.

'I had no idea what was going on, or who he was,' she said.

Jorgia Forbes (pictured with Hope) said she thought she was going to die of a broken heart when her baby died in October 2020

'He was saying to me, "don't f***ing say anything" and had a knife to my throat,' Ms Forbes said.

'He dragged me across the road and threw me in the backseat, where Bodie was and in the front seat was Grace Edmonds, [Hakaria's] girlfriend.'

When they drove off at speeds of 70km/h, her 'first instinct was to jump out of the car' so she opened the door and rolled out onto the bitumen.

'I knew I couldn't just jump out on my feet as I would have broken something, I knew what I had to do to save my life,' she said.

Collins and Hakaria tackled her and dragged her back into the car along the cement, as onlookers on the street began alerting police.

She was then hauled to Collin's new apartment, where she was tied up, accused of stealing drugs and told she was going to die.

But police sirens prompted two of the kidnappers to drag her to a different place.

What followed was a cat-and-mouse chase where the duo dragged Ms Forbes over fences and forced her into a rideshare car.

She said Hakaria held her at knifepoint as they tried to dodge cops and she heard police dogs and sirens searching for her.

'We were hiding in bushes, I was thrown over high fences - the sniffer dogs were looking for my scent,' she said.

She was then pushed into a rideshare car the pair had ordered, but they were forced to get out and walk the rest of the way.

'I could hear the police, I could almost see them, I heard the sirens, I saw the flashing lights,' she said. 'We went through all the backways, around apartments.'

Ms Forbes was taken to the Aloha Apartments in Surfers Paradise (pictured), where one of the kidnappers lived and was held against her will - before being forced to flee to another home

When they finally reached the property around midnight, the pregnant abductee was forced to scale the high concrete wall of a patio.

Collins then forced her into a very hot shower with the idea of getting rid of her scent to ward off police dogs.

'He undressed me and scrubbed me, I had blood everywhere, bruised and he scrubbed the gravel out of my wounds with a loofah,' she said. 'I was in so much pain, everything burned.'

She said she was offered drugs and fell asleep, praying and thinking of her older daughter - before police arrived at 6.30am.

'It was the biggest relief of my life,' she said about waking up to the police picking her up off the floor. 'It was a miracle.'

Ms Forbes said scans had shown her unborn child was healthy before the horrifying abduction but developed issues afterwards.

She believes the trauma of the abduction, during which her kidnappers smashed her head into concrete and left her battered, bruised, with cuts, scrapes and 'blood everywhere', is the reason Hope died.

Ms Forbes (pictured with Hope) believes her baby's death was caused by the kidnapping ordeal

'The trauma I endured, as a mother's instinct, I believe it had something to do with Hope's death,' Ms Forbes said, who was three months pregnant at the time of the attack.

'I remember begging for my life, my unborn child's life, praying for the police to find me before they killed me,' Ms Forbes told the Southport District Court on Monday about her kidnapping.

'The people who did this showed no mercy, several times they were going to kill me.'

It was later revealed police had employed CCTV footage, sniffer dogs and drones to track down Ms Forbes after the alarm had been raised about her abduction.

Judge Jodie Wooldridge sentenced her attacker, Collins, to three years' prison last week with a parole date of April 2 next year.

He has served 114 days in pre-sentence custody already but Ms Forbes is livid with the sentence.

'I felt absolutely devastated, heartbroken and disgusted with the justice system - the whole thing was an absolute disgrace,' Ms Forbes said. 'Such a disgraceful outcome for such a horrific crime.'

Ms Forbes (pictured) who was three months pregnant at the time she was kidnapped, was forced into a car and dragged over fences while having her life threatened in a distressing nine-hour ordeal in which she thought she was going to die

'The last two years my life have been a living hell, while [Collin's life] seems to be great - the justice system has a lot to answer for.'

The other offenders Hakaria and Edmonds were sentenced last year to five years and three years in prison, respectively.

'All of this was motivated by the misplaced belief that she had stolen some money and drugs,' Judge Helen Bowskill said in the Brisbane District Court during sentencing of Hakaria and Edmonds in July, 2021.

'She [Forbes] was quite understandably terrified and thought she was going to die," Judge Bowskill said.

Ms Forbes confessed that while she had been on and off drugs in the past, she had now been clean in recent months.




The ruling People Power Party (PPP) acting chairman and floor leader said Sunday he has tendered his resignation from the acting chief, after two lawmakers quit the party's Supreme Council amid speculation it could lead to the party switching to a collective leadership system from its one-man leadership.







Kweon Seong-dong made the remarks in a Facebook post hours after Rep. Cho Su-jin of the PPP said she was stepping down as a council member. The moves come two days after the resignation of Rep. Bae Hyun-jin from the council.







"I will give up my role as the acting chairman," Kweon said. "I will make every effort to swiftly make the transition to an emergency committee system."







The departure of the two lawmakers came as many party members have raised questions about the leadership of acting chairman and floor leader Kweon after he was caught on a press camera exchanging texts with the president and carelessly exposed Yoon's criticism of suspended party chief Lee Jun-seok.







Kweon took over as acting leader of the party early this month after Lee had his party membership suspended for six months over allegations that he received sexual services paid for by a businessman in 2013 and attempted to cover it up after the allegations surfaced late last year.







Kweon is known as one of Yoon's closest confidants called Yoonhaekgwan  an abbreviation of "Yoon Suk-yeol's core associates" in Korean  that also include Reps. Chang Je-won and Yoon Han-hong of the same party.







Cho also urged Yoon's closest confidants to take responsibility for turmoil in the party.







"The so-called Yoonhaekgwan seniors should also reflect deeply on the root causes of the overall crisis," Cho said.







At least half of the nine Supreme Council members must quit for the council to be dissolved. (Yonhap)


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A fast-moving wildfire in California exploded in size overnight as windy, hot conditions fanned the blaze, forcing more than 100 homes to be evacauted, while fires in Montana and Idaho also spread.

In California's Klamath National Forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 square mile to scorching as much as 62 square miles by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials. The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames.

'It's continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we're in triple digit temperatures,' said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest.

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as the fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid.

It also allows 'firefighting resources from other states to assist California crews in battling the fires,' according to a statement from the governor's office.

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 square miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. Roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest charred more than 67.5 square miles in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 17 percent contained.

Angela Crawford leans against a fence as a wildfire called the McKinney fire burns a hillside above her home in Klamath National Forest, California, on Saturday

Crawford walks past her home as a wildfire called the McKinney fire burns above the hill from her house in the Klamath National Forest, northern California, on Saturday

Crawford and her husband stayed, as other residents evacuated, to defend their home from the Mckinney fire in Northern California

The McKinney Fire burns near Yreka, California, as it ravaged 62 square miles of vegetation, destroying a dozen homes and forcing local residents to evacuate

A firetruck drives along California Highway 96 as the McKinney Fire burns in Klamath National Forest, California, on Saturday

A pickup truck and a trailer that burned overnight in the middle of state Highway 96 are seen destroyed by the McKinney Fire in the community of Klamath River, California, on Saturday

The McKinney Fire exploded about 15 miles south of the Oregon border on Saturday in the Klamath National Forest

A significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service for the region.

'It's a very dangerous fire - the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn't burned in a while,' he said.

A small fire was also burning nearby, outside the town of Seiad, Stokesberry said. With lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the region's fires, he said.

McKinney's explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines, and assist in evacuations in California's northernmost county of Siskiyou.

Deputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service.

Over 100 homes were ordered evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96.

A man runs to a truck as a wildfire called the McKinney fire burns in Klamath National Forest, California, on Saturday evening

Cows graze while the McKinney Fire burns right behind them near Yreka, California, destroying crops, homes and livestock

A deer swims across the Klamath River as flames burn the opposite bank in Klamath National Forest, California, on Saturday

The Klamath River Community Hall is seen destroyed by the McKinney Fire in the community of Klamath River, California, on Saturday

A structure in Klamath River, California, is seen destroyed by the McKinney Fire on Saturday evening as more than 100 homes were ordered to evacuate

A general view of a damaged building caused by the McKinney Fire near Yreka, California. No deaths or injuries were reported as of Sunday morning

Smoke can be seen from a distance as firefighters attempted to put down the McKinney Fire burns near Yreka, Californi, on Saturday

Three smoke plumes from the McKinney Fire are seen early on Saturday from a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire, outdoor camera called Antelope Mt./Yreka

In this remote image provided by Cal Fire, the McKinney Fire burns in Siskiyou County as seen from the Antelope Mountain Yreka 1 observation camera, early on Saturday

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 110-milesection of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

Oregon state Representative Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight.

The sky was glowing with strikes of lightening in the clouds, while ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon, about 10 miles away. Intense heat from the fire had sent up a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which can produce its own weather system including winds and thunderstorms, Grayber said.

'These were some of the worst winds I've ever been in and we're used to big fires,' she said. 'I thought it was going to rip the roof top tent off of our truck. We got the heck out of there.'

On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety.

'The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity,' she said. 'It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds. Usually that happens with a fire during the day but not at night. I hope for everyone's sake this dies down but it's looking like it's going to get worse.'

A wildfire near the town of Elmo, Montana, also forced home and livestock evacauations as it raced across grass and timber, burning nearly 11 square miles (7,000 acres) of land on Saturday

In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire, which authorities confirmed was human-caused, on Saturday

Livestock can be seen grazing on grass as the Idaho Moose fire ravaged through 70 square miles (45,113 acres) of land on Saturday

An aeriel view spotted from Georgetown Lake, Montana, captured smokes from the Moose Fire in Idaho from 150 miles away

Fire fighters and Walla Walla Sheriff Deputies stand by at the corner of Lower Waitsburg Road and Bergevin Springs Road while battling a massive wheat fire north of Walla Walla, Washington, on Friday

Columbia County Joint Fire District #2 truck makes it's way south on Lower Waitsburg Road while battling a massive wheat fire north of Walla Walla, Washington, on Friday

A massive wheat fire burns north of Walla Walla, Washington, very near Eritage Resort and its surrounding vineyards seen here on Friday

Other wildfires were noticeably recorded throughout California and other states near the West Coast this weekend, including Idaho, Washington and Montana

In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze.

Smoke shut down a portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

Crews from several different agencies were fighting the fire on Saturday, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground.

In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire, which authorities confirmed was human-caused, on Saturday. They protected homes, energy infrastructure and the Highway 93 corridor, a major north-south route.

A red flag warning indicated that the weather could make things worse with the forecast calling for 'dry thunderstorms,' with lightning, wind and no rain.

In Hawaii, fire crews and helicopters have been fighting flames Saturday evening on Maui near Paia Bay. The Maui County Emergency Management Agency said roads have been closed and have advised residents and travelers to avoid the area. It is unclear how many acres have burned. A red flag warning is in effect Sunday.

Meanwhile, crews made significant progress in battling another major blaze in California that forced evacuations of thousands of people near Yosemite National Park earlier this month. The Oak fire was 52 percent contained by Saturday, according to a Cal Fire incident update.

As fires raged across the West, the U.S. House on Friday approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the region cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought - fueled by climate change - that have caused billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses in recent years.

The legislative measure approved by federal lawmakers Friday combines 49 separate bills and would increase firefighter pay and benefits; boost resiliency and mitigation projects for communities affected by climate change; protect watersheds; and make it easier for wildfire victims to get federal assistance.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has sponsored a similar measure.
Pictures reveal the dramatic moment armed police officers chased down and arrested a man on a residential street after a nine-year-old girl was fatally stabbed.

More than a dozen specialists converged on an address just yards from where schoolgirl Lillia Valutyte died in Boston, Lincolnshire on Thursday evening.

The man they had intended to speak to in connection with the incident allegedly fled the scene, sparking a manhunt through the quiet backstreets of the market town.

He was tracked down after a police drone went airborne, with stunned neighbours and eyewitnesses recalling the climactic chase.

Nedas Mikelionis, 24, told The Sun: 'The street was suddenly filled with police running everywhere.

'Five police cars arrived and at least 20 officers piled out including some who were armed.

'The guy they were after ran for it and police came pouring out of the house they had gone to and leapt in their cars to give chase.'

Detectives confirmed they had made an arrest after armed police swooped on a residential street close to a park around 200 yards from the road where the schoolgirl was killed early on Thursday evening.

Pictures reveal the dramatic moment armed police officers chased down and arrested a man (face pixelated for legal reasons) on a quiet street in the market town of Boston, Lincolnshire after a nine-year-old girl was fatally stabbed

Little Lillia (bottom right) was knifed at around 6.20pm on 28 July while she was reportedly playing in the street with her sister outside an embroidery and screen printing shop run by her Lithuanian mother Lina Savicke in Fountain Lane, Boston

Detectives confirmed they had made an arrest after armed police swooped on a residential street close to a park around 200 yards from the road where the schoolgirl was killed early on Thursday evening (pictured at the scene this afternoon)

A forensic officer near the scene in Boston earlier today as a police cordon remains in place following the stabbing at around 6.20pm on Thursday

Little Lillia was knifed at around 6.20pm on 28 July while she was reportedly playing in the street with her sister outside an embroidery and screen printing shop run by her Lithuanian mother Lina Savicke in Fountain Lane, Boston.

It is believed the schoolgirl was playing with her younger sister in the street at the time of the appalling attack, as their mother, Lina Savicke, worked on her tablet as she tried to keep a watchful eye over her girls.

The nine-year-old died after suffering a single stab wound on a quaint high street lane, just outside a recruitment agency that Ms Savicke had worked for. Lincolnshire Police declined to comment on whether they believe the attack was linked to her role there.

Devastated residents described seeing a discarded toy pram, understood to belong to Lilia's sibling, at the crime scene late on Thursday.

The death of the nine-year-old girl, whose family were from Lithuania, has locals left in 'profound shock' and the local MP appealing for national assistance to catch her killer

Chief Superintendent Parker announced the manhunt by reading a statement to the media at the top of Fountain Lane on Saturday, beside a growing collection of floral tributes and cuddly toys left by well-wishers in memory of Lillia.

Flowers and cuddly toy tributes left in memory of Lillia Valutyte, nine, who was stabbed to death in Boston, Lincolnshire

Detectives confirmed they had made an arrest on Saturday after armed police swooped on a residential street close to a park around 200 yards from the road where the schoolgirl was killed early on Thursday evening.

Shocked onlookers saw three men being led away from an area outside a Victorian semi-detached house in Thorold Street, alongside Central Park in the town centre of Boston, Lincolnshire.

Lincolnshire Police announced that they had made an arrest on suspicion of murder shortly before 3.50pm.

Earlier on Saturday, officers hunting the killer of Lillia published images of a bearded man wearing a blue t-shirt and black trousers who was believed to have been filmed just moments before the attack.

The images of the wanted man showed him walking in a cobbled historic street called Wormgate, just around the corner from Fountain Lane where the nine-year-old was stabbed to death on Thursday evening.

Police have not disclosed the age or sex of the people who were earlier arrested, but confirmed that they were not the parents of Lillia who was known as Lily.

Friends of Lillia were today lighting candles in her memory at the 14th century St Botolphs Church, known as the Boston Stum, just 100 yards from the murder scene.

They included Tia Mills, nine, and Imani Bradley, nine, who were in her class at the Carlton Road Academy primary school in Boston.

The death of the nine-year-old girl, whose family were from Lithuania, has locals left in 'profound shock' and the local MP appealing for national assistance to catch her killer

Shocked onlookers saw three men being led away from an area outside a Victorian semi-detached house in Thorold Street, alongside Central Park in the town centre of Boston, Lincolnshire

It is believed that officers broke down a rear door of the house at around 2.45pm before cordoning off the street and an area of the park

Lincolnshire Police announced that they had made an arrest on suspicion of murder shortly before 3.50pm. An officer is pictured at the cordoned off scene in Thorold Street, Boston

Tia who was with her mother said: She was nice. She liked Harry Potter. She was quite quiet. She was a good friend. She liked to dance.

Imani who was with her grandmother added: She was just a very lovely girl. She was nice, funny, loving and caring.

Tias mother who asked not to be named said: Its disgusting beyond words. Something needs to be done in this town to make sure our children have a confident future and are able to walk the streets. They need to feel safe.

I was devastated and traumatised speaking to some of the other parents. Their children are heartbroken. Its really shaken the town.

A prayer written out and placed on a table beside the candles, said: Today the people of Boston are in a state of shock and disbelief.

We find it hard to accept what has happened to this precious child. As a community our hearts are broken, and we cannot even begin to understand. The pain and despair that the family and their friends will be feeling.

Another prayer added: We feel helpless and inadequate in the face of such suffering.
Joe Biden has been re-infected with COVID after taking an anti-viral drug that leaves patients running a 40 per cent risk of flare-up of the virus shortly afterwards.

Taking Paxlovid leaves COVID sufferers in danger of testing positive for the virus again very quickly after clearing their initial infection.

When Paxlovid came to market in December 2021, studies from Pfizer indicated that only 1-2 percent of patients who took the drug tested positive for Covid again shortly after finishing their dosage.

But other experts say the rapid reinfection rate is closer to 40 per cent, and that Paxlovid can cause this issue by suppressing patients' immune systems too early, meaning their own bodies are unable to get a handle on COVID.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a prominent cardiologist and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University Hospital tweeted: 'I think this was predictable.'

He continued: 'The prior data suggesting 'rebound' Paxlovid positivity in the low single digits is outdates and with BA.5 is likely 20-40% or even higher.'

In a memo released by the White House, Dr. Kevin O'Connor said that the president will continue to isolate, just like he did when he first tested positive on July 21.

Dr. O'Connor also said that the president would not be prescribed Paxlovid again. The president's doctor earlier noted that it was likely that the president was infected with the BA.5 variant.

President Joe Biden pictured on July 28, two days after he first tested negative for Covid-19 following his initial diagnosis

According to Pfizer, 40,000 Paxlovid prescriptions are being written every day

In June, a Mayo Clinic study showed that five percent of adults who had taken the drug tested positive again for Covid within 30 days, according to the New York Times.

The majority of those who experienced rebound symptoms occur within two to eight days.

Some experts have said that the current treatment cycle of taking three pills twice a day for five days is too short a time period to clear Covid from the patient's body.

The conclusion of the Mayo Clinic study was that extending the time period of the course of Paxlovid was unnecessary.

The authors of the study conceded in their findings that immunocompromised people were unrepresented in the study.

Also in June, the president's chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, experienced rebound Covid-19. In his case, he did take a second round of Paxlovid.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White Houses Covid-19 response coordinator, has denied that the Paxlovid rebound numbers are nearly 50 percent.

The doctor maintained that the actual percentage of reinfections is 'in the single digits.'

Dr. Jha said: 'When people have rebound, they dont end up in the hospital. They dont end up particularly sick.'

He added: 'Paxlovid is working really well at preventing serious illness, rebound or no rebound, and thats why he was offered it. And thats why the president took it.'

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, one of CNN's medical analysts, said that Biden's reinfection was 'predictable'

Just this week, Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant that makes Paxlovid, posted huge second-quarter sales growth with revenues around $27.7 billion.

That's up from $18 billion that was reported in the second quarter of 2021.

The global sales of Paxlovid alone were $8.1 billion.

Around 40,000 Paxlovid prescriptions are being handed out on a daily basis, similar to the amount of oxycodone prescriptions that are filled every day.

Just this week, Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant that makes Paxlovid, posted huge second-quarter sales growth with revenues around $27.7 billion

Speaking to the Atlantic, Bob Wachter, the chair of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said that deciding whether or not give Paxlovid to certain patients is a 'massively complicated three-dimensional chess game.'

Wachter also said: 'I can barely decide whether want it, and I do this for a living.'

While Dr. David Boulware of the University of Minnesota told the magazine that he wants Pfizer to release more in depth study data.

He said that the data released so far by Pfizer 'suggest that theres really minimal to no benefit, most likely, for the vast majority of people.'

The president first tested positive on July 21 and then tested negative on July 26.

Biden continued to test negative on the following Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. He made his first public address on Wednesday following his initial diagnosis the previous week.
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Bradley Cooper was spotted with Vogue editor Anna Wintour at his home the day before his girlfriend Huma Abedin's birthday.

Wintour, 72, was seen at Cooper's Manhattan apartment on Wednesday evening - the day before Huma turned 46.

Her visit was an intriguing one, as Wintour is friends with both Abedin and Cooper, and is rumored to have set them up.

The following evening, Cooper welcomed guests including his mother Gloria Campano to his home, sparking rumors of a birthday bash for Huma.

She and Bradley have never been photographed together, although they're rumored to have spent the previous week together in the Hamptons.

Bradley Cooper is pictured at his Manhattan apartment on Thursday evening. His rumored girlfriend Huma Abedin turned 46 the same day, although she wasn't spotted

Vogue editor Anna Wintour - a mutual friend of Abedin and Cooper - was spotted leaving the address the same evening, furthering suspicion that Cooper was hosting a party for his rumored girlfriend

Cooper was also seen outside his property on Friday, and showed off his summer body in a tank top

The party suspiciously fell on rumored girlfriend Huma Abedin's birthday, further fueling rumors the two are dating

Abedin is reportedly dating the Silver Linings Playbook star after her 2016 divorce from disgraced politican Anthony Weiner. Weiner was found to have sent sexual messages to minors and was sentenced to prison

Cooper lounged around in several tank tops by the brand 'BANG!' a Miami-based athleisure brand established in 2014. The tank tops retail for $52 each on the 'BANG!' website.

'Anna definitely played matchmaker,' one source told Page Six. 'Shes BFFs with Bradley and adores Huma.'

The insider confirmed Bradley and Huma have been quietly dating for months after Cooper broke up with actress Diana Argon.

Abedin used to be Hillary Clinton's top aide and former wife of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, who she shares a 10-year-old son with.

Abedin and Weiner married in 2010 but divorced in 2016 after Weiner sent a lewd picture while their son was sleeping in the background.

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

The 47-year-old Cooper shares a five-year-old daughter with his Russian model Irina Shayk.

Cooper reportedly told Wintour he was looking for 'brains and beauty,' which he has supposedly found in Abedin

Abedin used to be Hillary Clinton's top aide and former wife of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, shown here, who she shares a 10-year-old son with.

Abedin and Weiner's marriage ended in 2016 after Weiner sent a lewd picture while their son was sleeping in the background

The two reportedly arrived together at the Met Gala on May 2 and then split up for the red carpet.

Pictures showed Cooper hovering behind Abedin as she showed dazzled photographers in a bright yellow dress.

Sources said the two are perfect for each other, as theyre both into power and politics and human affairs.

One source revealed to OK Magazine that Cooper told Wintour he is looking for three traits in a woman, and Huma has all of them.

'Huma has brains and beauty, and while she understands what it's like to be in the spotlight, she doesn't want to be a celebrity,' the source explained.

'On their first date, they got along better than even she could have expected!' they continued.
A depraved foster mother concocted a fake psychic to scare a teenage girl in her care into horrific sex acts before fleeing overseas to try and escape jail.

The 65-year-old Victorian woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to at least 16 years in prison.

The court heard the woman, from Croydon in Melbourne's east, made up a psychic persona named 'Robyn', who only communicated with the victim through text messages when she was 14 or 15.

The victim believed the psychic was real and feared telling anybody about the abuse she was enduring because she thought 'Robyn' would find out through her psychic powers and then tell her foster mother.

According to court documents, 'Robyn' told the victim and two other co-offenders that the psychic had 'instructed' them to perform sexual acts, The Herald Sun reported.

The offending began when the woman told the girl the psychic said she was a 'sl**' and was 'obsessed with sex' before she watched on while the victim's foster brother performed lewd acts on her.

The foster mother was sentenced to at least 16 years behind bars in the County Court of Victoria (pictured)

The woman then progressed to demanding the girl perform 'degrading' acts with sex toys and other objects.

The woman inflicted a range of horrific abuses on the girl including on one occasion where she made cruel jokes as she struck the girl 150 times with a wooden spoon, spat on her feet, and sexually penetrated her.

In another incident, she hit the girl with a piece of timber after forcing her to do 20 push-ups on a scorching 40C day and then continued with the demand and attack after the girl had stopped to treat her injuries.

The teenager fled the house of horrors and slept in a stranger's garage, where she was discovered a day later and taken to police.

Detectives interviewed the woman in 2013 where she claimed she hadn't struck the child and that she was a thief and liar.

She then fled overseas to the UK, prompting the brave teenager to report the sexual abuse she had suffered.

The woman was extradited to Victoria in 2020 and has spent 863 in custody.

Judge Rosemary Carlin on Friday sentenced the woman to 20 years and six months in prison with a non-parole period of 16 years.

She will also be on the sex offender register for life and won't be free from prison until she is in her 80s.
Erica Johnson, 36, was last seen on July 8 in Fort Myers, Florida

Concerns are growing for a Florida mother described by her family as behaving erratically before boarding a bus on July 8 with her pet rabbit and vanishing.

Detectives said that efforts to track down Erica Johnson, 36, have been hampered by the fact that she does not have a bank account or vehicle, rarely uses a phone, and does not have any active social media accounts.

'Johnson was missing, but it was upgraded to 'missing endangered' after an additional investigation,' said Brandon Sancho of Cape Coral police.

'No signs of foul play. She lives a different lifestyle where she has no phone, no vehicle, and no bank account.

'Investigators believe she left by bus and are currently working with LeeTran.'

The bus she boarded in Fort Myers was bound for Tampa, with no stops en route. Security footage shows Johnson boarding a Greyhound bus with a suitcase, travel pillow and her pet at 5:20am for the 120-mile journey.

It is unclear why there is no footage of her leaving the bus in Tampa.

Family say she had been acting out-of-character in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, and that she had shunned the chance to spend time with her children - an opportunity she usually sought-out enthusiastically.

Johnson was last seen in this image, on July 8 at 5:21am in Fort Myers, boarding a bus to Tampa

Johnson was also seen at the same bus station in Fort Myers on July 5 at 5:37pm

Her family raised the alarm on July 14, after she failed to show up for her housekeeping shift at the Best Western Plus Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach.

Johnson dyed her blond hair brown around July 4

Police searched the room she was renting inside an office complex in downtown Cape Coral and found all of her belongings, except the missing pet rabbit.

Investigators were told someone saw Johnson go into the building a week before with a black suitcase.

Johnson, originally from the St Louis area, first caused concern when in June she failed to show up for an agreed appointment to see the children she shares with her ex-husband.

She then changed her blond hair color, dying it brunette and cutting it short.

Johnson, who regularly used public transport, was seen at the Fort Myers bus station three days before she took the final bus.

Johnson's mother said the family was shocked at her vanishing.

'Erica is loved and missed by her family and friends who are devastated by her disappearance,' she told Wink News.

'We remain hopeful that she will be found safe very soon.

'If you have seen her, or have any information on her whereabouts, please contact the Cape Coral Police Department.'

Johnson, originally from the St Louis area, worked as a housekeeper at the Best Western hotel in Fort Myers Beach
Her idol Margaret Thatchers wardrobe was famously packed with clothes from British brands.

And now would-be PM Liz Truss is quite literally following suit  by also staying loyal to UK designers as she dresses to impress on her journey to No 10.

Mrs Thatchers most talked-about outfits, including her royal blue crepe suit, were by Aquascutum  a label she remained loyal to throughout her reign. Ms Truss, 47, often turns to high street chain Karen Millen.

Liz Truss, Britains Foreign Secretary and leadership candidate, arrives to speak to Conservative Party members at Fontwell Park racecourse on July 26

Liz Truss' pencil blue dress at last week's debate against Sunak cost around 200. SHe is pictured next to Margaret Thatcher arriving ahead of a summit in Tokyo in 1986

Liz Truss leaves her home before heading to Stoke on Trent for a hustings event on July 25

For last weeks BBC debate, she  like Mrs Thatcher  opted for a royal blue number, a pencil dress priced at around 200. Also last week, she posed in the Houses of Parliament in a green number with a gold chained belt.

And the day before that she also wore the label, sold by Ms Millen in 2016  this time an orange dress.

She is also a fan of London designer Winser, wearing their purple, 185 Grace Miracle dress as she met Tory members at Fontwell racecourse in West Sussex.

High street chains LK Bennett and Whistles, plus new website The Fold, are other favourites of hers.

Liz Truss is applauded by supporters outside House of Commons on July 20

Last week, she posed in the Houses of Parliament in a green number with a gold chained belt. And the day before that she also wore the label, sold by Ms Millen in 2016  this time in an orange dress

Liz Truss pictured as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, arriving at No.10 Downing Street Politicians in Westminster, London, UK - 25 Jun 2019

Liz Truss on the right next to Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie attending the Platinum Jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth on June 3, 2022
While they may wear their hearts on their sleeve when it comes to feelings and relationships, it seems that young people are a closed book when their finances are involved.

The so-called open generation are prepared to talk openly about virtually anything compared to their parents, but find it almost impossible to openly discuss money, researchers found.

A quarter of Generation Z - 24 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 - are secretive about their savings, salaries and financial status in general.

A further 28 per cent of Millennials - those aged 25 to 39 - are equally secretive and dislike revealing their financial standing or discussing what they spend or cars, holidays and homes.

The so-called open generation are prepared to talk openly about virtually anything compared to their parents, but find it almost impossible to openly discuss money, researchers found

But Generation X - those aged 40 to 55 - have no such issues with just 10 per cent saying they are guarded about their financial affairs.

Baby boomers - those aged 55 and 74 - and traditionally regarded as more tight-lipped - are the most talkative about how much cash they have with just four per cent saying they are secretive.

But only 15 per cent of Generation Z and 20 per cent of Millennials said they are secretive about their emotional wellbeing including relationships and mental health.

That compares with 35 per cent of Generation X and 47 per cent of Baby Boomers who said they are more tight-lipped about wellbeing issues.

Personal finance app HyperJar asked a nationally representative sample of 2,079 UK adults if they were comfortable being open and talking about money to their friends and family.

Baby boomers - those aged 55 and 74 - and traditionally regarded as more tight-lipped - are the most talkative about how much cash they have with just four per cent saying they are secretive

Spokesman and chief executive Mat Megans said: 'We expected the data to show that Gen Z and millennials are more frank about their finances.

'They are generally seen as more of an 'open book' compared to their parents and grandparents.

'But our research suggests that it's actually older generations who feel more comfortable talking about money.

'This might be because they've had time to accumulate wealth and establish more financially stable lives, and that this increases confidence.

'And it makes sense that those who are struggling feel the most sensitive about discussing their money problems.'

Researchers also found baby boomers are far more likely to lend money with 28 per cent saying they have done so to friends and family in the last two years.

That compared with just 24 per cent of Generation Z, 21 per cent of Millennials and 22 per cent of Generation X.

But despite their concerns about being open over money Generation Z is the least likely to worry about the financial prospects of their children.

Well over a third - 37 per cent - said they were not concerned about their prospects compared to 43 per cent of Millennials, 26 per cent of Generation X and 54 per cent of baby boomers.
One of Britains biggest gas and electricity suppliers has asked the Government for 1 billion to fund its takeover of rival Bulb.

Sky News said Octopus Energy is closing in on an agreement to buy the collapsed company, which has already cost taxpayers billions.

The Government has been trying to sell Bulb since it fell into administration last November.

Ministers stepped in to guarantee Bulbs customers would still receive energy in their homes while they tried to find a buyer.

Sky News said Octopus Energy is closing in on an agreement to buy the collapsed company, which has already cost taxpayers billions

Octopus, understood to be the only bidder, will likely inject between 100 million and 200 million as part of any deal. But it has asked the Government for 1 billion taxpayer support in return for assuming responsibility for Bulbs 1.6 million customers.

The Government will receive a share of any profit from Bulb customers as part of the deal.

Bulb collapsed amid the soaring cost of wholesale gas. It has been estimated the cost to taxpayers of its failure could reach over 3 billion.

Octopus has picked up hundreds of thousands of customers in the last year, including Avro Energys customer base.
New York governor Kathy Hochul announced late Friday that monkeypox is now a state disaster emergency as her administration struggles to disperse vaccines to contain the spread.

The announcement comes as monkeypox cases rise in New York City, the current US epicenter of the outbreak, where case counts passed 1,400 on Friday.

Hochul tweeted: 'I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront the monkeypox outbreak.

'This Executive Order enables us to respond more swiftly, and allows health care professionals to take additional steps that will help get more New Yorkers vaccinated.'

Hochul continued: 'More than one in four monkeypox cases in this country are in New York, currently having a disproportionate impact on at-risk groups.

'We are working around the clock to secure more vaccines, expand testing capacity, and educate New Yorkers on how to stay safe.'

Monkeypox is currently hitting gay men the hardest, with an estimated 95 per cent of US infections occurring among them. New York City is home to one of the United States largest LGBT communities, and is in line to receive 110,000 doses of the federal governments 800,000 upcoming monkeypox vaccines - but Hochul still wants more.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared the monkeypox disease an emergency in her state, making New York the first state to do so

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also declared a public health emergency, as he moves to 'expand outreach and access to vaccines and treatment to keep people safe.'

'New York City is currently the epicenter of the outbreak, and we estimate that approximately 150,000 New Yorkers may currently be at risk for monkeypox exposure,' he continued in the statement.

Hochul echoed the fear and told reporters Saturday 'what were seeing are signs where it could escalate dramatically.'

'When Im making the case to the federal government that we need more doses, more than weve been previously allocated, I can demonstrate there is high demand and need,' Hochul continued

The announcements are mostly made to trigger emergency administrative functions, such as increasing the pool of people eligible to administer vaccines.

It also allows physicians and nurses practitioners to give out the shout, and also makes sure vaccine providers send data to the state government.

New York is anticipating 110,000 vaccines from the federal government, of which 80,000 will go to New York City.

Hochul emphasized there is an acute danger 'particularly in the gay male population,' but said 'were going to protect them. Were not going to sweep this under the rug.'

No deaths have been registered in the country to date but several patients have been hospitalized.

The United States has become the global epicenter of the monkeypox outbreak, overtaking Spain following a record-breaking 24 hours in which 1,048 new cases were confirmed.

The updated data for Wednesday shows that there are now 4,639 confirmed cases in the U.S.

Spain currently has 3,738.

Spain has the most per capita cases of monkeypox, while the U.S. has the greatest total number

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday that the uptick in cases was likely due to an increase in testing, after it expanded capacity from 10,000 to 80,000 swabs per week.

By population  which takes into account the U.S. having seven-times more people than Spain  America has about one case per 100,000 people.

In the U.S. cases were initially mostly linked to international travel, particularly to Europe, but many are now being detected in people who became infected in the country. Experts suggest the virus may have been transmitting for a while before it was detected.

Hotspots New York City and Washington D.C. are rolling out vaccines against the virus to gay or bisexual men with multiple partners in two weeks to put a lid on the virus, but these programs have hit a brick wall with too few doses being supplied by the Federal Government.
President Yoon Suk-yeol enters a meeting room at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday, for a ceremony to credentials from newly appointed ambassadors to Korea. Yonhap



'Silent vacation' necessary for rebound, experts said



By Nam Hyun-woo



Starting today, President Yoon Suk-yeol will take a weeklong leave of absence, which will be a time for him to keep a distance from state affairs and consider how to resuscitate his sharply declining approval rating.



According to the presidential office, Yoon will take leave until Friday. The office did not specify where Yoon will spend his vacation, citing security reasons, but he will be outside Seoul for two to three days and will visit places relevant to the livelihoods of the general public.



The vacation comes as a precious break for Yoon, who has been bleeding support amid quickly spreading negative sentiment on his administration.



According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, Yoon's job approval rating stood at 28 percent, with 62 percent showing negative sentiments on the administration. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults from July 26 to 28 and further details are available at the websites of the polling agency and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.



It was the first time that Yoon's approval fell below 30 percent, down four percentage points from a week earlier when the number had remained flat for two straight weeks  the second and third week of July.







Yoon is bleeding his support faster than his predecessors. His predecessor, Moon Jae-in, saw his job approval rating falling below 30 percent for the first time in the fifth week of April, 2021, a year before the end of his five-year term. The approval rating of Park Geun-hye, Moon's predecessor, dived below 30 percent in January 2015, the second year of her presidency.






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Grace Coleman is seen in her booking photo in December 2020

A drunk driver wept in court as she listened to victim impact statements from three little girls who were orphaned after she plowed her Range Rover into their parents.

Grace Coleman, 23, could be seen rubbing tears from her eyes at Newport Beach court house Friday as she was jailed for 21 years to life after admitting the second-degree murders of Henry Eduardo Saldana-Mejia, 27, and his wife Gabriela Andrade, 28, in December 2020.

At one particularly emotional part of the hearing, a family member read a letter from Elena Saldana-Mejia, who wrote: 'I miss my mom and dad.'

The full letter, seen on display on a courtroom table, added: 'I feel sad when the accident happened.' The judge presiding over the case was overcome with emotion at hearing the statements, and had to pause to compose himself.

Elena's parents were killed in Newport Beach in December 2020 after Coleman smashed her Range Rover Sport into their Nissan Versa while the family were looking for Christmas lights.

Elena and her sisters Emma Sofia and Samantha - all aged between one and five at the time - were wearing their Christmas pajamas when tragedy struck.

The three girls wailed in their wrecked car after the accident, with Coleman walking past them to try and leave the scene. She was apprehended by police before she could do so, and was found to be almost three times over the drink-drive limit.

Coleman is seen sobbing in court on Friday as the victim impact statements are read out

Henry Eduardo Saldana-Mejia, 27, and Gabriela Andrade, 28, (pictured) were killed by drunk driver Grace Coleman in December 2018. Coleman was jailed for 21 years to life, as the couple's three orphaned daughters, Elena, Emma Sofia and Samantha looked on and shared victim impact statements

The girls are seen in court with relatives as Mayra Amaro, mother of Gabriela Andrade, read out her statement

The couple left behind their three young daughters, Emma Sofia, Elena and Samantha, aged one, three and five

Amaro said that her granddaughters were suffering immensely and still required further surgery

A friend had driven her home, but she then got back in her car.

On Friday, with the girls in court, their drawings and writings were read out.

Jennifer Gutierrez, a cousin of the victims, told the court: 'Who is going to walk them down the aisle if they ever get married? Who is going to dance with them at their quinceanera?'

Judge Gregg Prickett, presiding over the Orange County Superior Court proceedings, had to pause and collect his emotions at one point.

He said: 'Those precious girls, I'm sorry,' as his voice cracked.

Judge Gregg Prickett had to pause and collect himself during the emotional hearing

One of the girls listens in as her impact statement is read out to the court

Juana Corrigan, a sister of the couple, also addressed the court in Newport Beach

One of the three siblings is seen leaving court on Friday after sentencing

The little girls are currently living with their aunt in San Diego

Outside court, Mayra Amaro, mother of Gabriela Andrade, said that the girls were suffering.

'They are the ones who cry for their mom and dad, who are no longer here.'

The girls were seriously injured in the crash, and still require surgery.

Their legs were broken in the crash, but they've now recovered physically and are living with their maternal aunt in San Diego with the support of other family.

The family is now suing Coleman in a civil suit, which also includes her parents who allowed her to drive the Range Rover despite her two previous drunk driving incidents.

Jeffrey T. Roberts, lawyer for the family, said the sentencing hearing was 'probably the most moving thing I've ever seen.'

He said that Coleman met with the family privately and expressed her remorse.

'This was the first time she had been face to face with the little girls,' he said.

'I know she had been hearing from the family about what they had lost. Now she was face to face with them.'

Coleman's Range Rover hit the couple's Nissan Versa, in which they were traveling with their three children, aged one, three and five, at around 7.45pm

The young couple were declared dead at the scene of the crash (pictured) and the three children were rushed to hospital with critical injuries

He said the family do not hate Coleman, but believe she made a 'very, very bad choice'.

Roberts added: 'They're not an angry, vitriolic family. They didn't mention hatred of any sort.'

Coleman pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder.

'Ms Coleman openly accepted responsibility to the judge for this complete tragedy,' said Paul Meyer, her defense attorney.

In addition to the murder charge, Coleman pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, driving while her BAC was at or over the legal limit of .08%, and failure to stop at hit-and-run with injury and death.

She also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of DUI and driving with a BAC in excess of the legal limit stemming from an August 16, 2020 arrest.

If the case went to trial, Coleman could have been convicted to at least 42 years and eight months.

'We recognize the difficult judicial call in a very tragic case involving a 22-year-old young woman and the truly horrible results of drinking and driving,' Meyer said.

'We appreciate the judge's wisdom in balancing the very sad tragedy with Grace Coleman's age, full acceptance of responsibility and strong rehabilitation along with her year of selfless community service while in custody.'
It has been a symbol of Wales for more than 1,000 years, venerated for bringing luck on everything from battlefields to rugby pitches.

And now the humble Welsh leek could be given the same prestigious status as champagne from Champagne in France.

Welsh growers want the vegetable to be given a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) in order to boost demand and reputation.

If their bid is successful, Welsh leeks would be protected in a similar way to Cornish pasties, stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies, with traders prevented by law from manufacturing or selling inferior lookalikes.

Welsh leeks are different from others in that about 40 per cent of the stem is a green flag (the top of the leek)

Welsh leeks are different to other leeks grown in the UK, so we would like Welsh leeks to have the PGI to put Wales on the map and for our leeks to be seen in a positive manner, said Matthew Thomas, of Pembrokeshire-based Puffin Produce, the largest commercial grower in Wales.

Growers have applied to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for the accolade, and last week a consultation was launched.

Most British leeks are grown in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, but English farmers are widely supportive of the Welsh move. Tim Casey, a Lincolnshire grower and chairman of the British Leek Growers Association, said: We are very happy for Welsh leeks to get the PGI status and for the national symbol of Wales to be celebrated in this way.

Anything that increases demand for leeks is good for us.

Welsh leeks are different from others in that about 40 per cent of the stem is a green flag (the top of the leek), which is used in soups and stocks. In other parts of the UK, leeks are grown with smaller flags because many shoppers tend to cut them off as waste before cooking.

The Welsh lekk has been a symbol of Wales for more than 1,000 years, venerated for bringing luck on everything from battlefields to rugby pitches

Leeks are believed to have been first brought to Wales by the Phoenicians, who traded them for tin. It is said they were worn by 7th Century Welsh soldiers who defeated the Saxons. A leek features on the Welsh Guards cap badge.

Leeks have traditionally been carried by Wales rugby supporters.

Earlier this month, The Mail on Sunday reported that MPs are urging Defra to give more British foods PGI status. Since Brexit, only four foods have been given the elite ranking and MPs are demanding the number of protected products is increased by 2030 from 81 to 200.
Tons of personal protective equipment (PPE) for Britains healthcare workers is being stored by China at a cost of 23 million a year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

And the bill for taxpayers has nearly doubled in a year, prompting Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory Party leader, to lambast it as unbelievable.

In the first year of the pandemic the Government paid China 12 million to store PPE, which shot up to 23 million in 2021-22, Health Minister Maria Caulfield disclosed in an answer to Labours Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

The bill for taxpayers has nearly doubled in a year, prompting Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory Party leader, to lambast it as unbelievable [File photo]

Sir Iain said: We make ourselves dependent on China both for the production of PPE and now the storage. We sustain them with extra money, so we stupidly build the threat that will one day hurt us.

He said the next Prime Minister has to make sure that across departments, stupidity like this is stamped out. We do not need to make ourselves dependent ever more on China.

The Government has 2.4 billion items of PPE, thought to be worth more than 1 billion, stored in units and warehouses in China.

Earlier this month, Ms Caulfield said the current cost of storing PPE in China is 571,742 per week.

The Government has 2.4 billion items of PPE, thought to be worth more than 1 billion, stored in units and warehouses in China. NHS workers are pictured above in PPE in April 2020

Mr Streeting told The Mail on Sunday: The Conservative Government is paying China more every week to store our PPE than Man Utd spend on Cristiano Ronaldos wages.

If the Conservatives werent burning through taxpayers money with such carelessness, they wouldnt have to put taxes up on working people during a cost-of-living crisis.

The total cost of PPE storage, including in the UK, was 267 million in the past year  up from 168 million spent in the first year of the pandemic.

Asked why China was storing Britains PPE and why that cost has doubled year on year, the Department of Health declined to answer.
Airlines have quietly raised the cost of surcharges on air-miles flights in a blow to Britons trying to save on the cost of holidays.

As much as 300 has been added to the price of a long-haul trip, meaning it can cost almost 1,000 to fly to the Caribbean, Far East and the United States.

Airlines say it is to cover higher fuel costs, but experts point out that the surcharges do not fall when fuel prices decrease.

Surcharges quietly added to air-miles flights mean long-haul flights have gone up by 300

Nicky Kelvin, head of The Points Guy UK, which advises passengers on travel points and air miles, told The Mail on Sunday: Airlines have been very aggressive with surcharge increases.

'Customers are right to be cynical  these fuel surcharges always seem to go up and never down. During the pandemic, fuel costs fell but there was no drop in the surcharge.

Airlines need to be careful. They need to keep loyal customers happy.

Many families have traditionally saved up air miles, which are earned on previous flights or rewarded from credit or loyalty cards, to make trips affordable.

This can lead to a class upgrade or buy the trip of a lifetime with long-haul carriers such as British Airways or Virgin Atlantic.

Mr Kelvin said: A return trip to Los Angeles in business is typically 4,500. With reward flights, it is 125,000 to 150,000 air miles plus a surcharge of nearly 1,000.

That is still a good deal  saving 3,500  but it is still a big amount of money to spend. As recently as February it was about 650, and a few years back even less.

A couple or family with kids will really notice the difference.

Airlines have defended the increase in surcharges and attributed it to the rising cost of oil

As well as the carrier-imposed surcharge, extra fees include airport and government taxes.

The biggest, airport passenger duty, has been going up steadily. Virgins surcharge on many US business-class flights has gone up by 300 since February and is now 700, with all added fees to the US west coast, for example, totalling 993.

Fees for economy and premium on those flights are up by just 30. BA has put its surcharge up this year to 550 from 400 on business flights, with total added fees around 846 on long-haul trips.

The other two cabins have gone up typically by only 30.

Virgin Atlantic said: Due to the cost of oil it has been necessary to increase our carrier-imposed surcharges.

BA declined to comment on the reasons for the rise in its surcharge, saying only: Airline pricing is dynamic and can vary based on market conditions.
Ex-President Donald Trump does not think that exchanging the arms dealer labeled as the 'Merchant of Death' in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner is a 'very good trade.'

During an appearance on Saturday on 'The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,' Trump said of Griner: 'She knew you don't go in there loaded up with drugs, and she admitted it.'

He continued: 'I assume she admitted it without too much force because it is what it is, and it certainly doesn't seem like a very good trade, does it?'

Turning to the Merchant of Death aka arms dealer Viktor Bout, Trump said: 'He's absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he's gonna be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs.'

Trump also described Bout as receiving a 'free card' as a result of the potential trade.

Trump went on: 'She went in there loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they're very vigilant about drugs.

'They don't like drugs. And she got caught. And now we're supposed to get her out  and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess. We're supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. Killed many Americans. Killed many people,' the former president continued.

Trump described arms dealer Viktor Bout as 'absolutely one of the worst in the world'

Trump said of Griner's arrest: 'They don't like drugs. And she got caught. And now we're supposed to get her out  and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess. We're supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. Killed many Americans. Killed many people.'

It was already widely reported that that the Russian government wanted the US to release Viktor Bout in exchange for citizens Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Griner was arrested in February in Moscow's airport after vapes containing hash oil were found in her luggage. The Olympic gold medalist has pleaded guilty to the crime. She faces 10 years in prison.

Whelan, an Iraq War veteran who was enlisted in the Marine Corps, was arrested in Russia in 2018 and accused of being a spy. The former police officer and sheriff's deputy was in the country to attend the wedding of a fellow Marine veteran.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison that includes time in a labor camp.

While Bout was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill American citizens. He is currently serving 25 years in prison.

Russian officials have not said just how many vape cartridges of hashish oil Griner is accused of attempting to smuggle into Russia.

Her lawyers maintain that she has a prescription for the drug and that she mistakenly included them in her luggage.

Hashish oil has a high level of THC, the active psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

The day before Trump's comments, comedian Bill Maher joked on his HBO show that if the former president is indicted by the Department of Justice of his role in the January 6 Capitol riot: 'We put Trump in jail and then trade him to Russia for Brittney Griner.'

Russian national Viktor Bout was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill American citizens. He is currently serving 25 years in prison

Trump's former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed the former Apprentice host's sentiments in an interview with Fox News this week.

Pompeo said: 'He's a bad guy. He is a guy who wanted to kill Americans. It presents a real risk to the United States. There's a real reason the Russians want to get him home. To offer a trade like this is a dangerous precedent.'

He continued: 'This is not a good trade, not the right path forward, and it'll likely lead to more.'

One of Trump's major supporters in the media, conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren agrees with Pompeo.

She tweeted this week: 'Wait wait we are exchanging a Russian arms dealer, the so-called 'Merchant of Death' for Brittney Griner?! This is Bowe Bergdahl all over again. RIDICULOUS!'

Ohio GOP Congressman Jim Jordan tweeted in June: 'Everyone knows President Trump would have negotiated Brittney Griner's release by now.'

This was mocked by US citizen Trevor Reed, who was freed by the Russian government in April 2022. Reed replied to Jordan's tweet: 'Yeah big thanks to President Trump for getting myself and Paul Whelan out. Not.'

The official Republican Judiciary Committee Twitter account retweeted an article in which Griner's coach Vanessa Nygaard said: 'If it was LeBron, he'd be home, right?'

The committee Twitter account wrote in the retweet: 'If this were Trump, she'd be home.' Rep. Jordan is the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

The Kremlin reportedly wants to add another killer to the deal that would grant freedom to Griner and Whelan.

According to a new report from CNN the Russians also want convicted FSB operative and hitman Vadim Krasikov thrown into the deal.

In 2019, Krasikov murdered Chechen spy Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in broad daylight in a public park in Berlin, Germany.

Krasikov was sentenced to life in prison in Germany this past December.

The CNN report notes that because this request made through an informal channel, US officials do not 'view it as a legitimate counter' offer for Griner and Whelan's freedom.

A German government source confirmed to CNN that US officials have reached out to their counterparts in Berlin to discuss the possibility of releasing Krasikov.

This report has not been confirmed by the State Department with a spokesman telling CNN: 'In order to preserve the best opportunity for a successful outcome, we're not going to comment publicly on any speculation.'
The man brought in to take down NSW's dodgiest building companies left so many in fear and on edge he found out some had already pre-bought champagne to celebrate his impending resignation.

Outgoing NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler was hand-picked in 2019 by then premier Gladys Berejiklian to be the state's construction cop, tasked with punishing dodgy developers.

And while the building commissioner had big plans to hang up his hard hat at the end of the year, he decided he might stay on a bit longer - at least until April 2023 - when he heard developers were getting ready to celebrate his departure.

'I really was set on going fishing on September 30,' Mr Chandler told a property Council NSW event in Sydney's west in April, according to property website Urban Developer.

'And then I heard that a whole bunch of these guys, over here in this corner, had already ordered champagne for a party on October 1.

'And I thought wouldn't it be fun to give them a reason to put the champagne back in the cabinet.'

But Mr Chandler's cheeky torture wasn't to be.

Tough-talking NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler addresses state parliament shortly after his appointment to the role in 2019

The extension would have seen Mr Chandler in the job until September 2023 but on Monday he announced he would be quitting in November.

Mr Chandler was recently cleared of any wrongdoing by a departmental inquiry, which looked into claims he misled parliament.

He told parliament he did not recommend specific certifiers but a pre-dated video later surfaced where Mr Chandler appeared to say he had presented the banks with an informal list of certifiers that he 'wouldn't be bloody having on a job'.

Mr Chandler anticipated some developers would welcome him moving on from being the construction watchdog with champagne but decided to deny them that pleasure for an extra year

The inquiry found claims Mr Chandler misled parliament were unsubstantiated but its full findings are set to be published next week.

Following the shock news of his departure Mr Chandler released a statement.

'I believe the time is right for a reset and I am firmly committed to working with the secretary, the team and industry until the end of my tenure,' he said.

'I do not want my resignation to distract people from what has been achieved so far, and the work that is still to be done.'

NSW Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos, who denies recent allegations of bullying levelled at her by Newscorp, did not directly answer questions put to her about why Mr Chandler resigned.

She issued a short statement of appreciation for his work.

'Mr Chandler has assisted the NSW government to achieve significant reforms in the residential construction sector since 2019,' Ms Petinos said.

'He helped develop and implement Project Remediate, ensuring NSW residential apartment buildings have safe, non-combustible cladding.'

Mascot Towers in Sydney's south had to be urgently evacuated in June 2019 when alarming cracks were found in the ceiling

The NSW Building Commissioner was created to police construction standards after two Sydney apartment buildings, Opal Tower and Mascot Towers, had to be hastily evacuated when alarming cracks appeared.

Opal Tower, in Sydney's west, had to be abandoned on Christmas Eve 2018 after a wall cracked in the new building.

And Mascot Towers tenants, in Sydney's inner south, were given just four hours to evacuate over fears the building could collapse after cracks were found in its basement on June 16, 2019.

There were also concerns that NSW apartment buildings were enclosed in the same flammable cladding that caused the Grenfell Tower inferno in London and removing this has been a major focus of Mr Chandler's work.

Considered a tough, no-nonsense veteran of the construction industry, Mr Chandler on his first day on the job told builders and developers: 'Expect to see me in your site shed sometime soon.'

Residents in Opal Tower in Sydney's west had to flee the building when a crack appeared in a wall on Christmas Eve 2018

Mr Chandler was given wide-ranging powers to enter construction sites and deny occupancy certificates if he found defects in the work.

He also oversaw the development of a quality rating program for developers and helped create new laws that reinforced developer accountability and mandated they had insurance.

'The development industry is getting the fact that this legislation is serious. It's got teeth and it's going to turn the dial,' Chandler said.

Construction workers repair the damage at Mascot Towers, which raised fears about the shonky standards of developers in NSW

'Our data assets are the second largest, outside the Defence department, in New South Wales. If you think we don't know how to find you, if you are a bad player, we do.'

'We know now who's providing the money on every single job. We know whether it's good money or dirty money. Almost anything that you can think of as a question, we've probably got the answer to it.'

Mr Chandler attracted considerable praise for his efforts in cleaning up construction following the high profile disasters at Opal and Mascot towers.

Strata Community Association NSW president Stephen Brell told the Sydney Morning Herald Chandler had been vital for restoring confidence among apartment buyers.

'The commissioner's been very effective, especially with getting Fair Trading involved with inspecting building defects and holding builders to account for works that they've done,' Brell said.

'I think in a very quick turnaround time, their risk of buying a dud is significantly reduced.'

The NSW government says it will announce who the next building commissioner will be before Mr Chandler leaves in November.
New footage has emerged after a restaurant famous for insulting its diners was forced to apologise when one of its waiters was accused of taking things too far.

Karen's Diner 'wholeheartedly' apologised to Stacey Howard and his family after they complained about their service at Westfield Chermside, in Brisbane, last Sunday.

Mr Howard claimed a waiter called him a 'paedophile', accused him of incest and asked his 14-year-old daughter if she had an OnlyFans account.

OnlyFans is a subscription-based website where people pay money to access private photos and videos of a person, usually of a sexual manner.

The diner is well-known for its rude waiters but admitted the comments made were 'inexcusable' and said it had launched an investigation.

In a now-deleted TikTok, Mr Howard's daughter Layla could be seen laughing in shock when the waiter asked her if she was on OnlyFans.

New footage has emerged after a restaurant famous for insulting its diners was forced to apologise when one of its waiters was accused of taking things too far

Karen's Diner 'wholeheartedly' apologised to Stacey Howard and his family after they complained about their service at Westfield Chermside, in Brisbane, last Sunday

Footage showed the waiter walking up to the table giving the middle finger before noticing he was being recorded.

'What are you doing?' he said to Layla. 'Doing it for your OnlyFans?'

He then made a sexual gesture imitating masturbation before saying, 'There you go, happy?'

Laughter is heard off-camera as the waiter returns a second time to give the middle finger.

Mr Howard said he was left disgusted after the waiter made the comment to his 14-year-old daughter.

'My daughter was doing a Facebook Live and this young guy came up and said, "Are you on OnlyFans you tart?  Here's some content for you" and he pretended to w*** himself off and jizz on the table,' he told the Courier Mail.

He said his daughter was worried after the waiter called her father a 'paedophile' and said he was 'keeping it in the family'.

The restaurant is well-known for its unique service where waiters are intentionally rude and customers are encouraged to talk back with their own insults

'My daughter sat on my lap because she was concerned and he said, "What are you a pedo? Are you all having sex with each other?''

The outraged father said the family stood up and left the diner feeling incredibly uncomfortable about the comments.

He claimed a seven-year-old boy dining at the restaurant was also called a 'c***'.

Mr Howard's family later phoned the restaurant, demanding an apology.

Karen's Diner may be known for its rude waiters but the restaurant lists a set of rules on its website that sets boundaries for customers and staff.

'No racism, no sexism, no homophobic comments, no body images comments, no ableist comments, do not touch our staff and no sexual remarks towards staff members,' the website reads.

A Karen's Diner spokeswoman 'wholeheartedly' apologised to the family and told Daily Mail Australia the incident was being investigated.

Karen's Diner may be known for its rude waiters but the restaurant lists a set of rules on its website that sets boundaries for customers and staff

A Karen's Diner spokeswoman 'wholeheartedly' apologised to the family and told Daily Mail Australia the incident was being investigated

'This incident was raised to us directly and we are currently conducting a thorough investigation,' she said.

'As a venue, we are all about offering a fun experience for all patrons. We have strict guidelines in place for both staff and customers, so we were really disappointed to learn of this incident that occured on Sunday.'

The spokeswoman said the restaurant had a 'thorough vetting' and training program for its staff.

'The actions of this particular staff member are inexcusable and are against everything we believe in as a brand,' she said.

'We are putting tighter training protocols in place immediately to ensure something like this never happens again.'
Everyone deserves a good lawyer, even man's best friend, according to Richard Rosenthal, a man who represents dogs who people want euthanized.

Rosenthal most famously was able to get a Nevada mastiff named Onion off the hook after he killed his owner's 1-year-old son after the baby went up to the sleeping 120-pound dog and grabbed him.

After a nearly two-year legal skirmish, Onion was released to an out-of-state rescue thanks to Rosenthal, who was inspired to leave family and criminal law to work with animals.

The child's grandmother, despite losing her grandson, was adamant that the dog not be euthanized. The county dropped the case rather than make the family appear in court.

'In Onion's case, it was an unfortunate accident,' Rosenthal told the Boston Globe. 'It was a horrible tragedy. But there was nothing vicious about it.'

The Long Island-based Rosenthal is extremely passionate, as the case of a Connecticut golden retriever named Buddy shows.

The state wanted the death penalty for Buddy after he'd knocked down an older woman. The woman's son also wanted Buddy euthanized.

Rosenthal used The Lexus Project - his nonprofit providing legal representation for dogs - as a bully pulpit, even using images of the gates of Auschwitz photoshopped onto the Milford, Connecticut town seal.

Everyone deserves a good lawyer, even man's best friend, according to Richard Rosenthal, a man who represents dogs who people want euthanized

Rosenthal most famously was able to get a Nevada mastiff named Onion off the hook after he killed his owner's 1-year-old son after the baby went up to the sleeping 120-pound dog and grabbed him

Rosenthal (pictured far right) working with the Lexus Project in the case of Onion

The child's grandmother, despite losing her grandson, was adamant that the dog not be euthanized. The county dropped the case rather than make the family appear in court

As the lawyer puts it, 'I can't say enough bad things about Connecticut. They've never met a dog they didn't want to kill.'

The method proved effective, as Buddy was allowed to live, provided he be removed from the state immediately.

The Lexus Project dates back to 2009, when prosecutors demanded the death penalty after Lexus had been accused of killing a Pomeranian at a dog park.

Rosenthal threatened to turn it into a 'federal case' until the pooch was saved, again, provided it leave the state.

He half-seriously calls the case his first 'get-out-of-town-by-sundown order,' his methods not making him the most popular man in the area.

The Lexus Project dates back to 2009, when prosecutors demanded the death penalty after Lexus had been accused of killing a Pomeranian at a dog park

'In my cases, there is a dog or cat that's going to die if I don't win,' he said. 'So to me, I need to win the case'

Rosenthal founded The Lexus Project with wife Robin Mittasch and immediately began receiving casework.

He unironically calls himself a 'hired gun' who works on cases like veterinary malpractice and most importantly, so-called 'dangerous dogs', even comparing himself to Darth Vader.

Rosenthal said: 'If I take a case, it's about winning. I take it because I believe in it,' adding that he'll get in the face of politicians and animal control officers to help his clients.

Not everyone loves his work, with even some animal rights activists blushing at some of his actions. He claims to have gotten death threats over Onion's case.

Rosenthal also eschews what many progressive animal lawyers do, which is argue for the 'personhood' of an animal, or at the very least that they are not merely property.

'In my cases, there is a dog or cat that's going to die if I don't win,' he said. 'So to me, I need to win the case.'

He says he takes about 20 to 30 cases a year, making most of his money on custody battles over pets.
A 23 year-old pilot died after falling or jumping from a small aircraft after its landing gear suffered a fault.

Charles Hew Crooks was found in Fuquay-Varina on Friday after a confusing search for law enforcement that included multiple county, state and federal agencies.

He was piloting the small plane with an unnamed co-pilot when it suffered a fault with its landing gear.

The plane later made an emergency landing at a local airport, with the co-pilot taken for hospital treatment.

The plane is licensed by Spore LTD LLC, who are managed by Rampart Aviation, a which offers pilot and plane training for the Department of Defense.

Mystery now surrounds Crooks tragic death; whether he fell from the plane - possibly while trying to fix the problem - or whether he chose to jump.

He was not wearing a parachute at the time of the plunge.

His father, Hew Crooks, is mystified by the tragedy, and says Charles, who was his eldest son, was happy.

Hew told WRAL that Crooks had recently told him how 'he wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world. He loved where he was.'

23-year-old Charles Hew Crooks was found dead in a North Carolina backyard after 'exiting' a plane that was forced to make an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham Airport on Friday

The plane landed on a runway before veering onto the grass, though the pilot on board survived with only minor injuries. The pilot said 'we've lost our right wheel' to air traffic control before landing

This map shows the area of North Carolina that Crooks' body was found in after the plane he was piloting emergency landed at Raleigh-Durham airport

Crooks was found to have 'exited' the aircraft while it was in the air, landing in a backyard in Fuquay-Varina before his remains were discovered

Crooks told WRAL his son's death was still a mystery to him, adding he 'can't imagine what happened.'

His son's body was found when a person flagged authorities after hearing 'something' in their backyard.

The Raleigh native obtained his pilot's license while at college, according to his father, and worked as a flight instructor as he was trained to fly in almost any conditions.

'Were a strong family and were a very loving family. But this, it leaves a hole, his father said. 'I don't know. We can't process it right now.'

Shortly before 3 p.m. on Friday a twin-engine turbo prop aircraft reported landing gear issues as it approached the airport before landing on the runway and veering onto the grass.

Audio from the plane revealed the surviving co-pilot contacting air traffic control, saying 'Wed like to speak to Raleigh and make an emergency landing at Raleigh.'

The pilot said 'we've lost our right wheel' before the emergency landing, which caused the airport to close the airfield until the scene was secured.

Crooks got his pilots license when he was in college, loved his job flying and 'wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world,' according to his father

A tweet from a person who was at the airport when the plane made an emergency landing shows emergency services spraying the plane with water

Law enforcement searched for Crooks on Friday before being flagged down by a resident that heard something in their backyard. The plane they were flying was small with a capacity of around 10 passengers

Darshan Patel, operations manager for Wake County emergency management, said Crooks did not have a parachute and it was unclear how high the plane was when he 'exited'

The small plane had a capacity of around 10 passengers and was not making a commercial flight at the time of the incident.

The other pilot, the only other person on board, was taken to Duke Hospital with minor injuries and was released Friday night.

Darshan Patel, operations manager for Wake County emergency management, said at a news briefing 'we wished for a better outcome.'

The man reportedly did not have a parachute and Patel said he did not know whether Crooks had jumped or fell from the aircraft.

Patel did not know the exact altitude of the plane when Crooks exited the aircraft, but flight maps suggest the plane was at about 3,850 feet.

The plane crossed over Hilltop Needmore Road, near the site where Crooks' body was found, at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

Patel deferred questions about the incident to RDU, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Brazen thieves appear to be trying out the latest TikTok challenge, which shows how you can start Kia and Hyundai cars using only a USB cable.

The Kia challenge began when US TikTok user @robbierayyy posted a video of himself starting up a Kia by pulling off the casing around the steering column and finding a port underneath to turn with the cable connector.

The TikTok user starts the car saying: 'You don't need a key bro  it should override it'.

'Everyone in Japan, Australia or the middle of Antarctica, you got a Kia that's on that, please be safe,' he added.

The video has since been removed but it appears not before some Australian criminals learnt the trick.

Two Kias were targeted by alleged thieves as they attempted the new version of hot wiring on a Brisbane street.

A TikTok video posted in the US shows how to start a Kia using only a USB cable

Kim Gardiner normally parks her Kia, which she named 'Sally', in the garage but had to leave it out on the street because she and husband Bill were having concreting done.

The next morning, Ms Gardiner woke to find the back window of her new car smashed and the casing wrenched off the steering column.

'I felt quite violated, to be quite honest,' Ms Gardiner told A Current Affair.

Cameras attached to their home captured the moment two men approached the car in almost pitch black darkness.

They appeared to be using a mobile phone as a torch before smashing the back window of the Kia and running and hiding for two minutes.

Two men smashed into Kim Gardiner's while it was parked outside her Brisbane home

When the coast was clear and no neighbours came out to check the smash, the two men are seen returning to the car with one clambering in through the back window and turning a light on inside the car.

'From there you can see one of the offenders standing in the middle of the street on his phone, it's like he's videotaping the person inside the car or yelling out the instructions,' Bill said.

After appearing to give up, they walk away, only to come back and try again with more light.

Ms Gardiner's car sustained considerable damage to the door and steering column

They were then seen casually walking away before apparently trying exactly the same trick on a Kia parked a few doors down.

The owner told Channel Nine they had the same damage as Kim's car - a smashed window and casing torn from around the steering column.

Bill and Kim urged Kia owners to put their cars in the garage or somewhere safe every night considering how many people might have seen the TikTok video.

The Kia hot wiring trick is also said to work on Hyundai makes

'I would say now it has gone viral in the United States, that there will be a few more of these popping up over the next week or so,' Bill said.

Police in the US city of Charlotte, North Carolina reported that car thefts were 30 per cent higher than was typically the case at this time of year with the majority of vehicles being Kias and Hyundais.

Although the original Kia challenge video has been removed, TikTok has asked users to report any copies that have been made.
The ruling People Power Party's acting chairman Rep. Kweon Seong-dong leaves his office at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps



By Nam Hyun-woo



The ruling People Power Party (PPP) is in turmoil as its leaders have resigned from their posts, calling for a prompt resolution to the party's infighting which originated from the leak of controversial text messages between its acting chairman Rep. Kweon Seong-dong and President Yoon Suk-yeol.



Kweon announced Sunday that he will resign as the PPP's acting chairman, 20 days after he was ratified as the interim leader following PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok being suspended from his job for six months over allegations of sexual bribery and a cover-up.



"The party is now facing a grave crisis," Kweon, who doubles as the party's floor leader, wrote on Facebook. "We are failing to serve the people and I feel responsibility as the acting chairman of the party.  I support the resignation of a number of Supreme Council members and agree with the opinion that a prompt resolution to the party's current dispute is required."



Kweon's resignation came amid growing calls for the party to regroup itself and ease continuing disputes within its factions amid President Yoon's faltering job approval rating.



Calling for party reform, Rep. Cho Su-jin resigned from her PPP Supreme Council member post hours before Kweon's announcement, following Rep. Bae Hyun-jin who also dropped her Supreme Council post on Friday.



Along with Bae and Cho, Rep. Yoon Young-seok also offered to resign from the Supreme Council late Sunday afternoon, and Rep. Sung Il-jong also dropped hints at his possible resignation saying he will "not be obsessed with posts."



People Power Party Reps. Bae Hyun-jin, left, and Cho Su-jin shake hands during the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps
A 52-year-old Minnesota man has been arrested after a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death and four others seriously-injured in a frenzied knife attack on a Wisconsin river.

The group were tubing along Apple river near the town of Somerset in western Wisconsin, close to the Minnesota border. The Apple River has long been a popular summer recreational destination for Twin Cities residents.

They were attacked at around 3:45pm by a member of what St Croix County sheriffs believe was another tubing group of about six to eight people.

The motive was unclear, and police are trying to speak to the 15-20 people who were tubing on the river at the time.

Sheriff Scott Knudson said the scene at the remote location was 'chaotic, scary.'

Officials comb the Apple river on Saturday afternoon to try and find the knife used in the stabbing of five people - leaving one of them fatally wounded

Around 15-20 people were on the river in tubes at the time of the attack, at 3:45pm on Saturday

Sheriff Scott Knudson said that the attack was a scene of 'chaos', and highly unusual

He added: 'I am sure anyone who witnessed this will never forget it. It is a tragedy.'

Knudson said investigators are still searching for the murder weapon, as the suspect did not have the knife on him when he was arrested around a mile down river from the scene.

He said someone took a photo of the attacker, which helped them to identify him, and he was arrested an hour after the stabbing.

'He was taken into custody without incident.

'We don't know yet who was connected to who, who knew each other or what precipitated it,' Knudson said.

Other tubers began helping the victims after the attack, Knudson said, and administering first aid.

Two victims were flown to a hospital and two were taken by ambulance. All were in critical condition with lacerations to their bodies.

One is female, and the other three are males. Knudson said they were all in their early 20s.

Tubing is popular along the river, where for about $20, a person can take a shuttle up the river and be dropped off with an inflatable tube to float back down. The float downriver takes about two and a half hours.

The sheriff said he was shocked by the violence.

'It's been a number of years since a stabbing has taken place,' said Knudson. 'I don't know what to make of it. I just don't know.'

The suspect is currently at the St Croix County jail.

Knudson said that they are hoping for charges to be made on Monday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released video on Friday showing how a mentally-ill woman was fatally-injured after she fell out the back door of a moving cop car while handcuffed.

The incident occurred on July 15 in Sparta, Georgia, 100 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Brianna Grier, 28, spent seven days in a coma due to brain trauma before succumbing to her injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Her family called the Hancock County Sheriff's office for help as Grier, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was in the midst of a mental health episode.

The sheriff's deputies entered the home and eventually took apprehended Grier and accused her of resisting arrest.

Grier's family are being represented by prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, and it remains unclear how she was able to fall out the back door of a car that is supposed to be locked.

Brianna Grier, 28, spent seven days in a coma due to brain trauma before succumbing to her injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta

After Grier fell from the car she was unresponsive to the arresting officers who asked her repeatedly to sit up

Grier, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was in the midst of a mental health episode when her family called 911

According to WMAZ, the sheriff's deputies wrote in their report that Grier kicked them prior to her falling from the car

The distressing video begins showing Grier yelling at the sheriff's deputies, resisting being taken into custody.

At one point Grier tells the deputies: 'You see if I don't hang myself when I get in there.'

During the incident, Grier also tells the officers that she isn't drunk and demands that they breathalyze her.

She said: 'I'm not drunk, I haven't had anything to drink. I haven't had anything to drink.'

The woman can also be heard saying: 'I ain't broke no law' and 'Get off me.'

Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said that Grier suffered a fractured skull after falling from the car

Grier was the mother two twin 3-year-old daughters, Mariah and Maria

According to WMAZ, the sheriff's deputies wrote in their report that Grier kicked them.

Before hauling Grier into the car, a sheriff's deputy removes his stun gun from his holster and activates it. The deputy tells Grier to 'get up.' He holstered his stun gun and then picked up the woman with the help of his partner and places her in the car.

According to officials in Georgia, the mother-of-two was handcuffed with her hands in front of her and she was not wearing a seat belt.

Grier had twin 3-year-old daughters, Maria and Mariah.

The GBI said in a statement on Wednesday: 'To put Grier in the patrol car, one of the deputies walked around and opened the rear passenger side door.'

It continued: 'The investigation shows that the deputy thought he closed the rear passenger side door. The deputies left the scene and drove a short distance.'

Off camera, one deputy asks the other if the passenger side door is closed, the other replies 'Yes.'

The video goes on to show that the two deputies were in different cars.

The driver of the car that Grier was in has been identified as Deputy Timothy Legette.

The door was opened by the other deputy at the scene named as Lt. Martin Primus. His brother is Hancock County Sheriff Tomlyn 'Terrell' Primus.'

After driving for a short distance, Grier fell out of the car. The deputy stops and finds Grier, face-down and unresponsive, on a grassy area close to the wall.

The deputy checks on her and says he's going to call an ambulance. The other deputy says that Grier is breathing and tells her to get up. She never responds.

Grier remains unresponsive as one of the deputies sits her up. Legette says at this point: 'She jumped out the car.'

One of the sheriff's deputy's cars is seen to be open. The other deputy asks: 'How's your back door open?'

In a press conference following the release of the video, Ben Crump said: 'Everybody knows that it is not supposed to be possible to open a police vehicle from the back seat, especially when a person is in handcuffs.'

He continued: 'Brianna's family had faith in law enforcement to get her the help she needed, and now they are being forced to grieve her completely unnecessary death.'

Crump speaks at a news conference on July 29 in Decatur, Georgia, regarding the death of Grier

Crump joining Grier's family in prayer following their July 29 press conference

Crump also said: 'Yet again, we have another African American citizen killed in just an unbelievable way while in the custody of the police.'

The attorney said that Grier fractured her skull when she fell. He said that the family will conduct their own autopsy when her body is released to them.

At the same press conference, Grier's father, Marvin Grier said: 'We're trying to get answers of what really happened. That was my child. That was my child.'

Also present at the press conference, were Grier's mother and sister, Mary and Lottie Grier.

Earlier in the conference, Marvin Grier said when they called 911 before, ambulances arrived to treat the deceased woman. She was on medication at the time of her death.

He said: 'When they used to come out to the house they'd call an ambulance service. The ambulance service would come out and they would take her to the hospital to get some help.'

Crump added: 'But this time they only called the police, and the police didn't bring the ambulance with them, even though, Ms. Mary (Brianna's mom) clearly stated she was having an episode.'

Since Grier's death, protests have occurred in the town of Sparta. On Wednesday Sheriff Primus addressed a group who descended on his department's offices in the town.

He told them: 'A lot of people have already drawn their own conclusions. Some people already feel as though we have things to hide. But we do not have anything to hide. The video footage will show evidence based on what has been stated already,' according to the Union-Recorder.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not have any apparent plans to visit the island democracy of Taiwan after Chinese diplomats threatened 'unbearable consequences' if she visited the self-ruled island under Chinese occupation.

In a press release on Sunday, her office said she would visit four Asian countries  but Taiwan was not on the list.

'Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan,' the press release read.

It specified that the visit would include those countries, but did not specify whether Pelosi  who is number three in the line of presidential succession  might make other stops.

'The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,' it said.

'In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.'

She is said to be arriving in Singapore first on Monday, where she will spend two days. according to the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But her trip has been met with much scrutiny by Chinese officials, who have warned that Washington would 'bear all the consequences' if Pelosi did visit Taiwan and have threatened to take 'resolute and forceful measures' against the US if the trip goes ahead.

And in its latest remarks, Chinese officials have warned that all options, including military ones, are already on the table if Pelosi does go through with the trip, according to Zhang Meifang, the Consul General of China in Belfast.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to begin her Asia tour this week to four Asian countries, but her itinerary did not include a potential visit to the island democracy of Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, that Washington should abide by the one-China principle and 'those who play with fire will perish by it'

The latest Chinese remarks warned that all options, including military ones, are already on the table if Pelosi does go through with the trip

Self-governed Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary

The authoritarian country views visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging signal to the pro-independence camp in the island.

Under its one-China policy, Washington does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by U.S. law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

The White House has been quick to reiterate that stance has not changed despite speculation over Pelosi making the trip.

'If the US pushes ahead and challenges China's bottom line... the US side will bear all the consequences arising therefrom,' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference.

He had previously expressed China's 'solemn position' over a potential Pelosi visit, telling reporters that China is prepared to 'take firm and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke was also quoted by state media as saying on Sunday that Beijing would 'resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity'.

Shen said at a military airshow that the air force has many types of fighter jets capable of circling 'the precious island of our motherland', referring to Taiwan.

He said China's 'air force has the firm will, full confidence and sufficient capability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

And a comment by a People's Liberation Army unit on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media, on Friday - 'Prepare for war!' - received 1.87 million thumbs-ups.

When U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group returned to the South China Sea by Thursday, Chinese military ramped up exercises in the vicinity

Tensions have been escalating in the region across the South China Sea. On Saturday, Chinese military held live-firing drills in the waters off Fujian province, 62 miles away from Taiwan, according to local authorities.

Taiwanese navy launches a US-made Standard missile from a frigate during the annual Han Kuang Drill, on the sea near the Suao navy harbor in Yilan county on July 26

Taiwanese military forces conducted anti-landing drills near New Taipei City on Wednesday

On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, that Washington should abide by the one-China principle and 'those who play with fire will perish by it'.

Biden, in turn, told Xi that U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed and that Washington strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, where 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by China.

Still, officials on both sides have been gearing up for a possible confrontation.

When U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group returned to the South China Sea by Thursday, Chinese military ramped up exercises in the vicinity.

And on Saturday, Chinese military held live-firing drills in the waters off Fujian province, 62 miles away from Taiwan, according to local authorities.

Chinese coast guard will hold an exercise in the South China Sea off Guangzhou province on Monday, according to another notice by the Maritime Safety Administration.

Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Saturday he deleted a tweet warning of military retaliation should U.S. fighter jets escort Pelosi on a Taiwan visit, after Twitter blocked his account.

And Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said this week that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over the past five years.

He said Beijing's military has become far more aggressive and dangerous, and that the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.

Those include reports of Chinese fighter jets flying so close to a Canadian air security patrol last month that the Canadian pilot had to swerve to avoid collision, and another close call with an Australian surveillance flight in late May in which the Chinese crew released a flurry of metal scraps that were sucked into the other plane's engine.

Chinese officials have feared that an American official's visit to Taiwan could encourage the pro-separatist movement in Taiwan, which is self ruled but which China considers a territory

A handout provided by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense shows paratroopers jumping off a plane during a drill as art of the Han Kuang military exercise that simulates the island's response to enemies' attacks on major targets

Taiwanese forces re pictured conducting anti-landing drills on Wednesday

U.S. officials, meanwhile, have said the administration doubts that China would take direct action against Pelosi herself or try to sabotage the visit.

But they don't rule out the possibility that China could escalate provocative overflights of military aircraft in or near Taiwanese airspace and naval patrols in the Taiwan Strait should the trip take place. And they don't preclude Chinese actions elsewhere in the region as a show of strength.

'It could be an air collision. It could be some sort of missile test, and, again, when you're doing those types of things, you know, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong,' Mark Cozad, acting associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corp.

As a result, U.S. military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said it would increase its movement of forces and assets into the Indo-Pacific region if Pelosi does decide to visit Taiwan.

The officials declined to provide details of their plans, but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there, increasing the troops that are already in the area.

They also described the need to create buffer zones around the speaker and her plane and are reportedly considering deploying a multi-domain task force that would utilize missile, electronic and cyber capabilities in an integrated manner in Asia, according to the Japanese news outlet Nikkei News.

They also said that a stepped-up U.S. military presence to safeguard Pelosi risked raising tensions.

'It is very possible that our attempts to deter actually send a much different signal than the one we intend to send,' Cozad said.

'And so you get into some sort of an escalatory spiral, where our attempts to deter are actually seen as increasingly provocative and vice versa. And that can be a very dangerous dynamic.'

On Wednesday, Biden told reporters he thought the U.S. military believed a Pelosi visit to Taiwan was 'not a good idea right now'.

The Asian tour comes at a politically sensitive time for Chinese and U.S. leaders.

Xi is expected to seek a precedent-breaking third term at a Congress later this year, while in the United States, Biden's Democratic Party will face a hard fight to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives at November's midterm elections.
Anthony Albanese has revealed the proposed question he will put to Australians for a historic referendum on the introduction of an Indigenous Voice to parliament.

The question that could be put to Australians is: 'Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?'

The details of the Voice, its function and how it operates will then be worked out following consultation, Mr Albanese said this weekend at the Garma Festival in northeast Arnhem Land.

Mr Albanese said he didn't want Australians to get bogged down in the fine print of the amendment.

'One of the things I'm trying to avoid - as occurred at the end of the last century when a referendum wasn't successful - is people looking for all of the detail and saying well, if you disagree ...with one out of the 50 (clauses) but 49 are OK, vote no,' he told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.

Anthony Albanese said this weekend the question posed in a referendum would need to be simple (pictured)

Poll Should the Australian Constitution be amended to include an Indigenous Voice to Parliament? Yes No Unsure, I need to know more about it Should the Australian Constitution be amended to include an Indigenous Voice to Parliament? Yes 499 votes

No 3013 votes

Unsure, I need to know more about it 634 votes Now share your opinion





'We're not doing that. We're appealing to the goodwill of the Australian people.

'That's why I am optimistic that Australians will embrace this simple concept that where issues affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they're consulted.'

Mr Albanese recommended adding three sentences to the constitution: A body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice; the Voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on Indigenous matters; and the parliament shall have the power to make laws on the Voice's composition, functions, powers and procedures.

'This isn't a third chamber of the parliament ... this makes it very clear this doesn't change in any way the primacy of our democratically elected parliament,' he said.

While future parliaments will then be able to amend any legislation, their actions will be held accountable, Mr Albanese added.

'The thing that enshrining in the constitution does, it ensures the Voice cannot be eliminated or silenced by a change of government or a change of prime minister,' he said.

The Indigenous Voice would compose First Nations representatives who would advise top levels of government

Mr Albanese said the government hadn't made a decision on the timing of the referendum, although Labor reportedly favours the vote taking place next year.

Northern Territory MLA Yingiya 'Mark' Guyula called on the government to implement all elements of the Uluru Statement alongside the Voice.

'Ideally, an amendment to the Constitution should recognise all three elements of the statement,' he said.

'Voice, Treaty, and Truth should be enshrined and protected together.

'Before I die I want to be part of a federal Treaty process.'

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney went slightly further than the prime minister, indicating more details about the Voice's make up would be released before the referendum.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said more detail on the question would be released (pictured)

'There will be a lot of information out to the community about what people are voting on. It would be nuts for that not to happen,' she told the ABC's Q+A program, scheduled to air on Monday.

Opposition Indigenous affairs spokesman Julian Leeser welcomed the Voice in principle but called for more detail.

'People need to have some certainty about what they're voting for,' he told the ABC.

'Without those details, without the answers to the reasonable questions ... it's harder to dispel myths and uncertainties about what's being proposed.'

Uphold and Recognise chair Sean Gordon estimates the yes campaign will cost $20 million as he prepares to consult with same-sex marriage and republican advocates about raising funds and awareness.

'It needs to be a clear, co-ordinated strategy and a way forward otherwise we won't have the success,' he told a Garma Festival forum.
Eight properties and four luxury vehicles have been seized by police as part of a $10 million haul following a money laundering investigation.

Australian Federal Police searched two Canberra homes and a storage unit on Thursday and seized more than $1.5 million in cash as well as documents and electronic devices.

Police allege four cars worth more than $800,000, 28 bank accounts and about $600,000 in cryptocurrency are suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

A 35-year-old man was charged with dealing in properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, and faces three years in prison

Police allege four cars worth more than $800,000, 28 bank accounts and about $600,000 in cryptocurrency are suspected of being the proceeds of crime

A 35-year-old man was charged with dealing in properties reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, and faces three years in prison.

Police will allege the man laundered cash and cryptocurrency from the sale of stolen identities and illegal goods, as well as money from fraudulent scams and illegal online gambling.

The man is on bail and will face court at a later date.

Operation Nairana began in late 2020 when the FBI and US Internal Revenue Service tipped off authorities that an Australian-based person was using cryptocurrency to launder money.

AFP Acting Commander Scott Raven labelled money laundering a threat to national security.

'Money laundering is also heavily used to fund further criminal activities that impact our community's safety,' he said.

Eight properties and four luxury vehicles have been seized by police as part of a $10 million haul following a money laundering investigation

Operation Nairana began in late 2020 when the FBI and US Internal Revenue Service tipped off authorities that an Australian-based person was using cryptocurrency to launder money (pictured, designer bags found during the property raid)

Police will allege the man laundered cash and cryptocurrency from the sale of stolen identities and illegal goods, as well as money from fraudulent scams and illegal online gambling (pictured, luxury watch seized)

'The AFP has a unique ability to disrupt groups suspected of criminal activity where it hurts them the most; seizing their profits and preventing them from using those funds in future ventures.

'This case demonstrates that the AFP will be relentless in pursuing those allegedly involved in global money laundering activities, to ensure that those suspected of dealing in the proceeds of crime cannot enjoy the benefits of their illicitly obtained wealth.'

FBI Legal Attache Nitiana Mann said the FBI said the organisation would continue to work with international partners to combat money laundering.

'It is because of our collaboration with law enforcement and intelligence partners that outcomes like this continue to exemplify our commitment to protect the integrity of our financial systems,' he said.

AFP Acting Commander Scott Raven labelled money laundering a threat to national security
A bystander who filmed the horrific moment a father-of-two was attacked by a 'male customer' has sparked outrage after no one stepped in to help save him.

Police in Italy have arrested a 32-year-old man following the murder of a Nigerian street vendor whose brutal murder was filmed by onlookers who made no attempt to physically intervene.

Alika Ogorchukwu, 39, was beaten to death by an Italian man, identified as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, in Civitanova Marche's busy town centre, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, on Friday.

Police used street cameras to track Ferlazzo's movements and arrested him on Saturday on charges of murder and allegedly stealing the victim's mobile phone, according to local agency ANSA.

Local media have reported that Ferlazzo is currently being held in the Montacuto prison in Ancona. It is claimed he will not be charged with racism.

'The situation is quite clear, everything seems to have emerged from a dispute over frivolous reasons, not racism', said Matteo Luconi, one of the investigators.

Shocking video footage of the attack has circulated widely on social media, eliciting outrage as Italy enters a parliamentary election campaign in which the right-wing coalition has already made immigration an issue.

Alika was selling goods when his attacker grabbed the vendor's crutch and struck him down with a series of blows, according to police.

Alika Ogorchukwu, 39, (pictured) was beaten to death by an Italian man, identified as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, in Civitanova Marche's busy town centre on Friday

Police in Italy have arrested a 32-year-old man following the murder of a Nigerian street vendor whose brutal murder was filmed by onlookers who made no attempt to physically intervene

The footage shows Ferlazzo wrestling the victim onto his back on the pavement as he fought back and climbing on top of Alika in an attempt to pin him to the ground

Alika was selling goods when his attacker grabbed the vendor's crutch and struck him down with a series of blows, according to police

The footage shows Ferlazzo wrestling the victim onto his back on the pavement as he fought back and climbing on top of Alika in an attempt to pin him to the ground.

Alika's wife, Charity Oriachi, said: 'Now I just want justice for my husband', during a protest at the murder scene on Saturday.

Enrico Letta, the leader of the left-wing Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter: 'The murder of Alika Ogorchukwu leaves us dismayed. The unprecedented ferocity. Widespread indifference. There can be no justification.'

Right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, who is making security a plank of his campaign, also expressed outrage over the death, saying 'security has no colour and needs to return to being a right.'

'The aggressor went after the victim, first hitting him with a crutch. He made him fall to the ground, then he finished, causing the death, striking repeatedly with his bare hands,' police investigator Matteo Luconi told a press conference.

He later told Italian news channel Sky TG24 that onlookers called police, who responded after the suspect had fled and attempted to administer aid to the victim. An autopsy will determine if the death was provoked by blows, suffocation or another cause.

Luconi said the assailant lashed out after the vendor made 'insistent' requests for pocket change. Police were questioning witnesses and viewing videos of the attack. They said the suspect has made no statement.

Alika, who was married with two children aged 8 and 10, resorted to selling goods on the street after he was struck by a car and lost his job as a labourer due to his injuries, said Daniel Amanza, who runs the ACSIM association for immigrants in the Marche region's Macerata province.

Alika, who was married with two children, was seen struggling in the shocking footage

Enrico Letta, the leader of the left-wing Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter: 'The murder of Alika Ogorchukwu leaves us dismayed. The unprecedented ferocity. Widespread indifference. There can be no justification'

Amanza gave a different version of what happened, claiming the Ferlazzo became infuriated when Alika told the man's 'girlfriend' she was beautiful.

'This compliment killed him,' Amanza told The Associated Press.

'The tragic fact is that there were many people nearby. They filmed, saying "Stop", but no one moved to separate them,' Amanza said.

Macerata was the site of a 2018 shooting spree targeting African immigrants that wounded six people. Luca Traini, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the shootings, which Italy's highest court confirmed qualified as a hate crime.

Civitanova Marche's mayor, Fabrizio Ciarapica, met with members of the Nigerian community after hundreds demonstrated at the scene of the crime on Saturday.

'My condemnation is not only for the (crime) but it is also for the indifference,' Ciarapica told Sky. 'This is something that has shocked citizens.'

Former Premier Matteo Renzi, who heads his own small party, called out political leaders for 'instrumentalising' the attack.

'I am horrified by this electoral climate', he said on social media. 'A father was killed in an atrocious and racist way while passersby took video without stopping the aggressor. And instead of reflecting on what we are becoming, politicians argue and instrumentalise.'
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has urged civilians to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region as clashes with the Russian military and devastating airstrikes become ever more frequent.

Zelensky warned in his daily address that thousands of people, including children, were still in the region's battleground areas, with six civilians killed and 15 wounded on Friday, according to the Donetsk governor.

'There's already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk,' Zelensky said, underscoring authorities' calls to leave the besieged region in recent weeks.

'Leave, we will help,' Zelensky said. 'At this stage of the war, terror is the main weapon of Russia.

'The more people leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill'.

Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the unoccupied area of Donetsk at between 200,000 and 220,000.

Donetsk together with the neighbouring Luhansk region constitutes the Donbas - the area of eastern Ukraine Russian forces are hell bent on seizing.

Donetsk has faced the brunt of Russia's offensive since its assault on Kyiv failed weeks into the invasion launched on February 24.

Firefighters work at a site of residential house destroyed by a Russian missile strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk, Ukraine

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire in a shelled house in Bakhmut, Ukraine, 30 July 2022

Debris is pictured following the shelling at a pre-trial detention centre in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the settlement of Olenivka in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine July 29, 2022

Olha, wife of a defender of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, attends a rally on Saturday July 30 demanding that world authorities recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism after killing Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in a prison in Olenivka, outside of Donetsk

Zelensky: 'The more people leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill'

A mandatory evacuation notice posted Saturday evening said the coming winter made it a matter of urgency, particularly for the more than 50,000 children still in the region.

'They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,' Kyiv's Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said in a statement.

Zelensky, in his address, also once more pressed the international community, especially the United States, to have Russia officially declared a 'state sponsor of terrorism'.

The call came a day after a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka was bombed, leaving scores dead, with Kyiv and Moscow trading blame.

Zelensky accused Russia of 'deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war', as horrifying pictures emerged showing burnt husks of bodies lying among the charred remains of metal bunk beds inside the detention centre.

On Saturday, Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Lubinets said on national television he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to go to Olenivka.

The ICRC has made a request but not yet obtained authorisation from the Russians, he said.

Russia's defence ministry accused Kyiv of striking the Olenivka prison with US-supplied long-range missiles in an 'egregious provocation' designed to stop soldiers from surrendering.

It said Saturday that the dead included Ukrainian forces who had surrendered after weeks of fighting off Russia's brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.

The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed and 73 were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

At least forty Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed in a Russian detention camp (pictured today after the strike)

Russian forces accused Kyiv of targeting the Olenivka prison in Donetsk overnight using US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the international community to have Russia officially declared as a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

Also on Saturday, Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Latvia in the latest tightening of gas provision to European Union states, which have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Latvia's Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone told the LETA news agency that his country 'was not counting on natural gas flows from Russia.'

Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline on Wednesday to about 20 percent of its capacity. It had reduced gas flows to Europe twice in June.

The Russian state-run company had earlier announced it would choke supply to 33 million cubic metres a day - half the amount it has been delivering since service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.

Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of bombing a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war

Russian missiles hit a school in the eastern city of Kharkiv

Russian strikes continue to rain down across southeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities said early this morning that Russian bombardments had left one dead in southern Mykolaiv and one dead in eastern Bakhmut.

The death toll from a strike on a Mykolaiv bus stop on Friday climbed to seven after two men died in hospital.

Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Kharkiv, three Russian S-300 missiles struck a school, mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram Saturday, adding that the main building was destroyed.

By early Sunday morning, Mykolaiv was again hit with 'massive shelling, probably the strongest of all time,' according to mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych.

'Powerful explosions were heard after 1 at night and around 5 in the morning. A number of objects were destroyed, residential buildings were damaged. A number of fires broke out at the struck sites.'

Shortly afterwards Russia said a Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in the Crimean port of Sebastopol wounded five people.

'This morning, Ukrainian nationalists decided to spoil the Day of the Russian Fleet' being celebrated on Sunday, the Russian-annexed city's mayor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

A Ukrainian spokesman said his country's forces had set fire to grain fields around Mariupol so they could not be used by the Russians.
The unsolved quadruple murder of a British family in the French Alps could have been carried out at random during a 'psychotic attack', perhaps by an ex-military member who lived alone, a UK psychologist has concluded.

Businessman Saad al-Hilli, 50, wife Iqbal, 47, and his mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were all executed at point blank range in a horrific attack in their car on September 5, 2012.

French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father-of-three, was also found dead alongside the family car.

The family's two children, Zainab, who was seven at the time, and Zeena, who was four, both survived the attack.

Zainab suffered a bullet wound to the shoulder and serious head injuries.

Her sister Zeena survived by hiding underneath her mother's legs and remaining motionless for eight hours in the back of the car before police found her alive.

Now a new series of articles by Le Parisien has revealed new facts about the mystery which has baffled French and British authorities for almost a decade.

Saad al-Hilli, 50 (left) and wife Iqbal, 47 (right), with their daughter Zainab, who was seven at the time of the attack in 2012

The killings have baffled authorities on both sides of the channel for almost a decade, with multiple documentaries speculating on what the motive behind the murders may have been

The murder scene in the middle of a forest near Chevaline and Lake Annecy in the French Alps

French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father-of-three, was also found dead alongside the family car

As well as stating that the surviving sisters were reinterviewed about their recollections from the day in June, Le Parisien reported that a UK psychology expert was consulted about the case in July 2020.

The unnamed expert concluded the killings may have been completely random and the result of a 'psychotic' episode - and the killer was highly likely to be a local male aged between 30 and 40.

'I envisage the theory that the perpetrator of the Chevaline attacks acted due to their own motives, entirely independent of the victims in this case,' the report states.

It adds the killer was most likely either unemployed or in unskilled work, lived alone and could have a military background, La Depeche reports.

The psychologist concluded the killer may have had psychological troubles such as paranoia, and may have motivated by 'hatred' towards a certain community.

Zainab recently helped the investigation by recalling new details about what happened on the day of the attack.

She recounted how the family was on holiday, and enjoying a drive through mountainous countryside by the village of Chevaline.

They got to the 'edge of a small road riddled with potholes,' and Zainab got out of the car with her father.

She recalled seeing cyclist Sylvian Mollier, and while other members of the family were getting out of the car 'gunshots rang out.'

Zainab was ordered back into the car by her parents, but then the shooter grabbed the girl from behind.

Four-year-old Zeena was later found hiding underneath her mother's legs, unharmed in the back of the family car

Family and friends were left heartbroken by the attack and left touching floral tributes at the family home in Surrey

The caravan and tent used by Saad al-Hilli and his family while on holiday at the Le Solitaire du Lac campsite on Lake Annecy in the Haute-Savoie region of south-eastern France

'She first of all thought it was her father, but then saw the white skin and bare hands of her attacker, and realised it couldn't be him.

'Zainab struggled but couldn't get out of the grip. According to her, the killer was wearing long trousers and a leather jacket.'

Zainab was then pistol whipped and blacked out after suffering multiple facial injuries. She later made a full recovery and returned to the UK, where she now lives.

Brett Martin, a former RAF officer now aged 63, was the first to discover Zainab staggering around a BMW car in an isolated country layby close to Lake Annecy, in eastern France, on September 5 2012.

Dead inside was her father, mother grandmother.

All had been shot, along with French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father of three, whose body lay alongside the car.

Zainab's four-year-old sister, Zeena Al-Halli, was later found alive and well, hiding in the back of the BMW.

French investigators told Le Parisien that Zainab in June offered 'a testimony of unique precision about the drama.'

The family had been holidaying near Lake Annecy, pictured, at the beginning of September 2012

Mr Martin, who owned a holiday home in the Annecy area, at first thought he had stumbled across a road traffic accident, but then saw the bullet holes and casings lying on the ground.

Describing the murder scene, Mr Martin said: 'I saw a bike on the ground first and then I saw a child come from behind some shrubbery.

'Zainab walked out on to the road and fell on to her face. I didn't see Mollier until I got much closer because he was on the ground in front of the vehicle.

'The BMW's engine was at full power with its wheels spinning. I wasn't in shock. With my aviation and military background, I just took the necessary actions.

'My first thought was to get Zainab out of the way of the car in case it lurched forward. Her eyes were rolling and she was going in and out of consciousness. Her head was quite badly injured.

'Then I moved Mollier away from the vehicle. I felt for his pulse and there was nothing there. I walked to the car and wanted to turn the ignition off, but the door was locked and I had to break the window. It was then that I noticed a bullet hole.

'That's when I switched my thinking from, 'This is a car accident' to, 'Oh s**t, this is something more nefarious.' '

Mobile phone reception was poor, so he had to cycle away to alert the police, after putting Zainab in the recovery position.

In a detailed interview last year, Mr Martin said: 'In hindsight I realise I could have been the fifth victim.

'About 200 or 300 metres from the scene, a motorcycle came very slowly past me. It was a black-clad motorcyclist in a full-face helmet and a Trans Alpine style of bike. I couldn't see their face and couldn't even say if they were male or female.

'When they slowed right down, I thought they were going to stop and talk to me, but then they seemed to change their mind.

'When you reflect, you think, that's interesting, because at the very least, he or she would have passed the murder scene.

'I nickname it my 'luckiest unlucky day'. I think that if the trigger person had had a few more clips of ammunition, I wouldn't be here.'

Various theories have been investigated by police in the years following the attack.

Original probes focused on a financial dispute in the UK between Saad, from Claygate, Surrey, and his accountant brother Zaid, who was arrested for conspiracy to murder in 2013 before being freed without charge.

Zaid has always said he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Police later considered that Iraqi-born Saad was killed over links to ousted tyrant Saddam Hussein and arrested a suspected Iraqi contract killer.

But they were also released and this line of inquiry is said to have been dropped.
Angry drivers have had to fork out almost 1million worth of fines in only 18 months because of one traffic camera, even though the device and warning signs are reportedly not obvious.

The aim of the traffic camera, which was installed by Islington Council in North London last year, has been to prevent motorists driving on a low traffic neighbourhood (LTNs) street.

The schemes include pop-up cycle lanes, wider pavements and closing streets to cars. The new rules are enforced using warning signs and CCTV cameras.

Furious drivers have lashed out, claiming the device is hardly visible, as one told The Sun: 'I had no idea it was there because the setting of the planters (plant pots on road) was so wide and the signage so high.'

Angry drivers have had to fork out almost 1million worth of fines in only 18 months because of one traffic camera, even though the device and warning signs are reportedly not obvious

Via a Freedom of Information request, the newspaper revealed the camera has made 900,000 in 130 fines since it was put up in 2021.

Rakhia Ismail, president of Islington Conservatives, said: 'To make that amount of money from just one camera, especially in the middle of a cost of living crisis, is really shameful.

'They are picking the pockets of vulnerable residents who are already struggling.

'They are just interested in the money, not how it affects local people.'

But Rowena Champion, Islington Council's transport spokesman, said: 'We're committed to creating a cleaner, greener, healthier borough, where it is easier for everyone to travel.

The aim of the traffic camera, which was installed by Islington Council, North London last year, has been to prevent motorists driving on a low traffic neighbourhood street

'We work hard to make sure signage is adequate, unambiguous and compliant with regulations, to provide advance warning for drivers.

'Through the people-friendly streets programme, the council is making it easier for the 70 per cent of households that do not own a car to walk, cycle, scoot and use buggies and wheelchairs.'

This comes in the wake of the revelation that Lambeth Council in South London issued almost 22million in low traffic neighbourhood fines in a year.

Meanwhile, at the end of May a single set of traffic cameras in the City of London was revealed to have raked in an astonishing 15.2million worth of penalty charges over three years.

Bank Junction, bordered by the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and Mansion House, has been restricted to buses and cyclists only from 7am to 7pm since 2017 - with 130 fines for wrongdoers, reduced to 65 if paid within 14 days.

But thousands of motorists have not cottoned on, with an eye-watering 3.2million haul in 2021 equating to 40 per cent of such fines levied in the Square Mile, Freedom of Information requests by Bloomberg revealed.

Although takings collapsed by almost half from 2019 - when it raised 6.16m, followed by 5.78m in 2020 - it is still one of the most lucrative traffic spots in the capital.

Bank Junction was once heavily used by motorists but now has signs warning drivers to use alternative routes - although many of those who have been fined complain the warnings are still not obvious enough.

LTNs have created deep divides within communities. Some fiercely oppose the schemes while others stand in support

The FOI data also showed other major crossroads in London that restrict some types of vehicles have also become major sources of revenue for local authorities with those in Newham, Hackney, Enfield and Lambeth raising a total of 57million.

Newham alone raised more than 33m in 2020 and 2021 after introducing a swathe of restrictions.

Outside the City, the most lucrative junction in 2021 was Browning Road North in Newham, which pulled in 2.43m; followed by Pritchard's Road in Hackney - 1.39m; Culmington Road in Ealing - 960,000 and Meadway N14, Enfield - 820,000.

Local authorities argue restrictions cut pollution, and help fund essential services, including road maintenance.

A spokesman for the City of London corporation said any surplus raised by fines was 'ringfenced by law to highways and transport-related activities such as resurfacing'.

It was reported in May that motorists in the capital were clobbered with a huge 755,098 fines worth nearly 33.6million in total in the year since April last year for breaching new road rules as part of low-traffic neighbourhoods.

There were reports of paramedics having to wait up to 20 minutes to get to a patient who had collapsed in an alleyway because their ambulance was blocked by new bollards installed as part of the council traffic scheme in Ealing, west London

13-year-old Matthieu and his family are some of the people who have been negatively affected by LTNs.

'[Matthieu] has a rare genetic condition,' explained his other Elodie. 'He is profoundly deaf and has ASD [Autism spectrum disorder]. He has severe and complex needs and is very delayed cognitively.'

Despite Matthieu's difficulties, Elodie and her husband, along with Matthieu's two older siblings, ensure the boy has as full and rich a life as possible. That includes being picked up by car every morning from home in Islington, North London, to his special-needs school in neighbouring Camden.

The four-mile journey used to take 25 minutes. It now takes up to 50 minutes in slow-moving, sometimes solid traffic.

'He doesn't understand sitting in traffic and gets very agitated and becomes aggressive because he's distressed,' said Elodie.

A few weeks ago, an 11-mile round trip  from school to a hospital appointment then back home  took three hours.

Elodie shakes her head as she tries to explain the effect it has had on the family.

'Matthieu is non-verbal. It's very distressing to see your child upset at the best of times, but when you ask them, they can't verbalise it. It's tough.'

Elodie believed the bad traffic is a result of the LTNs in Islington, as the scheme sees cars banned from certain side streets and forced to drive only on main roads.
A teenager has been rushed to hospital in a serious condition after being electrocuted and falling up to 10metres at a regional Queensland train station.

Emergency services were called to Nambour station in the Sunshine Coast just after 11am on Sunday morning after reports of a horrific accident.

A spokesperson for Queensland Ambulance said the teen was climbing infrastructure at the train station when he was electrocuted.

A teenager was climbing rail infrastructure when he was electrocuted, falling 10metres to the ground on fire

The boy fell between 5m and 10m, with witnesses saying he plummeted to the ground on fire.

He suffered a series of injuries that include burns to his lower body.

He has been rushed to Sunshine Coast University Hospital where he is in a serious condition.

More to come.




Heavy rains pounded the southern resort island of Jeju on Saturday as this year's fifth typhoon, Songda, passed by the waters south of the island, the weather agency said. But there were no reports of damage from downpours and strong winds.







As of 9:25 p.m., the heavy rain alert was issued to mountainous areas on the island, and warnings for downpours took effect for other areas, according to the Jeju provincial government and the regional weather agency.







Rains of up to 206 millimeters had soaked Mount Halla on the island, the highest peak in South Korea, as of 9 p.m.







Access to paths leading to the mountain was denied due to downpours and strong winds.







The operations of passenger ships linking Jeju to other islands were suspended. But flight services were operating normally despite warnings of strong winds issued across Jeju Island.







As of 3 p.m., the typhoon had moved in a northwestern direction at a speed of 26 km per hour near the seas 330 kilometers east of China's Shanghai.







It is expected to travel near the waters some 260 km northeast of Shanghai at around 3 p.m. Sunday, bringing it the closest to Jeju.







The typhoon is forecast to bring rains of up to 300 mm to Jeju until Monday, according to the agency.







Meanwhile, a scorching heat wave gripped Seoul and many parts of the country Saturday, except for the southern island of Jeju and other southern regions under the influence of Songda.







Seoul saw the daily temperature ceiling reach 36.1 C, with the temperature in five districts of the capital, including the western Gangseo Ward, rising over 37 C, according to







Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul, had seen the temperature reach 38.2 C as of 3:50 p.m. (Yonhap)


Library staff have been urged to call drag queens 'pantomime dames' in order to confuse protesters and allow Drag Queen Story Hours to go ahead as planned.

After a week of protests against the project, which is being run in libraries across the UK over the summer holidays, council librarians attended an urgent meeting which discussed how to avoid the ugly scenes.

More than 100 librarians attended the webinar on 'controversial' events, which was organised by the national body Libraries Connected, and heard one solution they should consider is rebranding the sessions as being led by dames rather than drag queens.

In the forum on July 20, Cheshire West and Chester librarian Ian Anstice told attendees: 'We've always said pantomime dame because we don't want protestors outside our building', the Telegraph reports.

He added: 'Is that knuckling under pressure? Probably, possibly, but we find we have no protests, it's a good event, we run the event,' he added, as he criticised how some protesters have 'no politeness, no trying to see your point of view'.

Sab Samuel, 27, is determined to continue the tour and says it is vital LGBT+ children see themselves represented

Protestors try to perform a citizen's arrest on a Drag performer from Drag Queen Story Hour UK at Henleaze Library, Bristol, July 28

A protest against the Drag Queen Story Hour event at Welling Library on July 30, 2022 in Welling, England. A woman holds a sign saying Groomer, written in the colours of the pride flag which represents the entire LGBTQ+ community

Police were forced to escort a drag queen to safety after a group of protestors stormed a 'Story Hour' event run for three to 11-year-old children at a library. Pictured: 27-year-old Sab Samuel who performs as Aida H Dee at Reading Station

Protesters and counter-protesters have led to parents and children having to walk through large crowds to access their local library

Speaking to MailOnline, the organiser behind Drag Queen Story Hour UK said it 'doesn't matter' what he is referred to as - and added that people will still be attacking him regardless of whether the programme name includes drag queen or not.

Drag performer and children's author Sab Samuel, 27, also known as Aida H Dee, is determined to continue his library tour and said representation for LGBTQ+ youths is 'saving lives'.

He stressed the story hour is not looking at changing its name: 'Even if we did call it pantomime dame story hour, these people historically have protested and tried to get these events cancelled anyway, it's only the LGBT they care about.'

At the library events, which parents can sign up to, adults take their child to hear a story read by a drag performer.

The group says the programme is intended to help children 'get fabulous', and 'will engage your child's creativity and love for reading stories by giving them a brand-new, positive experience, one page at a time... all the while, learning and communicating!'

Protesters both in favour and against the story hour have gathered outside libraries.

Those calling for an end to Drag Queen Story Hour have called Aida a 'groomer', a 'paedophile' and said he is 'abusing children' - all claims which have no factual basis.

As with the majority of people who come into contact with children as part of their job, all the drag queens involved in the project have a full DBS check before they can work in the libraries.

At one event on Monday (July 25) police had to escort Mr Samuel from the premises for his own safety after protesters stormed the library in which he was reading.

Some people are displaying anti-LGBT+ posters in their local community, with one in London reading: 'Free Monkeypox in your local library.'

At Welling Library supporters of the LGBT+ community turned up to offer Sab Samuel support

Mr Samuel (centre as Aida H Dee) said: 'These people don't actually care about whether it's pantomime dame or drag queen. They'd still be calling me a paedophile and a groomer'

The demonstrators claimed they had turned up to 'protect children' and shouted at 'woke' parents who are 'probably teaching their children that there are 100 genders' as they walked inside the ticket-only event.

Some people are displaying anti-LGBT+ posters in their local community, with one in London reading: 'Free Monkeypox in your local library.'

Monkeypox can be spread between anyone and although higher rates of the illness have been detected in men who have sex with men, this is believed to be due to higher awareness of sexual health within the LGBT+ community leading to higher detection levels.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Samuel said that drag queens and pantomime dames are very similar, and cast doubt on Mr Anstice's solution to protests.

'The only time gender and sex have been mentioned is by the protesters.

'These people don't actually care about whether it's pantomime dame or drag queen. They'd still be calling me a paedophile and a groomer.'

Mr Samuel pointed out that members of the LGBTQ+ community have been referred to by such slurs for decades: 'I'm a little bit disappointed to be honest.

'I'm disappointed that they haven't come out with anything original.'

He said events have largely gone ahead as planned, and posted on social media explaining libraries have phoned ticketed attendees and told them a new place and time to avoid confrontational protests.

He described the protesters as extremists, citing online abuse he has received which is 'almost constant'.

'They were protesting outside the wrong buildings at the wrong times - we've fooled them and they don't even realise yet that we've fooled them.'

Comments on Sab's recent Twitter posts include 'Thanks for identifying all the parents that can now be investigated for child abuse', 'We see what you are doing and justice will be sweet', and 'OK groomer.'

Another user wrote: 'drag is a gay fetish to "drag" women it is for adult gay clubs not for kids.'

One Twitter poster appeared to refer to the whole LGBTQ+ community in saying: 'Running round in the shadows like the degenerates you all are.'

Some protesters are planning to travel hundreds of miles and follow the story hour programme around the UK.

Mr Samuel said: 'The vast majority [of protesters] are not even from this area.

'They will get bored and they will move on. The problem is that nobody, the police, nobody is stopping them.

'They are inciting hate.'

He advocated for a review of how children learn about relationships: 'I think LGBT education is almost the second best option.

'The best option really is to look at how anybody understood relationships as they grew up.

'How did I understand about mums and dads or princes and princesses? Disney, Tracy Beaker, Help! My Parents are Aliens.

'Media had no gay relationships, and no relationships with disabled people or people of colour.'

Referring to the tragic death of Riley Hadley from Sidmouth, who took his own life in 2019 after months of bullying and struggling with his sexuality, the performer said he was left 'devastated' and 'in tears' by the news.

'What if I had made it to Devon before this happened? Maybe I could have prevented this.'

He added: 'It's not about being dressed in drag, it's about having someone to relate to.

'What I am doing is saving lives. How many kids have I read my stories to and been that role model that I wish I'd had?

'How many children have I saved?'

Many people have been supportive of the programme on social media and thanked Mr Samuel for his efforts in rearranging the story hours.

According to a survey released in May last year, young LGBT+ people are three times more likely to self-harm and twice as likely to contemplate suicide as their non-LGBT+ peers.

The research by group Just Like Us found that 68% of LGBT+ young people had experienced suicidal thoughts, compared with 29% of young people who were not LGBT+ during lockdown.

Nearly a third of the young people surveyed had self-harmed, compared with 9% of non-LGBT+ young people.

For LGBT+ young people of colour the figures are even higher - 89% had experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings, compared with 67% of the white LGBT+ young people.

Mr Samuel said he had also witnessed some protesters outside venues making racist comments towards security staff.

His drag alter ego, Aida H Dee, is touring Britain across the summer with almost 70 events in 20 areas of the UK, including Bristol, Cornwall, Oxfordshire and Portsmouth.

In on of the latest examples of the protests, at Henleaze library in Bristol this week video footage shows a protestor explaining the group's opposition to the drag queen story hour and claiming they have protest groups 'all over the country', mobilised to 'put an end to this sexual exploitation of children.'

The protest group shouted chants and held signs which said 'stop grooming kids', 'wake up this is child abuse' and 'leave the kids alone'.

A spokesperson from the group at Henleaze Library said: 'Aida works in the sex industry as an adult entertainer.

'This is grooming and it's illegal. So we are performing a citizens arrest, if we can't do it today, we will.'

A member of the counter-protest group said they were there to stand up for 'the rights of drag queens'.

They said: 'It is homophobic and transphobic to stop kids being able to learn from a drag queen.

'We are trying to not escalate things too much so the kids don't get traumatised, we want to protect the families from the fascists over there.

'I think a lot of this is based on unfair economic situations - trans people are often scapegoated by newspapers.'

The 'Story Hour' events have been running across the country for three to 11-year-old children at libraries.

Meanwhile a group of protesters at Welling Library displayed 'Patriotic Alternative' signs - a group which spreads widely debunked extremist ideology such as the great replacement theory.

Their website states: 'The central building block of our nation is the traditional, nuclear family, which consists of a mother, father and children.

'The traditional family will be promoted as an ideal to be striven for and emulated. No public body will promote any alternative as either equal or superior to the traditional family.

'To that end, children will be protected from exposure to sexualised material or LGBT propaganda in all public institutions.'
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a train passenger died on a platform following an altercation.

British Transport Police (BTP) officers were called to the scene on Platform Eight of Reading station in Berkshire at 11:43pm on Saturday where they found the injured man, who later died.

Another man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder. He is currently being held in custody.

The incident happened on a platform at Reading train station late on Saturday evening (Pictured: One of the platforms at the train station)

The family of the victim have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.

According to reports, the two men had an altercation on board the train before the assault on the platform.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Langley has launched an appeal for witnesses in a bid to piece together what happened.

'This is a needless act of violence which has resulted in the tragic loss of a man's life,' he said.

'Officers were quickly able to make an arrest at the scene and a man remains in custody this morning.

'While we are still in the very early stages of our investigation, we believe the men had an altercation on board a train before the victim was assaulted on Platform 8.

'Witnesses will be crucial in helping us piece together exact what happened last night, and I would urge anyone who may have witnessed the incident or the moments before it to contact us as soon as possible.'

Anyone with information should contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 665 of 30/07/22.
Supporters of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are continuing to clash during the Tory leadership contest as senior ministers condemned Nadine Dorries today.

Ms Dorries reshared an image on Twitter of Boris Johnson as Julius Caesar about to be stabbed by a knife-wielding Mr Sunak which the Tory leadership hopeful's backers have strongly criticised.

The Culture Secretary, who is supporting Foreign Secretary Mrs Truss, has faced criticism from those campaigning for Mr Sunak including Greg Hands and Sir Robert Buckland who have called her Tweet 'distasteful' and 'dangerous' .

She has also accused the former chancellor of travelling 'along a path of treachery' and planning a 'Tudoresque' coup against the Prime Minister who was forced to step down after Mr Sunak and Sajid Javid resigned from government along with a slew of ministers.

Supporters of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are continuing to clash during the Tory leadership contest as Nadine Dorries (pictured entering Downing Street this month) came under fire over a retweet on the social media platform Twitter

The Culture Secretary, who is supporting Foreign Secretary Mrs Truss, has faced criticism from those campaigning for Mr Sunak (right) including Business minister Greg Hands (left)

Business minister Greg Hands condemned Ms Dorries' retweet in the wake of the killing of Southend West Tory MP Sir David Amess at a constituency surgery in Essex last October.

He told Sky News: 'I'm sure Liz Truss would disown this kind of behaviour.

'I think this is appalling. Look, it's not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David Amess at his Southend constituency surgery, so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even'.

Mr Hands, who is backing Mr Sunak in the race for No 10, added: 'I do find it distasteful'.

Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland, another supporter of Mr Sunak, also criticised Ms Dorries. 'I think that sort of imagery and narrative is not just incendiary, it's wrong,' he told BBC Radio Wales.

Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland, another supporter of Mr Sunak, also denounced Ms Dorries' behaviour

Business minister Greg Hands condemned Ms Dorries' actions as 'distasteful' and 'dangerous' in the wake of the killing of Southend West Tory MP Sir David Amess at a constituency surgery in Essex last October

Senior Conservative MP Simon Hoare, also supporting Mr Sunak, took to Twitter to criticise Ms Dorries. 'Your comments are divisive, disingenuous and disturbing. Liz Truss needs to stop this. It's harmful to our Party,' he said.

'Remembering, with respect, our fallen colleagues David Amess and Jo Cox. The injured Stephen Timms. I will just leave it there'.

Former Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, who has thrown his weight behind Ms Truss in the leadership contest, told Sky News: 'It's certainly not the sort of thing I would tweet.'

He added: 'Nadine is well known as having strong views on things. Nadine speaks for herself, she's very much an individual on that. But that is not a position that Liz would take.'

She also faced criticism last week over a Tweet comparing the millionaire former chancellor's 3,500 suit to Ms Truss's 4.50 earrings from high street chain Claire's.

Mr Buckland added said: 'I think it's time for those who think that an argument about Prada shoes or earrings is more important, for instance, should wind their neck in and let people talk about the issues rather than the personality.'

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Ms Dorries said today she 'may have gone slightly over the top'.

'I wanted to highlight Rishi's misguided sartorial style in order to alert Tory members not to be taken in by appearances in the way that happened to many of us who served with the chancellor in Cabinet,' she wrote.

'The assassin's gleaming smile, his gentle voice and even his diminutive stature had many of us well and truly fooled.'

She also said: 'Rishi had been plotting against the most electorally successful Prime Minister the Conservative Party has known since the days of Margaret Thatcher.

'His actions made Michael Gove's betrayal of Boris Johnson during the 2016 leadership campaign appear like a rank amateur rehearsing for the role of Brutus in a village hall play.

'I know only too well the value of aspiration in life. I would never wish to suppress anyone's desire to improve their lot. In fact, my entire time as a Secretary of State in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been focused on encouraging such values.

'We have transferred funding from London to socially deprived regions in an attempt to reach out to those from backgrounds who have never considered a career in the creative or sporting sectors. In doing so, we have lived and breathed the policy of levelling up.'
Two female British Army soldiers who sold explicit sexual photos and videos of themselves to a male colleague were blackmailed after he threatened to expose them online if he did not receive a refund, a court martial has heard.

Private Thomas Davies treated his victims like 'prey' after offering to pay them up to 400 for intimate photos, a sex tape and a video call in which the women were in 'a state of undress'.

Demanding his money back, the 'mean and nasty' 22-year-old sent one of the victim's aunts a screenshot from a topless video she had made of her giving her boyfriend oral sex.

He later threatened to share the photos of both women on social media if the cash was not sent back to him.

After admitting two counts of blackmail, Pte Davies, of 3 Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, based at Abingdon, near Oxford, has been dismissed from the forces with a judge condemning him for treating his victims as 'commodities'.

Prosecuting, Major James Eveleigh told Bulford Military Court that the first woman - who has since left the Army - had first been paid to send Pte Davies sexual photos on Snapchat, before agreeing to send a sex tape of her and her partner for 400.

Private Thomas Davies (pictured) treated his victims like 'prey' after offering to pay them up to 400 for intimate photos, a sex tape and a video call in which the women were in 'a state of undress'

He explained: '[The first female soldier] consensually shared intimate personal images with a Snapchat user [Pte Davies], for which she was paid 125.

'She later shared a sex tape for 400. When she did not receive payment she challenged that Snapchat user.

'[Pte Davies] demanded she return all the money [paid to her] or he would share the images and video on social media and with her aunt.

'She paid 70 by bank transfer. Despite this, her aunt later received an image of her in a state of undress.'

The court heard the second victim was approached by Pte Davies for images of her in her underwear, before agreeing to be paid 60 for a video call whilst she was wearing a bikini.

However, unbeknown to her, Pte Davies screen recorded the call and threatened to share the video unless the woman paid him back his money.

'Pte Davies asked [the second female soldier] to send images of her in her underwear,' Major Eveleigh continued.

After admitting two counts of blackmail, Pte Davies (pictured), of 3 Regiment Royal Logistics Corps, based at Abingdon, near Oxford, has been dismissed from the forces with a judge condemning him for treating his victims as 'commodities'.

'She later video called him. She was wearing a bikini. He paid her 60.

'He had recorded the video call and said he would share it online unless she paid him. She paid him 60 later the same day.

'[Pte Davies] acted upon other service personnel as prey.'

Kellie Enever, defending Pte Davies, said that though her client's actions were unacceptable, the photos and videos sent began as 'genuine business transactions'.

She said: 'It is agreed that both these service personnel had agreed to take photographs of themselves and sell them for a fee.

'The two complainants in this case entered into a genuine business transaction.

'This was consensual between all parties. It took a turn when Pte Davies decided he could not afford to pay this money.

'In terms of one of the complainants and the video, that is perhaps the most serious matter of the offences.

'She agreed to send a video of herself giving her boyfriend oral sex in exchange for 400. [Pte Davies] refused to pay that money.

'As a (young person) who grew up in a generation of people who seem to put their entire lives on social media, [Pte Davies] didn't think there was anything wrong [with what he did].

'That perhaps gives you an insight into his mind and his maturity - or lack of.'

Prosecuting, Major James Eveleigh told Bulford Military Court (pictured) that the first woman - who has since left the Army - had first been paid to send Pte Davies sexual photos on Snapchat, before agreeing to send a sex tape of her and her partner for 400

The court martial heard that as part of his blackmail Pte Davies had sent a video of himself scrolling through the first victim's Facebook friends list, saying she had two minutes to send the money.

Victim impact statements read to the court heard the first victim, who had the screenshot of her sex tape sent to her aunt - in which she appeared topless and in her underwear - had left her in fear of how her family now viewed her.

'I feel less trustworthy of people,' the statement read. 'Screenshots of the video were sent to a family member of me topless.

'I fear they may see me differently now.'

In her impact statement, the second victim said she no longer felt comfortable using social media and avoids talking to people online as a result of the incident.

Assistant Judge Advocate General Darren Reed told Davies the 'nasty' blackmail offences warranted the disgraced soldier's dismissal, but stopped short of jailing him.

'These women appeared to be a commodity [to you],' Judge Reed said.

'You appeared to have treated them without any care for their integrity or security.

'You may have taken some time looking for their social media profiles before targeting them.

'These were mean and nasty offences committed against two fellow soldiers who were deliberately targeted. You clearly intended to maximise threat and humiliation.'

'You have corroded the bonds of trust between service personnel. There is no place in the Army for those who blackmail their colleagues.'

Pte Davies was kicked out of the armed forces and handed an eight month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
Young women around Australia are being struck down by a mystery neurological illness - with experts fearing social media addiction and pandemic stress is triggering the problem.

The Tourette's syndrome-like disorder is seeing teenagers suffering from incontrollable 'tics' - which include outbursts, twitching, pops, noises, swearing, kicking and hitting.

Doctors are also witnessing the phenomenon across the globe where previously healthy young women have reported suddenly coming down with violent physical and verbal impulses.

But what's causing the rapid increase in cases has parents and medical authorities baffled.

One possible explanation is that anxiety and stress stemming from extended periods of isolation coupled with obsessions for apps like TikTok, may have been the catalyst.

'This bright, spunky, fiercely independent young girl just trapped in her own body, in her own head. It's really hard to watch,' Melissa told 60 Minutes of her daughter Metallyka - before the teen slaps her mother.

Metallyka slaps her mother Melissa - one of the many tics the teenager suffers as a result of the new condition afflicting young Australian girls

Metallyka said 'lockdowns and not seeing my friends as much' has worsened her tics. During the pandemic her older sister Charlie also developed the same condition.

'When she has her tics I'll walk away, so it doesn't set me off and make it worse for her,' Charlie said.

Their family have chosen to look at the two disorders positively, saying some of their tics are so absurd 'you can't help but laugh' - but the reality is much sadder.

Both Metallyka and Charlie require constant care, with both suffering extreme forms of the condition.

There has been a steep increase in similarly reported cases through the pandemic, largely in teenage girls who can see symptoms appear as rapidly as overnight.

Doctors remain in the dark about its cause - but many believe it is directly linked to the social consequences of lockdowns and the reliance on social media.

Michaela began suffering from extreme tics when she was 14, coming on so fast her parents immediately took her to hospital.

'I was serving up dinner, I heard some noises and a yell and saw her laying on the floor. I thought she was having a massive anxiety attack, next thing an arm is flying then a leg,' her mother said.

'She said she didn't mean to do that. It was really scary, really really scary.'

Michaela was one of the first girls to suffer from the new disorder - terrifying her parents and doctors when she was first taken to hospital after the tics came on overnight

Michaela, now 16, was one of the first to suffer from the seemingly new condition - admitting doctors were 'shocked' and 'scared' by her disorder.

The teenager was doing handstands, rolling on the ground and even doing the splits - with her school constantly calling her parents to inform them of new tics.

'I was constantly on edge,' she said.

Nicole, a British 15-year-old began suffering from her tics shortly before her 13th birthday - with minor facial twitches transforming into violent physical and verbal outbursts.

Her mother said the most confronting of her tics is she will commonly shout 'I am Madeleine McCann, I've been kidnapped' in public.

Like many other cases, Nicole's tics came on during Covid when she was admittedly 'very lonely'.

'I didn't know what to do with myself. You can't see friends or family, it wasn't a very nice thing to be in,' she told 60 Minutes.

Professor Russell Dale - a pediatrics neurologist at Westmead Hospital - said he was hearing of girls 'all over the world' suffering from similar conditions to the young women being brought to him.

He said the first instance he saw of the illness was in Michaela two years ago and that it was 'something different' to anything he had witnessed before.

'There were quite violent movements, hitting themselves, but also the vocalisations were different. Rather than simple noises there were complicated sentences - which was quite bizarre, I've never seen that,' he told the program.

Experts believe it is the 'perfect storm' of the pandemic, prolonged isolation and reliance on social media which has caused the new phenomenon

Professor Dale ruled out Tourette's as the cause for the epidemic as it is found four times more often in boys and comes on slowly from a young age.

He said the key factor appears to be the stresses of the pandemic combined with overt use of TikTok and other apps - which is forcing the young women's bodies to 'fail'.

'Girls across the world have been using similar phrases - it was that which made us think social media was a link as to what was going on,' he said.

The professor pointed to the mimicking of TikTok videos showing tics being broadcast around the world - with 16-year-old Michaela admitting seeing the clips had triggered her behaviour and even seen her mirroring it.

She has now 'fully recovered', with Professor Dale saying the disorder is 'definitely' something that can be overcome but admitted only 20 per cent of his patients have kicked the condition.

He estimates hundreds of thousands of girls around the world could be suffering with the same illness as a result of the 'perfect storm' of the global pandemic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised his navy it will be equipped with devastating hypersonic 'Zircon' missiles in the coming months as fighting continues to rage in Ukraine and tensions escalate with the West.

Speaking on Russia's Navy Day aboard a vessel in St Petersburg, Putin praised Russian Tsar Peter the Great for making Russia a great sea power, and boasted of the unique capability of the hypersonic weapons.

'The delivery of these (missiles) to the Russian armed forces will start in the coming months,' Putin said. 'The Admiral Gorshkov frigate will be the first to go on combat duty with these formidable weapons on board.

'The key thing here is the capability of the Russian navy... It is able to respond with lightning speed to all who decide to infringe on our sovereignty and freedom.'

Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound, and Russia has conducted previous test-launches of the Zircon from warships and submarines over the past year.

Russia's leader did not make reference to Ukraine in his speech, but stressed the missiles would be deployed wherever Moscow's interests lie.

It comes as Russian Navy Day celebrations in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol were cancelled amid reports of a 'homemade drone attack' on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters which injured six employees, according to pro-Russian mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev, though Ukrainian authorities denied any responsibility.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (centre right) delivers a speech commemorating Russia's Navy Day (Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is pictured left, Head of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, is pictured right)

Naval officers stand to attention as Putin arrives for Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg

Putin walks along the gangway after exiting his Raptor boat amid the Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives aboard a Raptor-class parade vessel to attend the military parade during the Navy Day celebration, in the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, July 31, 2022

Russia has successfully test-fired its Zircon hypersonic missiles from various vessels and land-based mounts

Standing aboard a Raptor-class patrol vessel on the Neva River, Putin this morning delivered a speech to naval officers and onlookers to commemorate Navy Day - a Russian national holiday which is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of July.

But shortly before taking to the microphone, Putin signed a new 55-page naval doctrine which sets out the broad strategic aims of Russia's navy, including its ambitions as a 'great maritime power' which extend over the entire world.

The main threat to Russia, the doctrine says, is 'the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans' and the movement of the NATO military alliance closer towards Russia's borders.

Russia may use its military force appropriately to the situation in the world's oceans should diplomatic and economic tools be exhausted, the doctrine says, suggesting Putin is prepared to deploy the new Zircon missiles on any naval threat to Russia's borders.

More than a thousand miles south of St Petersburg, the port city of Sevastopol in the peninsula of Crimea - which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 - was also preparing for Navy Day celebrations.

But city mayor Razvozhaev alleged that a drone attack targeted the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, injuring six employees and causing celebrations to be cancelled.

Razvozhaev immediately pinned blame on Ukraine, but the Black Sea Fleet's own press service said the drone appeared to be homemade and 'low-power'.

'Early this morning, the ''Ukronazis'' decided to spoil the Navy Day for us,' Razvozhaev said via the Telegram messaging app.

'An unidentified object flew into the courtyard of the fleet headquarters - according to preliminary data, it is a drone... I ask you to remain calm and stay at home if possible.'

The city of Sevastopol sits around 100 miles south of the Ukrainian mainland, rendering a homemade drone attack from a Ukraine impossible.

A Ukrainian spokesperson for the regional military administration of Odesa dismissed the alleged attack as a Russian hoax, reasoning that any Ukrainian attack on a Russian military HQ would be 'far more effective'.

'The liberation of our Crimea from the occupiers will take place differently and much more effectively,' spokesman Sergey Brachuk said, describing the alleged attack as 'outright provocation' by Russian operators.

Russian Navy members patrol in front of a headquarter of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, in Crimea on July 31, 2022

An alleged drone attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters (pictured) injured six, according to Sevastopol's mayor

Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev speaks with journalists near the Russian Black Sea Fleet's headquarters following a reported combat drone attack in Sevastopol

The alleged drone attack is the latest in a long line of strikes whose origins are hotly disputed by Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

On Friday, at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed when a detention camp in Russian-controlled Olenivka, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, was hit in a missile attack.

Russian forces accused Kyiv of targeting the Olenivka prison using US-supplied HIMARS rocket system, with conflicting reports putting the total death toll between 47 and 53.

'This egregious provocation was carried out to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen,' Russia's defence ministry said, while Donetsk regional administration leader Denis Pushilin claimed Kyiv struck the jail because Ukrainian prisoners of war had begun to testify.

Ukraine meanwhile dismissed any accusation they had shelled their own prisoners, declaring that the Russian military had destroyed the facility to kill scores of Ukrainian fighters and destroy evidence of torture.

At least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed in a Russian detention camp (pictured today after the strike)

Ukraine said Putin 's men carried out 'targeted artillery shelling' in a bid to both accuse Ukraine of war crimes and hide any evidence of their torture and mass executions

Russian forces accused Kyiv of targeting the Olenivka prison in Donetsk overnight using US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement: 'The armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held.

'In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals - to accuse Ukraine of committing ''war crimes'', as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions.'

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the Russian allegations represented 'a classic, cynical and elaborate false flag operation' intended to discredit Ukrainian authorities.

Russia's defence ministry continues to claim that its military operation in Ukraine does not target civilians.

But hundreds of urban centres across Ukraine have been targeted in missile strikes in the past six months, leading to thousands of deaths.
The death of model and dogwalker Shereen Kumar has been mourned with tears and candles by loved ones, but also with anger by domestic violence campaigners who feel not enough is being done to stem the tide of women allegedly killed by their partners.

About 100 mourners - some friends, some concerned locals - braved cold weather to gather at Kenthurst Park, in Sydney's north-west, on Sunday afternoon to deliver tributes and light candles to commemorate Ms Kumar.

The event came just over a week since the 43-year-old was found dead in bushland four minutes away from her Dural home on July 23, bringing a four-day search to a gruesome end.

Her boyfriend Vincent Carlino, 37, has been charged with domestic violence murder.

Police allege Carlino killed her, wrapped her body in plastic and then dumped it before speaking to media about her 'disappearance'.

The Red Heart campaign, which urges action over the regularity of such events, said there had been 29 women proven to have been, or allegedly been, killed as a result of domestic violence in Australia this year.

The charges came in the same week as NSW Police were investigating the suspicious death of two Saudi sisters in a Sydney flat, and had extradited a man from interstate over the death of his former German girlfriend in a caravan park.

Ms Kumar's friend Erica spoke at the memorial, and expressed her anger that the mother-of-two had become part of the grim statistics.

She urged everyone to 'not for one moment' believe that what happened to Ms Kumar and others was because they were 'gullible or weak' or put themselves in dangerous situations.

'Shereen Kumar was the strongest woman I know, which means we have to work harder with more insight and more resources to keep women safe,' she said.

'This must become a national priority.

Devastated friends and loved ones gathered in Kenthurst Park, in Sydney's north-west, (pictured) on Sunday afternoon for a candlelit vigil in honour of Shereen Kumar

Ms Kumar's mother and son embrace as they are supported by friends

A photo of the beloved mother was set up on a white cloth to create a makeshift memorial, adorned with flowers and candles

The hour-long ceremony to commemorate Ms Kumar began with a priest offering a Hindu prayer as a white cloth was draped over a brick wall to create a makeshift memorial for the beloved mother-of-two.

A picture of the beaming 43-year-old was placed in the centre of the memorial as mourners gathered around to place candles and lay bouquets of flowers.

Friend Erica said she hoped that 'wherever Shereen is tonight, or in whatever form, that she can feel the tidal wave of love we are sending out and that it brings peace and comfort to her spirit'.

Erica fought back tears as she described her friend as 'non-judgmental, easygoing, having the courage to follow her dreams, and a freedom fighter, who had a big smile'.

'Shereen was always there with kind words for others. She was vibrant, a great mother, energetic, strong, thoughtful, beautiful, hardworking and determined.

Friend Erica recalled her fond memories with Ms Kumar as she described the mother-of-two's 'wide smile, enthusiasm and can-do attitude'

Ms Kumar's family and friends hold candles as priests recited prayers in her honour

Mourners gathered around the memorial to lay flowers and candles

Ms Kumar's mother Roshni (pictured in the grey jumper) was accompanied to the front of the memorial by a friend

'She had the biggest can-do attitude,' Erica said.

'Start a HR business? Sure. Turning modelling into a career? Absolutely. Still make time for friends and memories? Always.'

Erica said Ms Kumar summed up her spirit during one afternoon when they were drinking wine on the beach and it began raining: 'Better to be in the rain than to not be on the beach at all.'

Ms Kumar, 43, (pictured) was remembered for her kindness to others and determined, hardworking nature

But despite the numerous positive ways Ms Kumar could be described, foremost, her spirit was felt by all who knew her.

'From the moment you walked into that wide smile, energy and enthusiasm, you sensed you were special to her,' Erica said.

'That was her secret power. In a world increasingly self-centred, she was far more interested in hearing about others than she was talking about herself.

'Her wide smile, natural intelligence and heart drew us like moths to a flame. She was our sun.'

Erica said Ms Kumar was 'physically stunning' and natural in front of the camera.

She was particularly photogenic on nights when their group of friends would take an 'obligatory photo'.

While everyone else would 'shuffle into a line', the model would 'seamlessly transition from pose to pose'.

Greyhounds were among the attendees at the memorial for the beloved dog walker

A priest started the ceremony by reciting a Hindu prayer for Ms Kumar

Nikki Kumar (pictured) said her sister 'always spread her love and kindness and positivity'

Ms Kumar's friends hug as emotions ran high during the sad service

Erica joked it became annoying as the pair's photographic pursuits would delay their hikes as the duo would stop at 'every interesting rock formation' to take snaps.

'We would finish entire picnics waiting for them to catch up,' she said.

After heeding her friend's advice, Ms Kumar began modelling and took 'breathtaking photographs', with Erica noting her favourite was a recent shoot featuring the mother-of-two 'looking like a goddess' dressed as Medusa.

Despite her new career, Erica said her friend was always incredibly down to earth.

On occasions when they would take group photos, Ms Kumar would ask Erica, a talented writer, to curate the post, leading her to pen humorously embarrassing captions.

Erika said Ms Kumar was delighted each time and found the posts hilarious.

Ms Kumar's mother, sister Nikki, and her friends embrace as they paid honour to the model

Mourners protect their candles from the wind as they listen to speeches about Ms Kumar's impactful life

Friends holding flowers and candles bowed their heads as they paid respect to Ms Kumar

'She might have spent a lot of time in front of the camera, but she wasn't a vain princess,' Erica said.

'She was grounded, humble, and appreciated anything that gave back a good laugh.'

'She and I bonded over a love of life and outright silliness.

But of all of her friend's incredible qualities, Erica said she would forever miss her laugh.

'Her laughter crowed out and her head tilted back, deeply immersed in the moment,' Erica said.

'Never hearing her laugh again will be my greatest loss.'

Erica said she had been hoping her friend had gone away on a trip and would be back knocking on her door soon.

'Upon hearing her body was found, I let out a howl. Long, loud, rooted in the agony - what some of us feared might be possible,' she said.

Members of the Sikh community fronted the crowd to lead the group in a Sikh prayer

A mourner lays a bouquet of white flowers to pay tribute to the mother-of-two

'Since then I have felt dead inside, unable to shed a tear. This is surreal, a nightmare that is lingering into our wakefulness.

'How could someone so full of love, so kind, with so much yet to contribute have their life [allegedly] snuffed out by someone so inadequate?

'I am devastated I could not save her. That none of us that tried could. And that her beautiful children have been deprived of so many wonderful memories with this incredible woman who really knew how to pack the most into life.

'I wish you a peaceful journey my friend. Shanti, shanti, shanti (Hindu for peace).'

Ms Kumar's sister Nikki said she was one of the 'kindest and most beautiful souls'.

'Wherever she went, she was loved and cherished by everyone,' Nikki said.

'She always spread her love and kindness and positivity wherever she went.'

One woman remembered Ms Kumar as a 'protective' friend during an emotional speech

Attendees braving the cold weather passed around lighters to help others' candles

Ms Kumar's neighbour and a friend sang 'Somewhere over the rainbow' at the end of the moving ceremony

Nikki said that if there was anything she learnt from her sister, it was that it's 'hard to be kind and positive under any situation'.

'She had the most beautiful smile, and I am sure she is smiling down on each and every one of us,' she said.

'Thank you all for coming, me and my family really appreciate it.'

A member of the Sikh community walked in front of the crowd to offer a prayer for Ms Kumar's spirit.

Another friend who met Ms Kumar at school travelled to Australia from New Zealand to be at the vigil.

She told the crowd how Ms Kumar was a protective and fierce friend, and how during their last trip together in 2018 the mother-of-two spent the whole night carrying her drink around to ensure it did not get spiked.

As the ceremony drew to a close, Rachel Jordan, Ms Kumar's neighbour who she never got the chance to know, stood in front of the crowd with her friend Mairead to sing a rendition of over the rainbow in honour of the slain mother.

Their voices carried over the silent night, bringing some members of the crowd to tears as they reflected on the friend, and her vibrant life, now lost.

Attendees looked downcast as loved ones recited old memories of Ms Kumar

Ms Kumar was found in bushland four minutes away from her Dural home ending a four-day search. Her boyfriend Vincent Carlino has been charged with domestic violence murder

Ms Kumar's ex-husband Gurpreet Beehan told Daily Mail Australia he is focusing on the tumultuous weeks and months ahead as the family prepare to farewell Ms Kumar then brace to face her alleged killer in court.

'We just like to ensure she is brought justice,' he said.

Police will allege Carlino killed Ms Kumar sometime after 9pm on Wednesday July 20, wrapped her in plastic and tape, then dumped her body 2.5km from their home.

Carlino initially told police Ms Kumar was last seen leaving her home on Taylors Road, in Dural, in her pyjamas at about 9pm on Wednesday.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on July 20, Carlino said he was 'extremely worried' about his missing partner.

After days of searching, detectives found a body matching the woman's description just in bushland off Laurie Road last Saturday at 5.50pm

Just after 11.30pm that day, police arrested Mr Carlino at the home he shared with Ms Kumar.

He was taken to Hornsby police station and formally charged with murder (DV). He was refused bail to appear in Parramatta Bail Court the following day..

Carlino and Ms Kumar (pictured together) ran a dog walking business in Sydney's northern suburbs

In court, Carlino did not apply for bail, with his lawyer Elias Tabchouri telling reporters his client was 'very concerned' about the allegations.

Mr Tabochouri said it was still 'too early to say' how his client intends to plead.

'At this stage I don't have any instructions other than to wait for the evidence and go from there,' Mr Tabchouri told 7News.

Just four months after striking up a relationship in April 2021, Ms Kumar and Carlino went into business together; starting a pet-walking franchise, Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

Ms Kumar later became the Director of the Chatswood Mad Dogs and Englishmen franchise while Carlino ran the Hornsby business.

Ms Kumar will be farewelled by loved ones in a private funeral service in coming days.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police.
The number of people to reach the UK in small boats this year reached more than 16,000 after another 460 were intercepted in the English Channel on Saturday, according to government figures.

Yesterday's figure is the highest number in one day recorded so far this year.

Twelve boats were picked up yesterday, July 30, carrying 460 people who had attempted to cross the channel to travel from France to the UK. This takes the weekly total to more than 1,000.

This is the largest number on any one day in some time, with 610 people making the dangerous crossing across the whole of last week.

This month, 3,683 people have crossed from France, bringing the total so far this year to 16,399.

Stable weather conditions yesterday meant an increase in people attempting to reach English soil.

Border Force staff are expecting a surge of attempts in August and September before sea conditions worsen into the winter.

Twelve boats were picked up yesterday, July 30, carrying 460 people who had attempted to cross the channel to travel from France to the UK (stock image)

Men, women and children have often had to be rescued from struggling small boats by UK border force

Two weeks ago 1421 people crossed the Dover Strait, the world's busiest shipping lane, in a single week

According to government figures 28,526 people made the journey in 2021 - compared to 8,410 who arrived in 2020.

Two weeks ago, amidst the scorching heatwave which hit the UK and saw temperatures reach 40C, smugglers took advantage of the warm weather and clear skies.

The number of boats and people crossing the channel rose significantly, with a total of 1421 people in 33 boats being detected by the Home Office.

Crossing the channel in small boats is considered extremely dangerous, and can have deadly consequences.

As well as busy shipping waters and bad weather, the small boats provided by traffickers are often in poor condition and overcrowded.

On November 24, 2021 a rubber dinghy carrying 34 people sank, claiming 31 lives, after those inside desperately called for help for hours.

A new report released this week by French authorities found French and British coastguards both passed the buck for rescuing the dinghy before drowning claimed 31 lives plus that of an unborn child.

Sky News reported that a preliminary investigation, carried out by a law firm on behalf of some of the victim's relatives, uncovered communications between the British and French emergency services which suggests neither side took responsibility for the unfolding disaster.

This responsibility-dodging is alleged to have gone on for a staggering six to seven hours across 80 separate phone calls from the desperate dinghy as both sides washed their hands and blamed the other.

The report, which draws on evidence from the two survivors, phone calls, text messages and emails, paints a damning picture of negligence as the dinghy floundered in choppy waters without rescue.
Tom Tugendhat has said being Foreign Secretary 'would be a fantastic job to do' after he lent his backing to Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss.

Mr Tugendhat is the latest high-profile Conservative to publicly endorse Truss over rival leadership contender Rishi Sunak.

The pair shared a warm embrace at a campaign event at Biggin Hall Airport in south London yesterday but Mr Tugendhat insists Ms Truss has not promised him anything, Sky News reports.

At yesterday's event, reporters asked Mr Tugendhat - who chairs the Foreign Affairs Select Committee - whether he would like to be Foreign Secretary,

He responded: 'Well, look, it would be a fantastic job to do, let's not pretend it wouldn't.

British Foreign Secretary and Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss and British Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat pose for a picture with party members at the Conservative Party leadership campaign event at Biggin Hill Airport yesterday

But there are 'many other jobs that I've spoken about wanting to do'

'But the reality is I've been promised nothing, I expect nothing. I hope for a lot, but I have no right to expect.'

Liz Truss said she was 'absolutely delighted' about Mr Tugendhat's support, but described it as 'extremely premature' to say whether she would appoint him Foreign Secretary.

Ms Truss said: 'He is a very, very talented person and I'm very grateful to have the support from right across all parts of the Conservative Party because we need to reunite after this leadership election.'

She insisted it was a 'very, very close race,' while trumpeting her 'support from right across all parts of the Conservative Party' after gaining Tory centrist Tom Tugendhat's backing.

Mr Sunak, who has consistently trailed Ms Truss in polls of party members, faces an uphill battle to win them over before ballots start landing on their doorsteps next week.

Both contenders are continuing to flit across the country to meet voters, with Mr Sunak tweeting photos of himself with supporters in key southern constituencies with the caption: 'Busy Saturday meeting hundreds of members. Wouldn't have it any other way!'

Tom Tugendhat has said being Foreign Secretary 'would be a fantastic job to do' after he lent his backing to Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss.

Liz Truss said she was 'absolutely delighted' about Mr Tugendhat's support, but described it as 'extremely premature' to say whether she would appoint him Foreign Secretary

His latest plans in a policy blitz designed to revive his flagging campaign included slashing the number of shuttered shops on Britain's high streets, allowing tougher punishment for graffiti and littering, and expanding police powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Mr Sunak also told The Sunday Telegraph he would levy a 10 fine for patients who miss GP and hospital appointments as part of a 'transformative' overhaul of the NHS.

The former chancellor also acknowledged to the newspaper he is 'playing catch-up' to Ms Truss as he seemingly sought to claim the sought-after underdog status.

Ms Truss's latest policy announcements include a six-point plan on education, under which she promised that pupils with top A level grades would get an automatic invitation to apply for Oxbridge and other prestigious universities.

Branding herself the 'education prime minister', she also vowed to replace failing academies with 'a new wave of free schools' and improve maths and literacy standards.

Ms Truss also told The Telegraph there would be no second referendum on Scottish independence 'on my watch,' with her rejection appearing to go further than Boris Johnson's assertion that now was 'not the time'.
A suspect arrested over the murder of nine-year-old Lillia Valutyte showed no reaction as he was held in the street by armed police, it was revealed today

The 22-year-old man who is believed to be Lithuanian was formally arrested on Saturday afternoon after he came out of a house in Thorold Street, Boston, Lincolnshire.

One neighbour claimed that the arrested man had been on holiday and had been staying with a friend at the Victorian semi-detached house in recent weeks.

The suspect was seen standing impassively in the street, wearing a black tracksuit trousers with a white line pattern and a black hooded top as an officer held his arms behind his back.

The house is just 200 yards from where the Lithuanian schoolgirl was stabbed to death outside her mothers embroidery shop at 6.20pm last Thursday in Fountain Lane, Boston.

Police were today still standing guard outside the house as white-suited forensic officers were seen going in and out.

Police tracked down man after a manhunt following the death of schoolgirl, nine, on Thursday

Innocent Lillia Valutyte was knifed to death when playing in the street at 6.20pm Thursday

The schoolgirl was stabbed to death outside her mothers embroidery shop at 6.20pm last Thursday in Fountain Lane, Boston

The man was seized just four hours after police released CCTV images of a suspect who was pictured walking just yards away from the spot where the schoolgirl died.

Local residents told how armed police suddenly swooped on the house overlooking Central Park in Boston at around 2.45pm on Saturday.

A woman who lives nearby said: I fed my dogs at the usual time, and then I heard a drone flying above the house.

I wondered why it was there and then I suddenly remembered that they were looking for this guy after the murder of the little girl.

I looked out of the window and saw police arrive in several marked and unmarked cars, and a load of armed officers coming out.

They shouted out, Any occupantst, come out of the front door, and let us see your hands.

Officers yelled the message at least a couple of times while other police went round the back carrying a battering ram.

It took about five minutes for the guy to come out. I didnt seen him resisting or trying to run away. They asked him what his name was, and then one of them said: I am arresting you on suspicion of murder.

Little Lillia (bottom right) was knifed at around 6.20pm on 28 July while she was reportedly playing in the street with her sister outside an embroidery and screen printing shop run by her Lithuanian mother Lina Savicke in Fountain Lane, Boston

Police investigating the murder of Lillia Valutyte, nine, seen searching drains in Boston town centre today in a possible search for a murder weapon

Police searching bins in Boston town centre today in a possible search for a murder weapon

The death of the nine-year-old girl, whose family were from Lithuania, has locals left in 'profound shock' and the local MP appealing for national assistance to catch her killer

There was such a commotion because there were other police turning up, and there was lots of talking.

He stood there for about ten minutes while they were searching the property. He was just standing there. He didnt say anything, but he looked round once or twice.

When he was told that he was being arrested for murder, there was no reaction from him

After a while they moved him further up the road and out of sight. I also saw an evidence bag which had something wrapped up in it

It was turning into a bit of a circus because crowds were gathering.

The Victorian semi-detached house where the man was arrested is believed to a house of multiple occupation with several Lithuanian residents including a couple.

One near neighbour who only gave his name as Artor, 40, said today : I think the arrested guy was over from Lithuania and staying with a friend in the house.

There was some suggestion that he had been due to return to Lithuania. I think he had come over here on a kind of holiday, rather than for working.

The death of the nine-year-old girl, whose family were from Lithuania, has locals left in 'profound shock' and the local MP appealing for national assistance to catch her killer

Chief Superintendent Parker announced the manhunt by reading a statement to the media at the top of Fountain Lane on Saturday, beside a growing collection of floral tributes and cuddly toys left by well-wishers in memory of Lillia.

Shocked onlookers saw three men being led away from an area outside a Victorian semi-detached house in Thorold Street, alongside Central Park in the town centre of Boston, Lincolnshire

Lillias family friend Jurate Matulioniene decribed her in a Facebook tribute as a 9-year-old angel and one of the most beautiful creatures, saying: None will feel her mothers pain.

She added: The girl was a ray of the sunlight, just like her parents, who were the main helpers of our community and school events. The pain is unspeakable. We are devastated at this shocking news! Rest in peace, little angel.

Other friends told how Lillia who lived with her mother Lina Savicke and stepfather Aurelijus Savickas loved dancing and Harry Potter books

A Lincolnshire Police statement said: The arrest follows a combination of intelligence and information supplied by several members of the public. Wed like to thank everyone for their assistance as we continue our investigation.

We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident. There will continue to be a significant police presence in the town while our investigation progresses.

We are still encouraging anyone with information to contact us. You can do so via the Major Incident Portal.

A 21-year-old man from Portugal who witnessed police swooping on the house in Thorold Street at around the time of the arrest, said: I saw police vans and armed cops everywhere.

There were about ten or 12 armed police with their guns pointing down. One had a battering ram and went round the side of the house. I think they used it on the back door.

I saw three men going off with the police. One was a younger lad brought from the house and another was bald and aged in his 50s. A third man was surrounded in a group of police. It all happened in the space of ten minutes.

Another eye witness said: It looked like one of the men was just a person who was helping the police.

Lillia was attacked just feet away from the screen printing and embroidery shop called Sava Code Embroidery which was opened by her mother Ms Savicke in March this year.

Her shop offers customised logos on bags and T shirts for local clubs and organisations, as well as personalised cushions and other items embroidered or printed with personal messages.




South Korea's new envoy for North Korean human rights emphasized her commitment Thursday to enhancing "human security" in the reclusive country, as she received her appointment certificate from Foreign Minister Park Jin.







Lee Shin-wha, political science professor at Korea University, filled the position that had been vacant for years since the inaugural ambassador, Lee Jung-hoon, left office in September 2017.







Her appointment came as the South has apparently shifted to a more proactive stance in handling the North Korean human rights issue under the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration in a policy shift from the preceding liberal Moon Jae-in administration.







"Mentioning the human rights issue may be a sensitive issue for the North Korean regime, but for its people, the issue is a matter of life or death," she said in a meeting with reporters. "I believe (my role) is to call on the North Korean regime to (ensure) not regime security but human security."







The ambassador also commented on the hot-button issue of the forced repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019.







"Forcibly repatriating them without due procedures is a breach of both international and domestic laws," she said." This issue should be viewed from the perspective of the international principle of non-refoulement and the enforcement of the (domestic) North Korean human rights act."







She also pointed out, "A photo is worth a hundred or a thousand words," in an apparent reference to the photo unveiled by Seoul's unification ministry of the North Korean fishermen being dragged into the North against their will.







The post on the North's rights was created in 2016 following the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Act. (Yonhap)






The mysterious deaths of two Saudi sisters living in Sydney has taken another strange turn, with police backflipping on initial claims their family had been cooperating with investigators.

Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead inside their Canterbury unit in the city's south-west on June 7, five years after they fled their homeland and arrived in Australia with $5,000 in savings.

Police believe the two young women, found in separate beds, may have been dead for a month before officers made the grim discovery while conducting a welfare check.

There were no signs of forced entry, no clear signs of injury, and the cause of death remains undetermined.

For weeks, NSW Police assured media the sisters 'well-connected' family in the Saudi kingdom were 'cooperating' and 'helping' with the investigation.

But it has since been alleged that the family blocked detectives from releasing photographs of the women as part of a public appeal to shed light on the baffling case.

Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia their photos and identities were released in consultation with the coroner - not the sisters' family - almost two months after their bodies were found.

Pictured: Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23. Her body was found on June 7 in a Canterbury apartment

Pictured: Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24. She and her sister were found dead in Sydney's south-west

Other bizarre inconsistencies have also arisen during the investigation.

Police were unable to explain a delay on the release of toxicology reports which usually takes four to six weeks, despite previously insisting the findings were being 'fast-tracked'.

'That is a matter for the coroner,' police said in response our inquiries.

Until now, investigators always insisted the family were cooperating with investigators and had 'no reason' to believe the Alsehli sisters fled their homeland.

Police would not release details about the women's visa status at Wednesday's press conference but revealed officers were in touch with the family - who had instructed the consulate to act on their behalf.

Investigators believe the women died in May, around the time they stopped paying rent.

The coroner has not released the bodies of the sisters to their family, although it is understood they could be buried in Sydney.

Police are to yet rule out homicide or suicide as investigations continue.

NSW Police have appeared to have backflipped on initial claims the women's family have been cooperating with investigation into their deaths. Pictured are police at the unit in June

Their rental agent Jay Hu revealed the women were originally 'good' tenants when they first moved in two years ago and had proof of 'ample' savings before falling behind on rent earlier this year.

'They stopped paying rent, so my colleague contacted them  they said the money would be coming soon,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

'But it still didn't come  a few more weeks went by and still not paid.'

The unit has undergone renovations including new carpet and repainting before the property went back on the market for lease last week.

It's also been revealed the sisters were both seeking protection from the Australian government as more details about their attempts to build a normal life here emerged.

They had an active claim for asylum in progress with the Department of Home Affairs, it has been confirmed.

The reasons they sought protection from the Australian government, detailed in their claim, are not known.

Forensic police scoured the unit (pictured) in the wake of the grisly discovery on June 7 - a month after the women died

Police confirmed the women's identities were released last week in consultation with the coroner. Pictured are officers at the Canterbury complex investigating the women's deaths

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES - May have fled Saudi Arabia as teens. - Had access to money and drove a BMW. - Both had Australian business names, but police can't confirm what they did for work. - Filed an AVO, and then withdrew it. - BMW was keyed. - Three police welfare checks. - Stopped paying rent. - Bodies found a month after they died. - Cause of death unknown. Advertisement

But claims for asylum often relate to persecution or human rights violations on the basis of religion, sexuality, ethnicity, violence or political opinions, according to Amnesty International.

Both were in touch with settlement providers and were on bridging visas.

Reports published in Middle Eastern newspapers on Friday said the sisters had renounced Islam.

The sisters only left the Canterbury unit to study at TAFE, to go shopping or to work, their former landlord from a property they rented at Fairfield revealed to The Guardian.

The 'shocked' landlord claimed their mother visited the sisters in Sydney but didn't like Australia and left after only a brief visit.

News outlets based in Yemen shed more light on the mysterious situation - reporting that the women fled their homeland with a wad of cash in 2017 due to a tumultuous relationship with their parents.

They were also reported to have renounced Islam and became atheists. One had a boyfriend in Sydney.

Detective Inspector Claudia Allcroft insisted there was 'nothing to suggest' their family was involved in their deaths.

The women were not known to be part of any dissident Saudi networks.

The landlord said the sisters, who it reported fled Saudi Arabia in 2017 with $5,000 during a family holiday, both attended TAFE in Wetherill Park.

They also both worked doing traffic control for a Sydney building company.

'I was shocked when I saw their photos, I have no idea how this could have happened. They were very cute and friendly girls, we never had any problems with them,' their landlord told The Guardian.

When they arrived in Sydney, Asra and Amaal made contact with a refugee agency. Pictured: Their Canterbury apartment block, where they were found dead in June

He said the women did not talk much, or stay up late and didn't make 'loud noises'.

'Nothing weird ever happened.'

Asra Alsehli had a boyfriend, an Iraqi man with a beard, the landlord said.

She applied for an apprehended violence order against a 28-year-old man in 2019 but later withdrew the application.

According to Ana Yemenyi and Tomorrow's Yemen, the sisters were on a summer holiday with their family when they jumped on a plane to Sydney, via Hong Kong.

The sisters then connected with an Australian refugee organisation. It is understood they were on bridging visas in Australia.

Local news outlets said their brother was expected to make a public appeal to encourage any potential killer to come forward, but the family have so far remained silent.

The mysterious deaths have made waves on social media, with many Middle Eastern locals asking why the sisters felt the need to escape the Saudi Kingdom.

One man said the women exposed themselves to danger when they left their homeland: 'Do not leave Saudi Arabia in search of freedom. You will not find it.'

A black BMW coupe covered in dust was removed from the garage of the apartment block the day after the women's bodies were found

The Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Sydney has offered its condolences to the family, who are believed to be 'well connected'.

While the details of the Alsehli sisters' lives in Saudi Arabia have not yet been pieced together, what is known about their time in Australia begs more questions than answers.

Eight weeks on from the grisly discovery, the case is still plagued with mysteries and inconsistencies.

Both women registered ABNs in 2018 for sole trading to a Wetherill Park address, in Sydney's west, but police still can't confirm what they did for work.

They also drove a black BMW coupe which normally costs upwards of $38,000, and lived in a modern, two-bedroom $490-per-week apartment.

The sisters' car was also keyed in late 2021, but is unknown whether it was a coincidence or whoever damaged their property had malicious intent.

The women regularly went to the local service station for coffee and energy drinks with workers describing them as 'cheerful' - but they noted the pair would only respond to questions, never starting a conversation.

There were also three welfare checks carried out by police in the months before the girls were finally discovered in separate beds of their first-floor unit as mail piled up outside their door.

At last week's press conference, Detective Allcroft confirmed police know very little about the women and renewed an appeal for public information - anyone who saw the sisters in their final days has been urged to come forward.

'We hope that someone may be able to assist our investigators,' Detective Allcroft said.

'Either through sightings, or those who knew the sisters and may have some information on their movements prior to their death.'
Dominic Perrottet has sensationally sacked Eleni Petinos amid allegations of bullying in her office.

The NSW Fair Trading Minister, who is responsible for keeping the state's workplaces safe, is accused of berating staff and calling one 'retarded' and 'stupid'.

Premier Perrottet took swift action on Sunday evening announcing the rising Liberal Party star's services will be terminated - as she strenuously rejects any accusations of improper conduct.

Embattled Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos (pictured), who is responsible for keeping the state's workplaces safe, is accused of berating staff and calling one 'retarded' and 'stupid'

Dominic Perrottet has terminated the services of Mr Perrottet. Pictured left to right, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, NSW Minister for Women's Safety Natalie Ward, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and NSW Minister for Small Business Eleni Petinos

'Today I spoke with the Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading Eleni Petinos after some further matters concerning her were brought to my attention,' Mr Perrottet said in the late-night statement.

'In light of these matters, Ms Petinos' service as a minister will cease with immediate effect, and I will write to the governor in this regard tomorrow.'

A report claimed one of Ms Petinos' former advisers lodged a complaint with the Department of Premier and Cabinet about being 'relentlessly bullied' by others while at work.

'It's just hell,' one unnamed staffer told News Corp when describing the working conditions in the minister's office, adding 'I felt unsafe'.

Ms Petinos, who has had up to eight staff members leave in the past seven months, released a statement shortly after news of her imminent departure broke.

A report claimed one of Ms Petinos' former advisers lodged a complaint with the Department of Premier and Cabinet about being 'relentlessly bullied' by others while at work. She staunchly denies the claims

'Tonight the Premier informed me I would no longer be a Minister in his Government,' Ms Petinos said.

'I am proud of my work while I served the people of NSW as Minister for Small Business and Minister for Fair Trading.

'I fought hard for small businesses who are the lifeblood of NSW and I will continue to advocate for them regardless of my role.'

The embattled MP added that the intense pressures and stresses of such important portfolios are significant for both staff and their Minister.

'I thank my staff for their efforts in supporting me to deliver for the people of NSW,' she said.

'I would never intentionally offend anyone or make them feel uncomfortable, and if I did I am truly sorry.

'I pursue politics to make a positive difference and will continue to do so proudly as the Member for Miranda.'
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Vladimir Putin's health has been brought into question yet again as new footage emerged today of the Russian president seemingly unable to use his right arm.

It happened at the same event where Russia's authoritarian leader signed a new military doctrine that accuses the United States of being Moscow's greatest threat.

Meanwhile Putin and his friends are making preparations to flee Russia should his army be defeated in Ukraine, according to a Telegram channel that claims to come from inside the Kremlin.

The video clip captured the moment Putin, 69, was given a tour of a military museum as part of a weekend of festivities marking Russia's Navy Day, celebrated on the last Sunday of every July.

The Kremlin chief is seen speaking with Ksenia, daughter of defense minister Sergei Shoigu, when mosquitoes begin buzzing around the right side of his face.

Putin raises his left arm in an attempt to swat them away while his right arm hangs limply by his side.

He continues to itch and swat all around his head with one arm before walking alongside Ksenia with a slight limp as she continues her tour.

The clip is the latest of a litany of videos which appear to show the Russian president walking with a limp, struggling with strange ticks including odd foot and leg contortions, and un-coordinated movement.

The Kremlin chief (centre) is seen speaking with Ksenia, daughter of defence minister Sergei Shoigu (left), when mosquitoes begin buzzing around the right side of his face

He continues to itch and swat all around his head with one arm before walking alongside Ksenia with a slight limp as she continues her tour

Ksenia Shoigu, 31, daughter of Russia's Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu (left) shows her father and Putin around a Russian military monument

Ksenia Shoigu, 31, is the daughter of Russia's Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu

However despite his apparent ill health, Putin was clear in his threat to the West when bragging about Moscow's new supposed Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, according to Reuters.

The autocrat was vague about where the weapons would be based, claiming that they would go where Russia's interests dictate.

'The key thing here is the capability of the Russian navy,' Putin said. 'It is able to respond with lightning speed to all who decides to infringe on our sovereignty and freedom.'

The new doctrine he signed casts NATO's expansion toward Russia as an existential threat to Moscow. The idea of Ukraine joining NATO was among Putin's justifications for invading Ukraine in February.

The other supposed threat is 'the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans.'

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (centre right) delivers a speech commemorating Russia's Navy Day (Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is pictured left, Head of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, is pictured right)

Naval officers stand to attention as Putin arrives for Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg

Putin walks along the gangway after exiting his Raptor boat amid the Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives aboard a Raptor-class parade vessel to attend the military parade during the Navy Day celebration, in the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, July 31, 2022

Speaking on Russia's Navy Day aboard a vessel in St Petersburg, Putin praised Russian Tsar Peter the Great for making Russia a great sea power, and boasted of the unique capability of the hypersonic weapons.

'The delivery of these (missiles) to the Russian armed forces will start in the coming months,' Putin said. 'The Admiral Gorshkov frigate will be the first to go on combat duty with these formidable weapons on board.

'The key thing here is the capability of the Russian navy... It is able to respond with lightning speed to all who decide to infringe on our sovereignty and freedom.'

Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound, and Russia has conducted previous test-launches of the Zircon from warships and submarines over the past year.

Russia's leader did not make reference to Ukraine in his speech, but stressed the missiles would be deployed wherever Moscow's interests lie.

There has been widespread speculation over the apparent decline of Putin's health in recent months, with various sources suggesting the despot is struggling with a series of afflictions such as cancer and Parkinson's.

The General SVR Telegram channel, which claims to be operated by a former officer from Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, has long reported on Putin's supposed health conditions and recently suggested he is sometimes replaced by a body double for public appearances in periods of particularly poor health.

The channel suggested Putin last week was afflicted by 'severe nausea' on Friday and Saturday, with doctors deployed to his bedside for more than three hours.

Following on those reports, that same Telegram channel said in recent days that 'Putin himself and his entourage are preparing plans for evacuation from Russia,' citing his awareness 'of the possibility of a sharp change of mood in the country' over his invasion of Ukraine.

It is thought that any plane carrying Putin and his family out of Russia would head to fellow dictatorship Syria, the nearest friendly state and whose leader, Bashar al-Assad, Putin bailed out by intervening in the Syrian civil war in 2015.

Any flight from Russia to Syria, however, would have to fly through the airspace of Turkey, a NATO member.

Were Turkey's strongman leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to refuse permission to the plane carrying Putin and his family to enter his airspace, it would effectively scupper the Russian tyrant's quickest and perhaps only getaway route.

Erdogan and Putin have a complex relationship, having been friends and enemies at various times over the past decade as each leader tries to navigate their country through a challenging geopolitical neighbourhood.

Iran is another regional power - and Western foe - that would be interested in Putin's fate.

'In principle, it is beneficial for Iran and Turkey to keep the Russian president in exile in reserve, using him, depending on the situation, as a lever or as a bargaining chip,' the channel states.

Telegram's body double theory was echoed by head of Ukrainian military intelligence, who speculated that a lookalike stand-in may have been used for his arrival at a recent trip to Tehran.

It was only the second time Putin had been abroad since launching his brutal invasion of Ukraine more than five months ago.

Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Major-General Kyrylo Budanov, said of the moment Putin arrived in Tehran: 'Please look at the moment of Putin's exit from the plane.

'Is it Putin at all?'

However, CIA director William Burns said recently that Putin was 'too healthy' and that there was no intelligence he was ailing.

'There are lots of rumours about President Putin's health and as far as we can tell he's entirely too healthy,' Mr Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado earlier this month.

British MI6 director Richard Moore later added: 'There is no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious illness.'

William Burns, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, said he fears Putin is 'entirely too healthy'

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen emerging from his presidential plane during the welcoming ceremony in Tehran earlier this month

Russian political scientist Valery Solovey meanwhile has long claimed the Kremlin leader is suffering major health problems.

'The Americans, the CIA particularly, have information on the real state of health of the Russian president,' he said.

'They definitely know that he has serious troubles, including mental ones.'

Solovey, a former professor at Moscow prestigious Institute of International Relations [MGIMO] who claims to have insider knowledge of Putin's condition, suggested that Mr Burns' claim Putin is 'too healthy' was made because the US is involved in behind the scenes negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin insists Putin is in good health and has dismissed any suggestion the president's health is declining as complete fabrication.

It comes after the US government was publicly revealed to have offered Russia a prisoner swap that would include handing over infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout - nicknamed 'the merchant of death' - in exchange for WNBA player Brittney Griner and retired US Marine Paul Whelan. The offer was first reported by CNN.

Government officials are reportedly frustrated at the lack of a response from Russia. The offer was made in June and personally greenlit by President Joe Biden.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to agree to the deal during a 'frank' phone call on Friday.

Lavrov reportedly took umbrage at the public nature of the prisoner swap discussions.

'Regarding the possible exchange of imprisoned Russian and U.S. citizens, the Russian side strongly suggested a return to the practice of handling this in a professional way and using 'quiet diplomacy' rather than throwing out speculative information,' the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The US also dismissed Russia's reported request to add convicted killer Vadim Krasikov to the swap as a 'bad faith offer.' Krasikov is being held by German authorities.
Archie Battersbee's family have been told by letter how the little boy will have his life support treatment removed tomorrow in a procedure they today branded 'cruel and wrong'.

Barts Health NHS Trust said in the note to his parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee 'all fluid infusions, medications, including vasopressin will be stopped' at 2pm on August 1.

In one heartbreaking sentence it warns them only immediately family will be allowed into the room, meaning others will be banned.

And in another particularly insensitive part of the message the trust says a doctor will need to 'assess Archie regularly to confirm that the heart has stopped beating'.

One of the little boy's aunts had been booked on a flight to come over from Italy to see him but will now no longer be able to under the Trust's rules.

The letter - given to MailOnline with permission of the family - has come despite the UN urging a pause on proceedings.

A statement from Hollie and Paul said: 'The Trust has been dragging us as a family through the courts at a breakneck speed from April 27 till the final decision of the Supreme Court this Thursday evening.

'The Trust has never made any attempt to agree any sort of compromise with us on any matters great or small. For example this Friday, our lawyers received a letter from the Trust demanding that all videos of Archie and his medical equipment taken on the ward, which we believe is evidence of improvement in Archies condition (such as his attempts to breathe independently) are immediately deleted; and threatened legal proceedings for an alleged breach of data protection.

'We as a family are very disappointed that the Trusts management has chosen to hide behind euphemisms and to mislead the public. It is hard to see any reason for that behaviour except knowing that what they are doing is cruel and wrong.'

It comes after Ms Dance, urged the Health Secretary to 'act immediately' to stop the treatment ending, saying it would be 'a flagrant breach' of his rights.

The letter from the NHS Trust to Archie's parents, shared with MailOnline with their permission

Archie, of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, suffered brain damage at home on April 7 and is in coma

Archie's parents' plea to stop his life support machine being turned off was rejected by court

The letter, sent over the weekend, also read: 'We understand that any discussions around the withdrawal of Archie's treatment are very difficult and painful.

'However, we want to ensure that you and your family are involved as much as you wish to be.'

Ms Dance and Paul Battersbee, the youngster's parents, will be told on Monday morning how the withdrawal process is to be performed, with the aim to 'preserve Archie's dignity', the letter read.

It went on: 'You or any of the family may wish to lie on Archie's bed with him or have him in your arms, if that should be practically possible.'

A High Court judge had ruled that ending treatment is in Archie's best interests, after reviewing evidence.

Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee, who are separated but both live in Southend, Essex, failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges to overturn that ruling and Supreme Court justices have refused to intervene.

Archie's parents are being supported by campaign organisation, the Christian Legal Centre.

Writing to Health Secretary Stephen Barclay on Saturday, Ms Dance said: 'If this happens, this will be an extraordinary cruelty, and a flagrant breach of Archie's rights as a disabled person.

Doctors have been given permission to turn off Archie's life support machine, but his parents are trying to continue the fight to keep him alive. Pictured is Archie in hospital

In their letter Archie's parents Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee plead with Health Secretary Steve Barclay to intervene to prevent the 'extraordinary cruelty' of ending their son's life

Archie with his mother Hollie Dance (left), brother Tom Summers and sister Lauren Summers

'Archie is entitled to have the decisions about his life and death, taken by the NHS and UK courts, to be scrutinised by an international human rights body. Hastening his death to prevent that would be completely unacceptable.

'I trust that you will now act immediately, as a member of the Government responsible for the NHS, to ensure that this does not happen, and our country honours its obligations under the international human rights treaties which we have signed and ratified.'

They have also asked the United Nations to intervene in a 'last-ditch' application.

The UN Committee On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities has written to Archie's parents and legal team saying it had 'requested the state party [the UK] to refrain from withdrawing life-preserving medical treatment, including mechanical ventilation and artificial nutrition and hydration, from the alleged victim while the case is under consideration by the committee'.

It added: 'This request does not imply that any decision has been reached on the substance of the matter under consideration.'

The family said stopping treatment would be in breach of the UK's obligations under international human rights law.

Archie's parents have asked hospital bosses to continue treatment until the UN has considered the case.

Judges in London have heard that Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7.

She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

The youngster has not regained consciousness.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.

Alistair Chesser, chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, said on Friday that 'further delay' in starting to provide 'palliative care' to Archie would 'not be appropriate' without a court order.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We recognise this is an exceptionally difficult time for Archie Battersbee's family and our thoughts are with them.

'We have received the letter and will respond in due course.'
The pilot of a small twin-engine plane is heard in a 40-minute recording asking air traffic control for help to making an emergency landing before his 23-year-old co-pilot jumped or fell from it at 3,500-feet.

Charles Hew Crooks did not have a parachute on before he plunged to his death in North Carolina on Friday, officials said.

In the 40-minute exchange between the unidentified pilot and air traffic control, there is no mention or hint of Crooks falling from the plane.

The pilot can be heard saying: 'Emergency, we've lost our right wheel. We would like to proceed to Raleigh and make a landing at Raleigh.'

He adds: 'We have two persons on board. We have enough fuel on board that will last us for the next four hours.'

Air Traffic control responds: 'Raleigh-Durham Airport or Raleigh-General?' 'Rogers resume all navigation to Raleigh-Durham Airport.'

'More clarification, did you try landing on Raeford West?' he asks. 'Did it [the wheel] fall off while still in the air?'

'We were attempting to land,' the pilot said. 'We made contact with the ground and had a hard landing and decided to go around and at that point we lost the wheel.'

When air traffic control questioned how they intended to land, the pilot said: 'Going to go in as slow as we can and I guess we are going to put it on the belly.' He then repeated that the plane's right wheel had fallen off.

Once the plane hit Runway 5R-23L at Raleigh-Durham International Airport around 2.40pm, there were multiple law enforcement agencies standing by.

There was one person on the plane, but no sign of Crooks, the second co-pilot.

Charles Hew Crooks , 23, died after falling or jumping from a small twin-engine plane on Friday as it went to make an emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina

The plane was forced to make an emergency landing after losing its right wheel during a previous landing attempt. The unidentified pilot on board is heard asking air traffic control for help in a 40-minute recording

When asked how the pilot was going to land the plane, he said: 'Going to go in as slow as we can and I guess we are going to put it on the belly'

Crooks' body was found 30 miles south of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in the trees of a property in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina

The pilot, whose name has not been released, sustained minor injuries. He was taken to Duke Hospital and released late Friday night.

He told authorities that Crooks had jumped out of the plane before the emergency landing attempt, and it was believed he may have jumped toward a body of water.

Investigators said Crooks either fell or jumped out of the plane without a parachute, WRAL News reported

But Crooks' body was later found about 30 miles south of the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He'd landed in trees on a property in Compaign Cove in the town of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.

The family living on the property said they head a loud thud, and called police.

Hew Crooks', the 23-year-old's father - said that flying was his son's 'lifelong dream'.

He said his son was a former flight instructor and was certified to fly in all types of conditions.

Hew Crooks told WRAL that Crooks had recently told him how 'he wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world. He loved where he was.'

This map shows the area of North Carolina that Crooks' body was found in after the plane he was piloting emergency landed at Raleigh-Durham airport

Crooks pictured standing on the inside of the plane appearing euphoric with two other people who were not identfied

Hew Crooks', the 23-year-old's father - said that flying was his son's 'lifelong dream'. He said his son was a former flight instructor and was certified to fly in all types of conditions

A photo of Crooks from his LinkedIn page. The young pilot wrote that he joined Rampart Aviation in March 2022. His role was pilot, second in command

The aircraft was owned by Colorado-based Rampart Aviation. The company did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Crooks started working at the company five months ago, according to his LinkedIn.

The National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the incident. When asked about the circumstances leading to Crooks death, spokesman Keith Holloway said: 'No decision has been made at this point.'

'Currently, the NTSB is working with the FAA collecting information evaluating the damage of the aircraft and circumstances to determine the extent of an NTSB investigation,' NTSB spokesperson Keith Holloway told DailyMail.com on Sunday.

The small plane had a capacity of around 10 passengers and was not making a commercial flight at the time of the incident.

On Friday at a press conference, Darshan Patel, operations manager for Wake County emergency management confirmed that Crooks did not have a parachute on and it was unclear at the time how high the plane was when the young pilot exited.

The aircraft was a CASA C-212 Aviocar, made in Spain in 1983, ABC7 News reported.

The plane took off from Raeford, a city in Hoke County, before it made the emergeny landing on Runway 5R-23L at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at around 2.40pm.

Crooks was a 2020 graduate of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. On his Instagram there is a photo of him in a plane with the words: 'I'm just here to fly the planes.'
This is the moment an army veteran was arrested by police for 'causing anxiety' after retweeting a picture of a swastika made out of Pride flags on social media.

Darren Brady, 51, has slammed Hampshire Police for 'impeding his right to free speech' after he was placed into handcuffs on Friday at his home in Aldershot for sharing a meme.

Footage of the arrest was widely shared on social media and showed an officer who told Mr Brady he was being apprehended because his post had 'caused anxiety' and been reported to authorities.

The image Mr Brady retweeted was of a swastika that had been digitally manipulated and was made out of four LGBT pride flags.

In the video, shot on a mobile phone, Mr Brady can be heard asking the three police officers: 'Why am I in cuffs?'

One officer responds: 'It didn't have to come to this at all.'

Mr Brady replied: 'Tell us why you escalated it to this level because I don't understand.'

The officer adds: 'Someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post. That is why you have been arrested.'

Darren Brady, 51, (pictured) has slammed Hampshire Police for 'impeding his right to free speech' after he was placed into handcuffs on Saturday at his home in Aldershot for sharing a meme

The image Mr Brady (pictured) retweeted was of a swastika that had been digitally manipulated and was made out of four LGBT pride flags

This is the moment army veteran Mr Brady (pictured)was arrested by Hampshire Police (pictured right) for 'causing anxiety' after retweeting a picture of a swastika made out of Pride flags

Footage of the arrest was widely shared on social media. Two separate videos showed the arrest of Mr Brady (left) and Harry Miller (right) who tried to prevent the former serviceman from being detained

Harry Miller, a former police officer, was also arrested after claiming he had tried to prevent the former serviceman from being detained.

He told MailOnline: 'Hampshire Police showed a blatant disregard of the law. They approached Mr Brady and acted as summary judge, jury and executioner - but didn't know what offence he'd actually committed. They said he was being arrested for causing anxiety, which is utterly ridiculous!

'Mr Brady is a British Army Veteran and they were trying to extort him for money by making him pay around 80 for educational course so he could downgrade from a crime to a non-crime, which would still show up in a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

'They thought they could get away with it. It was the world's worst shakedown.'

Commenting on the video circulating on Twitter, Mr Miller wrote: 'Id been locked up by this time and missed this exchange. Im speechless.'

Mr Miller, who in December won a Court of Appeal challenge over police guidance on 'hate incidents', said police visited the man 10 days earlier and has informed him that he could take the option of attending an 80 education course to avoid being arrested and possibly charged with a criminal offence.

The veteran said he needed time to mull it over, before the officers agreed to return at a future date.

Writing on Twitter on Sunday, Mr Brady told his followers: 'It's nice to be able to enjoy a Sunday morning in peace without being harassed by Hampshire Police trying to extort money from me, or have me "re-educated" for sharing a meme on the Internet.'

In a statement, Hampshire Police said: 'Officers felt it was necessary to arrest a man at the scene so they could interview him in relation to the alleged offence'

Donna Jones, Tory police and crime commissioner for Hampshire, slammed the county's police force on Friday

Full statement from crime commissioner criticising her own police force PCC Donna Jones: 'I am aware of the video published on Twitter which shows the arrest of two men in Hampshire yesterday, one for malicious communications and one for obstruction of a police officer. 'I have taken this issue up with the Constabulary today and have been advised officers made the arrests following a complaint from a member of the public of an alleged hate crime. 'It follows a post on social media of Progress Pride flags in the shape of a Swastika. 'I am concerned about both the proportionality and necessity of the polices response to this incident. When incidents on social media receive not one but two visits from police officers, but burglaries and non-domestic break-ins dont always get a police response, something is wrong. 'As Police Commissioner, I am committed to ensuring Hampshire Constabulary serves the public as the majority of people would expect. It appears on this occasion this has not happened. 'This incident has highlighted a really topical issue which Hampshire Constabulary and other police forces need to learn from. In order to support this I will be writing to the College of Policing to make them aware of this incident and encourage greater clarification on the guidance in order to ensure that police forces can respond more appropriately in the future.' Advertisement

Mr Brady shared the meme, which was originally posted by Laurence Fox, a 44-year-old actor turned campaigner, on social media.

Mr Fox said the image reflected his belief that LGBT pride month is 'enforced with a sense of hectoring authoritarianism'.

Police returned to the Mr Brady's property on Thursday, but he had contacted Mr Miller and Mr Fox during the intervening period. The pair run the Bad Law project together, which claims to 'challenge and depoliticise' policing.

They agreed to attend the man's home and were present when officers returned.

Mr Miller claims the former serviceman refused the offer of the educational course, leading to his arrest.

A statement from Hampshire Constabulary said: 'When officers arrived they were prevented from entering the address to discuss a potential resolution to the matter.

'As a result, officers felt it was necessary to arrest a man at the scene so they could interview him in relation to the alleged offence.'

But Mr Miller subsequently place himself between the officers and the veteran, telling police: 'You arrest him, youve got to come through me.'

He was also arrested on suspicion of obstructing police and has been released under investigation, describing the incident as 'one of the proudest moments of my life'.

In a separate video, Mr Miller is led to a marked police van in handcuffs and before he is taken inside, a cop asks: 'Have you got anything on you that could harm me or you?'

Mr Miller instantly replies: 'Just my razor sharp wit and knowledge of the law.'

The footage, captured by Mr Fox, also shows the actor and veteran accuse police of acting like the Gestapo.

Mr Miller won a Court of Appeal challenge over police guidance on 'hate incidents' in December after claiming it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.

The former officer who describes himself as 'gender critical', was approached by colleagues at Humberside Police over alleged transphobic tweets in January 2020.

The force recorded the complaint as a 'non-crime hate incident', defined by the College of Policing's guidance as 'any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice'.

Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both Humberside Police's actions and the College of Policing's guidance at the High Court and a judge ruled the force's actions were a 'disproportionate interference' with Mr Miller's right to freedom of expression.

Mr Fox returned to Twitter on Thursday unrepentant after being suspended for posting the meme.

The tweet resulted in a sharp backlash, with Twitter temporarily freezing his account for violating their 'hateful imagery' policy, and a London Assembly member calling on the Met Police to investigate Mr Fox.

Caroline Russell, who is also a member of the Police and Crime Committee in the Greater London Authority, wrote on Twitter: 'I hope the Met Police will look into Laurence Fox using pride flags to create nazi imagery and posting the images on a public platform.

'This is a hate crime,' Ms Russell wrote.

Laurence Fox, 44, an actor turned campaigner, was banned from Twitter over the weekend for posting a picture of a swastika made out of four LGBT pride flags

The tweet showed four LGBT pride flags positioned to make a swastika, captioned with the words, 'Oh blessed and most holy month'

Mr Fox hit back at the London Assembly member's intervention, however, accusing her of employing tactics reminiscent of those exercised by the Chinese Communist Party.

He wrote: 'This is the UK, not China. Good to know you would like to see your political opponents prosecuted for "hate", locked up and probably worse.

'So thanks for proving my point for me,' Mr Fox said.

In another tweet, Mr Fox shared a link to a satirical article entitled, 'Scientists Discover Remote Island Untouched By Pride Month'.

Mr Fox captioned the tweet with the words: 'Don't cave in to the mob. Laugh instead.'

Access to Mr Fox's Twitter account was restored this morning, with the polemicist and founder of The Reclaim Party telling his 310,500 followers that the LGBT pride flag has become a 'holy flag' that 'cannot be criticised'.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism hit out at Mr Fox for his 'insulting' post.

Mr Fox's tweet was strongly condemned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust on Twitter

And the Campaign Against Antisemitism criticised Mr Fox's 'insulting' tweet

In a tweet, the campaign group wrote: 'Displaying pride flags in the shape of a swastika is not the edgy statement that you think it is.

'It is possible to express a view without the hate, and without insulting those murdered by the Nazis, which included Jews and LGBT people.'

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust added: 'We are appalled to see Laurence Fox's vile tweet this morning with abhorrent use of the swastika.

'Gay men experienced untold suffering under the Nazis, including murder, castration, and medical experimentation.'

Twitter said Mr Fox's account was locked on Sunday evening for violating the site's rules, specifically their 'abusive profile information' and 'hateful imagery' clauses

'You cannot criticise the holy [LGBT pride] flags' Mr Fox asserted in a tweet after access to his account was restored. His political colleague Martin Daubney, deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, backed him up by posting his own image of a swastika, this time created from Union Jack flags (pictured)

Mr Fox's political colleague Martin Daubney, deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, rushed to back him up on the social media site, posting his own picture of a swastika - this time compiled from Union Jack flags.

'So is this worthy of a ban?', Mr Daubney, a former Brexit Party MEP, asked in a tweet of his red-white-and-blue swastika.

Seizing on Mr Daubney's now-deleted tweet, Mr Fox wrote: 'You can openly call [the Union Jack] a symbol of fascism and totalitarianism [on this site].

'You cannot criticise the holy [LGBT pride] flags.'

Mr Fox told MailOnline: 'While Im pleased that my account has been reinstated, this temporary ban only served to reinforce the rank hypocrisy which Twitter is engaged in.

'Over the Jubilee weekend, I lost count of the number of posts comparing the prominence of Union Jack flags around the country to Nazi Germany.

'The prominence of the various pride flags and symbols throughout the month of June however not only goes unquestioned, but its acceptance and celebration are enforced with a sense of hectoring authoritarianism.

'My post was clearly meant to highlight this double standard  and the temporary ban which resulted from it effectively proved my point.'
The jury deciding whether Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz will get the death sentence have been shown graphic images of his victims and blood-soaked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but they have been kept from the public due to their families' insistence.

Few Americans outside law enforcement and government ever see the most graphic videos or photos from the nation's worst mass shootings.

Cruz's killing spree on February 14, 2018 where 14 students and three teachers were killed is considered the worst US mass shooting to reach trial.

In most states, this evidence of photos and video is only displayed at trial, and most killers either die during or immediately after their attacks. They never make it to court.

This has made the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz for his 2018 murder of 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School unusual.

In this case, the victim's families fought to keep the video and photos private and keep them from being shown to the public.

The surveillance videos taken during his attack and the crime scene and autopsy photos are seen by the jurors on shielded video screens. After each day's court session, the disturbing photos and video is then shown to a small group of journalists.

But they are not shown in the gallery, where parents and spouses sit, or to the general public watching on TV.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is led into the courtroom during the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, July 25, 2022

This screen grab shows Cruz at Broward County Jail after he gunned down students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Surveillance video captured Nikolas Cruz stalking the hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with an AR-15 on February 14, 2018, aged 19. On Tuesday, jurors saw the surveillance footage from the shooting

Nikolas Cruz poses for a mugshot photo after being arrested February 14, 2017 in Parkland, Florida. 17 people were killed by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, police arrested the suspect after a short manhunt, and have identified him as 19 year old former student Nikolas Cruz

Some online believe that should change - that to have an informed debate on gun violence, the public should see the carnage mass shooters like Cruz cause, often with high-velocity bullets fired from AR-15 semiautomatic rifles and similar weapons.

Others disagree. They say the public display of such videos and photos would add to the harm the victims' families already endure and might entice some who are mentally disturbed to commit their own mass shooting.

They believe such evidence should remain sealed.

Liz Dunning, a vice president at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, doesn't believe releasing such videos and photos would have the political impact some think. Polls show that most Americans already support stronger background checks for gun buyers and bans or restrictions on AR-15s and similar weapons, said Dunning, whose mother was murdered by a gunman.

'Public perception is not the issue,' Dunning said. 'We should be asking more of the powerful.'

Since most of the worst U.S. mass shooters were killed by themselves or police during or immediately after their attack, it is rare for anyone outside government to see such surveillance videos or police and autopsy photos.

The public didn't see such evidence after the Las Vegas shooting in 2017, Orlando in 2016, Sandy Hook in 2012, Virginia Tech in 2007 and others.

But Cruz, 23, fled after his shooting and was arrested an hour later.

He pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder - his trial is only to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. The videos and photos are part of the prosecution's case.

Cruz looked down while the video played and did not appear to watch it. At times, he looked up to exchange whispers with one of his attorneys.

School shooter Nikolas Cruz makes a video appearance in Broward County court before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Cruz is facing 17 charges of premeditated murder in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The jurors who will decide whether Cruz will get the death penalty.

The video, compiled from 13 security cameras inside the building, purportedly shows Cruz stalking through the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and shooting 17 people at point-blank range.

The horrifying video reportedly shows Cruz, going back to some of his victims to kill them with a second volley of shots.

As they watched the 15-minute recording, which has no sound, the 12 jurors and 10 alternates stared intently at their video screens.

Two women raised their hands to their mouth, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, and one began slightly trembling.

Later, four other jurors held their hands to their faces.

One juror even looked at the screen, looked up at Cruz with his eyes wide and then returned to the video.

Cruz looked down while the video played and did not appear to watch it. At times, he looked up to exchange whispers with one of his attorneys.

Photos shown in court of Nikolas Cruz during his arrest shortly after the shooting during the penalty phase of Nikolas Cruz's trial at the Broward County Courthouse on July 21, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Mass School

Broward Sheriff's Office Sgt. Richard Van Der Eems describes the scene he encountered at the school after the mass shooting as he testifies during the penalty phase trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, Friday, July 22, 2022, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

'Public perception is not the issue,' Dunning said. 'We should be asking more of the powerful.'

Since most of the worst U.S. mass shooters were killed by themselves or police during or immediately after their attack, it is rare for anyone outside government to see such surveillance videos or police and autopsy photos. The public didn't see such evidence after the Las Vegas shooting in 2017, Orlando in 2016, Sandy Hook in 2012, Virginia Tech in 2007 and others.

But Cruz, 23, fled after his shooting and was arrested an hour later. He pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder - his trial is only to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. The videos and photos are part of the prosecution's case.

Since the trial began July 18, everyone in the courtroom and watching on TV has seen and heard heartbreaking testimony from teachers and students who saw others die. They have heard the gunshots and screams as jurors watched cellphone videos.

But when graphic videos and photos are presented, those are not shown. Usually, they only hear medical examiners and police officers give emotionless descriptions of what the jury is seeing.

Then at the end of each day, a group of reporters reviews the photos and videos, but are only allowed to write descriptions. That was a compromise as some parents feared photos of their dead children would be posted online and wanted no media access.

Miami media attorney Thomas Julin said in Florida before the internet, any photos or other evidence presented at trial could be seen and copied by anyone. Newspapers didn't print the most gruesome photos, so no one cared.

Some students evacuated the school oblivious of the active shooting incident in one of the three-story buildings. Cruz fired 139 rounds before abandoning his rifle and blending in with other students

Students walked in a straight line outside the school on February 14, 2018

But in the mid-1990s as the internet boomed, Danny Rolling faced a death penalty trial for the serial murders of four University of Florida students and a community college student.

The victims' families argued that the publication of crime scene photos would cause them emotional harm. The judge ruled that anyone could view the photos, but no one could copy them. Such compromises have since become standard in Florida's high-profile murder trials.

The surveillance video of the Stoneman Douglas shooting is silent. It shows Cruz moving methodically from floor-to-floor in a three-story classroom building, shooting down hallways and into classrooms. Victims fall. Cruz often stops and shoots them again before moving on.

The crime scene photos show the dead where they fell, sometimes on top of or next to each other, often in contorted shapes. Blood and sometimes brain matter are splattered on floors and walls.

The autopsy photos show the damage Cruz and his bullets did. Some victims have massive head wounds. One student had his elbow blown off, another had her shoulder blown open. Another had most of her forearm ripped away.

Yet, despite their gruesomeness, Columbia University journalism professor Bruce Shapiro says most autopsy and crime scene photos wouldn't have a lasting public impact because they don't have context.

Alex Dworet recounted how one of his fellow students started spasming after being shot

The photos and videos that have a strong effect on public opinion tell a story, said Shapiro, who runs the university's think tank on how journalists should cover violence.

The photos of Emmett Till's battered body lying in its coffin after the Black teenager was tortured and killed by Mississippi white supremacists in 1955. Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over Kent State student Jeffrey Miller's body after he was shot by National Guard troops in 1970. Vietnamese child Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked after being burned by a napalm bomb in 1972. The video of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he's dead in 2020.

'They work not just because they are graphic, but because they are powerful, stirring images,' Shapiro said.

And even if the graphic photos and videos were released, most major newspapers, wire services and television stations would be hesitant to use them. Their editors weigh whether the public benefit of seeing an image outweighs any prurient interest - and they usually pass.

That would leave most for only the most salacious websites. They would also become fodder for potential mass shooters, who frequently research past killers. Cruz did; testimony showed he spent the seven months before his attack making hundreds of computer searches about committing massacres.

'The images of the carnage will become part of their dark fantasy life,' Shapiro said.
Mike Pompeo slammed President Joe Biden for his interactions with China in a rare Republican defense of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding her potential trip to Taiwan.

'I don't agree with Speaker Pelosi very often. But she made it clear that she wanted to go visit [Taiwan], an independent, sovereign nation,' the Trump-era secretary of State told John Catsimatidis in an interview on WABC Sunday morning.

'To allow America to be bullied by Chinese propaganda, right after President Biden has had a  long phone call with Xi Jinping  would send a really bad message to our friends in the region: The Australians. The South Koreans. The Japanese,' Pompeo added.

He also said that the Biden administration allowing Beijing to make threats to the U.S. without response sends a message that the Chinese Communist Party to 'dictate how America will behave, where we will travel, the things we will say.'

On Thursday, Xi warned Biden that Washington should abide by the one-China principle and 'those who play with fire will perish by it'.

The U.S. president in turn told his Chinese counterpart that Washington's policy on Taiwan had not changed and strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, where 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by China.

Still, officials on both sides have been gearing up for a possible confrontation.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  who served under Donald Trump  slammed President Joe Biden for not standing up to China and allowing its President Xi Jinping to 'bully' America over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's potential plans to go to Taiwan

Pelosi does not have any apparent plans to visit the island democracy of Taiwan after Chinese diplomats threatened 'unbearable consequences' if she visited the self-ruled island under Chinese occupation.

In a press release Sunday, her office said she would visit four Asian countries  but Taiwan was not on the list.

'Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan,' the press release read.

It specified that the visit would include those countries, but did not specify whether Pelosi  who is number three in the line of presidential succession  might make other stops.

'The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region,' it said.

'In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.'

She is said to be arriving in Singapore first on Monday, where she will spend two days. according to the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But her trip has been met with much scrutiny by Chinese officials, who have warned that Washington would 'bear all the consequences' if Pelosi did visit Taiwan and have threatened to take 'resolute and forceful measures' against the US if the trip goes ahead.

And in its latest remarks, Chinese officials have warned that all options, including military ones, are already on the table if Pelosi does go through with the trip, according to Zhang Meifang, the Consul General of China in Belfast.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is visiting four Asian countries this week, but her itinerary released Sunday did not include a potential visit to the island democracy of Taiwan

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned President Joe Biden that Washington should abide by the one-China principle and 'those who play with fire will perish by it'

The latest Chinese remarks warned that all options, including military ones, are already on the table if Pelosi does go through with the trip

Self-governed Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary

The authoritarian country views visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging signal to the pro-independence camp in the island.

Under its one-China policy, Washington does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by U.S. law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

The White House has been quick to reiterate that stance has not changed despite speculation over Pelosi making the trip.

'If the US pushes ahead and challenges China's bottom line... the US side will bear all the consequences arising therefrom,' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference.

He had previously expressed China's 'solemn position' over a potential Pelosi visit, telling reporters that China is prepared to 'take firm and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke was also quoted by state media as saying on Sunday that Beijing would 'resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity'.

Shen said at a military airshow that the air force has many types of fighter jets capable of circling 'the precious island of our motherland', referring to Taiwan.

He said China's 'air force has the firm will, full confidence and sufficient capability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

And a comment by a People's Liberation Army unit on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media, on Friday - 'Prepare for war!' - received 1.87 million thumbs-ups.

When U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group returned to the South China Sea by Thursday, Chinese military ramped up exercises in the vicinity

Tensions have been escalating in the region across the South China Sea. On Saturday, Chinese military held live-firing drills in the waters off Fujian province, 62 miles away from Taiwan, according to local authorities

Taiwanese navy launches a US-made Standard missile from a frigate during the annual Han Kuang Drill, on the sea near the Suao navy harbor in Yilan county on July 26

Taiwanese military forces conducted anti-landing drills near New Taipei City on Wednesday

When U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group returned to the South China Sea by Thursday, Chinese military ramped up exercises in the vicinity.

And on Saturday, Chinese military held live-firing drills in the waters off Fujian province, 62 miles away from Taiwan, according to local authorities.

Chinese coast guard will hold an exercise in the South China Sea off Guangzhou province on Monday, according to another notice by the Maritime Safety Administration.

Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Saturday he deleted a tweet warning of military retaliation should U.S. fighter jets escort Pelosi on a Taiwan visit, after Twitter blocked his account.

And Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said this week that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over the past five years.

He said Beijing's military has become far more aggressive and dangerous, and that the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.

Those include reports of Chinese fighter jets flying so close to a Canadian air security patrol last month that the Canadian pilot had to swerve to avoid collision, and another close call with an Australian surveillance flight in late May in which the Chinese crew released a flurry of metal scraps that were sucked into the other plane's engine.

Chinese officials have feared that an American official's visit to Taiwan could encourage the pro-separatist movement in Taiwan, which is self ruled but which China considers a territory

A handout provided by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense shows paratroopers jumping off a plane during a drill as art of the Han Kuang military exercise that simulates the island's response to enemies' attacks on major targets

Taiwanese forces re pictured conducting anti-landing drills on Wednesday

U.S. officials, meanwhile, have said the administration doubts that China would take direct action against Pelosi herself or try to sabotage the visit.

But they don't rule out the possibility that China could escalate provocative overflights of military aircraft in or near Taiwanese airspace and naval patrols in the Taiwan Strait should the trip take place. And they don't preclude Chinese actions elsewhere in the region as a show of strength.

'It could be an air collision. It could be some sort of missile test, and, again, when you're doing those types of things, you know, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong,' Mark Cozad, acting associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corp.

As a result, U.S. military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said it would increase its movement of forces and assets into the Indo-Pacific region if Pelosi does decide to visit Taiwan.

The officials declined to provide details of their plans, but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there, increasing the troops that are already in the area.

They also described the need to create buffer zones around the speaker and her plane and are reportedly considering deploying a multi-domain task force that would utilize missile, electronic and cyber capabilities in an integrated manner in Asia, according to the Japanese news outlet Nikkei News.

They also said that a stepped-up U.S. military presence to safeguard Pelosi risked raising tensions.

'It is very possible that our attempts to deter actually send a much different signal than the one we intend to send,' Cozad said.

'And so you get into some sort of an escalatory spiral, where our attempts to deter are actually seen as increasingly provocative and vice versa. And that can be a very dangerous dynamic.'

On Wednesday, Biden told reporters he thought the U.S. military believed a Pelosi visit to Taiwan was 'not a good idea right now'.

The Asian tour comes at a politically sensitive time for Chinese and U.S. leaders.

Xi is expected to seek a precedent-breaking third term at a Congress later this year, while in the United States, Biden's Democratic Party will face a hard fight to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives at November's midterm elections.
Rapper JayDaYoungan was shot dead by five men who ambushed him while he and his father were sitting outside their Louisiana home.

The musician, whose real name was Javorius Scott, was shot at least eight times according to his father, Kenyatta Scott, who was shot twice in the arm.

Speaking to TMZ, Scott told how he and his 24-year-old son were sitting on the lawn outside their Bogalusa home on Wednesday evening when a black truck pulled up in front of them and three people with guns jumped out.

Scott said as he and his son attempted to flee to their house they were met by two more people with guns who opened fire on them.

The father had his own gun on him and shot back at the attackers. JayDaYoungan was rushed to the hospital while suffering heavy blood loss and died there after undergoing surgery. His father remains in the hospital in stable condition.

Despite Scott's account police said they are only looking for one shooter, and have not yet identified any suspects. Bogalusa Police Chief Kendall Bullen told TMZ that his department is looking into all motives for the shooting, including gang related activity.

JayDaYoungan was signed to Atlantic records in 2017. He had just been released from prison in June for gun-related charges.

JayDaYoungan, 24, whose real name is Javorius Scott, died after being shot outside the home in Bogalusa, alongside a male relative, Kenyatta Scott Sr., police confirmed

Police made the announcement that JayDaYoungan had died just before midnight. Scott Sr. - who some reports say is the rapper's father - was reported to be in stable condition

Police outside JayDaYoungan's Louisiana home after the shooting. The rapper's blue car can be seen in the driveway

The rapper's father said he did not believe the attack was gang-related, claiming his son didn't have conflicts with anybody.

Instead Scott said he thought the attack was fueled by jealously, that the person behind the attack was envious of his son's success.

Scott said he hoped his son would be remembered as a 'good, humble and respectful kid.'

JayDaJoungan's grandfather, L.C. Jefferson told WDSU that the family was determined to find the killers.

'There will be no stone left unturned until we find out who took him,' he said,

'This is only what I hear. Someone came from behind the house with a ski mask on and gunned him down. In broad daylight. On a busy road. People have gotten so comfortable to where they think they can shoot someone down and not be caught.'

Police outside the home of JayDayYoungan after he was shot dead on Wednesday evening

The rapper's father said he did not believe the attack was gang-related, claiming his son didn't have conflicts with anybody

Instead Scott said he thought the attack was fueled by jealously, that the person behind the attack was envious of his son's success

JayDaJoungan's grandfather, L.C. Jefferson (above) told WDSU that the family was determined to find the killers



Two other shootings where nobody was hurt took place nearby that same night. Police say they were related to the attack that killed JayDaYoungan but have not provided any further details.

Bogalusa mayor Wendy Perrette called for vigilance on the part of community members to put an end to local violence.

'The senseless shooting in Bogalusa [is] another tragic reminder of the pain that violent crime brings with it,' she said in a statement, 'My thoughts and prayers are with the victims' family and friends. As your mayor and as a mother I plead on behalf of our community and for our children: today must mean enough is finally enough. Stop the violence! See something, say something.'

JayDaYoungan faced five years in prison for the gun charges, but was released in June and credited with time served

JayDaYoungan was signed to Atlantic records in 2017. He had worked alongside rappers like Lil Durk, Boosie Badazz, Moneybagg Yo, and Lato

In October of 2021 police caught JayDaYoungan with a 9mm pistol he was not permitted to carry due to indictments he was facing in Texas over charges of assault on a pregnant woman and illegal possession of Oxycodone.

He faced five years in prison for the gun charges, but was released last month and credited with time served.

JayDaYoungan was also out on $175,000 bond at the time after a September 21 arrest for suspicion of being accessory to second degree murder and obstruction of justice.

That arrest stemmed from an August 2020 incident in which a gunman fired a gun in a crowd of about 100 people, unintentionally killing a 21-year-old. It is unclear whether JayDaYoungan was connected to the shooting.

The rapper was a proud father to a young son, who he often shared photos of on his Instagram account

The rapper was a proud father to a young son, who he often shared photos of on his Instagram account.

In his last Instagram post - made a day ago - JayDaYoungan rapped while dancing and playing with his son.

JayDaYoungan's most well known singles are Opps, 23 Island, and Elimination. His 2019 album Misunderstood reached #43 on the top 200 Billboard charts.

After dropping out of high school at 18 to pursue music, the rapper saw early success releasing his music on YouTube and promoting himself through social media.

JayDaYoungan was signed to Atlantic records in 2017. He had worked alongside rappers like Lil Durk, Boosie Badazz, Moneybagg Yo, and Lato.

It is unclear how much money the 24-year-old made in his short career, but a 2021 press release from Atlantic Records said he had garnered at least 2.8billion streams from across the globe.
The Elgin Marbles could be returned to Greece after more than 200 years as part of a 'Parthenon partnership' proposed by the deputy director of the British Museum.

The marbles are made up of 17 marble figures and are part of a frieze that decorated the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis, made by sculptor Phidias.

The sculptures were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and have since been the subject of a long-running dispute over where they should be displayed.

The Elgin Marbles are currently on display at the British Museum, but the Greek government has been demanding their return for years.

Around 260ft (80metres) of the marbles are in London, whilst Athens is home to a smaller 164ft (50metres) section.

In an interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine, deputy director Jonathan Williams said the British Museum wants to 'change the temperature of the debate' around the marble works of art.

The British government has agreed to Unesco-backed talks on the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles, pictured on display at the British Museum, which could see the artefacts brought back to Greece and resolve the long-standing issue

The Elgin Marbles (pictured) are a 17-figure collection of classical Greek marble sculptures made by architect and sculptor Phidias, a Greek sculptor whose statue of Zeus, the god of the sky in ancient Greek mytholgy, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world

The Elgin Marbles were were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by the then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, between 1801 and 1812, and are now on display at the British Museum (pictured)

Mr Williams said: 'What we are calling for is an active "Parthenon partnership" with our friends and colleagues in Greece.

'I firmly believe there is space for a really dynamic and positive conversation within which new ways of working together can be found.'

Taken in 1801, the British Museum has denied previous suggestions that the Marbles were 'hacked' from the site of the temple.

Deputy director of the British Museum Dr Jonathan Williams said: '[They were] in fact removed from the rubble around the Parthenon.

'These objects were not all hacked from the building as has been suggested.'

The museum's attempt to reject the historical account of the sculptures' acquisition has been challenged by classicists.

Letters written to Lord Elgin by his subordinates in 1801 appear to support the Greek version of events, with a note from Giovanni Batista Lusieri confessing to his master that he 'had been obliged to be a little barbarous' in removing some sculptures from the Parthenon temple.

The British Museum has not said it will hand the sculptures back, with Mr Williams arguing they are an 'absolutely integral part' of the collection.

However, he said they 'want to change the temperature of the debate', adding that all sides need to 'find a way forward around cultural exchange of a level, intensity and dynamism which has not been conceived hitherto'.

He added: 'There are many wonderful things we'd be delighted to borrow and lend. It is what we do.'

The Greek prime minister has called for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned to Greece on many occasions, even offering to loan some of his country's other treasures to the British Museum in exchange.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis has restated that Greece is open to negotiations but said 'baby steps are not enough. We want big steps'.

The director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, also said there could be a 'basis for constructive talks' with the 'positive Parthenon partnership' offer.

He added: 'In the difficult days we are living in, returning them would be an act of history.

'It would be as if the British were restoring democracy itself.'

Nikolaos Stampolidis, the director of the Acropolis Museum, said there could be a 'basis for constructive talks' with the 'positive Parthenon partnership' offer, The Telegraph reports.

'In the difficult days we are living in, returning them would be an act of history. It would be as if the British were restoring democracy itself,' he added.
Presidential spokeswoman Kang In-sun speaks during a press briefing about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's remarks during his speech at the North's Victory Day event, at the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan District, Thursday. The presidential office expressed "deep regret" over Kim's remarks made the previous day that he can no longer watch the "indecency" and "bravado" of Yoon and "his military gangsters," and will annihilate both the Yoon administration and the military if they attempt a preemptive strike on the North. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon





The presidential office expressed "deep regret" Thursday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lashed out at President Yoon Suk-yeol by name.







Kim said in a Victory Day speech the previous day that he can no longer watch the "indecency" and "bravado" of Yoon and "his military gangsters," and will annihilate both the Yoon administration and the military if they attempt a preemptive strike on the North.







"We express deep regret that Chairman Kim Jong-un made threatening remarks at our government while mentioning the president by name," the presidential National Security Office said, according to presidential spokesperson Kang In-sun.






Russia has seemingly begun to recruit elderly men from all regions of the vast country to fight on the frontlines in southeastern Ukraine as bitter fighting continues to rage in Donetsk.

Video footage which emerged on YouTube earlier this month showed a series of volunteer recruits from Primorsky Krai (Primorye), a region of Russia so far east it borders North Korea, training with rifles in a field ahead of their deployment to Ukraine.

Several of the individuals captured in the video appear to be middle-aged and elderly men, who reportedly signed an agreement with DOSAAF (Russia's volunteer corps) to undergo a short training programme before being shipped off to fight alongside Russia's 155th Separate Marine Guards Brigade.

'All these people are united by one desire - to protect their family and homeland,' said newscaster Valeria Nikolaeva.

'Despite the lack of combat experience, they are still ready for anything,' she added, declaring the group had been given the designation 'Tiger Battalion'.

Clips broadcast on YouTube by Primorye Pubic Television showed the recruits learning how to fire assault rifles and listening to instructors demonstrating proper technique.

But separate images shared on social media by Nexta TV and Ukraine Now showed the same recruits looking dejected and worn out.

'The toothless ''Tigers'' are not too happy for some reason,' one comment quipped.

News that Russia is recruiting elderly volunteers who live more than 5000 miles from the conflict in Ukraine comes as Richard Moore, the head of Britain's secret intelligence service MI6, said he believes Moscow's military is 'running out of steam' and may need to 'pause' their invasion in the coming weeks due to a lack of manpower.

Video footage which has emerged on YouTube showed a series of volunteer recruits from Primorsky Krai (Primorye), a region of Russia so far east it borders North Korea, training with rifles in a field ahead of their deployment to Ukraine

Several of the individuals captured in the video appear to be middle-aged and elderly men, who reportedly signed an agreement with DOSAAF (Russia's volunteer corps) to undergo a short training programme before being shipped off to fight alongside Russia's 155th Separate Marine Guards Brigade

Images shared on social media showed the recruits looking dejected and worn out

Clips broadcast on YouTube by Primorye Pubic Television earlier this month showed the recruits learning how to fire assault rifles and listening to instructors demonstrating proper technique

One volunteer appeared happy to receive his training and go to fight in Ukraine, having bought the Russian state media narrative of Putin's special operation being designed to rid Ukraine of Nazis.

'This is not just a special operation. In my opinion, this is cleaning. Cleansing from fascism. Our grandfathers did not finish it - we must complete the matter,' the recruit blabbed.

But several others sounded decidedly less enthused.

'It's not good when children, instead of playing games and living a happy life, are telling adults how to hide from bombs and talking about what kind of ammunition is being used,' one volunteer said, making no references to Ukraine while wearing a mask and refusing to be named in the interview.

'My son is the commander of an air assault platoon [in Ukraine],' said another. 'I hope we will be beside each other.'

Meanwhile, the head of the southern operational command unit of Ukraine's ministry of defence, Natalya Gumenyuk, said that Russian military leaders are simply pushing 'cannon fodder' to the frontlines.

Gumenyuk declared Russia is calling up 'completely incomprehensible forces', specifically referencing the Tiger battalion as an example of 'unreliable' troops.

'Reserves are being sought out in socially unreliable groups... [They are likely] to be cannon fodder. But we are preparing for any scenarios,' Gumenyuk said, adding that the enemy should not be underestimated.

News of the Tiger battalion comes as MI6 chief Moore declared Putin's war effort is 'running out of steam' in Ukraine and suggested his forces may have to 'pause' their assault in the coming weeks.

Moore said the war was 'obviously not over' but the Russian president had made an 'epic fail' with his underwhelming invasion of the sovereign state.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in the US, Mr Moore said: 'I think he has suffered a strategic failure in Ukraine. It is obviously not over.

'He has obviously made, and the Russian forces have made, some incremental progress over recent weeks and months but it is tiny amounts.

'We are talking about a small number of miles of advance. When they take a town, there is nothing left. It is obliterated.

Richard Moore (pictured), the chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), said the war was 'obviously not over' but the Russian President had obviously made 'epic fail' invading the sovereign state

Vladimir Putin is 'running out of steam' in Ukraine and his forces may have to 'pause' in the coming weeks, the head of MI6 has said. Pictured: The remains of a Russian battle tank, destroyed during battles in the village of Velyka Dymerka, northeast of Kyiv

The news comes as Vladimir Putin (pictured at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow) has suffered heavy losses and seen at least 66 of his colonels killed in the fighting

'I think they are about to run out of steam. I think our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower over the next few weeks.

'They will have to pause in some way and that will give Ukrainians opportunities to strike back. Their morale is still high. They are starting to receive increasing amounts of good weaponry.'

With winter coming and the pressure on gas supplies, 'we are in for a tough time', according to Mr Moore, who believes a Ukrainian fightback could spread benefits across Europe.

He said: 'It is important I think to the Ukrainians themselves that they demonstrate their ability to strike back. I think that will be very important for their continuing high morale.

'I also think, to be honest, it will be an important reminder to the rest of Europe that this is a winnable campaign by the Ukrainians.'

The United States earlier this month estimated that Russia has lost more than 15,000 troops since war began on February 24.

But Ukraine's armed forces place the figure of Russian casualties far higher, close to 40,000.
A female employee at an Iowa prison has been arrested after allegedly having sex with an inmate multiple times over the course of seven months.

Kayla Bergom, 27, is facing three counts of sexual misconduct for engaging in sexual activity with the unidientified inmate, 29, while she worked at the Tama County Jail.

The fling occured between September 2020 and April 2021, and they had sex in a utility closet on at least one occasion and in the recreation yard at least twice, The Gazette reported.

Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kucera told The Gazette that Bergom had worked for the jail for three years prior to her resignation and was charged in May.

Her trial is set to take place on August 12. The former jail employee, who has pleaded not guilty, is facing up to six years of jail.

Kayla Bergom, 27, is facing up to three counts of sexual misconduct for having a seven-month fling with a Tama County jail inmate between September 2020 and April 2021. She faces up to six years in jail if she is found guilty

It's unclear whether the inmate is still behind bars, but The Gazette reported that Bergom had sex with him several times while he was an inmate between September 2020 and April 2021.

'Federal law makes it illegal for prison guards to have sex with incarcerated people. This is because incarcerated people cannot legally give consent,' according to non-profit think tank Interrogating Justice.

'If a prison guard has sex with an incarcerated person, the guard can face up to 15 years in prison,' it added.

The investigation was handled by the Iowa Divsion of Criminal Investigation after a county employee had filed a complaint. It was then concluded in March.

Tama County Jail is a small facility that can only hold up to 30 inmates serving short sentences for up to a year, according to Templeton1.org.

Interactions between staff and inmates are believed to be direct, and the prison has medical, laundry, and kitchen services included inside of it.

The ex-prison employee and the inmate are believed to have had a sex in one of the pirson's utility closets and in its recreational yard. Pictured: Tama County jail in Iowa

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Alabama inmate Casey White was charged with the murder of his prison guard lover Vicky White after she helped him escape prison and the pair went on the run for 11 days before being caught.

Casey, 38, and the prison guard staged a well-planned escape from a Florence, Alabama, jail for what she falsely claimed was a mental health evaluation on April 29. The pair then swapped vehicles and used disguises as they made it across three states.

The pair were on the run for 11 days when Vicky White, 56, was shot dead after a police chase in Evansville, Indiana. Authorities said at the time that she shot herself in the head. Casey was immediately arrested after the chase on May 9.
Senator Ron Johnson on Sunday accused the FBI of major bias over whistleblower claims that the bureau suppressed negative information about Hunter Biden.

The Wisconsin Republican told Fox & Friends that he has 'no faith' in FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Donald Trump, to oversee anything related to President Joe Biden's son.

Meanwhile the Justice Department is currently pursuing an unrelated tax investigation into Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

Earlier this week, Johnson wrote a letter to Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Justice Department officials on Tuesday claiming to have received whistleblower allegations that the bureau went out of its way to 'improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation' in a bid to stop investigations into the president's son.

He suggested the FBI had obstructed his August 2020 investigation into Hunter Biden and his foreign business dealings.

'First of all, thank God for those whistleblowers. We need a whole lot more of them in the FBI, the Department of Justice, and in our federal health agencies,' Johnson said on Sunday.

'I'm not shocked, but it's outrageous that the FBI would be tipping the scales of justice the way they're doing.'

He continued, 'I have no faith in Christopher Wray of conducting this investigation, but it's important that the American public understand the FBI had Hunter Biden's laptop in December of 2019. They certainly saw the evidence of what I think is that criminal activity on that laptop.'

Republican senators are demanding the FBI and Justice Department answer claims from a whistleblower they downplayed negative information on Hunter Biden in the lead up to the 2020 election

Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson is one of two senators who wrote letters to the Justice Department on the matter

Johnson accused the FBI of having 'done nothing' with the supposed evidence.

'Here we are in the end of July, early August 2022. What have they done with it?' the senator posed.

'No, you can't you can't trust this Department of Justice, the FBI, to get to the bottom of this.'

In particular, Johnson's concerns center on an August 2020 FBI briefing he received while he and fellow Republican Senator Chuck Grassley were investigating Hunter Biden at the time.

'For nearly two years I have sought to get information from the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) about the purpose of, and who ordered, this briefing. On May 3, 2021, Senator Grassley and I reiterated these requests in a letter to Directors Wray and Haines.[4] Both failed to provide complete responses,' Johnson wrote.

'Attorney General Garland, you have failed to provide Senator Grassley and me with assurances that any DOJ investigation into Hunter Bidens potential criminal activity will be free of conflicts of interest. The American people should not have to tolerate your silence any longer.'

Johnson also said he has 'no faith' in FBI Director Chris Wray, a Trump appointee, in overseeing anything related to Hunter Biden

It follows a Monday letter from Grassley demanding the agencies answer similar claims on Hunter Biden in the lead up to the 2020 election.

Grassley claimed on Monday that 'highly credible' whistleblowers have come forward alleging a widespread effort within the FBI to discredit negative information about President Joe Biden's son.

'The information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI's receipt and use of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI's false portrayal of acquired evidence as disinformation,' Grassley wrote to Wray and Garland.

'The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter,' he noted.

Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee which oversees the agencies, says the whistleblower alleges that was a 'scheme' among some FBI officials to 'undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter' by falsely flagging it as disinformation.

And, he claims, this all happened in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley wrote FBI Director Christopher Wray (left) and Attorney General Merrick Garland (right) demanding answers

In October 2020, one month before the election, 'an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed' by a senior FBI agent at the bureau's Washington Field office, Grassley claims.

'[T]he allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation,' Grassley wrote.

His letter came after revelations last week that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden reached a 'critical juncture' and investigators are weighing whether to charge the president's son.

The Department of Justice probe in Delaware has intensified in recent weeks over whether to bring charges on tax violations or making false statements on purchasing a gun, sources told CNN.

Hunter would have been prohibited from buying a gun at the time because of his well-documented struggles with drug addiction.

He revealed after the 2020 election that he was being investigated on tax issues but denied any wrong doing.

Donald Trump tried to make Hunter Biden's business dealings an issue in the 2020 election - a charge that pleased his supporters at campaign rallies but failed to stop Biden from winning the presidency.

President Biden has denied any knowledge of his son's business dealings and the White House has said they will stay out of any Justice Department investigations involving Hunter.

Republicans are expected to probe Hunter's business deals if they retake control of Congress in the November midterm election.

David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, is leading the federal probe, which dates back to as early as 2018. President Biden kept Weiss on after Trump left office to continue the investigation.

Hunter has not been charged with any crimes and has denied criminal wrongdoing.

The FBI and IRS' criminal division are among the agencies who have been involved in moving the investigations, and there have also been discussions over whether his past drug abuse could weaken their case, CNN reported.

Hunter could argue that he wasn't aware of his actions because he was high on drugs.

The probe is a political hot potato for Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Justice Department has an unwritten rule to avoid bringing politically sensitive cases within 60 days of an election, officials have noted.

But Garland would faces charges of Democratic favoritism if he holds back on Hunter with some officials arguing that rule doesn't apply since Joe Biden's name isn't on the midterm ballot, which determines which party controls Congress.

Investigators were reportedly looking into allegations that Hunter (left) used his father, President Joe Biden (right), to secure business deals and lobby overseas

The intense four-year probe revealed many alarming details about the president's son

Among them was Hunter's drug use. Pictured: Hunter with a crack pipe in his mouth

Earlier this summer, DailyMail.com revealed a 2018 voicemail recording from the junior Biden's hard drive stating the president did know about the dealings.

Joe Biden called Hunter on December 12, 2018, saying that he wanted to talk to him after reading a New York Times story about Hunter's dealings with the Chinese oil giant CEFC.

During a July 5 White House press briefing, Biden's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment on the voicemail to reporters.

'From this podium, I am not going to talk about alleged materials from the laptop,' Jean-Pierre repeatedly shot back when asked.

When further pushed on the contents of voicemail and if the administration is being open with the American people, she said, 'I cannot comment on any materials from the laptop.'

Files on Hunter's abandoned laptop previously disclosed and verified by DailyMail.com show that he struck a deal with the Chinese company worth millions of dollars after touting his family connections.

The Times' 2018 story pointed out CEFC chairman Ye Jianming had been arrested in China and his top lieutenant, Patrick Ho, had been convicted in the US for bribing African officials to help Iran evade oil sanctions.

It revealed that Ye had met with Hunter at a Miami hotel in 2017 to discuss 'a partnership to invest in American infrastructure and energy deals.'

The Times reported that when Ho was arrested, he called Joe's brother Jim Biden  who told the newspaper that he believed the call was meant for Hunter.

The Gray Lady said it was 'unclear whether Hunter Biden struck any business deals with CEFC', not knowing at the time the depths of his connections with his Chinese business partners.

After seeing the story online, Joe called Hunter and left a voicemail.

'Hey pal, it's Dad. It's 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you get a chance just give me a call. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to talk to you,' he said.

'I thought the article released online, it's going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you're clear. And anyway if you get a chance give me a call, I love you.'
Lawyers for the Government last night intervened in the case of a 12-year-old boy whose life support is due to be withdrawn today.

The move came after the United Nations asked for treatment to be continued for Archie Battersbee while it considered his case.

The boy was found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7. Doctors were due to end his treatment at the Royal London Hospital at 2pm today.

Now the Government's legal advisers have asked an out-of-hours High Court judge to review the case after the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities asked for time to consider Archie's case.

The Government letter, marked VERY URGENT and written on behalf of Health Secretary Steve Barclay, read: 'In the circumstances, we wish to draw the (UN) Committee's request for interim measures to the Court's attention for its urgent consideration... We request that this letter is placed before the out-of-hours judge immediately...'

The move follows the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) issuing an interim measures injunction on Friday, July 29, to the UK government.

Despite the intervention, Barts Health NHS Trust, which is responsible for Archie's care at the Royal London Hospital, said that it would carry on with plans to remove life-support on Monday.

A virtual Court of Appeal hearing will take place at 11am today in the long-running legal battle over whether to turn off life-support treatment for 12-year-old Archie.

The letter from the NHS Trust to Archie's parents, shared with MailOnline with their permission

Archie, of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, suffered brain damage at home on April 7 and is in coma

Archie's parents' plea to stop his life support machine being turned off was rejected by court

Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, had written to the family over the weekend to inform them they intended to end treatment at 2pm on Monday.

'The anxiety of being told that Archie's life-support will be removed tomorrow at 2pm has been horrific,' his mother, Hollie Dance, said.

'We are already broken and the not-knowing what was going to happen next is excruciating.

'We are relieved that the government has taken the UN's intervention seriously. This was not a 'request' but an interim measures injunction from the UN.'

This afternoon Archie's family released a statement responding to comments in the media from the hospital Trust regarding withdrawal of life-support, which they have described as 'misleading.'

Their family have been told by letter how the little boy will have his life support treatment removed tomorrow in a procedure they today branded 'cruel and wrong'.

Barts Health NHS Trust said in the note to his parents Ms Dance and Paul Battersbee 'all fluid infusions, medications, including vasopressin will be stopped' at 2pm on August 1.

In one heartbreaking sentence it warns them only immediately family will be allowed into the room, meaning others will be banned.

And in another particularly insensitive part of the message the trust says a doctor will need to 'assess Archie regularly to confirm that the heart has stopped beating'.

One of the little boy's aunts had been booked on a flight to come over from Italy to see him but will now no longer be able to under the Trust's rules.

The letter - given to MailOnline with permission of the family - has come despite the UN urging a pause on proceedings.

A statement from Hollie and Paul said: 'The Trust has been dragging us as a family through the courts at a breakneck speed from April 27 till the final decision of the Supreme Court this Thursday evening.

'The Trust has never made any attempt to agree any sort of compromise with us on any matters great or small. For example this Friday, our lawyers received a letter from the Trust demanding that all videos of Archie and his medical equipment taken on the ward, which we believe is evidence of improvement in Archie's condition (such as his attempts to breathe independently) are immediately deleted; and threatened legal proceedings for an alleged breach of data protection.

'We as a family are very disappointed that the Trust's management has chosen to hide behind euphemisms and to mislead the public. It is hard to see any reason for that behaviour except knowing that what they are doing is cruel and wrong.'

It comes after Ms Dance, urged the Health Secretary to 'act immediately' to stop the treatment ending, saying it would be 'a flagrant breach' of his rights.

The letter, sent over the weekend, also read: 'We understand that any discussions around the withdrawal of Archie's treatment are very difficult and painful.

'However, we want to ensure that you and your family are involved as much as you wish to be.'

Doctors have been given permission to turn off Archie's life support machine, but his parents are trying to continue the fight to keep him alive. Pictured is Archie in hospital

In their letter Archie's parents Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee plead with Health Secretary Steve Barclay to intervene to prevent the 'extraordinary cruelty' of ending their son's life

Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee, the youngster's parents, will be told on Monday morning how the withdrawal process is to be performed, with the aim to 'preserve Archie's dignity', the letter read.

It went on: 'You or any of the family may wish to lie on Archie's bed with him or have him in your arms, if that should be practically possible.'

Yesterday, Ms Dance had written an urgent open letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Stephen Barclay, urging the government to prevent withdrawal of life-support being withdrawn following the UN CRPD intervention.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, the families' lawyers had made a last-ditch application to the UN CRPD following the refusal of the UK's Supreme Court to intervene in the case on Thursday.

The court order for the removal of life-support came into effect at 2pm yesterday, but the family lawyers sought urgent assurances that Royal London Hospital would not begin removing treatment while the parents apply to the UN CRPD.

The UK has joined the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, with UNRPD using this to ask the UK government to delay the withdrawal of life support while a complaint is investigated.

The family argue that stopping treatment would be in breach of the UK's obligations under Articles 10 and 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and Article 6 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children.

The UN CRPD has previously criticised the UK system of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment based on the patient's 'best interests' as determined by the Court.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, a campaign organisation supporting Archie's parents, said: 'We have stood with the family from the beginning three months ago following the tragedy and now continue to pray for this beautiful boy, Archie, and for everyone involved.

'Life is the most precious gift we have.'

A High Court judge had ruled that ending treatment is in Archie's best interests, after reviewing evidence.

Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee, who are separated but both live in Southend, Essex, failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges to overturn that ruling and Supreme Court justices have refused to intervene.

Writing to Health Secretary Stephen Barclay on Saturday, Ms Dance said: 'If this happens, this will be an extraordinary cruelty, and a flagrant breach of Archie's rights as a disabled person.

Archie with his mother Hollie Dance (left), brother Tom Summers and sister Lauren Summers

'Archie is entitled to have the decisions about his life and death, taken by the NHS and UK courts, to be scrutinised by an international human rights body. Hastening his death to prevent that would be completely unacceptable.

'I trust that you will now act immediately, as a member of the Government responsible for the NHS, to ensure that this does not happen, and our country honours its obligations under the international human rights treaties which we have signed and ratified.'

They also asked the United Nations to intervene in a 'last-ditch' application, with it issuing an interim measures injunction to the UK government on Friday.

The UN Committee On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities wrote to Archie's parents and legal team saying it had 'requested the state party [the UK] to refrain from withdrawing life-preserving medical treatment, including mechanical ventilation and artificial nutrition and hydration, from the alleged victim while the case is under consideration by the committee'.

It added: 'This request does not imply that any decision has been reached on the substance of the matter under consideration.'

The family said stopping treatment would be in breach of the UK's obligations under international human rights law.

Archie's parents asked hospital bosses to continue treatment until the UN has considered the case.

Judges in London have heard that Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7.

She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

The youngster has not regained consciousness.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.

Alistair Chesser, chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, said on Friday that 'further delay' in starting to provide 'palliative care' to Archie would 'not be appropriate' without a court order.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We recognise this is an exceptionally difficult time for Archie Battersbee's family and our thoughts are with them.

'We have received the letter and will respond in due course.'
This is the risky moment a Ukrainian soldier finds an ingenious way to detonate a Russian landmine: by throwing a car tyre onto it.

A video posted to Telegram channel Face of War shows the brave soldier hurl the rubber tyre at the bomb from just a few feet away.

After successfully detonating the bomb - which sends the tyre flying high into the air - he is seen rubbing his side.

A photo posted later to the channel shows a metal landmine piece had pierced the uniformed soldier and was pulled out.

The unidentified soldier (left) crouches as he hurls the rubber tyre onto the landmine. Right: time seems to slow down as the tyre floats toward the unexploded bomb

According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of Russian landmines have been placed in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and eastern regions Donetsk and Sumy.

That's despite Ukraine being party top the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty - although Russia is not a signatory.

Some are activated by contact, with others detonating at random intervals, posing a significant threat to civilians.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, has condemned their use in Ukraine.

A Russian diplomat told the UN General Assembly in 2020 that Moscow 'shares the goals of the treaty and supports a world free of mines', but views them as 'an effective way of ensuring the security of Russia's borders'.

The tyre then makes impact with the landmine (left), detonating it instantaneously. Right: the explosion sends the car tyre flying dozens of feet into the air and away from the road

The audacious video emerged hours after a Ukrainian grain exporter was reportedly killed in a Russian airstrike on beleaguered Black Sea coastal town Mykolaiv.

Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa are thought to have been killed in a bombing overnight.

The agriculture magnate was the country's 24th richest man with a fortune worth $430million, according to Forbes.

He owned grain exports group Nibulon.

Mykolaiv - which has been attacked frequently - is the closest Ukrainian city to the southern front where Kyiv's forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive to recapture territory lost after Russia's February invasion.

It is also on the main route to Ukraine's primary port Odesa.

On Telegram, the region's leader Vitaliy Kim said of Mr Vadatursky: '[He] did a lot for the Mykolaiv region, a lot for Ukraine.

'His contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry, the development of the region is invaluable.'
President Joe Biden 'unsurprisingly' tested positive again for COVID-19 on Sunday after his case rebounded over the weekend.

White House Physician Kevin O'Connor's update claims Biden is feeling well and did not note any changes, continuation, emergence or presence of symptoms related to his coronavirus case.

Biden retested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday after testing negative twice and Wednesday and returning to in-person work following less than a week of isolation and working from the White House residence.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines state that five days after initial diagnosis, an asymptomatic person can end isolation.

It is not clear if there are any treatments, O'Connor just noted that he will continue monitoring the condition and reporting it to the White House.

Donald Trump insisted that Biden's recent positive test is a 'misdiagnosis', claiming that the president actually has dementia.

'Joe Biden's second bout of Covid, sometimes referred to as the China Virus, was sadly misdiagnosed by his doctors,' Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday. 'He instead has Dementia, but is happily recovering well.'

President Joe Biden is still testing positive for COVID-19, the White House physician said on Sunday

Biden released a video from COVID isolation on Sunday where he FaceTimes with advocates on Capitol Hill in lieu of going down there to help champion the PACT Act, which was defeated by Republicans and aims to aid veterans who were impacted by burn bits and other toxic chemicals

'Joe is thinking of moving, part time, to one of those beautiful Wisconsin Nursing Homes, where almost 100% of the residents miraculously, and for the first time in history, had the strength and energy to vote - even if those votes were cast illegally. Get well soon, Joe!' the former president added in sneaking in his election fraud claims.

Biden posted a video to his Twitter on Sunday in lieu of going to Capitol Hill to help push for passage of the PACT Act, which is being championed by comedian Jon Stewart.

'I'd planned to stop by the Capitol and visit families fighting to pass burn pits legislation. COVID got in the way, so I FaceTimed them and sent some pizza,' the president posted along with a near minute-and-a-half video.

'It's our sacred obligation to care for our veterans,' he continued. 'I won't stop fighting alongside them to get this bill passed.'

In the video, Biden was wearing a blue button down with the first two buttons undone along with a navy blue baseball cap with the President Seal on it. He was sitting on the green couch on the balcony of the residents, where it appears he has been mostly working from isolation to avoid any contact with staff.

The PACT Act was defeated in Congress this week, with Republicans claiming Democrats used a bill aimed at helping veterans and their families to get in unrelated spending provisions.

The main purpose of the bill was to help aid veterans impacted by burn pits and other toxic chemicals when they were deployed.

Biden also released a 12-second video from the residence on Saturday after his doctor revealed the rebound case to give a 'quick update' and show off his work-from-home situation on the balcony looking over the South Lawn. Lounging beside him was his German Shepherd dog Commander.

'Hey folks, Joe Biden here,' the president says in the video. 'Tested positive this morning. Going to be working from home for the next couple days. And I'm feeling fine too, everything's good. But Commander and I got a little work to do.'

In a memo released on Saturday, Dr. O'Connor, said the president is experiencing no new symptoms and 'continues to feel quite well.'

Biden released a 'quick update' in form of video posted to Twitter where he confirmed the rebound positive test and said he would return to working from isolation in the White House residence alongside his dog Commander

O'Connor warned of the possibility of a testing 'rebound,' which could occur on a small percentage of patients who, like Biden, used the antiviral medication PAXLOVID as part of their treatment against COVID.

At least one prominent physician, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, has warned that up to 40 percent of those who take a course of PAXLOVID, end up testing positive for the virus again within 30 days.

Dr. Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University Hospital, tweeted, 'I think this was predictable,' following the positive test.

'The prior data suggesting 'rebound' Paxlovid positivity in the low single digits is outdates and with BA.5 is likely 20-40% or even higher,' he added.

Some experts have said that the current treatment cycle of taking three pills twice a day for five days is too short a time period to clear coronavirus from the patient's body.
A man beat a Nigerian street trader to death in broad daylight in Italy after allegedly flying into a rage when the victim said his girlfriend was beautiful.

Nigerian street vendor Alika Ogorchukwu, 39, was beaten to death by an Italian, identified as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, in Civitanova Marche's busy town centre, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, on Friday.

Ferlazzo became infuriated when Mr Ogorchukwu told the man's girlfriend she was beautiful, claimed Daniel Amanza, who runs the ACSIM association for immigrants in the Marche region's Macerata province.

'This compliment killed him,' Mr Amanza told The Associated Press.

'The tragic fact is that there were many people nearby. They filmed, saying "Stop", but no one moved to separate them,' Mr Amanza said.

The father-of-two's brutal death was filmed by onlookers who made no attempt to physically intervene - sparking outrage online.

Police in Italy arrested Ferlazzo, 32, for the murder of Mr Ogorchukwu, and allegedly stealing the victim's mobile phone, according to local agency ANSA.

Police used street cameras to track Ferlazzo's movements and arrested him on Saturday. Local media have reported that Ferlazzo is currently being held in the Montacuto prison in Ancona. It is claimed he will not be charged with racism.

'The situation is quite clear, everything seems to have emerged from a dispute over frivolous reasons, not racism', said Matteo Luconi, one of the investigators.

Alika Ogorchukwu, 39, (pictured) was beaten to death by an Italian man, identified as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, in Civitanova Marche's busy town centre on Friday

Police in Italy have arrested a 32-year-old man following the murder of a Nigerian street vendor whose brutal murder was filmed by onlookers who made no attempt to physically intervene

The footage shows Ferlazzo wrestling the victim onto his back on the pavement as he fought back and climbing on top of Alika in an attempt to pin him to the ground

Alika was selling goods when his attacker grabbed the vendor's crutch and struck him down with a series of blows, according to police

People protest where the Nigerian street vendor Alika Ogorchukwu has been murdered, in Civitanova Marche, Italy, on July 30

Shocking video footage of the attack has circulated widely on social media, eliciting outrage as Italy enters a parliamentary election campaign in which the right-wing coalition has already made immigration an issue.

Mr Ogorchukwu was selling goods when his attacker grabbed the vendor's crutch and struck him down with a series of blows, according to police.

The footage shows Ferlazzo wrestling the victim onto his back on the pavement as he fought back and climbing on top of Mr Ogorchukwu in an attempt to pin him to the ground.

Mr Ogorchukwu's wife, Charity Oriachi, said: 'Now I just want justice for my husband', during a protest at the murder scene on Saturday.

Enrico Letta, the leader of the left-wing Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter: 'The murder of Alika Ogorchukwu leaves us dismayed. The unprecedented ferocity. Widespread indifference. There can be no justification.'

Right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, who is making security a plank of his campaign, also expressed outrage over the death, saying 'security has no colour and needs to return to being a right.'

'The aggressor went after the victim, first hitting him with a crutch. He made him fall to the ground, then he finished, causing the death, striking repeatedly with his bare hands,' police investigator Matteo Luconi told a press conference.

He later told Italian news channel Sky TG24 that onlookers called police, who responded after the suspect had fled and attempted to administer aid to the victim. An autopsy will determine if the death was provoked by blows, suffocation or another cause.

Mr Luconi said the assailant lashed out after the vendor made 'insistent' requests for pocket change. Police were questioning witnesses and viewing videos of the attack. They said the suspect has made no statement.

Mr Ogorchukwu, who was married with two children aged 8 and 10, resorted to selling goods on the street after he was struck by a car and lost his job as a labourer due to his injuries, said Mr Amanza, of the ACSIM association for immigrants.

Alika, who was married with two children, was seen struggling in the shocking footage

Enrico Letta, the leader of the left-wing Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter: 'The murder of Alika Ogorchukwu leaves us dismayed. The unprecedented ferocity. Widespread indifference. There can be no justification'

Macerata was the site of a 2018 shooting spree targeting African immigrants that wounded six people. Luca Traini, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the shootings, which Italy's highest court confirmed qualified as a hate crime.

Civitanova Marche's mayor, Fabrizio Ciarapica, met with members of the Nigerian community after hundreds demonstrated at the scene of the crime on Saturday.

'My condemnation is not only for the (crime) but it is also for the indifference,' Mr Ciarapica told Sky. 'This is something that has shocked citizens.'

Former Premier Matteo Renzi, who heads his own small party, called out political leaders for 'instrumentalising' the attack.

'I am horrified by this electoral climate', he said on social media. 'A father was killed in an atrocious and racist way while passersby took video without stopping the aggressor. And instead of reflecting on what we are becoming, politicians argue and instrumentalise.'
A senior Putin official who quit his position and left Russia in protest at the Ukraine war has been rushed to intensive care after suddenly suffering acute numbness in his arms and legs.

Specialists in hazmat suits examined the room where Anatoly Chubais, 67, was taken ill in an unspecified Western country in Europe.

The report came from journalist Ksenia Sobchak, a former Russian presidential candidate.

The initial diagnosis is Guillain-Barre syndrome but investigations are still ongoing following repeated cases where Putin's enemies have been poisoned.

Anatoly Chubais is credited with 'talent-spotting' Putin in the 1990s before leaving the country

Sobchak stated: 'In this case, the diagnosis may change.'

She said that 'the room where Chubais was when he felt unwell was examined by specialists in chemical protection suits.

'And police questioned all the witnesses.'

His wife Avdotya Smirnova, 56, a film director, said his condition was 'unstable', said Sobchak.

'It became bad, suddenly the arms and legs became numb.'

Chubais himself was quoted as saying: 'I have been hospitalised in one of the European clinics with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome. A condition of moderate severity, stable.'

Chubais (pictured with Putin in 2016) is said to be suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome

Chubais quit as Putin's special envoy to international organisations in March - and left Russia to live in exile in protest about the war, say media reports.

He is seen as the most senior Russian official to resign for this reason.

He is a former Kremlin deputy prime minister who led the privatisation of the Russian economy after the fall of communism in the government of Boris Yeltsin.

He remained a key player under Putin - and from 1998 to 2008, he headed Russia's state-owned electrical power monopoly RAO UES.

Chubais (left) was long seen as Russia's most senior pro-West politician (pictured in 2007 with German energy tycoon Wulf Bernotat, as Putin and Angela Merkel deliberate behind them)

For the next 12 years he ran RUSNANO, Russia's nanotechnology corporation.

He was seen as the most prominent pro-Western politician in Putin's team.

In early June he was photographed in a Cyprus supermarket, and earlier there were reports he had been in Israel and Turkey.

Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare and serious condition which can be life threatening affecting the nerves in the feet, hands and limbs.

It causes numbness, weakness and pain.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Sunday defended his vote against a bill that would have expanded healthcare access for military veterans who have been exposed to toxic burn pits, while accusing Democrats of using service members as political pawns.

He also appeared to take aim at comedian and activist Jon Stewart, who singled out Toomey in his criticism of the GOP lawmakers responsible for sinking the legislation last week.

The PACT Act is designed to help veterans who were exposed to toxins in Iraq and Afghanistan and now suffer a litany of health issues ranging from asthma to deadly cancers.

It passed the Senate with an overwhelming 84 to 14 vote in June but was forced back to the floor by a technical error - where it fell five votes short of the 60-count threshold to overcome a filibuster.

Fifty-five senators voted for the bill while 42 Republican senators voted against it. Three lawmakers abstained.

Toomey, who led GOP opposition to the bill, told CNN's State of the Union that he opposed the bill this time because of 'an unrelated $400 billion spending spree that has nothing to do with veterans and that won't be in the veterans space.'

The bill's text had moved the spending from the 'discretionary' to 'mandatory' category.

'This is the oldest trick in Washington. People take a sympathetic group of Americans - and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who've been exposed to toxic chemicals - craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own and dare Republicans to do anything about it,' Toomey said.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey led the opposition that derailed Congress' attempt at a bill to aid veterans who were exposed to toxins in the Middle East. The Senate is teeing up another vote on it Monday

"We were promised we would have an opportunity to offer an amendment to change this and then... it was reneged on."@SenToomey explains why he and other Republicans stalled a bill that would help provide health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/YsjOEXGctc  CNN (@CNN) July 31, 2022

'They know they will unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn't be there.'

He also said he was working on an amendment to the bill that he vowed would 'not change by one penny any spending on any veterans program.'

'My change, honest people acknowledge, will have no effect on the amount of money or the circumstances under which the money for veterans is being spent,' Toomey said.

Interviewing Toomey was CNN host Jake Tapper, who just days ago sat down with Stewart when the comedian eviscerated the retiring GOP senator's opposition.

Stewart continued his criticism on Sunday, claiming Toomey's amendment 'is really about capping the fund' during an interview on ABC News' This Week.

'The Toomey amendment doesn't change it from mandatory to discretionary. It's still mandatory,' Stewart said.

'Its about putting caps on it and giving it a sunset clause for ten years.'

Comedian-turned-activist Jon Stewart fumed against GOP opposition to the bill and accused Toomey of trying to cap the funds

On GOP amendment saying the veteran health care bill should be discretionary, @jonstewart tells @jonkarl: "We've been through this with the 9/11 first responders."



"The Toomey amendment is really about capping the fund... and giving it a sunset clause." https://t.co/TGr4RJomRI pic.twitter.com/gWtZnbwahK  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 31, 2022

He said Toomey's amendment would do to the bill what a previous Senate did to the September 11th victims compensation fund in setting an expiry on the money. That forced sick and dying 9/11 first responders to return to the US Capitol multiple times since 2001 to lobby for a renewal after risking their lives to save others.

'What Toomey's amendment wants to do is make sure that our sick and dying veterans have the pleasure that our 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero had of having to come back to Washington, hat in hand, riddled with cancer, and march through the halls of The Hill begging for money every year,' Stewart said.

Stewart said he would 'absolutely' still support the bill if it passed with the amendment, but was at a loss when asked whether he believed the bill would end up passing soon.

'I have no idea. I mean the whole thing has been -- this is so bananas. Nothing changed. So, I don't understand any of this,' he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set up another vote for the bill on Monday.
A crash involving a wrong-way vehicle on an interstate highway in northern Illinois left seven people dead Sunday, including five children and their mother.

The crash occurred around 2am on Interstate 90 and Anthony Road near milepost 33 in McHenry County, roughly 50 miles from Chicago.

A woman and five children in a van were killed, according to Illinois State Police. The female driver of the other car also died when the vehicles crashed head-on and both burst into flames.

State police said the van was traveling in the wrong direction on westbound I-90, according to the Associated Press.

As of Sunday afternoon, the identities of victims from both parties have yet to be shared.

Illinois State Police responded to a wrong-way crash on I-90 and Anthony Road, 50 miles from Chicago, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of two women and five children

Authorities were forced to close traffic from both sides of the intersection before reopening them at around 10:30 a.m. later on Sunday

One person, believed to be the only survivor of the crash, was airlifted to hospital with severe injuries, Illinois State Police told DailyMail.com

Her condition remains unknown, as of Sunday afternoon. An investigation remains ongoing.

Authorities were forced to temporarily shut down lanes on both sides of the highway throughout the night, before reopening them at around 11:30 a.m.

Grace Coleman, 23, is seen in her booking photo in December 2020, after crashing into the car of a family of five that resulted in the death of both parents and orphaning three little girls, all aged between one and five at the time

Henry Eduardo Saldana-Mejia, 27, and Gabriela Andrade, 28, (pictured) were killed by drunk driver Grace Coleman in December 2020. Coleman was jailed for 21 years to life, as the couple's three orphaned daughters, Elena, Emma Sofia and Samantha looked on and shared victim impact statements

The car crash comes a day after 23-year-old Grace Coleman, from Newport Beach, California, was sentenced to 21-years-to-life behind bars for running a red light and crashing into a car of a family of five, resulting in the death of both parents, in 2020.

The young woman smashed her Range Rover Sport into their Nissan Versa while the family were looking for Christmas lights. As a result, Henry Eduardo Saldana-Mejia, 27, and Gabriela Andrade, 28, died from the crash.

Their three surviving children - Elena and her sisters Emma, Sofia, and Samantha - all aged between one and five at the time - were wearing their Christmas pajamas when tragedy struck.

The three girls wailed in their wrecked car after the accident, with Coleman walking past them to try and leave the scene.

She was apprehended by police before she could do so, and was found to be almost three times over the drink-drive limit.
Lavrov, Blinken discuss situation in Ukraine over phone

Xinhua) 09:41, July 31, 2022

MOSCOW, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the situation in Ukraine during a phone conversation on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov outlined Russia's principled approaches in light of the ongoing special military operation, stressing that its goals and objectives will be achieved, the statement said.

They also discussed global food security and problems of bilateral relations, the statement said.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lays a wreath at the Friendship Tower to pay tribute to the fallen Chinese soldiers fought in the war, Thursday, in this photo released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the following day. Yonhap



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country's ties with China, "sealed in blood," will further develop for generations to come as he marked the anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War, state media said Friday.



On Thursday, Kim visited the Friendship Tower in Pyongyang and paid tribute to the fallen Chinese soldiers that fought in the war, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.



The Korean War armistice was signed July 27, 1953, a little over three years after the North invaded the South, backed by China and the then Soviet Union. Calling the conflict the Great Fatherland Liberation War, the North has designated the anniversary as Victory Day.



Kim stressed that the "brilliant combat merits and feats of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) officers and men, obviously recorded in the history of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, would be immortal," according to the KCNA.









He added that the North's friendship with China, "sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause."



Top officials accompanied Kim, including Jo Yong-won, secretary for Organizational Affairs of the ruling party's Central Committee, and Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.



North Korea has recently stressed its friendly ties with China amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington and an escalating Sino-U.S. rivalry.



Meanwhile, Kim also separately held photo sessions with war veterans that participated in a national conference earlier this week and with lecturers responsible for the ideological education of the youth regarding the war, the KCNA said.





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, meets a group of veterans of the Korean War who took part in a national conference to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the war armistice, which falls on July 27, as he joins a group photo session with them in front of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War in Pyongyang, Thursday, in this photo released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the following day. Yonhap
Prince Charles was accused of a 'serious lack of judgment' yesterday after it emerged his charity accepted 1million from the family of Osama bin Laden.

It received the donation after Charles had a private meeting with the terrorist's half-brother Bakr bin Laden in 2013  two years after the Al Qaeda leader was killed by US special forces.

The Charity Commission is likely to face calls to investigate in light of the revelation.

Royal sources denied reports that Charles, 73, had 'brokered' the donation, or that he agreed to it in the face of opposition from his advisers.

Clarence House said the trustees of the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF) had agreed to accept the donation without the prince's involvement, and that they carried out 'thorough due diligence'.

Prince Charles was accused of a 'serious lack of judgment' yesterday after it emerged his charity accepted 1million from the family of Osama bin Laden

But the latest revelation comes only weeks after it emerged the PWCF accepted more than 2.5million in cash donations, said to be stuffed in bags and suitcases, from a former Qatari prime minister.

And it raised further questions about the fundraising activities of the prince's charity, and why it accepted money from the Bin Laden family.

Former Government minister Norman Baker said: 'Prince Charles continues to show a serious lack of judgment about whom he will accept money from.

'Is there in fact anyone he would refuse money from? Is this really appropriate behaviour from the heir to the throne?'

The Bin Laden family publicly disowned Osama bin Laden in 1994, before it emerged his Al Qaeda network had carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Both the PWCF and Clarence House said the 1million donation was made and accepted, but said it was accepted by the charity's trustees, and not by the prince.

Sources denied reports that Charles had accepted the donation, and had done so despite objections by advisers  including at least one trustee  who pleaded with him to return the money.

It received the donation after Charles had a private meeting with the terrorist's half-brother Bakr bin Laden in 2013  two years after the Al Qaeda leader was killed by US special forces

There is no suggestion that Bakr bin Laden, 76, had any involvement in terrorism. A PWCF source said its trustees had carried out 'a thorough examination of the issues' and decided that the actions of one member of the Bin Laden family 'should not tarnish the whole family'

Royal sources also denied claims that one of Charles's household staff told the prince 'it would not be good for anybody' if it emerged he had accepted money from the Bin Laden family.

The PWCF said it had 'carefully considered' the donation and accepted only after seeking information from a range of sources, including the Government.

Charles was reportedly introduced to Bakr bin Laden by Saudi royal Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al-Saud in June 2001. The pair met again in October 2001  four weeks after the 9/11 attacks  and dined at Charles's home Highgrove to discuss the Islamic faith.

The two met again at Clarence House in October 2013, and the meeting was noted in the official Court Circular. The Sunday Times alleged Charles 'brokered' the 1million donation after that meeting, although the claim was denied by royal sources.

There is no suggestion that Bakr bin Laden, 76, had any involvement in terrorism.

A PWCF source said its trustees had carried out 'a thorough examination of the issues' and decided that the actions of one member of the Bin Laden family 'should not tarnish the whole family'.

Charles was reportedly introduced to Bakr bin Laden by Saudi royal Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al-Saud in June 2001. The pair met again in October 2001  four weeks after the 9/11 attacks  and dined at Charles's home Highgrove to discuss the Islamic faith

PWCF chairman Sir Ian Cheshire said the decision to accept the donation was taken by the five trustees and that no wrongdoing was committed.

He added: 'Due diligence was conducted, with information sought from a wide range of sources, including Government. The decision to accept the donation was taken wholly by the trustees. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate.'

A spokesman for Clarence House said: 'The PWCF has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken. The decision to accept was taken by the charity's trustees alone and any attempt to characterise it otherwise is false.'

The Charity Commission declined to comment.

How could an intelligent man get it so wrong

By Stephen Glover for the Daily Mail

At a recent lunch hosted by the Oldie magazine, the Duchess of Cornwall was in an admirably robust mood.

'The Duke of Edinburgh's philosophy was clear,' Camilla declared. 'Look up and look out, say less, do more  and get on with the job.' And that is just what I intend to do.'

We can only imagine what the plain-spoken Philip might have said about his eldest son's latest folly: the news that Charles accepted 1million for his charity from the family of Osama bin Laden, the most destructive terrorist who has ever lived.

Camilla should adopt Philip's no- nonsense approach and give her husband a good talking-to. She could say, for example: 'What a damn fool you've been  again. You seem to be going out of your way to bring discredit on the monarchy. You can sometimes be a blithering idiot, Charles.'

For it seems the heir to the throne doesn't listen to anyone else. According to the Sunday Times, which has revealed the 1million gift from two half-brothers of Osama bin Laden in 2013, one of his own household told him that his acceptance of it would cause national outrage if the news leaked to the media. And so it has.

Another adviser reportedly urged Prince Charles to return the money, and warned that he would suffer serious reputational damage if his name appeared in the same sentence as the terrorist, who was responsible for the murder of 67 Britons, along with thousands of Americans and others, on that dreadful day, September 11, 2001.

But Charles sailed on in a bone-headed way, just as he unwisely accepted a holdall stuffed with 1million from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani  a former prime minister of Qatar and not necessarily the most admirable man who has ever walked the face of the earth  during a one-to-one meeting in Clarence House.

That money, like the gift from the Bin Laden family, was destined for the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund. There is absolutely no suggestion that the prince is in any way venal or corrupt.

He simply has appalling judgment in such matters, combined with a kind of pig-headed arrogance. It is as though he believes that, as a consequence of his great importance, he is somehow exempt from the standards that govern the rest of us.

The opposite is the case. We look to our next King to provide an example of good sense  to be impeccable in his behaviour, just as his mother, the Queen, has been throughout her long reign.

If you were to ask 100 people down at the Dog and Duck whether they thought the prince should have accepted a gift from the family of a deadly terrorist (who was deservedly dispatched by American special forces in 2011), I wager that nearly all of them would say 'No'.

Would Charles accept a huge donation from the descendants of Heinrich Himmler or Adolf Eichmann were they in a position to make one? I don't imagine that even he would be so ill-advised.

So why take 1 million from the Bin Laden family? If anything, it would be less obnoxious to accept money from the fairly distant relatives of monsters whose sins were committed 80 years ago than from the half-brothers of an evil terrorist who has cast such a shadow over our own era. It makes little or no difference that the Bin Laden family long ago disowned its homicidal offspring.

I'm afraid  monarchist as I am, and an admirer of Prince Charles in many ways  that I almost despair at his foolishness. I can't understand how a decent and intelligent man could have got something so badly wrong.

What is clear is that his charity has led him astray. Last year, it was claimed that Michael Fawcett, his closest confidant, offered to help a Saudi billionaire obtain a knighthood in exchange for generous donations to the Prince's Foundation, of which Fawcett was chief executive. There is no suggestion Charles knew about this. Police are still investigating the matter.

At the very least, the prince must show that his charitable causes will in future be conducted in a more respectable and transparent fashion, and that there won't be any more holdalls full of high-denomination euro notes changing hands, or large gifts from the family of an infamous mass murderer.

And, as the Duke of Edinburgh is no longer with us, it really does fall to the straight-talking Camilla to give her husband a good dressing-down  and for the prince to take a closer look at himself than he is wont to do.

My worry is that Charles may have been guilty of other acts of stupidity in the past which have not yet come to light, and that, if they do, there will be more damaging revelations.

Careless behaviour on the prince's part is bound, if repeated, to weaken the monarchy. How terrifyingly quickly the Queen's precious legacy could unravel.
The judge who jailed Marine A for life for killing a Taliban insurgent has launched a scathing attack on the sergeant.

Jeff Blacketts outburst, which was broadcast on Channel 4 last night, is a shock because judges rarely comment on past cases.

The retired judge advocate general cast aside convention to criticise Alexander Blackman in the programme, War and Justice: The Case of Marine A. He was convicted over an incident when leading a patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Jeff Blackett (pictured), the former Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces said in the programme that Blackman 'told lies to the court' and adds that if he had been 'honest right at the start' he would have likely been given a 'relatively short sentence'

It was ambushed by insurgents, one of whom was severely wounded by fire from a British Apache helicopter. Sgt Blackman then shot the man dead and, quoting Shakespeare, told him to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Mr Blackett suggested the commando had brought the saga on himself, saying: Had he come to the police and been honest right at the start then no doubt he would have been given a relatively short sentence and that would have been the end of it.

Nobody wins in these cases. But was justice done? Yes, it was, because Blackman unlawfully killed a Taliban. And lets not forget, nobody seems to worry about him. This was a young man who Blackman killed who could have been saved.

Sgt Blackman, 47, was found guilty of murder in 2013 but the Court of Appeal subsequently ruled that the military court proceedings overseen by Mr Blackett were fundamentally flawed  including the failure to obtain psychiatric reports.

In 2013, Sergeant Blackman (pictured), who was known as Marine A during the long-running case, became the first British serviceman to be convicted of murder on a foreign battlefield.

Following a Daily Mail campaign, the conviction was downgraded to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The Court of Appeal said Sgt Blackman had been suffering from a mental disorder, brought about by combat fatigue, when he pulled the trigger. He was released from prison after 1,277 days and reunited with his wife Claire in 2017.

His fight for freedom was funded by Daily Mail readers who raised 800,000 for a new legal team.

Mr Blacketts attack was condemned by the author Frederick Forsyth and Jonathan Goldberg, who led the commandos legal appeal.

A clip from War and Justice: The Case Of Marine A, shows the young men running for their lives in an open field after being sent to 'draw fire' from the Taliban to reveal their enemies' locations (Pictured: Blackman appearing in documentary)

Judge Blackett's attack on Sgt Blackman in the documentary was branded counter-factual by celebrated author Frederick Forsyth (pictured right) and Jonathan Goldberg QC (pictured left), who led the Commando's legal appeal.

Mr Forsyth said: Judge Blacketts court martial made a mockery of justice, everything about it was wrong. This smacks of him trying to rewrite history and save face.

As for saying the insurgent could have been saved, thats ludicrous. He had been ripped to pieces by machine gun fire. He was moments from death and miles from any hospital. What Judge Blackett says is quite breathtaking.

Mr Goldberg QC added: Some people who know the facts may have more sympathy for Marine A than the dying Taliban. He could not have been saved. The failure to obtain such evidence, including the report of a leading pathologist who saw his injuries, was one of the many faults of the original court martial.

Two other Marines charged with murder were acquitted at the court martial in 2013. Sgt Blackman now works in security.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is off to a strong start in the first Newspoll since Labor won the federal election in May.

His voter satisfaction rating is at 61 per cent, the poll published in The Australian on Monday showed.

This is the highest number recorded for a post-election Newspoll for a new prime minister since the satisfaction measure began being tallied in 1985.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is off to a strong start in the first Newspoll since Labor won the May federal election

Mr Albanese's voter satisfaction rating is at 61 per cent, the poll published in The Australian on Monday shows

Mr Albanese is also ahead on the preferred prime minister measure, at 59 per cent versus 25 per cent for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

On a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead at 56 per cent compared to 44 per cent for the coalition.

Labor's primary vote has lifted to 37 per cent, from 32.6 per cent at the May 21 election, against 33 per cent for the coalition.

The Greens were tracking at 12 per cent, while the teal independents were on 10 per cent.

Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie said Mr Albanese was not just in a honeymoon period.

'He is still doing the wedding waltz,' she told Nine Network on Monday.

But she warned there were challenges ahead, particularly on the cost of living.

'There will be a fair bit of pressure on him over the next six months,' she said.

'Living standards out there are tough, people are doing it really tough, so let's see how it goes.'

The Newspoll of 1,508 voters was conducted between July 27-30. The federal parliament is due to sit on Monday.

Mr Albanese is also ahead on the preferred prime minister measure, at 59 per cent versus 25 per cent for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton

The approval rating comes as Mr Albanese seeks a referendum on recognising Indigenous people in the constitution and requiring consultation with them on decisions that impact their lives.

The prime minister revealed the plan on Saturday in a speech at an Indigenous festival in remote Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

In an interview with ABC television, broadcast on Sunday, Mr Albanese said details on the voice would follow the referendum, if the proposal won support.

'The legislation of the structure of the voice won't happen before the referendum,' he said.
Weary passengers took to social media to complain about widespread delays

Delays come after Qantas flights grounded due to IT glitch on Sunday night

Chaos at Melbourne Airport with huge queues stretching across the terminal

Dozens of travellers at Sydney and Melbourne Airport have been warned to expect long queues, delays and cancellations just hours after an IT glitch.

Passengers were confronted with chaotic scenes at the airport on Monday morning with lines seen stretching all the way to the international terminal.

Queues also formed at the airport's service desk after 20 domestic flights were cancelled leaving travellers scrambling to book another flight.

Similar scenes unfolded at Sydney Airport where 21 domestic flights were scrapped across four airlines throwing the travel plans of hundreds into disarray.

Dozens of travellers at Melbourne Airport have been warned to expect delays as giant queues are seen snaking across the terminal on Monday morning (pictured)

Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and REX have cancelled flights out of Sydney with some frustrated travellers receiving just a few hours notice.

Virgin Australia axed 10 flights, Qantas cancelled eight, with two flights dropped by Virgin and Rex dumping one.

In Melbourne, Qantas dropped seven flights, five from Emirates and Virgin Australia, two from American Airlines and one from British Airways.

The cancelled flights at both airports were between 6:30am and 7pm on Monday.

It's understood the flights were cancelled to and from Sydney due to operational reasons, including resourcing challenges and engineering requirements.

The delays come just hours after the travel plans of thousands of Qantas passengers were disrupted by a nationwide computer glitch.

Hundreds were left waiting onboard grounded planes on runways across the country on Sunday night after an IT glitch delayed up to a dozen domestic flights.

Frustrated passengers took to social media to vent their frustration

Hundreds of passengers spent hours in airport lounges waiting to board delayed flights

The computer glitch has also impacted flights trying to take off across New Zealand

Qantas said the issue was discovered at about 4:30pm on Sunday and had impacted 12 domestic flights with some grounded for nearly two hours. The glitch was fixed at about 6pm but caused flow-on delays throughout the evening.

Furious travellers keen to get home in time for the start of the working week took to social media to vent about the delays.

'Any update on your international computer outage impacting every single flight from departing???? Sitting on fully packed plane on tarmac for 90mins for 2hr is pretty ridiculous!' one grounded traveller fumed on Twitter.

The computer glitch has also affected Qantas flights across the Tasman trying to take off in New Zealand.

'Still waiting at 7pm to leave on my Qantas plane from Auckland that was meant to leave at 5.40. Paperwork still has to be signed off,' one traveller wrote.

Wet weather as well as a surge in flu and Covid cases for airline staff has been blamed for the pattern of delays and cancellations in Sydney and Melbourne.

Passengers were confronted chaotic scenes at the airport on Monday morning with lines seen stretching all the way to the international terminal (pictured)

The latest blunder comes on the back of a tough year for Qantas, with travellers reporting long delays, lost luggage and problems with customer service.

Qantas has cut more flights from its schedule as the airline is plagued with industrial disputes, understaffing, poor organisation, cancellations and delays as furious passengers share their horror experiences of travelling with the national carrier.

The news prompted Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David to issue an on-air apology and vow to do better in the future.

'Let me start by saying an apology to all your listeners. We are the national carrier, people have high expectations of us, we have high expectations of ourselves and clearly over the last few months we have not been delivering what we did pre-Covid,' he told 2GB's Ben Fordham last week.

Mr David confirmed Qantas had 'reduced some of our flying this month' and was 'planning to do the same next month' amidst 'operational pressures'.
Unsealed court documents show Amber Heard walked away from a divorce payout from Johnny Depp that could have run to tens-of-millions of dollars, as the financially-challenged actress sells her beloved California home.

Documents seen by the Daily Beast show that the Aquaman star, 36, ignored guidance from her legal team not to pursue Depp for the maximum cash she was entitled to after they filed for divorce in 2016.

She could have sought half Depp's $33 million he made filming the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, since it was made while they were married.

But Heard chose not to, and wrote them an email saying she was being 'amazingly true to (her) word, that this is not about the money.'

A judge refused to let that evidence be admitted during Depp's defamation lawsuit against Heard.

She was ordered to pay Depp a total of $8.3 million after being found guilty of defamation, but says she doesn't have enough cash to do so.

Amber Heard appears to have sold a Southern California property for over a million dollars, just as documents unsealed from her trial with Johnny Depp reveal she may have left tens of millions on the table in their divorce

She may now have begun raising some of that cash by selling her Yucca Valley home in the California desert for $1.05million, a profit of about $500,000 for Heard, as per TMZ.

Heard allegedly bought the house in 2019 through an anonymous trust tied to the actress.

There is speculation about Heard's ability to immediately cover the damages, which includes $10million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.

She will also receive $2million from Depp in a counter-lawsuit, leaving her with just over $8million to pay.

She may have begun raising some of that cash by selling her Yucca Valley home in the California desert for $1.05million, a profit of about $500,000

Heard allegedly bought the house in 2019 through an anonymous trust tied to the actress

There is speculation about Heard's ability to immediately cover the damages, which includes $10million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages. She will also receive $2million from Depp in a counter-lawsuit, leaving her with just over $8million to pay

The latter amount was reduced from $5million due to Virginia's cap on such awards.

Newly-unsealed court documents suggest that Heard may have walked away from more than enough to pay up in their divorce.

The Daily Beast pointed out that Judge Penney Azcarate refused to allow Team Amber to submit a conversation she had with her lawyers during the divorce trial.

Attorneys for the actress were begging her to pursue what they felt were 'tens of million of dollars' she was entitled to through Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean profits.

They alleged that because Depp made Pirates of the Caribbean 5 during the marriage, it was 'community property' and an asset Heard was entitled to half of.

Heard would not allow them to chase that money, with her lawyers saying via email that she was being 'true to your word' that it wasn't about cash.

Judge Azcarate refused any reference to these emails in the scope of the defamation trial.

Perhaps the spiciest reveal from the documents is that team Depp may have attempted to submit nude photos of Heard, as well as Amber's brief work as an exotic dancer.

Heard's legal team argued these were 'irrelevant personal matters' that should not be allowed in the trial.

Heard, 36, appealed the judge's decision in her defamation case against Johnny Depp on July 21 - two months after she was subjected to pay $ 10 million to her ex-husband in damages.

Newly-unsealed court documents suggest that Heard may have walked away from more than enough to pay up in their divorce

Judge Penney Azcarate refused to allow Team Amber to submit a conversation she had with her lawyers during the divorce trial. Attorneys for the actress were begging her to pursue what they felt were 'tens of million of dollars' she was entitled to through Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean profits

Heard was denied a request for a mistrial a week before - arguing that one of the jurors on the case shouldn't have been eligible to serve because his summons was intended for his father, who had the same name and lived at the same address.

In June, the Aquaman star was ordered to pay her ex-husband $10.35 million at the end of an explosive six-week trial, when a jury ruled she had defamed her ex-husband in a newspaper opinion piece published in 2018.

Depp, 59, received $15 million, including $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

The judge later capped the damages at the state's maximum of $350,000 leaving Depp with a total of $8.35million.

Meanwhile, Heard won one of her three countersuits claims related to statements made by Depp's lawyer suggesting she and her friends trashed their apartment before calling the police.

Heard was rewarded $2 million in compensatory damages out of the $100million she asked for.

Amid the news of Heard's appeals, Depp's representatives told DailyMail.com last week that they are confident in the verdict.

Depp and Heard filed their appeals with the Virginia Court of Appeals

'The jury listened to the extensive evidence presented during the trial and came to a clear and unanimous verdict that the defendant herself defamed Mr. Depp in multiple instances. We remain confident in our case and that this verdict will stand,' a spokesperson for Depp said.

A day after Heard's team filed an appeal, Depp's team filed one following him being ordered to pay $2 million in damages after he was convicted of a single count of defamation for saying the domestic abuse claims against him were false.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor's team said they filed an appeal to ensure 'all information is considered by the court' while they return to consider Heard's appeal.
A backpacker has bought likely the most expensive McDonald's meal ever after being fined thousands of dollars for trying to bring two McMuffins from Bali into Australia.

The traveller had bought two egg and beef sausage McMuffins from a McDonald's outlet on the Indonesian island before catching a flight to Darwin on Sunday.

The food was detected in the backpack by a sniffer dog with border security officials searching the bag at the airport, where they also discovered a ham croissant.

A backpacker has bought what's been dubbed the most expensive McDonald's meal ever after they were fined thousands of dollars for trying to bring two McMuffins from Bali into Australia

The backpacker was issued $2,664 worth of fines for failing to declare potential high biosecurity risk items and providing a false and misleading document.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Murray Watt slammed the traveller for bringing in food that could have the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease.

'This will be the most expensive Macca's meal this passenger ever has, this fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia's strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught,' he said.

Biosecurity has ramped up across all Australian airports as the the threat of foot-and-mouth disease grows.

Indonesia has been grappling with the spread of the disease for months and the devastating virus was recently detected in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian travellers.

The farming industry has warned if foot-and-mouth was transported from irresponsible travellers into Australia it could cost the cattle industry $80billion over a decade as the country would lose its FMD-free designation.

The food was detected in the backpack by a sniffer dog and searched by border security officials at the airport who also discovered a ham croissant

Mr Watt said the government was taking unprecedented measures to stop the disease from crossing the country's borders.

'Australia is FMD-free, and we want it to stay that way,' he said.

'Biosecurity is no joke  it helps protect jobs, our farms, food and supports the economy.

'Passengers who choose to travel need to make sure they are fulfilling the conditions to enter Australia, by following all biosecurity measures.'
Frightening footage shows the moment beachgoers were forced to make a mad dash out of the ocean after not one, but two sharks were spotted off a Florida beach over the weekend - the most recent in a swathe of sightings across the east coast.

A resident was able to record the frightening encounter - which transpired Saturday on scenic Neptune Beach, near Jacksonville.

Video shows the two sharks, swimming in clear view of the camera, feet away from several swimmers seemingly unaware of their presence.

Someone can be heard shouting, 'Get out the water!' in the bone-chilling clip, which was captured as swimmers rushed out of the knee-deep waters.

Footage shows the sharks swimming in the shallows after the frantic evacuation - which saw no residents hurt but left tensions on high along the north Florida coast.

It came as the most recent in a slew of shark sightings spanning the entire East Coast, thanks to unseasonably high temperatures that have seen the carnivorous animals wander farther north than normal.

Frightening footage shows the moment beachgoers were forced to make a mad dash out of the ocean after not one, but two sharks were spotted off a Florida beach over the weekend

A resident was able to record the frightening encounter - which transpired Saturday on scenic Neptune Beach, near Jacksonville

Video shows the two sharks, swimming in clear view of the camera, feet away from several swimmers seemingly unaware of their presence

Attacks have seen the usually shark-free waters around New York overrun - as well as other northern locations like Massachusetts and Maine.

The out-of-the-usual attacks forcing closures at several popular beaches such as those in Cape Cod and Long Island - with another in Maine shutting down after a citizen reportedly spotted a Great White.

Attacks in the Sunshine State have been frequent - with some leaving beachgoers badly bitten and barely escaping with their lives.

Nearby in Jacksonville, just miles away from Neptune Beach, another shark was spotted Saturday - with one resident reportedly bitten by the beast.

The attack left the unnamed man's shin reportedly 'left in shreds' - as other swimmers looked on at the carnage in horror, according to witness Robert Alexander.

Alexander, who rushed out into the water along with a lifeguard to aid the man after hearing screams, described seeing the water red with blood immediately after the attack - and the shadow of a 6- to 7-foot shark wading roughly 10 feet underwater.

Alexander recounted to Jacksonville outlet News4JAX how he pulled the bleeding man to safety after scaring the shark away - an act of heroism that likely saw the man's life saved.

'I started splashing, making a lot of loud noises and next thing I know it was kind of tunnel vision, and I grabbed him, put him on his boogie board,' Alexander said, adding that he was aided by the lifeguard in the rescue.

The man reportedly suffered severe injuries to his leg as a result of the attack, which Alexander said had been 'pretty much in shreds' from his shin down to his foot.

A woman can be seen exiting the water as swimmers wade in the waters behind seemingly unaware of the two sharks

Shark attacks and sightings have been on the rise as of late, forcing closures all across the Atlantic from Florida to Maine

More than 1,000 miles north along the Atlantic coast, bites have also been frequent, spurring multiple closures and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to issue an order to state agencies to increase shark surveillance.

The order followed a series of 'Jaws'-like attacks off Long Island that saw four bitten after several sightings across multiple beach communities.

Prior to 2022, there were only 12 recorded unprovoked bites in New York's history, including four from the past decade, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

'We are taking action to expand patrols for sharks and protect beachgoers from potentially dangerous situations,' Hochul said while announcing the order at a press conference in New York's Suffolk County earlier this month.

'I encourage all New Yorkers to listen to local authorities and take precautions to help ensure safe and responsible beach trips this summer.'

The governor said that heightened safety measures would include the deploying patrol boats, drones, and helicopters along the Sound's South Shore, as well as increased public outreach to residents on the dangers of the marine predators.

'Whether its land, sea or air,' the governor said, 'we are going to be having more robust patrols on the shorelines.'

Since July 3, the New York-area has seen four shark bites at three different beaches on Long Island, as well as another six shark sightings, according to PIX11.

Out on the island, about 80 miles from Rockaway, the village of Quogue is asking area swimmers and boaters to be careful after a dead, 7-8 foot shark washed ashore.

Earlier this month on Long Island, about 80 miles from Rockaway, a 7-8 foot shark washed on the beach off the small village of Quoge

The sighting was reported by a resident of the area and washed out to shore before it could be secured by the authorities, according to Lieutenant Daniel Hartman

Shark sightings continue to plague New York-area beaches, with a video captured of one leaping from the water in Queens

The video, captured by the Rockaway Times , sees the shark emerging from the Atlantic Ocean briefly to do a little spin before returning to the water

The sighting was reported by a resident of the area and washed out to shore before it could be secured by the authorities, according to Lieutenant Daniel Hartman.

Police in the region are in touch with local shark researchers to see what can be done and are asking people to contact them if it is seen again.

Over six miles of ocean beachfront were closed between East Atlantic Beach and Long Beach last week as a result of the attacks. Those beaches have since opened, but are still on high alert.

The Florida of Natural History and the University of Floridas International Shark Attack File (ISAF) reported that there have been six possible bites at Big Appel beaches from June 30 to July 20, 2022.

Close by in Massachusetts, tens of confirmed sightings forced closures Cape Cod, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Sharktivity app, with multiple sightings reported off of Nauset Beach and North Beach Island.

The app recorded 25 sightings in the past two days alone - with the most recent issued Saturday morning after a shark was spotted off Nauset Beach about 75 yards off shore.

Dozens of white shark sightings have been reported in the area in the past week, fueled in part by the unseasonably high temperatures couple with recent conservation efforts to protect native shark species.

Sightings have been made as far north as Maine, with the state's most popular beach, at Popham Beach State Park, closed Wednesday after a shark sighting at roughly 5:20pm.

Residents also reported another unconfirmed sighting nearby off Small Point, last week, as beaches continue to close in the face of the flood of sightings.

The odds of getting fatally attacked by a shark remain less than 1 in 4 million, according to the International Shark Attack File.

Beachgoers look on as swimmers rush out of the waters during the Saturday encounter

No one was injured during the close call - one of several sightings spurred by unseasonably high temperatures and increased shark conservation efforts
Britains 5p cut in fuel duty is one of the lowest in Europe  with only Luxembourg reducing it by less, figures reveal.

Thirteen European nations have cut petrol taxes since prices began to soar in March, according to the RAC.

But the 5p-per-litre reduction in the UK in March is dwarfed by fuel tax cuts enjoyed by motorists in other countries.

Germany reduced petrol tax by 25.1p per litre, Italy by 21.2p, Portugal by 16.2p, the Netherlands by 14.7p and Ireland by 14.5p per litre.

Motorists block the A12 near Kelvedon in protest against high fuel costs. Photo taken July 4

Governments in France and Spain have introduced discounts at forecourt tills worth around 15p per litre and 17p per litre, respectively.

Some fuel retailers, including TotalEnergies in France and BP Spain, have introduced price reductions worth up to about 33p a litre.

Of the 15 European Union members that have not taken steps to lower pump prices since March, all but six already charge less fuel duty than the UK.

Luxembourg is the only country that chose to cut petrol tax, but did so by less than the UK  reducing its duty by just 4.5p per litre.

British petrol prices have finally started falling in recent days after pressure on retailers to reflect a drop in wholesale costs which began seven weeks ago.

But the UK still has a higher average petrol price of 186p a litre than all European Union members except Finland (190p) and Denmark (186p). Drivers in France pay around 23p a litre less than those in the UK.

It is a similar picture for diesel, with only Croatia introducing a smaller fuel tax cut than the UK, and only one European Union member, Sweden, having a more expensive average price.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: This analysis lays bare an uncomfortable truth for the UK Government  that compared to other European countries, its pretty much done the least to support drivers through the current period of record high fuel prices.

The result is the UK being one of the most expensive places to fill up and putting it above other countries that have historically charged more for fuel than UK retailers do, including France and the Netherlands.

The cost of living crisis shows no signs of coming to an end any time soon and its frustrating that repeated calls to the UK Government for more support are falling on deaf ears.

UK pump prices might be finally starting to fall, but the reductions so far are too little and too late, given the massive wholesale price drops retailers have been benefiting from for nearly two months.

Drivers, many of whom depend heavily on their vehicles, need more help and they need it now.

Fuel prices were already rising before Russias invasion of Ukraine in February, but the impact of the war exacerbated the situation. A reduction in the use of Russian oil has increased demand from other producers, resulting in higher prices.
A chief executive accused of presiding over a dysfunctional town hall has walked away with a payoff of more than 200,000.

The golden goodbye awarded to Daljit Lally includes payments for holiday entitlement, legal costs and even cancelling her company car lease.

It was made despite an official report uncovering chaos at Northumberland County Council during her time in charge, with officers and councillors spending more time fighting with each other than running services for residents.

Climate of fear: Daljit Lally

Mrs Lally had also been found to have received unlawful expenditure of 40,000 a year for a bizarre international consultancy run by the council and a local NHS trust.

Harry Fone, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: This golden goodbye is a kick in the teeth for hard-pressed local taxpayers... The council must... ensure such a disgraceful situation never happens again. Within three years of Mrs Lally being appointed chief executive in October 2017, there was a complete breakdown in her relationship with the political leadership of the town hall.

The chief executive of Northumberland County Council believes shes done nothing wrong

A review of its governance last month described a climate of fear and intimidation in which staff and councillors were pursuing complaints and grievances against each other. The entire organisation was paralysed because rivals were submitting Freedom of Information requests to dig dirt on each other. The operation of the council is described by many... as being dysfunctional, the review said.

One member described how the council and senior officers spend too much time fighting with each other rather than doing business for residents. A separate inquiry found Mrs Lally had received unlawful expenditure of 179,032, in addition to her 190,000 salary, to run an organisation called the Northumbria International Alliance that did business in China and the Gulf.

The council was told there was no possibility of Mrs Lally quitting and that she believes shes done nothing wrong.

Council leader Glen Sanderson said: This is the first step in our journey to restructure and recruit a new senior officer team.
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere. The benchmark speed for a hypersonic missile is 3,850 mph - though the most effective ones travel much faster.

Hypersonic missiles are still slower than intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), but are generally maneuverable, meaning they are more adept at evading existing missile defence systems.

Darpa, the US army's scientific wing, recently announced successful tests of what it called a HAWC missile (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept)

UNITED STATES

The US military has a number of hypersonic weapons programmes across the Navy, Army and Air Force, but most are still in a developmental phase and remain closely guarded secrets.

The only US hypersonic weapon known to have been successfully tested is the Air Force's GM-183 ARRW, which is designed to be launched from a large bomber aircraft.

It then accelerates to hypersonic speeds using a supersonic combustion ramjet to strike targets within 1,000 miles.

The Navy's submarine launched Long Range Hypersonic Weapon is expected to be operational by 2023 and will have a range of 1,725 miles.

Darpa, the US army's scientific wing, recently announced successful tests of what it called a HAWC missile (Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept) but kept details such as range, speed and payload secret.

The missile uses oxygen in the atmosphere as part of its fuel - marking the first successful test of that class of weapon since 2013.

The engine works by compressing incoming air with hydrocarbon fuel to create a fast airflow mixture, one capable of reaching over 1,700 metres per second, or five times the speed of sound.

Test-launch of an 'unstoppable' Zircon nuclear-capable Mach 9 hypersonic missile from Russian's Admiral Gorshkov frigate

RUSSIA

Russia currently boasts the world's most advanced hypersonic missile technology.

Putin in 2018 announced Moscow had developed a range of nuclear capable 'Avangard' hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) which can travel at Mach 20 - speeds in excess of 15,000mph - with an effective range of thousands of miles.

Russia's conventional hypersonic missile, the Zircon, has an effective range of around 620 miles, but the missile flies below the atmosphere and uses fuel to power itself to hypersonic speeds, unlike the Avangard which uses the Earth's orbit to reach exceptional speeds before gliding through the atmosphere and striking its target.

Russia announced it has successfully test-fired the Zircon from a nuclear submarine for the first time earlier this year, when the 6,670mph weapon hit a target in the Barents Sea according to the Moscow defense ministry.

Russia's armed forces had completed flight tests of the new-age missile from a frigate - the Admiral Gorshkov - and a coastal mount, and the missile is now expected to be deployed to Russia's navy in the coming months.

Putin previously said the Zircon missile's capabilities are 'truly unparalleled anywhere in the world'.

Moscow is also known for its formidable 'Satan II' Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can carry several nuclear warheads or can be used to deploy the Avangard HGVs over an effective range of 11,000 miles.

China launches its nuclear-capable, hypersonic nuclear missile DF-26 which 'could reach US territory and sink aircraft carriers' in a military drill

CHINA

China last year reportedly tested a 'Fractional Orbital Bombardment System', or FOBS, developed to evade powerful US radar arrays and missile defence systems.

Missile defence systems work by detecting launches of ICBMs, tracking them into space, then firing at the warheads as they come down in the hope of blowing them up before they hit their targets.

This is possible because ICBMs and their warheads follow a predictable trajectory that rises high into space - making them relatively easy to spot and allowing defence crews to calculate where they are aimed so they can be shot out of the sky.

FOBS aim to negate these defenses by firing their warheads along a much-flatter trajectory - assisted by Earth's gravity.

This means they pass under the scope of many radar detection arrays and are harder to track. It also makes the warheads much harder to shoot down because their trajectory is harder to calculate.

The use of orbit makes a warhead's range potentially unlimited, meaning it can be fired at its target from any direction. This helps to avoid radar systems which generally point at a fixed spot in the sky - in America's case, over the North Pole.

China in 2019 also unveiled a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, which has a maximum range of around 1,550 miles and is capable of achieving speeds of up to 7,680mph - or 10 times the speed of sound - while carrying a nuclear warhead.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is surrounded by war veterans during an event celebrating the 69th anniversary of end of the Korean War (1950-53) in front of the Monument to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, in this photo released Friday by the official North Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap



Kim honors Beijing's support on 69th anniversary of end of Korean War



By Jung Min-ho



North Korea may postpone its next nuclear weapons test for several months until the end of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country's most important event in years, according to experts Friday.



The North has completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test, intelligence reports show. But it has not taken action for months. Experts say China is most likely the reason behind the delay as Pyongyang's test will certainly take away the world's attention from the crucial political event and might lead to the worst-case scenario for Chinese leaders, especially President Xi Jinping, who seeks to secure a precedent-defying third term in power there.



In Wednesday's speech on the 69th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-53), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un honored the Chinese soldiers who "shed their blood with our military" in the conflict against South Korea and United Nations Command.



"All of North Korea's nuclear weapons tests in the past were conducted when either it was isolated, including from its allies such as China, or there were technical and political needs," Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told The Korea Times. "After mentioning the Chinese military's contribution to the war, Kim paid his respects to the Chinese soldiers the next day at a monument symbolizing the alliance of the two nations. The North must be thinking how its nuclear test would affect the relations, especially ahead of the critical event for Xi."











North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits a monument symbolizing the Pyongyang-Beijing alliance in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, in this photo released Friday by the official North Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap



In that speech, Kim said his armed forces were completely prepared to respond to any crisis, threatening to "annihilate" the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and South Korea's military. But there was no suggestion that he is about to order a nuclear weapons test, Hong noted.



"Throughout his message, Kim takes on a passive and defensive posture  It is possible that the North would respond militarily when South Korea and the U.S. conduct their joint drills in August. But it will most like be launching short-range missiles, not another nuclear test," he added.



The worst-case scenario for Beijing, especially before the party congress expected to be held in September or October, is giving Seoul a reason to justify its move to install additional U.S. anti-ballistic missile defense systems, simply known as THAAD, on its soil, said Cheong Seong-chang, director at the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, a think tank. It was one of Yoon's key campaign pledges.





North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this June 20, 2019, file photo provided by the official Korean Central News Agency. AP-Yonhap
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There's often something in a holiday snap that prevents it from winning you thousands of social media likes  such as a photobombing bystander or an unsightly lamppost.

Or maybe something you personally just can't bear to look at  an ex-partner, for instance.

But Google offers a solution. Its Pixel 6 Pro has a 'Magic Eraser' tool that promises to remove 'photobombers and unwanted objects' in 'just a few taps'.

Ailbhe MacMahon (pictured at the Eden Project) tests out the 'Magic Eraser' tool on the Google Pixel 6 Pro on a trip to Cornwall. The tool promises to remove 'photobombers and unwanted objects' in 'just a few taps'. In the image on the right, two figures have been removed from the background of the shot

Going... gone: A view of Porthmeor Beach in St Ives cluttered with people and a lamppost (left). A few seconds of magic erasing cleans the scene up (right)

On the left, a silhouetted person strolls along the beach at Carbis Bay as the sun sets. On the right is the same image with the rogue passerby removed, thanks to Google's wizardry

The photographs above show a path leading down to Carbis Bay beach from the train station, with the signs removed from the picture on the right using the Magic Eraser feature

The view of Porthminster Beach from the path that leads from Carbis Bay to St Ives. On the right, the passerby from the original image (left) has been erased with the Google editing tool

We put this feature to the test on a holiday in Cornwall to see if the tool could give our pictures a top-tier travel influencer sheen.

The result? Almost.

It's not a new concept, but unlike specialist editing apps or Photoshop software, the 'Magic Eraser' is inbuilt into the phone's photo album, sitting alongside the usual editing tools such as filters and cropping.

We try it out before boarding our train in London's Paddington Station  when people walk into the frame of a photograph we've taken outside the train carriage, Magic Eraser suggests wiping them out. One click and poof, they are gone, leaving their luggage behind.

Ailbhe boarding a Great Western Railway train to Cornwall at London Paddington station. On the right, the Magic Eraser has deleted the other train passengers

Both images above show the scene outside the train window on the stretch between Exeter and Dawlish in Devon. On the right, the Coca-Cola can has vanished

The view from Ailbhe's guest room at the Carbis Bay Hotel. On the right the coffee table has been edited out of the shot, leaving a 'shadow' behind

Ailbhe's guest room at the swanky Carbis Bay Hotel. On the right, her handbag has been erased

A serving of pan-roasted scallops at Walters On The Beach, one of Carbis Bay Hotel's restaurants. Ailbhe's lipgloss has disappeared from the picture on the right hand side thanks to the editing tool

One train journey later and we arrive at the Carbis Bay Hotel, which hosted the G7 Summit last year and lies along the coast from St Ives. The floor-to-ceiling windows of our beachside suite offer too-good-to-be-true views of the sea. Capturing the vista with the phone, we try to remove the suite's coffee table from the shot  it works but leaves a ghostly shadow behind.

While the beach looks inviting, we spend the afternoon at the hotel's heated pool, which looks out over Carbis Bay. The scene is peak holiday album material - especially when we eliminate the other swimmers from view with the eraser, making it look as though we have the navy-blue lagoon to ourselves.

The following morning, we follow the path along the coast to St Ives, rubbing out errant lampposts and traffic cones from our photographs as we go. A local tells us that the G7 Summit has drawn more holidaymakers than ever to this pocket of Cornwall, and conditions are ripe for photobombing as we mosey past the crowds to pretty Porthmeor Beach.

Above is Carbis Bay Hotel's heated pool, which looks out over the bay. On the right, the swimmers have been removed from the frame

Pictured is the route through Carbis Bay Hotel to reach the path to St Ives, with walkers on the route wiped in the picture on the right

The picture on the left shows traffic cones on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives, while the shot on the right shows the beach once the cones have been erased

An exhibition of work by Argentinian artist Ad Minoliti at the Tate St Ives - with a visitor removed in the shot on the right

The view of Carbis Bay - with a lamppost removed in the shot on the right - from the path up to the train station

The next stop on our holiday-snap tour is the Eden Project, an eco-attraction where we see the largest indoor rainforest in the world, plus a few soon-to-be-erased visitors.

While our photographs might pale in comparison to that of a bona fide travel influencer - partly because I'm not great at photography in the first place  the Magic Eraser tool has significantly enhanced them. The tool is at its best in sunlight, when objects are positioned against a clear backdrop like a blue sky. Anything with a pattern or a three-dimensional surface behind it can be trickier to erase and creates a slight blur in the shot, but overall, it makes for a far nicer memento of a getaway.

The next day, we make our way to the railway station with one backward glance at the beautiful Cornish coastline. Thankfully, we have plenty of picture-perfect photographs to remember it by.
Lenny Hochstein's girlfriend, Katharina Mazepa, has filed a restraining order against his estranged wife, Lisa.

The news about the 55-year-old reality television personality's partner, 26, was revealed by Us Weekly after it was alleged that she was being harassed online by the Real Housewives of Miami star, 39.

According to the media outlet, court documents alleged throughout that Lisa created several 'finsta' accounts on Instagram and alleged that the media figure was unfaithful to his spouse during their marriage.

Legal action: Lenny Hochstein's girlfriend, Katharina Mazepa, has filed a restraining order against his estranged wife, Lisa

A representative for Mazepa expressed that the restraining order was filed after Lenny's estranged spouse created the claims 'solely for the purpose to harm Katharina's physical safety, emotional well-being, reputation and business.'

The media figure also gave a statement to the media outlet to express her feelings regarding the injunction.

'I have chosen not to respond back with threatening or distasteful messages to Lisa but rather deal with this in a professional and proper manner which is through the judicial system,' she stated.

Mazepa then expressed that she wanted to reveal what she saw as the reality of the situation that had been created by Lisa's actions.

Allegations: According to the media outlet, court documents alleged throughout that Lisa created several 'finsta' accounts on Instagram and alleged that the media figure was unfaithful to his spouse during their marriage; she is seen with Lenny in 2019

'I am hopeful through this filing to allow the public to know the real truth, which is that I was not involved with Lenny until after Lisa and him had separated...it is only after Lenny's separation that we began dating and having a relationship,' she said.

She added: 'I am not a homewrecker, I am not someone destroying a family, and I am not someone acting in an inappropriate manner as is being stated publicly by Lisa.'

Mazepa then noted that 'this filing will prove that and the injunctive relief for her that has already been granted by a judge will hopefully stop the online bullying, stalking, harassing and threatening behavior from Lisa.'

The media figure then wrote that she was dismayed by the actions of her partner's estranged spouse.

Determined: Mazepa then noted that 'this filing will prove that and the injunctive relief for her that has already been granted by a judge will hopefully stop the online bullying, stalking, harassing and threatening behavior from Lisa'; she is seen earlier this month

'It is unfortunate that Lisa has taken the low road to make such false allegations which presumably are being made to gain an advantage over Lenny in the divorce proceedings which is inappropriate,' she noted.

Mazepa concluded by writing: 'I look forward to just focusing on protecting my physical and emotional well-being, my reputation, my business relationships and living a peaceful life with my boyfriend.'

It was previously confirmed that Lenny and Lisa had decided to go their separate ways this past May.

The pair had been married for a total of 13 years before they chose to end their marriage.

Separated: It was previously confirmed that Lenny and Lisa had decided to go their separate ways this past May; they are seen in 2017

According to Page Six, the former pair's split was prompted when Lenny and Katharina were interrupted by Lisa while partying at a club in Miami this past May.

A source spoke to the media outlet and described the tense interaction as a 'showdown.'

At the time, Lenny sent a message to the media outlet to deny that he and his wife were looking to end their marriage.

The reality television personalities had previously gone through various problems in their relationship prior to their official separation.
Lori Harvey bared some skin before a night out in Las Vegas on Friday.

The model, 25, shared several photos to her Instagram of her black crop top and leather pants combination.

The sizzling pants clung tightly to her lower half cupping her pert derriere.

She stood on tall black stilettos and a thin ribbon hung around her neck like a scarf.

Black, visor-like sunglasses protected her eyes from the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.

Her black hair was cut short, falling just below her shoulders and parted in the middle.

Big night out: The star posted a number of photos from Las Vegas

The daughter of Steve Harvey captioned her Instagram post, 'This aint staying in Vegas [music notes emoji]'; Lori seen in March

She laid across a table in one snap and in others she bent low, almost touching the ground as she posed for the pictures.

The daughter of Steve Harvey captioned her Instagram post, 'This aint staying in Vegas [music notes emoji].'

Lori's night out in Las Vegas came just a few weeks after she ended her relationship with actor Michael B. Jordan.

The end: Michael B. Jordan, 35, and Lori Harvey, 25, ended their relationship after a year and a half together, People reported; seen March 27 in Beverly Hills

A source close to the exes told People that they were 'completely heartbroken' about the split and they 'still love' each other.

'Michael matured a lot over the course of their relationship and was ready to commit for the long term,' the insider added.

The two started dating near the end of 2020 and broke up last month.
Twitter went wild as Dami Hope described himself as an 'unintentional flirt' on Saturday night's episode of Love Island: Unseen Bits.

Viewers reeled at the label as they called back to his three-way kiss with Chyna Mills and Summer Botwe in Casa Amor.

A scene from the latest episode saw the Dublin-native, 26, and Indiyah Polack chatting with Adam Collard and Paige Thorne on some sunbeds.

Flirt: Twitter went wild as Dami Hope was dubbed an 'unintentional flirt' on Saturday night's episode of Love Island: Unseen Bits

Indiyah admitted while she 'thought she was a flirt', Dami will 'flirt with anything that breathes'.

The Londoner, 23, told him: 'I think you're maybe an "unintentional flirt",' emphasising the phrase with exaggerated quotation marks.

Dami agreed as Paige, 24, quipped: 'Nothing unintentional about it.'

'Unintentional': Indiyah admitted while she 'thought she was a flirt', Dami will 'flirt with anything that breathes'

Throwback: Viewers reeled at the label as they called back to his three-way kiss with Chyna Mills and Summer Botwe in Casa Amor

Dami replied: 'Yeah but I don't know I'm flirting...'

Indiyah continued: 'He doesn't realise... this guy flirts with anyone that breathes.'

Her partner defended: 'Not anyone that breathes...actually I do flirt with guys too.'

'Three way kisses': Social media users were left questioning how 'unintentional' Dami's flirting is

But social media users were left questioning how 'unintentional' Dami's flirting is.

'Unintentional flirt? Girl he was asking for 3 way kisses every night,' one wrote.

Another added: 'Indiyah calling Dami an unintentional flirt, um no he knows what he's doing.'

Heartbreakers: Indiyah admitted while she 'thought she was a flirt', Dami will 'flirt with anything that breathes'

Reaction: Another added: 'Indiyah calling Dami an unintentional flirt, um no he knows what he's doing'

A third simply penned: 'Not the "unintentional flirt".'

Elsewhere, some audience members questioned his dynamic with Paige, which has in past been perceived as flirty.

'Just watch a minute clip of Dami "unintentionally" flirt with paige, i feel sick,' one tweet read.

Chat: A scene from the latest episode saw the Dublin-native, 26, and Indiyah Polack chatting with Adam Collard and Paige Thorne on some sunbeds

Pals? Elsewhere some audience members questioned his dynamic with Paige, which has in past been perceived as flirty

However while some questioned the conversation, others praised Dami for openly admitting he also 'flirts with guys'.

One remarked: 'We love a comfortable man!'

Dami and Indiyah have secured a place in the final when none of the other couples voted to put them at risk during Friday night's episode.

Viewers were quick to recall the heated back-and-forth during their explosive Casa Amor split, where Indiyah famously quipped 'may the best heartbreaker win'.

Dami, 26, and Indiyah, 23, were the only couple to receive no votes from their fellow Islanders as the contestants voted for who they thought was the least compatible.

'Heartbreakers': Love Island fans went wild as Dami Hope, 26, and Indiyah Polack, 23, secured their place in the final on Friday - after THAT explosive Casa Amour split

Taking to Twitter, fans of the ITV2 show gushed over the duo's journey as they noted that they were now 'winning together' after going from 'heartbreakers to lovers'.

Someone penned: 'May the best heartbreaker win. And now they are here winning together. Damiyahhhhh!'

Another added: 'Nobody voted Damiyah. Best in compatibility, heartbreakers and lovers!'

Enemies to lovers: Viewers were quick to recall the heated back-and-forth during their explosive Casa Amour split, where Indiyah famously quipped 'may the best heartbreaker win'

Adorable: Dami and Indiyah were the only couple to receive no votes from their fellow Islanders as the contestants voted for who they thought was the least compatible

A third wrote: 'Dami and Indiyah went from "may the best heartbreaker win" to "will you be my girlfriend?"'

'From "may the best heartbreaker win" to a couple. Got to respect it,' another added.

Elsewhere one viewer joked: 'Is it just me who slightly hopes that if Dami and Indiyah win, she takes all of the cash for herself and says "I guess the best heartbreaker won?" Just for the drama.'

Rollercoaster: Taking to Twitter fans of the ITV2 show gushed over the duo's journey as they noted that they were now 'winning together' after going from 'heartbreakers to lovers'

In the brutal twist, Ekin-Su Culculoglu, 27, and Davide Sanclimenti, also 27, received the most votes with four and Gemma Owen and Luca Bish receiving three votes.

Paige Thorne and Adam Collard received two, and one vote went to Andrew Le Page and Tasha Ghouri but the final decision will be in the public's hands.

Earlier in the series fans saw one of the most tense recouplings in Love Island history as Dami and Indiyah both decided to recouple with new people after Casa Amor.

Tense: Earlier in the series fans saw one of the most tense recouplings in Love Island history as Dami and Inidyah both decided to recouple with new people after Casa Amor

Upon learning that both their heads had been turned, they became embroiled in a snappy face off at the firepit - with Indiyah quipping: 'May the best heartbreaker win'.

Dami was the third boy to choose in the recoupling, with host Laura Whitmore questioning whether he'd like to 'stick or twist'.

And after getting to know new girl Summer during Casa Amor, Dami admitted he'd like to recouple, even making a pun as he said 'Summer isn't over yet'.

Head turned: Dami was the third boy to choose in the recoupling, with host Laura Whitmore questioning whether he'd like to 'stick or twist'

'Summer has just begun': After getting to know new girl Summer Botwe during Casa Amor, Dami admitted he'd like to recouple, even making a pun as he said 'Summer isn't over yet'

He told Laura: 'Me being true to myself and I feel this Love Island experience is about exploring connections... and Summer isn't over yet,' before announcing his decision to recouple.

Despite himself choosing a new girl, Dami couldn't hide his shock as Indiyah returned to the villa moments later with Deji Adeniyi on her arm.

'I did have a connection but I thought that I needed to follow my head and I'm glad that I did, everything happens for a reason you know, it is what it is' she said, while a visibly upset Dami cut in saying 'till it isn't'.

As Indiyah rolled her eyes at the comment, Laura questioned if Dami had anything to say to her, to which he replied that he is happy for her - but for himself too, while making a fed up facial expression.

Same boat: But to Dami's unassuming shock - Indiyah also decided to twice, returning to the villa moments later with Deji Adeniyi on her arm

Heartbreakers: While Dami chimed in saying 'We're heartbreakers so here we are', as Indiyah concluded the tense face off with: 'May the best heartbreaker win'

Not buying the comments, Indiyah replied 'seems it', before saying she is 'absolutely' happy when questioned by him.

As the other islanders awkwardly shuffled in their chairs, Laura wasn't stopping there - asking Indiyah if she expected Dami to be sitting with someone else.

'Do you know what? Expect the unexpected, I see his true colours now, do you know what I mean?', said Indiyah.

While Dami chimed in saying 'We're heartbreakers so here we are', as Indiyah concluded the tense face off with: 'May the best heartbreaker win'.
She's the Olympian-turned-doctor who put her body on the line to make it to the climatic end of season two of SAS Australia.

And now Jana Pittman has shared her plans to sign up to the Australian Army Reserve.

The mother-of-six, 39, told The Sunday Telegraph she is in the process of enlisting, and is excited to follow in the footsteps of other family members who have served.

Olympian Jana Pittman, 39, (pictured) has announced her plan to join the ARMY following her incredible performance on season two of Seven's military-style reality show SAS Australia

'I am halfway through that application, but I had the twins, so it has been delayed,' said Jana, who welcomed a twin son and daughter in October.

Pittman already has an impressive career behind her including winning medals at the Commonwealth games, becoming a qualified doctor and starring in the gruelling military-style reality show SAS Australia.

She's also the first woman, and the second Australian athlete in history, to compete in both the summer and winter Olympic Games for relay and bobsleigh.

The mother-of-six, 39, told The Sunday Telegraph she is in the process of enlisting, and is excited to follow in the footsteps of other family members who have served

But her decision to join the military has been primarily influenced by her family as her brother, grandfather, brother-in-law and father-in-law are all veterans.

'My brother was an ex-Afghan veteran, my grandfather was in the Army and my husband's brother is in the Army, as is his father. Also my grandparents were Dutch and went through (Nazi occupation in) World War II,' she said.

'So we have seen first hand how the war can impact them when they come home. I have grown up with a lot of respect for veterans.'

Jana comes from a military family. Her brother, grandfather, brother-in-law and father-in-law all served in the army. Jana is pictured on SAS Australia

Pittman's brother Ryan was involved in the military for 'several years' and did tours in Afghanistan.

It was her brother's experience in the army that made Pittman want to become involved and promote the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay.

The Legacy Centenary Torch Relay is a six-month campaign that acknowledges veterans and families of veterans.

'I am halfway through that application, but I had the twins, so it has been delayed,' said Jana, who welcomed a twin son and daughter in October. She is pictured with her four eldest children

The torch for next year's campaign will travel over 50,000 kilometres through 100 locations including France, the UK and Australia. It will be carried by approximately 1,500 torch bearers.

Pittman was on season two of SAS Australia and was one of just five recruits - and the only woman - to make it to the very end of the gruelling course.

She was ultimately eliminated by the directing staff, with NRL star Sam Burgess being the only recruit who passed.
Tammy Hembrow left very little to the imagination as she stepped out for a date night on the Gold Coast with fiance Matt Poole on Saturday night.

The fitness influencer, who welcomed her third child just six weeks ago, showcased her incredible post-baby body in a plunging, cowl-neck gown.

Going braless despite the barely-there neckline, the tattooed 28-year-old sent pulses racing by sharing a series of racy photos of herself in the mirror and outside her home before going to to dinner.

Tammy Hembrow, 28, left very little to the imagination as she stepped out for a date night on the Gold Coast with fiance Matt Poole on Saturday night

Tammy's floral gown featured an open back and halter neckline that hugged her curves to perfection.

She wore her golden locks down in a centre parting and completed her look with bold false eyelashes, bronzer and taupe lipstick.

For dinner, Tammy and Ironman Matt dined at an upmarket sushi restaurant, feasting on sashimi and oysters.

The fitness influencer, who welcomed her third child just six weeks ago, showcased her incredible post-baby body in a plunging, cowl-neck gown

Going braless despite the barely-there neckline, the tattooed 28-year-old sent pulses racing by sharing a series of racy photos of herself in the mirror and outside her home before going to to dinner

Tammy's post came six weeks after she and Matt welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Posy.

Tammy is also mother to son Wolf, six, and daughter Saskia, five, from her relationship with ex-fiance Reece Hawkins.

Less than two weeks after giving birth, Tammy revealed her slim and toned body postpartum, explaining she 'stayed as active as possible' before and during her pregnancy by following her programs on her own fitness app.

Tammy's floral gown featured an open back and halter neckline that hugged her curves to perfection

She wore her golden locks down in a centre parting and completed her look with bold false eyelashes, bronzer and taupe lipstick

For dinner, Tammy and Ironman Matt dined at an upmarket sushi restaurant, feasting on sashimi and oysters

'I honestly feel like my core was at its best in my whole life just before I fell pregnant with Posy so I'm excited to see what I can do this time round after baby number 3!'

Tammy, who said she'd be ready to get back into a fitness regimen at six weeks postpartum, also stressed that everyone's journey is different.

'Please DO NOT be hard on yourself or compare yourself to others. We all have different genes, different lifestyles, different circumstances etc,' she wrote.

'That being said I work and have worked extremely hard and want nothing more than to motivate and inspire you!'

The post received many positive comments, but not everyone was happy with the star sharing her results.

Tammy's post come six weeks after she and Matt welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Posy
She's arguably one of the biggest stars to come out of Australian soap Neighbours.

And Margot Robbie, who played Donna Freedman between 2008 and 2011, is under no illusion that the beloved show was integral in helping her break into Hollywood.

'There are so many of us that owe them for giving us a big break,' Robbie, 32, told The Sun on Saturday.

Margot Robbie, 32, (pictured) told The Sun on Saturday she's 'eternally grateful' to Neighbours for helping her break into Hollywood

'It wasn't just about giving me a break either  it gave me a real chance to work on my craft. It was the perfect training for Hollywood, and I will always be eternally grateful.'

Robbie, who moved to London in 2013 after leaving Neighbours, said she only realised how popular the show was until she lived in the UK.

'When I lived in London, I understood at its peak how big it was. People would come up to me and tell me how they watched it every day after school.'

Robbie played Donna Freedman between 2008 and 2011. She is pictured in character on the show in 2009

'It wasn't just about giving me a break either  it gave me a real chance to work on my craft. It was the perfect training for Hollywood, and I will always be eternally grateful.' Margot is pictured in character with co-star Jackie Woodburne, who played Susan Kennedy, in 2009

During the Neighbours finale, Robbie made a fleeting appearance in a 14-second pre-recorded video message.

Robbie was unable to travel to Australia to film scenes as she's currently busy filming the Barbie movie in America.

However, she did show her gratitude by sending the entire cast a bottle of pricey Champagne.

During the Neighbours finale, Robbie made a fleeting appearance in a 14-second pre-recorded video message. She is pictured in her final episode cameo

Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Jason Donovan, Natalie Imbruglia and Holly Valance are among the other celebrities who returned to Neighbours to appear in the send-off of the Melbourne-based drama that helped launch their careers in acting and music.

Natalie and Holly filmed a scene together from the UK, which saw them bump into each other at a park before discovering they both once lived on Ramsay Street.

Neighbours was once a major hit in Australia and a bigger success in Britain, but has fallen victim to waning ratings in recent years.

Robbie was unable to travel to Australia to film scenes as she's currently busy filming the Barbie movie in America. However, she did show her gratitude by sending the entire cast a bottle of pricey Champagne
She was pictured enjoying a holiday in Capri earlier this week.

And it appeared Kimberley Garner had been gearing up for the UNICEF gala, as she was seen arriving at the star-studded event on Saturday evening.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 31, left little to the imagination in a very racy black cut out dress, which revealed her taut abs.

Leggy: Kimberley Garner she was seen arriving at the star-studded UNICEF gala on Saturday evening

The risque number also showcased her long limbs with its thigh-grazing style, while she further boosted her statuesque frame with bejewelled heels.

Kimberley wore a matching silver and diamond bangle and ring as she accessorised her black dress with a touch of glitz for the occasion.

The swimwear designer wore her blonde locks in a loose and natural style and opted for a subtle touch of make-up.

Wow: The former Made In Chelsea star, 31, left little to the imagination in a very racy black cut out dress, which revealed her taut abs

Kimberley flew out to the Italian island of Capri after enjoying a break in Ibiza, Spain earlier this month.

Despite now enjoying huge fame as a swimwear designer, Kimberley has previously revealed how she used to pretend to be an intern when she first started the business as nobody took her seriously.

However, the property heiress insisted she's more than just the face of her line Kimberley London and is involved with every aspect of creating her sell-out swimwear range.

She told MailOnline: 'I think people sometimes think that Im only the face, but I am responsible for every bit of the business.

'I was 18 when I started my first company - I came up with an idea, stayed up for days learning how to register the company and teaching myself. It became very successful overnight.'

She explained: 'However, as I was only 18, no one ever imagined it was mine. I was a young blonde girl with a soft voice.

Standing tall: She was pictured enjoying a holiday in Capri earlier this week (pictured)

'No one would take me seriously or realise it was my company. So, I pretended to be the Intern!

'I handled all the meetings, phone calls, and emails for the company. When it became a success, I put all the revenues into starting Kimberley London.'

She explained: 'However, as I was only 18, no one ever imagined it was mine. I was a young blonde girl with a soft voice.

'No one would take me seriously or realise it was my company. So, I pretended to be the Intern!

'I handled all the meetings, phone calls, and emails for the company. When it became a success, I put all the revenues into starting Kimberley London.'
Brandon Armstrong is now a married man.

After a nearly five month engagement, the Dancing With The Stars pro, 28, married Brylee Ivers, 24, in an outdoor ceremony in Utah on Saturday, according to People.

'I'm excited that I can commit to her and express my love to her and that I can do it in a way that I think is right,' Armstrong said of their plans for the near future, adding, 'A way that is good and loving and old school. I'm excited to show people she's the love of my life and that I'm committed to her.'

Hitched! Dancing With The Stars pro Brandon Armstrong, 28, married Brylee Ivers, 24, during an outdoor, romantic wedding in Utah on Saturday

The couple went the non-traditional route and participated in a religious ceremony earlier in the day, and then exchanged their vows at Siempre, which is modern venue in the mountains of Draper, Utah, in front of about 125 family members and close friends.

'Because so many people get married in Utah so young, we wanted something that was a little bit different than the traditional church, chapel wedding,' Armstrong revealed.

The couple opted to break another tradition by holding a first look before their big day. This intimate moment typically makes for an emotional photo opportunity for the bride and groom.

'I'm not a crier,' Armstrong revealed about his personality, but that wasn't the case when he got to see his bride for the first time in her gown by Alta Moda Bridal.

Unusual: The couple, who started dating in early 2021, opted to go the non-traditional route for their special day and first participated in a religious ceremony, and then exchanged their vows at a modern venue in the mountains of Draper, Utah

Intimate: The couple exchanged their vows in front of 125 family members and close friends

He confessed that he 'balled' his eyes out when he saw her in the 'simple and timeless' white gown.

'I knew she was obviously gonna choose a dress that was going to be beautiful,' he added. 'And I didn't have any really defining or super important feelings about what I wanted the dress to look like. I was just happy that it was something that was beautiful and that she felt confident in. Everything was so, so good.'

The couple did incorporate some wedding traditions by having 18 groomsmen and bridesmaids on each side of them moments before exchanging their vows.

The bride choose to walk down the aisle to Elvis Presley's timeless romantic ballad Can't Help Falling In Love, all while being surrounded by gorgeous greenery and white roses, compliments of Artisan Bloom.

Massive: Eventually, the wedding celebration opened up to about 500 people that included the likes of DWTS pros Lindsay Arnold, Witney Carson, Jenna Johnson and Emma Slater

After making their union official, the newly married couple joined their guests for dinner, which included taking part in another tradition by sharing their first dance together to Daniel Caesar and H.E.R.'s hit song Best Part.

From there, Armstrong and Ivers opened up the celebration to about 500 people that included the likes of DWTS pros Lindsay Arnold, Witney Carson, Jenna Johnson and Emma Slater.

The duo and their guests got to enjoy a five-tier, almond-flavored wedding cake made by Alessandra, and then proceeded to dance well into the night with the help of DJ Ricky Barrera, who played an array of hits.

Unique: Armstrong proposed to Ivers with a custom 3.5-carat engagement ring in early March by making a movie trailer of their favorite memories and playing it in front of their friends and family members at a cinema in Utah

Revealing: Ivers proudly showed off her engagement ring on Instagram decked out in a white bikini with a beauty pageant-like banner over her shoulder that read: 'Bride to be'

For their honeymoon, the newlyweds decided they wanted some fun in the sun and are heading to the Dominican Republic.

Having remembered their first deep conversation was outside a movie theater, Armstrong proposed to Ivers back in early March by making a movie trailer of their favorite memories and playing it in front of their friends and family members at the cinema in Utah.

'All of our best friends and family were there and I walked her down to the front, told her I loved her and can't wait to start a family with her. I'm just so excited for our future together,' the California native said of the monumental moment, which included him popping the question with a custom 3.5-carat circle diamond on a gold diamond band.

The couple started dating in early 2021 after Armstrong DM'ed her on Instagram and they exchanged messages for about a month.
Kylie Jenner appeared on Instagram for a second time on Saturday as she shared more outtakes from a recent bedroom photo shoot.

The 24-year-old beauty mogul posed sensually for a series of images, which she shared with her 362 million followers.

The mother-of-two referenced her zodiac as she wrote in the caption: 'nothing like a girl with a leo sun.'

More content: Kylie Jenner appeared on Instagram for a second time on Saturday as she shares more outtakes from a bedroom photo shoot

Kylie's nod to leo season comes a little more than a week ahead of her August 10th birthday.

The former E! personality seductively played with her long, raven-hued locks in the multiple photos.

They were loosely textured as the waist-length tresses cascaded down her back with a center part.

Her face was flawless made up in a matte makeup look that accentuated her big, brown eyes and plump pout.

Beauty: The 24-year-old beauty mogul posed sensually for a series of images, which she shared with her 362 million followers

The fashionista was clad in a long, slinky dress that had very thin straps and a subtle cowl neckline.

Although she was mostly covered, there was no covering up her voluptuous shape in the outfit.

The number clung to her curvaceous figure, and she played up the sultry factor of the images as she pulled the dress up on one side.

Jenner showed one of her legs, bringing the fabric to the top of her thigh as she exposed her famous childhood scar.

The mother-of-two referenced her zodiac as she wrote in the caption: 'nothing like a girl with a leo sun'

The billionaire businesswoman - who shares daughter Stormi, four, and a son, almost six months with beau Travis Scott - skipped jewelry.

She also opted not to wear any footwear as she showed off her model looks while flaunting a French pedicure.

The large bed was unmade and boasted plush white sheets and a matching comforter.

The room was dimly lit and decorated minimally, with white curtains, a natural-colored dresser, and a fireplace seen in the background.

Her loyal admirers got the post to more than three million likes in just five hours.

Sizzling: The former E! personality seductively played with her long, raven-hued locks in the multiple photos

Curvy display: Although she was mostly covered, there was no covering up her voluptuous shape in the outfit

Earlier in the day the entrepreneur shared just two snapshots from the same shoot, whetting her fans' palates.

She was captured lying on a bed, and she wrote 'rise and shine' in the caption, referencing her previously sung catchphrase.

Kylie, the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner bunch, was lit by the hot pink glow of her neon wall fixture.




A North Korean propaganda outlet on Sunday lashed out at the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's policy measures to improve North Korea's human rights, calling them a move to foment inter-Korean confrontation.







Ryomyong, the propaganda website, took issue with a series of Seoul's policy moves, including the recent appointment of Lee Shin-wha, a Korea University professor, as an ambassador on the North's rights issue.







In a post under the name of an official at the National Reconciliation Council, the website said the South's "human rights farce is an unbearable insult to our people and a grave political provocation to our republic."







Claiming South Korean people's lives have been worsening, the website said it is reasonable for the South to improve its own issues at home.







Meanwhile, Tongil Sinbo, a North Korean weekly, has denounced the plan by the South and the United States to conduct their regular summertime training, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, from Aug. 22-Sept. 1.







The weekly called the training a "demonstration for a war of invasion," saying it is an "unacceptable challenge." (Yonhap)


Australian TV host Jason Dundas has married his fiancee Tayler Blackman during a lavish ceremony at Lake Como, Italy.

The pair wed on July 20, documenting the momentous occasion by posing for a photo shoot on the shores of the iconic Italian riviera.

Tayler stunned in a naked-style wedding dress featuring sheer mesh and strategically-positioned lace panels.

Australian TV host Jason Dundas has married his fiancee Tayler Blackman during a lavish ceremony at Lake Como, Italy. The pair wed in secret on July 20

The off-shoulder fishtail gown also featured long sleeves and an elegant train.

Clutching a pink-and-white bouquet, Tayler completed her ensemble with an ivory veil, and wore her dark brown locks out in loose waves.

Digital media specialist meanwhile sported a cream tuxedo, white button-up shirt, black bow-tie and black dress trousers.

Tayler stunned in a naked-style wedding dress featuring sheer mesh and strategically-positioned lace panels

He wore flowers on his lapel that matched his bride's bouquet.

'Married the girl of my dreams,' Jason wrote next to a picture-perfect wedding day photo of the couple.

Jason and Tayler announced their engagement in December 2019.

Dunas announced he was engaged to Tayler Blackman in a sweet Instagram post in 2019

Posting to Instagram at the time, Jason, who divides his time between Los Angeles and Sydney, uploaded a photo of a black-and-white photo of the couple immediately after proposing.

'She said yes!' he wrote in the caption.

In the photo, Jason sported a T-shirt and jeans, and held onto his adorable dog in one arm.

Tayler took to her Instagram Story, sharing a photo of Jason seated on a table and beaming broadly

He wrapped his other arm around Tayler, who showed off her slim figure in a ribbed tank top and skinny-leg jeans.

She proudly showed off her diamond sparkler on her ring finger, and could not wipe the smile off her face as she posed with Jason inside a room filled with balloons.

Tayler also took to her Instagram Story, posting a photo of Jason in the balloon-filled room and beaming for the camera.

It's unclear how long the pair had been dating, however Jason and Tayler were first pictured together in November 2018

It's unclear how long the pair had been dating, however Jason and Tayler were first pictured together in November 2018.

Jason hinted that he was keen to say goodbye to his Bachelor days, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph's Confidential in February 2019.

After claiming he was approached by Channel Ten to be last year's leading man on The Bachelor, Jason then ruled himself out of appearing on the dating show.

Jason said he 'was in discussions to do that' but added: 'I'm not interested anymore. It was a one moment thing.'

And in a prior interview with Daily Mail Australia, Jason admitted that he would love to have children, with many of his friends marrying and having kids.

In a prior interview with Daily Mail Australia, Jason admitted that he would love to have children. Pictured: Tayler

'The love and joy that they get out of having kids, I'd love to have that too one day,' he said.

However with his nomadic lifestyle, Jason admitted at the time that travelling so much hasn't made it easy.

'Obviously I live a bit of a nomadic lifestyle with what I do... I think it's one of those things that when it's the right time it will happen.'

Speaking of the opportunity to star on The Bachelor, Jason said, 'I'm not interested anymore. It was a one moment thing'

Born and raised in the suburbs of Western Sydney, Jason rose to prominence as a VJ for MTV Australia from the age of 21.

He found mainstream recognition as a presenter on Channel Nine's Getaway, before taking the ambitious leap overseas to pursue a career in the United States.

Jason balances plum presenting gigs with his LA-based digital media company, Dundas Media.

Prior to Tayler, Jason dated fashion assistant Rey-Hanna Vakili.
Hollywood superstar Mark Wahlberg unveiled the first Wahlburgers restaurant in Australia in February at Sydney's Circular Quay.

And now the popular US burger chain has been given the green light for more stores to open Down Under.

The franchise is investing $50million in establishing 20 restaurants across the country over the next five years, with the next opening in Sydney's Manly in summer.

US burger chain Wahlburgers is set to open more stores in Australia. Pictured: Mark Wahlberg

Sam Mustaca, the CEO and chairman of United Cinemas Australia, announced a store would open in the beachside in December.

There are also plans to open another restaurant at the Mustaca's cinema complex in Warriewood and one at a location in Dee Why, according to The Daily Telegraph.

A Wahlburgers store is also on the cards for Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and one in Auckland, New Zealand.

Mr Mustaca conveyed his excitement about the next Wahlburgers restaurant in Manly, telling News Corp that it will take over the Greenhouse.

The first Wahlburgers in Australia (pictured) opened in Sydney's Circular Quay in February

'Wahlburgers is a true, family-orientated experience and there is not a lot on offer in Manly for families at the moment.'

Mr Mustaca met with the US CEO of Walhburgers, John Fuller, and the chain's chief operations officer, JJ Smith, last Friday to discuss plans for the Manly store.

The duo jetted to Australia to speak with Mr Mustaca and to visit the franchise's future locations across the country

Wahlberg announced his plans to bring Wahlburgers to Australia in January after inking a deal worth more than $50million with the Mustaca family. Mark pictured with founders Roy Mustaca (centre) and his son Sam (right) last month

Mr Fuller said he was 'thrilled' by Mr Mustaca and his team's efforts to bring Wahlburgers to Australia and has praised the businessman for picking 'A plus' locations for Wahlburgers stores in Sydney, Byron and the Gold coast.

'He's got a long-term vision for the brand and we wanted to come out, be in the market, support it, which is what we do,' he said.

Wahlburgers was founded by chef Paul Wahlberg with his brothers, Hollywood movie stars Mark and Donnie Wahlberg.

The first Wahlburgers in Australia opened in February in Sydney's Circular Quay.

It is located near Mr Mustaca's United Cinemas Opera Quays.

The US burger chain is famous for its fresh ground beef burgers, entree salads and sandwiches, loaded tots and frothy shakes.
Jodie Sweetin's house is getting a little more full.

The Full House actress, 40, said 'I do' to her longtime beau, Mescal Wasilewski, in a small ceremony at a private home in Malibu Saturday.

The blushing bride was accompanied by her two daughters, Zoie, 14 and Beatrix, 11, as she and her clinical social worker sweetheart exchanged vows in a small backyard ceremony as friends and family looked on.

Guests included Full House co-stars John Stamos, 58, Candace Cameron Bure, 46 and Andrea Barber, 46, according to PEOPLE.

I do: Jodie Sweetin, 40, said 'I do' to Mescal Wasilewski in an intimate ceremony in Malibu Saturday/ pictured February 2022

The couple met through friends and hit off, beginning a long distance relationship in 2017.

They had their first date at a concert date in Brooklyn, where sparks flew pretty immediately between them.

'You and I have created the kind of love I didn't think existed. Kind, honest, gentle, vulnerable, full of adventures and has no expectations of perfection. We just get to BE together. I couldn't love you more,' the beauty wrote on their three-year anniversary.

Long distance: The couple met through mutual friends in 2017 and endured a long distance relationship between New York and LA for several years before the clinical social worker moved to the west coast in 2020

The pair continued commuting between Los Angeles and New York, until 2020, when Mescal took a leap of faith and moved to the west coast.

They got engaged in January of this year.

This is the fourth marriage for the actress best known as Stephanie Tanner in the hit 90s sitcom.

She has previously walked down the aisle three times. First with Shaun Holguin, who she was married to between 2002 to 2006, before going on to wed Cody Herpin in 2007.

Engaged: The couple got engaged in January of this year, one week after Jodie's Full House co-star Bob Saget died /Pictured November 2021

During their three-year marriage, she and Herpin welcomed daughter Zoie, 13.

Later, she tied the knot with Morty Coyle, the father of her 11-year-old little girl Beatrix, in 2012, before divorcing just four years later.

In her memoir, unSweetined, the former child star share details of the drug and alcohol addiction she developed after Full House ended in 1995.

Bright future: Now happily married, the star can look forward to a bright future with the man she referred to as her 'safe place', 'partner,' and 'best friend'/Pictured January 2022

She got sober in 2008 and earned a degree as a drug and alcohol counselor.

Jodie reprised the role of Stephanie for the Fuller House re-boot which reunited her with most of the members of her on-screen family, including Bob Saget, who died a week before she accepted Mescal's proposal.

Now happily married, the Just Swipe star can look forward to a bright future with the man she referred to as her 'safe place', 'partner,' and 'best friend.'
Heidi Klum's daughter Leni certainly showed off her fashion credentials on Saturday as she headed to the UNICEF ball in Capri, Italy.

The 18-year-old model was the picture of chic as she sported a lace detailed gown with a plunging neckline, mesh overlay and spaghetti strap detail.

Posing for snaps at the La Certosa di San Giacomo location, the beauty had her brunette tresses sleekly styled straight for the event.

Model credentials: Heidi Klum's model daughter Leni, 18, exuded chic in a plunging lace detailed gown as she attended the Capri UNICEF ball

Leni opted for a subtle yet dewy palette of makeup for the appearance, keeping accessories minimal.

While she teamed the figure-hugging number with black open-toed, strapped sandals.

The Ukraine-focused LuisaViaRoma for UNICEF event supported children in need, and featured a special performance from Jennifer Lopez.

Stunner: Posing for snaps at the La Certosa di San Giacomo location, the beauty had her brunette tresses sleekly styled straight for the event

Classy: The model was the picture of chic as she sported a lace detailed gown with a plunging neckline, mesh overlay and spaghetti strap detail

Heidi welcomed Leni in 2004 with Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, before being officially adopted by her famous stepdad Seal in 2005.

And following in her supermodel mother's footsteps, the teenager made her modelling debut on the cover of Vogue Germany's January/February 2021 issue alongside Heidi.

Already making waves, Leni has collaborated with brands such as Superga, Michael Kors and Dolce & Gabbana.

Glowing: Leni opted for a subtle yet dewy palette of makeup for the appearance

Ensemble: While she teamed the figure-hugging number with black open-toed, strapped sandals

Heidi has proved to be her lookalike daughter's number one fan as her modelling career skyrockets.

Showing her support earlier this month, Heidi supported Leni as she walked in the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Sicily.

Posting a snap with her daughter, Heidi penned 'Good luck, my baby!', before Leni took the catwalk by storm.

Simple: She kept her accessories minimal for the chic look, keeping her jewellery bare
Sam Armytage has returned to the small screen on Farmer Wants A Wife following her dramatic departure from Sunrise.

The former breakfast star, 45, is seen in the latest trailer for the upcoming season of the show.

Sam had her own wedding ring on full display as she spoke of helping to find the lovelorn singles find a match.

Sam Armytage, 45, (pictured) made her debut on the trailer for Farmer Wants A Wife which was released on Sunday, as she returns to Seven after leaving Sunrise in March last year

'I fell in love with a farmer myself, so I can't wait to help them find the one,' Sam told viewers in the preview.

Elsewhere in the trailer, a number of farmers were introduced as they set off on their quest to find love.

'Love, it underpins who I am. I want to give my life to something,' hunky farmer Will, 26, said.

'Love is something you just can't live without,' farmer Harry, 23, added.

'I hope to find a wife and get married,' farmer Ben, 27, continued.

'I fell in love with a farmer myself, so I can't wait to help them find the one,' Sam told the viewers in the preview

'Love, it underpins who I am. I want to give my life to something,' hunky farmer Will said

'Love is something you just can't live without,' farmer Harry added in the new preview

Meanwhile, female farmer Paige, 27, also has her eyes firmly set on love.

'I know my guy is out there. I just haven't met him yet,' she said in the trailer.

Romances look to heat-up this season as a trailer saw a number of the farmers smiling and laughing after meeting their suitors.

It was announced Sam would star on the show in October.

Sam quit Sunrise in March last year after anchoring the top-rated breakfast show since 2013

It came on the heels of her marrying Bowral farmer, Richard Lavender.

Sam went on to quit Sunrise in March last year and has now moved away from Sydney to live with Richard at his 40-hectare property.

This will be her first role back on Seven after she left the top-rated breakfast show as a way to step back and 'reset' her life and career.
Ruby Tuesday Matthews is on the hunt for a nanny ahead of welcoming her third child.

And the influencer was stunned to learn that most of the women applying for the job are scantily clad.

In a series of Instagram Stories, the 27-year-old said she was searching for hired help via a popular website and it was not going well.

Ruby Tuesday Matthews (pictured) is on the hunt for a nanny ahead of welcoming her third child. And the influencer was stunned to learn that most of the women applying for the job are scantily clad

'They are all like, smoking hot nannies,' she complained.

'I am all for beautiful women, like go you. But I am about to be a shell of a human and I am not hiring a smoking hot nanny.'

Ruby then showed a photo of a woman on the site wearing a very low-cut top that showed off lots of bust.

'They are all like, smoking hot nannies,' she complained. 'I am all for beautiful women, like go you. But I am about to be a shell of a human and I am not hiring a smoking hot nanny'

'No one needs to be confused where the milk is coming from in this family,' she joked

'No one needs to be confused where the milk is coming from in this family,' she joked.

'I don't have a problem with other beautiful women being in my life,' Ruby continued.

'Obviously I should be the only beautiful woman in my partner's life. But I also have two very young boys and I don't understand why short shorts are in the job interview pictures. And like low plunging tops. That is not the image you choose!'

The influencer recently gave fans an update on her journey, admitting her latest pregnancy is the 'hardest' one so far

The influencer recently gave fans an update on her journey, admitting her latest pregnancy is the 'hardest' one so far.

'Hey, guys, it's me. I know it's been a while and thank you all for hanging in there,' the she wrote on Instagram, alongside a mirror selfie.

'I know my content may not be flowing at the moment, but to be honest this pregnancy has been by far the hardest,' she added.

Ruby said she'd been suffering with anxiety and had been 'feeling pretty blue at times'.

Ruby said she'd been suffering with anxiety and had been 'feeling pretty blue at times'

She also experienced hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe nausea and vomiting, 'for the first 19 weeks' of her pregnancy.

'She still likes to raise her head occasionally, the b***h,' Ruby said, referring to her unborn baby girl.

'I honestly feel like I've lost a piece of myself this pregnancy,' she continued. 'Maybe I have and maybe it's being passed on to my daughter so she can be extra fiery, driven and a true force to be reckoned with - pray for me.'

'I honestly feel like I've lost a piece of myself this pregnancy,' she said. 'Maybe I have and maybe it's being passed on to my daughter so she can be extra fiery, driven and a true force to be reckoned with - pray for me'

'I'm definitely not your textbook, glowing rainbow mama-to-be. I hardly recognise myself anymore. But I really do know one thing: it will be worth it' she added.

Ruby announced her pregnancy in April, sharing a black and white photo of her baby bump with her 233,000 Instagram followers.

This is her third child. She is expecting a baby girl with her fiance Shannan Dodd.

The influencer also shares sons Rocket and Mars with her ex-partner Ryan Heywood.
Iggy Azalea has revealed she is suffering from sciatica.

The Fancy rapper, 32, took to Twitter on Saturday to make the announcement just days after getting back on stage for Pitbull's Cant's Stop Us Now tour.

An upset Iggy penned: 'So, I have sciatica. So fun!'

Rapper Iggy Azalea, 32, (pictured) has revealed her private health struggle with sciatica on Twitter, just days after hitting the stage for Pitbull's summer tour

The Australian hitmaker was flooded with well-wishers from fans on the platform.

'I feel your pain! It sucks so bad,' one fan wrote. 'Ooooo I'm so sorry Iggy praying for you,' another added.

'Rest up. I had it two years ago it was very bad, could hardly walk. Rest and use hot water bottle and ice pack at separate times.'

Iggy's message saw her inundated with fans wishing her well, with one fan writing: "I feel your pain! it sucks so bad!'

Iggy made a sensational return to the stage at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park in Walnut Creek on Thursday night.

Iggy wowed residents of Raleigh, North Carolina, wearing a grey skintight outfit painted with the natural contours of her body, right down to her belly button.

Her thick, curly blonde tresses were pulled back in a full, half ponytail away from her face which seemed air-brushed with a flawless glam look.

Iggy made a sensational return to the stage at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park in Walnut Creek on Thursday night in Raleigh, North Carolina

The Fancy hitmaker had four beautiful back-up dancers, but she stole the spotlight as she sang and posed seductively for the audience.

At one point, Iggy sat down in a chair with her legs spread and stuck out her tongue, dragging a finger down it as she smiled.

Iggy, who has recently taken a step back from the limelight in favour of motherhood, recently said she 'cringes' looking at old videos of herself.

Iggy wowed the crowd wearing a grey skintight outfit painted with the natural contours of her body, right down to her belly button

'Sometimes I look back at myself in my early twenties and I cringe,' she told Rollacoaster magazine in November.

Last July, she explained how she juggles work with being a single mother.

The blonde bombshell, who shares son Onyx with ex-boyfriend Playboi Carti, told a fan on Twitter she'd been sleep deprived for 'over a year'.

'It's been literally three hours a night of sleep for over a year. But worth it,' she tweeted.
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Yazmin Oukhellou stepped out on Saturday without her arm in a sling, little more than a month after surviving a car accident that killed boyfriend Jake McLean.

The reality star, 28, headed out for a weekend away in Lincoln, where she was joined by co-stars Junaid Ahmed, Ella Rae Wise and Dani Imbert.

Yazmin was a passenger in the vehicle which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Turkish port city Bodrum on July 3, leaving her with severe injuries - including a broken arm.

The crash took place at around 4.30am and investigators established that the car, driven by McLean, 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.

On the mend: Yazmin Oukhellou stepped out on Saturday without her arm in a sling, little more than a month after surviving a car accident that killed boyfriend Jake McLean

Devastating: Yazmin was a passenger in the vehicle which plunged 70ft off a cliff in Turkish port city Bodrum on July 3 (pictured), leaving her with severe injuries - including a broken arm

Emerging over the weekend, Yazmin looked pleased to be back at work as she stepped out in a light blue gym co-ord consisting of form fitting shorts and a complementing zip-up crop top.

She walked alongside TOWIE cast-mates Junaid Ahmed, Ella Rae Wise and Dani Imbert - as they appeared fresh from a gym session while filming in Lincoln.

And Yazmin appeared to be on the mend, as her arm had no visible aids holding it in place for the first time since the accident.

The group spent some time touring the city, stopping for lunch at TGI Fridays before picking up some food shopping to take back to their rented accommodation.

Two-piece: Yazmin donned a light blue gym co-ord for the outing, which consisted of form fitting shorts and a complementing zip-up crop top

Bright ensemble: The beauty teamed the set with rainbow trainers as she clutched onto her phone

Pals: Yazmin was joined by her TOWIE cast-mates Junaid Ahmed, Ella Rae Wise and Dani Imbert in Lincoln

Yazmin was spotted stepping out last week with her arm still supported by a cast, as she recovered from the crash - which has left her with 'permanent scarring'.

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.

She severed an artery and a nerve during the accident- with UK doctors warning that she may never have full use of her right arm again.

During the crash, the TV personality deliberately broke her trapped arm to escape the scene and rush for help - while partner Jake lay unconscious.

Working up a sweat: The group appeared fresh from a gym session, donning athleisure wear for the outing

Day out: The group stopped for a spot of lunch at TGI Fridays during the outing

Supplies: Before picking up some snacks from the shop and heading back to their rented accommodation for the trip

Steps: The outing appears to be a big step for the reality star, who has been keeping a low profile

Taking it easy: She held her phone with her right arm, which has been in a sling up until now, while her stronger left arm carried the shopping

Co-ordinated: Junaid went for an all black look for the outing as he carried a clutch bag to match his ensemble

Smiles: She shared a giggle with her pals as they made their way through the city, passing an ice cream van

Traumatic: It comes just weeks after the July 3 crash, in which 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

With doctors telling her it's a 'miracle' she's still alive following her brush with the 'notorious' crash spot, Yazmin opened up to The Sun about the experience upon returning to the UK.

Admitting she is unable to sleep without her mother Lisa by her side following the ordeal, the traumatised star shared her inability to comprehend surviving when Jake did not.

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.

Scary: Yazmin severed an artery and a nerve during the accident- with UK doctors warning that she may never have full use of her right arm again

Pressure situation: During the crash, the TV personality deliberately broke her trapped arm to escape the scene and rush for help - while partner Jake lay unconscious

Chilling out: She returned to the UK shortly after the crash, and has been staying at home with the aid of her mum

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.'

'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,' she explained.

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'.

Support system: But as she gets back into the swing of things, Yazmin is being supported by her TOWIE pals

Recovery: 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

The television personality had been on holiday with Jake in the resort of Bodrum where the terrifying incident took place, as the pair were currently 'off' but had taken the trip to reconcile.

But Yazmin now fears she may be banned from her boyfriend's funeral over tensions with his family, as his mum, Anita Walsh, believes an argument between Jake and Yazmin could have contributed to the crash.

While the reality star denies reports of a bust up and claims the trip made things 'perfect' between her and Jake, an Assistant Prosecutor who cannot be named under Turkish Law told MailOnline on July 6: 'We have spoken with Jake's mother and she has told us that something was going on in the car that distracted him.

'She does not believe that this accident was caused by his poor driving. She said that he is a very skilled and experienced driver and would not have lost control of the car like this.'

Prosecutors are investigating whether Jake was drink-driving, while the on-off couple argued outside a club at 3am, shortly before Sunday's crash.

Shocking: Doctors have dubbed Yazmin an 'angel' after surviving the fatal crash
Andrew Garfield showcased his incredible agility on Saturday as he frolicked in the sea off the coast of Ischia, Italy.

The Oscar nominated actor, 38, cooled off in the crystal blue ocean with pals, including Italian starlet Caterina Milicchio, before doing an impressive back flip.

Andrew donned a pair of black swimming shorts for the outing as he flaunted his toned physique.

Acrobat: Andrew Garfield, 38, showcased his incredible agility and did a backflip as he frolicked in the sea during a sun soaked Italian getaway on Saturday

The Spiderman star wore his dark locks swept back from his handsome face and sported a short beard.

Topping up his tan the actor wore a silver pendant around his neck as he joked around with his fellow travellers.

He was also joined in the waves by pals including art dealer Vito Schnabel, 36, actor Nat Wolff, 27.

Wow: Pals helped the Oscar nominee complete the impressive move

Handsome: The Spiderman star wore his dark locks swept back from his handsome face and sported a short beard

Sandy: Andrew (left) was joined by Italian starlet Caterina Milicchio (right) and the duo both enjoyed a mud bath

Fun in the sun: Andrew appeared in his element as he topped up his tan in the water

Fun in the sun: Andrew (left) was also joined in the waves by pals including art dealer Vito Schnabel, 36, actor Nat Wolff, 27

Busty actress Caterina looked ravishing in a black bikini thong bikini which accentuated her hourglass figure.

The brunette beauty joined Andrew in a mud bath where the duo lathered themselves in the sand which is believed to contain healing properties.

Later the actor returned to his private boat where the group jumped off the deck back into the water, before drying off and enjoying a much deserved rest.

Beaming: Andrew beamed as he enjoyed some much deserved down time with friends

Flipping marvellous: Andrew turned a complete 360 degrees in the air before landing again in the water

Cooling off: Andrew and Caterina chatted intently during the fun filled afternoon

Back to base: Andrew returned to his private boat where he was showered off with fresh water

Dive: Andrew (right) dived into the water to cool off from the scorching sun

Trend setter: Later his pals also attempted to follow suit and do a flip

Saucy: Busty actress Caterina looked ravishing in a black bikini thong bikini which accentuated her hourglass figure

At the beginning of April, Andrew's ex-girlfriend Alyssa Miller, 33, hit out at those 'gossiping' amid claims that the couple had split.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the model, shared an unseen photo from February's Screen Actors Guild Awards alongside a cryptic caption.

Refusing to confirm if they were together or not, she simply penned: 'If you must gossip at least use a cute photo. Lol love you AG.'

Jumpers: The pals jumped off the boat's deck back into the water

Taut: Andrew displayed his toned arms and muscular shoulders on the trip

Three amigos: Andrew and his friends spent hours in the water

Stunner: Caterina wore her long locks back from her gorgeous face

While Alyssa's post proved she has nothing but love for the actor, a source told People that the couple have not reconciled and are just friendly exes since splitting.

Their appearance at February's awards ceremony is the last time the former couple were pictured together.

Earlier in the week it was reported that the couple had called it quits as their respective work schedules made it 'hard to see each other.'

Andrew was first linked to the American model last November when they were spotted holding hands in New York City.

Relaxing: Later Andrew (centre) relaxed on the boat following his energetic adventures

Crystal clear: The ocean appeared crystal clear as the pals chatted in the water

The actor previously had a four-year relationship with his Amazing Spider-Man co-star Emma Stone that ended in April 2015.

Back in April, in an interview with Variety around the same time, Andrew said he will be stepping back from acting in order to 'rest for a little bit' and 'be a bit ordinary'.

The actor - who had several high-profile projects in 2021 - confessed: 'I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be, and just be a bit of a person for a while.'
The Amazing Race is going global again.

Channel 10 released a new trailer for the upcoming season on Sunday with teams making their way around the world.

The new format is in stark contrast to its Australia-only version which aired last year due to global coronavirus lockdowns.

The Amazing Race Australia is set to go global again after the series was forced to film in Australia due to coronavirus restrictions. Pictured: host Beau Ryan

'The Amazing Race is back and this year we're going all around the world,' host Beau Ryan announces in the trailer.

The preview went on to show incredible locations like Santorini, Izmir, Morocco, Belize, and Mexico.

'The Amazing Race is back and this year we're going all around the world,' host Beau Ryan announces in the trailer. Pictured: Athens

Teams were seen being forced to walk on hot coals barefoot during the drama of finding the next clue.

'I'm running through that barefoot?' one contestant said.

'The fake hair was pinned back, the lashes I was a little bit nervous about.'

The preview went on to show incredible locations like Santorini, Izmir (pictured), Morocco, Belize, and Mexico

Another contestant was seen swimming with sharks in the Caribbean.

It comes after the show was 'thrown into chaos' due to covid while filming, according to blog TV Blackbox in March.

Due to isolation requirements, members of the production crew, supervising producers and even host Beau Ryan are off duty for the time being.

Teams will also travel through the ancient country of Morocco

Those impacted by Covid-19 and the isolation period will convalesce in hotels while the country-jumping production moves to its next locations.

In a statement to TV Blackbox, a Channel Ten spokesperson said that filming will continue.

'There have been a small number of positive COVID cases detected within the production of The Amazing Race Australia, but filming on the upcoming season has not been impacted,' the statement read.

TV Blackbox revealed in March that production on the Channel Ten show has been 'thrown into chaos' due to covid. Pictured: Last year's cast

'The crew that are affected are in isolation while the production continues.'

The last season was shot in Newell Beach, Queensland, due to Covid restrictions.

Despite filming abroad, the production company has confirmed strict Covid-safe protocols are implemented on set.
Kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish of fermented vegetables / gettyimagesbank



By Lee Yeon-woo



A Korean food scholar presented three major differences between Korean kimchi and Chinese pao cai at a food culture conference in Seoul, Friday, countering a Chinese movement to claim kimchi as its culture.



The Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) organized the conferenced under the theme of Korean food culture and its history to discuss the history and characteristics of Korean traditional food such as rice, liquor and fermented paste.



The centerpiece of the conference was a presentation on kimchi, a staple in Korean cuisine. The fermented vegetable dish is embroiled in a controversy over its origin as some Chinese online users claim that Korea's kimchi originated from China's pao cai.



Salting vegetables is one of the oldest and most popular ways to preserve food and fermented vegetables are enjoyed in many nations in different ways  pao cai in China, sauerkraut in Germany, acharr in India, and many more.



"There are various pieces of historical evidence that can prove kimchi is different from pao cai," researcher Park Chae-rin from the World Institute of Kimchi said during her presentation.



Park said kimchi and pao cai can be distinguished by three major characteristics  the way of fermentation, the spices used in seasonings and the way they are consumed.



"Kimchi has more than 200 kinds of microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast," Park said, adding that kimchi is fermented in a breathable jar, while pao cai is stored in an air-tight jar that controls microorganisms' activities.





Researcher Park Chae-rin from the World Institute of Kimchi makes a presentation about how kimchi is different from pao cai in a conference hosted by the Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of NAHF
Vanessa Hudgens shared several glammed-up snaps to her Instagram account on Saturday.

In the shots, the 33-year-old performer rocked an eye-catching outfit while attending a charitable event for Unicef that took place in Capri, Italy on Saturday night.

The actress also penned a short message to express that she particularly enjoyed being 'all dressed up for a special night.'

Ooh la la! Vanessa Hudgens shared several glammed-up snaps to her Instagram account on Saturday

Hudgens donned a sparkling light orange dress that showcased her sculpted arms and legs in the shots.

The Disney Channel alum's outfit also included a lengthy cape that gave her look for the evening a bit of extra pop.

The Spring Breakers actress accessorized with a sparkling necklace and a gorgeous set of earrings.

She rocked a reflective pair of silver high-heeled shoes, and her typically free-flowing brunette hair was styled closely to her head.

All dressed up: Hudgens donned a sparkling light orange dress that showcased her sculpted arms and legs in the shots

Hudgens was also joined by her younger sister, Stella, during the charitable event.

The social media personality rocked a sequin red dress that conformed tightly to her physique while accompanying her older sibling.

The influencer added elements of darkness to her look with a pair of jet-black high-heeled shoes and a matching purse.

Her lovely brunette locks were partially tied back, although several strands made their way down the sides of her face.

Good company: Hudgens was also joined by her younger sister, Stella, during the charitable event

Hudgens also made a point of thanking Michael Kors for creating a custom dress for her in her post's caption.

The actress also took a selfie with the famed designer while they enjoyed themselves at the event.

The 62-year-old designer kept it relatively casual, as he wore a black t-shirt and aviator-style sunglasses during the charitable function.

Although the performer appeared to be enjoying herself at the event, she is also currently working on the upcoming movie Downtown Owl.

Stylish: The social media personality rocked a sequin red dress that conformed tightly to her physique while accompanying her older sibling

The movie is based on Chuck Klosterman's novel of the same name, which was published in 2008.

The film will be centered on the lives of three residents of a South Dakota town whose lives are greatly affected by the onset of a harsh winter blizzard.

Also set to appear in the feature are Henry Golding, Lily Rabe and Ed Harris.

Filming for the feature concluded earlier this year and its release date has not been revealed to the public as of yet.
Georgia Steel flaunted her toned physique in a summery pink bikini as she posed for stunning Instagram snaps on Friday.

The former Love Islander, 24, put on a peachy display as she showed off her pert rear in the stringy floral print swimsuit, which featured o-ring detailing.

Straps around the stunner's midriff accentuated her silhouette as she modelled the two-piece.

Stunner: Georgia Steel flaunted her toned physique in a summery pink bikini as she posed for stunning Instagram snaps on Friday

Georgia wore her highlighted caramel tresses down in loose waves, rocking a face framing fringe.

She kept jewellery minimal with a simple necklace and opted for a fresh faced make-up look.

Sharing the photos with her 1.6 million followers, the reality star wrote: 'Got it on [lock]'.

Wow: The former Love Islander, 24, put on a peachy display as she showed off her pert rear in the stringy floral print swimsuit, which featured o-ring detailing

Locking it down: Sharing the photos with her 1.6 million followers, the reality star wrote: 'Got it on [lock]'

It comes as Georgia and Love Island's Tasha Ghouri were reportedly 'inseparable' best friends at school before they had a 'bad fall out'.

Tasha, 23, and Georgia - who appeared on the fourth series of Love Island - both attended Thirsk Secondary School in Yorkshire and a local dance troupe together.

However, it is claimed they never spoke again after a bust-up, when things turned sour as they both headed off to separate performing arts colleges.

Former pals: Love Island's Tasha Ghouri (pictured) and former show star Georgia were reportedly 'inseparable' best friends before they had a 'bad fall out'

'Tasha and Georgia were honestly inseparable and just best friends throughout school,' a pal told The Sun.

'Things got a bit competitive towards Year 11 and then when Tasha got accepted into a better dance college than Georgia things turned bad.'

They added: 'Stuff happens when you're young but we hope they patch it up because they could be a huge support for each other.'

MailOnline contacted representatives for Georgia and Tasha for comment at the time.

Looking back: Tasha, 23, and Georgia (pictured), who appeared on the fourth series of Love Island, both attended Thirsk Secondary School in Yorkshire and a local dance troupe together

Friendship end: It is claimed they never spoke again after the bust-up, when things turned sour as they both headed off to separate performing arts colleges (Tasha pictured)

Tasha attended CAPA College after school and later graduated from the Creative Academy with a 1st class honours degree in Dance Performance in 2019.

Georgia studied at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. She is a trained dancer and completed her training as an actress at St Mary's University in London in 2019.

It comes after Tasha's boyfriend Andrew Le Page was branded 'son-in-law material' by Tasha's father Tarek.

The real estate agent, 27, impressed his potential future father-in-law by the way he described his 23-year old Tasha's cochlear implant, which allows her to hear.

High praise! It comes after Tasha's boyfriend Andrew Le Page, 27, was been branded 'son-in-law material' by Tasha's father Tarek

Tasha and Andrew were among the five remaining couples given the responsibility of having to look after one of the baby dolls in an episode of Love Island earlier this week.

At one point when he was alone with 'baby Leo,' Andrew opened up to the doll about Tasha's 'superpower' in heartwarming scenes.

Tarek wrote on Twitter: 'Andrew is looking more and more like son in law material. The fire pit is very special...'

Cute: The real estate agent, 27, impressed his potential future father-in-law by the way he described his 23-year old Tasha's cochlear implant - which allows her to hear

Andrew said on the show: 'Your mum told me about her super power, her super power being that she has an implant that makes her able to hear. She's very, very special and very, very brave and with this implant.'

Tarek recently insisted that he believes that Tasha and Andrew's connection is 'real'.

He tweeted: 'It's real. It was from the start. My girl is a slow burner on love but when she knows she knows.'

Baby challenge: Tasha and Andrew were among the five remaining couples given the responsibility of having to look after one of the baby dolls earlier this week

Andrew and Tasha's relationship has not followed a straight path in the villa, with the pair facing several dumpings, and they both came back with different partners after Casa Amor where Andrew shared a number of intimate moments with former Islander Coco Lodge.

But the couple have not only survived and recoupled, they became boyfriend and girlfriend and are now second favourites to win this year's series.

Love Island airs at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
Ryan Seacrest and Aubrey Paige were pictured while spending time together in a photo that was shared to her Instagram account on Sunday.

The 47-year-old television personality and his 24-year-old girlfriend appeared to be enjoying each other's company in their first shot, in which they wore matching outfits.

The happy couple also showed off several of their creations from their kitchen, and the latter wrote that her 'hidden talent is DJing, Sous-chef'ing, taste testing and documenting the entire process all at the same time.'

Happy couple: Ryan Seacrest and Aubrey Paige were pictured while spending time together in a photo that was shared to her Instagram account on Sunday

Seacrest and Paige wore light blue button-up shirts and matching pairs of shorts while posing for the photo.

The pair also donned black trucker caps that they turned backward while posing for the shot.

The social media personality's dark brunette hair shot out from underneath her headwear and she accessorized with several articles of jewelry.

She also wrote a short message that partially read: 'Hello and welcome to our test kitchenwhere two people obsessed with food try to teach other how to cook.'

Grill time: The happy couple also showed off several of their creations from their kitchen, and the latter wrote that her 'hidden talent is DJing, Sous-chef'ing, taste testing and documenting the entire process all at the same time'

First off: Seacrest and Paige were first spotted in each other's company during Memorial Day weekend in Austin last year

Seacrest and Paige were first spotted in each other's company during Memorial Day weekend in Austin last year.

The pair was subsequently spotted in each other's company over the course of the year.

The influencer eventually shared a photo with her boyfriend to her Instagram account last December.

The happy couple went on to make their red carpet debut last month.

For everyone to see: The happy couple went on to make their red carpet debut last month

A source recently spoke to Us Weekly and noted that Seacrest had become enamored with his girlfriend.

'Ryan is increasingly confident he and Aubrey have what it takes for the long term,' they said.

The insider went on to express that the American Idol host made a big move in taking his girlfriend to a red carpet event.

'He's trying not to get too far ahead of himself, it's still relatively early days after all, but the fact he was willing to go red carpet official was a big step,' they said.

He's serious! The insider went on to express that the American Idol host made a big move in taking his girlfriend to a red carpet event; they are seen in April

The source then noted that the reality television personality was looking to enter into something a bit more permanent.

'At some point in the not to distant future, he wants to settle down and start a family. He wouldn't be dating anyone who didn't have that long term potential.'

They concluded by stating that Seacrest was 'going with the flow but feeling very good about things.'
The famously wholesome Irwin siblings almost veered into R-rated territory during their guest appearance on RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under this week.

Robert and Bindi were tasked with introducing a challenge in the first episode, and managed to keep things clean despite the Stan show's bawdy reputation.

The wildlife warriors and Drag Race superfans instructed the Aussie and Kiwi queens to make catwalk outfits that 'celebrate the natural beauty of our homelands'.

Robert (left) and Bindi Irwin (right) almost veered into R-rated territory during their guest appearance on RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under this week

They explained the task in a video recorded at Australia Zoo, and in classic Irwin style had a huge Burmese python resting on their shoulders.

At the end of the segment, it was Robert's turn to say host RuPaul Charles' iconic catchphrase: 'Good luck... and don't f**k it up.'

RuPaul usually says this before the start of each runway challenge, but sometimes celebrity guests are allowed to do the honours instead.

After introducing a runway challenge, it was Robert's turn to utter host RuPaul Charles' iconic catchphrase: 'Good luck... and don't f**k it up' - but he was just too wholesome to say it

'Robert, before we get constricted, is there anything else you'd like to say?' Bindi smiled.

'Good luck, and don't...' he began, leaving a long pause as the drag queens looked nervously around the work room.

He then shook his head and said: 'Nah, I can't say it!'

RuPaul (pictured) usually says 'Good luck... and don't f**k it up' before the start of each runway task, but sometimes celebrity guests are allowed to do the honours instead

The Irwins are known for their family-friendly public image, and using the F-word would be rather off-brand for them.

But it seems Robert, 18, and Bindi, 24, aren't afraid to make fun of their wholesome reputation from time to time.

The Irwin family became world-famous thanks to the conservation efforts of late patriarch Steve 'The Crocodile Hunter' Irwin.

The drag queens looked nervously around the work room as they waited to see if Robert would say the F-word on television

Steve died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.

Following his death, Steve's family, including his children, widow Terri, and son-in-law Chandler Powell, have continued his legacy at Australia Zoo in Queensland.

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under streams exclusively on Stan in Australia


By Sandip Kumar Mishra





In the recent months, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration of South Korea has been moving toward having its own Indo-Pacific strategy, though it is not clear whether it would be called a strategy, framework, vision or something else.







President Yoon has said that if there is an invitation, South Korea would positively consider joining the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and has also indicated that by the end of 2022 South Korea would have its own version of the Indo-Pacific strategy.







His stance is quite different from the previous administration which was reluctant to talk either about the Quad or the Indo-Pacific strategy. It is being expected that Yoon's stance would annoy China and there are going to be repercussions for South Korea.







Actually several observers in South Korea argue that it would be a change of the status quo and lead to China's wrath. China is an important economic partner of South Korea and almost one-fourth of South Korea's external trade happens with China alone. It is being considered a counterproductive move on the part of the Yoon administration and being criticized.







It has been reminded that there could be a repeat of China's reaction that happened after the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea and it would hurt South Korean interests.







South Korea's move to be open to Quad or having the Indo-Pacific strategy may be a departure from the Moon Jae-in administration's stance, but it must be reminded that it does not constitute any change of the status quo on the ground.







Even though South Korea was not forthcoming on the Indo-Pacific strategy or Quad and preferred to deal with the region through its New Southern Policy, South Korea had also expressed multiple times its agreement with the expressed goal of the Indo-Pacific strategy.







Moreover, it must be underlined that South Korea is a security ally of the U.S. and if the U.S. has an Indo-Pacific strategy and membership of Quad, South Korea is also indirectly part of these formulations.







For example, India signed three foundational agreements with the U.S.  the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018 and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020. They are considered to be part of India's integration into the Quad network.







South Korea also has similar agreements and understandings with the U.S. There is the seamless integration between the defense forces as well as technical details of the U.S. and South Korea. Furthermore, Article 3 of the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1953 between the U.S. and South Korea clearly says that an armed attack on one party would be considered as an attack on the other party as well.







Thus, since the new South Korean administration's move toward Quad and the Indo-Pacific strategy do not make any significant change in the status quo on the ground, there is little possibility that China would react too much on these moves.







Actually, China would be more annoyed by certain other moves of the Yoon administration which do constitute a change of the status quo. For example, if South Korea gets more THAAD batteries on its soil, it would be a change on the ground. However, the Yoon government has not made any formal moves toward it, although the South Korean leader did talk about that during his election campaign.







China would also be furious if U.S. tactical weapons are reintroduced on the Korean Peninsula, which were withdrawn in the early 1990s and that was also demanded during the campaign by Yoon.







Notwithstanding speculative moves of South Korea, China would be unhappy with President Yoon's participation in the NATO summit. In June 2022, Yoon made his first overseas visit to Madrid to attend the NATO summit which identified China as a "systemic challenge." China may read it as bringing NATO to the Indo-Pacific region, which definitely would be unacceptable to the Asian giant.







Thus, it would be important for South Korean observers to delineate these two different moves of the Yoon government. South Korea joining Quad or having the Indo-Pacific strategy does not make any big change on the ground, but South Korea getting connected to NATO or having more THAAD batteries on the Korean Peninsula does.







Furthermore, it would also be irrelevant to be critical of a South Korean foreign policy move in anticipation that China would be unhappy. Let China formally express its objections and then the issue could be pondered over.







Lastly, it must also be kept in mind that even though there are few statements of China which condemn the South Korean move to join the Indo-Pacific network, it must be seen how much real intent China had in these statements and where it would take any punitive action on South Korea.









The author (





sandipmishra10@gmail.com ) is associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
HYDERABAD: The state government's wait for Central financial assistance for flood relief seems to be getting longer. The state government received a communication from the Centre that its teams would make a second visit to the flood-affected areas to assess the damage caused by recent heavy rains and the subsequent Godavari floods in north Telangana districts before recommending to the Centre on financial assistance to the state, according to official sources.

The state government is yet to submit a final report to the Centre on flood damage. During the previous visit of Central teams to Telangana last week, the government submitted a preliminary report putting flood damage at Rs 1,400 crore and sought immediate financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore.

However, the Central teams were reportedly not satisfied with the preliminary and incomplete reports submitted by the state government and decided to make a second visit to the state after the state government submits a final report on flood damage.

The preliminary report of the state government putting the loss at Rs 1,400 crore pertains to only the losses suffered by various government departments. No report was submitted on losses suffered by people due to the flooding of houses, damage of houses, vehicles and other belongings.

There is no report on the amount of losses suffered by farmers due to damage caused to standing crops though the preliminary estimates by the government stated that crops over an extent of 11 lakh acres were damaged.

The roads and buildings department incurred the loss of Rs 498 crore, the panchayat raj department Rs 449 crore, the irrigation department Rs 33 crore, the municipal administration department Rs 379 crore and the energy department Rs 7 crore, as per preliminary estimates.

The damage caused to houses and expenditure incurred to evacuate people from these houses was pegged at Rs 25 crore.

On July 17, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to each household affected by floods. However, the financial assistance is yet to be disbursed.
Warangal: Residents of the erstwhile Warangal district raised the alarm after over 300 positive Covid-19 cases and a related death were recorded over the past week.

They said that a Khanapur resident, Islavath Murali, complained of a cold and cough around four days ago and was admitted to a private hospital, where he tested positive for Covid-19 and died in a day.

Those living in the agency area expressed concern over the spike in cases among students.

Three days ago, seven students of the Kasturba Gandhi girls welfare residential school in Thorrur division tested positive for the virus and were quarantined on the premises, while on Saturday, seven students, two teachers and a school staff at a tribal welfare residential college in Gandhinagar of Kothaguda mandal tested positive.

They said that of 36 students, of a tribal welfare school in Mahabubabad who were suffering from food poisoning, four tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.

Officials of the administration said they are on alert and are taking measures to check the further spread of the virus.

G.Sridhar, a social worker, told Deccan Chronicle said that despite repeated warnings from health officials, social distancing norms and mask discipline were being ignored at restaurants, eateries, functions and wedding processions.

A health official, requesting anonymity, said that if the situation continued to worsen, Warangal would be marked a red zone. He said that the public must strictly adhere to Covid-19 norms and there would be no use in the government issuing stringent directions if the public ignored them.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi would do well to skip Taiwan in the course of her tour of Asian countries. The global situation is too fraught in the wake of the Ukraine war for the US to be toying with any thought of brinkmanship in this matter as the country has no diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island over which China has nurtured a decades-long claim.

Admirable as the clear lines of delineation among the three arms of US democracy is, it would not only be in the US national interest but also that of the world for the Speaker to skip Taiwan. Also, no high-ranking US official has visited the island for 25 years though the US is bound to provide the island the means to defend itself.

Any trip likely to ratchet up global tensions further would be most unwelcome, especially since Chinese President Xi Jinping minced no words in handing out a dire warning about Taiwan  those who play with fire will perish by it  that is still green in memory as it was served only on Thursday when he spoke with US President Joe Biden for well over two hours on the phone.

It is a good sign that amid the stress of the East and the West coming closest to Cold War II in the new millennium that the Presidents of US and China are talking to each other and there is also the possibility of their meeting in person soon. But it was too important to dial down Taiwan tensions because the proposed Pelosi visit led to war cries from within China with a unit of the PLA using that very word  prepare for war  on Chinas most popular social media platform Weibo.

It might seem the US is acceding to Chinas protests and heeding its signalling through the conduct of live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend if the Speaker were to skip the island in her tour that involves four stops in Asian countries. This is not the time for provocations when Chinas position vis-a-vis Russia and its invasion of Ukraine is known and the world, whose economy has already been battered by war, just cannot afford another conflagration. Will the superpowers see reason at least now?
Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, on Sunday affirmed India's commitment to unlocking the trade potential with the Central Asian region through the use of the Chabahar Port in Iran.

The Chabahar Port, located in Iran, is a commercial transit centre, especially for Central Asia.

Read | Even critics acknowledging Modi government's handling of economy: BJP

The Union Minister was interacting with the high-level diplomatic delegation from Central Asian Countries here in Mumbai on 'Chabahar day'.

The day is celebrated to mark the beginning of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)  an Indian vision for the economic movement of cargo between India and Central Asia.

"Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is working towards developing an alternative vista with the Central Asian region in order to unlock the huge trade potential that belies this strong relationship India enjoys with the Central Asian countries," said Sonowal.

Read | PM Modi dedicates green energy projects worth Rs 5,200 crore to nation

He said the idea of INSTC via the Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar in Iran is an idea to connect the two markets using a multi-modal logistics corridor.

"This will rationalise our logistics cost, which will contribute towards the trade volume between the two regions. The Chabahar Free Trade Zone is an opportunity for the logistics companies to reap, allowing the trade to bloom. Once we start exploring this route for trade, we will be able to rationalise our logistical cost, in terms of money and time, helping build an economical, faster, shorter route between the two regions," Sonowal said.

During the event, the delegates from Central Asian countries highlighted how Chabahar's link with INSTC can play a vital role in boosting EXIM trade in their regions, and its potential to further boost development in the landlocked countries.
An Ethiopian national with symptoms of monkeypox has been quarantined at a private hospital here, the Karnataka health department said.

His samples have been sent to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute laboratory for confirmation and reports are awaited.

Karnataka Health Commissioner D Randeep in a statement said, the Ethiopian national is a Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patient, who came to Bengaluru from Addis Ababa on July 4, 2022 for kidney transplantation, which was registered in the Aster CMI hospital. On July 25, he developed rash on left hand. He had itching too. On Tuesday it started spreading all over his body (vesicular rash) and while itching blood and fluid was coming as informed by his translator, he said.

"Even though rashes were seen all over his body, it was more seen on the back. He came for dialysis today and the doctors noted these rashes and suspected it to be monkeypox. The other symptoms are nausea, headache and malaise. The sample has been collected and transported to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute laboratory. The person has seven primary contacts and 11 secondary contacts till July 27 at 8 pm," Randeep said.

He added that along with the patient, his cousin, who is the donor and his elder brother also accompanied him. Before coming to India he was staying with his elder brother at Addis Ababa for about a month, the official said adding, he was not in contact with any of his family members except his brother and cousin.

The patient has been quarantined.

Meanwhile, Health Minister K Sudhakar told reporters here that there was no need for people to panic as it is not a deadly disease. There is no need to panic due to monkeypox. Of course, we need to take some precautionary measures. Even if it comes, there is treatment available for it. It does not lead to deaths. Death is highly unlikely, Sudhakar, who himself is a medical professional, said. He said the disease belongs to the smallpox family. Those who have taken vaccines will not show major symptoms.
The wife of Congress politician Yusuf Sharief, popularly known as 'KGF Babu', will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in connection with a money laundering case.

The ED summoned Shazia Tarannum to findout Sharief's source of income, an official from the ED said. Last month, the ED had grilled Sharief for two days. Even his son-in-law, Salman Khan, appeared for one day for an inquiry at the ED headquarters here.

Read | 3 Congress Jharkhand MLAs caught with piles of cash in Bengal suspended

Sources said that Sharief submitted a few pages of handwritten statements about his financial transactions. ED officials, while asking him to submit documents in connection with his financial transactions soon, also said that if required they would summon him again.

Earlier, ED officials had conducted search and seizure operations in properties owned by Sharief and his family members.

A real estate businessman, Sharief contested in the MLC elections as a Congress candidate from the Bengaluru Urban seat to be elected from local bodies in December 2021. However he lost the election. He came to limelight after declaring Rs 1,744 crore assets in the election affidavit. A Class 5 drop out, Sharief was a scrap dealer who made it big.
Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were stopped in West Bengal's Howrah district by the police on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in their vehicle, a senior officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, the SUV in which MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were travelling was intercepted on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in Panchla police station area, she said.

"We had specific input that a huge amount of money was being transported in a black car. We started checking the vehicles, and intercepted this SUV in which three Jharkhand MLAs were travelling. A huge amount of cash was found in the vehicle," said Swati Bhangalia, the superintendent of police of Howrah (Rural).

"Cash counting machines are being brought in to ascertain the total amount. The MLAs are also being questioned about the source of the money and where it was being taken to," she added.

Besides the MLAs, there were two other persons in the SUV, which had a board mentioning "MLA Jamtara Jharkhand" along with the Congress's election symbol, police said.

Ansari is the MLA of Jamtara, while Kachchap is the legislator of Khijri in Ranchi district, and Kongari is the MLA of Kolebira in Simdega district.

Congress's Jharkhand spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said the party will comment only after getting the details of the incident.

Jharkhand's ruling JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya told PTI, "The party will be able to talk about its stand on the issue tomorrow."

The opposition BJP's Jharkhand president Deepak Prakash told PTI that Congress MLAs should explain where did they get such a huge amount of cash.

Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress of West Bengal claimed the recovery of cash was made amid murmurs of horse-trading and the possible toppling of the JMM-led Jharkhand government.

"Amidst murmurs of horse-trading and the possible toppling of the Jharkhand Govt. 3 @INCJharkhand were found carrying huge sums of cash to Bengal. What is the source of this money? Will any Central Agency take suo moto cognizance? Or do the rules apply to a select few? (sic)" the TMC tweeted.

Jharkhand's Independent MLA Saryu Roy, who had defeated former chief minister Raghubar Das to bag the Jamshedpur East seat, asked the Congress to clarify whether the MLAs were returning to Jharkhand with cash or travelling to some other state from Jharkhand.

"Where is the source of money -- Assam, Bengal or Jharkhand?" he asked.

West Bengal minister Sashi Panja demanded a thorough investigation into the matter.

"ED, are you taking a note or the matter is not grievous enough? Machines were brought in to count a huge amount of cash found in a vehicle in which three Jharkhand MLAs were travelling," she said, alluding to the central agency's investigation into the huge amount of cash found at properties linked to arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee.

Sources said the Howrah Rural Police was tipped off about the vehicle by the West Bengal CID.

This recovery comes amid the seizure of a huge amount of cash at properties linked to Chatterjee, who is being investigated in the school jobs scam.

Crores of rupees in cash were found in apartments of his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, besides gold believed to be in kilograms, documents of properties and foreign exchange, forcing the TMC to suspend him and take away his ministerial portfolios.
As new studies emerge about monkeypox, experts have now said that the cases detected in Kerala may not be the super-spreader event in Spain that triggered a global outbreak.

Scientists have called it the curious case of the Indian monkeypox genomes. According to an analysis by the scientists, genomic sequencing of the samples of Indias first two monkeypox cases has revealed the A2 strain of the virus, while the European outbreak has been caused by the B.1 lineage.

In a tweet, Dr Vinod Scaria, a scientist at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, said, We might be looking at a distinct cluster of human-human transmission and possibly unrecognised for years.

The curious case of Indian #Monkeypox Genomes

Wonderful effort by clinicians in @KeralaHealth who diagnosed the disease and researchers at @icmr_niv, we now have sequences of MPX isolates in @GISAID . This short is on what the early genomes say.

Analysis @bani_jolly pic.twitter.com/xsQcOiQNHx  Vinod Scaria (@vinodscaria) July 27, 2022

The analysis pointed out that the monkeypox could have been in the country for years, even earlier than the outbreak in Europe.

"The earliest sample in the cluster from the US is indeed from 2021 suggesting the virus has been in circulation for quite some time, and earlier than the European events," he added.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis  that gets transmitted to humans from animals  with symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients, albeit clinically less severe.

India has so far reported four cases of monkeypox, including three in Kerala and in Delhi. While three cases had a foreign travel history, the Delhi patient had attended a stag party in Himachal Pradesh. He is currently in LNJP Hospital and is on the way to recovery.

Also Read | In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of Covid-19

Globally, there have been more than 21,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a global health emergency and people which left people with many questions about the virus.
Firebrand Shiv Sena leader and four-time Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate late Sunday in connection with the Rs 1,034-crore Patra Chawl land scam case.

Raut waved at the hundreds of supporters waiting outside and raised a saffron flag, while his wife Varsha, mother and other family members looked on grimly from the balcony of the bungalow as he was whisked away.

Around two dozen ED sleuths accompanied by a unit of the CRPF swooped at Maitree, his Bhandup bungalow around 7 am on Sunday. He was grilled for over nine hours and taken to the ED office at Ballard Estate around 5.30 pm. Around midnight, he was formally placed under arrest.

Also read: Will die but won't surrender; ED has false evidence: Sanjay Raut

The 61-year-old journalist-politician, is a close aide of Shiv Sena president and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and is the chief spokesperson of Shiv Sena.

Over the years, he has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the BJP and has faced the heat of ED since the time he played a key role in the formation of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

The case against me is false, the evidence is false, the documents against me are false.I will not leave Shiv Sena, I will die but not bow down before anyone.they are going to arrest me, and I am ready to get arrestedjhukega nahi, said Raut as he was escorted inside the ED office. I swear by the late Balasaheb Thackeray that I have done nothing wrong and has nothing to do with any scam, Raut tweeted.

Raut has appeared before ED once, however, he had skipped two summons.

Earlier in the day, Thackeray said, Raut may be arrested. What conspiracy is this? Shiv Sena gives strength to Hindus and Marathi people and hence the conspiracy is to finish off the party.

Shiv Senas MVA partners, NCP and Congress, also condemned the arrest saying that it was done with a political motive to muzzle the voice of Opposition parties.

Rauts brother and two-time Vikhroli MLA Sunil Raut said that the ED has not seized any documents related to the case, as there is none. They came with a search warrantthey carried out searches, perused through documents,its a false case, he said, adding that the ED took away documents related to Income Tax returns and financial details filed along with Rajya Sabha nomination.

There were some reports of cash seizure, however, there is no confirmation from the ED.

Raut's lawyer Vikrant Sabne said that nothing has been recovered from him vis-a-vis the Patra Chawl scam.
Politics sits on peoples minds as lightly as a jasmine flower. Things couldnt be otherwise: trustworthy and sensitive individuals are in charge of the State; they run the government in ways that dont disturb the lives of the people. Since only the most virtuous are in political life, every political party is filled with good people who have a great love for the country and a deep understanding of its realities. It is therefore tough to tell one party from the other.

Indeed, Opposition parties exist only since the people wish to ensure that the ruling party gets a break after having selflessly attended to the work of government for a full term. And, for its part, the ruling party looks forward to sharing the opportunity to serve the people with another party.

Although parties take turns at running the government, they work together at all times. All cards are on the table and the government doesnt take a step without legislators from all parties walking along with them. As a happy consequence, the wisest decisions are arrived at always and, contrary to intuition, fairly quickly, too. When the discussions do go on for long at times, they will seem to have been worth the time.

As the possession of power doesnt make a difference to how one sees his or her own place in the world, the political life is solely about securing the wellbeing of all and ensuring that no one feels wronged. Rarely does anyone complain about being short-changed in favour of someone else. Further, the polity is designed such that political figures at all levels -- centre, state, district, taluk and village -- are seen to be doing equally significant work. The happy ties of co-operation between them all seem like the most natural thing.

Elections are simple matters, and cost little. The political parties invariably field men and women of brilliance and integrity. Close to the election date, on a public platform, all the candidates share their ideas of what needs to be done. The voters really face a tough job of choosing from among these very eligible candidates, but choose they must in the end. The fine personalities of the political candidates have made elections a low-risk affair.

Of course, the amazingly lovely polity isnt an accidental achievement. People came to prize the quest for a creative and meaningful life more than anything else and felt that everyone should be able to follow such a quest. The previous jaded polity then began to change in beautiful ways.

Miraculous turns were, in fact, seen everywhere. The judiciary and the police, which work freely without outside interference, came to have less and less work to do, with the disputes among people getting fewer. The natural environment recovered its vigour and now breathes as it did a few centuries ago: the forest cover has grown and grown, and the rivers and the air have become clean beyond anyones wildest expectations. Since economists work together with ecologists, writers, tribals and agriculturists, they have carved up the country into bio-ecological regions to ensure that people find most of what they want within small bio-ecological regions. Tribal and rural communities now have real control over their destiny. Apart from bringing about a fulfilling symbiosis between the producers and consumers, the small-scale economies also help conserve the energy spent on moving goods across long distances.

Building ecologically-based regional economies created tons of meaningful work and volunteering opportunities locally, removing any scope for a few regions to siphon off the profits from the rest. And, so, the villages have got back their groove. The towns and cities too radiate a healthful presence.

Communities -- religious, caste, tribal, linguistic -- are unfailingly good towards each other, and their differences not seen as high or low. Making for a delightful culture of reciprocity, individual self-sacrifice for community wellbeing is as common as the community willingness to let individuals find self-realisation on their own.

India is truly a soulful place.

(The ISEC Professor looks for new ways of looking.)
Time to raise Korean weapons' competitiveness further



Last week, Korea's defense contractors signed deals with Poland to export fighter jets, battle tanks, and self-propelled howitzers worth 20 trillion won ($15.3 billion). Korea also launched a new 8,200-ton Aegis destroyer, which can intercept North Korea's ballistic missiles at sea. The week before last, the nation's first domestically developed KF-21 fighter jet carried out its first test flight after about six and a half years of development and 8.8 trillion won in investments.



The agreements to sell K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers and FA-50 light fighter jets to Poland were significant, as they marked the first such accords with a NATO member country. They reaffirmed the Korean weapons' technological competitiveness, laying a basis to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's big-five weapons exporters  the U.S., Russia, France, Germany and China.



They also opened the way for arms exports to other East European nations where national security concerns are mounting over Russia's war in Ukraine. This year, North Korea has made 19 military provocations by, for instance, launching missiles and firing multiple-rocket launchers. Last Wednesday, Kim Jong-un even warned that "the Yoon Suk-yeol government and his military will face annihilation," should they make any dangerous attempts like a preemptive strike.



Against this backdrop, South Korea's successive weapons-related achievements will serve as a powerful shield that dampens North Korea's will to provoke. Describing the successful test flight of the KF-21 and the launch of the Jeongjo the Great destroyer as "splendid feats toward self-defense," President Yoon vowed to develop the defense industry into a high-tech strategic sector leading economic growth. Strengthening our weapons' competitive edge will not only ensure security, but also boost the economy.



Korea seeks to diversify its export market from China to Europe in areas like nuclear power generation, the defense industry, semiconductors and renewable energy. The latest achievements will provide a stepping stone for such a shift. Korea is the sixth-largest military power worldwide, but its arms exports are in ninth place. We expect the country to emerge as one of the big-six weapons exporters.






In this biography, Gita Piramal  who has proved her mettle in telling Indias business stories on numerous occasions in her previous works  yet again takes us through the journey of one of the most influential entrepreneurs who played an instrumental role in forging not just an Indian but a global automobile company.

One might get initially miffed that Piramal begins the biography of an Indian automobile tycoon with anecdotes about Indias independence struggle but as one reads, one gets convinced about the need to do so. The writer, with her non-linear storytelling that goes back and forth across several timelines, touches on various themes including war, family, patriarchy, business, regulatory hurdles and politics. And does a good job of it too.

The fact that Rahul Bajajs mother, Savitri, was imprisoned during the Quit India movement when Bajaj was just four and the frequent interactions the Bajajs had with the architects of independent India, including Jawaharlal Nehru and the Gandhis, make it evidently clear that Bajaj grew up in a family that had its roots tied to the independence movement in the country.

While the first few chapters of the book move chronologically, setting the foundation for understanding the familial background and setting Bajaj came from, it does break the timeline every once in a while, only to fill the readers in with minutiae from Bajajs childhood  a welcome break from heavier chapters.

Anecdotes around Bajajs academic excellence, life at the Harvard Business School and excerpts from the testimonies of many of Bajajs contemporaries, ranging from business tycoon Ratan Tata to Pakistans ex-premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, brew a perfect recipe in the readers minds about the persona of Rahul Bajaj.

The writer gives multiple accounts of Bajajs father Kamalnayans unending rendezvous with the politicians and policymakers of those times to throw light on the challenges and complications a budding industry had to face in pre-liberalised India.

Piramal pertinently embeds the many political landmarks  Indira Gandhis regime, the Emergency and the end of the licence Raj with the coming of economic reforms in the 1990s  to give a sense of how the evolution of Indias automobile industry cannot be understood in isolation without looking at the political happenings of that time.

Through many such anecdotes, the writer focuses on how the Bajaj Group and its many companies became a household name by the turn of the century.

...the outcome of Bajajs strategy can be gauged from the fact that barring Bajaj Auto, not a single scooter brand of the 1960s ad 1970s survived the onslaught of the Indo-Japanese ventures in the 1980s, the writer summarises after one such anecdote about Bajajs low-cost top quality strategy.

Piramal writes in depth about the success Bajaj Motors tasted amid times when Indian companies were still facing restrictive policies in terms of tight regulations on imports and production licences that were hard to obtain.

The fact that Bajajs famous Chetak scooter became a symbol of mobility for the Indian middle class is a testimony to the kind of brand image Bajaj Auto forged in the minds of its consumers. As a social commentator is aptly quoted talking about the value of the Chetak scooter in an Indian household, With a wife perched uncomfortably at the back, Gudiya squeezed between the two and Cheeku standing up front it had space to squeeze in a full family, a place to carry vegetables, a dickey to store the sundry needs of the family

Beyond business

Piramal doesnt stop at Bajajs life as a revolutionary tycoon in Indias automobile industry but also writes extensively about the impact he had on Indian politics during his stint as the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry and as the Chairman of the International Business Council of World Economic Forum.

The book documents at length Bajajs criticism of various policies, both in business and political spaces. One of the instances involved Bajaj writing a forceful and thought-provoking article condemning the then-Gujarat government for the killings in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Be it the Shah Commission Report on the excesses of the Emergency or the recommendations for the gradual opening up of Indias economy during the 1990s, the book showcases how either Bajaj or his extended family members have had a significant role to play in the shaping of the Indian industry as a whole and not merely that of the automobile.

The story takes us through Bajajs days from being a young, playful yet caring kid to an astute businessman for whom ethics and transparency were of utmost importance. While the writer, on multiple occasions, seems to have repeated some of the happenings, keeping in mind the highly non-linear nature of the book, this is, in a way, helpful for the reader to connect the dots.
Sunday will be an extremely poignant one in the city and in the village of Claudy as families and communities gather to remember those who died in the Claudy massacre and Operation Motorman.

Today (July 31) marks the 50th anniversary of both events and a series of commemorative events has been organised for the coming days.

Speaking to Derry News, Margaret Brady (nee Hegarty) said her family was erecting a plaque outside the home where her brother Daniel was murdered, 114 Creggan Heights, to mark his 50th anniversary during Operation Motorman.

The unveiling will take place at 2.00pm and everyone will be welcome as the family would be glad of the support.

Daniel Hegarty (15) and Seamus Bradley (19) were shot dead by British soldiers during Operation Motorman. Daniels cousin, Christopher, and another man were also shot and critically wounded.

The Bradley family are holding a commemoration at Bishop's Field on Sunday at 12.00 noon in memory of Seamus.

A second commemoration for Seamus Bradley has been organised by the Creggan Monument Committee.

Inviting the community to take part, a post on social media said: There will be a commemoration organised by the Creggan Monument Committee to mark the 50th anniversary of Oglach Seamus Bradley, murdered by the British Army during Operation Motorman, on Sunday, July 31, 1.00pm at the Creggan Monument. All welcome. Fuair se bas ar son saoirse na hEireann.

The Claudy massacre saw three bombs rip through the County Derry village, claiming the lives of nine innocent people and injuring numerous others.

The victims of the Claudy bombing were: William Temple (16); Patrick Connolly (15); Joseph McCloskey (38); Kathryn Eakin (8); James 'Jim' McClelland (65); Rose McLaughlin (52); David Miller (60); Arthur 'Artie' Hone (38); and Elizabeth McElhinney (59).

South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) has been supporting the families over the past year to develop a range of projects and events designed to honour their memory.

There will be a public service at the Claudy Memorial and within the main car park at Claudy commencing at 3pm.

A publication featuring contributions from the families will also be launched on the day of the anniversary.

According to Kenny Donaldson, SEFF's director of services, the bereaved families have shared their lived experiences over recent months with an appointed project facilitator. He added: The schools have also developed a digital-project, working together, in partnership looking at Claudy, the present and what they desire for the future. Plans are also afoot to develop the existing memorial.
An exhibition is to be staged next month to celebrate the life, influence, work and legacy of the late Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly.

A Man For All Seasons will pay tribute to the wide and varied contribution he made to peace and reconciliation in Ireland, to Derry and its diocese as well as the search for justice and to healing the differences that divides the North.

The exhibition, being supported by Derry and Strabane District Council. will be staged in St. Eugenes Cathedral Hall, Infirmary Road, close to St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry from Monday 8 to Sunday 14 August.

The son of shopkeepers Tom and Susan Daly (nee Flood), Edward Kevin Daly was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, but raised in Belleek, in the adjacent county of Fermanagh the eldest of six siblings.

After attending St Columb's College in Derry as a boarder, he spent six years studying towards ordination to the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Derry in Belleek on March 16, 1957.

His first appointment was as a curate in Castlederg in County Tyrone, ahead of being appointed a curate in St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry in 1962.

The then Fr Daly waving a blood-stained which handkerchief as the fatally wounded Jackie Duddy is carried from the Bogside during Bloody Sunday

He left briefly in the 1970s to serve as a religious advisor to RTE in Dublin but spent the majority of his career in Derry.

During his time in the city, he took part in the civil rights marches and had first-hand experience of the Battle of the Bogside in 1969.

The then Fr Daly came to worldwide prominence after the Bloody Sunday murders on January 30, 1972 when, after being close to one of those shot dead, Jackie Duddy - to whom he administered the Last Rites - a photographic image of him waving a blood-stained handkerchief as the fatally-wounded 17-year-old was carried from the Bogside was flashed across the globe.

Commenting on the killing, he said: the talented amateur boxer was 'a young fella who was posing no threat to anybody being shot dead unjustifiably.

He constantly kept a photograph of Jackie given to him by his family on his desk.

Prior to Bloody Sunday, he was sympathetic to the 'old" IR,A' of which his father was a member, but the events of Bloody Sunday left him of the opinion that 'violence is completely unacceptable as a means to a political end,' which led to a tension with the Provisional IRA throughout his career.

In 1973, he worked with RTE in Dublin as a religious adviser for several months, appearing on numerous television programmes and contributing to many television documentaries on religious and Northern Ireland affairs.



He was appointed Bishop of Derry in 1974 - at the age of 40 becoming the youngest bishop in Ireland.

His tenure was marked by conflict with the IRA over that organisation's use of violence to advance its political cause for a united Ireland and he and IRA spokesmen repeatedly exchanged words via the local press.

The Catholic bishops of Ireland discussed the possibility of excommunicating IRA members several times during his tenure, often in the aftermath of a particularly bloody attack, though no decision was ever reached.

He was always reluctant to excommunicate and used the motto 'better to communicate than excommunicate,' for which he was severely criticised by the British tabloid press, but he was outspoken in his opposition to violence by both sides.

He introduced a ban on paramilitary trappings at Catholic funerals and in 1976 organised a protest march through Derry city centre in a response to an increase in sectarian murders, at which he was joined by almost all the clergy in the city and led by his Protestant counterpart, an event which was unprecedented in the city's history.

Throughout his career and particularly his tenure as Bishop of Derry, he took a keen interest in the criminal justice system, seeking to attend to the needs of prisoners, internees and victims of miscarriages of justice including the Birmingham Six (who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, and whose convictions were quashed in 1991).

The scene in the grounds of St Eugene's Cathedral as Bishop Edward is carrying to his final resting place.

Along with the then Catholic Primate of all Ireland, Tomas O Fiaich, he lobbied the British Government in 1977 against its decision to revoke Special Category Status (political prisoner status) from IRA prisoners and subsequently their treatment as criminals.

When the issue culminated in a hunger strike in 1981 which resulted in the deaths of ten prisoners in the Long Kesh prison, he lobbied the European Commission on Human Rights to intervene.

In 1979, he was involved in planning a visit by Pope John Paul II to Armagh, scheduled for September and which had won the approval of the British Government, but the visit was cancelled in the wake of the IRA's assassination of Lord Mountbatten and the Warrenpoint ambush (in which 18 British soldiers were killed), both on 27 August 1979.

The visit was transferred to Drogheda, in the same archdiocese but across the border in the Republic, where the Pope appealed to the IRA to give up armed resistance.

While he was always willing to attend to the religious needs of IRA members, he refused to engage in any formal meeting until 1992, when John Hume, the leader of Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), who was attempting to negotiate a truce with the IRA, and with whom he was close friends, convinced him to meet Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

He later remarked that he shared much common ground with the two, particularly Derry man McGuinness.

Despite the tension between Catholics and Protestants, Daly maintained a personal friendship with James Mehaffey, the Anglican (Protestant) Bishop of Derry and Raphoe from the latter's appointment in 1980.

Among many joint projects they co-founded two charities with the intent to promote community healing in Derry after years of sectarian violence.

He retired from his position as Bishop of Derry in October 1993, after suffering a stroke. He was succeeded by Bishop Seamus Hegarty and in retirement took up the post of chaplain at Foyle Hospice.

Former SDLP leader and Nobel laureate John Hume and his wife Pat with their dear friend and former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly.

He and Bishop Mehaffey were awarded the Freedom of the City in 2015. Then Mayor, Brenda Stevenson, said the joint award was in recognition of the two bishops' efforts towards peace and community cohesion.

Bishop Daly passed in Altnagelvin Hospital on August 8, 2016, at the age of 82, having been admitted after a fall several weeks previously - he had also been diagnosed with cancer.

Among those who paid tribute was President Michael D Higgins and his predecessor Mary McAleese as well as the leaders of various religious denominations.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland, described Bishop Daly as having 'literally spent himself in the service of others' and said he would remembered as 'a fearless peace- builder.'

The bells of the Cathedral tolled for one hour on the morning of Daly's death while many local people visited the church where is remains laid in state.

His coffin was sealed at midday on August 11 and buried after Requiem Mass in the grounds of St Eugene's Cathedral alongside his predecessor, Bishop Neil Farren.

The family of the late Bishop Daly accompany his remains to St Eugene's Cathedral. (Photo - Tom Heaney, nwpresspics)

The funeral, conducted by the incumbent Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown, was attended by multiple religious and political leaders from across Ireland and retired leaders from throughout Bishop Daly's career. A message from Pope Francis was read out at the beginning of the service.

Hundreds of members of the public listened to the funeral service in the Cathedral grounds and surrounding streets.

Many of those present wept openly as his coffin was greeted with applause as it was carried out of the Cathedral for burial.
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Phishing campaigns are among the most frustrating forms of cybercrime because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making you lose access to your various online accounts. There have been numerous phishing campaigns that have been conducted over the years, with most of them attempting to pose as legitimate businesses through emails that contain links. Clicking on these links and filling out the ostensibly legitimate log in page will lead to victims having their account details stolen by malicious actors.A new phishing campaign that was noted by Avanan is especially dangerous because it poses as a very authentic looking log in page for Gmail. Gmail is the most popular email client in the world, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that people are far more likely to trust emails that they receive from this platform than they would emails from other companies.What makes this phishing campaign particularly risky for users is that it preloads their email addresses which gives it an even deeper air of legitimacy with all things having been considered and taken into account. In spite of the fact that this is the case, there is a way to figure out if a log in page is trying to phish you. This is by looking at the URL. Even though the log in portal itself would look almost indistinguishable from the real thing, the URL will consist of random letters and symbols which would be a far cry from the minimalist URLs deployed by Google.The phishing as a service group known as SPAM-EGY is likely the main culprit, and this group has already been on Avanans radar for quite some time now. Hovering over links can reveal the URL that they contain, and that can help users parse real sites from fake ones. It is essential that consumers be informed about phishing attacks like this so that they can protect themselves and avoid clicking on links that lead to harmful web pages.Read next: Microsoft and Facebook Top Most Popular In A Report Regarding Impersonation Phishing Scams
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Instagram says it is pausing its rollout of new features on its app following backlash online from users and celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Chrissy Teigen.

Among the new features was an increase in video content being displayed to users and recommendations which were criticised for blocking posts from friends.

Earlier in the week Instagram boss Adam Mosseri posted several videos to Twitter explaining the changes and said he wanted to continue supporting photos.

But on Thursday a spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Instagram, said the company wanted to take the time to get the changes right.

Based on our findings and community feedback, were pausing the full-screen test on Instagram so we can explore other options, and were temporarily decreasing the number of recommendations you see in your feed so we can improve the quality of your experience, a Meta spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

We recognize that changes to the app can be an adjustment, and while we believe that Instagram needs to evolve as the world changes, we want to take the time to make sure we get this right.

we dont wanna make videos Adam lol  chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 26, 2022

In response to Mosseris earlier Twitter video, US model Teigen said that users dont wanna make videos and are seeing lower engagement for photos.

Kardashian and Jenner also shared an online petition to Make Instagram Instagram again on their stories.
August Craft Month celebrates local craft in Ireland across the entire month, with a host of exciting events taking place throughout Louth.

This year is the largest ever August Craft Month with a packed programme of over 230 events including workshops, exhibitions, and festivals to allow audiences to immerse themselves in local craft. People can enjoy creative craft celebrations on their doorstep, as well as hit the road on a craft inspired adventure or staycation.

Local makers such as Aine Dunne, Marlese Louw and the Bridge Street Studios team will all be involved in the celebrations and events, to name a few. The programme provides unmissable opportunities to experience, participate in, support, buy and learn about the local stand-out craft sector. Here are just some of the exciting events on offer in County Louth.

Making Waves

Location: The Makers, 19 Main St Blackrock, Co Louth - Date: August 5th to 14th - Price: Free

Making Waves exhibition provides makers with the opportunity to take their craft to another level in a retail environment. The exhibition will promote products, craft and art which would not ordinarily be seen by the public in store.

Some of the craft makers taking part include Constance Short (Print), Caoilfionn Murphy OHanlon (Felt Making), Grace Brennan (Glass), Rachel Tinniswood (Mixed Media), Paula Stapleton (Mixed Media), Sarah Mckenna (Ceramics), Mary Cowan (Ceramics), Michele Hannan (Ceramics) and Mark Delaney (Wood).

Jewellery Making

Location: St Peters COI Parish Hall Drogheda, Peters Street, Drogheda, Louth - Date: 6th August - Price: Free

The Cottage Makers Share is a monthly workshop series to support the ethos of putting Homemade, Homegrown and Handcrafted back into the heart of the community. Makers are invited to share their skills, allow visitors to experience their work and take home some new tips and ideas on market day.

Clay artist Marlese Louw will introduce visitors to the the intriguing world of polymer clay. Participants will be guided in designing and creating their own piece of jewellery . Perfect for beginners of all ages.

Hand Spinning Local Sheeps Wool

Location: An Cruach, Ballymakenny, Drogheda, Louth - Date: 16th August - Price: Free

Participants will make their own yarn using local sheeps wool. They will be introduced to finger spinning, drop spindle spinning and spinning wheel. The workshop will be hosted by at her studio in Co. Louth.

Bridge Street Studios 20/20

Location: Bridge Street Studios, 97 Bridge Street, Dundalk, Co Louth - Date: 25th August - Price: Free

Bridge Street Studios a thriving hub of craft and design in Dundalk town are hosting a 20/20 evening. Join the artists and makers in their atmospheric 275 year old building as they each present 20 slides/20 seconds exploring their diverse inspiration, craft and processes followed by Q+A and open studios.

Craft NI, Design & Crafts Council Ireland and Cork Craft & Design have come together to deliver this important initiative. For more information, and to get a feel for the craft events near you and across Ireland, visit www.augustcraftmonth.org.
After a whirlwind tour of 12 dates across the country in 2021,Iron Annie, which is set in Dundalk, is back - bigger, better, and brighter, with a fresh new look and feel!

And Iron Annie is on its way to Dundalks Spirit Store on Saturday the 6th of August, after a very successful run in Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, and Accidental Theatre in Belfast.

The production will also be showing in Edinburgh, as part of the renowned Edinburgh Festival programme.

There is a definite buzz surrounding the show this year as Luke Cassidys novel Iron Annie was recently shortlisted for the 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize.

This award is regarded as the most prestigious award for first time novelists in the UK and Ireland.

From a longlist of ten, Iron Annie featured on the shortlist with two other debut novels.

Luke Cassidy is also delighted to have been longlisted in France for the Festival du premier roman de Chambery (Chambery First Novel Festival).

This is a unique prize highlighting the best Francophone and European debut novel of the year.

The Irish Independent described the book Iron Annie as "probably the most ambitious and well-written debut this year."

Author Derek Owusu, chair of the judging panel for the Desmond Elliott Prize said the following about the shortlisted novel: Luke Cassidy takes us on a road trip through the gritty underworld and complicated elements of friendship, love, and society.

With a language all his own, Cassidy has produced an incredible debut, filled with energy, oddball characters and a lot of compassion.

In bringing the story to the stage, Cassidy intends to give audiences the same experience readers have been enjoying.

Iron Annie tells the story of Aoife, and her doomed relationship with the beautiful but capricious Annie.

Set against the backdrop of the larger-than-life criminal underworld of Dundalk, their adventures also take them on a whirlwind road trip across the Irish Sea to offload ten kilos of cocaine swiped from a rival.

Expect erotic interludes and a story that is in turn tender and violent.

Iron Annie stars actor and Dundalk native Georgia Cooney, who will be playing the inimitable Aoife.

A recent graduate of TU Dublins Conservatoire of Music and Drama, Iron Annie is Georgias professional theatre debut.

Georgia, speaking about the role, said: I am very excited to be bringing the character of Aoife to life.

Its extra special that my first professional theatre production is centered around my hometown of Dundalk, showing all its complexities and dark humour.

I feel honored to be representing a character like Aoife on stage, to give her a voice, especially in a home-grown live theatre production.

Theatre Director and Associate Director for Prime Cut Productions, Rhiann Jeffery, will be joining the production as director this year.

Rhiann promises a fresh take on the show, bringing her considerable experience to the table.

Musical performances feature original material inspired by the book, written, and performed by newly formed border punk band False Slag.

False Slag describe themselves as a collective incarnation of the atmosphere of the Irish border banditry, in keeping with the theme of the book and the production.

Irish artist and musician Annie June Callaghan will also be performing original songs by the Dandelion Few which have been composed exclusively for the show.

Iron Annie promises to be a rollicking adventure.

Author and playwright Luke Cassidy said: It has been a real journey with Iron Annie, and what an honour it is to be shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize.

I am hopeful that this will help bring Iron Annie to new audiences. I am thrilled to be taking this one-of-a-kind live stage show back on 2the road.

"I think audiences are in for a real treat: think Reservoir Dogs meets Fleabag, with a badass original soundtrack played live to accompany the action.

Iron Annie is not only an exciting piece of theatre, its a piece of work that has a lot to say about Irish culture, literature, and home-grown talent right now. A must see!

The production has been made possible thanks to the support of the Arts Council.

Tickets cost 16.50 (inc booking fee) and are available on the Spirit Store website.
By Donald Kirk





Chinese rhetoric over Taiwan is getting more strident all the time. It's hard to believe the Chinese will go beyond the kind of big talk we've been hearing since Chiang Kai-shek fled there with his defeated forces before the victory of Mao's Red Army on the mainland in 1949, but the shrill nature of Chinese intimidation there and elsewhere is cause for mounting concern.The implications are clear. If China were to move militarily against Taiwan, both the United States and Japan would get involved. The U.S. has no troops, no advisers, no defense pact with Taiwan, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations, but we may be sure Americans would enter the war initially as advisers. In a real showdown, the U.S. might also provide air support from bases in Okinawa and Guam, as well as aircraft carriers, while rushing in billions of dollars' worth of supplies as it's doing for Ukraine.Ominously, from the viewpoint of nations worried about a resurgence of Japanese military power, the Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be just what Japanese conservatives need to nullify Article 9 of Japan's "no war" constitution, drafted in 1947 during the American occupation, barring Japanese from waging war beyond Japan's immediate borders. The Japanese could then rename their "Self-Defense Forces" as simply their armed forces and double the military budget from one percent of the country's gross domestic product, expected to exceed five trillion dollars this year, to two percent.War for Taiwan would give members of Japan's long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party a boost on the basis of which they could fantasize Japan again becoming a military force in Asia. The prospect of Japan's military revival arouses distinctly mixed feelings among other Asian countries, especially South Korea. Yes, Japan could provide much needed support if the flames of war leaped from Taiwan to the Korean peninsula and North Korea attacked the South. With memories of the colonial past under Japanese rule and many difficulties since then, however. Koreans would have reason to fear whatever the Japanese might do on the Korean peninsula, North as well as South.As war clouds loom over Taiwan, the chances are high that the fighting would spread first to the Senkaku Islands not far from Taiwan. The Japanese zealously hold this uninhabited island cluster, defending it with coast guard vessels capable of firing water cannon on Chinese "fishing boats," laden with electronic surveillance gear, when they come too close and sending planes in hot pursuit when Chinese aircraft violate the Senkaku air space. The Chinese claim the islands, which they call Diaoyu, as assiduously as they claim Taiwan. It's not difficult to imagine either Japan or China setting up a military base on the largest of the islands. For that reason alone, the Japanese see them as worth fighting for  too valuable to abandon.Chinese ambitions extend to Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and beyond. So far there appears no way to talk the Chinese into yielding on their absurd view that the entire South China Sea belongs to them. As American warships and planes regularly intrude into China's self-declared space, a war for Taiwan could just as easily spread southward. Already the Chinese are looking for bases in the South Pacific, striking up deals with some of the small island nations that were occupied by Japan before the Americans drove them out in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II.Just as easily, the fighting could flare from the initial flashpoint, Taiwan. The dark forces unleashed by war across the 100-mile-wide straits between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland would quickly reach Northeast Asia, notably the Korean Peninsula. The rhetoric from North Korea resembles that of Chinese claims to Taiwan. The atmosphere in South Korea for now appears tranquil and peaceful. It's difficult to imagine a third Korean War.Kim Jong-un could go on the offensive beginning with an artillery barrage across the Demilitarized Zone or an attack on the small islands held by South Korea in the West or Yellow Sea not far from North Korean shores. Or he could launch his dreaded missiles, pummeling American and South Korean bases. Might nuclear war be next?Anything's possible as the Chinese edge closer to war for Taiwan than they've ever done previously. We have to hope they're only bluffing, as they've done so often in the past.Donald Kirk ( www.donaldkirk.com ) has been covering the confrontation of forces in Asia for decades.
Irelands largest traditional musical festival, the Fleadh Cheoil, has returned after a two-year absence.

President Michael D Higgins formally opened the celebration of music, dance, song and storytelling in Mullingar, Co Westmeath on Sunday.

The festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Mullingar staging of the festival has been titled The homecoming as the town was the venue for the first Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann more than 70 years ago in 1951.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit the festival over the coming week as artists from around the world take part in 150 competitions.

The opening ceremony heard a tribute to tragic primary school teacher and talented traditional musician Ashling Murphy, 23, who was killed while out jogging beside a canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly in January.

Scholarships in Ms Murphys memory will be awarded to musicians during this years Fleadh.

The festival programme will also include a special performance by a group of Ukrainian musicians.

At the opening ceremony, President Higgins highlighted the ongoing importance of traditional music in Irish culture.

Music matters so much to us a nation, an artistic medium for which we have high culture and value, he said.

It features centrally in our history and culture.

Fleadh executive committee chair Joe Connaire said: We are so pleased to have finally arrived at this momentous gathering.

We are very proud that Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann has returned to its roots here in Mullingar, where the first ever Fleadh took place, organised by founding members of Comhaltas (Irish culture organisation).

From just a few hundred people in attendance all those years ago, to the hundreds of thousands who will flock to the county this year, the Fleadh is intrinsic in preserving the legacy of Irish traditional music, dance and culture.
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
A young Cork woman described how her former partner arrived in her bedroom at night and threw a pregnancy test kit at her during a series of violent assaults.

The young at man denied breaching any domestic order or assaulting her in any way and claimed through his solicitor that it was a complete fantasy by her.

After hearing the evidence in the case at Cork District Court Judge Marian OLeary convicted the accused on the charge and adjourned sentencing until September 6 to allow time for preparation and service of a victim impact statement.

The victim said it was an on/off relationship that was finished before the occasion when the assaults were carried out.

She testified at a private sitting of Cork District Court that the accused arrived in her bedroom and started screaming at her and calling her names.

I jumped out of bed and asked him to leave my house. He refused and threw a pregnancy test at me. That is when he started hitting me and punching me and refusing to let me leave my bedroom.

The attack went on for a good while. I remember having a seizure When I came around he was still hitting me, she said.

She was looking for her own phone or her work phone but she said he had taken both and would not let her ring for help.

At one stage she begged him to let her go to the toilet. He did and she ran for the front door.

When I got to the front door he grabbed me. We were fighting at the door. I was screaming for help from neighbours. That is when he said about killing me and screaming I was a whore and a tramp, she said.

The young woman got the protection order in November 2020 because she said the relationship was very toxic and on the night he breached it he was punching her in the face, head and ribs. She said she lost count of how many times he hit her. She said the ordeal lasted about half an hour.

Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, said the first guard to arrive on the scene commented that the young woman did not look overly distressed or dishevelled.

The defendant called the allegations by the complainant outrageous and false and a fantasy by the complainant.

The young man said he was never in trouble in his life and would never assault a woman or anyone at all for that matter.

Inspector James Hallahan prosecuted the case. When the accused was asked why he thought the complainant would make the allegations, he said, I dont know if it is something that is messed up with her. I hope she can get it figured out and not be making accusations.

The defendant was remanded on continuing bail for sentencing.
The cost of petrol and diesel is steadying slightly, however, it is impossible to predict what is to come, AA Ireland has warned.

Their latest Fuel Price Index showed the average pump price for petrol in July was 200.3c per litre, while diesel was 201.8c.

Fuel prices spiralled earlier this year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

AA Ireland's Paddy Comyn said it is impossible to know how events around the world will impact the price of fuel here.

"Things did look like they were getting very bad about four to five weeks ago, but thankfully the predictions of it reaching as much as 2.50 per litre haven't materialised for now," he told Newstalk.

"If anything, we can look forward to a few weeks of stability," he added.

The price index also revealed the price of fuel in July before tax was 98.075c and 110.16c for petrol and diesel respectively, while the cost of a barrel of oil was $109 (106.60).

According to the AA's figures, in the same month last year, petrol cost 139.5c per litre while diesel was 129.9c, with 2c since added to the price following the budget last October.
James Cox

Hospitals will face an "avalanche" of legal cases if security concerns are not addressed following a large rise in assaults on nurses, an employment law solicitor has warned.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for increased security across all areas of hospital campuses after a large rise in assaults on nurses.

This comes as figures reveal that more than five nurses were physically, verbally or sexually assaulted each day in the month of June.

The INMO said in 2021 the Health and Safety Authority recorded 7,477 inspections but only 446 inspections in health and social care settings, compared to 2,865 in construction.

Figures obtained by the INMO, compiled via the HSE's National Incident Management Scheme, revealed that in 2020 more than 8,667 staff reported physical, verbal and sexual assault in the workplace.

Nurses and midwives suffered 48 per cent of those injuries, with 4,166 nurses and midwives reporting some type of assault.

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan told BreakingNews.ie: "The position in relation to it is that an employer is responsible if there is an assault on an employee."

Mr Grogan pointed to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005, which sets out employers' responsibility for creating a safe system of work.

"If an employer has not put in a safe system of work, then they're on the hook for a personal injury claim for the injury sustained by that staff member," he explained.

"I understand some will say 'well, we're a hospital'. That's well and good, but if this is happening they need to put in the appropriate protections.

"We know that there are people coming in blind drunk, people coming in who have taken drugs, or are coming in after a violent incident... that is not an inherent risk for someone working there, that they're not entitled to a safe system of work.

"The issue that's coming up is, they have to show what they've done to protect people. How often have gardai been called is the type of question a solicitor will ask.

"If you have a history of a particular individual coming and being disruptive, what have you done in that situation?

"I understand the difficulties hospitals have, they have to give treatment to people, but the safety of staff comes equally, if not more, to the safety of a patient coming in who has a history of being violent. The position to date has been that nurses and doctors have taken a benign attitude towards this, that is beginning to change."

Mr Grogan said a case where a nurse, or any member of hospital staff, who has been assaulted that reaches court "will not be an answer of 'we had no choice but to treat this person'. The issue is what protections did you put in for the staff in relation to that?"

'Zero tolerance'

He said the HSE, and hospital management, should be taking a "zero tolerance approach" to any assaults on staff.

"Gardai should be called after any assault; this is not always being done."

Mr Grogan is also a personal injury lawyer, and he pointed out that the psychological effects of workplace assaults can be severe on individuals.

"Employees have a right to a safe system of work. Some may claim it's [assaults] an occupational risk, that's not right.

"When the employer knows this is a problem, it's not good enough to say 'this is just a fact of life'.

"Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, employees can put in a complaint or a grievance. They can say 'I'm not going to work in a situation where I'm put at risk going forward, I require appropriate protections to be put in place'.

"What the HSE has been very lucky with to date, is the fact that nurses and doctors have not been bringing these claims. Those claims will start being made, some of them for a safe system of work.

"I deal with cases where people have been assaulted at work, it's not just the physical injury, it's the psychological damage that comes too, the fear that this will happen again. This will drive people from the health service."

If it isn't done what's going to happen is some person has a weapon on them and some nurse or doctor gets killed. At what stage do we say enough is enough?

Mr Grogan said a "two-pronged" approach is needed. The most important factor is the additional security the INMO has called for, he said, adding that tougher legislation for those who commit assaults on hospital staff is also necessary.

"If these changes aren't made the pushback from the INMO and solicitors representing nurses will be 'here's a set of proceedings, now start dealing with this down in the courts'.

"Here's a claim from the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act looking for appropriate protections to be put in place, not just compensation for a breach of their rights but for appropriate protections to be put in place.

"Someone will point out this is going to cost a lot of money. Yes it will, but if it isn't done what's going to happen is some person has a weapon on them and some nurse or doctor gets killed. At what stage do we say enough is enough?"

He said the assault figures highlighted by the INMO are "unacceptable in any kind of organisation".

What's happening in hospitals at the minute is there is no deterrence in place, you don't see security in most hospitals.

"The INMO is conservative with these figures, they understate rather than overstate. The true figure is probably substantially higher.

"We are also personal injury solicitors, our advice to employers is always 'you don't want to have an accident in your workplace, it is always better to have protections in place for your staff's safety'. You don't want to see any worker assaulted.

"People working in hospitals have a hard enough job as it is. Legislation should also exist that having taken drugs or alcohol is no excuse, it actually makes the offence more serious.

"Stop people being injured. That's why there are extra guards at a bank holiday weekend, to deter people from drink-driving.

"What's happening in hospitals at the minute is there is no deterrence in place, you don't see security in most hospitals."

Mr Grogan concluded: "I don't want this being kicked to touch until such time as we have a dead nurse. This is a risk that has been identified, it has been there for a number of years. Hospitals are already late in addressing it. This has to be dealt with now, immediately. If it is not dealt with, the repercussions are because of their failure to address a known risk.

"The judiciary can only deal with it if they have the appropriate legislation, they will deal with it if that legislation is put in place."
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 Eugene Lee





In today's media, you'll find a very much disarray in opinions voiced over what is lawful and what is moral when it comes to issues of state governance. I've decided to offer a little bit of interpretation of what is what and how it all needs to be treated. We, humans, throughout all our history have been striving for many things, and the best type of governance is one of them.



This pursuit, as old as history itself, has taken a variety of forms. In religious terms, in teachings of Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad, all sought to envision an ultimate, good society in one way or the other. As time went on and written history and political philosophy began to play a larger role, the treatises of Plato and Aristotle in the West, and Wu Jing in the East rose to prominence. We were trying to find the best way to organize ourselves to achieve social order and spread prosperity across society.



The government, meaning the administrative bureaucracy, is a group of people who, in a structured way, are put in charge of administering a country. Governance, on the other hand, is different from government and may or may not be the product of it. It is "the process of interaction between laws, norms, rules, power and language" over a country, in our case.



In other words, just by the definition, it is insufficient to claim that one will be able to run the country by the law. To run a country just "by the law" is simply impossible, because to make sure that the law is applied meaningfully will require enforcement of it, i.e. the existence of a system bigger than the government itself to supervise all of its subjects, including the government itself. Moreover, all this shows the folly of the current administration, which is ready to bypass "norms, rules, power and language," crucial ingredients of any governance.



Even if so, let's talk a bit more about such an application of the law. On the individual level, we have two aspects that govern our behavior  law and morality.



According to one definition, the law is a set of rules written by a legislative body and supported by government institutions. These are, we term them as legal, rules, that the state establishes and upholds with the goal of regulating behavior and averting negative outcomes.



Morality is a set of ideas and guidelines concerning what is good or bad, right or wrong and permitted or not. Moral standards, being products of society or certain social groups. Just like legal norms, moral norms point out to people the proper behavior to engage in as well as the penalties for not doing so.



One important distinction between the two is that the law is hard-coded, inscribed on a medium, and moral rules are not. Plus, moral norms do sanction individuals, sometimes even immediately, whereas the law may not. Social morality and moral ideals, begot by society, influence each one of us, even before we come to existence.



Whenever it comes to their enforcement, there are social costs of moral rules, as well moral incentives  guilt or virtue felt by an individual, and admonition or praise given by others (i.e., if you see a dropping approval rate  check your morals!).



In their relationship morals usually stand higher than the law. The law is, in a way, a product of moral values that at some point society has decided to protect. With its higher social value, morality is far superior to the use and application of the law. When an administrator is faced with a situation where a choice needs to be made, it is morality, not the law that usually is taken as guidance. Lack of morality, or distorted morality of any administrator will end in immoral acts without being conscious about the conduct.



The major issue with moral values and principles is that they work well at the individual level. Once individuals begin to engage in group relations, be it a branch of government, an organization or a firm, those principles tend to dilute, as matters of group loyalty and conformity come into play. Instead of serving the common good, an immoral bureaucrat may easily find companions and abuse the power to serve group or individual goals.



South Korea's path in search of the best way to govern itself has been ziggy-and-zaggy. Going from monarchy, surviving through external subjugation, enduring autocracy, being challenged by communism and being entangled in crony nets of an oligarchy, it has finally arrived at a democratic form. It is far from perfect and from encompassing everything and everyone.



It is relatively young, hence it is striving to survive. In spite of the toil and sacrifice, it can be lost. It needs support and care. So, when it comes to the current administration's decisions, my call would be toward those traditional moral values that Korea is trying to rediscover. The administration must be careful and prudent, and we must be careful and prudent.



As Plato calls for leadership to be "wise," so would I. And as he once warned against leadership being unbalanced, or as in his words, do not let "greed, ambition, and foolishness" rule your decisions, I would stick to that also. So, let not the law be your guide, but your morals. But even then, please, double-check your moral allegiances. Make sure they are truly yours and not someone else's.





Eugene Lee (mreulee@gmail.com) is a lecturing professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Specializing in international relations and governance, his research and teaching focus on national and regional security, international development, government policies and Northeast and Central Asia.




Team IOM Medals >> 0 0 0

Day Two: Manx gymnast qualifies for Women's All Around Final

Sat, 30 Jul 2022

Tara Donnelly has qualified for the Women's All Around Final in the Artistic Gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The 23-year-old recorded a total score of 43.7 in the morning qualification at Arena Birmingham.

She finished 23rd in the overall standings following the afternoon session.

Tara was the first home nation to compete in the sport at this year's Games.
After carrying the latest piece of the countrys Tiangong space station to orbit on July 24th, a Chinese Long March 5B rocket reentered Earths atmosphere on Saturday, creating a dazzling (albeit somewhat unsettling) display as it crashed down in the Indian Ocean. A Twitter user named Nazri Sulaiman captured a 27-second clip of the rockets first stage breaking up in the skies above Kuching, Malaysia. Sulaiman and others initially confused the spacecraft with a meteor shower until astronomers correctly identified the debris as the remains of a Chinese rocket.

On Saturday afternoon, US Space Command confirmed the Long March 5B re-entered Earths atmosphere at 12:45PM ET. China said most of the debris burned up in re-entry over the Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Malaysia. Unlike many modern rockets, including the SpaceX Falcon 9, the Long March 5B cant reignite its engine to complete a controlled atmospheric re-entry. That has led to worry about where the rocket would land every time China has launched one. On a test flight in 2020, remnants of a Long March 5B fell on villages in the Ivory Coast , leading to property damage.

Reentry looks to have been observed from Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. Debris would land downrange in northern Borneo, possbily Brunei. [corrected] https://t.co/sX6m1XMYoO  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) July 30, 2022

Following Saturday's re-entry, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticized China for lack of transparency. The Peoples Republic of China did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth, he said on Twitter . All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property.

China plans to employ the Long March 5B at least two more times. In October, the rocket will carry the third and final part of Tiangong to space. Next year, it will do the same with the countrys Xuntian space telescope.
A 45-year-old Screwball Comic Novel Plays Out in Real Life  No Kidding.

Last week Denny Hatch, 87  author of five books on direct marketing and four novels  blinked in disbelief when he scanned the headlines on his iPad. Whereupon he burst out laughing. In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "It was deja vu all over again."

Elon Musk's dad, 76, ready to donate sperm to 'high-class' women: 'Why not?' Andrew Court, The New York Post, July 19, 2022,

Elon Musk's 76-year-old father claims he's been asked to donate sperm to create more people like his son, report says Sam Tabahriti, Business Insider July 22, 2022

Errol Musk Reveals He Was Asked To Donate Sperm To Father An Assembly Line Of Elon Musks. You Read That Right! James Paul, Mashable.com, July 19, 2022

Here's a news release about Denny Hatch's 1975 book. He is now seeking a publisher interest in re-publishing it;

Contact Denny at: dennyhatch@yahoo.com or call him at: 215-644-9526
Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

An effort to update one of the most comprehensive databases tracking school shootings nationwide is no longer receiving federal funding, according to the projects top researcher, who says a private contractor recently decided not to renew his contract working on the database.



The K-12 School Shooting Database has been widely cited by news organizations and featured in dozens of academic reports and studies, including numerous analyses of school safety by federal government agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of Education and the Government Accountability Office.



Since its inception four years ago, prompted by a high-profile school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the database had been supported by the federal Center for Homeland Defense and Security.



But database co-founder David Riedman said a private company contracted by the federal center told him on June 30 that his contract with the company to work on the database, which expired that day, would not be renewed.



Riedman said he believed political pressure played a role in that decision, which came weeks after the database received heightened press and public attention following a mass school shooting in Uvalde,in late May in which 19 children and two adults were killed  the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.



Riedman said he's updated the database on his own over the past month on a separate website hes funding himself, k12ssdb.org. He said hes committed to continuing the project but plans to do so independently.

Sam Owens, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

"I'm disappointed to see after four years for the project to go that direction after one of the worst school shootings in recent U.S. history," said Riedman.



Lea Culver, president and CEO of the private contractor, Creek Technologies Inc., declined to comment on why Riedmans contract was not renewed, saying the company "does not comment directly on (employment) and consultant issues."



Creek Technologies, an Ohio-based company that specializes in information technology, educational services and management consulting, "continues to deliver high-quality services" to the federal center "and is not breaching its contractual obligations," Culver said.



The Center for Homeland Defense and Security this month revised its website to say future updates to the database will be done by Riedman on the new, independent website he created and provided a link to Riedmans website.



The center said it plans to convert the data previously collected into a historical report that will be part of an upcoming School Shooting Safety Compendium to aid officials and researchers on the topic. Along with the report, the new Compendium website will include data, research links, recommended policies, procedures, and resources related to school safety and preventing violence in schools, the centers website said.



Ed Early, a spokesman for the U.S. Navys Naval Postgraduate School based in Monterey, Calif., which operates the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, said in a statement: Neither CHDS nor NPS was or is a party to financial or employment negotiations between Creek Technologies and its subcontractor. Within federal regulations and guidelines, the contractor can pursue different paths and options to meet the governments requirements to include employment of sub-contractors or not.



Regardless of any changes behind the scenes, what is important is that CHDS remains committed to supporting the K-12 School Shooting Database project and ensuring that this valuable resource continues to inform policymakers on possible solutions to these extraordinarily tragic events, the statement added. As part of this effort, CHDS has taken measures to maintain the historical database record on the CHDS website as a definitive, reliable resource for CHDS students, researchers and the public.



While some other federal and privately run databases track gun violence nationwide, the K-12 School Shooting Database stands out in several ways.



"It's very, very valuable," said Justin Heinze, an educational psychology professor at the University of Michigan who has used the database. "What I like a lot about this database is the granularity."



The definition for what types of incidents the database captures is broad. Riedman said the purpose is to not just account for high-profile mass shooting events, but also systemic gun violence incidents that can go overlooked and have been shown to disproportionately impact students of color and students from low-income families. According to the database, it "documents when a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time, or day of the week."



There are more than 2,070 incidents recorded in the database, from a shooting Monday near a New York City high school that wounded a 16-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl to the nations deadliest school shooting on record  the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in which 20 children and 6 adults were killed.



The data dates to 1970  far longer than many other gun violence data sources  and it updates daily, whereas government data on mass shootings can lag by months or years.
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The devastating drought gripping South Texas  while taxing water resources, the states power grid and lawns  has at least kept mosquitoes at bay.

Droughts usually wreck mosquitoes habitats by drying up moist breeding grounds, such as stagnant pools of water or swampy backyards. With this summers sparse rains, San Antonio has fewer spots where these bloodsuckers can swarm and bite people.

Pedro Guzman is more than OK with the paucity of mosquitoes.

He and his family drove from their hometown of El Paso for a few days of relaxation in San Antonio  and time away from West Texas drenching monsoon season.

I have not noticed one bug. Its been comfortable, thank God, Guzman said as he fished for talapia in the San Antonio River near Brackenridge Park with his two daughters, ages 4 and 12, a niece and in-laws.

It was 7 p.m. Thursday. The heat had eased a bit  from a high of 100 degrees to a slightly more reasonable 95.

He described El Paso at this time of year, with plenty of rain and humidity, as a mosquito mecca.

Not that the pests have altogether abandoned San Antonio.

Theres definitely still mosquitoes, said Molly Keck, a pest management specialist at Texas A&M Agrilife Extension. But because were in drought and theres no standing water in artificial containers or storage basins and other places where they breed, the population is naturally going to be lower.

Mosquitoes are attracted to stink water  water thats nutrient-rich with algae, organic matter or debris. A baby pool left unattended in a backyard can attract them. So can dirty gutters after a rain or a childs toy with contours where water can pool. Some mosquito species also breed in stormwater basins or mucky water that accumulates in ditches, Keck said.

Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water, where their larvae will live until they can buzz off to start breeding. But without suitable water, the eggs will not hatch, preventing future adult mosquitoes from continuing the cycle.

The current drought has forced many mosquitoes to search elsewhere for stinky water. Some rivers outside San Antonio  waterways that have been receding and experiencing substantial flow reductions  could be more hospitable than usual for mosquitoes as quick-flowing currents give way to standing pools. However, these locations may not be nutrient-rich enough for mosquito eggs to survive.

And if mosquitoes discover puddles suitable for breeding on the dwindling Guadalupe or Medina rivers, they would be too far from San Antonio to bother residents.

At the same time, mosquitoes are not going away. In fact, the record-high temperatures this year  with at least 46 days reaching 100 degrees  partially counter the harm the droughts doing to mosquitoes.

Heat is conducive to mosquito breeding, enabling them to complete their life cycle faster because their metabolism increases when temperatures rise.

In some species of mosquito, the life cycle  in which a bug lays eggs that hatch new mosquitoes that feed, mate and create new eggs  can be as short as a week.

This area of Texas is pretty mosquito-friendly all year around, Keck said. They tend to find a warmer, more protected area to lay low during the colder months, such as some small spot on your porch. Theyll only die if the freezing temperatures are sustained and they cant find a place to hide.

Also, higher heat and faster breeding can increase the number of mosquitoes that carry diseases in Texas. There are 85 mosquito species throughout the state, and at least four of them are known to carry and transmit lethal diseases, such as dengue fever, malaria, chikungunya or eastern equine encephalitis  a very rare but extremely severe disease.

Nevertheless, Keck said temperature is not the most important factor to consider when analyzing mosquitoes. Even as climate change results in hotter temperatures in the future, it wont matter unless theres water. So future droughts will tend to keep their numbers down.

If you dont have a breeding site, that source for them to lay eggs, then you are not going to be seeing a lot of mosquitoes, she said.

Staff photographer Sam Owens contributed to this report.

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net
China, Kyrgyzstan agree to build community with shared future

Xinhua) 10:02, July 31, 2022

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to build a community with a shared future, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Saturday.

China-Kyrgyzstan relations have withstood trials and tribulations and gone through an extraordinary journey, Wang told reporters after meeting with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev.

Under the strategic guidance of the two countries' heads of state, China and Kyrgyzstan have become veritable good neighbors, good friends, good partners and good brothers, Wang said, adding that with no major differences or unresolved issues, the two countries should only pursue greater friendship and more cooperation.

Standing at a new historical starting point, China is ready to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to join hands with Kyrgyzstan to open up a brighter future for bilateral cooperation and deliver more benefits to the Chinese and Kyrgyz people, he said.

The Chinese foreign minister briefed reporters on the series of consensuses reached between the two sides.

Both sides believe that the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Kyrgyzstan should be raised to a higher level. With an eye to the development of bilateral relations in the next 30 years, the two countries decided to build a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future, contributing to the building of a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Both parties are convinced that facing the current complex regional and international challenges, China and Kyrgyzstan should speed up the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping, jointly promote the stability and development of Central Asia, oppose stirring up turmoil and divisions in the region, adhere to true multilateralism, safeguard the basic norms of international relations, and unite efforts in the international community to meet global challenges.

Both sides agreed to further strengthen strategic coordination, continue to firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests, unswervingly back each other in following a path of development in line with national conditions, and resolutely object to foreign interference in the internal affairs of the two countries.

The two sides decided to accelerate high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. They consider the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as a strategic project of regional connectivity, and the time and conditions are becoming ripe for the launch of this important project.

The first group of Chinese experts have arrived in Kyrgyzstan recently and started the survey work, kicking off the construction process of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.

The two sides will also speed up the construction of major projects in Kyrgyzstan, including canals and road networks, and open new border ports to facilitate the flow of people and freight.

They will foster new growth areas such as ecological agriculture, e-commerce, cross-border payments and green energy, build a "green Silk Road," and create a new landscape for common development.

The two countries agreed to vigorously promote China-Kyrgyzstan friendship from generation to generation. China will build a Luban Workshop in Kyrgyzstan as soon as possible to train more vocational and technical personnel for the development of the Central Asian country.

They also agreed to set up cultural centers in each other's country at an early date, and strengthen people-to-people ties to consolidate the foundation of long-lasting friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)




The upcoming launch of Korea's first lunar orbiter mission will be postponed by at least two days due to additional maintenance of a SpaceX rocket, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday.







The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)  also known as Danuri  was initially set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States, at around 8:20 a.m. next Wednesday (KST).







The ministry said SpaceX was in the process of rescheduling the launch to 8:08 a.m. Friday (KST).







It said SpaceX gave a notification of the delay after "discovering that additional (maintenance) work was needed" while going through the preflight inspection process.







The 678-kilogram Danuri is currently at the Florida space center, and is undergoing maintenance and other pre-launch preparations ahead of next week's launch.







The Korea Aerospace Research Institute plans for the orbiter to reach and start circling the moon in December for a yearlong observation mission. (Yonhap)






Ken Branca/Express-News

A man is dead after being shot early Sunday on the South Side and a suspect remains on the loose.

San Antonio police responded to a shooting just before 3 a.m. on the 4900 block of South Flores Street.
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A former Kerr County sheriff, a bullfighting clown and an Irish immigrant to Bandera were inducted into the Frontier Times Museums Texas Heroes Hall of Honor.

Frances Hubble Kaiser, a Bandera County native, served as one of the few female sheriffs in Texas from 1989 to 1999. She was Kerr Countys first female sheriff. She and the other honorees accepted their awards at a ceremony last week.

I am so overwhelmed, Kaiser said.

She thanked everyone whos helped her along the way.

I feel very honored by the life Ive had, and I give all credit to God, Kaiser said.

In Bandera: Ayala: Mixing dinosaurs and high art, Bandera museum is nothing if not eclectic

Leon Coffee, who has been a bullfighting clown for more than 40 years and has broken more than 140 bones, recounted the first time he realized being a bullfighting clown might be an option for him.

Hed been watching some rodeo cowboys practicing, and the guy in charge asked him to go in and try distracting the bull from the cowboys, which is one of the main purposes of a rodeo clown. The man told him that all he had to do was run fast and act goofy.

They kicked me out of school for that, and youre going to pay me? Coffee said, spurring laughter from the standing-room-only crowd.

In addition to other rodeos, Coffee has performed at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo since 1983.

Inducted posthumously into the Texas Heroes Hall of Honor was Irish immigrant Mary McGroarty, who disembarked from the Queen Mary at Ellis Island in 1951 at the age of 26. She and her husband ran the M. Boyle Mercantile General Store and later the Old Spanish Trail Restaurant, or OST, in Bandera.

Marys devotion to St. Stanislaus was deep as she prepared the altar with Mary Stein for several decades and through her work in the churchs food pantry, according to a news release from the museum. Her love of history came through in her work to help establish the Bandera County Historical Commission with Margie Langford. Mary was instrumental in installing the countys first historical marker at the old First State Bank on 11th Street in Bandera, a building Mary and Patrick once lived in with their sons, James and Patrick.

McGroartys son, James, accepted the award on her behalf.

She would help anyone, anytime, any day, he said of his mother.

He told a humorous story about taking his mother to see a justice of the peace after she was accused of running a stop sign.

There used to not be a stop sign there.  Ive been running that stop sign for 65 years, he quoted her as saying to the judge.

McGroarty was described as being just as proud of her Irish heritage as she was of being a Texan and Bandera resident.

In my mothers name, thank you very much, her son told the assemblage.
The fabric of American democracy is interwoven with timely and responsible speech-making. The rhetorical norms governing public speech derive from and facilitate democratic processes and institutions.

U.S. presidents have sometimes strayed from these norms and varied in how they applied them in their rhetorical styles and their situations. Still, presidents have employed these norms chiefly to bolster democracy when confronted by internal and external threats.

Consider, for example, Franklin Roosevelts soothing fireside chats during the Great Depression and Ronald Reagans morally inspiring oratory about the Cold War.

However, given four years of Donald Trumps divisive presidential rhetoric and the recent testimony of Republican officials during the Jan. 6 hearings on how he used public speech to lie about the 2020 election results and failed to defuse the insurrection, Trump inflicted severe damage on rhetorical norms.

Unlike any other president, Trump elevated misinformation, distrust in government institutions and vitriol to undermine democracy. In the case of Jan. 6, his public remarks so enraged his supporters that many tried to overturn the presidential election through violent means.

Rarely did Trump speak to the public consolingly, as did, for instance, Reagan after the Challenger disaster or Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing. This is especially noteworthy given that Trumps failure pertained to the very irrevocable political divisions Trump himself sowed.

Many Americans continue to support Trump precisely because of these norm violations. Yet it is worth considering, as especially Republican members of the Jan. 6 committee have warned, what dangers reside in allowing Trumps violations to go unchecked.

One danger is that, as a result of Trumps disdain for opposition, his followers in local, state and federal governments could try to stifle, if not aggressively suppress, the free speech and assembly of those who disagree with them. During his term, Trump called for the use of such tactics against American citizens protesting police brutality and advocated imprisoning his political opponents. His attacks on free speech already have had chilling effects on the press, public education and other important democratic institutions.

Another danger is that in view of the alliance between Trump and many right-wing religious conservatives  some linked to white nationalist groups  followers could strive to abolish the divide between church and state. In effect, these Trump acolytes could enforce some Christian version of political theocracy and use this religious frame rhetorically to target and demonize opponents as enemies of Christianity, as we now see among many right-wing culture warriors.

In short, future Trump supporters could call for changing the U.S. Constitution to make them immune from all manner of democratic restraint.

Whether Trump will be successfully prosecuted for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection remains to be seen. Voters, of course, can help to restore democracy by supporting candidates to preclude Trump-like surrogates from gaining political control.

However, the real responsibility for saving democracy lies with Republicans who must overcome Trump followers who violate rhetorical norms. Republicans can do this, in part, by requiring other GOP members to honor those norms endemic to American political culture and enacted by respected Republican presidents such as Dwight Eisenhower, Reagan and Abraham Lincoln.

Kenneth Zagacki is a communication professor at North Carolina State University. Richard Cherwitz is the Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin.
Northern Ireland is 'lagging behind' its southern neighbour on Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) legislative measures, farmers in the province warn.

NI's Department of Agriculture (DAERA) has been criticised by the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) following "years of not implementing a full suite of BVD measures".

These include measures that have supported the Republic of Ireland (ROI) in gaining recent approval for their BVD eradication programme, the UFU says.

The outcome has brought about "immediate trade implications" for NI producers moving cattle over the border for breeding and production, as they must meet new requirements (BVD). The UFU says all of this could have been avoided.

The ROI are expected to achieve formal BVD freedom status in 2023, however restrictions on the movement of NI animals have come into effect immediately.

The union's president David Brown said: "Its utterly frustrating that we couldve been in the same position had DAERA taken heed of our advice.

"With the full support of our members, we have lobbied constantly since 2017 to get a full suite of legislative measures in place like those deployed in ROI, to follow their successful blueprint.

"These would have included herd restrictions which could have had a dramatic effect by driving down positive numbers years ago, and neighbour notifications for herds not removing positive animals on time.

"Yet, despite our continual pressure over the years, DAERA have failed to deliver on these asks and this lack of action has landed us in this damaging situation today.

Over the last decade, the UFU says strong gains have been made by industry led BVD measures, with the union working as a key stakeholder to ensure these were implemented.

Beyond calling for a compensation scheme to remove persistently infected (PI) calves, measures included a slaughter ban on positive and untested cattle, and BVD non-conformances within the Farm Quality Assured Scheme.

However, the UFU warns that this work is now being undermined as NI has 'fallen significantly' behind ROI in eradicating the disease and complex trade implications will come into play because of DAERAs "reluctance to act appropriately".

Mr Brown said: The requirements of the Export Health Certificate (EHC) to export to any state which is free from BVD is a guaranteed barrier to trade.

"DAERA are now having to commit resources towards trying to ensure NIs farmers can continue to trade with ROI by training private vets in certifying that the detailed requirements of EHCs have been met.

"While this is now unfortunately needed, it could have been avoided with the proactive implementation of our considered and requested measures."

He added: With that being said, it is essential that officials act with urgency to solve this issue in the manner that should have been applied long ago, instead of telling producers that they must meet new requirements.

"While commitment has been given to deliver revised legislation to make sure any herd retaining a PI is restricted, no further measures have been promised at this point by DAERA.

"Years of progress on BVD eradication have been wasted and the problem lies solely with their veterinary department, he said.
Members of the South Chungcheong branch of the Korea Dairy & Beef Farmers Association pour out milk into a basin at a protest in front of the South Chungcheong Provincial Office, July 11. Korea Times file



By Lee Kyung-min



Fears of a milk supply disruption are mounting, fueled by an impasse between the government and dairy farmers over a move to lower the prices of milk supplied to the confectionery and coffee-making industries, according to officials and the farmers' association, Friday.



The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs seeks to revise the current supplier-friendly price methods, a move dairy farmers characterized as "irresponsible railroading with total disregard of the far-reaching implications for the agricultural business."



The ministry says milk prices remain elevated despite sinking market demand, due in large part to price setting methods tied to production costs, long embraced and demanded by farmers.



Farmers are refusing to accept the ministry's plan to lower the per-liter price of milk for processed dairy product makers to 800 won ($0.62), down from 1,100 won, a level farmers currently charge for retail and wholesale milk products.



They also oppose the ministry's plan to provide processed milk product makers 200 won in government subsidies for every 1 liter purchase. They dismiss the government's claim that the lower input costs will create demand, backed by many consumers favoring locally produced dairy products over imported ones.



Deadlocked negotiations



The ministry said negotiations between representatives of the Korea Dairy & Beef Farmers Association will be halted, Thursday, citing "a lack of trust on both sides."



"It is meaningless to continue talks when the relationship between the two negotiating parties is defined by distrust," the ministry said in a statement. "We will not resume negotiations until after the trust issue is fully resolved," it added.



The deadlock fans concerns of a rapid fall in the self-sufficiency ratio of raw milk production over the past two decades.



The percentage fell to 48.1 percent in 2020 from 77.3 percent in 2001. The number of dairy farms slumped to 4,929, down 61.1 percent from 12,827 over the same period. The number of livestock decreased to 410,000, down 25.2 percent from 548,000. Per-capita milk consumption in the same period fell to 31.8 kilograms in 2020, down 12.9 percent from 36.5 kilograms in 2001.



In contrast, the figure for processed dairy products including cheese, butter and ice cream rose to 83.9 kilograms over the period, up 31.3 percent from 63.9 kilograms.



The rising demand for processed milk products led to local milk production sinking to a total of 2.03 million tons in 2021 from 2.34 million tons in 2001. It pushed up imported milk to 2.51 million tons from 650,000 tons during the same period.


China and various African countries recently signed 14 agreements worth around $170 million at the Promotion Conference for China (Hunan)-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation held in Changsha in central China's Hunan province. The deals covered areas like regional cooperation, strategic agreement, project financing, investment cooperation and trade procurement.

Six Chinese provinces also jointly signed an agreement to advance economic cooperation and trade exchange with African countries at the conference, which also promoted the Pilot Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, official Chinese media reported.

Twenty nine diplomatic envoys from 15 African countries, including Algeria, Ethiopia, Angola, Ghana, and Kenya, attended the event.

China and various African countries recently signed 14 agreements worth around $170 million at the Promotion Conference for China (Hunan)-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation in Changsha in central China's Hunan province. The deals covered areas like regional cooperation, strategic agreement, project financing, investment cooperation and trade procurement.#

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
DGAP-News: Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. / Key word(s): Study results/Study

Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V.: Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Presents Key Phase 2b Data at AAIC 2022 Showing that Varoglutamstat is Well Tolerated at Doses with High Target Inhibition, Highlighting Unique O (news with additional features)



31.07.2022 / 18:00

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Presents Key Phase 2b Data at AAIC 2022 Showing that Varoglutamstat is Well Tolerated at Doses with High Target Inhibition, Highlighting Unique Opportunity in AD Safety data from 181 patients show no on-target toxicity and no clinical signs of ARIA

Therapeutic dose of 600 mg varoglutamstat given twice daily selected by the Data Safety Monitoring Board is known to result in a target occupancy of nearly 90%

Data validate clinical development strategy designed to overcome limitations of AD drug development with varoglutamstat as early intervention, disease-modifying AD therapy with a unique N3pE-targeting mode of action

Breakfast and networking event with webcast scheduled for August 2, 2022, at 7:15 am PDT (4:15 pm CEST) HALLE (SAALE) / MUNICH, GERMANY, July 31, 2022 - Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, today announced detailed results of the completed parallel group, dose-finding part of its European Phase 2b study VIVIAD (NCT04498650). The data were presented at the prestigious Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in San Diego in a poster presentation by Dr. Michael Schaeffer, Vivoryon's CBO. The presentation titled "VIVIAD, A Phase 2b Study Investigating Varoglutamstat in Patients with MCI and Mild AD: Dose Selection and Preliminary Safety Results" (poster P1-403, abstract 69290) included data that led to the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board's (DSMB) decision to select the highest dose investigated in the study (600 mg twice daily (BID)) as the final dose to be administered in the second part of the study. All data remain blinded outside the DSMB. The safety data showed that varoglutamstat was well tolerated with only 14% of overall reported adverse events (AEs) considered to be potentially related to study treatment. All of the AEs were gastrointestinal, general, or related to the nervous system or skin. Only four patients (2.2%) experienced serious AEs (SAEs) and only two patients (1.1%) discontinued the study. Both the total number of SAEs and the discontinuation rate were considerably lower than the respective numbers at the 800 mg BID varoglutamstat dose in Vivoryon's completed Phase 2a SAPHIR study (NCT02389413; 15% SAEs, 33% discontinuation), while retaining a similar level of target inhibition. A total of 110 (60.8%) patients reported treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs), the majority of which (66%) was rated as not related to study treatment, with 20% not assessable. Overall, most AEs were defined as mild (67%) or moderate (31%). The DSMB decision on the selected dose moving forward was based on data at the cut-off date, May 17, 2022. At data cut-off, 181 patients, 91 of which had completed the 24 weeks visit, had been randomized into the study at 600 mg, 300 mg or placebo. Notably, no clinical signs of on-target toxicity, such as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), a side effect frequently reported for antibody-based AD treatment approaches, were observed. The safety results to date further substantiate the potential of varoglutamstat as a monotherapy and as an interesting component of combination therapies, including with anti-Abeta antibodies. Vivoryon is currently investigating this approach in preclinical studies, one of which will also be presented at AAIC today (poster P1-457, abstract 69050, see https://bit.ly/3JglkN9). "Safety of all participants in our clinical studies is paramount to us, and has been a critical breaking point for many therapeutic candidates in the AD field. That is why we could not be happier with these interim VIVIAD data, which are exactly the outcome we had hoped for," said Dr. Michael Schaeffer, CBO of Vivoryon. "With the selected dose of 600 mg BID we believe we have a stand-alone safety profile for varoglutamstat while maintaining high target engagement, which is a critical factor in enabling disease modification. Target occupancy is only marginally lower than that achieved in our SAPHIR Phase 2a study. These combined results strengthen our belief that both VIVIAD and our ongoing U.S. study, VIVA-MIND, have the potential to build on the SAPHIR results, which already reported a number of significant changes in AD-related parameters, most notably significant improvement of working memory. At the same time, the new 600 mg dose significantly reduces any potential safety concerns." "These highly encouraging safety results represent a crucial milestone on our path to clinical proof of concept of varoglutamstat's unique N3pE-targeting mechanism of action in AD, which is not limited to Abeta pathology, but addresses all hallmarks of AD including tau pathology, neuroinflammation and synaptic impairment," commented Dr. Ulrich Dauer, CEO of Vivoryon. "Varoglutamstat is, to our knowledge, the first small molecule and only project in clinical development selectively targeting the de novo production of neurotoxic N3pE-Abeta and modulating neuroinflammation via CCL2. After a number of setbacks our industry has faced, we are confident that based on our data to date we have selected not only the right target with the right underlying mode of action (MOA), but also the right drug candidate to modify this target and the right clinical trial design to change the devastating reality of AD. We wholeheartedly thank all patients, trial sites and investigators and look forward to reporting more data in 2023." VIVIAD is actively enrolling patients at 22 study centers in five European countries and will continue to evaluate its primary and secondary outcome measures, which include multiple cognitive, safety and biomarker endpoints. Vivoryon remains on target to report final data for the study in the second half of 2023. Details on the VIVA-MIND-study design will be presented in an oral presentation at AAIC later this week (Tuesday, August 2, 2022, 9:45 am - 9:55 am PDT (6:45 pm - 6:55 pm CEST), abstract 365197,"A novel, efficient and seamless Phase 2A-2B design to test varoglutamstat in early AD: the VIVA-MIND study"). ###

Webcast Information: Breakfast and Networking Event at AAIC Vivoryon will host a webcasted breakfast and networking event on August 2, 2022

at 7:15 am PDT (4:15 pm CEST), available at https://bit.ly/3uFGTjU. For in-person attendance, please RSVP at Eva.Hoffmann@vivoryon.com. About Varoglutamstat Varoglutamstat (PQ912) is a differentiated oral small-molecule targeting the toxic Abeta species N3pE which is being developed as disease-modifying therapy and is designed to target AD pathology upstream of Abeta-antibody focused approaches. Varoglutamstat blocks the enzyme glutaminyl cyclase (QPCT) and its isoenzyme QPCTL. QPCT catalyzes the formation of N3pE amyloid, a particularly neurotoxic variant of Abeta peptides, which is only found in AD patients and not present in the brains of healthy individuals. N3pE amyloid in the brain acts as a seeding element for Abeta aggregation, thus providing a starting point for plaque formation. It has been described to correlate with the cognitive ability of AD patients. Beyond Abeta pathology, varoglutamstat has also been shown to impact synaptic impairment. Through a second mode of action, the inhibition of full CCL2 maturation via QPCTL, varoglutamstat modulates pro-inflammatory signaling and tau pathology, thereby simultaneously addressing multiple hallmarks of AD. Data from the completed Phase 2a SAPHIR study of varoglutamstat (NCT02389413) provided important safety information and also showed first evidence of the disease-modifying capabilities of varoglutamstat, most importantly with statistically significant changes from baseline in working memory as an important cognitive ability after only 12 weeks of treatment. Vivoryon has received Fast Track designation for varoglutamstat in early AD by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently in clinical Phase 2 development with studies ongoing in Europe (VIVIAD, NCT04498650) and the U.S. (VIVA-MIND, NCT03919162). Varoglutamstat has not yet been approved by any regulatory authority and the safety and efficacy have not yet been established. About Vivoryon's Clinical Development Strategy In an effort to maximize the probability of success, Vivoryon's clinical development strategy is uniquely crafted to overcome the limitations of AD drug development. Both VIVIAD (NCT04498650) and the ongoing U.S. Phase 2a/b VIVA-MIND study (NCT03919162) have been carefully designed to enable a thorough validation of the novel mode of action (MOA) of varoglutamstat. The VIVIAD study builds on data from the completed SAPHIR Phase 2a study (NCT02389413) with the option to establish new and meaningful surrogate endpoints for AD, as called for by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) current draft guideline for AD. Building on the key data obtained from SAPHIR and VIVIAD, VIVA-MIND is designed to add approvable endpoints to the overall Phase 2 data set, with a Phase 2a portion designed to render additional proof of concept data and to minimize the risk of later-stage program failure. In summary, this strategy will enable Vivoryon to deliver a thorough characterization of varoglutamstat in extended Phase 2 studies before advancing towards a potential pivotal Phase 3 study or, if supported by the combined data from both studies, potentially applying for an accelerated approval path. About VIVIAD VIVIAD (NCT04498650) is a state-of-the-art multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel group dose finding Phase 2b study in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild AD. The study seeks to enroll approximately 250 patients. Objectives are to evaluate the long-term efficacy, safety and tolerability of oral varoglutamstat. A composite neuropsychological test battery (NTB) score will be administered throughout the study in order to assess cognitive efficacy. Additionally, a set of exploratory read-outs including cognitive tests, functional electroencephalogram (EEG) and the analysis of new molecular biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) will be used to evaluate the compound's effect on disease pathology. Secondary endpoints include long-term safety and tolerability of varoglutamstat and its efficacy on brain activity, cognition and activities of daily living. Within the parallel group, dose-finding part of the study, the first 90 patients were randomized 1:1:1 (600 mg / 300 mg or placebo, all BID) and treated for at least 24 weeks. An independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) unblinded the data for a safety analysis and recommended 600 mg BID as the final dose to be administered in the second part of the study. All subjects randomized to the treatment arm will be treated at the selected dose of 600 mg BID moving forward and will continue treatment for 48-96 weeks, dependent on study entry date. The data remain blinded outside of the DSMB. Details on the study background and design have been published in the Journal "Alzheimer's Research & Therapy". About VIVA-MIND VIVA-MIND (NCT03919162) is Vivoryon's combined Phase 2a/b U.S. study for varoglutamstat in patients with early AD. VIVA-MIND seeks to enroll 180 patients into the Phase 2a adaptive dose finding part which will investigate a range of 150 mg to 600 mg twice daily. If predefined criteria are fulfilled in an interim futility analysis, the trial will pass a stage-gate into the Phase 2b part, enrolling an additional 234 patients treated at the selected dose for at least 72 weeks, with a total of 414 patients being treated on stable doses of varoglutamstat for 18 months. The primary endpoint for this study is CDR-SB (clinical dementia rating scale - sum of boxes), an established approvable endpoint measuring a combination of cognitive abilities and activities of daily living. The study is coordinated by the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with a $15 million grant (NIA award number R01AG061146). About Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Vivoryon is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative small molecule-based medicines. Driven by our passion for ground-breaking science and innovation, we strive to change the lives of patients in need suffering from severe diseases. We leverage our in-depth expertise in understanding post-translational modifications to develop medicines that modulate the activity and stability of proteins which are altered in disease settings. Beyond our lead program, varoglutamstat, which is in Phase 2 clinical development to treat Alzheimer's disease, we have established a solid pipeline of orally available small molecule inhibitors for various indications including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. http://www.vivoryon.com Vivoryon Forward Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding the business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operations of the Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (the "Company"), estimates and projections with respect to the market for the Company's products and forecasts and statements as to when the Company's products may be available. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; rather they are based on the Management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties and other factors could materially adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. Actual results, performance or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements and from expectations. As a result, no undue reliance should be placed on such forward-looking statements. This press release does not contain risk factors. Certain risk factors that may affect the Company's future financial results are discussed in the published annual financial statements of the Company. This press release, including any forward-looking statements, speaks only as of the date of this press release. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any information or forward-looking statements contained herein, save for any information required to be disclosed by law. For more information, please contact: Investor Contact Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. Dr. Manuela Bader, Director IR & Communication Tel: +49 (0)345 555 99 30 Email: IR@vivoryon.com Media Contact Trophic Communications Stephanie May Tel: +49 171 185 56 82 Email: vivoryon@trophic.eu Additional features:



File: Key clinical Data



31.07.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

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Ozette Technologies, Inc., a Seattle, WA-based technology-driven life sciences startup engineering a transformative leap in cell discovery and annotation of the human immune system, raised $26M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Madrona Ventures with participation from Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital), M12, Microsofts venture fund, Alexandria Venture Investments, OCV Partners and Duke University.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth and to expand its capabilities across a multiomic platform, integrating single cell proteomics and transcriptomics.

Led by Dr. Ali Ansary, CEO and Co-founder, Ozette is a life sciences technology startup building a high-resolution, intelligent, single-cell immune monitoring platform and corpus of high-resolution data leveraging its novel AI technologies. The AI-powered analysis, rooted in research pioneered at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and incubated at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), reveals high-resolution, reliable insights an order of magnitude faster than the gold standard manual analysis. Early partners include small to large biopharma developing therapies in oncology, autoimmune disorders and infectious disease. Founded in late 2020, Ozette was spun-out from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and incubated at the Allen Institute for AI. A new state-of-the-art immunology lab in development will soon offer another asset and avenue for partners to leverage the companys technology, further enabling vertically integrated, automated analysis for immune insights.

FinSMEs

31/07/2022
Mr. President,

First, I thank Ambassador Abdelkhalek and Mr. Hossain for the briefings. I appreciate Egypt and Bangladesh for their outstanding work and important role serving as the chair of the Peacekeeping Commission for 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Thirty years ago, the then UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali first put forward the concept of peacebuilding in his report entitled An Agenda for Peace. 30 years since then, peacebuilding today has become an important instrument for the UN for eliminating the root causes of conflict and achieving sustained peace. Currently, with greater uncertainty and instability in the international landscape, countries in conflict or post-conflict settings face greater challenges in achieving long-term security and stability. The UN and the international community should therefore make greater investment, step up overall planning and coordination, and further tap into the important role of peacebuilding. China has the following points of view in this regard.

First, we should stick to the ownership of the countries concerned. The key for post-conflict countries to achieve sustained peace and development lies in their own efforts. The international community should respect the sovereignty and ownership of post-conflict countries, and provide constructive assistance in line with their will and request. National conditions vary greatly among post-conflict countries and even evolve within the same country as it goes through different stages. The international community should support the countries concerned in exploring development paths that fit their own national conditions and engage in peacebuilding in a targeted manner, aligned with the priorities of the said countries.

Second, development should always be put first. Peacebuilding is all-encompassing and may incorporate a variety of areas and dimensions. For the absolute majority of countries in conflict or post-conflict settings, however, their biggest challenges are developing the economy and improving peoples livelihood. We are of the view that peacebuilding should always be development-oriented, with resources primarily invested in poverty eradication, universal access to education and public health, among others. Support for countries in conflict or post-conflict settings in achieving the SDGs and cultivating a homegrown development drive is conducive to consolidating the foundation for peace. In the Sahel region, military means alone cannot fundamentally eliminate terrorism, and should instead be complemented with active efforts on development and job creation, which help to remove the breeding grounds for terrorism and thus addresses both symptoms and root causes.

Third, we should focus on capacity building. A lack of capacity is a major obstacle to achieving sustained peace for countries in conflict or post-conflict settings. The UN and the international community should help the countries concerned, especially their governments, enhance their capacity for governance, sustainable development, maintenance of common security, as well as their resilience. Unilateral sanctions impede the socioeconomic development of the countries concerned, undermine their capacity in coping with risks and challenges, and thus must be lifted fully and unconditionally.

Fourth, financing for peacebuilding requires a comprehensive approach. China supports the provision of adequate and predictable financial support to peacebuilding in multiple ways. To this end, we should build up innovative partnerships, and explore diverse funding channels for peacebuilding. International financial institutions should increase dedicated investments in a targeted manner, work closely with the UN, government of relevant countries and the private sector, mobilize more funding that can be flexibly disposed, and push ahead peacebuilding projects. Projects supported by the peacebuilding fund should be clearly distinguished from the peacebuilding mandate of UN political and peacekeeping missions to achieve precision in investment and avoid duplication and waste.

Fifth, we need more comprehensive planning and coordination. The PBC, as the only body in the UN peacebuilding architecture that consists of member states, should fully play its convening role, better coordinate with the PBF and other stakeholders, and provide all-around peacebuilding support to countries in conflict or post-conflict settings. China supports stronger interactions between the PBC and the Security Council to create synergy. We look forward to more advice from the PBC to the Council, and encourage to invite, on a more frequent basis, the PBC chair to brief the Council, so that communications can be strengthened. On the issue of Haiti, in particular, we welcome greater commitments by the PBC with its advice on how to strengthen the mandate of BINUH and how to better help Haiti overcome its current difficulties.

Mr. President,

China attaches great importance to peacebuilding, and has always actively supported the construction and development of countries in conflict or post-conflict settings through multilateral and bilateral channels. We have proposed the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative to inject strong momentum into achieving common development. China has made several contributions to the PBF, along with financial support to many peacebuilding projects through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund and China-UN Peace and Development Fund. Currently, these projects are underway. China will continuously support the cause of peacebuilding with concrete actions and contribute to the achievement of long-lasting peace.

Thank you, Mr. President.
A Ching Chiang class patrol ship fires off depth charges underwater as part of a navy demonstration in Taiwan's annual Han Kuang exercises off the island's eastern coast near the city of Yilan, Taiwan, July 26. AP-Yonhap



China said it was conducting military exercises Saturday off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the U.S. House of Representatives to scrap possible plans to visit the island democracy, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.



The ruling Communist Party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army, was conducting ''live-fire exercises'' near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Maritime Safety Administration warned ships to avoid the area.



Such exercises usually involve artillery. The one-sentence announcement gave no indication whether Saturday's exercise also might include missiles, fighter planes or other weapons.



Pelosi, who would be the highest-ranking American elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997, has yet to confirm whether she will go. President Xi Jinping warned his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, in a phone call Thursday against ''external interference'' in Beijing's dealings with the island.






A traditionally leftwing rallying point, the call for universal health care, is attracting local churches into the fold.

A rally to raise attention to the issue was held Saturday, July 30 at Fourth Avenue and Broadalbin Street, across from City Hall and next to Saturday's Farmers Market.

The rally drew a small crowd  organizers mentioned the heat as a possible factor for keeping some people from attending  and lasted about 40 minutes with some singing, people holding signs and a booth set up with more information.

In his 14 years working as a psychiatrist, Rick Staggenborg saw a lot of people who need help and cant afford it."

One case that stood out to him was a man with no insurance and disabling anxiety. He was unable to keep his job due to the onset of his anxiety and lost nearly everything.

Staggenborg can cite many other similar cases, individuals who fell through the cracks," even ones who qualified for services, he said.

Since retiring, Staggenborg has seen affordability and access to health care become ever more exasperating, he said. Personal spending on health care is higher in Oregon than the national average and families and employers are paying almost the equivalent of a new car every year in the form of health insurance premiums, according to a 2019 report from Oregon Health Authority.

Staggenborg believes everyone should have access to health care.

We all benefit from a healthy society, he said.

Now he advocates for universal health care, serving as Chair of Health Care for All Oregon Faith Caucus, and more recently, rallying local faith-based organizations to get behind the cause in Albany.

Many values of faith align with seeking health care for all, Staggenborg said. He noted that most religions try to help the poor and encourage their flocks to treat their neighbor. To Staggenborg, these values of community and charity are an easy association to universal healthcare.

The faith community should be a leader in this effort, he said.

Albanys First Christian Church is the latest to join the coalition, sponsoring Saturday's rally.

Staggenborg said that the reason medical costs are so high is because they are being privatized. The skyrocketing costs are putting medical expenses beyond reach, even causing bankrupt for some.

According to OHA, 69% of those who filed for bankruptcy in Linn County listed the cause as medical expenses, the most of all of Oregon's most populous counties.

The people who are most hurt by the current health care system are the working poor, Staggenborg said. Because they earn some money, they don't qualify for services, but don't make enough to afford premiums. They're the ones who get left behind, he said.

The cause has attracted its fair share of nonbelievers. That makes bringing the faithful into the fold a challenge, Staggenborg said.

People hear "socialized medicine" and get hung up on the word socialist, he said. But Staggenborg likens access to health care to services available to everyone, like the fire department.

It shouldnt be a conservative-liberal issue," he said. "It's a moral issue, not a political one.

Staggenborg added his church is a mix of different political values.

Health Care for All Oregon continues to educate the public about insurance privatization and universal health care, hoping that access to information will spur change. He's hoping success the group has seen in Corvallis is duplicated in Albany.

I hope the people of Albany will listen because if they dont know about an issue, they cant be a part of the solution.
Facing a growing threat from China, the Navy envisions drone ships keeping an electronic eye on enemy forces across the vast Pacific Ocean, extending the reach of firepower, and keeping sailors out of harm's way.

The Navy is speeding development of those robotic ships as an affordable way to keep pace with China's growing fleet while vowing not to repeat costly shipbuilding blunders from recent years.

The four largest drone ships are being used together this summer during a multination naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean.

Other smaller waterborne drones are already being deployed by the Navys 5th Fleet in the waters off the Middle East.

The goal in coming years is to see how these research vessels radar and sensors can be combined with artificial intelligence, and integrated with traditional cruisers, destroyers, submarine and aircraft carriers, to create a networked fleet thats resilient because its spread over greater distances and more difficult for enemies to destroy, the Navy says.

Its about moving the technology forward, and having confidence in the capability. Everything takes time, said Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley, commanding officer of Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One in California.

The Navy believes the technology can help with the three keys for military success  weapons range, scouting, and command and control  at a lower cost and risk to personnel, said James Holmes, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

But all of those benefits must be proven, along with long-term durability in a harsh saltwater environment, he said.

Were sort of in Jerry Maguire show me the money territory with the tech. It will undoubtedly be useful, but whether it will be a game-changer is far less clear, said Holmes, who doesn't speak for the Navy.

Before moving forward, the Navy must first to win over a skeptical Congress after a series of shipbuilding debacles.

Its speedy littoral combat ships have had propulsion problems, leading to early retirements. The Advanced Gun System on its stealth destroyer was a bust because of expensive ammo. And its newest aircraft carrier had problems with elevators and a new system to launch aircraft.

Critics said the Navy rushed to cram too much new technology onto those ships, leading to failures and growing costs.

We cant just throw all the resources at (robotic ships) with the track record of 20 years of failed ship programs, said Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, who is a retired Navy officer.

The Navys Unmanned Task Force is taking a new approach, using a military equivalent of a venture capital model to expedite new ideas, and moving forward only after technologies are proven, said Michael Stewart, the director of the task force.

This summer, four large drone ships are working alongside conventional ships during the war games called RIMPAC.

Those include the Sea Hunter and Sea Hawk, diesel-powered ships equipped with outriggers for stability in rough seas. The other two are Ranger and Nomad, which are based on oil platform replenishment ships. They have large flat decks from which a missile was successfully fired last year.

While those larger vessels are tested in the Pacific, the Navy is already seeing promising results with smaller, commercially available vessels that are being assessed by Task Force 59, which is part of the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, 5th Fleet spokesperson.

One of the vessels that received attention is the Saildrone, a sail-powered vessel with solar-powered systems. Equipped with radar and cameras, Saildrones are touted as being able to operate autonomously for months at a time without maintenance or resupply.

Based on the success of multinational exercises last winter, the 5th Fleet said the U.S. Navy and international partners intend to deploy 100 crewless vessels by next summer.

All told, Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, envisions a mix of 150 large crewless surface vessels and undersea vessels by 2045. Thats on top of more than 350 conventional battle force ships.

The Navys spending proposal for the new fiscal year includes $433 million for crewless surface vessels and $284 million for underwater vessels.

Those vessels coupled with artificial intelligence have the potential to make the Navys fleet much more effective, said Gilday, the Navys top officer. But the Navy is going about research and development in an evolutionary, deliberate, informed kind of way, he said.

The biggest advantage of robotic ships is that they could be built at a fraction of the cost of conventional warships as the Navy struggles to keep pace with China and Russia, said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute. The U.S. already lags behind China in ship numbers, and the gap is growing each year.

But Congress isnt rushing into funding new programs, said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson institute. Congress wants the Navy to have a good plan  and then pursue it aggressively, Clark said.

On Capitol Hill, Luria said there may be a place for crewless ships, perhaps in replacing missile capability for ships the Navy wants to retire. But theres a lot of research and development necessary to convince Congress to heavily invest in ships without any sailors.

I just dont think the technology is mature enough now to make a wholesale investment, said Luria, D-Virginia.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, chair of the seapower subcommittee, said Gilday has assured her that the Navy is conscious of not moving too quickly on unproven technology.

The Navy must get this right the first time and support rigorous testing with prototypes before committing to buying a fleet, said Hirono, D-Hawaii.

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report in Providence, Rhode Island.

Follow David Sharp on Twitter @David_Sharp_AP
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
London, July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, President Joe Biden announced executive action to confront the climate crisis  a $2.3bn plan to fight climate change. It is said White House officials are still weighing a separate declaration that climate change is a national emergency in the United States  a step that would unlock broad executive powers to propel clean-energy construction, restrict oil drilling and curb fossil fuel use.

The emergency order is one of several tactics now under deliberation, as the White House looks at strategies to demonstrate President Bidens commitment to clean energy.

While large economies tussle with clean energy policies and legislation, one island nation in the Caribbean is on a clear and straight path to climate resilience and should be an example to those looking to make a meaningful impact on the war against global warming.

The Commonwealth of Dominica is highly susceptible to climate impacts and in the period between 1997 to 2017, Dominica had the highest GDP losses to climate-related natural disasters and ranked in the top 10 per cent among 182 countries for climate-related fatalities. The worst of those were Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017, which resulted in an aggregate loss of over 300% of the countrys GDP.

Following the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Maria, the Prime Minister of Dominica, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit, vowed to build a climate-resilient nation and reduce the countrys dependence on fossil fuels. This pledge was made at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Since the announcement, the government of Dominica developed and implemented a robust framework to ensure the achievement of this goal. The framework includes a National Resilience Development Strategy that sets out the developmental objectives to be achieved by the year 2030, a Disaster Resilience Strategy that outlines the critical pillars required for a resilient Dominica, namely, physical, financial, social and post disaster resilience, a Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan that prescribes the activities to be undertaken to achieve the intended objectives and, a Disaster Risk Financing Strategy.

The Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD), a formal body to spearhead these efforts was also created.

The Government of Dominica has commenced transforming the island into the worlds first climate resilient country, including enhancing public knowledge on resilience, and formulating a strategy which will govern the islands future efforts at building resilience.

Dominica is pursuing initiatives and is at the forefront of developing and using renewable energy sources. Today, 28 percent of Dominicas electricity generation comes from hydropower and wind and the country aims to become energy self-sufficient by 2030.

Further, there have been initiatives by Dominica to create a sustainable environment where renewable energy resources are effectively utilised. These initiatives include the granting of concessions on the importation of solar-related equipment and accessories, a solar street lighting project, and most importantly a geothermal project.

Moreover, Dominica in partnership with the World Bank embarked on a pilot project to reduce the impacts of climate change on the country and build resilience to adapt to such impacts. This project termed the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project- DVRP makes linkages to Dominicas National Climate Change Adaptation Policy, as well as Dominicas Low Carbon Climate Resilient Development Strategy.

In March 2019, the World Bank approved a US $27 million project to support the construction of a 7MW geothermal power plant in Dominica, which aims to increase the share of renewables and diversify the countrys energy matrix. The Geothermal Risk Mitigation Project will significantly lower electricity costs in Dominica and increase the share of renewable energy in the countrys energy mix from 25 to 51 percent, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 38,223 tons of CO2 per year.

The Dominica Geothermal Development Company Ltd is implementing the project and is financed by a US$17.2 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), US$9.95 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), as well as grants from the UKs Department for International Development, US$10 million from DFID and US$2 million from the SIDS DOCK Initiative. Technical assistance is being provided by the Government of New Zealand and the Agence Francaise de Developpement.

Economic Diversification Fund proceeds from the countrys Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme are also providing part of the funding.

The DGDC has also decided to build a binary cycle power plant, which whilst more costly than alternative geothermal plant models, is the most environmentally friendly and the long-term benefits far outweigh the additional cost.

In February 2021, Dominica signed a US$12.5 million contract with an Iceland-based company to drill two wells. The plant is expected to be operational by 2023 and will provide electricity to the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which in turn will encourage foreign exchange.

Solar and wind energy sources also exhibit a high potential to satisfy the countrys energy needs.

The policy for solar power development includes encouraging, where economically viable, the installation of solar energy technologies on all new public sector buildings, commercial buildings, and residences, particularly for buildings that will benefit from those systems in the event of electricity service outages.

Chief operating officer of one of the worlds leading investment migration agencies  CS Global Partners, Micha Emmet, says while the renewed vigour by the American president to tackle climate change is encouraging, there needs to be much more action from larger economies in the fight against global warming. Small island nations like Dominica should be commended for getting on with the job at hand and should certainly be an example of how to implement tangible changes.
President Joe Biden removes his face mask as he arrives to speak about the economy during a meeting with CEOs in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, July 28. AP-Yonhap



President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again Saturday, slightly more than three days after he was cleared to exit coronavirus isolation, the White House said, in a rare case of ''rebound'' following treatment with an anti-viral drug.



White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor said in a letter that Biden ''has experienced no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well.'' O'Connor said ''there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time.''



In accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Biden will reenter isolation for at least five days. He will isolate at the White House until he tests negative. The agency says most rebound cases remain mild and that severe disease during that period has not been reported.



Just as when Biden first tested positive, the White House sought to show he was still working. The president sent out a picture of himself masked and tieless on Twitter, which showed him signing a declaration that added individual assistance for flood survivors in Kentucky.



The president followed up by tweeting out a 12-second video of him on a White House balcony with his dog, Commander.



''I'm feeling fine, everything is good,'' said Biden, a pair of aviator sunglasses in his hand. ''But Commander and I got a little work to do.''



The president also took time on Saturday to have a FaceTime conversation with people camping outside the U.S. Capitol who are seeking health benefits for military veterans exposed to toxic substances from burn pits during their service, according to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. A bill to provide expanded benefits failed to clear the Senate on Wednesday. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough brought the group pizza and the phone connection to talk with the president.





The White House in Washington, DC, on July 30. AFP-Yonhap
Singapore, Singapore, July 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biking Exchange has formally established Biking Global Foundation, an encrypted venture capital fund worth USD 50 million in Singapore, which will mainly face NFT, DEFI, GameFi and other fields]

As per official sources, Biking Exchange has formally established Biking Global Foundation, a venture capital fund for the encryption industry, which is located in Singapore with a strong atmosphere of the global encryption industry, with a total value of about USD 50 million.

Biking Global Foundation will mainly face the encryption field, and its preferred investment targets are encryption frontier fields such as NFT, DEFI, DEX and GameFi.

Biking Exchange is the world's leading blockchain digital asset contract trading station. Headquartered in Singapore, the platform has successfully obtained Singapore operation license and MSB double license in the United States and can provide a wide range of services such as digital currency transaction, NFT transaction, blockchain education, blockchain project incubation, blockchain research institute and blockchain charity to the world. At present, users cover more than 30 countries and regions around the world, with over 200,000 registered users.

It is reported that Biking Exchange will officially launch the NFT transaction platform and the platform's first tiger NFT in the near future and plans to develop more ecological derivative projects based on this NFT series and comprehensively lay out Web3.0.

In the future, this series of NFT products will serve as the identity authentication and rights authentication of holders in Biking's whole ecological sector. At the same time, in the Web3.0 ecological planning of Biking Exchange, Biking Global Foundation will also take the lead in all derivative projects in the late NFT ecological period of Biking Exchange.

Contact:

Peter Zhou

www.wang.moe

Bikingex@wang.vet

The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. Do your own research before making a financial decision related to any crypto company or asset.
Max Verstappen is not happy with the FIA. According to the Dutchman, the drivers are not being listened to when it comes to issues such as track limits. Verstappen thinks that the drivers are seen as amateurs.

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Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich have been alternating in the role of race director since the resignation of Michael Masi. For the Hungarian Grand Prix, Freitas will be at the helm. Verstappen is not entirely satisfied with the new race directors.

There has been a lot of fuss about the track limits in recent weeks. Drivers are no longer allowed to cross the white line. Especially during the Austrian Grand Prix there was a lot of fuss with no less than 43 infringements during the race and several time penalties.

Verstappen: "That is not correct"

In Hungary, the drivers are not allowed to cross the line at turn thirteen, but instead of a full white line, a dotted line is used. According to Verstappen, these changes make it more difficult for the race committee to supervise the race.

"As drivers we always want to help, but we are not listened to. That is extremely frustrating. I don't want to fight with the race committee, I want to advise them. It seems like they don't care. It's as if they see us as amateurs. That's not right", Verstappen tells to De Telegraaf.
Aston Martin has introduced a striking rear wing for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The new update does not appear to be in line with the intent of the 2022 regulations. During the FIA press conference, team boss Mike Krack discusses the legality of the rear wing.

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The team has been developing the new wing for some time. Krack stresses that the development was done in cooperation with the FIA to ensure the rules were followed.

"Throughout developing a wing or developing ideas, you normally do not wait until the last moment before you show it. So, we were in touch with the FIA, all along the development, to understand if this is something that will be accepted. And it finally was, so that was for us the moment where we said, OK, we go for it", begins the Aston Martin team boss.

Aston Martin is not worried

So the FIA has already examined and approved the rear wing further. The teams had their doubts about the new wing, but apparently, nothing is wrong. Christian Horner does not rule out Red Bull Racing copying the wing in the future if it performs well. In the past, Aston Martin has been criticised for copying the Red Bull car.

"I think there is nothing special at the end of the day. It's an interpretation of the rules and we developed a wing, according to that, in conjunction with FIA. And that's it basically. And I'm not concerned about supermajority or anything. If the rules are changing, or these kinds of designs are not allowed, we will cope with it", Krack ends.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) faces reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., July 29. Reuters-Yonhap



There's no reason for China and the U.S. ''to come to blows'' should House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visit Taiwan during an Asia trip she is expected to make soon, the White House said Friday, underscoring the international tensions surrounding her travel plans.



The remarks by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby came as Pelosi, D-Calif., offered a rationale for a visit to Asia that she had yet to publicly acknowledge. Kirby was asked Friday if the U.S. has noticed any Chinese military preparations due to her travel plans.



''There's no reason for it to come to that, to come to blows, to come to increased physical tension,'' Kirby said at the White House. ''There's no reason for that because there's been no change in American policy with respect to One China.''

Seeming to stop just short of saying she would travel there, Pelosi said, ''I'm very excited that should we go to the countries, that you'll be hearing about along the way about the conversations'' she would have there.



She noted President Joe Biden's focus on Asia and referenced his recent trip to South Korea and Japan, telling reporters, ''He has visited there, his vice president has visited, the secretary of commerce and others. And we want the Congress of the United States to be part of that initiative.''






Skyports Infrastructure, an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) infrastructure developer, and AirAsias Advanced Air Mobility, a dedicated unit of AirAsia Aviation Group Limited (the aviation arm of Capital A), have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to explore the development of air taxi infrastructure in Malaysia.





The partnership between AAM industry expert Skyports, and AirAsia, a traditional airline operator, is an important next step in establishing a fully operational vertiport network in the country. As the industry matures, partnerships between traditional aviation players and AAM specialists are essential in developing a practical, well-studied, and well-integrated network of vertiports.

Already a global leading brand in the commercial airline industry, AirAsia is also actively involved in the operationalization of AAM in Malaysia. In the past year alone, the company announced future plans to lease 100 Vertical Aerospace VX4 eVTOL aircraft from Avolon, launched its drone training programme, and most recently, extended drone-related training to the high-technology related sectors.

Leveraging the strengths of both parties, the partnership will draw on AirAsias aviation expertise and experience, as well as its on-ground market knowledge and networks. Complementing this, Skyports Infrastructure brings to the table its global portfolio of designing and building take-off and landing infrastructure for eVTOL passenger aircraft. Skyports Infrastructures work is also instrumental in advancing regulatory development across markets, through close collaboration with local regulatory bodies and standards setting organisations.

Initial assessments will prioriti e Kuala Lumpur. The one-year partnership will focus on joint feasibility studies for the integration of air taxi vertiport infrastructure, the identification of potential vertiport sites, and the development of operational requirements and frameworks ultimately to implement a vertiport network in Malaysia.

A pioneer in the burgeoning AAM industry, Skyports Infrastructure has a diverse portfolio of projects across major cities, including Paris, London and Los Angeles. Within the Asia Pacific region, the company has made steady progress, with ongoing partnerships to assess and develop AAM infrastructure in neighboring Singapore and Japan.
Battery manufacturer Britishvolt has signed a Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] with China-based BTR for the supply of synthetic graphite and silicon oxide to be used in selected phases of Britishvolts battery manufacturing processes.

This announcement follows on from Britishvolts securing a portion of its cobalt requirements from strategic partner Glencore and the recent announcement of a JV with Indonesias VKTR for nickel sulfate.

The anode material will be produced using renewable energy and is aligned with the companys desire to select the best materials and develop partnerships with world-class suppliers.

BTR plans to build a sustainable manufacturing footprint in Europe that will not only bring the production of these materials closer to the Britishvolt Gigaplant in Northeast England, but also reduce embedded carbon in Britishvolts supply chain and utilize base materials from upstream supply chains in the UK.

Graphite production is energy intensive, much like the bulk of the battery manufacturing industry, and it is essential to use renewable energy to produce batteries that are truly sustainable and low carbon.

Britishvolt has already signed MoUs with four separate OEMs, including Lotus and Aston Martin, which have cumulative demand in excess of 6 GWh in 2025, and set the stage for the full 38 GWh factory capacity that will be supplied annually from its Gigaplant site in Northumberland.

Britishvolt has already developed successful A Samples and is scaling up its unique cell formulations at UKBIC in Coventry and will also have its own scale-up facilities from 2023 at Hams Hall in the Midlands, UK.

Release of official A-sample battery cells to customers, which is scheduled in 2022, will help to further accelerate commitments.
GREENWICH  The town of Greenwich is poised to opt out of a state law that governs accessory apartment units.

Connecticut Public Act 21-29 sets regulations in the state for every accessory apartment, which is a separate apartment unit on the same lot as a bigger dwelling such as a house.

No decision was made at Thursdays meeting of the Board of Selectmen, but all three board members said they would vote to opt out at their Aug. 11 meeting. The issue would then go to the Representative Town Meeting in September for consideration.

Appearing before the selectmen, town Director of Planning and Zoning Katie DeLuca recommended that the town opt out. Greenwich has had regulations in its code to govern these kinds of units for the last 40 years, with changes made within the last year to make it easier for property owners to have them, she said.

Like many other towns in Connecticut we are pursuing the opt-out provision,: DeLuca said, citing the parking restrictions in the state law as one of the reasons.

Under the state law, only one parking space is required for each studio or one-bedroom unit, with no more than two spaces required for two or more bedroom units. Greenwichs regulations require more parking than that, she said.

Its important that we retain our own local regulations to reflect the low availability of on-street parking in the town, particularly where we have narrow streets in the higher density zones, DeLuca said. Further parking vehicles on site lessens traffic congestion and increases safety under these circumstances.

Additionally, DeLuca said accessory apartments cant be required to be deemed as affordable housing under state law. But Greenwich allows that as long as the units are occupied by residents with disabilities, residents over 65 or residents meeting the economic definitions for affordable housing.

The new (state) law appears designed to provide for increased housing opportunities in all Connecticut municipalities, which is commendable. But we are best positioned to address the housing needs of our residents and create regulations both based on our own local demographics, housing conditions and economic circumstances, DeLuca said.

The law has been in effect in the state since Jan. 1, 2021. Any municipalities that are acting out have to do it by Jan. 1.

All three selectmen said they were in favor of opting out. But Selectwoman Lauren Rabin and Selectperson Janet Stone-McGuigan said they preferred to wait two weeks and vote at the boards Aug. 11 meeting. Board tradition is to have an item such as this get a first read and then take time for public comment before taking a vote.

I dont see why I wouldnt be supportive of this, but all things the same I would rather have a second read, Stone-McGuigan said.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said he understood that even though he knew how he would vote. Camillo predicted an affirmative vote on the opt out on Aug. 11.

DeLuca said she has not heard any negative feedback to opting out, including at a public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commissions July 19 meeting.

We heard no objections whatsoever, DeLuca said, adding another meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Aug. 5.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
The government of Guams plan to pay ancestral landowners has been stalled for more than five years because of unresolved legal questions. There currently is more than $15 million in the bank for those payments, with more money deposited each year from commercial leases.

The Guam Ancestral Lands Commission, created more than 20 years ago, is responsible for returning excess federal land to its ancestral owners and for paying just compensation to those whose land was declared excess by the federal government, but is being used by GovGuam for public purposes.

For example, many ancestral landowners of the former Naval Air Station Agana cannot get their land back because GovGuam is using it for the airport and for airport-related facilities.

Land Bank

The commission in 2017 submitted proposed rules and regulations for the Land Bank payments to the Office of the Attorney General, which rejected them, stating the rules impermissibly contradict existing statutes.

According to the AG, the rules and regulations submitted by the commission, exceed the authority granted by the Legislature, because they call for ancestral landowners to be paid indefinitely, without having to give up claim to the property for which they are being paid.

That is not just compensation, according to the attorney generals office.

The attorney generals office, in its 2017 review, also stated lawmakers did not provide enough guidance about how landowners should be paid, which means it might be impossible for any Land Bank rules to be adopted unless the law is first changed.

2017 resolution

The commission in 2017 passed a resolution, asking lawmakers to change the law, but senators have not acted on the request.

The Ancestral Lands Commission needs to submit rules which are consistent with the law, according to Speaker Therese Terlaje, who is chairwoman of the legislative land committee.

They transmitted rules that were in conflict with the law, she said last week. My understanding is that the board is now reconsidering the rules and that they are going to be transmitting another set of rules that are consistent with the law, she said.

The commission is currently working on proposed changes to the law, and not new rules, said commission Executive Director John Burch.

According to the attorney general, part of the reason the proposed Land Bank rules and regulations were rejected is because the statutory definition of the Land Bank beneficiary is ambiguous and the statutory guidance is insufficient to govern the distribution of Land Bank funds, Burch said. The attorney general opined that until such time the Legislature amends the current statute with several specifics in regard to definitions and payment, the GALC will essentially be unable to submit legally acceptable rules and regulations with regard to dispossessed ancestral landowner compensation.

Burch said the Ancestral Lands Commission is working with the Guam Economic Development Authority on proposed legislation to change the Ancestral Lands law, to clarify the statutory mandate of the ancestral land bank.

Proposed rules

According to the proposed rules and regulations, the ancestral lands commission wants to pay landowners each year based on the size of their estate. For example, if an estate is 8.6% of the total of all ancestral lands, the estate would receive 8.6% of the money distributed, the rules state.

The commission would decide how much money is available each year to pay landowners, and how much money must remain in the Land Bank to support investments for future payments, the proposed rules state.

According to Speaker Terlaje, the only people legally eligible for payment are those whose ancestral land was declared excess by the federal government and returned to GovGuam, which still is using it for public purposes.

The commission had decided to compensate more than just those landowners who were covered under the law, she said. Theyre supposed to compensate those whose property got returned to the government of Guam, but were not returned to the landowners (the commission) had voted to cover all the other landowners, including those whose property had not yet been returned (to GovGuam).

Terlaje said if the commission pays everyone whose land was condemned by the federal government, regardless of whether it has been declared excess, the annual compensation would only be pennies per landowner.

The commission collects money for the Land Bank through long-term commercial leases of non-ancestral land in its inventory, so-called Spanish Crown Land.

There currently are nine leases, for a total of about $125,000 per month, or about $1.49 million per year.
A recent leadership training based on the newly adopted State Strategic Plan has public school principals looking into new ways to revamp some school policies, address learning loss and implement ways to help students to succeed beyond academics.

Its always been focused on our students. But at the same time, its very deliberate, from the strategies to the activities that we do as a department overall, said Natasha Dela Cruz, principal of M.U. Lujan Elementary School. (It) has helped me to really kind of refocus on what were doing, how it aligns, and also helped me to identify the next steps in terms of what do I need to prioritize at my school in order to ensure that students are pushing forward, growing and accelerating.

I Chalan-ta Mona

In April, the Guam Education Board adopted the Guam Department of Education Strategic 5-Year Plan  I Chalan-ta Mona  over the past year with the input and support of the school community that focused on the strategic priorities of:

Leadership

Curriculum and instruction

Parent engagement

Student discipline and safety

Facilities and maintenance

Finance and administrative services and data

All 41 public schools are preparing for the return of face-to-face instruction and principals are ready to tackle the learning loss effects of the pandemic.

Were embracing the idea that not everyone is where theyre supposed to be academically and were preparing ourselves for that  to ensure that we provide the best environment and the best opportunities for other students to learn and grow, Dela Cruz said.

The education department last week wrapped up its Principals Leadership Academy with the last day of training at the departments headquarters in Tiyan.

Collaborative leadership

One of the biggest changes that is now added is collaborative leadership, said Hannah Gutierrez, principal of Astumbo Middle School. So were going back to our school action plan, looking at our course accreditation plan, and then looking at our new district plan is really getting the teachers on board being part of the decision making, looking at our data and making those best decisions for our students.

Guam DOE Deputy Superintendent Joe Sanchez said its imperative that principals understand the standards of the strategic plan to ensure that teachers interpret standards and implement strategic learning solutions.

Social promotion

It is really looking at how do we support all these students to address the learning loss of instructional time and counter the effects of social promotion, said Sanchez, who explained that social promotion is the practice of advancing students into the next grade level, regardless of academic achievement and without any consequences.

While this type of promotion occurs nationally and is practiced from kindergarten to 8th grade, Sanchez said it makes learning more difficult for students in the long run.

A student has to earn the credit in order for them to move to the next course or to move to the next grade level but holding them back results in greater behavior problems that result in lower self-esteem and lower academic performance, Sanchez said.




A man uses a magnifying glass to read a newspaper headline reporting on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Asia visit, at a stand in Beijing, Sunday. AP-Yonhap



The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, confirmed Sunday she will visit four Asian countries this week but made no mention of a possible stop in Taiwan that has fueled tension with Beijing, which claims the island democracy as its own territory.



Pelosi said in a statement she is leading a congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to discuss trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, security and ''democratic governance.''



Pelosi has yet to confirm news reports that she might visit Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in Beijing's dealings with the island in a phone call Thursday with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.



Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.



The Biden administration didn't explicitly urge Pelosi to avoid Taiwan but tried to assure Beijing there was no reason to ''come to blows'' and that if such a visit occurred, it would signal no change in U.S. policy.



''Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe,'' Pelosi's statement said.



Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the communists won a civil war on the mainland. Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment.



The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains informal relations with the island. Washington is obligated by federal law to see that Taiwan has the means to defend itself.



Washington's ''One China policy'' says it takes no position on the status of the two sides but wants their dispute resolved peacefully. Beijing promotes an alternative ''One China principle'' that says they are one country and the Communist Party is its leader.










Haiti - FLASH : Results of the 9th fundamental year exams 2022 for 2 departments





The Ministry of National Education has just made available the first known results of the 9th fundamental year exams 2022 https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36927-icihaiti-education-203-440-candidates-se-prepare- to-pass-the-tests-of-exams-of-state.html for the departments of Grand'Anse and Nippes



According to the figures provided by the National Bureau of State Examinations (BUNEXE), the success rates are :



GrandeAnse: Success rate 79% (down) previous year 79.28%;



Nippes: Success rate 65.54% (down) previous year 78.68%.



As announced by the Minister of National Education, the results are also published by school and by subject for each school in the department concerned in order to allow each parent to better assess the quality of educational services provided by the schools where they decide to entrust their children.



Download reports by school and by subject :



GrandAnse Department : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/9af-Grand-Anse-2022.PDF



Department of Nippes : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/9af-Nippes-2022.PDF



Schools whose success rate varies between 0 and 20% will be subject to special monitoring by the Ministry, following the 6th of the 12 measures https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11781-haiti-education-exam-results-disappointing-the-minister-manigat-announced-a-package-of-measures.html relating to the Presidential Decree of September 17, 2014 which stipulates "Public schools and subsidized schools, whose success rate for official exams is less than or equal to 20% are automatically placed under the supervision of an Interim Management Committee responsible to help them for two consecutive years by accompanying the Director and teachers to improve the level of student achievement."



School officials are encouraged to withdraw their institution's rankings in the school district of their respective zone.



The results of the other departments will be published gradually, as soon as the data processing is finalized.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36927-icihaiti-education-203-440-candidates-are-preparing-to-undergo-the-state-exams.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11781-haiti-education-exam-results-disappointing-the-minister-manigat-announced-a-package-of-measures.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Insecurity : The cry of the bishops of Haiti, faced the suffering of the population





In a message published on July 29, 2022, the Catholic bishops of Haiti share their growing concern at the general deterioration of the situation and the suffering of the population.



After a week of intense unpunished violence in the capital, where armed gangs went so far as to damage, desecrate and partially set fire to the transitional Cathedral of Port-au-Prince Notre Dame de l'Assomption https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37259-haiti-flash-the-transitional-cathedral-of-port-au-prince-attacked-vandalized-and-partially-burned.html the bishops "are surprised and indignanted against the impotence of state authority, leaving the field open to heavily armed gangs" to commit their crimes with complete impunity...



Download the full message of the Bishops of Haiti (PDF) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/message-ceh-07-2022.pdf



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Shipwreck in the Bahamas : 4 men including a Haitian charged with 18 counts of involuntary homicide





Friday, July 29, as part of the sinking of a Haitian migrant boat that killed 18 people on Sunday, July 24 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37234-haiti-flash-shipwreck-in-the-bahamas-16-haitians-dead-and-21-survivors-provisional-report.html four men, including a Haitian national with a valid work permit, suspected of being smugglers involved in migrant smuggling, appeared before the Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt of the Nassau District Court.



The four men: Donald Watson (39), McKenzie Jerome (53), Eland McKinney (49) and WiIlbens Joseph (37) a Haitian national with a work permit, have been charged with 18 counts of involuntary homiciden including an unborn male child of one of the victims.



Donald Watson and McKenzie Jerome were also charged with recklessly navigating a vessel and carrying passengers without a licence.



Should be noted that Watson is a repeat offender. In 2019 he was convicted in Florida of illegally smuggling an alien into the United States by sea at Palm Beach, where the ship was intercepted. Watson was sentenced to two years in prison and was released in 2021.



In court, the four men were not required to enter a plea and were denied bail. They will return to court on October 28 for service of the indictment.



In addition, activist Louby Georges reported that the Government of Haiti has pledged to cover the burial costs of those who died at sea "What I can confirm and what I also understand is that the Haitian government, the central government in Haiti, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has announced or given directive to the embassy in The Bahamas."



"Families of course may claim their loved ones bodies and they will decide how they want to go about with the funeral services and everything but for those that are not claimed, definitely the Haitian government has decided that they will pay for the funeral costs so there wont be any burden on the Bahamian government."



Earlier this week, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander urged family members of victims who died in the boating tragedy to come forward to help with the identification process.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37282-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37263-haiti-bahamas-latest-information-on-the-haitian-survivors-of-the-shipwreck.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37242-haiti-shipwreck-in-the-bahamas-investigation-details-and-reactions.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37241-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37234-haiti-flash-shipwreck-in-the-bahamas-16-haitians-dead-and-21-survivors-provisional-report.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















FARMERS in the Henley area are worried about the future after this summers extreme heat put a toll on yield.

Livestock farmers have had to feed winter food to their animals due to grass no longer being suitable to graze on and agricultural farmers have had a lower survival rate of crops.

Andrew Ingram, who owns the Tree Barn in Christmas Common, planted 18,000 new trees to be used in seven or eight years time and at least 1,800 have been lost in the heatwave.

We have been hugely affected, he said. Weve lost 10 to 15 percent of them already  the question is whether we can keep the rest alive.

We are having to water newly planted trees four times now, which is the first time ever. We have never had to water more than once, maybe twice on a hot spring. But its not just a hot spring anymore  its now a hot summer.

It takes eight hours to go around watering the trees and will cost money to replace the failed ones to ensure the yield doesnt fail for the years 2029 or 2030.

He also grows cereals and said it would be impossible to water them because sophisticated equipment would be needed.

Mr Ingram said: I think weve only had about 2.5 to 3 inches maximum of rain since the beginning of April, which is desperately short, and winds mean that any moisture that is on the ground evaporates.

Tracy Betteridge, who keeps about 280 lambing ewes on farmland in Medmenham, says looking after them has been made difficult by the hot weather.

She said: I was getting up at 4am to get jobs done while it was cool enough because my sheep wouldnt want to be charged around the field in that heat and border collies are such hard workers that my dog would do it even if his feet were burning.

My last dog needed a cooling vest to move around even in 22 degrees. There are dogs that die from working in the heat weve had. My animals come first and you just have to manage the situation.

The grass in her farm has burned and the sheep need better land to be able to graze and grow quickly.

Miss Betteridge, known as Bill, said: If a good amount of rain doesnt come soon, well be stuffed. It looks like the Sahara Desert, and I have to start feeding them hay. Luckily, we have other meadows for good hay but we may need every shred of it if the grass doesnt grow.

The worst case is that they eat all the hay which we usually only save for lambing time to have them grow quickly.

Bags of food have doubled in price and if we have to start relying on that, its going to be a major issue. If everyone needs hay because the grass is dead, the cost for that will also go up.

Miss Betteridge said that if she has to choose between eating well herself or taking care of her animals, she will choose her animals.

At the end of the day, their welfare comes first, she said. Without my animals, I have no income  they always have to come first.

Sam Austin, who manages Oak Farm in Harpsden Bottom also for sheep to graze, said his main problem was the burned grass too.

He said: Its all brown and crisp and it will take a long time to recover. People dont realise this is one of the driest areas in the country so it makes it extremely difficult.

Were going to have to lose some income on hay  we expect the prices are going to go up because the demand is going to increase. Prices have also sky-rocketed because of the Ukraine crisis.

If you cant feed your lambs quick enough to get rid of, you have less food  its a vicious cycle. Farmers want lambs of a certain weight and if we cant do that quick enough we may have to sell them really cheap.

Fire has also been a big worry because there have been fires even in temperatures lower than weve been getting, but that would affect agricultural farmers more than us  our grass is dead anyway.
A horrifying incident involved the kidnapping and murder of a Hindu girl from Bangladesh by someone who afterward posted her picture on Facebook, announcing that she had been killed. Anuradha Sen, a member of a minority group living in the Bangladeshi district of Sherpurs Nalitabari Upazila, has been identified as the victim.

As per reports, the kidnapped girl was murdered by the accused, who later shared her picture on her Facebook account with the caption, there is no need to look for her, She is dead. Bari Mehdi, who had previously threatened Anuradhas brother, is thought to be the accused.

The victim who attended Bankura High School had just finished her 10th board examination this year. The criminal who claimed to be calling from her school to provide government funding for her future education abducted her.

On Sunday, July 25, the alleged event took place when the accused allegedly called Anuradhas mother and requested that she send her to the school to collect the money. Anuradha was one of few unique students who were receiving funding from the government, according to the person who answered the phone.

Muslims kidnapped 15 year old Anuradha Sen in Bangladesh. Later a photo of her was shared on her own Facebook a/c & it was written that no need to find her, she is dead. Same thing happened in India in case of Nishank Rathode. World in silence is observing Hindi Genocide. pic.twitter.com/eacEOFGI3M  Radharamn Das   (@RadharamnDas) July 29, 2022

Later, the girls family learned that someone had lured her to the school under false pretenses in order to trap her and kidnap her. The victim girls father went to the school and made an attempt to find her. At the Nalitabari police station, he subsequently made a police report.

The girls brother then stated that he had recently got a similar call from a man by the name of Bari Mehdi. Anuradha came up in the conversation on the other end. He said that he had fallen in love with the girl after meeting her on Facebook.

Bari Mehdi said to Anuradhas brother on phone, Your sister and I connected on Facebook. Afterward, we got close. My mum, your sister and I spoke a lot. Ive since learned that your sister is involved with someone else. This is unacceptable.

The victims brother told the police that the call he had received that day and the one his mother had received from the same number. According to the sources, it is believed that the accused killed the girl because he thought she would have a relationship with someone else. The investigation is underway into the murder case.

Source : Kreately
Before the pandemic, Petar Radulovic was a commute warrior. Hed rise at dawn daily to traverse tangled traffic-filled highways for a 75- to 90-minute commute from Katy to his job near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Then nine or 10 hours later, hed do it all again.

Then came the pandemic, which gave him the opportunity not only to work from home, but also reclaim three hours of his life every day. So when his employer began requiring him to work from the office, he did what many other workers have done in the past year: He found another job that offered a flexible work schedule  even though it came with a 15 to 20 percent pay cut.

The personal time and the family time I have, thats grown exponentially since the pandemic began, said Radulovic, 43, now a senior talent manager at the Houston offshore engineering firm Oceaneering International. It is something that I value incredibly, and I wouldnt trade that for anything at this point.

Finding a job with greater flexibility is now one of the top three reasons job candidates look for greener pastures, according to a recent study by the global consulting firm McKinsey &Co. Flexible work arrangements have become so entrenched in the expectations of job candidates that companies are finding they must include flexibility in their offer packages, recruiters and human resource professionals said. That is creating a tectonic shift in the relationships between employees and employers that labor experts say cant be undone  even during a recession.

I dont think you can put the genie back in the bottle. I think its out, said Chad Hesters, managing partner in Houston with Korn Ferry, a Los Angeles-based recruiting consultancy. Its our view that this is part of the new work culture.

The power shift

The backdrop for this rapid rise in remote work is a remarkable labor market in which there were about 273,000 unfilled positions in the 13-county region that includes Houston as of June, according to Gulf Coast Workforce Board, citing data from Lightcast, which analyzes online job postings. That compares to about 170,400 people who were unemployed across the region in June on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to data from the Texas Workforce Commission.

With talented job candidates a hot commodity, the power in the labor market has shifted from employers to employees over the past year or so, said Keith Wolf, managing director at the Houston recruiting firm Murray Resources. That gives top job candidates more leverage to demand better benefits, pay and remote work.

They got a taste of it during the pandemic, Wolf said. Weve spoken to numerous candidates who have fit this description: Theyve decided they are never going to work in an office again.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston business leaders arent worried about a recession - for now

The desire for flexibility is so widespread that Reynaldo Ramirez and Jason Walker, who work with many Houston firms through Austin- and Denver-based Thrive HR Consulting, said that they tell any Texas company not allowing some form of remote work that they are missing out on anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of qualified applicants.

Houston Chronicle

If there isnt a remote working option on the table, for many job candidates, they wont even talk to us, Ramirez said.

And thats because they are likely to find somewhere else that does offer flexibility: about 66 percent of employees in Houston said they can work remotely, slightly higher than the national average of about 58 percent, according to McKinsey.

Large influential companies in Houston have integrated hybrid work into their long-term strategies including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Shell, BP, Chevron, KBR, LyondellBasell, Deloitte, J.P. Morgan Chase and Accenture to name a few. Even the regions two biggest hospital systems, Memorial Hermann and Houston Methodist, as well as cancer center M.D. Anderson, offer remote work for roles such as administrative, human resources, legal, finance, real estate, communications and back-office positions that dont require face-to-face patient interactions.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Shells pilot office redesign offers at peek at the hybrid workspaces of the future

With about 2,200 working remotely at least part time, Houston Methodist determined it no longer needs about 100,800 square-feet of office space in Bellaire that the hospital system is trying to sublease. Methodist is even hiring out-of-state IT professionals and medical coders who may never live and work in Houston.

Our talent pool has increased tremendously, added Shibu Varghese, a senior vice president at M.D. Anderson, which has about 10,000 people working remotely or in hybrid roles in Houston.

A broader labor pool

Remote work is blurring the geographic boundaries of Houstons labor market. Out-of-state companies are now hiring Houston workers without requiring them to move. And job candidates are evaluating positions not just in their local market, but across the globe.

That is the case for Vianna Sengphilom, a 27-year-old tech worker who lives in the Houston Heights neighborhood but works remotely for Boston-based Vista (owner of Vista Print). Sengphilom and her partner, who both work remotely, relocated to Houston from New York City during the pandemic in search of a more affordable lifestyle in a diverse, big city with a thriving food scene.

Now Sengphilom only travels to her companys headquarters occasionally for meetings. Sengphilom, who focuses on recruiting digital designers for Vista, said the firms remote-first culture makes it easier for her to find the best talent. Most of the designers shes helped to hire dont live in Boston.

If we didnt have this remote-first culture, we never would have even heard of (these new hires) before, Sengphilom said. And they are absolute rock stars in their roles.

Vistas parent, the Irish company Cimpress, reported that since it implemented a remote-first policy in August 2020 the company has more than doubled its female hires in key leadership roles. Female attrition rates have fallen by a third, too.

Other firms  such as Oceaneering  said the added flexibility is helping their diversity initiatives, too, particularly for people balancing elder and child care responsibilities, said Holly Kriendler, chief human resources director at Oceaneering.

Even if the power in the labor market tilts away from job candidates, there are employers who are going to continue to use (flexible work policies) as an advantage to get that diverse candidate pool in there and be more inclusive, Kriendler said.

While Houstons labor market is still roaring, if a recession does set in, that could give employers more leverage to dictate where employees work, said Parker Harvey, principal economist at Gulf Coast Workforce Board. But they may find the cost savings from remote work too compelling to turn back now, he said.

Already some firms with hybrid work policies are shrinking their offices in Houston, including Enbridge and Bechtel, which are cutting their office footprints in half, and Halliburton, which reduced its real estate footprint in Houston by about 30 percent in the past two years.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Why $100 barrel oil wont create an office boom in Houston

Meanwhile, M.D. Anderson before the pandemic had considered expanding its office footprint, but instead is turning underutilized office space into more research or clinical space, said Varghese. The cancer center is also enjoying the cost savings of less janitorial and cafeteria services, plus lower electricity and facilities maintenance bills, he added.

On average, employers are saving an estimated $11,000 annually on every employee who works remotely at least half of the time, when accounting for reduced real estate costs, lower absenteeism rates, less turnover and greater productivity, according to an analysis by the San Diego-based consultancy Global Workplace Analytics.

Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

As a result of those savings, if companies slow their pace of hiring or even lay off people during a possible recession, their remote working arrangements might not change much, Harvey said.

If the economy does slide into recession, its possible office-using professions may be more insulated to layoffs, but even if they werent entirely immune to job cuts youd still be in a universe in which for the last 2.5 to 3 years in the pandemic, the base (population) from which youre recruiting has worked remotely in some form or fashion. That experience isnt going to disappear, added Ryan Luby, senior expert at McKinsey. The longer we go in a situation in which hybridity and flexibility is the status quo, the more locked in that becomes into the behavior, and the harder it becomes to claw back.

Critically, for the commercial real estate sector, most companies in Houston are requiring to workers to commute to the office at least part of the time. Most Houstonians working remotely are doing so three days a week, according to McKinsey.

Many job candidates prefer a balance that allows them to develop relationships with colleagues or get mentored at the office while having some of the benefits of flexibility, said Jason Wachtel, managing partner at the New York-based executive search firm JW Michaels & Co. But requiring too much time in the office can be a turnoff for some job candidates.

There are companies requiring four days a week (in office); we have a lot of candidates specifically in Houston and other metropolitan areas that are saying thats not good enough, Wachtel said. The sweet spot is generally two to three days a week in office.

On HoustonChronicle.com: How hybrid work is reshaping downtown Houstons economy

For job candidates like Abigail Schwaig, finding the right mix of in-person, in-office and at-home work was key for her job satisfaction. Schwaig said working in an entirely remote sales job during the pandemic was tough.

Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

I really missed that human connection. It was sad, said Schwaig, 28.

Last month, she changed jobs to a hybrid position at a Houston engineering firm where she commutes to work three days a week and works from her Galleria apartment on Mondays and Fridays. She likes being able to curl up by her rescue dog with her laptop on some days, and then swap stories with coworkers in the office on other days.

She she might have considered a job at a company that required employees to be in the office full time. But the hybrid schedule solidified her desire to switch to the new firm.

(It was) an offer, she said, I definitely couldnt refuse.
A person was found under a bridge Saturday evening at a Sugar Land lake, according to police.

Around 7:30 p.m., a passerby noticed what appeared to be a body in the water near the intersection of Meadowcroft and Westcott and reported it to authorities, a Sugar Land Police Department spokesperson said.

More on Crime: Authorities release parents of 7-year-old Houston area boy found dead in washing machine

Investigators believe the person fell from the bridge into the water before drowning, according to authorities. It's unclear whether it was accidental, officials said.

Anyone with information on the person or the incident is encouraged to contact Sugar Land police at 281-275-2020 or Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

No other information is available at this time.

THE NEWS YOU NEED: Sign up for free newsletters and get the best of the Houston Chronicle delivered to your inbox

Joel.Umanzor@Chron.com
Houston police shot a man who allegedly came at officers with a knife during a mental health crisis.

Officers were called about 11:40 p.m. to a group home in the 1300 block of Riverview Circle for reports of a man who was threatening the people inside with a knife, according to executive assistant chief James Jones.

When police arrived, the man was already outside the home, and ran at one of the officers with a knife, Jones said. Another officer yelled at the man to drop the knife, and the man allegedly changed direction and started running toward him, Jones said.

READ MORE: Jalen Randles family, friends demand answers about fatal shooting from Chief Finner at town hall

The officer fired three shots, striking the man, Jones said.

The man was rushed to the hospital for surgery, Jones said. He was still in critical condition Sunday morning, according to Houston police spokesman Kese Smith.

Houston police and the Harris County district attorney's office will investigate the incident. Body camera footage of the shooting will be released within 30 days.
Italian exhibitors in Hainan bullish on Chinese market

Xinhua) 10:28, July 31, 2022

A chef cuts slices of Prosciutto di Parma at the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, July 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

HAIKOU, July 30 (Xinhua) -- At the second China International Consumer Products Expo held in the southern Chinese city of Haikou, one can taste various Italian delicacies and admire an Italian luxury yacht without going to Italy.

Over 70 brands from Italy covering food, wine, jewellery, clothing and yachts have become an instant hit among visitors at the event in Hainan Province. Confident in the Chinese market, Italian companies hope to tap into the vast opportunities by attending the expo.

At the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce Company Pavilion, over 100 products from four companies are on display, including VM Fine Wines.

Piero Vio, VM Fine Wines manager for China's Sichuan area, spoke highly of his first experience of the Hainan expo.

"I hope to meet not only private clients, but also some distributors," said Vio, adding there are a lot of opportunities for every company and also for wine importers.

Vincenzo Raffa, South China Manager of the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, said Italian companies will find a lot of business opportunities here in Hainan.

"The Chinese consumer market is unimaginable," he said. "It's very, very big, and for Italian companies that want to invest in China, this is the right moment, the right time to invest in South China, especially in Hainan, thanks to the free trade port policy."

By 2025, the whole island of Hainan will have become a free trade port.

"So we have very high expectations, and we are working with the local institutions to ensure that Italian companies have an even better presence at the Hainan expo next year," he said.

The Ferretti Group, a leading yacht company in Italy, has participated in the China International Import Expo on four occasions. Now, it is taking part in the Hainan expo for the first time, bringing two full-size yachts and three models of its latest creations.

Danielle Chen, chief representative of Ferretti Group's representative office in Shanghai, said Hainan boasts unique resources for the yacht industry and has issued new regulations to promote the industry, which is very exciting news for the entire industry.

The regulations to promote the industry in the Hainan Free Trade Port became effective this July, marking the country's first local legislation on the yacht industry. Several measures have been proposed to encourage the innovation and development of the industry on the island.

"The yacht industry is an emerging sector of China's fast developing economy and we feel it has a great potential, as China has a long coastline and a very strong economic strength," Chen said.

A visitor tastes Italian wine at the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, July 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
The single line of cars stretched 2 miles down Scott Street, from Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church to Yellowstone Boulevard.

Drivers waited three or more hours to unload long-forgotten pistols, old hunting rifles and rusted shotguns that for years sat untouched in storage. One person dropped off a box filled with what police estimated to be 62 handguns. In exchange for the anonymous drop offs, participants received gift cards worth anywhere from $50 to $200, depending on the type of firearm.

City and county officials expected a good turnout for the widely publicized gun buyback event Saturday morning at Wheeler Avenue  touted as a method of reducing violent crime. But the enthusiastic response still came as a surprise to organizers, which included Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Police Chief Troy Finner.

Even I didnt think it was going to be this many people the first time, Finner said during a news conference at the church. Were going to get a chance to serve them and were going to work out a process today.

Saturdays event  the first gun buyback held by the city since 2009  came amid growing scrutiny over the prevalence of firearms in the United States. Gun violence has become the leading cause of traumatic death among children, and the city and county have funded various programs to address the problem.

Annie Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

The buyback stemmed from one of those programs, One Safe Houston, which leverages about $53 million in federal relief funds to reduce violent crime.

While public officials characterized Saturdays event as a clear success, its an open question whether buyback programs accomplish the intended goal. Criminologists say they often offer little incentive for people with intent to use a gun to turn over their firearm and more often yield old guns that someone may no longer want in their home.

But Finner says that preventing even one violent crime makes the program worth it. Based on Saturdays response, he hopes to continue offering buyback programs with more staffing to handle the capacity.

The event operated on a voluntary, no-questions-asked basis. Cars snaked through the Wheeler Avenue parking lot, where, one-by-one, Houston Police Department field training officers collected the weapons, ensured they were not loaded and fastened orange zip ties to the action  the part of the gun that loads, fires and ejects a cartridge.

Evidence technicians then input the serial numbers into a database to check whether they were stolen or used in a crime. The identification process will be completed after the event. If stolen, police plan to return it to the owner. If the gun was used in a crime, police will file it away into evidence.

Annie Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

All other weapons will be broken into pieces, then incinerated, police officials said.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg criticized the events parameters in a letter dated July 28 to Finner, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Harris County Precinct 2 Constable May Walker.

The letter, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, said the event could harm public safety, impede the prosecution of violent criminals and encourage the theft of firearms in and around Harris County. The no-questions-asked policy amounts to anonymity and immunity for anyone who turns in a weapon, some of whom could be considered witnesses to a crime, Ogg wrote.

Neither anonymity nor immunity is within the statutory authority of a law enforcement agency to extend to witnesses, Ogg wrote.

The letter went on to say that the gift cards further complicate the situation, because money given to a witness needs to be disclosed to the defense in a criminal case. She said the program could make law enforcement a party to tampering with evidence and may cause irreparable harm to the prosecution. She urged law enforcement to carefully document evidence to prevent weapon laundering charges.

Turner and Ellis both said they were not aware of the letter until Friday afternoon.

HPD was very meticulous in the gun buyback program, Turner said. Thats one of the reasons why the lines didnt move as quickly. ... If she had concerns, she should have voiced them a lot sooner.

Ellis also issued a statement, saying, in part, that the letter was at best uninformed and cynical, and at worst a political stunt to minimize the hard work of police and public officials to proactively stop gun violence.

The reasons for participation varied widely.

Cynthia Bowie, of South Park, had forgotten that a family member left her a small, .22-caliber revolver. She found it in a box at home and has been looking for a way to get rid of it ever since.

You need to protect yourself these days, she said. But I just dont like guns.

Fifth Ward resident Annie Taylor doesnt remember how she came into possession of three pistols about 40 years ago. Shes concerned about someone breaking into her home and stealing them.

Annie Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

I wish they would do this program every six months to get more weapons off the street, she said. Too many teenagers are getting their hands on these guns.

For Mark Hein, the decision was purely economic.

He drove from Northside for the event with his young grandson to make a few bucks off weapons that he considered unusable, including two shotguns and a hunting rifle.

Something thats probably worth $2, you can get $50 for it, he said, adding that he owns about two dozen other firearms, mostly for hunting.

Annie Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

Drivers complained of the sluggish line, with some waiting up to 30 minutes without moving. Houston police stayed long after the event was scheduled to end to serve as many people as possible.

In addition to the long wait, the massive turnout gave way to another problem: Police said they were aware of one person inquiring to waiting drivers about buying their firearms.

He has a right to do that as long as its legal, Finner said. Were going to focus on what we have going on here at the moment. Theres always going to be outliers.

Jen Rice contributed to this report.

julian.gill@chron.com
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The possibility of finally putting a misdemeanor from 1993 behind her brings 53-year-old Jennifer Sigers to tears.

I'm more excited than anything that this too shall pass, said Sigers, who was among at least 100 people who showed up to a north Houston community center for the opportunity to remove certain non-violent misdemeanors from their criminal records. The event on Saturday morning was the latest resource fair affiliated with the new Fresh Start program with Harris County Courts.

I'm ashamed of it, Sigers said about the incident from roughly 30 years ago thats still on her criminal record, which occurred after she said police misidentified her while pursuing someone else who had been evading police at her sisters apartment complex.

I'm a kind, gentle person. And when you have people that ask you do you have a background and you tell them, they turn around and look down on you like, youre this bad person. Im not a bad person, said Sigers, who drove from her home in Spring to participate in the program and brought both her sons to see if they could benefit as well.

More than two hours before the Harris County Courts Fresh Start event began, people were outside to sign up, indicating significant community interest in the programs offered  records sealing as well as receiving free childrens backpacks, free enhanced library cards, COVID-19 vaccines and immigration consults.

Michael Wyke / Contributor

Saturdays event is the third Fresh Start community outreach event by Harris County Courts for sealing records, which can be a burdensome, costly process, according to Harris County Criminal Court Judge Raul Rodriguez.

A lot of times, many dont know how to do it so they hire a lawyer to do it, and so there's fees there. So, this particular program allows these individuals to be able to seal their records without having to hire a lawyer, Rodriguez said.

For 32-year-old special education teacher Chantol Prophet, it was the associated costs that kept her from sealing the misdemeanor on her record  an incident that happened around eight years ago when her first son was born.

It just started getting really pricey. Especially with two kids, she said, which is why shes grateful Harris County is offering this service for free or a reduced fee.

Michael Wyke / Contributor

Chantol said if this can be removed from her record it will be a weight off for applying for jobs and securing housing.

Hundreds - even thousands - of individuals are likely eligible to seal their criminal record, according to a rough estimate from Harris County Courts Office of Court Management.

Sealing records is available for people with a completed deferred adjudication for low-level, non-violent misdemeanor offenses.

HARRIS COUNTY COURTS: $2.5M plan to eliminate courts backlog gets unanimous approval from commissioners

Under the Fresh Start program, sealing your record means that qualifying individuals can get orders of non-disclosures, which means their criminal charge isnt required on public disclosures, like apartment or job applications. However, criminal justice agencies are still able to view the charges.

Michael Wyke / Contributor

The program was created as an extension of the restorative justice initiative Bayou City Community Court and is aimed at bridging the gap between the community and the criminal justice system, according to Harris County Criminal Court Judge Toria Finch.

We believe that if we give people resources, we give people opportunity, we give people purpose, that also combats crime. And so a lot of people cannot get jobs, a lot of people cannot move forward with their life because of a mistake that may have happened years ago, she said.

Finch also added that once community members sign up for the Fresh Start program, at the rotating locations in the county, the overall process of sealing records takes around four to eight weeks.

Another Fresh Start event is expected before the end of the year, but Harris County Courts has not yet finalized details.
Marisela Castro didnt usually make a big deal about her birthday, but as she was set to turn 40 at the end of August, she told her friend Jorge Luis Lizardo that she wanted to have a party. Lizardo was thrilled and more than willing to accommodate.

We were putting it together little by little, I told her we were going to have a great time because she was turning 40, Lizardo said in Spanish.

Unfortunately, the good friends never got a chance to celebrate. Castro, a transgender woman, was killed early Friday when a man got out of a car she was in and shot her in the back as she walked down the street in the Northshore neighborhood of east Houston.

Her slaying has devastated friends and loved ones, and illustrates the unique dangers faced by transgender people who are simply trying to live their lives, advocates say. Castro is at least the 23rd transgender person to be killed in the United States in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign, and at least the third Texan.

Eighteen of the 22 transgender people who have been killed this year, not including Castro, were women of color, according to the HRC. The group estimates the number of people killed is actually higher, but is difficult to pin down precisely because their deaths go unreported or misreported.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

MORE: Despite ongoing debate over transgender rights, Black and brown leaders continue to care for Houstons trans communities

It is so sad to find out that another trans sister in Houston was murdered due to transphobia and hate against our trans community, without protection or answers from law enforcement in Houston, said Elia Chino, founder of the Fundacion Latinoamericana De Accion Social, a healthcare group that focuses on queer Latinos in Houston.

Ni una mas (not one more). We are tired of this happening again and again to our trans sisters, Chino said.

Houston police did not respond to Chinos statement, but said that no one was in custody Sunday.

Castro, a Honduran immigrant who spent most of her life in North Carolina, moved to Houston several years ago to be close to her sister and her nieces and nephews, whom she loved more than anything, Lizardo said.

The pair became friends after Lizardo moved in near Castro last year and they would go out to eat together often, talking nearly every day. Trips to Starbucks, Castros favorite coffee shop, were common, Lizardo said.

Im also gay, and she told me that things could be difficult for her as a trans woman. I told her she had a friend in me, and from there we called each other brother and sister, Lizardo said.

THE LATEST: In a strip mall full of sequins, Houstons drag community prepares for statewide pageant

Castro could often be found singing songs by the Mexican American artist Marisela, her namesake. She kept up a bright and sunny demeanor despite the discrimination she faced working on construction sites or at businesses that would deny her service, Lizardo said.

She had no enemies, according to Lizardo, who suspects that her death was the result of another senseless hate crime.

She was always so happy, but you know that all across the U.S. there are many that dont like transgender people, and this is not the first time this has happened, he said.
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Average high temperatures in Houston so far this summer have outpaced previous historically hot summers on record, according to the National Weather Service.

In the months of May, June and July, temperatures in the city averaged 95.1 degrees, ranking first in average high temperature at this point of the year, NWS meteorologist Josh Lichter said.

Houston's hottest summer on record  the summer of 2011  registered an average temperature of 94.4 degrees in the same months, Lichter added. The data sets go back to 1889.

TRENDING: 49 unique ways that Texans and Southerners say it's hot outside, according to Google

Weather experts predicted an above normal July and August after a historically hot June saw temperatures reach an average of 86.7 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Those temperatures surpassed the previous record average of 86.2 degrees set in June 2011.

Although some thunderstorms have come to the region within the past week, the weather pattern right now above Houston is one which "suppresses" rain and exasperates droughts, he said.

"Once once you get that pattern going where we have, you know, a week of 100-plus degree temperatures and you only have a couple days where you get rain but then you go back another week or two of 90 to 100-degree temperatures with little rain again, you're going to increase the risk of droughts."

READ MORE: Houston rap icon Slim Thug now wants to be called Big Slim, says he's 'growing'

Houston isn't alone with the entire state of Texas experiencing some of the hottest months recorded since the late 1800s, according to Lichter.

"It was the second warmest May on record for the state and June was the fifth warmest June for Texas," Lichter said, adding the data sets are 128 years old.

To deal with the heat, residents are encouraged to practice heat safety by drinking water and staying indoors if they can, the NWS advises. Residents should also check on their neighbors, including the elderly and those who don't have access to air conditioning.

Joel.Umanzor@chron.com
Regarding Editorial: 'Who the f is Greg?' and other questions for Texas doctors weighing abortions, (July 28): Why bother to license medical professionals if we are going to let unlicensed and ignorant legislators dictate medical care? A Texas obstetrician can choose, on one hand, management which risks morbidity and death of the mother (and might be considered malpractice), but at least will be approved by the hospital lawyer and covered by the doctors medical liability policy. On the other hand, management based on best medical practice which causes the death of an unborn child risks criminal prosecution and multiple civil suits in multiple state venues for which the doctor will be personally responsible. These misguided and misaligned incentives favor risking injury or death to the woman in exchange for a remote chance to save the pregnancy. We should not have to wait for women to die to fix this. Treatment to save the mother from severe injury or disability (physical or mental), or possibly death, which could or will result in the death of an unborn child, as determined by qualified medical professionals, should be excluded from the legal definition of abortion.

Timothy Brown, League City

Crime

Regarding Opinion: Houston can solve our crime problem if we come together. Heres how., Ive been in public service for the better part of my life. Ive served as a police officer, member of Houston City Council, sheriff, and now, I serve in Harris County government. After reading this op-ed, I thought it important to respond. I respect the three authors of the piece. However, some of the facts need correcting.

The Harris County Commissioners Courts most direct role is making budget decisions with the resources available, so as someone at the table when those decisions have been made, I want to share what weve done to keep the public safe. The piece insinuates that public safety funding is not our highest funding priority  the fact is, public safety funding consumes around two-thirds of our current fiscal year county budget, totaling approximately $1.3 billion in spending. It also states that we have only granted temporary and insufficient increases to the district attorney. The truth is in the last budget cycle, that office was given increases from temporary COVID funds as well as permanent funding to pay for the largest starting salaries in Texas, based on research weve done.

We have considered night and weekend courts and found them to be promising. However, we need all stakeholders in the criminal justice system to be willing to work together to make such an idea a reality.

My fellow members of Commissioners Court and I all want to do everything we can to keep the public safe. While we may have different ideas of how to go about it, Id welcome all to the table to work as a team and come together to make Harris County the safest county in the nation.

Adrian Garcia, Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 2

Monkeypox

Regarding Living in hell: A Houston monkeypox victim on his battle against the disease, (July 28): So monkeypox is evidently now a national health emergency. Im confused. The disease is fatal in only the rarest of cases and normally resolves on its own within a few weeks. The virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact or by contact with clothing or other materials that have contacted open lesions of an infected individual so mask mandates are not indicated, although I wouldnt be surprised to see that happen. Virtually all cases are contracted by men who regularly have sex with other men and I prefer not to think deeply about why this is so. Im already doing my part by not having sex with other men  what more should I be doing? The World Health Organization has published a request asking men to have sex with fewer male partners until the spread of monkeypox subsides, which seems prudent. What does declaring this disease to be a national health emergency do to help stop the spread?

Greg Groh, Houston

Immigration

Regarding Opinion: Busing migrants to score political points is reprehensible, (July 27): This writer was way off-base when they stated, I witnessed firsthand the tragedy of busing thousands of immigrants to Washington, the reason being they arrive at Union Station with little or no family.

The financial burden really falls on the state where the immigrants arrive, not the federal government. The federal government refusing to deal with the border is costing the states untold financial issues. The current administration is the one using the vulnerable people, including many small children as political pawns in order to garner votes among the misguided liberals they are courting.

Michael R. Wells, Richmond

Road rage

Regarding Two arrested after alleged road rage shooting in north Harris County, sheriff says, (July 26): I am glad that the woman and man who allegedly attacked a man out of road rage were caught. How brazen of the man to come out shooting to kill whoever was in the other car. These disgusting, pathetic people should be charged with all that the law allows. They are a threat to society and should be sentenced to life in prison. In this society, it seems, these shooters are seldom caught; how lucky of the police. Now hopefully they dont get a bleeding heart judge to release them.

Marie Perez, Houston
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Google is in a tough spot. The company says it is committed to protecting the privacy of its users, but it also built one of the most profitable businesses in the world around the idea that if you track what users do online, you can show them personalized ads based on their interests and activity.

The real problem for Google is that not only is it the world's most popular search engine, it makes the world's most widely-used browser, Chrome. That gives the company an extraordinary amount of influence over how billions of people use the internet.

Over the past few years, other browser-makers have started to take steps to better protect user privacy. Both Safari and Firefox now block third-party cookies, the pieces of software used to track users across different websites or apps. Both also offer protection against device fingerprinting, which uses other types of data like browser, screen resolution, IP address, and browser extensions, in order to track them.

As the pressure to eliminate cookies continued to rise, Google said in a 2019 blog post that it would start exploring ways to make the web respect user privacy:

We are confident that with continued iteration and feedback, privacy-preserving and open-standard mechanisms like the Privacy Sandbox can sustain a healthy, ad-supported web in a way that will render third-party cookies obsolete. Once these approaches have addressed the needs of users, publishers, and advertisers, and we have developed the tools to mitigate workarounds, we plan to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome. Our intention is to do this within two years.

Privacy Sandbox is what Google describes as "a secure environment for personalization that also protects user privacy." It seems like Google agreed at the time that cookies were bad, but said it wasn't prepared to block cookies because it would lead to bigger privacy concerns like device fingerprinting.

Then, Google published a blog post in January of 2020 that said the company was working on "a path towards making third party cookies obsolete," within two years. It's been a very long path. In fact, the path has only gotten longer.

Now, Google has extended that deadline even further. It now says it won't phase out third-party cookies until the second-half of 2024. If you're doing the math at home, it's already been more than two years. Google now says it will be at least two more.

Part of that is because Google can't just block cookies without coming up with something to replace them, even if it wanted to. Tracking, after all, is the lifeblood of the digital advertising economy.

Ironically, Google would be better off if it simply blocked third-party cookies wholesale. It doesn't really need that kind of data considering it already has so much information about you based on the Google websites you use.

Take search ads, for example. You don't have to do any tracking to figure out what might be a relevant ad to show someone when they literally tell Google what they're looking for. There has never been a more personalized advertising opportunity, ever.

At the same time, every other advertising platform depends on third-party cookies to track user information across websites, and to provide important data like ad conversions. Shutting off those cookies in Chrome would put them at a massive disadvantage against Google.

In theory, blocking cookies would be good for Google, except it would be seen as highly uncompetitive. It might be better for privacy, but it would be devastating for advertising.

And, so, Google has been trying to figure out a way to get rid of cookies, but also to provide a replacement that balances privacy and advertising. So far, it hasn't gone well. Its first effort, known as FLoC was widely panned and rejected by both digital advertisers and privacy advocates. It has since moved on to what it calls Topics, which effectively uses Chrome to do all the tracking, which I guess is more privacy protective because advertisers don't actually know anything about the individual users they target.
Two Indian peacekeepers were killed during the anti-UN protests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The protest is against the United Nations peacekeeping missions apparent failure to stop the violence.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar tweeted, Deeply grieved at the loss of lives of two valiant Indian peacekeepers of the BSF in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were part of the MONUSCO. The perpetrators of these outrageous attacks must be held accountable and brought to justice.

What is happening in Congo?

Protest Against UN Peacekeeping Mission In Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) replaced the former U.N. peacekeeping mission in the African country in 2010.

According to The Hindu, the main objective of MONUSCO is to protect civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders from the threat of physical violence and to support the country's government in maintaining peace.

However, in the past few weeks, groups associated with the ruling party in Congo had called for protests against MONUSCO across the country.

During the protests, protestors blocked roads and raised slogans against the UN. hundreds of protestors even stormed the local headquarters of MONUSCO and a logistics base. They allegedly looted offices at the headquarters and demanded the peacekeepers vacate the area for failing to protect civilians.

MONUSCO is facing criticism for its failure to stem militia violence in the eastern Congo. According to reports, more than 120 armed active militia are causing violence and displacement of millions of people in the region.

AFP

The media reports suggest that the protest was launched after the president of Congos senate, Modeste Bahati, told supporters in the city on July 15 that MONUSCO should pack its bags.

What is the UN Peacekeeping mission?

The U.N. Peacekeeping mission is a collective effort between the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support to assist and maintain peace in countries in conflict. U.N. Peacekeepers provide security along with political and peacebuilding support to countries in conflict.

The peacekeeping efforts of the UN began in 1948 by deploying military observers to West Asia. The objective was to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

AFP

It has three guiding key principles consent of the parties, impartiality and non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate.

Who are the Blue Helmets?

Also known as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets, the UN peacekeepers usually includes soldiers, police officers, and civilian personnel. They promote stability, security, and peace processes. Blue Helmets name was kept as they wear their iconic blue helmets or berets.

Blue Helmets are members of their national armies first and seconded to work under the U.N. command. The troops and police from around the world are deployed and are integrated with civilian peacekeepers.

At present, more than 70,000 military personnel are enlisted as Blue Helmets. They work under the UN flag for over one year in the field or two or three years at the headquarters.

Member states contribute peacekeepers on a voluntary basis. While the UN Secretariat recruits and deploys international civil servants for civilian staff of peace operations.

According to UN Website, U.N. military personnel can be tasked with protecting civilians and other U.N. personnel, monitoring disputed borders, observing peace processes in post-conflict areas, providing security in conflict zones, providing security during elections, and assisting in-country military personnel with training & support and assisting ex-combatants in implementing the peace agreements.

India and UN Peacekeeping

India has the second-largest military force with the third-largest defence budget in the world. With the present strength of over 1.4 Million Military personnel, India also has the worlds largest volunteer army.

AFP

India is one of the largest troop-contributing countries to the UN peacekeeping missions and also became the first country to deploy an all-women contingent to a UN peacekeeping mission in 2007.

Since 1948, India has sent troops for 51 out of 71 peacekeeping missions established by the UN and has also contributed more than 2,64,000 personnel to these missions over the decades.

At present, the Indian Army has a presence in 8 out of 14 UN missions worldwide and more than 6,700 Indian army personnel are deployed in these missions.

According to a report published in The Hindu, India is the second-highest military (1,888) and fifth-highest (139) police-contributing country to the UNO Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). (2021 data).





For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
A NASA engineer is currently developing "swimming robots" to aid humanity's hunt for alien life. These smartphone-sized robots could swim in alien waters to observe life underwater, if any.

For instance, scientists suspect that there might be some life in the water beneath an icy shell on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The tiny robots would also be equipped with ice-melting capabilities to break through the icy crust and reach water. Once underwater, these robots would swim as fish would, giving humans a peek into alien worlds unlike anything ever imagined.

NASA

Meet "SWIM" robots

Created by Ethan Schaler, a robotics mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the concept for "Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers" (SWIM) was recently awarded $600,000 in funding from NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme.

NASA

The money will be used over the course of the next two years to build and test 3D-printed prototypes of these small robots. According to early-stage concepts, the robots would be 12 centimetres long and 60-75 cubic centimetres in volume. In addition, they will rock a wedge shape! About four dozen of these swimmers could fit in a cryobot, an ice-penetrating robot.

Also read: One Of Jupiter's 79 Moons Probably Has Alien Life, Claims Physics-Based Simulation



According to a press statement, each robot would have its propulsion system, a computer, an ultrasound communications system, and sensors to measure temperature, salinity, pressure, and acidity.

What is the plan for these robots?

NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper mission will perform numerous flybys along Jupiter's moon after a 2024 launch. Such robot-based concepts could help scientists get a peek that no other method could offer.

NASA

The swimming robots would be deployed using the cryobot which will communicate with a surface-based lander. In turn, this lander would communicate with mission controllers on Earth. What if, after all those years it took to get into an ocean, you come through the ice shell in the wrong place? What if theres signs of life over there but not where you entered the ocean? By bringing these swarms of robots with us, wed be able to look over there to explore much more of our environment than a single cryobot would allow, Samuel Howell from the SWIM team said in a press release.

Also read: AI Is Learning Human Biases: Robot's Racist And Sexist Behaviour Shocks Researchers

It gets crazier! The cryobot would be supported by a nuclear battery to melt ice and allow swimmers to enter the water. In addition, the bots could mimic fish and birds to "flock" together to reduce the scope of errors in terms of data.



What do you think such experimental tech to aid hunt for life in alien terrains? For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
Some residents of Appalachia returned to flood-ravaged homes and communities on Saturday to shovel mud and debris and to salvage what they could, while Kentuckys governor said search and rescue operations were continuing after the region was swamped by torrential rain that led to deadly flash flooding.

Rescue crews were struggling to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in America. Dozens of deaths have been confirmed and the number is expected to grow.

In the tiny community of Wayland, Phillip Michael Caudill was working to clean up debris and recover what he could from the home he shares with his wife and three children.

The water had receded from the house but left a mess behind along with questions about what he and his family will do next.

Were just hoping we can get some help, said Mr Caudill, who is staying with his family at Jenny Wiley State Park in a free room, for now.

Phillip Michael Caudill holds his four-year-old son Connor outside their temporary room at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, Kentucky (Dylan Lovan/AP)

Caudill, a firefighter in the nearby Garrett community, went out on rescues at 1am on Thursday but had to ask to leave around 3am so he could go home, where floodwater was rapidly rising.

Thats what made it so tough for me, he said. Here I am, sitting there, watching my house become immersed in water and you got people begging for help. And I couldnt help, because he was tending to his own family.

The water was up to his knees when he arrived home and he had to wade across the yard and carry two of his children out to the car. He could barely shut the door of his SUV as they were leaving.

In Garrett on Saturday, saturated sofas, tables and pillows were stacked in yards along the foothills of the mountainous region as people worked to clear out debris and shovel mud from driveways and roads under now-blue skies.

The river is still high around the homes in Breathitt County, Kentucky (Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal/AP)

Hubert Thomas, 60, and his nephew Harvey, 37, fled to Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonburg after floodwater destroyed their home in Pine Top late on Wednesday night.

They were able to rescue their dog, CJ, but fear the damage to the home is beyond repair. Hubert Thomas, a retired coal miner, said his entire life savings was invested in his home.

Ive got nothing now, he said.

Harvey Thomas, an emergency medical technician, said he fell asleep to the sound of light rain, but it was not before his uncle was waking him up to warn him that water was getting dangerously close to the house.

It was coming inside and it just kept getting worse, he said, like there was, at one point we looked at the front door and mine and his cars was playing bumper cars, like bumper boats in the middle of our front yard.

He said he does not know what comes next, but he is thankful to be alive.

Mountain people are strong, he said. And, like I said, its not going to be tomorrow, probably not next month, but I think everybodys going to be OK. Its just going to be a long process.

Residents of Whitesburg, Kentucky, are beginning to return to their homes to assess the damage (Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal/AP)

At least 25 have people died  including four children  in the flooding, Kentuckys governor said on Saturday.

Andy Beshear said: We continue to pray for the families that have suffered an unfathomable loss, some having lost almost everyone in their household.

He said the number is likely to rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flash flooding. Crews have so far made more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats.

Im worried that were going to be finding bodies for weeks to come, he added.

The rain let up early on Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received between 8in and 10.5in (20cm-27cm) over 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday.

About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power on Saturday.

It is the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the US this summer, including St Louis earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn that climate change is making weather disasters more common.

Volunteers clear flood-damaged property from a house at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Kentucky (Timothy D Easley/AP)

As rain hammered Appalachia this week, water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams coursing through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and destroyed vehicles. Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes.

President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.

The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.

Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where the flooding brought down trees, cut power and blocked roads.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling officials to mobilise resources across the flooded south-west of the state.

The deluge came two days after record rain around St Louis dropped more than 12in (31cm) and killed at least two people.

Volunteers help clean up at a house in Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Kentucky (Timothy D Easle/AP)

Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both instances, the rain and flooding far exceeded what forecasters had predicted.

Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists.

That is a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and cannot keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods and heatwaves like those that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and southern Plains.

Its a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States, said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. These are things we expect to happen because of climate change.  A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour and that means you can produce increased heavy rainfall.
Lebanons Hezbollah on Sunday aired drone footage of Israeli ships in a disputed gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting the tension at the centre of US-mediated maritime border talks between Lebanon and Israel.

The footage was aired as US energy envoy Amos Hochstein was landing in Beirut to mediate ongoing talks between Lebanon and Israel over their sea borders.

Lebanon claims the Karish gas field is disputed territory under ongoing maritime border negotiations, whereas Israel says it lies within its internationally recognised economic waters.

Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said in a statement on Friday that Mr Hochstein will inform Lebanon of Israels response to his countrys June proposal, adding that he is optimistic about reaching an agreement soon.

There was no immediate response to the video from Israel.

The footage, aired on the Iran-backed party and militias Al-Manar television, showed barges from reconnaissance drones over the Karish gas field and their co-ordinates. It ended with footage of a rocket with the words within range in Arabic and Hebrew.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military shot down three Hezbollah unarmed drones flying over Karish.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati criticised Hezbollah, saying the move could pose risks to the country.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview last week that the militant group can locate and strike Karish and any other Israeli gas fields.

Following his last visit in June, Mr Hochstein told US-funded Al-Hurra television that the Lebanese government took a very strong step forward by presenting a more united approach, and anticipated that there could be progress to reach a settlement.

The two countries, which have been officially at war since Israels creation in 1948, both claim some 330 square miles (860 sq km) of the Mediterranean Sea.

Lebanon hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history.
No one is yet sure which of the 16 -- or 27, based on some reports -- Florida insurance companies are headed for a downgraded rating from Demotech, a financial analysis and ratings firm from Columbus, Ohio.

Mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require homeowners to have a policy with an A-rated company. These homeowners, whose companies' ratings are downgraded, would be forced to find new insurers, potentially at higher costs, or face the risk of defaulting on their mortgages.

About 65 percent of Florida policyholders reportedly have insurance with a federally backed mortgage.

Demotech held off in its announcement this past week after a huge outcry from state leaders, and after the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation stepped in to announce a plan to "save" those companies on the hit list by providing reinsurance coverage through state-run Citizens Property Insurance.

Joe Petrelli, Demotech's president, said in a statement that ratings have been delayed while the company conducts further discussions with affected carriers.

As the current regulatory climate has become hostile and negative and we have and will expend a significant effort creating responses to third party letters, we will be taking additional time to review information and consider the issues affecting the companies operating in Florida, the Demotech statement noted.

Petrelli did not say when the ratings will be released but said that all of them would be posted at the same time. However, upon further review, significant revisions to the ratings might not even happen.

It is inappropriate to revise potential rating actions in response to unhappiness with the outcomes or threats, including the threat of litigation, Petrelli said in the statement.

Some insurance companies across the state, such as Frontline Insurance of Lake Mary, sent messages to its customers saying: Rest assured we are in great financial shape, have plenty of reinsurance, and are doing better than our peers, the statement from Frontline CEO Leman Porter reads.

This is a matter of politics being played out between Demotech and the Florida Legislature, and between Demotech and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac to get Demotechs 'S' rating accepted. We unknowingly have gotten caught in the crossfire and will move past this to continue our success in the marketplace shortly, the company further said in a statement.

According to a report in the Insurance Journal, the controversy erupted last week after 17 property insurers received a letter from Demotech, notifying them that their financial strength ratings would soon be changed from A Exceptional to S Substantial or M Moderate.

Any rating lower than A is not acceptable to secondary mortgage lenders, and could mean that millions of Floridians would lose insurance coverage required for mortgaged properties.

The Florida Association of Insurance Agents, Floridas chief financial officer and the states insurance commissioner all responded swiftly.

FAIAs President Kyle Ulrich, in a blog post, questioned Demotechs motives and urged state leaders and insurers to find another rating method. CFO Jimmy Patronis asked lenders to rethink their use of the firms ratings. And Commissioner David Altmaier, in a letter to Demotech, faulted the firms methodology and said it had not adhered to consistent standards, the Insurance Journal reported.

This week, Jacksonville-based Southern Oak became the 17th insurance company in the state to back down from writing policies, withdraw altogether, or declared insolvent.

Southern Oak reportedly has instituted a $250,000 coverage limit, will only write new policies for structures built this year, and no longer will write policies in 10 counties, which were undisclosed.

In the meantime, you can check your present insurance carriers rating from Standard and Poor's Ratings, by clicking here or by calling 212-438-2400.
There are very few options, if any, to buy land on the island, but here are still some (relatively) affordable places in the U.S. to buy land as an investment, relocate or build a second home.

People buy land for a variety of reasons (including as an investment or to build a home) however cost plays a big role in whether this is a possibility.

According to a report by the website Lifehacker, these locations are some of the least expensive places in the country to buy one acre of land.

Jasper County, Mississippi

Location: Southeast part of Mississippi, about 49 miles east of Jackson

Total square miles: 676

Lowest price for one acre of land: $1,251

Luna County, New Mexico

Location: Southwest part of the state, about 37 miles west of Las Cruces

Total square miles: 2,965

Lowest price for one acre of land: $1,450

Polk County, Florida

Location: Central Florida

Total square miles: 1,798

Lowest price for one acre of land: $1,599

Torrance County, New Mexico

Location: Center of the state, about 40 miles east of Albuquerque

Total square miles: 3,345

Lowest price for one acre of land: $1,750

Here are some of the least expensive places to purchase five acres of land in the country:

Hudspeth County, Texas

Location: Westernmost corner of the state, about 29 miles east of El Paso

Total square miles: 4,571

Lowest price per five acres of land: $1,200

Costilla County, Colorado

Location: Southwest part of the state, about 15 miles east of Alamosa

Total square miles: 1,227 (Note: There are 633 acres of communal grazing land in the county)

Lowest price per five acres of land: $2,495

For the complete report, click here.
Today

Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 107F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 106F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
A FORMER Kwekwe resident magistrate and his Clerk of Court have been sentenced to a combined 24 months in prison after they were convicted of abuse of office.

Story Rushambwa (48), a former resident magistrate at Kwekwe magistrates court was arrested together with the Clerk of Court Bright Mpiyabo (45).

The pair appeared before Harare regional magistrate, Mr Taurai Manwere, who was presiding over the matter at the Gweru magistrates court. Mr Manwere sentenced Rushambwa to 15 months in prison and Mpiyabo to nine months.

Rushambwa and Mpiyabo pleaded not guilty but were convicted due to overwhelming evidence.

The two accused who facilitated the release of a stolen vehicle to controversial businessman Mr Shepherd Tundiya, were found guilty of abuse of office.

Rushambwa was dismissed from work by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) following a disciplinary hearing on June 1 last year.

It was the State case that sometime in October 2019, a Toyota Hilux vehicle was impounded by the police from John Mapurazi, a miner in Kwekwe.

The vehicle was taken as an exhibit after it was fraudulently imported into the country. Prosecutors said the vehicle was handed over to Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for customs management.

The court proved that on December 27, 2019, Mapurazi made an ex parte application seeking the release of the vehicle. Rushambwa and Mpiyabo, the court heard hatched a plan to order the release of the motor vehicle to Mapurazi.

Mpiyabo deliberately withheld the record so that the matter could be presided over by Rushambwa despite the fact that Rushambwa was on leave.

The court proved that Mpiyabo then placed the record before Rushambwa well knowing he was on leave. Rushambwa presided over the application in the absence of Mapurazi who was now being represented by Tundiya who is not a legal practitioner.

The magistrate went on to grant the order for the release of the motor vehicle to Mapurazi showing favour to him. The former officer-in-charge of CID Gweru, Detective Inspector Leonard Gwandu was last year sentenced to three years in jail for the same case.

Meanwhile, Gokwe Provincial magistrate, Mr Musaiwona Shotgame has been suspended to pave way for investigations into allegations of incompetence and misconduct levelled against him.

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) suspended Mr Shotgame for three months for allegedly flouting laid down court procedures and failure to competently discharge judicial function in a case of territorial boundary involving Chief Masuka and Chief Mutendi of Gokwe.

According to a suspension letter a copy of which is in the possession of the Chronicle and signed by Acting JSC Secretary, Mr Sithembinkosi Msipa on July 14, Mr Shotgame was suspended with effect from July 14, 2022 and will be entitled to half his gross salary per month until October 15.

Mr Shotgame reportedly committed acts of misconduct by summoning Chief Masuka to court via WhatsApp and later failing to treat the matter as an urgent matter.

It has come to my attention that you may have committed acts of misconduct in that you received a complaint from Chief Mutendi who had been involved in an issue of territorial jurisdiction with Chief Masuka, particularly in the matter involving Graciano Shava, read part of the letter.

The two chiefs have been involved in a longstanding battle whereupon Chief Mutendi was complaining that Chief Masuka had dealt with an issue that fell under his jurisdiction involving Shava and that he had handed down an incompetent judgment.

Pursuant to the complaint by Chief Mutendi, Mr Shotgame summoned Chief Masuka to court with a view of purportedly exercising his reviewing powers in Terms of Section 25 of the Customary Law and Local Government Act.

It is further alleged that after concluding that the issue of territorial boundaries of the chiefs was reviewable, you unilaterally summoned Chief Masuka to court by way of a WhatsApp Message and thus not following the laid down procedures of the serving process, reads the letter.

Further allegations are that Mr Shotgame called the parties unprocedural on the basis of urgency and did not determine the matter up to date yet urgent matters by their nature demand that they be heard and their decisions made on urgent basis.

You failed to competently discharge your judicial function by reserving a judgment in an urgent matter for a period of close to two months. Based on the above, as a disciplinary authority, do hereby suspend you from service with effect from July 2022, said Mr Msipa.  Midlands Bureau Chief, Michael Magoronga. Chronicle
THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has bowed to pressure from parents and extended the deadline to register for this years examinations to August 5, but hiked the exchange rate.

Zimsec opened registration for Grade 7, Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations for this year from July 22 to 29 and gazetted fees that are payable in United States dollars or the equivalent in Zimbabwe dollars at a rate of US$1:$455.

After extending the deadline, it revised the exchange rate to US$1:$488.

Grade 7 learners will pay US$10 for all subjects, while O and A Level students are paying US$11 and US$22, respectively for the first seven and three subjects per subject following a 55% government subsidy for public, local authority and not-for-profit mission schools.

O and A Level students will pay the full amounts of US$24 and US$48 for extra subjects.

Parents of Grade 6 pupils are also cracking their heads over the recently introduced Zimsec termly examination fees of US$5, which also benefit from the 55% government subsidy on the gazetted US$11 fee.

Educators Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Tapedza Zhou yesterday said hundreds of schoolchildren mainly in the rural areas failed to meet Zimsecs previous deadline.

We have done our own research and we found out that about 50% of the students in the rural areas paid in full, while the other 50% paid partly, and others did not even attempt to pay. We are just hoping that the government is going to pay for them, Zhou said.

We have hundreds of children in the rural areas who have failed to pay the money, yes, they have extended the deadline to August 5, 2022 but where are they are going to find the money in five days?, he said.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou appealed to government to further extend the deadline.

We are still appealing for Zimsec to extend the deadline to at least August 15, 2022. Yes, we are thanking Zimsec for extending the deadline, but we just need an extension.

Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said the deadline had been extended to August 5, 2022.

We have extended the deadline to August 5 due to varying reasons; including that some children have parents in the diaspora in countries like South Africa, and they have promised to pay. Some schoolchildren have said they dont have money, and that is the other reason why we extended the deadline, Ndoro said. Newsday
The penultimate week of "Jinxed At First" makes headlines as its new episodes feature entertaining secret and untold truths revelations and new beginnings.

However, new ordeals come to Girls' Generation Seohyun, Na In Woo and Ki Do Hoon's way. Will they be able to survive it?

'Jinxed At First' Episode 14: Seul Bi's New Family

Previously, Seul Bi (Seohyun) and Seon Min Joon's (Ki Do Hoon) lives were shaken by the truth: they are half-siblings.

In "Jinxed At First" episode 14, Seul Bi begins to accept things one by one, and readies herself to turn over a new leaf.

Gong Soo Kwang (Na In Woo) and Seon Min Joon, the two best friends, also reconcile and promise one another to protect Seul Bi at all costs.

However, things are still hazy as Seul Bi worries about the future she sees in which Gong Soo Kwang is beaten to death by Seon Dong Shik (Choi Jung Woo).

She asks her mother if she could change the future like how Chairman Seon (Jun Kwang Ryul) sacrificed himself to save his son from the impending curse.

To appease her, Gong Soo Kwang promises to stay by her side forever. The two then go on a shopping spree, and buy things like ties, scarves and dresses for her mother, Chairman Seon and Seon Min Joon.

Seon Dong Shik Releases His Wild Card

After his father was accused of fraud and embezzlement, Seon Dong Shik decides to ditch him completely and take over Geumhwa Group completely.

He digs up the past and sends a warrant for the attempted murder of Gong Soo Kwang two years ago.

In addition to that, he also releases Maidservant Min (Kim Nan Hee), Seul Bi's previous nanny, from the mental hospital and asks her to reveal Seon's secret to the press.

Just when Seon Min Joon is about to take over the company in his father's stead, the news about Seul Bi and her mother's imprisonment breaks out, startling the whole nation.

Instead of running away, Seul Bi and Seon Min Joon decide to come clean and reveal the truth to the public.

Seul Bi Reveals Her Biggest Secret To The World

Seon Min Joon holds a press conference to address the kidnapping and imprisonment allegations against him and his father.

He promises to protect his family, and denies the accusations. Seul Bi and her mother also speak up about the truth.

Mi Soo (Yoon Ji Hye) confesses that she voluntarily stayed at the hotel for 20 years to protect herself from the public for being a witch.

They also disclosed that Seul Bi and Seon Min Joon are half-siblings, which confuses the press as to why she has never been registered as a South Korean citizen.

At the end of the episode, the merchants at Seodong Market come to the rescue and vouch for Seul Bi, telling how hardworking she is as a fish seller and businesswoman.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
In "Big Mouth" episode 2, Park Chang Ho (Lee Jong Suk) gets mistaken as the Big Mouse and embroiled in numerous cases. All eyes are on him and the only answer to save his family is to cut ties with them.

'Big Mouth' Episode 2: Choi Do Ha Refuses to Help Park Chang Ho

After he got drugged while on his way to see a client, Park Chang Ho got into a car accident and found himself lying in the hospital bed with his wife Go Mi Ho (YoonA) and father-in-law on his side.

He immediately asked for his phone to contact Mayor Choi Do Ha (Kim Joo Hun) but it was too late as policemen arrested him for driving under the influence, as seen in his laboratory test.

The lawyer tried to beg Choi Do Ha to help him but the mayor refused, as he felt betrayed by what Park Chang Ho did. He secretly went to Gong Ji Hoon (Yang Kyung Won) before to put bait on him but Chang Ho ended up miserable in exchange for his unplanned actions.

Park Chang Ho Fights for His Life in Jail

The day he entered the prison, Park Chang Ho became instantly famous as he was mistaken as the "Big Mouse," who is a infamous for scamming people. The lawyer had no idea what was going on. He was framed by someone where blocks of money and drugs were planted inside their law office.

Everyone was shocked by the news, including Park Chang Ho. But it became his excuse to somehow save himself from the gang inside the prison. Inmates started to pick a fight against him, and Chang Ho had no choice but to stay strong and fight for his life.

Fortunately, he met Jerry (Kwak Dong Yeon) and No Bak (Yang Hyung Wook), who were his cellmates. They were the only people to be friends with Park Chang Ho.

Park Chang Ho Wants To Divorce Go Mi Ho

One day, his lawyer friend Kim Soon Tae (Oh Eui Sik) visited him and shared what the real situation was outside. He told him that Go Mi Ho was determined to investigate the Gucheon University Murder to prove his innocence.

But Chang Ho was not happy with it as it would put her in danger. After putting his thoughts about it, Park asked Soon Tae to prepare the divorce papers and sign them on his behalf.

For Chang Ho, it was the only way to protect Go Mi Ho. Park Chang Ho wanted to cut ties with her for her to live a normal life.

The next day, while in deep thought, his cellmate No Bak reminded him that Chang Ho meant to live a life. He had to fight back.

This prompted him to look for ways on how he could secretly escape.

Will Park Chang Ho succeed with his plan? Find out in the next broadcast of MBC's "Big Mouth."

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Big Mouth' Episode 1: Lee Jong Suk Becomes Double Agent

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, follow and subscribe to KDramastars.

KDramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
Lots of people I know have either an Im a planner personality or very much not.

This will vary in different parts of life; planning for work will be different than planning for free time or vacations, and everything in between. And yet, even for some of the most scheduled and meticulous folks, thinking about and planning for end of life decisions makes them shudder and not want to deal with the idea. Even when it is uncomfortable to think about, the importance of planning advance directives spans across all ages.

Advance directives

A meta-analysis completed by the University of Pennsylvania found that approximately one in three adults in the United States has completed any type of advance directive for end of life care. This means the majority of American adults do not have anything recorded pertaining to their wishes and plans, leaving a lot of room for unknowns in the event of a medical emergency or death.

The University of Pennsylvanias results suggested the prevalence of advance directives has been low and stagnant across recent years. It is something that many people find challenging for a variety of reasons; emotionally thinking about death and the aftermath, logistics of navigating forms and gathering information, and financially speaking for future plans related to assets and money and even paying for services within the planning process. A great scenario allows people to arrange their affairs to live well in their later years and ensure that their end of life plans follow their wishes.

Planning AHEAD series

Planning AHEAD is a new series from UW-Madison Division of Extension, created to address many aspects of end of life planning.

Throughout seven sessions, participants will learn more about the topics of examining health care wishes, financial responsibilities, legal requirements and documentation, distribution of personal property, end of life decisions, dealing with grief, and the emotional ramifications of all of the above.

The program is designed both for those who want to prepare for their own death, to make things easier for family members or other loved ones, and for those who have, or are in the process of, losing a loved one and are dealing with the transition. This program features a planning workbook to help organize the tasks and documents associated with different end of life decisions.

By working through these sessions and the associated tasks, participants find that the financial, healthcare, and other decisions do not feel so overwhelming. Residents of southern Wisconsin are invited to register for Planning AHEAD, a free online series facilitated by UW-Madison Division of Extension Educators from Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Kenosha, Racine, Richland and Walworth Counties.

The upcoming Planning AHEAD series will be held Tuesday mornings, 9 to 10:30 a.m., Sept. 13 to Oct. 25 via the Zoom platform. Registration is now available at http://go.wisc.edu/SoAHEAD. Contact Mary Metten at mary.metten@wisc.edu or 262-857-1946 with any questions.
227 Shares Share

Do not become a doctor. This was the piece of advice my parents gave me when I initially shared my desire to do so.

No, neither parent is in the medical field. As Im finishing medical training today, I fear this will be the advice I will give my daughter one day. Once wide-eyed, I now look in the mirror and barely recognize myself. Seven years into post-medical school training, I see unkempt gray hair, wrinkles, and eyes duller than a dolls. Where did the time go? What happened to me?

Once upon a time, I enjoyed dancing. I liked going to concerts and plays, staying awake to watch the sunrise, putting on mascara, flirting with boys, and eating at restaurants I could not afford. I maintained my sense of self in medical school and the first years of training. But by year seven, the person I once knew was gone.

Everyone makes an adjustment from youth to adulthood regardless of career choice. The difference for us in medicine is that every choice  for ourselves and patients  is an enormous, sometimes life-altering decision. We are left to find ourselves in a hectic, arguably abusive, lengthy apprenticeship where we shatter at a less-than-perfect review from people who did not bother to learn our names.

During these training years, I felt incredible loss, bore witness to death, and cried with happiness as I brought my own daughter home from the intensive care unit. Like others in training, I missed most birthdays, weddings, and holidays.

In pediatric critical care fellowship, I asked an attending what she did during training. Did she miss lifes milestones? She blankly responded, We all missed out. Theres a whispered, if not unspoken, expectation that surrendering to medicine is part of training. And, despite our growth into adulthood, we continue to be infantilized because this is how it has always been done.

The guilt associated with catering to our personhood while in training is stifling. In pediatric palliative care fellowship  year seven  I apologized every three hours when I excused myself to pump breast milk for 20 minutes. Despite the warning that I might make others feel uncomfortable, I pumped at my cubicle. I felt like I would miss too much of the day if I took the extra 10 minutes to walk to another part of the hospital to pump in private. I apologized for asking to step away to use the bathroom or attend my own health care check-ups. When I was actively having a pre-syncopal event, I lay on the ground, feet above my head, as I calculated one last methadone conversion. This, quite frankly, absurd behavior is likely a combination of both my inherent nature and medicines nurture.

Brene Browns writings on authenticity were concepts  among many  that we explored in our multidisciplinary leadership class. I could not help but think, Bullshit. From what I have seen over these past seven years, the importance of authenticity in the workplace does not apply to medical trainees. We are groomed to be a variation of the same person. Only now are we raising awareness for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Authenticity is not celebrated, and those who speak up in support of their own truth are frowned upon for doing so. They become labeled as outspoken, difficult, or are gaslit into thinking they are the problem  not the static health care system. My Fellow and My Resident  we are nameless, transient, interchangeable belongings to answer pages and speak when spoken to.

We are mid-30s subordinates to survivors of a broken system who continue to work within a broken system that I once idolized.

Training during the pandemic is harder than before it began. We are now threatened by staffing shortages, COVID exposures, and hiring freezes leading to job insecurity in a field that historically yielded security. Superiors became more obviously burnt out, as evidenced by shortened patience, unapproachable body language, and defensive tone, while we trainees struggled to understand their medical decision-making. Homelife became overturned by a transition to remote learning for school-aged children, and partners experienced lay-offs or transitioned to remote working. In this, trainee education became an afterthought resulting in virtual lectures with body-less heads speaking into a void of black boxes.

The educational banter we previously overheard between attendings at in-person lectures nearly vanished. A shared mental model is at stake.

The COVID-19 pandemic left me feeling like a burden to an overly burdened medical system. When it had the potential to bring us closer together as suffering individuals, the pandemic only strengthened the existing medical hierarchy.

There has been a fundamental lack of appreciation that trainees also have their own families about which to worry. We fear bringing COVID home to our loved ones. We have lives outside the hospital confines that are also overturned. Like in years past, the Match has moved some of us to new cities where we know no one and have no network upon which we can rely for assistance. If we are now living in isolation and working in isolation, is the passion for our patients and the field enough to carry us through?

Years from now, when my daughter can say more than puppy, I imagine what will bring her joy. I hope to introduce her to art, music, literature, and science. I want her to travel and immerse herself in different cultures. As I look into her open future, I also dread the day she asks my opinion on becoming a doctor.

I have hope that the field will evolve into a more welcoming, supportive environment. This includes providing adequate parental leave with accommodating return-to-work policies and child support. It requires administrators who understand the importance of attending our own medical appointments and loved ones birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and funerals without passive  or overt  aggression. It upholds the importance of putting on our own oxygen masks first before helping others. I worry it will take painful labor and years of remodeling to renovate the cracking stone upon which medical training is built.

Lauren Rissman is a pediatric palliative care fellow.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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President Yoon Suk-yeol talks with U.S. President Joe Biden prior to a trilateral summit among Korea, the U.S. and Japan on the sidelines of the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, June 29. Courtesy of presidential office



Government delays decision on fears of possible trade conflict with China



By Baek Byung-yeul



Korea is still hesitant to join the United States-led semiconductor supply chain alliance, known as the Chip 4, fearing that this could lead to further retaliation from China similar to its response to the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery here in 2016.



"We cannot evaluate the direct impact of Chip 4 because the details of the alliance have not been decided and the agenda of the alliance has not been set," Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang reiterated during a conference at the National Assembly on July 29.



"The government is discussing what cooperation and strategies are needed to increase the competitiveness of the Korean semiconductor industry in the midst of the international situation."



However, experts said Sunday that the country needs to show its willingness to participate actively in the alliance and choose to cooperate with the U.S. because that is the way for Korea to ensure economic and national security.



"The most important thing in operating the country is ensuring national security, and Korea has had security issues with China. In that sense, it is more important for the country to join the semiconductor alliance to cooperate with the member countries of the alliance and go together with the U.S.," said Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University.



"Korea's economy is 80 percent dependent on international trade and the Chinese market accounts for around 25 percent of the nation's total trade. It is safer for the country to reduce its reliance on China and expand trade with other countries."



The Chip 4 alliance is a proposed consultative body led by the U.S. to discuss the stable management of chip-related supply chains, train skilled personnel and conduct research and development jointly in the semiconductor sector. Korea, Japan and Taiwan have been invited to join.



U.S. President Joe Biden proposed forming the alliance in a bid to contain China's growing involvement in high-tech industries. Though Japan and Taiwan have already responded positively to joining the chip alliance, Korea has not decided on its stance, as joining could possibly cause further economic retaliation from China. Another reason for the Korean government's careful deliberation is that 60 percent of the country's semiconductor exports came from China, including Hong Kong, in 2021.



When the country decided to deploy the THAAD system in 2016, China launched various economic retaliation measures including tourism restrictions, a ban on Korean pop cultural imports, the denial of government subsidies to Korean companies and unofficial boycotts of Korean products.



Due to the disruptions, companies like Lotte Group had to withdraw its long-established operation from the Chinese market as it was unable to continue running its business there. Also, game companies were denied the ability to earn licenses required to sell their new games in the Chinese market.



The Chinese government has already warned of what will happen if Korea joins the U.S-led chip alliance. "We hope South Korea will proceed from its own long-term interests, the principle of fair and openness to do more things that are conducive to the development of China-South Korea relations and the stability of the global industrial and supply chains," Zhao Lijian, a spokesman of China's foreign ministry, said on July 26.



The U.S. is reportedly supposed to notify the three countries about the first Chip 4 meeting at the end of August, but Korea has yet to decide whether to join the U.S.-led alliance, as joining the alliance could lead directly to trade friction with China.


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Bright outlook for China-Brazil bilateral cooperation in developing digital economy

10:49, July 31, 2022 By Liu Yushu ( People's Daily Online

Over the past five years, China and Brazil have joined together to continue pushing forward the development of the digital economy at comparatively lightning-fast speeds. Looking ahead, the cooperative partnership between the two countries in relevant areas associated with the digital economy points to a bright future.

The digital economy has become the most important engine of economic development in China. In 2021, the scale of China's digital economy reached RMB 45.5 trillion, which is the world's second-largest, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank.

As of December 2021, the number of Internet users in China had reached 1.032 billion. Among these Internet users, 99.7 percent have the habit of surfing the Internet on their mobile phones, with 975 million meanwhile watching videos posted online. In addition, 842 million people in China engage in online shopping every day, which is four times the size of Brazil's total population.

The potential for cooperation in the digital economy between China and Brazil is enormous. According to statistics posted on tianyacha.com, a Chinese portal specializing in analyzing background information on corporate entities, the number of Chinese companies that have business dealings with Brazil reached 348 as of July 26, 2022. Approximately 40 percent of Chinese companies have business dealings with Brazil mainly in the agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery sectors, while another 26 percent are engaged in the wholesale and retail sectors, with all other categories being less than 10 percent. In the years ahead, cooperation between China and Brazil in developing the digital economy will be pursued in at least four key fields.

Cooperation on digital infrastructure for the age of artificial intelligence. The scale of China's core artificial intelligence (AI) industry has already exceeded RMB 400 billion, while the number of companies focused on AI as their main business now exceeds 3,000. Not surprisingly, then, China's AI industry is on track to continue developing rapidly in the years ahead. At present, there are three areas of digital infrastructure in China that have opened up prospects for high-quality cooperation worldwide.

The first is computing services. Computing power has become the most direct constituent component for driving productivity in the era of the digital economy. Li Zhengmao, the CEO of China Telecom, has found that every single yuan invested in arithmetic will produce a 3-4 yuan boost to GDP growth.

The second is the construction of high-speed Internet systems, such as 5G and 6G, among others. As for this area, extensive cooperation could also be developed and continually pursued in the future.

The third is the joint development of AI frameworks. AI will play an increasingly important role in the future of digitization. But currently the world's most popular AI frameworks, such as TensorFlow and Pytorch, are all from the US. Even so, Chinese technology companies have developed their own AI frameworks, such as Baidu's PaddlePaddle AI framework, which currently boasts 4.06 million developers in the global ecosystem and 157,000 corporate or public sector users. China and Brazil can therefore engage in extensive cooperation in the area of AI infrastructure.

Cooperation in the area of e-commerce and online retailing. When it comes to economic cooperation between China and Brazil, there is great potential for more and more companies to emerge and develop their businesses in the future. Especially in terms of the digital economy and online retailing, partnerships between the two countries are no longer limited by lengthy geographical distances, pointing to unlimited prospects for future cooperation moving forward.

Cooperation in the field of education. When considering the education sector, Brazil may have underestimated the market for Portuguese language learning in China. Currently, the Brazilian Portuguese exam certification Celpe-Bras (Certificado de proficiencia em lingua portuguesa para estrangeiros), organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC), has only one exam center in the Chinese mainland, which is based at the Communication University of China. One might wonder then about how best to take advantage of this as yet untapped market. For instance, is it possible to increase the number of exam centers for Celpe-Bras certification in China? Can more Brazilian Portuguese language learning textbooks be developed and marketed to the Chinese market? Or might Internet platforms in Brazil launch more Portuguese language learning courses targeted to the Chinese market? These are all areas for collaboration that could be initiated immediately. Cooperation between China and Brazil in other areas of the education sector would also be very much desirable.

Cooperation in the field of arts and culture. There are about 30 million people in China who are Latin dance enthusiasts. According to tianyancha.com, as of July 2022, there were more than 2,500 Latin dance training institutions in China. Samba, an important branch of Latin dance, also has a good market base in China and has favorable prospects for future market development.

As for those social networking platforms widely used in China, a good dance teacher is capable of having millions or even tens of millions of viewers interacting with him or her in just one online dance teaching session, especially when it comes to fitness-related online dance lessons, which therefore indicates this mediums huge potential commercial value. If Brazilian samba teachers come to China to offer excellent samba classes on social networking platforms, they might also be able to seize the opportunity for a business miracle. Apart from samba, cooperation between China and Brazil in the field of culture and the arts can be quite diverse and will produce fruitful results in the future if the two sides strengthen their cooperative endeavors.

Looking to the future, there is no doubt that cooperation in developing the digital economy between China and Brazil will lead to both countries becoming shining stars among the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Liu Yushu is the director of the Macro Research Department, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China. He is mainly engaged in research on AI, FinTech, and the development of the digital economy.

The opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of People's Daily Online.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
The team behind an unofficial Bridgerton musical has been sued for infringement by Netflix in a Washington, DC US District Court. According to Variety, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the signwriting team behind the project, initially developed the musical on social media. Bridgerton Season 3: Everything You Need To Know About Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevors Netflix Series.

The duo went on to score the No. 1 slot on iTunes US pop charts and even won a Grammy this year in the category of best musical theatre album. Netflix has alleged that it made "repeated objections" against the team as they planned to mount a live stage show of the project.

The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album Live in Concert performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC earlier this week, selling out the venue with ticket prices that ranged up to USD 149. The stage show reportedly featured more than a dozen songs that involved exactly copied dialogue, character traits, expression and other elements from Bridgerton.

The streamer alleges that The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album Live in Concert misrepresented to audiences that it used the Bridgerton trademark "with permission." Netflix also objects to an allegedly planned line of merchandise and the production's upcoming tour dates.

"Netflix supports fan-generated content, but Barlow & Bear have taken this many steps further, seeking to create multiple revenue streams for themselves without formal permission to utilize the Bridgerton IP," Netflix wrote in a statement.

As per Variety, they added, "We've tried hard to work with Barlow & Bear, and they have refused to cooperate. The creators, cast, writers and crew have poured their hearts and souls into Bridgerton and we're taking action to protect their rights." Bridgerton Season 2: Priyanka Chopra Praises Charithra Chandran and Simone Ashleys Netflix Show for Representing Indian Culture.

Earlier, in her conversation with EW, Barlow credited the pandemic for giving them the room to build their following online. "I feel like a few years ago, Netflix probably would've sent us a cease-and-desist for what we're doing, but I think in a time like this, it is so important to have a creative outlet," she said.
Jaipur, Jul 31 (PTI) Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday assured to turn the Chittorgarh station into a world class facility and directed officials to come up with a design keeping in mind the sacrifice and valour of the local heroes.

In his public address after inaugurating Udaipur's Badi Sadri-Mavli railway section gauge conversion in Chittorgarh, Vaishnaw sought people's participation in the project to give the local railway station a facelift.

Also Read | @MVenkaiahNaidu @VPSecretariat Every Student Deserves to Get an Equitable Opportunity to   Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services.

He also accepted the demand submitted by local leaders to introduce two rounds of the Badi Sadri-Udaipur train service per day from August 15.

While the minister flagged off the Badi Sadri-Udaipur City train service in Chittorgarh, he launched the Rewa-Udaipur City Special and Siuri-Sealdah-Siuri train services in West Bengal virtually.

Also Read | West Bengal: Court Remands Three Jharkhand MLAs to 10-Day CID Custody.

The minister said railway stations that are currently in the redevelopment phase are being built with a plan keeping in mind the next 50 years.

He said a tender to develop the Udaipur City Railway station has already been floated and the work will begin after finalising the bidder in August.

Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Gulab Chand Kataria lauded Vaishnaw saying he had reformed the Railways in the last few years, an official statement said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], July 31 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday summoned the press advisor to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and asked him to appear before the agency for questioning in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with illegal mining.

CM Soren's press advisor Abhishek Prasad alias Pintu is likely to be interrogated by the ED at its Ranchi zonal office on Monday (August 1).

Also Read | Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur Attends the Closing Ceremony of Minjar Mela in   Latest Tweet by ANI.

In its ongoing extensive operation in Jharkhand, ED has already arrested Pankaj Mishra who is the MLA representative of the Chief Minister in his Assembly Constituency Berhait.

According to the ED sources, Mishra took Abhishek Prasad's name during the interrogation and revealed a few important things, following which the ED summoned CM's press advisor.

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Mishra was arrested on July 19, after almost eight long hours of interrogation. The Special PMLA court had sent him to ED custody twice for six days each.

Meanwhile, several teams of ED conducted more searches in Sahebganj resulting into the seizure of one inland vessel namely M.V. Infralink-III.

"In connection with the ongoing investigation in the illegal mining, extortion etc in Jharkhand, Enforcement Directorate (ED) has further seized one inland vessel namely M.V.Infralink- III bearing registration number WB 1809 during a search conducted on July 26," ED said on Wednesday.

"The said inland vessel was being operated illegally without having any permit from Sukargarh Ghat, Sahebganj. It was being operated at the behest of Rajesh Yadav aka Dahu Yadav in collusion with Pankaj Mishra and others for transporting illegally mined stone chips/stone boulders," it added.

The agency further disclosed that the estimated cost of the vessel would be around Rs 30 crore.

"This was preceded by freezing of two illegally operated stone crushers of Maa Amba Stone Works operated by Bishnu Yadav and Pavitra Yadav along with the freezing of three HYVA trucks found at MauzaMajhikola, Sahebganj carrying illegally quarried stone chips/boulders without having any mining challans during a search conducted on July 25 by the ED," it added further. (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 31 (PTI) Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey has moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a case of alleged phone tapping of NSE employees, claiming that ED proceedings against him were the result of a political fallout.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on August 2 before special judge Sunena Sharma.

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In his petition, Pandey said he had investigated and prosecuted several high-profile and politically sensitive cases, and claimed that the present proceedings were "a political fallout of honest and sincere discharge of his duties as a senior police officer".

"The instant case is clearly motivated by political considerations and it is also evident from the fact that an offence that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2017 is being investigated in 2022 i.e., 13 years after its purported commencement and five years after its purported closure; and that too within a week of the applicant emitting his office," he said.

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The application also said that a huge delay was caused in the registration of the FIR, which raised serious doubts on the bona fides of the investigation.

"It appears that the applicant (Sanjay Pandey) is arraigned in the present case, for no fault of his own, and only to fulfil some political vendetta," it said.

The court has issued a notice to the ED on the application and sought its reply on August 2.

Pandey was arrested by the investigating agency on July 19 in the case.

The ED arrested former NSE MD Chitra Ramakrishnan on July 14 following her interrogation after taking permission from the court, where she was produced from jail on an order passed by the judge earlier.

The judge had issued a production warrant against Ramakrishnan on a plea moved by the ED.

After she was produced, the ED took permission from the court to interrogate her.

Later, the agency arrested Ramakrishnan on grounds of non-cooperation and again produced her before the court, and urged for a nine-day custodial interrogation.

The court, however, had granted four days' custody.

Ramakrishnan was arrested by the CBI in a separate case, and was in judicial custody.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Parameswaran Iyer, CEO, NITI Aayog today met the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], July 31 (ANI): Parameswaran Iyer, CEO, NITI Aayog today met the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar.

During the meeting, the CEO, NITI Aayog and Lt Governor discussed a range of issues dealing with the development of the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory.

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The Lt Governor said that the UT government has taken steps to strengthen the democratic system at the grassroots level, public participation in the development process, inclusive, qualitative education, easy accessibility of public services, self-employment opportunities for the youth and taking industries to the block level for equitable development and ensuring that the benefits of the development reach the last person in the queue.

Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, Rakesh Ranjan, Mission Director, Aspirational District Programme and Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog were present during the meeting.

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In June, the Union Government appointed retired bureaucrat Parameswaran Iyer as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the NITI Aayog for a period of two years.

Iyer replaced Amitabh Kant to become the new CEO of NITI Aayog and his term began on June 30, 2022, a Government notification said.

Prior to this, Kant served as the national secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), National Project Director of the Rural Tourism Project of UNDP, and Secretary - Of Tourism of the Government of Kerala. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], July 31 (ANI): After Jharkhand Congress MLAs were held with a huge amount of cash in West Bengal on Saturday, senior JMM leader Supriyo Bhattacharya took a dig at the BJP claiming that the 'script for the episode' was 'drafted' two years ago.

"The script for the episode which unfolded yesterday was being drafted for the last two years. This is BJP's tactics to destabilise a government by hook or crook.

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Further speaking on BJP trying to destabilize the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand, he said, "After 20 years, a pre-poll coalition was formed. In such a situation, if attempts are made to topple the government, it is like weakening democracy."

"BJP's motto is that they will form the government where they win the elections, and they will definitely form the government where they did not win the elections," he added.

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Exuding confidence that the JMM-Congress coalition government will again come back to power in 2024, the JMM leader said, "JMM is very confident that its MLAs are intact, and the coalition will form government in 2024 too."

Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand -- Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Bixal Kongari-- were detained in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in their vehicle.

The Congress party on Sunday suspended three MLAs, who were held with a huge amount of cash in West Bengal on Saturday, with immediate effect.

Addressing a press conference today, the general secretary and party in-charge of Jharkhand Congress, Avinash Pande said, "The three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect."

Right after this political blame game started. Congress, in clear words, termed it as BJP's conspiracy to topple the Jharkhand government.

Meanwhile, BJP slammed the Congress for their allegations.

Talking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said, "Whenever Congress or leaders from the Jharkhand government land up in any difficulty they immediately start using the word 'destabilization' like Pakistan's government use Kashmir word. But they cannot escape by blaming BJP."

Notably, JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha)-Congress alliance is in power in Jharkhand and BJP is in Opposition. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Patna (Bihar) [India], July 31 (ANI): BJP President JP Nadda on Sunday offered prayers at Patna Sahib Gurudwara during his two-day visit to the state to participate in the Joint National Working Committee.

Nadda who reached Patna on Saturday held a roadshow yesterday in the capital city.

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This will be the first time that this meeting of the BJP is being held in Bihar.

The closing session will be held at Gyan Bhawan from 4 pm on Sunday. It will be attended by Home Minister Amit Shah who will reach Patna at 1.30 p.m. Shah will participate in the closing ceremony along with Nadda.

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Even though Assembly elections in Bihar are 3 years away, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in alliance with the Janata Dal-United in the state, has already started the preparations.

The BJP is holding the 'Prawas Programme' as a part of which the party officials are staying in various Assembly constituencies in Bihar on July 28 and 29 to take feedback from the people.

Earlier, state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal and co-in charge for Bihar Harish Dwivedi said at a joint press conference that Nadda will be setting the tone on an inaugural day on July 30, while Home Minister Amit Shah will wrap up the function a day later, i.e., on July 31.

More than 400 officials and workers from various fronts will attend the meeting.

On July 31, Nadda will inaugurate BJP district offices in 16 districts from Patna BJP state office and lay the foundation stone for the construction of buildings in 7 districts.

While inaugurating the "Gram Sansad" program in Bihar's Patna, Nadda said that over 2.63 lakh panchayat profiles have been uploaded on a single portal.

Addressing the Bihar Gram Sansad Chapter-II program in Patna Nadda said, "Over 2.63 lakh panchayat profiles have been uploaded on the portal. And a whopping Rs 5.9 thousand crores has been allocated to the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan."

He further said, "In order to revamp our Panchayats, a single interface has been created. All the development agendas meant specifically for panchayats have been consolidated on a single portal. So that our Rural Development Minister can monitor progress on a computer screen sitting in one place."

During the program, the BJP leader said the "Gram Swaraj" was the idea of Mahatma Gandhi.

"The idea of Gram Swaraj was laid by Mahatma Gandhi. The leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh and BJP have done the work to give it a shape by implementing it on the ideological background," Nadda said. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 31 (ANI): Aam Admi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will undertake another visit to Gujarat tomorrow.

Kejriwal is aggressively campaigning for the upcoming State Assembly. Kejriwal will address a public meeting in Somnath and will also tour the State, according to AAP spokesperson. The Delhi CM visited Surat last Thursday and promised 300 units of free electricity to all domestic consumers and 24x7 supply to cities and villages across Gujarat if his party is voted to power in the state Assembly elections that are scheduled to be held this year.

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Addressing a press conference in Gujarat's Surat, the AAP national convenor had also promised to waive all pending electricity bills up to December 31, 2021.

Earlier on July 26, Delhi CM met people and their families who fell ill after drinking spurious liquor, in Botad district of Gujarat.

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At least 28 people died due to the consumption of chemical-laced liquor or spurious liquor in Gujarat's Botad district.

"A very sad incident came to my knowledge that more than 25 people have died in Bhavnagar after drinking spurious liquor and several others are admitted to the hospitals. I wish them a speedy recovery," said Delhi CM Kejriwal.

Delhi CM Kejriwal further questioned the Gujarat government that if the state is a dry state then how is alcohol being sold openly in the state and who is benefitting from this?

"Why is the state government not looking after this or is there any internal conspiracy behind it?" he had said.

He further claimed, that there is a business of thousands of crores of liquor in Gujarat.After meeting victims and their families, Kejriwal alleged that "This is not the first time people of Gujarat have died due to spurious liquor".

"People's lives are at stake," said Delhi CM.

Kejriwal had met people and their families who fell ill after drinking spurious liquor, in Gujarat's Bhavnagar.

The number of deaths due to the consumption of chemical-laced liquor or spurious liquor in Gujarat's Botad district has gone up to 28 while three FIRs have been registered at Barwala, Ranpur and Ahmedabad Rural, informed the officials. Over a dozen were hospitalised due to the consumption of spurious liquor. A Committee to inquire into the incident of chemical misuse in Botad, Banvala and Dhandhuka Talukas has been formed.

"A total of 28 people have died in the tragedy. The chemical was directly mixed with water and consumed by people, 600 litres of this was sold at Rs 40,000," informed the Director general of police (DGP), Ashish Bhatia.DGP Bhatia also informed that the local police will constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) over the matter.

"Three FIRs registered at Barwala, Ranpur and Ahmedabad Rural...Local Police will constitute SIT," he added. Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi took note of the situation and chaired a meeting regarding the case.

The incident came to light last night when several people were rushed to hospitals after consuming liquor infused with dangerous chemicals.

Further investigation is under process. (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 31 (PTI) Supreme Court judge Justice UU Lalit on Sunday said legal services institutions have to bridge the gap of trust deficit among the common people towards them and for this, an innovative legal aid defence counsel system is being formulated.

Justice Lalit, who is the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authorities (NALSA), said the legal services institutions have the requisite ability since they have reached 9.5 lakh villages in the country to raise awareness to dispense legal aid services.

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He said these institutions have tremendous strength, power and efforts that have to be channelised and a recent outreach programme has succeeded in reaching every soul in the country.

Justice Lalit, who is next in line to become the chief justice of India, said the required awareness has been created now and the next step is to dispense legal aid by ensuring that the quality of the legal aid services remains intact.

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"The trust deficit that still persists needs to be bridged. To bridge this gap, the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System is being formulated, wherein the lawyers engaged will deal only with the matter of legal aid and thus, would we dedicated solely to this noble cause," he said, adding that for this purpose, young and talented lawyers should be pooled so that this office becomes the backbone of the system and functions as a nodal point.

Speaking at the valedictory session of the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet, Justice Lalit applauded the collaborative effort of the NALSA and the Ministry of Law, wherein the two will work on the Tele-Law and Nyaya Bandhu mobile applications, which will help in constant monitoring of the services provided by the legal aid counsels and solve the problem of implementation.

He suggested that every law college in the country should adopt at least three talukas and encourage the penultimate and final-year students to enrol as para-legal volunteers.

Addressing the gathering, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul urged everyone to utilise the tools available within the system to the best of their potential.

He asked the DLSA members to inculcate the spirit of thinking out of the box and said this could be achieved through active interaction among the stakeholders.

Justice Kaul said the entire judicial system needs a bypass and that there should be an endeavour to close litigation at the first stage itself.

"The judges and the defence system must consciously make available the use of the plea-bargaining system," he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Khandwa (MP), Jul 31 (PTI) A 25-year-old man based in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa has complained of getting threatening voice messsages from Pakistan allegedly for supporting suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma over her remarks against Prophet Mohammad, police said.

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Based on a complaint lodged by him, the police registered a case at Kotwali police station against an unidentified person, who sent threatening voice messages to complainant Aseem Jaiswal on his WhatsApp number, officials said.

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In his complaint, Jaiswal said that in one of his WhatsApp posts, he had supported Nupur Sharma over her remarks, they said.

"The complainant has said that he received threatening voice messages from a phone number in Pakistan. We have registered a case and investigation into the matter is on," Superintendent of Police (SP) Vivek Singh said.

The police personnel are in touch with the complainant to ensure his security, he said.

City Superintendent of Police (CSP) PC Yadav said that according to the complainant, he had received the voice messages on July 26 night.

The complainant alleged that he had received the threat message for supporting Nupur Sharma, he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had suspended Sharma after the row over her alleged derogatory remarks against the Prophet escalated into protests from some Muslim countries.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Pathanamthitta (Kerala) [India], July 31: State Health Minister Veena George initiated a high-level inquiry into the death of a youth, presenting with monkeypox-like symptoms. The youth hailed from Chavakkad Kuranjiyur in Thrissur district & tested positive in a foreign country.

"The result of the test conducted in the foreign country was positive. He sought treatment in Thrissur due to severe fatigue and encephalitis and Monkeypox is not a fatal disease," said George.

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She said that delay in seeking treatment will be investigated.

The health department called a meeting in Punnayur regarding the death of a young man due to alleged Monkeypox.

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Meanwhile, a contact list and route map of the deceased youth has been prepared. Contact persons are advised to undergo isolation.

Notably, India has reported five cases of monkeypox so far, of which three cases are from Kerala, one is from Delhi and one from Andhra Pradesh's Guntur.

Following this, the central government is on an alert even as the count of infections in some other countries has risen.

NITI Aayog's member (Health) Dr V K Paul said that there is absolutely no need for any panic as the government has taken significant measures to keep the disease in check.

In an Interview with ANI, Dr Paul sought to assert that there was no need for any undue panic but added that it was still important that the country and the society stay vigilant."There is no need to panic, as of now, but one must report in time if they spot any symptoms, he said.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 18,000 cases have been reported from 78 countries.

"The monkeypox outbreak can be stopped if countries, communities and individuals inform themselves, take the risks seriously, and take the steps needed to stop transmission and protect vulnerable groups," said Dr Tedros, Director General, WHO on Thursday.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. The disease is endemic in regions like West and Central Africa but lately, cases have been reported from non-endemic countries too, according to the WHO. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jammu, July 31 (PTI) Over 700 Amarnath pilgrims left Jammu on Sunday for the twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal in Kashmir, officials said.

The 43-day-long pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas commenced on June 30 from the twin tracks -- the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in south Kashmir's Anantnag district and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district.

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A total of 715 pilgrims in the 31st batch left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here in a convoy of 26 vehicles amid heavy CRPF security Sunday morning, the officials said.

They said 384 pilgrims heading for Baltal were the first to leave the Bhagwati Nagar camp in 14 vehicles followed by the second convoy of 12 vehicles carrying 331 pilgrims for Pahalgam.

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With this, a total of 142,665 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29, the day the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.

The number of pilgrims visiting the 3,880-metre-high Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas has drastically fallen in the past three days mostly due to bad weather conditions, they said adding that Sunday's was the smallest batch of pilgrims in the last one week.

While 3,862 pilgrims left for Amarnath from Jammu on Monday, on Tuesday 2,189 devotees, Wednesday 1,147, Thursday 1,602, Friday 835 and on Saturday 573 people left for the cave shrine from here.

The annual pilgrimage is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

A total of 36 people, mostly pilgrims, have died during the ongoing Amarnath Yatra till now, excluding 15 pilgrims, who died in the flashfloods at the Amarnath cave shrine on July 1.

(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 31 (ANI): Highlighting the importance of fairs that helps people aware of the cultural heritage of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged citizens to visit these places and asserted that fairs strengthen the spirit of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat'.

The Prime Minister said that there are many traditional fairs of tribal societies in different states in the country and some of these fairs are associated with tribal culture, while some are organized in connection with tribal history and heritage.

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PM Modi also called on youths to join the fairs and to share pictures on social media with a specific hashtag and said that in the next few days, the Culture Ministry will begin a competition for the best pictures of the fairs.

Addressing the 91st edition of the monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister recalled a person from Himachal Pradesh, who in a letter to PM Modi mentioned the 'Minjar Mela' of Chamba.

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He said that when flowers bloom on the maize, Minjar Mela is also celebrated and in this fair, tourists from all over the country come from far and wide to take part.

"I have received a letter from a listener of 'Mann Ki Baat', Ashish Bahl from Himachal Pradesh. He has mentioned in his letter the 'Minjar Mela' of Chamba. Actually, the inflorescence of the maize plant is called Minjar. When flowers bloom on the maize, Minjar Mela is also celebrated and in this fair, tourists from all over the country come from far and wide to take part. Incidentally, the Minjar fair is also going on at this time. If you have gone to visit Himachal, you can go to Chamba to see this fair," said the Prime Minister.

Listing out fairs from across the country PM Modi said that fairs have also been of great cultural importance in our country as it people and hearts.

"When Kharif crops ripe after the rains in Himachal in September, in Shimla, Mandi, Kullu and Solan, Sari or Sair is also celebrated. Jagra is also going to arrive in September itself. In Jagra fairs, Bisu songs are sung after invoking the deity of Mahasu. This awakening of Mahasu Devta takes place in Himachal at Shimla, Kinnaur and Sirmaur; simultaneously in Uttarakhand," he said.

The Prime Minister said that there are many traditional fairs of tribal societies in different states in the country and some of these fairs are associated with tribal culture, while some are organized in connection with tribal history and heritage.

Giving an example of the same PM Modi said one must visit the four-day day Samakka-Saralamma Jatara Fair in Medaram, Telangana.

"This fair is called Mahakumbh of Telangana. The Saralamma Jatara Mela is celebrated in honour of two tribal women heroes - Samakka and Saralamma. It is a big center of faith for the Koya tribal community, not only in Telangana but also in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The Maridamma fair in Andhra Pradesh is also a big fair connected with the beliefs of the tribal society. The Maridamma fair runs from Jyeshtha Amavasya to Ashadh Amavasya and the tribal society here associates it with Shakti Upasana, worship. Here, in Peddhapuram, East Godavari, there is also a Maridamma temple. Similarly, the people of the Garasiya tribe in Rajasthan organize 'Siyawa ka Mela' or 'Mankhan Ro Mela' on Vaishakh Shukla Chaturdashi," said he said.

"The 'Mawli Mela' of Narayanpur of Bastar in Chhattisgarh is also very special. Nearby, the Bhagoria Mela of Madhya Pradesh is also very famous. It is said that the Bhagoria fair started in the times of Raja Bhoj. Then the Bhil kings, Kasumara and Balun organized these events for the first time in their respective capitals," the PM added.

The Prime Minister said fairs are, in themselves, a great source of energy for society and life.

"Ever since, these fairs are being celebrated with equal enthusiasm. Similarly, many fairs like Tarnetar and Madhopur are very famous in Gujarat. Fairs are, in themselves, a great source of energy for our society, and our life. There must be many such fairs around you too. In modern times, these old links of the society are very important to strengthen the spirit of 'Ek Bharat- Shreshtha Bharat'," said PM Modi.

Urging people to visit fairs and upload pictures, PM Modi said that through this other people will also know about those fairs.

"Our youth must join them and whenever you go to such fairs, share the pictures on social media too. You can also use a specific hashtag if you want. Through this other people will also know about those fairs. You can also upload photos on the website of the Ministry of Culture. In the next few days, the Culture Ministry is going to start a competition, where, those who send the best pictures of the fairs will also be rewarded. So do not delay, visit the fairs, share their pictures, and maybe you will get rewarded too," he added. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thane, Jul 31 (PTI) With the addition of 120 coronavirus positive cases, the infection tally in Maharashtra's Thane district has risen to 7,34,113, a health official said on Sunday.

Also Read | Weather Forecast: Heavy Rainfall With Thunderstorm Very Likely Over West Bengal, Assam, and Sikkim During Next 3 Days, Says IMD.

These cases were reported on Saturday.

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There are now 768 active cases in the district, he said.

As nobody succumbed to the infection, the death toll remained unchanged at 11,927, while the overall recovery count stood at 7,22,049, the official added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gorakhpur, Jul 31 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for praising Nimit Singh of Gorakhpur, who is working in the field of honey and bee wax production.

In a tweet in Hindi, Adityanath said, "Respected Prime Minister today in his @mannkibaat (programme) has praised the perseverance ('lagansheeltaa') of Nimit Singh from Gorakhpur, working in the field of honey and wax production. Nimit's efforts will motivate innumerable youth for self-employment and job creation. Thank you Prime Minister!"

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Nimit, a native of Gorakhpur's Divya Nagar colony, works in the field of honey production in Barabanki.

According to Nimit, after completing his BTech in mechanical engineering in 2014 from Annamalai University, his father Dr K N Singh suggested him for apiculture.

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Nimit attained basic knowledge of apiculture after visiting at least half a dozen states, including Sikkim, Kolkata, and Jharkhand.

In 2016, he started honey production with 50 boxes and used to sell his product at various public places in Lucknow.

Nimit said that after getting a good response for his products, in 2018 he extended his startup with Rs 10 lakh loan under 'Mukhyamantri Swarozgar Yojana' and also developed a lab in Chinhat in which quality and medicinal properties of honey is tested.

Recently, he has taken a loan of Rs 15 lakh under Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises scheme.

In Chainpurwa village of Barabanki, Nimit's startup has given employment to about 115 families in bee wax production while 700 people have got employment in production and marketing of honey.

His startup's annual turnover is now Rs 2 crore. "So far, I have associated 500 farmers and gave them free training," Nimit said.

(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 31 (ANI): West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) scam accused Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were taken to the office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after their medical check up at the ESI hospital in Kolkata.

Earlier in the day, Chatterjee had denied his involvement in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam and asserted that the "money does not belong to him."

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He was brought to ESI hospital for a medical examination on Sunday afternoon. "When the time comes, you will know...the money does not belong to me," he said to media persons today upon being asked about who is behind this conspiracy.

Arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee - who is now suspended from the Trinamool Congress - and his aide Arpita Mukherjee have separately been claiming that they are a "victim of a conspiracy."

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"Partha Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of General Secretary, National vice president and three other posts. He has been suspended till the investigation is underway," Abhishek Banerjee said.

Trinamool Congress, which had been distancing itself from its arrested leader Partha Chatterjee, axed him as a minister on Thursday and suspended him from the party leaving it to him to defend himself in the Enforcement Directorate probe in the teacher recruitment scam in which crores of rupees have been seized from residences linked to his aide Arpita Mukherjee.

Trinamool Congress' decision to part ways with one of its most senior leaders was announced by party leader Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference in which he said "if anyone commits something wrong then Trinamool Congress will not spare him" and 'there will be zero tolerance for corruption". He said Partha Chatterjee will remain suspended till probe is underway.

Partha Chatterjee was considered one of the most trusted lieutenants of the Chief Minister, a "go-to" man and was regarded third in party hierarchy after the chief Minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

After his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal, Chatterjee had reportedly called Mamata Banerjee four times, which she allegedly did not pick.

Abhishek Banerjee has told the media that Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of general secretary, national vice president and three other posts.

"He has been suspended till the investigation is underway. He can come back if proven not guilty. CM took the decision and the (Partha Chatterjee) minister was removed. The probe into the matter is underway. If anyone commits something wrong then TMC won't spare him," he said adding that the investigating agency must complete the probe in a time-bound manner.

"There will be zero tolerance for corruption. Investigating agency must complete the probe within the time limit. Even in Sarada case nothing happened, it's just lingering. There should be a time-bound investigation," he said.

"The one (Arpita Mukherjee) from whose house sums of money were recovered isn't from TMC. We want stringent action against those who are linked to this matter. I am saying this in a hypothetical way that if Partha Chatterjee goes to BJP after two months then he will become a saint. Since he is in TMC, all of these things are happening," he added.

The arrest of Partha Chatterjee followed Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellery worth above Rs 1 crore being recovered from the Kolkata residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former education minister.

The ED unearthed many disproportionate assets allegedly of Partha Chatterjee since his arrest, of which were three flats in West Bengal's Diamond City.

The ED raided Arpita Mukherjee's house in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal.

"The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam," the probe agency had said in a statement.

A five-time MLA, Chatterjee was appointed as the minister-in-charge of higher education and school education in 2014 and he held the portfolio till 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)
Kabul [Afghanistan], July 31 (ANI): Afghans on Sunday decried the delay in the issuance of electronic identification cards adding to their plight in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

They raised their concerns about not getting their ID cards, saying that it has been two weeks since the printing and distribution of electronic ID cards in Kabul has stopped, reported Tolo News.

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The applicants added that they are unable to register their names online due to technical issues with the Department of Statistics and Information's website.

"I completed the biometric procedure two weeks ago, and now that I have returned, they have told me that the printing papers have been finished and that we have signed a contract with another country. Please come in five days," said Mohammad Uzair, an applicant for an ID card, told Tolo News.

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"I came from Mazar because there it was too crowded, I wanted to get the ID card here, but they said the process has stopped," said another ID card applicant, Fawad.

The process of distributing ID cards has been stopped, according to a Tolo News reporter who visited one of the electronic ID card distribution centres in Kabul's Macroyan area.

"The system online is having issues. The issue is that when we go to the ID card website, there is a problem with the site when we register," said Nasrullah, another ID card applicant.

The Department of Statistics and Information has not commented despite repeated requests.

According to Tolo News, many local residents said they need ID cards for numerous reasons.

Shabir Ahmad, a Kabul resident said that he wants to travel abroad in order to get medical attention for a family member.

Shabir Ahmad said: "We seriously need ID cards. Everyone needs to take their patients abroad. Having ID cards is necessary for getting a passport."

The National Statistics and Information Authority in Afghanistan issues the electronic National Identity Card (eNIC).

According to NSIA, 104 centres are present for the distribution of ID cards in Afghanistan, including 25 in Kabul.

The process of issuing passports and national IDs to Afghans was halted after the fall of the previous government (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) and the Taliban taking over the country on August 15. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beijing [China], July 31 (ANI): Amid high tensions over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan, the Chinese military announced holding live-fire naval exercises in the Taiwan Strait, media reports said.

This comes as Speaker Pelosi prepares for her Asia visit. The visit which is mainly seen to build security and economic momentum for the Indo-Pacific is also seen as a move by US to build pressure on China over its claim on Taiwan.

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On the other hand, US military officials are also moving forces into the ocean area near Taiwan ahead of the visit. The Pentagon has sent an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea ahead of Pelosi's possible visit, reported Fox News.

The USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered supercarrier in the service of the United States Navy, and a strike group are currently there after they left a port in Singapore Tuesday. A Navy spokesperson confirmed the news but said it was a planned trip.

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"I can confirm USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are now underway, operating in the South China Sea following a successful port visit to Singapore," Lt. Mark Langford said.

"As a matter of policy, we do not discuss future ship movements; however, I will add that Reagan is continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," he added.

China has once again warned the United States against going ahead with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit.

"Perhaps you missed our briefings in the past few days. We have repeatedly made clear our firm opposition to Speaker Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press conference on Wednesday.

"If the US side insists on making the visit and challenges China's red line, it will be met with resolute countermeasures. The US must assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising thereof," he added.

Pelosi is reportedly planning to visit Taiwan, but the White House said her plans have not been locked in yet. Beijing warned the US against the House of Representatives Speaker's Taiwan visit saying that it will act strongly and take countermeasures if the US side insists on going ahead with the visit.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Pelosi's Taiwan visit will have a severe negative impact on the political foundation of China-US relations.

Biden said the US military believes it is not a "good idea" for House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to travel to Taiwan as planned. "The military thinks it's not a good idea right now," Biden said on Wednesday as quoted by the White House press pool.

China has on many occasions firmly opposed any form of official interaction between the United States and the Taiwan region.

While warning against US House speaker's Taiwan visit, a Chinese state media outlet said, "If the news is true and the trip happens, it will be one of the most egregious provocations by the US to China on the Taiwan question since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US."

A Global Times editorial said visiting Taiwan is definitely a red line that Pelosi must never cross. Back in April, Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan had been postponed after she tested positive for COVID-19. At that time, Beijing had resolutely opposed any official exchange between the United States and Taiwan. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ankara [Turkey], July 31 (ANI): There is a high probability that the first ship with grain cargo will depart from Ukraine on Monday (August 1), Sputnik News Agency reported quoting Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Sunday.

"The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain may depart tomorrow morning," Kalin said.

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Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that grain exports via the Black Sea will begin in the coming days.

"With the beginning of maritime grain transportation in the coming days we will make an important contribution to the upcoming global food crisis," TASS news agency quoting Erdogan reported.

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Erdogan had also said that Turkey would continue its efforts to solve the Ukrainian crisis diplomatically.

"We are resolved to continue diplomatic efforts until peace between Russia and Ukraine is ensured. In the near future, we hope to receive encouraging news at talks and with contacts at all levels, including leaders," the Turkish President said further.

Meanwhile, 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.

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.

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)

(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 31 (ANI): Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of lives, including Pakistani nationals, in flash floods that hit parts of the United Arab Emirates.

Expressing solidarity with the UAE in this difficult time, the President said Pakistan is also facing a similar situation due to monsoon rainfall.

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Notably, Pakistan is currently facing heavy torrential rains and flash floods in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

Pakistani President also urged the international community to work closely to ward off impacts of the climate change. In a tweet on Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.

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He said at this difficult time, Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and government of the UAE.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar in a separate press release, said the government and people of Pakistan extended heartfelt condolences to the government and people of the UAE on the damage caused by heavy rains and floods resulting in the loss of precious lives including five Pakistani nationals.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was known for its desert climate recording very hot summers and mild winters, is now witnessing the alarming impact of climate change as the country is experiencing heavy rains across the Emirates, with Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah being especially affected.

The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) held climate change responsible for the increased frequency of heavy rains in the Emirates.

Extreme weather, sea level rise, and other climate change impacts are increasingly to blame.

"I believe global warming and climate change are possibly one of the reasons responsible for the increase in the frequency of rains in the UAE. Look at England. It has recorded the highest temperature ever registered recently amid a heat wave that has walloped parts of Europe. So, climate change is evident. Another factor (for rain in the UAE) is the El Nino and La Nina phenomena are climate patterns that can affect weather worldwide, " The Khaleej Times reported citing the statement by NCM.

Due to La Nina events which push more warm water towards Asia due to strong trade winds, it changes the temperatures of surface waters and the state of the atmosphere, leading to severe weather conditions for several countries, such as Dubai is experiencing at present.

Severe downpours in the UAE has affected many in the country. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Moscow [Russia], July 31 (ANI/Sputnik): The United States' pursuit of global maritime dominance and the growth in NATO activity are the main threat to Russia's national maritime security, according to the new Russian naval doctrine adopted on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the new national naval doctrine earlier in the day.

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"The main challenges and threats to the national maritime security and sustainable development for the Russian Federation related to the world oceans are: the strategic course of the US toward domination in the world oceans and their global influence on the development of international processes, including those related to the use of transport communications and energy resources of the world ocean," the document read.

The expansion of NATO's military infrastructure progressively closer to Russian borders and the growing number of naval drills in areas adjacent to Russian waters are also listed as threats to the national security. (ANI/Sputnik)

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(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 31 (ANI): After the United States invited South Korea to join its semiconductor alliance "Chip 4" to build a cooperative platform for the semiconductor supply chain, China's worries are set to bloom as the main goal of the communist nation to reduce its dependence on other countries for chips is likely to get hampered while US-China tensions rise.

This move comes as a shock to China which has dreamt of becoming a leader in semiconductor production by 2030 and is working overtime to enhance its capabilities and production to leave the US behind, a US-based publication reported.

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The US-led Chip 4 alliance includes South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

In March, the US had planned to create a Chip 4 strategic alliance of global chip powerhouses. Through the alliance, the US wants aims to build a cooperative platform for the semiconductor supply chain that will combine the US' technological prowess, Japan's materials and parts, and Korea's and Taiwan's manufacturing capabilities.

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The US government has asked Seoul to respond to its invitation to join the chip alliance but South Korea has still not responded, reported The Financial Post.

However, the chip 4 alliance has left China worried as the move tends to curb Beijing's growing capabilities as a chip maker.

According to the latest news reports, China is moving toward achieving more self-sufficiency in semiconductors which could eventually make some buyers reliant on China for many of the basic chips now in short supply.

Meanwhile, analysts in China have been critical of the US-led semiconductor alliance "Chip 4" and several tech experts urged South Korea to not blindly follow the US.

"Its chip exports will suffer a huge blow, harming its 40- 50 billion US dollars chip trade per year with China", The Financial Post reported, quoting Han Xiaomin, general manager of Jiwei Insights in Beijing as saying.

Moreover, no country is expanding faster than China across the world to boost production and is slated to build 31 major semiconductor factories, known as fabs, for the four years through 2024. Beijing aims to produce more than two-thirds of its own chips in 2025, according to the state media.

As China is currently dependent on imports for its costly semiconductors demand, the US has deliberately chipped in to curb China's growing capabilities in chip making.

Semiconductors are an important part of China's tech industries as they are the most essential part of any consumer electronics and technology equipment. They are needed by all Chinese tech sector enterprises, be it a tech major like Huawei Technologies Co or one of the many Chinese cheap smartphone manufacturers.

The chip issue and China's role in it started back in 2020 when the Trump administration announced that it would "narrowly and strategically target Huawei's acquisition of semiconductors". He blacklisted the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China's largest semiconductor manufacturer and in order to meet the growing demand, Chinese President Xi Jinping brought in local chip manufacturers and launched the "Star startup project" to make China a chip powerhouse, The Financial Post stated.

Notably, US and Japan account for 30 per cent of the world's chipmaking capacity all by themselves and chipmaking powerhouses like Intel and Qualcomm are based in the US. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Vijayawada, July 31: The Central government will release a special commemorative postage stamp in memory of Pingali Venkayya, the designer of the national flag, on August 2.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the stamp at a programme to be held in New Delhi to mark the birth anniversary of the freedom fighter. Mann Ki Baat: Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Turning Into Mass Movement, Says PM Narendra Modi

This was announced by union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy here on Sunday. He revealed that the original flag designed by Pingali will be displayed at the event.

The Central government has invited family members of Pingali for the programme to be held in the national capital. Union home minister Amit Shah will honour them. The Prime Minister will also interact with the family members of Pingali.

Born near Machilipatnam on August 2, 1876, Pingali had designed many models of the national flag. In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi approved a design during the Indian National Congress meeting in Vijayawada.

Kishan Reddy noted that there is a demand to confer Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, on Pingali Venkaiah.

The minister said he had no information about the Andhra Pradesh government sending a proposal to the Centre in this regard.

"The issue will be examined and an appropriate decision will be taken," he said.

Kishan Reddy said the programme was being organised at a time when India was celebrating 75 years of independence.

The Central government is organising a 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign to mark 75 years of independence. Tiranga yatra will be held in Delhi on August 3.

The union minister said the state governments, non-governmental organisations and all political parties have been asked to organise the celebrations in every village, city, town and every street in the name of Prabhat Pheeri from August 9 to August 13.

He said since a large-scale massacre took place on August 14 during India's partition, programmes will be organised on that day to pay tributes to those who lost their lives. Candle light marches will also be taken out.

He appealed to people to hoist tricolour on every house on August 15.

Kishan Reddy also revealed that the Central government has decided to organise birth centenary celebrations of well-known composer Ghantasala.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2022 07:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Kolkata, July 31: Three Congress MLAs, who were nabbed with huge quantities of cash by the West Bengal police at Panchla in Howrah district of West Bengal on late Saturday evening, were remanded to 10 days Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody by a lower court on Sunday afternoon.

The three MLAs are Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kacchap from Khijri (ST) and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira (ST). Besides the three MLAs, one more person travelling with them and driver of the vehicle where the cash was seized was also remanded to the CID custody for 10 days. The vehicle had the board of Jamtara MLA, Irfan Ansari. A little over Rs 49 lakh was seized from that vehicle. Patra Chawl Land Scam Case: ED Detains Shiv Sena Leader Sanjay Raut in Mumbai After Hours of Conducting Raids At His Residence

On Sunday morning, a special team of CID- West Bengal officials reached Panchla police station, where the three MLAs were interrogated throughout the day about the sources of this huge cash. After the court order, the CID team took the three MLAs, the driver and the fifth person travelling in the car to the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in Kolkata. "They will be interrogated again by us tonight only," confirmed a CID official.

However, all the three MLAs are sticking to their earlier point that they that they represent tribal-dominated constituencies in Jharkhand and they came to Kolkata to purchase sarees in large quantities from Burrabazar wholesale market for the purpose of distribution in their respective constituencies on the occasion of the forthcoming World Tribal Day on August 9, 2022.

However, the police have not found their statements convincing as none of them could specify on the sources of the funds. Meanwhile, Congress has already suspended these three MLAs from the party.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2022 08:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday presided over the valedictory session of the two-day joint national executive meeting of different BJP Morchas in Patna.
"Her mortal remains were found at some distance from the place where the leopard had dragged her. Efforts are on to nab the animal," he said. Two weeks ago, a one-year-old daughter of a farm labourer was similarly killed by a leopard in the same village.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has been detained by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in the Patra Chawl land scam case in Mumbai after hours of conducting raids at his residence.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) detains Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut in land scam case in Mumbai after hours of conducting raids at his residence (File Pic) pic.twitter.com/XHQPhlQ9PK  ANI (@ANI) July 31, 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.)
Five people including 3 MLAs from Jharkhand Congress who were nabbed with huge amounts of cash, have been arrested. All the five people will be presented in the court today: Swati Bhangalia, SP, Howrah Rural ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
The Laois Short Film Bursary of 10,000 has been awarded to Songway Films for their short film The Light Within.

The film is a supernatural tale set in Rosenallis in 1780 where Lydia, a teenager must defy her Quaker upbringing to save her ailing younger sister. This is the first film to dramatize Quaker culture in Ireland. Principal Photography commences in the Autumn.

Laois Arts Officer and Creative Ireland Coordinator Muireann Ni Chonaill is happy with the

We are very pleased to present this bursary to Denis McArdle and David Butler from Songway Films for their film The Light Within. The panel were extremely impressed by the strength of their application and the opportunity to tell this Quaker story. We wish Denis and David every success in realising this concept to the big screen.

"We in Laois County Council are keen to support film and filmmakers and this short film bursary aims to foster talent, creativity and activity in filmmaking in the county. We hope that the film bursary will help in putting our county on the map as an attractive location to shoot film, with many skilled and talented Laois based people to support this industry.

The successful team awarded the bursary consists of writer/director Denis McArdle from Dublin and producer David Butler from Portarlington.

Denis McArdle is an award winning director and has experience making TV commercials, documentaries, and corporate work for the European market, and has created several short films funded by Screen Ireland.

"As a filmmaker, I am thrilled at the opportunity to be creating this subtle, period drama in Laois, capturing not just aspects of local Quaker heritage, but also highlighting the natural beauty of the County itself, in all of its dramatic diversity. I am grateful to Creative Ireland Laois, for all their support, their goodwill and I'm looking forward to working with much local talent, both in front of and behind the camera.

Producer, David Butler has a background in animation and worked on the BAFTA award winning Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Most recently, he co-produced the WW1 drama short film The Land, currently in post-production, for Frame It Productions.

Im looking forward to working with Denis on The Light Within to be set around Rosenallis, Co. Laois which historically held a strong Quaker presence. We are interested in finding new talents within Laois and the casting process will begin in the first two weeks of September with casting agent, Amy Rowan. Further information on how to get involved will be available on Creative Ireland Laois social media platforms.

The next round of the Laois Short Film Bursary Award will be open to writers, directors and producers early in 2023. Requirements include submitting a high quality script / screenplay that reflects aspects of Irish experience across different generations, gender, ethnicities, class and landscapes, and is situated in Co. Laois.

Key criteria for eligibility is that one of the core creative team must be from or living in Laois, and that the film is made in the county. The Short Film Bursary supports and encourages filmmaking within the county and is funded by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with Laois County Council.

For more information contact the Arts Office, Laois County Council at artsoff@laoiscoco.ie and/or follow Creative Ireland Laois on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
August Craft Month celebrates local craft in Ireland across the entire month with local Laois makers in Mountmellick Development Association getting involved in the nationwide initiative.

This year is the largest ever August Craft Month with a packed programme of over 230 events including workshops, exhibitions, and festivals to allow audiences to immerse themselves in local craft.

To support August Craft Month, Mountmellick Development Association is celebrating craft through Crafternoon Tea at the Museum Studio. Tutors and crafters will be present to display their work, give little demonstrations and tell their stories of creativity. Enjoy the museum visitor experience, including a welcome video and wander through the museum exhibits of needlework and much more.

Located in Irishtown, Mountmellick, the exciting free event will be held on Wednesday, August 24. Audiences can marvel at the original and contemporary Mountmellick embroidery and the dynamic women involved since 1825, which is very much a living craft and part of Irelands Intangible Cultural Heritage.

People can enjoy creative craft celebrations on their doorstep, as well as hit the road on a craft inspired adventure or staycation.

Craft NI, Design & Crafts Council Ireland and Cork Craft & Design have come together to deliver this important initiative.

For more information, and to get a feel for the craft events near you and across Ireland, visit www.augustcraftmonth.org
Theres a scene in the 2007 award-winning film No Country For Old Men which has two police officers surveying a multiple murder scene.

One turns to the other and says Its a mess, aint it, Sheriff?

He replies If it aint, itll do till the mess gets here.

If the delay in opening Naas Shopping Centre isnt a mess, itll do till... ... ...

Its now 22 years since Kildare County Council sold a town centre park to make way for the shopping centre, and 13 years since the completed building was due to open to the public.

There is no indication when it will open or what form it will take  in other words whether it will be a retail centre, like Whitewater Shopping Centre in Newbridge, in the middle of a town where the population is exploding.

The alternative scenario may be a so-called mixed development  in this case, with residential accommodation in the form of apartments and some medical enterprises, including a drive-thru pharmacy.

The latter was a proposal put forward by Ger Roche of the Roche Group, the current owners of the site, who also own the Vista Centre on Ballymore Road.

This was the tentative proposal put forward by Mr Roche after buying the premises.

It is not known how much was paid for the derelict building.

It went for sale on the instructions of NAMA with a guide price of 4.6m  a fraction of the estimated construction cost of 40m.

Thats a loss for the taxpayer and ratepayer to pay, along with the associated administrative and security costs. Not to mention the loss to Kildare County Council resulting from losing the car park and development levies  though it did get some houses at the back of the centre.

Its likely that it was sold for less than the guide price because NAMA were surely keen to see it offloaded and, apparently, there were few, if any, other genuinely interested parties.

Since then there have been moves towards reopening the two now-closed pubs on the main street  the Five Lamps and the Forge Inn  but as yet they remain stalled.

The mooted pub openings, coupled with the failed bid by the Roche Group to create a new entrance from the main street, suggest that the plan may be to redevelop the site in stages  rather than a comprehensive scheme covering the entire premises.

As reported in the Leinster Leader, Mr Roche was none too pleased when his plan for a new entrance was turned down  principally because Kildare County Council is legally bound to protect old structures with a heritage value and the Bank of Ireland premises is one of these. This decision has been appealed to An Bord Pleanala with a decision due by October 24.

In the meantime, another potential difficulty has arisen.

Replying to a question by Cllr Colm Kenny, KCC said that road improvement works at the back of the centre (near Naas CBS) will have to be built by the developer.

If this is to proceed as per the original permission granted to the original developer, Marshalsea, it will come at some cost.

It involved a new entrance at the Sarah Flood pub site down Corbans Lane to where the route meets the NSC back entrance. Further on, it is also envisaged there will be work on Friary Road and a possible removal of the old railway bridge, which is the highest point on that road. All of this will need to be done to facilitate traffic visiting and leaving the centre as well as taking into account the needs of Naas CBS and the boys primary school. The schools have a combined enrolment of getting on for 1,600 boys  and the primary school is itself to be knocked and rebuilt as a two storey school with 16 classrooms.

Theres but one certainty here. The centre will no more open for Christmas 2022 than it did for Christmas 2009.
The US ambassador to the United Nations has said there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine and dissolve it from the world map entirely.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that the United States is seeing growing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including by installing illegitimate proxy officials in Russian-held areas, with the goal of holding sham referenda or decree to join Russia.

Russias Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has even stated that this is Russias war aim, she said.

Mr Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscows overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its unacceptable regime.

Apparently suggesting that Moscows war aims extend beyond Ukraines industrial Donbas region in the east comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Mr Lavrov said: We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscows goal is to free Ukrainians from the countrys unacceptable regime

Russias deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told the Security Council on Friday that the de-Nazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine will be carried out in full.

There must no longer be a threat from this stage to Donbas, nor to Russia, nor to the liberated Ukrainian territories where for the first time in several years people are finally able to feel that they can live the way they want, he said.

Mr Polyansky also warned Western nations supplying long-range artillery and MLRS surface-to-surface rockets that they are shifting the provisional security line further towards the west, and in so doing clarifying even further the aims and objectives of our special military operation.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield attacked countries which say one countrys security should not come at the expense of anothers, asking what they call Russias invasion of Ukraine. She did not name any country but it is a view China has repeated frequently, including on Friday by its deputy UN ambassador, Geng Shuang.

He told the council: Putting ones own security above that of others, attempting to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute superiority  will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make themselves less secure.

The US ambassador also condemned nations which call for all countries to embrace diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: Let us be clear: Russias ongoing actions are the obstacle to a resolution to this crisis. Again she named no countries but a significant number of nations in Africa, Asia and the Mideast take this approach.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of mounting atrocities, including the reported bombings of schools and hospitals, the killing of aid workers and journalists, the targeting of civilians attempting to flee, the brutal execution-style murder of those going about their daily business in Bucha, the suburb of Ukraines capital, Kyiv, where local authorities said hundreds of people were killed during its occupation by Russian forces.

She said there is evidence that Russian forces have interrogated, detained forcibly, deported an estimated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children  tearing them from their homes and sending them to remote regions in the east.



US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield (centre) with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at UN headquarters in May

Nearly two million Ukrainian refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

A recent Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews found that, while the situation is more nuanced that the Ukrainians suggest, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council: The United States has information that officials from Russias presidential administration are overseeing and co-ordinating filtration operations.

Mr Polyansky countered that, despite Ukraines efforts at intimidation of their citizens, people are choosing the country that they trust  Russia.

He warned that heavy weapons being poured into Ukraine by the West will spill over into Europe because of what he claimed is the flourishing corruption among Ukraines political and military leadership.

He said Western weapons are only dragging out the agony and increasing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

Addressing Western ambassadors, he said: The aims of our special military operation will be achieved either way, however much fuel you pour into the fire in the form of weapons.
GARDAI have confirmed an electric scooter which was stolen from a house in Limerick city was recovered in the locality a short time after the theft was reported.

The e-scooter, which is worth several hundred euro was taken during a burglary in the Corbally area at around 7pm last Sunday - July 24.

"The thief broke into a property at Rhebogue Avenue in Corbally. Having gained entry, he stole an electric scooter," said Garda John Finnerty of Henry Street garda station.

"Fortunately, the scooter was recovered a short time later near the house," he added.

Anyone with information about the theft or break-in is asked to contact Mayorstone garda station at 061 456980.

Separately, new crime statistics show that Friday is the most prevalent day for burglars in Limerick, followed by Wednesday and Thursday.

"Burglars carry out burglaries most often between the hours of 11am to 6pm. Therefore, were advising all property owners to be particularly careful on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays," said Garda Finnerty.

Gardai say most homes are broken into when they are not occupied.
A LIMERICK writer with six black comedy books under his belt has released his latest hair-raising horror set in a fictional version of his hometown.

Jonathan Dunne hails from Ballyine or the Old Mill, a small community just a few kilometers outside Newcastle West, which, so far, has provided the backdrop to each of his fantasy-filled works.

All my books are based in a town called Old Castle which is an alternative version of Newcastle West and I use the layout of the town in my fiction, streets and rivers, he told Limerick Live.

His latest book, Billys Experiment, published on July 21, centres around a park ranger who stumbles on a strange satanic ritual one Halloween night, rescuing a baby from devil worshippers.

Now living in Toledo, Spain with his Spanish wife Ruth and their three daughters, Jonathan is considering making the jump from full-time English language teacher to full-time writer.

I have always worked as a TEFL teacher but now I have come to the point where my books are taking over, he stated.

While enjoying the human connection of teaching, Jonathan says he is now exactly where he wants to be, and spurred on from the success of his last novel, hopes Billys Experiment can do even better.

His last book, a supernatural horror called The Squatter was a game changer and has now put him on the horror map, ranking number one in many horror categories on Amazon last January.

Anybody who likes suspenseful horror will love my new novel, he said of Billy's Experiment, which on Monday, was ranked #1 on Amazon in new releases of British horror fiction.

Billys Experiment can be purchased online on Amazon/
A NON-BANK property lender has announced the launch of a new fund which is providing 15m to a new city housing development.

Earlsfort Capital Partners has announced the launch of Earlsfort Development Finance DAC, a new lending vehicle dedicated to providing construction finance for residential development projects.

As part of the launch, it has announced the closing of a transaction for a 15m apartment development in Limerick city.

The development will comprise of 61 units and will be a mix of predominantly one-and two-bedroom residential units.

Its also providing financing for a 10m starter home development in Meath on the Dublin commuter belt.

Both transactions are with established developers who have a track record in delivering quality residential units in their respective markets.

The main focus of Earlsfort Development Finance is ready to go residential projects in locations with proven demand  both in the private and social housing markets.

Advance rates will be up to 90% of cost, subject to a maximum loan-to-value of 70%.

Co-founder and managing director Paul Brophy, said: We are delighted to launch this programme and to help provide much needed support and liquidity to the housing sector. Earlsfort was the first non-bank lender to enter the Irish market in 2014, and since formation has funded circa 1.25bn of lending transactions. This new vehicle is a natural add on to our current offering, and we are excited to enter the market and grow the business. Given the very recent market uncertainty and lack of liquidity in the development sector, sponsors are looking for a dependable funder who understands their project needs and can execute quickly.

Earlsfort Development Finance plans to invest over 250m into the Irish market over the next two years.
NURSES are in fear of an impending twindemic this winter as University Hospital Limerick (UHL) records the highest national figures for those on trolleys in the month of July.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Director of Professional Services Tony Fitzpatrick warned that the level of hospital overcrowding seen throughout this summer has been a cause of serious concern.

Over 9,191 patients went without a bed in the month of July, a 52% increase on July 2021. UHL contributed to 1,268 of these patients, making it the most overcrowded hospital in July.

Unless we see a hospital-by-hospital plan to tackle overcrowding, we are in for a very bleak winter in Irish hospitals which will see nurses and patients in extremely unsafe circumstances, the INMO Director of Professional Services continued.

He stressed that Ireland needs to heed the warnings from colleagues in Australia, when it comes to mitigating the impact of both flu and COVID in Irish hospitals over the coming months.

We cannot afford to have a COVID and flu twindemic in Irish hospitals this winter. Vaccinations for both COVID and flu should be offered to healthcare workers as soon as possible, he added.

Mr Fitzpatrick highlighted that nurses and other healthcare staff cannot be expected to sustain this type of pressure right into the winter.

"If the Government and HSE are serious about retaining those who already work in the health service, meaningful action must be taken to ensure safe care conditions for both patients and staff.

No nurse wants to have to care for patients in sub-optimal conditions, he concluded.
A POPULAR take-away with a store in Limerick will be turning up the heat as they plan 45 new outlets on the island of Ireland.

Four Star Pizza who have a store at Ashdown Centre near Mary Immaculate College are looking to expand their fleet of stores which includes another potential store in Limerick.

CEO Colin Hughes has named Limerick as a possible location for one or more new stores to be opened by the company over the next three years.

Our ultimate goal is for virtually everyone in Ireland, north and south, to have access to a local Four Star Pizza outlet, and we have identified Limerick as a strong potential location for more stores, said Mr Hughes.

The Irish-owned company will see 27 new stores in the Republic and a further 18 in the North, creating up to 900 jobs.

With this in mind, we are encouraging any local entrepreneurs with a good head for business to consider joining our growing franchisee network in Ireland and becoming part of a progressive company with a very strong brand, Mr Hughes said.

Four Star currently operates 56 outlets in Ireland, including 14 in Northern Ireland, but following a root-and-branch review of the business, the company wants to bring the total number of stores to more than 100 by 2025.

Anyone interested in finding out more about becoming a Four Star Pizza franchisee can do so by sending an introductory email to info@fourstarpizza.ie, or calling the company on 01 7037300.
A controversial letter about the Ukraine conflict written by the Irish presidents wife has been described as a slap in the face for the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have settled in Ireland.

President Michael D Higgins has faced calls to state unequivocal support for the Ukrainian cause and oppose Russian aggression amid the furore created by his wife Sabinas letter.

Mrs Higgins wrote to the Irish Times last week to criticise one of the newspapers editorials on the conflict.

In the letter, she said the fighting would go on until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations.

Critics have suggested Mrs Higgins was drawing an equivalence between the actions of Ukraine and Russia.

Scrutiny of the letter intensified after it was reportedly published for a brief period on the Irish presidents official website. It appears to have been since removed from the site.

Representatives from parties in Irelands coalition government have voiced concern.

Mr and Mrs Higgins attended the opening of the Irish traditional music festival Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann on Sunday.

The president did not address the controversy in his speech at the event in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, though he extended a special welcome to those who have come to Ireland to share shelter with us and to seek safety with us.

Fine Gael senator John McGahon called on Mr Higgins to clarify whether he was aware of the letter before it was published or had any role in drafting it.

She is a private citizen, she is entitled to promote whatever type of view she wants, but she is married to the president of this country, she does live in Aras an Uachtarain (the presidents official resident in Dublin) and she does officiate at official events that are run by the state, Mr McGahon told RTE Radio Ones This Week programme.

And because of the high-profile nature of her position I believe her views on the Ukrainian invasion are open to critique. I believe theyre open to criticism.

Just arrived in RTE. Will be discussing my views on Sabina Higgins Letter and why I believe it was wrong to have it published on the website of https://t.co/Rjs6ihhpAi pic.twitter.com/2WaftLeFhy  Senator John McGahon (@John_McGahon) July 31, 2022

Mr McGahon claimed the letter made a moral equivalence between Russia and Ukraine.

If you were to read that letter youd think that this is a dispute between two countries over a contested piece of land, he said.

It is Russian tanks that have rolled into Ukraine. It is Russian missiles that have flattened Ukrainian cities. It is Russian soldiers that have murdered women and children in the streets of Ukraine.

And I think the comments that she has made is a slap in the face to the 47,000 Ukrainian refugees who have come to this island of Ireland to seek safety and seek sanctuary.

On Saturday, Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne challenged Mrs Higgins position.

Mrs Higgins is entitled to her personal opinion and to express it, although I believe that she is totally wrong to try to see an equivalence in the positions of Ukraine and Russia, he said.

However, the decision to publish the letter on the presidents website raises serious questions.

It is incumbent on the president of Ireland to now express clearly the strong support of the people of Ireland for the people of Ukraine and that we hold Russia responsible for the war and ongoing barbarism.

Ireland should rightly be proud of our response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The attacks on & censoring of #SabinaHiggins are disgraceful. Every effort should be made to achieve a ceasefire and an end to the slaughter in Ukraine. The idea any side can win a victory in this war is a recipe for tens of thousands more deaths. @IrishAntiWarMvt @pb4p  Richard Boyd Barrett (@RBoydBarrett) July 31, 2022

There has also been support for Mrs Higgins.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett tweeted: The attacks on & censoring of #SabinaHiggins are disgraceful. Every effort should be made to achieve a ceasefire and an end to the slaughter in Ukraine. The idea any side can win a victory in this war is a recipe for tens of thousands more deaths.

The office of the president has been contacted for comment.
Wealthy people ramped up borrowing in the first half of the year despite rising rates and a stock-market rout that hit the value of their portfolios.
Canadas federal immigration department has released its preliminary data on Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates invited in the two most recent Express Entry draws.

The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on 6 July held its first all-program draw in 18 months, where 1,500 candidates were invited to apply for Canadian immigration. The candidates needed to have a score of at least 557 in order to receive an invitation.

IRCC media relations on 27 July said that in its 29 July Express Entry draw, 1,750 candidates were invited and the minimum score cut off was 542.

The official government body confirmed that candidates eligible for the FSWP were invited, in addition to candidates eligible for the CEC and the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

ALSO READ: Canada immigration: Want to become a Canadian citizen? Here is everything you need to know

People looking for answers on why the IRCC did not declared candidates for Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), should know that IRCC prioritises sending CEC invitations to candidates who are eligible for more than one program.

Express Entry-managed Program July 6, CRS 557 July 6, CRS 557 Total from July 6-July 20 Provincial Nominee Program 700 764 1,464 Canadian Experience Class 595 569 1,164 Federal Skilled Worker Program 205 417 622 Total 1,500 1,750 3,250

Also, when candidates are eligible for both the FSWP and the CEC, IRCC invites them, or if they are eligible for all three programs including the FSTP. Citing the reason for taking this decision, IRCC says CEC candidates do not need to have a proof of funds in order to apply for immigration, whereas FSWP and FSTP candidates without a Canadian job offer do. For candidates who are eligible for both to apply through the CEC, it is more desirable.

The IRCC also said that it would FSTP candidates for the other programs if they were eligible. Else their scores were not high enough to apply for Canadian immigration.

According to IRCC's current multi-year immigration levels plan, it will have to continue inviting candidates from all programs in order to meet its 2023 immigration targets. About 80% of candidates who respond to their invitations are expected to get decisions in six months.
People taking precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccine amid a slow uptake of the third shot can enjoy free 'Chhole Bhature' on the streets of Chandigarh.

Concerned over the 'complacency' which has set in among the public, the 45-year-old vendor Sanjay Rana says not many of those eligible for the booster shot are coming forward to get the jab.

Earlier in 2021, Rana gave out free 'Chhole Bhature' to people who take their COVID-19 vaccine shot and furnish proof of it the same day. For his act, he also drew praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly 'Mann Ki Baat' radio broadcast.

"To be able to savour Sanjay Rana ji's 'Chhole Bhature' free, you will have to show that you have taken the vaccine on the same day. He will give you tasty 'Chhole Bhature' as soon as you show him the vaccination message," Modi had then said.

ALSO READ: India reports 19,673 new Covid-19 infections in past 24 hours

While, appreciating his effort, PM Modi had said, "It is said that to work for the society's good, a sense of service and duty is required. Our brother Sanjay is proving this right."

Rana, who runs a food stall and sells 'Chhole Bhature' on a cycle, said his daughter Ridhhima and niece Riya had last year given him the idea to give out free "Chhole Bhature" to those who took their shots.

"I am giving the Chhole Bhature free to those who show the proof for the precaution dose on the same day," Rana said, who had taken taken the precaution dose.

"All eligible should come forward and not hesitate. Already, we are seeing a slight rise in infections in many parts of the country. Why should we wait till the situation goes out of hand? Lessons should be learnt from the kind of situation which prevailed in April-May 2021," said Rana.

Rana said that last year he had offered free 'Chhole Bhature' for over seven months from May and he will not mind giving it free this time for a few weeks.

With PTI inputs.
Also Read: Want to become a Canadian citizen? Here is everything you need to know

When a PNP applicant with an Express Entry profile is nominated, their CRS score is increased by 600 points. They also become qualified to be invited to submit an application for a round of invites exclusive to the PNP.

Also Read: Canada Visa Express Entry: Low cut-off scores boost demand

With the exception of Quebec and Nunavut, the majority of Canadian provinces and territories run their own PNPs. Interested candidates may receive invitations from these programmes to submit an application for a provincial nomination.

British Columbia

The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) held its most recent rounds of invites on July 26. In these draws, over 183 candidates were sent invitations to submit applications for provincial nominations. On July 14, British Columbia declared that the BC PNP Entrepreneur Base Category will no longer be temporarily suspended for a year.

Also Read: Canada to hire more workers: These skills are most in demand

A universal draw was used to select 147 of these individuals, including those in the tech industry. These applicants must fulfil the requirements of one of the Express Entry BC or Skills Immigration categories administered by the Skills and Immigration Registration System in British Columbia (SIRS). Candidates that were invited had to receive at least 78 points.

Saskatchewan

Results of the invitation round for July 21 and July 28 were released by the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP). The largest 2022 draw, when 802 applicants were invited to submit applications for a provincial nomination, took place on July 21. In reaction to the current crisis, the province issued invitations to 797 Express Entry hopefuls and five Ukrainian nationals.

Also Read: Canada extends Post-Graduation Work Permit for international students

748 applicants were asked to file for provincial nomination following the draw on July 28. Of these, 279 invitations were sent to Express Entry applicants, while 469 were sent to applicants in the Occupations in Demand category. Weekly PNP draws have been taking place in Saskatchewan during July. This is different from the regular monthly schedule.

Manitoba

On July 28, Manitoba held a Provincial Nomination Program (MPNP) draw and sent out 355 invitations. Three immigration streams received invites: International Education Stream (15 invitations), Skilled Workers Overseas (299 invitations with a minimum score of 726), and Skilled Workers in Manitoba (299 invitations with a minimum score of 693). (41 invitations with no score requirement). Of the total number of applicants invited, 56 had profiles in the Express Entry system.

Ontario

Two applicants for the Economic Mobility Pathways Project received invites on July 27 from the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. This programme seeks to facilitate the entry of qualified refugees into Canada using current economic initiatives.
Jon Stewart is on a mission to pass the PACT Act, legislation that would expand healthcare for veterans exposed to toxins that are commonly found in burn pits, and hes been relentlessly trolling Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) for the senators newfound opposition to the bill that they both voted for in June.

On Friday, Stewart made a video calling Cruzs reasons for opposing the bill inaccurate, not true, bullshit! (Cruz has said that Democrats are pulling a budgetary trick  a claim Stewart and the party deny.) Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday, Stewart continued his campaign to dunk on Cruz for his flimsy excuses for changing his mind about the bill.

A Message to and from Mister Senator Ted CruzAttorney at Law#PassthePactact pic.twitter.com/QjGRGdPmq4  Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) July 29, 2022

He didnt say anything, Stewart told host Chuck Todd of Cruzs excuses for pulling his support. He cant point to anything specific that was changed. They all just got this mumbo jumbo about a budgetary gimmick, but nothing changed. This isnt my opinion. It is on congress.gov. The text of the bill they voted for June 14th is the same bill.

Meet the Press then played a video of Cruz being interviewed in an airport. The Democrats played a budgetary trick, which is they took $400 billion in discretionary spending and they shifted it to mandatory, Cruz said. The reason they did that is they want to spend $400 billion more discretionary funds on completely unrelated matters, so it is just part of the out of control spending from the left.

WATCH: GOP Senators stopped a veterans health bill after previously showing support. Sen. Cruz blamed a budgetary trick, though the bill didn't change.@jonstewart: "That's just a word salad that he's spewing into his coffee cup.  At some point we all have to live in reality." pic.twitter.com/1bPSfYmSrG  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 31, 2022

Before I get you to respond, Todd told Stewart, The unrelated matters [claim] is just not true. This money, even when you create the bigger pool, still only could be spent on veterans. But anyway, go ahead.

Thats correct, Stewart said. The difference between mandatory and discretionary is thats just a word salad that hes spewing into his coffee cup on his way to God knows where as veterans sit in Washington, D.C. and the sweltering heat, demanding that they pass this legislation that they have been fighting for, for 15 years.

Stewart additionally sparred with Toomey, who called Stewart a pseudo-celebrity on CNN Sunday. The comedian called out Toomey for proposing an amendment that would put caps on the fund and sunsetting it after 10 years. What Toomeys amendment wants to do is make sure our sick and dying veterans have the pleasure our 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero had of having to come back to Washington, hat in hand, riddled with cancer, and march through the halls of the hill begging for money every year, Stewart said on ABCs This Week.

Jon Stewart on ABC: "What Toomey's amendment wants to do is make sure our sick & dying veterans have the pleasure our 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero had of having to come back to Washington, hat in hand, riddled w/cancer, & march through the halls of the hill begging for $" pic.twitter.com/wXhIwMa9fI  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2022

Responding to Toomeys pseudo-celebrity remark, Stewart tweeted, Morning @SenToomey Id rather be a pseudo celeb than pseudo Senator! Take your amendment vote at the same 60 threshold Veterans had to hitGood luck capping and rationing care!!!!!

Funny. @SenToomey never called for spending caps on the waronly on the health care for veterans sickened by said wars. Interesting priorities, Stewart added.

Veterans affected by burn pits have camped out on the Capitol steps in protest to the bills stalling. The legislation would provide billions in spending over the next 10 years and would provide coverage to veterans suffering from 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers linked to smoke from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as coverage for veterans exposed to radiation and Agent Orange during other conflicts.

Look, anybody can say anything, you know, Stewart said of Cruzs excuses. We can say Elvis Presley is still alive, but at some point we all have to live in reality, and what he is saying is just factually incorrect. The bill that Ted Cruz voted yes on had the exact same funding provisions as the bill he voted no on. It is the exact same bill. None of this makes any sense.

Asked if he thought the sudden Republican opposition was related to Democrats recent progress earning Sen. Joe Manchins public support for legislation combatting climate change, Stewart said, I mean, honestly, I have no idea. Im not up there. Im watching it from the outside, so I dont know why they did it. But I do know this: The explanations that theyve given thus far are scattershot, theyre all over the place, and none of them make any sense.

This is a developing story, and this post has been updated.
After the termination of former assistant city manager Kristina Hale and her follow up threat to sue the city during a city council meeting public comment section, the executive summary results of an investigation filed by the city into several of her allegations were received by LMT through an open records request.

However, some information was withheld by the city as it stated that it determined certain documents are subject to any exceptions under the Texas Public Information Act and are not subject to disclosure. It added that the city is pending an opinion from the Texas Attorney General regarding the disclosure of the documents.

According to an attorney of the Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, P.C., which represents the city, a letter was sent to AG Ken Paxton and LMT regarding the situation. According to the firm, some of the records within the investigation may be protected by the Texas Public Information Act, and the act would not allow the city to determine whether the information may be withheld from public discourse.

In a July 3 El Manana story, the Nuevo Laredo news outlet also indicated that they had formally requested the report from the municipal attorneys office but had not received it. Hale told them that the report was important as she predicted it would find a number of violations of her rights, but she had not yet received it.

Grievance and Demands

In response to the media reporting on her termination, Hale said in an interview that her termination had been retaliatory. Hale spoke with KGNS on June 17, where she allegedly indicated that her departure was a result of being punished after she spoke out against ongoing acts of retaliation and unfair treatment of long-standing Laredo employees.

It was not until I moved to the west side of the third floor that I became privy and victim to the toxic atmosphere that has plagued our great organization, and that is in part responsible for its current state, stated Hales submitted grievance earlier this year.

Within her grievance, Hale also outlined a number of issues she saw after her promotion to assistant city manager.

Per the claims of a retaliation issue, a May 19 email to Ruben D. Campos  a certified labor and employment lawyer and certified arbitrator and mediator  written by Hale stated, the biggest retaliation so far is management continuing to exclude me from legal matters to the detriment of the city and its directors. ... I only took this 'promotion' because I was going to continue to be involved, albeit to a much lesser degree, in certain legal matters.

During the June 21 city council meeting -- the first council meeting in which Hales February 15 legal demand letter to the city was discussed -- District IV Councilmember Alberto Torres asked city management to provide Hales demand documents.

On July 18, council went into an executive session to discuss the legal issues by Hale, but no action was announced. This was added to the agenda after Hales legal representatives informed council that she would be suing the city for violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Summary of Investigation Report

Hale indicated that as a result of her grievance and a demand letter submitted this past winter, the city engaged a third-party investigator after Hales legal representation told then-Interim City Attorney Sylvia Borunda-Firth that Hale would not object to the third-party investigation that was headed by Campos. At the time of her June conversation with LMT, she said that she had not received the results of the investigation.

According to Campos, he was engaged to perform a factual investigation, review documentation and determine if there were violations of city policies, and give his legal opinions based on the investigation and the law. He was then to determine if the grievance could be legally substantiated under the existing legal standards.

Furthermore, the summary of the investigation report stated that Hales grievance claimed harassment by Deputy City Manager Rosario Cabello and claimed that Cabello undermined Hales position as assistant city manager.

Hale does not claim that the Deputy uses any rude or offensive language, Campos states in the summary. Moreover, she does not complain of any harassment based on race, national origin, age, disability, or religion. She does allege harassment by Cabello based on a gender thing. More specifically, Hale contends that Cabello (a female) discriminates against Hale (also a female) based on Hales gender and, also, because Cabello does not like her and other women who are in positions of authority.

Lastly, Campos wrote at the end of the Nature of Claims section that Hale said Cabello was jealous of her, but that both Cabello and Hale stated that they did not have problems working with each other.

Laredo City Attorney Doanh Zone Nguyen advised LMT that due to the nature of the allegations and with the threat of a lawsuit by Hale, Cabello informed him that she would not speak on the topic.

As for the summary of the investigation done by Campos, it highlights a number of allegations made by Hale against Cabello and vice versa. Speaking with LMT, Hale claimed there was a toxic work culture within the city management offices and a violation of the open meetings acts earlier this year.

While not mentioned in the report, the allegations of a toxic work environment and the vacancies within the city departments and mangers department have raised questions within the public and the council on the reasons behind the turnover of city employees.

Separate from the report and from Hales allegations, city employee Zulema Ortiz  City of Laredo Human Resources project manager  gave an emotional testimony during the last city council meeting regarding a toxic work environment within the city. She told the council to do some soul-searching, but she did not mention any names. Through tears and difficulty speaking, she said she feared losing her job after her comment, but she could no longer bear to sit on the sidelines.

During my tenure with the City of Laredo, Ive come to realize that the culture within the organization is one that leaves a lot to be desired, she said. At times, the culture can be toxic and dysfunctional. This combination creates a workforce that feels undervalued and underappreciated. There are countless employees that are committed to the work that they do for this organization, but they are stymied and restricted to what they can do by a handful of staff members, elected officials and others, that for personal reasons want to maintain the status quo.

These individuals choose to micromanage directors and others that have divergent thinking from theirs by utilizing manipulation, control and intimidation tactics to remain in power.

LMT reached out to the head of human resources who did not respond to the request for comment.

According to the investigation, it outlines a number of issues and allegations Hale and Cabello felt were important. These include:

The allegation that Hale was under the influence of alcohol during a Halloween party on October 29, 2021. Campos called his investigation inconclusive on this point, writing, No conclusion reached.

The allegation that Hale was under the influence or had been drinking on another occasion in late 2021. Campos indicated that this allegation was Unsubstantiated based on his investigation.

The allegation that Cabello violated the citys alcohol/drug testing policy by failing to cause Hale to submit to a drug/alcohol testing. Campos found this allegation Unsubstantiated (Based on the interpretation of the language of the rule).

The allegation that Cabello improperly avoided testing under the alcohol/drug testing policy when she fell at work. Campos wrote: Unsubstantiated. As reported by Human Resources, based on the opinion of a former city attorney, the policy applies only to vehicular accidents, and HR advised Cabello that she did not need a test when she falls.

The allegation that Cabello undermines Hale by sitting in on her meetings with councilperson (Alyssa) Cigarroa. Campos said this was Unsubstantiated.

The allegations that Cabello undermined Hale by releasing information to La Gordiloca in regard to issues at the animal care facility and Albert Gutierrez. Again, Campos wrote, Unsubstantiated.

The allegation that Ana Sophie Garcia was not given advance notice of the hiring of a new city attorney in Dean Roggia. Campos concluded this was Substantiated, but not harassment or undermining.

A number of witnesses were interviewed based on a list of witnesses Hale shared, and her account of several instances over her tenure as assistant city manager were used during the investigation. The summary of conclusions stated that through the witness accounts, documentary evidence and legal authorities do not support Hales claims that Cabellos actions were unlawful discrimination or harassment based on Hales gender or status.

The investigation consisted of Campos reviewing hundreds of pages of documents that included emails, city personnel-related documents, city policies, photographs, texts and other material provided by Hale, Cabello and other witnesses.

Hales demand letter states that she raised her concerns in the grievance on January 28 regarding cases of mismanagement, rumor-spreading and ethics violations. It was not until I moved to the west side of the third floor that I became privy and victim to the toxic atmosphere that has plagued our great organization, she wrote in her grievance.

Hale included in the letter the alleged false statement that she had been under the influence of alcohol during a meeting, which she claimed constituted defamation of her professional reputation.

The City of Laredo has for some time been plagued by a pervasive hostile work environment, career sabotage, favoritism, defamation, retaliation, harassment, unlawful release of information, bullying, official oppression, interference with administration and an unwillingness to follow its own ordinances and well-established state laws, Hales notice of grievance states.

These shameful actions ... have led to the current state of the city and can no longer be ignored, as our employees and the citizens of the City of Laredo deserve better.

Executive summary

Campos executive summary was dated and signed on June 27.

The courts have clearly enunciated that federal anti-discrimination laws are not intended to serve the purpose of a general civility code for the American workplace, the executive summary stated. Moreover, courts also emphasize that in the absence of discrimination, an employers operational and personnel decisions are not to be second-guessed.

Thus, while different reasonable people could disagree as to whether a particular decision was sound or the right one to make, such differences in opinion do not render the decision unlawful discrimination or harassment.

As of the June 29 cover letter, the office of city manager issued the results to both Hale and Cabello via hand delivery. Then-Interim City Manager Samuel Keith Selman wrote that he now considers the matter closed as a result of the investigation's conclusion.

I am honestly happy to not be associated with this management team, which is very dysfunctional. But again, I just feel for the employees and everybody else who has to do it, Hale told LMT.
BEIJING (AP)  Debris from a rocket that boosted part of Chinas new space station into orbit fell into the sea in the Philippines on Sunday, the Chinese government announced.

Most of the final stage of the Long March-5B rocket burned up after entering the atmosphere at 12:55 a.m., the China Manned Space Agency reported. The agency said earlier the booster would be allowed to fall unguided.

The announcement gave no details of whether remaining debris fell on land or sea but said the landing area was at 119 degrees east longitude and 9.1 degrees north latitude. That is in waters southeast of the Philippine city of Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan.

There was no immediate word from Philippine authorities about whether anyone on the ground was affected.

China has faced criticism for allowing rocket stages to fall to Earth uncontrolled twice before. NASA accused Beijing last year of failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris after parts of a Chinese rocket landed in the Indian Ocean.

The countrys first space station, Tiangong-1, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2016 after Beijing confirmed it lost control. An 18-ton rocket fell uncontrolled in May 2020.

China also faced criticism after using a missile to destroy one of its defunct weather satellites in 2007, creating a field of debris that other governments said might jeopardize other satellites.

The July 24 launch of the Long March-5B, Chinas most-powerful rocket, carried the Wentian laboratory into orbit. It was attached on Monday to the Tianhe main module, where three astronauts live.

The remains of a separate cargo spacecraft that serviced the station fell into a predetermined area of the South Pacific after most of it burned up on reentry, the government announced earlier.
Hawaii receives its last shipment of coal before shuttering last power plant
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) is inviting people across Ireland to participate in an open consultation process which will inform the organisations new strategy.

NMBI is in the process of developing its next strategy which will run from 2023 to 2025.

An independent, statutory organisation, NMBI is the regulatory body for nursing and midwifery in Ireland and works with nurses, midwives and educators to protect the public by promoting excellence and progression within the professions.

For the coming six weeks, anyone who has an interest in nursing and midwifery or in healthcare in general can have their say in shaping NMBIs next strategic plan.

A survey is available for people to complete here.

The closing date for submitting your feedback is 5.00pm on Wednesday September 7, 2022.

The first phase of the consultation has already been completed and involved engagements with a wide range of key representative groups from the sector.

The process examined how NMBI can further enhance patient and service user safety through regulation, how registrants can be best supported and what policy areas should be prioritised.

This second phase announced this week, sees the consultation process open to a wider group of voices, soliciting opinions from registrants, patients and service users, as well as stakeholder groups and the general public on the direction that NMBI should be taking for the coming years.

The @NMBI_ie have launched phase two of their statement of #strategy consultation!



The purpose of this second #consultation period is to receive #feedback from the wider public on the draft strategy.



Have your say here https://t.co/isS8c1L9va#Nursing #Healthcare #Health pic.twitter.com/oeHyPFHOpg  IGPNEA (@PracticeNurses) July 25, 2022

NMBI CEO Sheila McClelland said:

Nursing and midwifery plays such a vital role in our society and thats why we want to ensure our next strategy can maintain the high standards of care our professions are renowned for.

We are open to opinions and feedback and want to have as wide a consultation process as possible. We are calling on registrants, patients and service users, as well as stakeholder groups and the general public to let us know what you think and inform the future strategy of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

Speaking about the launch of the public consultation, President of NMBI, Essene Cassidy, added:

We are pleased to be launching the public consultation phase as we continue the process of developing our new strategy.

We are inviting members of the public to have their say and help us continue to safeguard the quality and integrity of the nursing and midwifery professions through thoughtful and robust regulation.
On Sunday morning, twenty or so people staged a protest against bullfighting.

They gathered by Palma town hall in Placa Cort and called on politicians to apply justice as well as courage in putting an end to bullfighting, which is a show that "celebrates suffering". Politicians should demonstrate solidarity "with the most defenceless - condemned to be tortured to death".

The protest was partly in response to the bullfight that will be held in Palma this coming week.

The Balearic government attempted to ban bullfighting outright, but the legislation was dropped after it became clear that it would be ruled unconstitutional. Alternative legislation, which sought to make the holding of bullfights untenable, was referred to the Constitutional Court in Madrid, which ruled that key aspects, such as prohibiting the killing of the bull, were unconstitutional under national law.
Courtesy photo/ABC

Those interested in seeing if they have what it takes to be the next "American Idol" have an opportunity to find out from the comfort of their own home.

For the third consecutive year, hopefuls can audition with an "American Idol" producer over Zoom and receive real-time feedback.
The White House announced this Saturday that President Joe Biden has tested positive once more time for Covid-19.

The president's physician said he's not experiencing any symptoms, but will still isolate in the White House for the time being.

How can the president test positive again for Covid-19?

Kevin O'Connor, the physician to the president explained that this in fact represents "rebound" positivity, observed in a small percentage of the patients treated with PAXLOVID.

President Joe Biden had tested negative for four consecutive days, prior to this morning's test.

They don't think is necessary to reinitiate the medical treatment for the president but rather just isolate in an effort by the president to protect anyone at the Executive residence, White House, Secret Service and other staff members that work closely with him on a daily basis.

President Biden continues to work in isolation

After testing positive for the first time almost 10 days ago, the president had to still work from isolation, with Covid-19 hitting him when he had a lot on his plate.

That time the president did have symptoms, which left him with a raspy voice and cough on the days after he contracted the virus.

White House officials said at the time that the president was working via phone or videoconference and that his appetite hadn't diminished, he was part of his daily intelligence briefings and even signed bills into law.
The Florida Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was created to assist low-income families in becoming self-sufficient.

It comes at a time when families are struggling more than ever in the USA, so it is much needed in the state of Florida. The TANF program's four main goals are to:

Help impoverished families so that kids can be taken care of in their own homes.

Encourage marriage, work and job preparation to lessen the dependency of dependent parents.

Reduce the number of out-of-wedlock pregnancies by preventing them.

Encourage the establishment and maintenance of two-parent households.

How much will people receive through Florida's TANF program?

Florida's portion of the American Rescue Plan is being used to provide cheques for 450 dollars and 1,000 dollars.

As such, residents are receiving yet another much-needed infusion of cash and the state revealed last week that the direct booster payment will go to the 60,000 poorest families.

Families in need will get a 450 dollar cheque for each child living under their roof as a kind of financial assistance.

Additionally, certain first responders received a 1,000 dollar cash bonus in the spring as compensation for their heroic efforts.

The additional 1bn dollars that the state received through the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Program is what is being used to pay for the stimulus cheques.

Who is eligible for Florida's TANF program?

In order to qualify for these checks, you must firstly be a resident of Florida and a citizen of the United States, a legal immigrant or a qualified alien.

You must also be either unemployed, working part time or making a very modest salary.

Furthermore, you also need to fit one of the following criteria: possess a child who is under 18 years old, be pregnant or be the head of your household and under the age of 18.
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WIEJKOWO, Poland (AP)  More than 1,000 years after his death in what is now Poland, a European king whose nickname lives on through wireless technology is at the center of an archaeological dispute.

Chronicles from the Middle Ages say King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson of Denmark acquired his nickname courtesy of a tooth, probably dead, that looked bluish. One chronicle from the time also says the Viking king was buried in Roskilde, in Denmark, in the late 10th century.

But a Swedish archaeologist and a Polish researcher recently claimed in separate publications that they have pinpointed his most probable burial site in the village of Wiejkowo, in an area of northwestern Poland that had ties to the Vikings in Harald's times.

Marek Kryda, author of the book Viking Poland, told The Associated Press that a pagan mound which he claims he has located beneath Wiejkowo's 19th-century Roman Catholic church probably holds the king's remains. Kryda said geological satellite images available on a Polish government portal revealed a rotund shape that looked like a Viking burial mound.

But Swedish archaeologist Sven Rosborn, says Kryda is wrong because Harald, who converted from paganism to Christianity and founded churches in the area, must have received an appropriate grave somewhere in the churchyard. Wiejkowo's Church of The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands atop a small round knoll.

Historians at the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen say they are familiar with the suggestion that Wiejkowo is Harald's burial place.

Rosborn detailed his research in the 2021 book The Viking King's Golden Treasure" and Kryda challenged some of the Swede's findings in his own book published this year.

Harald, who died in 985, probably in Jomsborg  which is believed to be the Polish town of Wolin now  was one of the last Viking kings to rule over what is now Denmark, northern Germany, and parts of Sweden and Norway. He spread Christianity in his kingdom.

Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson named its Bluetooth wireless link technology after the king, reflecting how he united much of Scandinavia during his lifetime. The logo for the technology is designed from the Scandinavian runic letters for the king's initials, HB.

Rosborn, the former director of Sweden's Malmo City Museum, was spurred on his quest in 2014 when an 11-year-old girl sought his opinion about a small, soiled coin-like object with old-looking text that had been in her family's possession for decades.

Experts have determined that the cast gold disc that sparked Maja Sielski's curiosity dated from the 10th century. The Latin inscription on what is now known as the Curmsun disc says: Harald Gormsson (Curmsun in Latin) king of Danes, Scania, Jomsborg, town Aldinburg."

Sielski's family, who moved to Sweden from Poland in 1986, said the disc came from a trove found in 1841 in a tomb underneath the Wiejkowo church, which replaced a medieval chapel.

The Sielski family came into the possession of the disc, along with the Wiejkowo parish archives that contained medieval parchment chronicles in Latin, in 1945 as the former German area was becoming part of Poland as a result of World War II.

A family member who knew Latin understood the value of the chronicles  which dated as far back as the 10th century  and translated some of them into Polish. They mention Harald, another fact linking the Wiejkowo church to him.

The nearby Baltic Sea island and town of Wolin cultivates the region's Viking history: it has a runic stone in honor of Harald Bluetooth and holds annual festivals of Slavs and Vikings.

Kryda says the Curmsun disc is phenomenal with its meaningful inscription and insists that it would be worth it to examine Wiejkowo as Harald's burial place, but there are no current plans for any excavations.
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Andrew Burbank wants to hike the Grand Canyon someday. He hadnt had much opportunity to do that sort of thing because of a disability that forces him to use a power wheelchair.

His dream was brought closer to reality, however, thanks to a Trekker: he was able to venture up to Connecticuts mountaintops.

It was fabulous, Burbank said. Im living my dream, thats all I can say.

The Trekker is customized wheelchair with heavy-duty wheels and shock absorbers for rough terrain, as well as two poles  along the lines of a rickshaw  that allows one or two people to pull the Trekker.

The recent hike was made possible through a collaboration between Chapel Haven, New York-based Accessibility Accelerator and Israel-based Paratrek.

The group took people with disabilities and injuries on a hike at West Rock Ridge State Parks Lake Wintergreen and Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden throughout last week, defying the barriers they faced.

James Lassner, executive director of Accessibility Accelerator, said hiking is something so many people do at some point in their life, but its a different story for people with disabilities.

The difference between me and someone with a disability is one thing, and we have 10,000 things in common, so its vital that we include everybody, Lassner said.

It wasnt the first time the three organizations hosted a hike like this. They did it at Rockefeller State Park in Pleasantville, N.Y., last year.

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, vice president of admissions and marketing at Chapel Haven, said approximately 50 people joined last year and it was a tremendous experience. Thats why they brought this back to their Whalley Avenue campus backyard in New Haven.

I think sometimes people hesitate to go and do the things that you and I take for granted, like hiking in the woods, Sullivan-DeCarlo said, noting different contributing factors including stamina, anxiety around fine and gross motor skills, and difficult paths for wheelchair users.

Thats where a Trekker came in to take on those challenges, and Paratrek founder Omer Zur led the effort. Zur, from a small village in northern Israel, taught hikers how to use a Trekker to facilitate their journey.

Zur said one of the toughest parts of the job was to convince people to trust each other.

People are very used to trusting themselves, and when you walk with a Trekker, you have to work as a team, Zur said. So it is the people who escort the Trekker, the helpers, and theres the person who rides the Trekker, and the one who sits in the Trekker.

The most important rule, he said, was to communicate how the hikers feel and how others can help if something hurts. Teamwork starts the second they break the obstacle of communication.

This is when the magic begins, Zur said.

Zoey Abrams and Alana McNulty, hikers, said they didnt find it hard to use the Trekker and that it really made the hike easier for them. I like taking turns with the Trekker, Abrams said, so she could see the views from the top of the mountain.

Paratrek is a nonprofit specializing in creating hiking trips for the physically challenged and the impaired. Zurs organization, along with Accessibility Accelerator, have brought 27 people, four of whom had paralysis, to Mount Kilimanjaros peak in Tanzania.

Zurs motivation behind it, he said, stems from a personal story with his father who suffered severe leg injuries about 50 years ago, resulting in paralysis from chest down. Zur said he decided to design a wheelchair that works well with all terrains so his father could do the one thing he loved the most  going out to nature.

It actually made him grow bigger from the experience, Zur said. I said that this is what I want to do with my life. I want to take mixed groups of people with and without disabilities together and let them go and experience the great outdoors.

If not because of this program, hiker Kerry Wilson said she wouldnt normally take a hike like that because of knee issues.

If its like higher, higher up, then I cant do it, she said, emphasizing that she got tired toward the end but others lent a hand when going up a steep hill so she stuck it out. She described the experience and the scenery as unbelievable.

That was what brought joy to Zur. Its not about the Trekker, he said, but its about seeing people caring about each other and ensuring everyone could climb up together.

The whole group, people just went up and down, and up and down, just to help each other to make sure that everybody got to the top of the hill, Zur said. I think that moment was for me the best moment.

In Connecticut, the majority of the states parks feature accessible parking, restrooms and picnic tables. Out of 138 state parks and forests, five parks have accessible swimming/beach surf chairs available; nine provide accessible fishing platforms; and 19 offer accessible boat launches, according to the Department of Energy and Environment Protection.

There is one wheelchair accessible trail, the Saugatuck Universal Access Trail, at Centennial Watershed State Forest in Redding, according to DEEP.

John Workman, a parent, said the Chapel Havens program is very inspiring because it helps people gain access to nature, something he said can be very therapeutic.

For many people, they're not used to being out in nature, he said. They're used to being in a town or in their homes, and this is an opportunity for them to have fuller lives and also receive the benefits of fresh air and trees and birdsong.

Burbank, who hiked on a wheelchair with a Trekker, said he was grateful and recommended people struggling with visible disabilities seek similar programs so they can also experience nature.

It felt like people recognized the diversity a little bit, Burbank said. Now, because of all the things that are happening, I guess it's about time people are recognizing equality.

chatwan.mongkol@

hearstmediact.com
30.07.2022 LISTEN

The Leadership of Bawumia for Ghana (BawuGha), a vibrant youth group affiliated to the ruling New Patriotic Party have reminded members of the party about the patriotism Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia demonstrated at the 2012 Supreme Court election petition till date.

In a statement to share the glory and wish the party its 30th Anniversary, the National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Emmanuel Mensah recalled how Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia defended the party at the Supreme Court in the full glare of the public, whilst other equally important individuals failed to show up.

He lamented that some bigwigs and power brokers in the party intentionally sat as observers and strangers at the period their loyalty and support were needed badly.

Today, a lot of people have forgotten and they're now claiming to be loving the party than Dr Bawumia who stood on his feet for almost nine months (9) in the supreme court defending the party.

He appealed that time has come for the ruling New Patriotic Party to reward the Vice President for his commitment and perseverance.

Lets remind ourselves as members of the elephant family that hard work pays, so the Vice President need to be rewarded as the party prepares ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Mr. Emmanuel said before the party came to power the Vice President worked hard, mobilized the people and demonstrated why the then flagbearer of the party was better alternative to the NDC.

Extending the group best wishes to the party as it celebrates 30th Anniversary, he paid tribute to the illustrious founders and other members of the party.

I want to pay tribute to Baffuor Akoto, Nana Awuku, Prof. Ofosu Armah, S. D. Dombo, Alhaji Osman, S. G. Antor, Victor Owusu, Kwesi Lamptey, J. A. Braimah, Richard Quashie, Alhaji Yakubu Tali (Tolon-Na), Prof. Yaw Twumasi, Prof. Adzei Bekoe, Alhaji B. K. Adama, Haruna Esseku, Jato Kaleo, J. H. Mensah, Abaifa Karbo, Dzana Selby, Jones Ofori Atta, Sackey Schek, former President J. A Kufuor, H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Appiah Menka, Alhaji Shani Mahama, Stephen Kreku, Prof. John Fynn, Mr. Cockra, Adam Amande, Gyebi Ofosu, Ama Busia, Mariama Sanpaga, Alhaji Salifu COP, Mariama Arko, Alhaji Adam Gariba, etc.

He narrated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) received its certificate to operate on the 28th July, 1992 from the then Interim National Electoral Commission (INEC) headed by the late Justice Josiah Ofori Boateng.

ABOUT BAWUMIA FOR GHANA

Bawumia for Ghana (BAWUGHA) is a political group made up of intellectuals, philanthropists and dedicated grassroots members of the NPP who strongly believe in the credentials and leadership skills of Dr Bawumia. Our vision is to garner votes for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to be elected as the flag bearer of the NPP and subsequently become the next President of Ghana.

BAWUGHA is registered with the Registrars General Department and currently operates from Accra, Obuasi, Sunyani and Tamale together with field officers who are spread across all the constituencies in the country.

So far, the group philanthropic work (BAWUGHA Touching Lives Program) of the group has reached out to over 5,000 people in the areas of vocational training, feeding, and job creation interventions all in line with Dr. Bawumias vision of improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable in society.
Former Deputy Communications Minister and Awutu Senya West Member of Parliament (MP) George Andah has advised Ghanaians to take the SIM Card re-registration exercise seriously.

He admonishes Ghanaians not to politicise the exercise.

Speaking on the Key Point show aired on the Accra-based TV3, Saturday, July 30 monitored by Modernghana News, the former NPP lawmaker added that the Ministry and the National Identification Authority (NIA) are also concerned about the challenges people are going through.

"Nobody is insensitive to the challenges the people are going through to get this done. We should put partisanship aside and look at it from the nationalistic point of view or what is in the best interest of the nation," George Andah said.

If nothing is done about the SIM Card re-registration deadline, the Ministry for Communications and Digitalisation will block all unre-registered SIM Cards by the end of today Sunday, July 31.

The exercise was supposed to end on March 31 earlier this year but was extended to July 31 to make room for people who were still not done with the process.

With a few days to the deadline, many Ghanaians, especially those who still haven't gotten their Ghana cards are pleading with the Ministry to extend it.

Meanwhile, While addressing a forum in Kumasi on Friday, July 22, the Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful responded by appealing to all Ghanaians who are yet to re-register their SIM cards to do so before the July 31 deadline.

According to her, the deadline will not be extended again.

We must make it difficult for the criminals who hack our systems and defraud us through multiple online channels to operate, and this SIM registration exercise is one of the steps the government is taking in that regard, she explains.

The Minister continues, this stresses the point that this exercise will enable the establishment of a subscriber database with integrity to keep the consumers safe from scams and fraud.

I, therefore, urge you to do so before the 31st of July," she stressed.

However she recently urged Ghanaians to Exercise patience, you will hear from us very soon, we will call for a press conference and discuss that with you. Well engage all stakeholders and all telecom companies on the matter. Until then, the deadline remains the same.
The United Kingdom and Ghana will go further and faster to combat terrorism, organised migration crime, drug trafficking and other global threats following a summit in London.

A statement issued by the British High Commission in Accra, copied to the Ghana News Agency said the UK Government hosted the second UK-Ghana security dialogue between July 25 and 27, to discuss the countries' shared interests in tackling global issues.

Madam Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary and Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Minister for National Security of Ghana agreed to strengthen law enforcement agency collaboration, strengthen engagement on border security, work together to enhance cyber security in Ghana and support regional solutions to instability in Ghana's neighbouring states.

Madam Patel said: The UK and Ghana has a deep and long-standing relationship, and we are powerful allies when confronting the scourge of organised criminal gangs that operate across our borders.

Ghana is the beacon of freedom and democracy in West Africa and through our joint work we are tackling global threats and cracking down on the threats to our mutual security.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said: The UK is a primary and reliable partner to Ghana; therefore, we welcome essential security initiatives from the UK towards building Ghana's resilience to address national and regional threats.

The Home Secretary visited Ghana last year in the first round of talks, opening a new Home Office-funded immigration taskforce office in the process.

The statement said because of the joint working, since January 2022, 14 organised crime groups had been disrupted preventing the facilitation of 56 individuals from entering the UK illegally, saving the UK over 812,000 in the process.

It said through the New Plan for Immigration, the UK Government was working with countries around the world to tackle the heinous people traffickers who work across borders and bring misery to vulnerable people.

It said the Home Secretary hosted a reception with Ghanaian delegation at Lancaster House on July 25 before counterparts discussed topics including, serious and organised crime, border management, security, countering terrorism and violent extremism, conflict prevention and military over the course of two-day event.

It noted that the Defence staff met to discuss peacekeeping, regional stability, counter terrorism and maritime security.

Mr James Heappey, the UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces, said: The UK is committed to expanding defence co-operation with the Ghanaian Armed Forces and we will continue to work together in frameworks such as the Accra Initiative to counter violent attacks and insurgency in West Africa and the Sahel.

GNA
Fire has razed some properties at CMB in Accra in the dawn of Sunday July 31.

The Fire Service indicated that due to the hazardous nature of the contents at the fire scene, one fireman suffered some injury and was transported in an ambulance to the police hospital.

An unknown boiling substance at the fire scene hindered the men from advancing to the fire scene.

3news.com
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said his government's target of constructing, in this second term, one thousand, five hundred kilometres (1,500kms) of asphalt overlay works is very much on course.

To that end, Mr Akufo-Addo urged the Ministry of Roads and Highways to put in place the necessary traffic management measures to reduce any inconvenience to the public during the construction period.

He said these while speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of the Dome to Kitase Road.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the construction of this road has been the subject of promises made by various political parties and successive Governments over the years.

I am happy that it is under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the rehabilitation of the Dome to Kitase Road is finally being undertaken, he said.

The twenty-three-kilometre stretch of road connects the Accra to Kumasi road to the Accra-Aburi-Koforidua road, and provides an alternate route to road users between Accra and Aburi. The road also provides access to Ashesi University, one of our nation's foremost Universities.

According to the President, the rehabilitation of the Dome-Kitase Road is being funded by the Government of Ghana and the Kuwaiti Fund. The works, estimated at thirty-five million dollars ($35 million) and scheduled to be completed within twenty-four (24) months from today, are being undertaken by M/S First Sky Construction Ltd, one of the best road construction companies in the country.

President Akufo-Addo noted that the Dome-Kitase project and many other road projects across the country are in line with Government's agenda to provide good, quality road infrastructure to help accelerate the socio-economic development of our country.

The President indicated that some of the road projects completed throughout the country his presidency includes the construction of one hundred kilometres of roads and auxiliary infrastructure under the Kumasi Inner Ring Road and adjacent streets project. Under this project, roads in Nyhiaeso, Bantama, Oforikrom, Manhyia, Subin, Tafo Pankrono, Asokwa, Suame and Kwadaso have been constructed.

Other road projects include the construction of twenty-two kilometres of Cape Coast Inner City Roads under the Sino Hydro Project; the construction of ten kilometres of Prestea and Heman Inner City Roads under the Sino Hydro Project; the completion of the 56.4km Jasikan-Dodo-Pepesu Road on the Eastern Corridor, constructed under the SinoHydro Project; and the thirty-one-kilometre Agona Swedru to Bawjiase Road, which has been substantially completed by M/S China Railway Wuju.

In addition to these, the President stated that work is ongoing on the second one-hundred-kilometre Kumasi Inner City Roads Project, which is being undertaken by M/S Sino Hydro, and is currently ten percent (10%) complete. The dualisation of Tema- Aflao Road, including the construction of interchanges at Kpone, Savana, Dawhenya and Prampram, is also ongoing.

The widening of the Beach Road, from Independence Square to Tema, is also ongoing. Lot 1 of this project involves the expansion of the Beach Road from Independence Square to Nungua, and is thirty-eight percent (38%) complete. Lot 2, which is the widening of the Beach Road between Nungua and Tema, including the construction of a three-tier interchange at Nungua, is 60% complete.

The upgrading of the 15.4-kilometre Ofankor to Nsawam Road into a ten-lane facility, including the erection of interchanges at Amasaman, Pobiman, Medie and Nsawam, has just commenced.

Asphaltic overlay works throughout the country are also ongoing. One thousand and five kilometres (1,005kms) were completed between 2017 and 2020, and seven hundred and thirty-nine kilometres (739kms) of asphaltic overlay have been completed between 2021 and now. Government's target of constructing, in this second term, one thousand, five hundred kilometres (1,500kms) of asphalt overlay works is very much on course, he said.
31.07.2022 LISTEN

They really do want to kill him. Perhaps it is high time that his detractors and sceptics, proven wrong essentially from the outset, admit that the US imperium, along with its client states, is willing to see Julian Assange perish in prison. The locality and venue, for the purposes of this exercise, are not relevant. Like the Inquisition, the Catholic Church was never keen on soiling its hands, preferring the employ of non-church figures to torture their victims.

In the context of Assange, Britain has been a willing jailor from the start, guided by the good offices of Washington and none too keen in seeing this spiller of secrets released into the world. Bail has been repeatedly, and inexcusably, refused, despite the threats posed by COVID-19, the publishers own deteriorating health, and restrictions upon access, at regular intervals, to legal advice from his team. Just as some banks are deemed too large to fail, Assange is considered too large a target to escape. Let loose again, he might do what he does best: reveal government venalities in war and peace and prove the social contract a gross deception and mockery of our sensibilities.

The UK legal system has been the ideal forum to execute the wishes of Washington. Each legal branch that has examined the extradition case has assiduously avoided the bigger picture: the attack on press freedom, exposing war crimes, illegal surveillance of a political asylee in an embassy compound, the breaches of privacy and legal confidentiality, the encroachments upon family life, the evidence on proposed abduction and assassination, the questionable conflicts of interest by some judicial members, the collusion of State authorities.

Instead, the courts, from the outside, have taken a blade to cut away the meatiest, most solid of arguments, focusing on a sliver that would be, in due course, defeated. The sole decision that favoured Assange only did so by essentially regarding him as an individual whose mental fragility would compromise him in a US prison facility. In such a case, suicide would be virtually impossible to prevent. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who made the ruling, thought little of the publishers credentials, heartily agreeing with the prosecution that no journalist would have ever exposed the names of informants. (This farcical interpretation was rebutted convincingly in the Old Bailey trial proceedings.)

The rest has been a grotesque show of gargantuan proportions, with the High Court and the Supreme Court showing themselves to be political dunces or, which is not much better, dupes. Believing a number of diplomatic assurances by US prosecutors on Assanges post-extradition fate, made after the original trial, seemed awfully close to a form of legal match-fixing. We all know that court cases and the law can be analogised as betting and having a punt, the outcome never clear till it arrives, but this was positively ludicrous.

To anyone following the trial and knowing the feeble nature of reassurances made by a State power, especially one with the heft of the United States, promises about more commodious accommodation, not being subject to brutal special administrative measures, and also being allowed to apply for a return to Australia to serve the balance of the term, was pure, stenchy balderdash.

Amnesty International is unequivocal on this point: diplomatic assurances are used by governments to circumvent various human rights conventions, and the very fact that they are sought to begin with creates its own dangers. The mere fact that States need to seek diplomatic assurances against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (other ill-treatment) is indicative of a risk of torture.

The US prosecuting authorities have even gone so far as to weaken their own position, making their undertakings conditional. Typically, they shift the focus back on Assange, suggesting that he might influence matters by his own mischievous conduct. All in all, nothing said was binding, and the glue holding the promises together might, at any given moment, dissolve.

Admirably, Assange continues to have some fiercely dedicated followers who wish him well and wish him out. Independent Australian MP Andrew Wilkie has the sort of certitude that can pulverise the attitudes of bleak sceptics, though even he must nurse a few doubts. In his address to supporters of Assange in Canberra, delivered on the lawns of the Australian Parliament, he was confident that keeping the pressure up would eventually lead to justice for the publisher.

In a crisp summation, Wilkie distilled the case. The US wants to get even and for so long the UK and Australia have been happy to go along for the ride because theyve put bilateral relationships with Washington ahead of the rights of a decent man. Keep maintaining the rage, he urged his audience.

The matter is considered so urgent that Australian Doctors For Assange have warned that death may be peeking around the corner. Medical examinations of Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison in the UK, stated spokesman Robert Marr, have revealed that he is suffering from severe life-threatening cardiovascular and stress-related medical conditions, including having a mini-stroke as a result of his imprisonment and psychological torture.

The organisation has written to US Ambassador Carolyn Kenney requesting she urgently ask President Biden to stop the US persecution of Australian citizen Julian Assange for merely publishing information provided to him and stop the US attempt to extradite him from the UK.

From the Australian perspective, we can already see that there is a go-slow, cautious approach to Assanges fate, which also serves the lethal agenda being pursued by the US prosecutors. Despite a change of the guard in Canberra, the status quo on power relations between the two countries remains unaltered. Everyone, bar Assange, seems to have time to wait. But in terms of life and health, the time in question is almost done.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: [email protected]
The District Chief Executive for Agona East in the Central Region, Hon. Janet Odei Paintsil has cut sod for construction of two facilities in her District to enhance healthcare delivery.

They are an ultra-modern Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound for Agona Duotu community and a 3-unit classroom block for Agona Tawora Basic School.

Addressing the Chiefs and people of Duotu last Thursday, the DCE expressed her gratitude to His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo led NPP Government for the facility describing it as a God-sent.

She noted that the facility when completed, would serve several communities and facilitate effective teaching and learning.

Hon. Janet Odei Paintsil disclosed that the CHPS Zone Compound would be completed before the close of the year.

She noted that it would be fully equipped with medical beds and logistics couple with all the social amenities like water, electricity and accessible road network.

"Nananom, am happy to be associated with this project especially when am the DCE representing His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, President Akufo Addo.

"The NPP Government is committed to improving healthcare delivery to enable the people easy access to health facilities.

"The Agona East District Assembly is also poised to ensure that every resident in the District gets quick healthcare delivery without stress whatsoever ever.

"I want to encourage the contractor to expedite action for early completion of the project and also appeal to Nananom to give him the maximum cooperation to facilitate his job," she intimated.

Assembly Member for Agona Duotu Electoral Area, Hon. John Kwesi Akyea expressed his gratitude to the NPP Government for the facility which would be the first of its kind in the Electoral Area.

He noted that the youth would assist in anyway possible to ensure early completion of the CHPS Compound.

Chief of the community, Nana Kofi Asopiah IV, said the people were overwhelmed by the facility. "We appreciate this edifice which when completed, would solve most of our health needs.

"We have to travel to Agona Duakwa Salvation Army Health Center, Kenyanko CHPS Compound to receive medical care or proceed to Agona Swedru Government Hospital Incase of emergency. The NPP Government has been kind to us and we really appreciate it."

A resident of the Agona Duotu Community, Madam Ewura Ama also praised the DCE and President Akufo Addo for the project adding it was going to improve the health status of the people who are mostly farmers.

She however appealed to the DCE to assist the community gets potable drinking water to address the water issues in the area.

According to Madam Ewura Ama, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency was proving water for the community but stalled making access to portable drinking water stressful to the people.

Later in the day, Hon. Janet Odei Paintsil also cut the sod for a construction of a 3-unit classroom block for Agona Tawora Basic School.

The project would enable pupils easy access to Junior High School education for the first time.

Previously, the pupils had to walk several kilometers from the community to attend school at Agona Nantifa.

According to Hon Janet Odei Paintsil, the project was in fulfilment of NPP Government's promise of providing conducive environment for effective teaching and learning across the country.

"Education is NPP Government's top priority to ensure accessibility to every child of school going age thus the implementation of the Free SHS policy.

"We in the Agona East District Assembly will implement every policy and programmes aimed at improving the lives of the people in every sector of the economy," the DCE emphasized.
China, Indonesia to forge exemplary model of major developing countries seeking mutual benefit, win-win results

13:12, July 31, 2022 By He Yin ( People's Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, capital of China, July 26, 2022. (Photo by Pang Xinglei)

Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Beijing on July 26. The two presidents had a comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views and reached a series of important common understandings on China-Indonesia relations and on international and regional issues of mutual interest.

They decided on the overall direction of jointly building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future. The two sides issued a Joint Press Statement on the Bilateral Meeting between President of the People's Republic of China and President of the Republic of Indonesia. They also signed an MOU on jointly promoting cooperation between the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative and the Global Maritime Fulcrum. It highlighted the irreplaceable strategic guidance role of the head-of-state diplomacy in the development of bilateral relations.

Widodo is the first foreign head of state China receives after the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, and China is the first stop of his visit to East Asia this time, which fully demonstrates the high importance attached by the two sides to the development of China-Indonesia relations.

China-Indonesia relationship has enjoyed robust growth under the joint guidance of the two presidents in recent years, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality.

During the visit, the two presidents decided on the overall direction of building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future, to set an example of mutual benefit and win-win results among major developing countries, a model of common development and a pioneer in South-South cooperation.

It conforms to the common aspiration and expectation of the Chinese and Indonesian peoples, and will improve the strategic significance and global influence of China-Indonesia ties.

Under the guidance of jointly building a community with a shared future, the two sides will continue to deepen the new synergy of bilateral relations through the four-pillar cooperation covering politics, economy, people-to-people exchanges and maritime projects, which will make new and greater contributions to the development of China-Indonesia ties.

China and Indonesia are at similar development stages, have entwined interests, follow similar philosophies and development paths, and share a closely connected future.

It was here in Indonesia in 2013 that the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative was first proposed by Xi during his state visit to Indonesia. Indonesia supports and is committed to the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI) put forward by Xi. China and Indonesia enjoy unique advantages in deepening practical cooperation in various fields.

During the visit, the two presidents expressed the hope to further deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation for more fruitful outcomes. They agreed to build flagship projects to implement the GDI at bilateral and regional levels and signed a series of cooperation documents.

China and Indonesia are focusing on development and cooperation as global economic recovery is encumbered and the GDI faces severe challenges. They are striving for completing the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway on schedule with high standards and ensuring good implementation of such major cooperation projects as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor and the "Two Countries, Twin Parks."

The two countries, pursuing closer public health cooperation, the continuous expansion of trade and investment, and in-depth integration of industrial and supply chains, will foster new drivers and areas of growth for China-Indonesia practical cooperation, and contribute more positive energy to global recovery.

The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia is the first overseas high-speed railway system using Chinese standards, technologies and equipment. It is a landmark project of China-Indonesia cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. (Photo courtesy of China Railway Design Corporation)

A sound China-Indonesia relationship not only serves the shared long-term interests of the two countries, but also has positive, far-reaching impacts on the region and the entire world.

Nine years ago, Xi delivered a speech and for the first time proposed to build a China-ASEAN community with a shared future, charting the course for safeguarding regional peace and stability, as well as development and prosperity.

Indonesia is the largest economy of ASEAN and will be the ASEAN rotating chair next year. Facing complicated regional and international situations, China and Indonesia should implement consensus reached on China-ASEAN Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations, uphold open regionalism, advance China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace, Security, Prosperity, Sustainable Development and Amity, and jointly safeguard the regional cooperation framework with ASEAN at its core, to further unleash new dynamism of the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership and constantly improve the well-being of regional people.

Changes in the world are unfolding in ways like never before, and major developing countries play an indispensable role in promoting global governance. This year, China and Indonesia are at the presidency of the BRICS and the G20, respectively, taking global governance to "Asia's time."

Xi said when meeting Widodo that China fully supports Indonesia in hosting the G20 Bali Summit and will increase coordination and cooperation with Indonesia for a full success of the Summit.

Widodo said Indonesia will work with China to keep deepening their comprehensive strategic partnership and make still greater contribution to regional peace and global development.

China and Indonesia need to stand together in solidarity, fulfill the responsibilities of major developing countries, follow true multilateralism, and ensure both development and security, to contribute Oriental wisdom and Asia's input to the development of global governance.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
A Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) conducted in 2017-2018 has revealed that about 34.1 percent of sources used for production of sachet water are contaminated with faecal matter.

Officials are intensifying the alert after data from the 2021 population and housing census on the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene sector revealed that 37.4 percent of households in Ghana depend on Sachet Water as the main source of drinking.

Data from the 2021 Population and Housing census indicate the use of Sachet water as the main source of drinking water has quadrupled in about a decade.

In 2010, nine percent of households depended on sachet water as their main source of drinking, while in 2021, the figure rose to 31.7 percent.

The use of pipe-borne as the main source of drinking water for households however decreased from 46.7 in 2010 to 31.7 percent in 2021.

The revelation according to experts pose a public health danger and there was a need for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to embark on thorough scrutiny of the production of outlets engaged in the production of sachet water.

An Assistant Statistician and Director of Field Operations at the Ghana Statistical Service, Dr. Peter Takyi Peprah who spoke to journalists in Kumasi observed the development posed a public health concern and called on regulatory agencies to step up their monitoring of the production of Sachet water in Ghana.

In 2017, a survey was conducted that is Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of which we didn't just collect information about the sources of drinking water, but we moved further to ask questions about the quality, is not just the question, but we tested the source of water for the households where we realized that certain percentage of water is being contaminated with faecal matter. In that case, one will ask what is happening. Faecal contamination simply means we have toilets in our water; therefore, as a country, we need to encourage the FDA to embark on thorough monitoring and supervision. They should try their best and test on a regular basis the sources of water in the production of this Sachet water so that in case the water is contaminated they will advise or close down that company doing the production, he explained

A Regional Level Learning Alliances Platform brought together stakeholders in the dissemination of the 2021 Population and Housing census data, which focused on the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

Project Coordinator for the Greater Kumasi Sanitation and Water Project, Engineer George Asiedu explained that it was important for stakeholders in the WASH sector to be abreast with the census data to work to improve the sector.

Officials have also recommended establishing a joint working group between the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and stakeholders in the WASH sector.

citinewsroom
31.07.2022 LISTEN

The Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr. Rasheed Draman has urged leadership of the House of Parliament to tread cautiously in deciding the fate of Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adowa Safo.

According to him, the ruling to be declared by the Speaker of the House is a critical one that will serve as a precedent should such situations present themselves in years to come.

In an interview with Citi News, Dr. Rasheed Draman urged Parliament to be objective in its decision.

Over the years, there have been concerns about the fact that Parliament has not been a good regulator of itself so when it comes to matters of disciplining themselves, I think it has always been a challenge. There have been times when we have even called for some outside body  a group of eminent Ghanaians, to be constituted to form the privileges committee. On matters like this, we can get justice done in a way that is not politically tainted.

Right now, every decision, particularly regarding this declaration of whether a seat is vacant or not, is looked at from a balance of power perspective. If the member is removed, it tilts the balance either to the advantage of the NPP or NDC. If you leave it in their hands, they are looking at their own self-preservation.

Sarah Adwoa Safo was sacked from her role as Minister of Gender and Social Protection by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Thursday, July 28, 2022.

The decision came after Alban Bagbin deferred his ruling on Adwoa Safo who has been cited for absenteeism.

Parliament watchdog Odekro's analysis pegs Sarah Adwoa Safo's absence at 40 missed sittings.

Speaking to Joy News from the US, back in May, she attributed her long absence from Parliament to family issues, saying, among others, that her son was unwell .

Sarah Adwoa Safo also accused some Minority MPs members and a number of her colleague Majority MPs of engaging in a political witch hunt with her as the target.

By Citi Newsroom
An important publication launched at the opening day of worlds largest AIDS conference puts spotlight on not only the interlinkages between climate justice, gender equality and human rights, but also on differential vulnerabilities to climate change of people in Asia and the Pacific region.

This publication ARROW for Change: Climate Justice in Planet A (English, Hindi/ ) of Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) looks into the integration of women, girls and LGBTQIAP+ peoples needs in climate change action, with a specific focus on health and climate change. It brings forth the voices of youth and their inter-generational concerns, and documents success stories and advocacy strategies that have led to just transitions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director of ARROW said while launching the Hindi translation of ARROW For Change: Climate Justice in Planet A at the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022): in these last two years the world has been thrown into disarray by the COVID-19 pandemic but simultaneously, slowly in the background, the effect of climate change on our world has also been unfolding.

She further added that disruption of health services and de-prioritization of sexual and reproductive health services meant that health became inaccessible and HIV services, such as voluntary counselling and testing, access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, and referrals to other needed services, also were disrupted for all those who were living in areas reeling under extreme climate events, such as floods.

When confronted with climate disasters, communities adapt. For some it meant walking further distances for food, water and fuel. Girls and boys face increased risk of violence of which not only pregnancies but sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, increased during this time. Communities affected by floods and drought often have to migrate across boundaries or borders which often see increase in unsafe sex practices due to inaccessibility of commodities as well as inability to negotiate sexual boundaries, said Sivananthi Thanenthiran. More importantly she pointed out how climate change exacerbates the inequities felt by already marginalized communities such as sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, and transgender persons.

Menka Goundan, Executive Director, Womens Fund Fiji, who is also part of ARROWs Programme Advisory Committee, said that Pacific island countries have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions but face the worst wrath of climate-induced disasters each year. Most damage to the ecosystem, stratosphere and space, is within the zone of the pacific ocean. This is increasing the heat waves, and increasing the temperatures rapidly around the pacific ocean. This has resulted in sea level rise for many pacific island countries. Small pacific island countries like Nauru and Tuvalu are at the brink of being fully immersed in the ocean.

Pacific women have been at the forefront of climate justice since the time of nuclear testing in the pacific in the early 1980s and 1990s. Pacific women have led the conversation around climate and environmental justice in the pacific. We still see womens experiences are not as highlighted when it comes to climate justice work. We have been systematically subtracted from conversations and policy making around climate justice. Many Pacific island countries are moving towards efforts around climate policies but are they taking into account womens sentiments and lived experiences is another question, she added.

Noted climate justice activist Tetet-Nera Lauron from Philippines said that climate crisis is impacting progress made towards gender equality, closing of gender wage gaps, maternal health, and sexual rights. More disruptive disasters displace women and girls and damage physical infrastructure that cater to their reproductive and sexual health. Studies including those made by ARROW, show how the climate crisis increases the incidence of gender-based violence related to the scarcity of natural resources and how women and girls travel farther distances to secure food and water.

She added: we must not accept business as usual as we deserve more not just from the climate negotiations but we deserve more from the institutions of global governance that supposedly serve and uphold the interests of people and planet.

Fithriyyah Iskandar, a doctor of medicine and environment youth activist called for more inclusion of young people in climate negotiations and policy making. Future generations will experience the worst case of the climate scenario. These undesirable climate conditions will also result in depletion of natural resources and will have a significant societal impact such as population migration and economic dislocation. So, youth who are part of the future generation should be heard and involved in the decision making processes at all levels.

Shobha Shukla, founding Executive Director of CNS (Citizen News Service) said that, it is essentially a feminist response that can deliver on the goals such as those of ending AIDS, achieving gender equality, and climate justice. The current response often is not rooted in principles of development justice. That is why we need a feminist model as it is about solidarity. The opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy but solidarity. Patriarchy is about using power and violence against other people in order to gain power. The opposite of that is feminism - using care and solidarity to change systems and share/ redistribute power.

Bobby Ramakant  CNS (Citizen News Service)
31.07.2022 LISTEN

If the Electoral Commission of Ghana is listening and learning from the challenges associated with the accessibility to the Ghana Card, they should by now be revising their decision to demand that the Ghana Card be the only valid ID for young people who just turned 18.

Public officers are to serve the interest of the Tax Payers but not to take intransigent positions because they feel they have our mandate.

Many young people have turned 18 and are willing and ready to get a voter ID for themselves but do not have access to the Ghana Card. Yet they Electoral Commission Ghana says it is the only Card they will accept. What a country?

My nephew registered for his Card in Kumasi and had it same day.

I did mine in Cape Coast and I'm counting months now.

When I called they told me they are resource constrained. But same people who are supposed to make sure citizens have access to the Ghana Card are using threats of deadline to frustrate them.

Someone traveled from the Upper East region to Accra to get his Ghana Card. Thankfully he had it but he can't use it. His name is wrongly spelled. Consider the cost to all this? Some had theirs but they are faulty.

Since 2018 Ghanaians have been queuing for up till date.

1. In 2018, they started queuing for the Ghana Card.

2. In 2019 some queued for the limited registration and voting to elect Local Representatives.

3. In 2020, they queued for a new Voter ID and subsequently queued in December for the elections amidst COVID-19.

As if that wasn't enough punishment for the ordinary Ghanaian who spend his precious time queuing for all these. Markets women have had to closed their shops to join long queues. They go there and corrupt officials to bribes from other corrupt citizens to jump the queues.

4. In 2021 Ghanaians were threatened to re- register their SIM cards or have them blocked.

How many more queuing before 2024?

Power must be used for and on behalf of the people.
31.07.2022 LISTEN

Those privileged to lead mighty China, today (at a point in time, when it is growing increasingly prosperous and becoming ever more influential globally,) must eschew the little mindedness, which led Putin's Russia to undertake its disastrous invasion of Ukraine, in their unhelpful and shortsighted bellicose attitude towards Taiwan.

The question is: What has a great and civilized nation like mighty China got to fear, about what it says is part of its sovereign territory's desire to hold on to its freedom to chart its own course? Gentle persuasion is what will eventually conquer Taiwanese separatism, not a war that could end up humiliating China's military.

China's far smarter leaders, ought to learn from Russia's current leaders' murderous military doctrine of scorched-earth-incompetent-barbarism, which has turned Putin & Co into potential war criminals, who will all be held to account, one day, when they appear before the International Criminal Court, in the fullness of time.

The bald truth is that the Russian military has shown that it is not as fearsome as it would have Russians (and the rest if the world) believe.

Ukraine is where Russia, a great nation with a long and proud history, which ought to be a force for good, in a troubled world, will eventually be so humiliated (as sure as day follows night), that all demographics in Russian society will rise up and demand an end to what is a kleptocratic dictatorship - that has no conscience and are unequalled in the annals of the history of leadership-grand-larceny, in global politics.

Surely, China's far smarter leaders don't want to suffer the same fate? China must play the long game with Taiwan. Ageing beauty Nancy Pelosi going to Taiwan, should not start a war of costly-aggression that might lead to China's military being humiliated -and suffer the same demoralising-fate Russia' military is now suffering at the hands of Ukrainian forces. A word to the wise...

By Kofi Thompson
Members of the Gas Tanker Drivers and Petrol Tanker Unions have hinted of a sit-down strike beginning Monday, August 1, 2022.

According to the Association, the decision to lay down their tools has been triggered by what they term as poor working conditions and unfair treatment of drivers by BOST and NPA which stems from the continuous ban on LPG Stations under construction since 2017.

Speaking to Citi News, the Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union, George Nyaunu says all efforts to get the government to address their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

We intend to embark on a sit-down strike. They have failed to give us tangible reasons for the ban on LPG stations under construction.

The drivers declared a sit-down strike on March 4, 2022, for its members who cart LPG products across the country over a similar reason, saying the situation had affected remuneration and other conditions of service.

The industrial action was to push the government to lift the ban on the establishment of new LPG stations following the Atomic Junction explosion in 2017 that claimed lives and destroyed properties.

The strike was suspended following an assurance from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to address their concerns.

Government has explained that the ban is aimed at sanitising the space and also ensuring that the required protocols are followed through.

By Citi Newsroom
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday that his African National Congress party remains committed to anti-graft rules under which members charged with corruption or other serious offences must quit.

Some within the party that has been by plagued by corruption allegations in recent years wanted the so-called "step-aside" rule scrapped, arguing it has been used by party factions to target their political opponents.

"The overwhelming view of the policy conference is for the retention of the step-aside provisions to enhance the integrity of the movement and its leadership," Rampahosa told delegates, wrapping up three days of talks in Johannesburg to map out the party's direction.

The conference noted strong concerns about the perceived lack of consistency in the policy's implementation, he said.

These "must receive urgent attention so that the application of the guidelines is impartial, is fair and is consistent", he added.

The talks were a prelude to the ANC national elective conference in December, when the party is to hold internal polls to pick a candidate for the next presidential election.

Ramaphosa is expected to seek a second five-year term, but could face a challenge from a faction of the party that is loyal to former president Jacob Zuma, who has been accused of corruption.

Ramaphosa himself is also mired in a scandal following a break-in at his game and cattle farm.

A state corruption inquiry report published earlier this year implicated more than 200 ANC members, including some senior officials.

Under the step-aside rule, ANC members charged with serious crimes have 30 days to leave their post or face suspension.
Poised to strengthen the petroleum downstream regulators relationship with its peer regulators on the African continent, the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has embarked on a working visit to Zambian Energy Regulatory Board (ERB).

Dr Abdul-Hamid, accompanied by Ghana High Commissioner in Zambia, Her Excellency Ms. Iddrisu Khadija together with some NPA board and management members visited the ERB head office in Lusaka.

The tour is premised on major successes achieved by the fuel marking program in both countries and share lessons on the implementation of the fuel marking program with the view of improving current operations.

Briefing the media on what necessitated the visit, the NPA Boss said before the Zambian regulatory body begun its implementation of the fuel marking programme in 2017, they sent a seven-member team to understudy Ghanas model of the petroleum product marking scheme in 2015.

He said the Zambian team were taken through the programme set-up, staffing, contractor & subcontractor payments, margins, benefits, challenges, legislation, among others.

Fast forward, Dr Abdul-Hamid said ERB sent another two-group delegation in 2018 comprising of key fuel marking operational staff, senior management, and board to interact with NPA to gain further insights on the roll out and implementation of both the marking and monitoring activities of the Ghana fuel marking programme.

Dr Abdul-Hamid was elated to know that since the successful launch and rollout of the fuel marking in Zambia, the programme has chalked major success.

He mentioned product quality compliance rate at the retail outlet has increased to over 96% and illegal fuel vendors have been successfully prosecuted and convicted.

Despite Ghanas major successes in the fuel marking programme, the NPA Chief Executive said we still want to learn from the Zambian programme to help us improve on our operations in the field of fuel marking and regulation, as well as foster a healthy collaboration in the area of fuel integrity monitoring between our institutions.

The ERB is a statutory body charged with the responsibility of regulating the energy sector in Zambia. The ERB is generally responsible for ensuring that energy enterprises earn a reasonable rate of return on their investments and consumers are given quality products and service.
The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has issued a warning to Ghanaians who are refusing to link their SIM Cards with the Ghana Card to dodge the payment of qwik loans to service providers.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Sunday, July 31, the Minister described such mentality as evil corruption and warned that people who engage in such acts will be found out and dealt with.

I have also been informed that some people who have obtained qwik loans from their service providers have decided not to register those SIMs to avoid repaying the loans. That is evil corruption and you will be found out, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful told the media today.

With thousands of Ghanaians yet to link SIM Cards with their Ghana card, the Communications and Digitalisation Minister further announced an extension of the deadline from July 31 to September 30.

The Mobile Network Operators MNOs and the National Communications Authority (NCA) (and I dare say the National Identification Authority have all engaged additional staff, procured the necessary logistics and are incurring significant expenses to conduct this exercise successfully. Any extension of the process increases their cost. Upon consultation with the industry and in view of the challenges enumerated above, I have very reluctantly decided to grant a final conditional extension.

The programme will be extended to 30th September to end on the anniversary of its commencement. That will give us one full year of SIM registration. It will be reviewed at the end of this month and any SIM that has not been fully registered by the end of August will be barred from receiving certain services including voice and data services, the Minister indicated.

Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful added, It will also be more expensive to use unregistered SIMs. The full range of punitive measures will be announced at another press briefing in September. Kindly do not blame your service provider when you suffer that fate due to your own inaction. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Two people were killed and several others injured after UN peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday.

The UN force MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire "for unexplained reasons", adding that arrests had already been made.

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing towards the immobilised UN convoy behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. The town is in eastern DR Congo's Beni territory on the border with Uganda.

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid.

"During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through," the UN mission in Kasindi said in a statement. "This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries."

"The toll is two dead," Joel Kitausa, a civil society leader in Kasindi, told AFP, adding that 14 people were injured in the incident.

'Shocked and dismayed'

The UN envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bintou Keita, said she was "deeply shocked and dismayed by this serious incident", according to the mission's statement.

"In the face of this unspeakable and irresponsible behaviour, the perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested pending the conclusions of the investigation which has already begun in collaboration with the Congolese authorities," MONUSCO said.

The UN mission said the troops' home countries had been contacted so legal action could be commenced promptly, with the involvement of witnesses and survivors, which could lead to exemplary penalties.

Deadly region

Earlier Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor's representative in Kasindi, said that "eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured" in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not give a reason for why the UN convoy was prevented from crossing.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC's troubled east. The UN first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999.

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO -- the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among the force, according to the UN.

Calls for UN forces to leave

Map of DR Congo locating North Kivu province and Goma. By (AFP)

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC.

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fuelled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

UN under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to "talk to the Congolese authorities", he said.

"(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives," he said.

"We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support."
The Media Foundation for West African (MFWA) has called for the implementation of institutional strong support systems for journalists in the country to improve their safety.

The Foundation said there was an urgent need for media organisations to implement institutional supports and interventions like insurance packages to enhance the safety of journalists in the country.

This was contained in a report on a study conducted by the Foundation on Media Professionalism and Safety of Journalists, Policies and Practices in Newsrooms in the Country.

Mr Kwaku Krobea Asante, Programme Officer, MFWA, presenting the findings of the study at a forum organised by the Foundation in Accra noted that a number of media organisations did not have institutional support for the safety of journalists.

He attributed the frequency of violations against journalists to the absence of safety policies and lack of consciousness on the part of media organisations to ensure the promotion of the safety of their journalists.

He said out of the 40 media houses sampled across the 16 regions, only 15 had some semblance of safety for journalists, with only five out of the 15 having insurance packages, while a few had manuals on safety, which contained only a sentence or two.

Mr Asante said, four out of five journalists on the field relied on their understanding of the job, friends and the use of their 'head' or intuition when confronted with safety issues, while the other journalists spread across 11 media houses said they followed the safety protocols of their organisations.

He said the study also revealed that the security agencies were the dominant perpetrators of violence against journalists, followed by political party affiliates, saying the people who are supposed to provide security or protection for journalists are actually those leading in perpetrating violence against them.

On the issue of professionalism, Mr Asante said after a year of monitoring some 26 media organisations, his outfit observed some ethical infractions, with local radio stations being the worst offenders.

Although the print media also used misleading headlines, obscene photos and allowed invectives in the comment sections of their news websites, they were a bit careful and appeared more professional in their practice, he added.

The report called on government to promote the safety and protection of journalists and urged media regulatory bodies and associations to play active roles in ensuring the implementation of safety policies in newsrooms, including insurance packages.

It also appealed to media owners to build the capacity of journalists and presenters on best practices, adding that there must be concerted efforts among media stakeholders to ensure that practitioners adhered to ethical standards.

Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, Deputy Minister of Information, noted that there was the need for collective efforts to address the issue of safety of journalists.

.. Collective efforts in terms of educating our Ghanaian populace, and empowering practitioners to come forward with some of these issues and for the institutions that are responsible for regulation to also have the opportunity to investigate, validate and reach out to various stakeholders.

Madam Abubakar said the biggest threat to the practice of the journalism profession had to do with losing public trust and confidence.

In recent times with the digital revolution, a lot of people mimic what journalists do, but these individuals do not even wish to be identified as journalists. So, it is important for us to distinguish between journalists and those who produce content but are not journalists.

That, she said when done, would provide clarity for stakeholders to know, which issues bothered on the safety of journalists and those that did not because there had been a number of forums where even to agree that a particular incident bothered on safety of journalists became contentious because the distinction was not clear.

Mr Alexander Bannerman, Deputy Executive Secretary, National Media Commission (NMC), said the safety of journalists was paramount and, therefore, we need to jealously guard it.

He said the NMC was soliciting views to develop guidelines on the safety of journalists, which would be based on the UNESCO guidelines and called for support of all.

GNA
Hon. Kwame Agbodza, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu, has pledged his commitment to work for the development of Adaklu to justify the trust of the people.

"I am not the most educated, the wealthiest nor the most handsome in Adaklu so my being elected to represent Adaklu in Parliament is not a right but a privilege, which required me to serve the people in humility and bring development to them," he said.

Mr Agbodza made the pledge at the commissioning of a two-unit nurses' quarters for the Adaklu Hlihave Community Health Planning Services (CHPS) Compound in the Adaklu district.

The project which cost GHC229,000 was funded with his share of the MP Common Fund.

Mr Agbodza said he was ready to work with other stakeholders to reduce the district's infrastructural deficit such as classroom blocks and nurses' quarters, among others.

He called on citizens of Adaklu to join hands with him to transform the area into an enviable one, adding "we should not sit aloof and wait for the government to solve all our problems for us. Let us take our destiny into our own hands.

He said from a humble beginning of six health facilities in 2012 when the district was created, it could now boast of 17 and added that the 18th at Adaklu Dave would be commissioned soon.

He praised the people of Adaklu Hlihave for their communal spirit, saying "it is because of your communal spirit that Pencils of Promise (PoP) agreed to assist other communities' classroom blocks.

The MP said PoP had built 28 classroom blocks in the district while the 29th would be commissioned soon and noted that it was unprecedented, and it had helped eliminate most schools under trees in the district.

He urged the people to invest in the education of their children, saying it was the greatest legacy they could leave for them.

GNA
Mr Agyeman Prempeh, the Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), has asked people to protect themselves when swimming by learning basic water safety survival skills and knowing the water conditions and the weather when crossing water bodies to help prevent the occurrence of drowning.

Nana Prempeh stated this in an address delivered on his behalf by Mr Koranteng Abrokwa, the Director of Policy Planning Research of the Organisation at a ceremony to commemorate this year's World drowning prevention day at Apam in the Gomoa West District.

The day on the theme: Doing One Thing to prevent Drowning, was organised by NADMO in collaboration with Cape Coast University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the Ghana Life Saving and Drivers' Association.

It was aimed at increasing awareness of the causes, effects, how, community members contribute to saving lives and what could be done to advance drowning prevention.

The Director-General said some of the risk factors that led to drowning were alcohol consumption, poor swimming ability, a boat carrying capacity, lack of supervision, particularly of children swimming and flood disasters.

Nana Prempeh observed that drowning was a silent epidemic of preventable death which had become an urgent disaster for the country, hence the need for all and sundry to abide by safety measures to help prevent the phenomenon.

World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates indicated that 236,000 people die annually from accidental drowning worldwide with 650 cases registered worldwide daily and an average of 26 cases per hour, he stated.

He said the data excluded drowning from extreme weather events like floods and traffic-related events like boat and dinghy accidents, which were critical components of the problem, adding that WHO estimates in 2021 put Ghana's total records at 1,200 with four people drowning every day.

He, therefore, enjoined the various Assemblies to put in place realistic measures in the form of regulation to help reduce or prevent drowning in addition to measures by traditional authorities to review traditional systems or beliefs that impact drowning.

Earlier, Mr Isaac Essuman Addison, Gomoa West District Director, recalled a drowning incident in the district on Sunday, March 7, 2021, when 13 children who were among a group of 20 others met their untimely death when they went to socialise at the Apam beach.

Let us all join the preventive drowning crusade by saying no more drowning since it has become a normal incident, especially during occasions including festivals, valentine's day and other holidays, he said.

He expressed appreciation to the Chiefs, Asafo Groups, Civil Society groups, Fishermen and Fishmongers, Ministers of the Central Bank, Assembly members, and petty traders, among others, who honoured their invitation to join in the commemoration of the day, adding that they will continue to embark on their education programmes since the fight is a collective responsibility.

In a speech read by Enoch Kojo Forson on behalf of Mr Joseph Donkoh Central Regional NADMO Director, stated that they were commemorating the day and the sad event, which occurred in March 2021, and there was the need for all and sundry to learn a hard lesson from it and deploy appropriate strategies to prevent any future occurrence of such unfortunate disaster.

Mr Bismark Baisie Nkum, the Gomoa West District Chief Executive, in an address read by Mr Anthony K. Mensah, Deputy Coordinating Director, urged the society to contribute their quota to help prevent the incidents of drowning.

He stated that the Assembly had embarked on periodic sensitisation at the coastal belt on water safety tips and safe rescue skills and per recommendations from the Ghana Psychological Association, erected warning signposts at pro-drowning areas along the coastline to warn unsuspecting revellers.

GNA
Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, says the University's Council has approved the establishment of a Centre for Disability Studies and Advocacy.

The key objectives of the Centre, Prof Amfo said, were to support differently-abled members of the University community and encourage research and advocacy on disability issues.

The Vice-Chancellor said this in Accra at a Congregation ceremony for the School of Graduate Studies, and undergraduate students from the University of Ghana's Medical and Dental Schools.

The ceremony conferred various degrees on a total of 661 students, including 103 PhDs, 530 at the master's level, and 28 undergraduate students.

She said the University was committed to the creation of the best environment for equal opportunity in gender and diversity, as contained in its Strategic Plan.

Prof Amfo announced that for the 2021/2022 academic year, 33 students with disabilities were admitted to various programmes and assisted to obtain accommodation.

The University also organised mobility training for all visually impaired fresh students to facilitate their movement around the campus.

The University, she said, had rolled out an Online Student Academic Record Request Portal for the convenience of all stakeholders and to enhance the efficiency of its processes.

"A taskforce has been set up to decentralise and digitise the work of the School of Graduate Studies," she added.

She said as part of efforts to promote entrepreneurship skills among students at the University, the Office of Research, Innovation and Development, in partnership with Impact Hub Accra, and Imperial College London, facilitated the Innovation for African Universities Connecting Accra project.

The project, supported by the British Council, is aimed at building the capacity of students to enable them to develop successful businesses, 28 teams, made up of almost 100 students, participated in the project.

Prof Amfo said the University of Ghana Credit Union was sponsoring the construction of a 50-bed capacity Emergency Centre at the University Hospital to commemorate its 50th Anniversary.

The Centre, estimated to cost GHS 3,000,000.00, would cater for all emergency services, including consultation for emergency medical, surgical, and accident cases.

The Vice-Chancellor urged the graduates to continue to persevere and be resilient in the pursuit of their career path, saying "challenges will come, but you must be determined to overcome them."

"As you go out to pursue your careers, I urge you all to register as alumni of the University and help raise high the bar of excellence.

"Proceed in truth and integrity in all you do, and make the University of Ghana proud," she said.

Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, the Chancellor, of the University of Ghana, said the University launched three related initiatives in April 2022, under the theme: Enhancing UG Student Experience through Digitalization.

The three-pronged technology-driven initiatives included the Classroom Modernization Project, the one Student, one laptop and the Hot-Spot Comfort Zones to improve students' experience and potentially enhance their academic fortunes.

The University presented awards to students who excelled.

GNA
Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has hit back at critics blaming her for challenges bedeviling the SIM card re-registration with the Ghana card.

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said criticisms against her are unfounded, as she does not have oversight responsibility over the registration process.

She asked persons encountering challenges to seek help from the Interior Minister; Ambrose Dery and the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA); Ken Attafuah.

The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization is not the supervisory Ministry for the NIA even though we collaborate and work with them. My hapless self has been roundly vilified for Ghana card challenges which I am not responsible for. Prof. Attafuah and his Sector Minister, Ambrose Dery are available to answer any question, the Minister said during a presser today, July 31, 2022.

Ursula has come under intense public criticism after she had warned that the deadline for the registration of SIM cards in Ghana, will not be extended for a second time.

Many had called for an extension of the re-registration deadline to the end of the year as the majority of Ghanaians had logistical challenges in obtaining NIA cards and using the same to register their SIM.

At the presser, the Minister said the deadline had been extended to September 30.

citinewsroom
Courtesy

I recently retired from Congress after 12 years as a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I was the first congressman in 20 years to have a bipartisan bill pass the U.S. House that fixed the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) misuse of their control over ozone emissions.

You will not believe how messed up EPA is regarding ozone. President George W. Bush lowered the ozone standard to 0.075 ppm as he was leaving office. It took President Barrack Obama seven years to write the rules for industry to reach 0.075 ppm. Six short months later and nine months before retiring, President Obama lowered the standard again to 0.070 ppm. So, our oil producers endured two lower standards in seven years and waited 12 uncertain years for compliance guidance. That is wrong and unfair.
A combination of file photos shows the logos of five of the largest publicly traded oil companies: BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total.
LONDON (AP)  Britains Prince Charles is facing more questions over his charities after a newspaper reported that one of his funds accepted a 1 million pound ($1.2 million) donation from relatives of Osama bin Laden.

The Sunday Times reported that the Prince of Waless Charitable Fund received the money in 2013 from Bakr bin Laden, patriarch of the large and wealthy Saudi family, and his brother Shafiq. Both are half-brothers of the former al-Qaida leader, who was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will face off again for the presidency in 2024.

At least thats what political insider Dick Morris tells anyone who will listen.

Hes garnishing that prediction by claiming it will be one of the greatest political rematches of all time.

Rematch? More like a grudge match. But it would hardly be the first in presidential history.

Take the campaign of 1892. Eight years earlier, Grover Cleveland emerged from a particularly sordid race  which featured his fathering a child out of wedlock, religious bigotry against Catholics, and claims of corruption in high places  for a narrow popular vote victory. Four years later, Cleveland won the popular vote by a whisker but lost the Electoral College to Republican Benjamin Harrison.

So, 1892 saw a Cleveland-Harrison rematch, with Cleveland getting his old job back and forever screwing up the presidential numbering system. (He was president No. 22 and No. 24.)

By then, everyone was sick of the whole mess and wanted to be done with it.

Another classic grudge match came 20 years later. Its origins also began earlier when on election night 1904 Theodore Roosevelt bizarrely blurted out  without prompting or even a reason to say it  that he wouldnt seek another term. Bound by the promise to step down in 1908, Teddy tapped the rotund William Howard Taft for his successor. But the two soon split because Taft was too conservative for Roosevelts progressive tastes.

When Taft ran again in 1912, Roosevelt opposed him. (He explained with convoluted reasoning, When a man says at breakfast in the morning, No thank you, I will not take any more coffee, it does not mean that he will not take any more coffee tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year. That led to vaudeville comedians getting big laughs by asking audiences, Want another cup of coffee?)

There was a bitter fight for the 1912 GOP nomination. Taft won, Teddy took his followers and formed the progressive Bull Moose party, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson pounced on the split to win the presidency narrowly.

But neither of these contests can hold a candle to the ugliest presidential campaign ever and, beyond question, the greatest grudge match of all time.

The 1828 election.

How bad was it? Yet again, it went back to the election that had preceded it. There was a four-ring circus in 1824 when John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William Crawford ran against one another. None won a majority in the Electoral College, so it was up to the House of Representatives to pick a president.

To everyones surprise, the lackluster Adams won the House vote. Since Clay was House speaker at the time, it was widely thought he had swung it in Adams favor. So, when it was announced Clay would be Adams secretary of state (at the time the second most powerful position in government), Jacksons supporters seethed in sheer fury. They claimed it was a classic quid pro quo and called it the Corrupt Bargain.

The wait to 1828 dragged on like eternity for Democrats. When it arrived, they eagerly launched the Mother of All Grudge Matches with a vengeance. Their hatred of Adams knew no bounds. In fairness, the Adams people hated Jacksons supporters were equal ferocity.

The term mudslinging doesnt begin to approach what came next. Each week saw a new low. Issues played a secondary role to savage character assassination. Adams was belittled as an elitist, a Boston snob, and even a pimp. Jacksons people claimed that while serving as ambassador to Russia, Adams had procured an American girl for the Russian czars personal pleasure.

But that paled compared to an especially hard-hitting attack: Adams kept a pool table in the White House. The horror!

The Adams campaign got down in the dirt as well. There was a mean-spirited claim that Jacksons wife, Rachel, was still legally married to her first husband when she and the victor of New Orleans wed, making her a bigamist. It was a long, complicated legal affair that basically boiled down to all of the legal Is werent dotted and Ts crossed in Rachels divorce when the Jacksons married. The two genuinely believed she was in the clear at the time of their wedding, and the whole thing was innocent enough. But the Adams people portrayed Rachael as a wanton tramp. And nobody wants that in a first lady.

Jackson won the election. But the stress made poor Rachel literally turn her face to the wall and die of shame before Inauguration Day. Old Hickory headed to Washington the most bitterly spiteful person D.C. ever saw.

Time will tell whether well see a Clinton-Trump rematch in 2024. If we do, the odds are it will be a nasty replay of 2016. But as for it being one of the greatest political rematches of all time, it wouldnt score honorable mention compared to what happened two centuries earlier.
Are you getting enough exercise? Given our modern work schedules, it can be challenging to find a consistent time to exercise on a regular basis.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, fewer than 25% of American adults get the recommended amount of exercise each week.

But a new study published in the Journal of American Medical Association on July 5 shows that working out fewer days a week can improve your health just as much as working out more frequently.

These findings are excellent news for you if you can't always make it to the gym but still want to stay healthy.

Let's see how the results can apply to you.

The study, "Association of the Weekend Warrior' and Other Leisure-time Physical Activity Patterns With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality," looked at data from over 350,000 adults in the U.S.

Participants were asked about their physical activity habits, and then followed for approximately 16 years.

Researchers divided participants into two groups: those who met the World Health Organization's recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week and those who did not. The researchers then categorized the participants who met the minimum exercise guidelines into two groups. Participants were active for just one or two days per week (the weekend warriors), and those were active for three or more days per week.

The study found that participants who met the minimum WHO exercise guidelines had lower cardiovascular disease, cancer, and overall mortality rates than the inactive group, regardless of whether they were weekend warriors or regularly active.

According to this study, how you space out your exercises has little bearing on mortality risk as long as you do the appropriate amount of physical activity each week.

The WHO recommends that all adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.

They also recommend at least two days of resistance training, which may be a part of your moderate-intensity exercise activities.

You can divide the work however you like. For example, you could do 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five days a week or 75 minutes two days per week.

The great thing about this study is it provides evidence that you can personalize an exercise routine to fit your lifestyle.

If you're looking for exercises to get started with, here are five simple movement patterns that everyone should do:

The Horizontal Push: This movement pattern trains the muscles on the front of your body, including the chest and shoulders. The most common example is the push-up and the dumbbell press.

The Pull: This movement pattern trains the muscles on the back of your body, including the latissimus, trapezius, and rear delts. The most common examples are the row, the pull-up, or the chin-up.

The Vertical Push: This movement pattern trains the shoulders and triceps muscles. The most common examples are overhead presses (either standing or seated).

The Knee Flexion: This movement pattern trains the muscles on the front of your leg, which includes the quadriceps. The most common examples are squats and leg presses.

The Hip Extension: This movement pattern trains the muscles on the back of your leg, including the hamstrings and glutes. The most common examples are glute bridges and deadlift variations.

If you're new to exercise, it is essential that you start slow and gradually increase the amount of time you're active each week. Instead of trying to go from zero to 150 minutes per week, start with whatever you can handle and work your way up.

You can also try breaking up your workouts into shorter, more manageable chunks of time.

For example, if you can't fit in a 30-minute walk every day, try walking for 15 minutes twice daily. Or you can do longer but less frequent workouts.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to fitness. Remember, the key is to be consistent and find an exercise routine that works for you.

In fitness, something is always better than nothing
Joe Manganiello marveled at the years-old mysteries in his family that were solved through DNA by researchers on PBS' "Finding Your Roots," including a revelation involving the actor's paternal grandfather.

It was so surprising that host Henry Louis Gates Jr. had to call Manganiello with the news so he wouldn't find out first during taping.

"My family and I had a betting pool of what it is, like what's so bad that you can't announce it on the episode?" Manganiello told a TV critics meeting Thursday.

Gates informed Manganiello that the man the family believed to be the actor's paternal grandfather really wasn't.

"My grandfather was a Black man of mixed race," said Manganiello, who is white. "That was fascinating."

As a result, Gates told him, "You are zero percent genetically related to anyone named Manganiello in the world."

Gates didn't stop there. The show's research traced back to the actor's fifth great-grandfather who was a slave who became free before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, where Manganiello's father was born outside of Boston. His father's family came from Italy.

Manganiello found out his distant relative joined the Continental Army and fought alongside other Blacks for the colonies against the British in units that were non-segregated.

"None of us would have guessed that if we'd had 10 years of guessing," the actor said. "If Manganiello's not my last name, what is?"

Another mystery from his mother's side was solved, too.

Manganiello's maternal great-grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian genocide during World War I in which her husband and seven of her children were killed. She was shot but played dead and escaped with an eighth child, who later drowned while they traversed the Euphrates River.

Manganiello was told his great-grandmother was incarcerated and met a German officer stationed at the camp. He said she became pregnant by the officer, who later returned to Germany without her. The actor's aunt had a picture of the man, which later got lost.

"We had nothing to connect us being German other than this," he said.

The show's researchers found that the actor's mother and aunt were the children of the half-German baby.

"That was a really profound moment for me," he said.

Gates said it took nearly a year to uncover the ancestry, in part because the Turkish government doesn't give researchers access to vital records and population documents dating to the Ottoman Empire.

Manganiello was filming in Europe last year, and the locals mistook him as being German.

"To think that I don't look like the other people in my family is because I look like the Germans, OK, now that makes sense," he said. "It's really wild what we uncovered."

The 45-year-old actor known for "True Blood" and "Magic Mike" was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He is married to Colombian-born actor Sofia Vergara.

The new season of "Finding Your Roots" begins Jan. 3. Among those featured are Oscar winners Viola Davis and Julia Roberts, as well as Carol Burnett, political activist Angela Davis and actor Danny Trejo.
Millennials have been coined the "job-hopping generation," and I've contributed to that stereotype. I started my career at 22 and have job-hopped almost every year since. For many of those years, I was young and restless, and there was another part of me looking for more fulfilling work and pay that reflected what I was worth.

In some ways, changing jobs set back my retirement savings. There are things I wish I'd learned earlier, like how to start retirement planning, the importance of developing high-demand skills, and the art of negotiating benefits. But it also has helped me improve my earnings. Once "lifestyle creep"  when your income increases and your spending habits do, too  stopped getting the best of me, earning more meant I could save more for retirement.

Here are a few scenarios where job-hopping can help your retirement savings, and where it may hurt.

Yes  If you're improving earning potential

In one of my earliest writing jobs, I earned about $25,000 a year. As much as I enjoyed writing, I knew I was underpaid and overworked. My next move was looking for ways to earn more as a writer, and that's when I realized I had to develop new skills, such as optimizing my writing so it would be visible in search engines like Google. Within a year, I started a new job that paid me $45,000 and offered more benefits. Since I no longer was living paycheck to paycheck and finally had a 401(k) plan, I could start saving for retirement.

Changing jobs for a significant increase in income could help your retirement savings, but it requires you actually to put some of that increased income toward your retirement savings.

What is the benchmark for a "significant" increase in income? Aim for a 10% increase, says Mary Beth Storjohann, a certified financial planner and co-CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners in Santa Monica, California. If a new job offer comes in below that, Storjohann recommends running the numbers to see how much your take-home pay actually improves when you factor in taxes and other living expenses.

No  If company matches and equity haven't fully vested

If you're going to job-hop, you don't want to leave free money on the table, because that could hurt your retirement savings, says Jerel Butler, a CFP and CEO of Millennial Financial Solutions based in New Orleans. Before throwing up the deuces sign, consider getting your full retirement plan match, restricted stock units or other company equity if your employer offers it.

"Typically, companies have a dedicated vesting schedule for the employees as an incentive to continue working at that particular company," Butler says. "Sometimes, with companies that match contributions for 401(k) plans, they may ask you to contribute up to two, three, even four years before the company match is fully vested."

Butler also suggests hanging around long enough to get any potential bonuses, which often are distributed during the first quarter of the year.

No  If benefits don't improve retirement savings

The right benefits package could improve long-term retirement savings, so it's something to consider when changing jobs. When I accepted the job I mentioned earlier, I didn't think about this. Turns out health care premiums cost me around $500 a month, there were no flexible work arrangements, and the company offered no education stipends. These things indirectly affected my retirement savings, because I had less money to save and little growth potential.

Storjohann says benefits to consider that could improve your retirement savings include your work location, access to retirement accounts, employer match amounts, health insurance, education stipends, stock options and annual raises.

Yes  If you do a 401(k) rollover

A few months after leaving the first job I had that offered a 401(k) plan, I got a check for around $300 in the mail. I remember thinking, "Wow! Free money right in time for the weekend." Shortly after spending the "free money," I realized it was the balance in my 401(k) account. I was supposed to roll it over into another retirement account within 60 days; instead, I squandered it on weekend festivities.

Cashing out 401(k) accounts or forgetting they exist altogether is a common mistake people make when changing jobs, and it can hurt your retirement pot, Storjohann says. Cashing it out or taking an unqualified early withdrawal could cost you a 10% penalty and income taxes on the amount withdrawn.

"You think, 'Oh, the balance isn't that big, I'll just cash it out,' so instead of having that money earmarked for retirement, it is typically then spent and then you're paying penalties on top of that," Storjohann says.

This was certainly the case for me and it potentially has set my retirement savings back a few thousand dollars. Let's say I had rolled that $300 into an IRA and earned a 7% annual return  after 30 years, I would have more than $2,200.

If I had a time machine, I still would have changed jobs, but I definitely would have done a 401(k) rollover to maximize my existing retirement savings.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador said Sunday that most people support a months-long state of emergency that has rounded of tens of thousands of suspects in a crackdown on violent street gangs.

While critics say the campaign has violated human rights and swept up apparently innocent people, Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas said Salvadorans support the measure.

People are afraid of returning to the way it was before, now that they have begun to live without this scourge, Escobar Alas said.

El Salvadors gangs, which have been estimated to count some 70,000 members in their ranks, have long controlled swaths of territory and extorted and killed with impunity.

Since March, the countrys congress has granted extension after extension to the original 30-day emergency decree that suspends some constitutional rights.

People don't want the violence to return, the archbishop said at a news conference. "They not only want these things maintained, they want them to advance, to end the violence.

His comments came on the same day that relatives of young men caught in raids tried to march to the presidential palace to demand their release, saying they were innocent. Police stopped the march before it reached its goal by putting up barricades.

Rights activists say young men are frequently arrested just based on their age, on their appearance or whether they live in a gang-dominated slum.

Escobar Alas said he had heard the families' complaints, and he urged the government of President Nayib Bukele to avoid these margins of error and guarantee quick and expeditious hearings to release those who might be innocent.

After gangs were blamed for 62 killings on March 26, Bukele sought extraordinary powers.

Under the state of exception, the right of association, the right to be informed of the reason for an arrest and access to a lawyer are suspended. The government also can intervene in the calls and mail of anyone they consider a suspect. The time someone can be held without charges is extended from three days to 15 days.

Authorities have made waves of arrests often with very little evidence. Generally, those arrested are accused of belonging or associating with one of the countrys powerful street gangs.

Civil and human rights groups say that arbitrary arrests are common and that when detainees finally see a judge they are almost automatically jailed for six months pending trial. Some people have died while incarcerated.
Is Danish king who gave name to Bluetooth buried in Poland?

Is Danish king who gave name to Bluetooth buried in Poland? View Photo

WIEJKOWO, Poland (AP)  More than 1,000 years after his death in what is now Poland, a European king whose nickname lives on through wireless technology is at the center of an archaeological dispute.

Chronicles from the Middle Ages say King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson of Denmark acquired his nickname courtesy of a tooth, probably dead, that looked bluish. One chronicle from the time also says the Viking king was buried in Roskilde, in Denmark, in the late 10th century.

But a Swedish archaeologist and a Polish researcher recently claimed in separate publications that they have pinpointed his most probable burial site in the village of Wiejkowo, in an area of northwestern Poland that had ties to the Vikings in Haralds times.

Marek Kryda, author of the book Viking Poland, told The Associated Press that a pagan mound which he claims he has located beneath Wiejkowos 19th-century Roman Catholic church probably holds the kings remains. Kryda said geological satellite images available on a Polish government portal revealed a rotund shape that looked like a Viking burial mound.

But Swedish archaeologist Sven Rosborn, says Kryda is wrong because Harald, who converted from paganism to Christianity and founded churches in the area, must have received an appropriate grave somewhere in the churchyard. Wiejkowos Church of The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands atop a small round knoll.

Historians at the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen say they are familiar with the suggestion that Wiejkowo is Haralds burial place.

Rosborn detailed his research in the 2021 book The Viking Kings Golden Treasure and Kryda challenged some of the Swedes findings in his own book published this year.

Harald, who died in 985, probably in Jomsborg  which is believed to be the Polish town of Wolin now  was one of the last Viking kings to rule over what is now Denmark, northern Germany, and parts of Sweden and Norway. He spread Christianity in his kingdom.

Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson named its Bluetooth wireless link technology after the king, reflecting how he united much of Scandinavia during his lifetime. The logo for the technology is designed from the Scandinavian runic letters for the kings initials, HB.

Rosborn, the former director of Swedens Malmo City Museum, was spurred on his quest in 2014 when an 11-year-old girl sought his opinion about a small, soiled coin-like object with old-looking text that had been in her familys possession for decades.

Experts have determined that the cast gold disc that sparked Maja Sielskis curiosity dated from the 10th century. The Latin inscription on what is now known as the Curmsun disc says: Harald Gormsson (Curmsun in Latin) king of Danes, Scania, Jomsborg, town Aldinburg.

Sielskis family, who moved to Sweden from Poland in 1986, said the disc came from a trove found in 1841 in a tomb underneath the Wiejkowo church, which replaced a medieval chapel.

The Sielski family came into the possession of the disc, along with the Wiejkowo parish archives that contained medieval parchment chronicles in Latin, in 1945 as the former German area was becoming part of Poland as a result of World War II.

A family member who knew Latin understood the value of the chronicles  which dated as far back as the 10th century  and translated some of them into Polish. They mention Harald, another fact linking the Wiejkowo church to him.

The nearby Baltic Sea island and town of Wolin cultivates the regions Viking history: it has a runic stone in honor of Harald Bluetooth and holds annual festivals of Slavs and Vikings.

Kryda says the Curmsun disc is phenomenal with its meaningful inscription and insists that it would be worth it to examine Wiejkowo as Haralds burial place, but there are no current plans for any excavations.

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Friday there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine and dissolve it from the world map entirely.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council that the United States is seeing growing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including by installing illegitimate proxy officials in Russian-held areas, with the goal of holding sham referenda or decree to join Russia.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has even stated that this is Russias war aim, she said.

Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscows overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its unacceptable regime.

Apparently suggesting that Moscows war aims extend beyond Ukraines industrial Donbas region in the east comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.

Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the Security Council on Friday that The de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out in full.

There must no longer be a threat from this stage to Donbas, nor to Russia, nor to the liberated Ukrainian territories where for the first time in several years people are finally able to feel that they can live the way they want, he said.

Polyansky also warned Western nations supplying long-range artillery and MLRS surface-to-surface rockets that they were shifting the provisional security line further toward the west, and in so doing clarifying even further the aims and objectives of our special military operation.

Thomas-Greenfield went after countries that say one country's security should not come at the expense of another's," asking what they call Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She didn't name any country but this is a view China has repeated frequently, including Friday by its deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang.

He told the council, Putting one's own security above that of others, attempting to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute superiority ... will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make themselves less secure."

The U.S. ambassador also went after nations that call for all countries to embrace diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: Let us be clear: Russias ongoing actions are the obstacle to a resolution to this crisis. Again she named no countries but a significant number of nations in Africa, Asia and the Mideast take this approach.

Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of mounting atrocities including the reported bombings of schools and hospitals, the killing of aid workers and journalists, the targeting of civilians attempting to flee, the brutal execution-style murder of those going about their daily business in Bucha, the suburb of Ukraines capital Kyiv where local authorities said hundreds of people were killed during its occupation by Russian forces.

She said there is evidence Russia forces have interrogated, detained forcibly, deported an estimated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children -- tearing them from their homes and sending them to remote regions in the east.

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

A recent Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the situation is more nuanced that the Ukrainians suggest, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again.

The United States has information that officials from Russias presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating filtration operations, Thomas-Greenfield told the council.

Polyansky countered that despite Ukraines efforts at intimidation of their citizens people are choosing the country that they trust -- Russia.

He warned that heavy weapons being poured into Ukraine by the West will spill over into Europe because of what he claimed is the flourishing corruption among Ukraines political and military leadership.

Polyansky said Western weapons are only dragging out the agony and increasing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

Addressing Western ambassadors, he said: The aims of our special military operation will be achieved either way, however much fuel you pour into the fire in the form of weapons.

___

Corrects quote in 16th paragraph to say the United States, not the United Nations, has information.
Tower of Americas

Downtown San Antonio's Build-A-Bear Workshop is getting a party to celebrate the addition to the Tower of the Americas. The chain of customizable plushes opened at the San Antonio landmark in May but is now hosting an official launch party to introduce the business to the area.

On August 12 from 6 to 9 p.m., the workshop embedded in the Tower of the Americas will welcome guests for snacks and three 4D movies with the purchase of a "furry friend." Each bear purchase will come with two movie tickets and the receipt must be shown at the 4D theater.
Click here to read the full article.

Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Uhura on the original Star Trek series, died Saturday night in Silver City, N.M. She was 89 years old.

Nichols death was confirmed by Gilbert Bell, her talent manager and business partner of 15 years.

Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in television history on Star Trek. That moment, with her co-star William Shatner, was a courageous move on the part of her, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and NBC considering the climate at the time, but the episode Platos Stepchildren, which aired in 1968, was written to give all involved an out: Uhura and Captain Kirk did not choose to kiss but were instead made to do so involuntarily by aliens with the ability to control the movements of humans. Nevertheless, it was a landmark moment.

There had been a couple of interracial kisses on American television before. A year earlier on Movin With Nancy, Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra on the cheek in what appeared to be a spontaneous gesture but was in fact carefully planned. The Uhura-Kirk kiss was likely the first televised white/African American lip-to-lip kiss.

But Uhura, whose name comes from a Swahili word meaning freedom, was essential beyond the interracial kiss: A capable officer who could man other stations on the bridge when the need arose, she was one of the first African American women to be featured in a non-menial role on television.

Nichols played Lt. Uhura on the original series, voiced her on Star Trek: The Animated Series and played Uhura in the first six Star Trek films. Uhura was promoted to lieutenant commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and to full commander in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Nichols mulled leaving Star Trek after the first season to pursue a career on Broadway, but the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a fan of the series and understood the importance of her character in opening doors for other African Americans on television, personally persuaded her to stay on the show, she told astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in an interview for the Archive of American Television.

Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has described Uhura as a role model, recalling that she was astounded and excited to see a black woman character on television who was not a maid.

Nichols and Shatner remembered the shooting of the famous kiss very differently. In Star Trek Memories, Shatner said NBC insisted that the actors lips never actually touch (though they appear to). But in Nichols 1994 autobiography Beyond Uhura, the actress insisted that the kiss was in fact real. Nervous about audience reaction, the network insisted that alternate takes be shot with and without a kiss, but Nichols and Shatner deliberately flubbed every one of the latter so NBC would be forced to air what appeared to be a kiss (whether their lips actually touched or not).

Both the Star Trek and Movin With Nancy moments drew some negative reactions, though Nichols recalled that the fan mail was overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

NASA later employed Nichols in an effort to encourage women and African Americans to become astronauts. NASA Astronaut Group 8, selected in 1978, included the first women and ethnic minorities to be recruited, including three who were Black. Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to fly aboard the Space Shuttle, cited Star Trek as an influence in her decision to join the space agency.

Nichols remained a supporter of the space program for decades.

In 1991, Nichols became the first African American woman to have her handprints immortalized at the TCL Chinese Theatre. The ceremony also included other members of the original Star Trek cast.

Born Grace Nichols in Robbins, Ill. on Dec. 28, 1932, Nichols began her show business career at age 16 singing with Duke Ellington in a ballet she created for one of his compositions. Later, she sang with his band.

She studied in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Her break came with an appearance in Oscar Browns high-profile but ill-fated 1961 musical Kicks and Co., in which she played campus queen Hazel Sharpe, whos tempted by the devil and Orgy Magazine to become Orgy Maiden of the Month. The play closed after its brief Chicago tryout, but Nichols attracted the attention of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who booked her at his Chicago Playboy Club.

Nichols also appeared in the role of Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of Carmen Jones and performed in a New York production of Porgy and Bess, making her feature debut in an uncredited role as a dancer in an adaptation of that work in 1959. (Later she would display her singing talents on occasion on Star Trek.)

While working in Chicago, Nichols was twice nominated for that citys theatrical Sarah Siddons Award for best actress. The first came for Kicks and Co., while the second was for her performance in Jean Genets The Blacks.

She had small roles in the films Made in Paris, Mr. Buddwing and the Sandra Dee vehicle Doctor, Youve Got to Be Kidding! before she was cast on Star Trek.

During the early 60s, before Star Trek, Nichols had an affair with Gene Roddenberry that lasted several years, according to her autobiography. The affair ended when Roddenberry realized he was in love with Majel Hudec, whom he married. When Roddenberrys health was failing decades later, Nichols co-wrote a song for him, entitled Gene, that she sang at his funeral.

In January 1967, Nichols was featured on the cover of Ebony magazine, which published two feature articles on her within five years.

In the early 70s, the actress made a few guest appearances on TV and appeared in the 1974 Blaxploitation film Truck Turner starring Isaac Hayes. She appeared in a supporting role in a 1983 TV adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra that also featured her Star Trek co-star Walter Koenig. She starred with Maxwell Caulfield and Talia Balsam in the 1986 horror sci-fi feature The Supernaturals.

Later, Nichols began to do voice work, lending her talent to the animated series Gargoyles and Spider-Man. She also voiced herself on Futurama.

The actress played the mother of Cuba Gooding Jr.s lead character in 2002s Snow Dogs and Miss Mable in the 2005 Ice Cube comedy Are We There Yet?

In 2007, Nichols recurred on the second season of the NBC drama Heroes as Nana Dawson, matriarch of a New Orleans family devastated by Hurricane Katrina who cares for her orphaned grandchildren and great-nephew, Micah Sanders (series regular Noah Gray-Cabey). The following year she appeared in the films Tru Loved and The Torturer.

Nichols suffered a stroke in 2015 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2018, touching off a conservatorship dispute between her manager Bell and her son as well as a friend.

Nichols was married and divorced twice. She is survived by her son, Kyle Johnson.

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MANILA - Fidel Ramos - former president of the Philippines, career military official and figure of the 1986 revolution that deposed a dictatorship - passed away on Sunday. He was 94.

Ramos led the military under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, his second cousin.

"Our family shares the Filipino people's grief on this sad day," Marcos's son and current Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said in a statement. "We did not only lose a good leader but also a member of the family."

His defection was among the highlights of the People Power Revolution movement that overthrew the regime, which was known for widespread human rights violations and plundering up to $10 billion from government coffers.

He went on to serve as army chief and defense secretary of the post-revolution administration under democracy icon Corazon Aquino. He later succeeded her as the 12th president of the republic, from 1992 to 1998.

Ramos leaves behind a mixed legacy. To his supporters, he is a hero of the revolution who went on to urge the Marcos family to publicly apologize for their misdeeds. As president, he was credited with helping modernize the economy and a peace agreement with rebel forces in the southern Philippines.

To his detractors, he has yet to be held liable for police and military abuses under his watch-and his actions were not enough to prevent an eventual Marcos comeback.

Born on March 18, 1928, Ramos was a career military official before he got into politics. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

When Marcos declared martial law in 1972, Ramos led the Philippine Constabulary. In a 2017 interview with Maria Ressa, founder of the news site Rappler and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ramos explained why he turned against Marcos - despite a long history that involved the would-be dictator hiding in his family sanctuary during World War II.

"You must understand that even with that close relationship and association during the war ... why did I go against this guy?" he said. "It's because of what is in the Constitution. . . You obey the orders of your superior, your commanding officer, if they are legal orders. But when he started to stray during the martial law years ... that went against my values."

During his term, Ramos brokered a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front, then a separatist group operating in the Muslim majority south.

In 2016, Ramos threw his support behind populist candidate Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking strongman who would later be known for a brutal anti-drug campaign that left thousands dead.

But within the same year, the former president said Duterte's government was "a huge disappointment and let-down," criticizing Duterte's constant cursing and hostility toward the United States in foreign policy in a column for the broadsheet Manila Bulletin. He resigned as Duterte's appointed special envoy to China that same year.

Duterte also allowed the controversial state burial of Marcos in the Cemetery of Heroes. Ramos opposed the decision, which sparked thousands to take to the streets in protest. Under his presidency, Ramos allowed the family to bury the late dictator in their home region of Ilocos when they returned from exile in the United States. Some Marcos critics believe Ramos should not have allowed them to return.

In this year's national elections, the party that Ramos founded endorsed dictator's son Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who won in a landslide. However, officials from Ramos' Cabinet publicly endorsed opposition candidate Maria Leonor Robredo. Ramos himself, who had been out of the public eye over the pandemic, did not make a public endorsement.

Despite the criticism, Ramos has generally aged as a respected figure in Philippine politics. His contemporary Juan Ponce Enrile, a former Marcos defense minister who defected alongside him, faced corruption scandals and has since walked back on claims critical of the dictator. He has since returned to the fold of power, and serves as legal counsel to Marcos Jr. at 98. Ramos' successor to the presidency, Joseph Estrada, was later ousted in a second People Power revolution amid corruption issues.

In a forum covering Ramos's legacy last year, political columnist and veteran journalist John Nery said the former president "passed the test of time."

"It should be clear now that, in the end, and to the end, he retained an abiding loyalty to the primacy of the Constitution ... whatever the Constitution was," Nery wrote. He added Ramos' loyalty to the law explained his defection.

"There is no gainsaying his constitutional sense, and his fidelity to it. When I think of the possibilities open to him, during the era of the coup attempts, to choose the other side - which would have completely changed the country's history - I appreciate all the more that he knew his limits."
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Change and decay in all around I see. Henry Francis Lyte, Abide with Me

Utahs Great Salt Lake is drying up. A resident mourns what was:

That used to be full of water. My wife asked if a piece of metal was a wheel chair rampnope, the old dock. Next a view from the visitor's center. The causeway in the distance had water up to the edge when I was in HS. pic.twitter.com/IkYisSUZg2  Michael Kofoed (@mikekofoed) July 29, 2022

Reading @mikekofoed thread, I naturally wondered what the status of land artist Robert Smithsons iconic Spiral Jetty,[1] which (when created) jutted into the Great Salt Lake. How it started, very beautiful:

(Smithson is said to have selected the site for the red color, seen here.) How its going, also very beautiful:

Still beautiful, but a jetty without water. The Salt Lake Tribune raises a classic question in aesthetics: Spiral Jetty: A barometer for the Great Salt Lake, or a work of art unto itself?

Like any work of art, the value of Spiral Jetty  easily the most recognizable artwork in Utah  depends on how you look at it. Jaimi Butler, the coordinator of Westminster Colleges Great Salt Lake Institute, called the 1,500-foot rock formation artist Robert Smithson created in 1970 an artistic water gauge of the Great Salt Lake. The jetty is a barometer for the ways in which we are operating in a climate emergency, said Lisa Le Feuvre, the head of the Holt/Smithson Foundation, which oversees the creative legacies of Smithson and his wife, Nancy Holt. Smithson never intended Spiral Jetty to be a barometer of anything, said Hikmet Sidney Loe, a former professor at Westminster College who wrote The Spiral Jetty Encyclo (University of Utah Press, 2017), a comprehensive book about Smithson and his most famous work. He wanted a very dynamic environment, so the salt crystals would form, dissipate, the colors would change and the water would rise and fall, Loe said. But he wasnt [thinking], In 50 years, heres what people are going to think about my work.

The classicists dulce (sweet) vs. utile (useful) dichotomy (but why not both? Its a dessert topping! Its a floor wax!). However, confronting Smithsons vast body of work, I find I dont have a coherent aesthetic I can use to give an account of them, so I wont go further with theory. (I have a few claims I make about art, but thats not the same as having a theory). I will also shirk my responsibilities by not giving even a potted biography of Smithson, a summary of his writings (autodidactic; very 60s; prolix; less interesting than the art. Heres an example). Nor will I expound upon the concept of entropy  things fall apart will do  or explicitly relate the concept to Smithsons art. But youll know it when you see it:

If anyone is working on Robert Smithson and needs an image to illustrate the entropic principle I can probably help pic.twitter.com/EBGqzFz9tM  Jeremy Millar (@jeremy_millar_1) May 18, 2022

Sadly, then, this post will not be a critique or even an appreciation. Rather, I will present a series of Smithsons works  or, rather, images of Smithsons works  first some minor ones, and then three major ones: Spiral Jetty itself, then Partially Buried Workshed, and finally Amarillo Ramp. My and your remarks will then accrete round the armature of the works. In more or less chronological order, Heap being early, and Ramp being late, indeed final:

Heap of Language:

robert smithson, a heap of language pic.twitter.com/QyPO8Jjjw2  wordvoid (@wordvoid) July 28, 2022

Like a heap of sand, one more grain will trigger an avalanche. Bloggers know this feeling.

Glue Pour:

ROBERT SMITHSON

Glue Pour, 1969 large drum of glue, industrially produced by National Starch and Chemical Company poured over a hill pic.twitter.com/6IkPJFtOWS  Yempejji Culture Channels (@yempejji) February 3, 2022

Here is the view of a Canadian art critic:

When the drum delivered by National Starch and Chemical Company was pried open, its sticky contents were a garish orangenot the expected neutral grey. Buoyed by the convivial mood of his co-conspirators, master of ceremonies Robert Smithson proceeded to lower the barrel into position atop the steeply inclined clay bank near the University of British Columbia campus, a site scouted by Vancouver artist and accomplice Christos Dikeakos. Dikeakoss grainy documentation of Smithsons Glue Pour (1970) captures the prehistoric drama of the event. The adhesive slime, released from its plastic liner, conjured the manufactured terrors, and unintended comedy, of a science-fiction movie. At the commencement of the pour everyone laughed or had a smile on their face, recalls Dikeakos. Yet it was only in retrospect that Smithsons simulated magma flow evoked, for some, a sexually charged travesty of Modernist paintings theatrics (picture a cross between the poured canvases of Helen Frankenthaler or Morris Louis and a stag film).

Or perhaps The Blob? (Although its hard to imagine conviviality among those Present at the Creation its not, I suppose, impossible.)

Line of Wreckage, Bayonne, New Jersey:

I love the museum label: Painted aluminum container with broken concrete, framed map, and photo panels.

The Holt Smithson Foundation[2] describes the work:

Broken pieces of concrete gathered from a destroyed New Jersey highway are arranged inside a steel box with horizontal openings, alongside a map and a series of photographs on the wall providing geographic and visual context. Smithson illuminates the forgotten, displaying post-industrial rubble as if it were an ancient ruin. The result is both anticlimactic and tragic. Visually mundane, the site is afforded our attention within the gallery settingand its material remains demand a reckoning with the pervasion of loss in an otherwise invisible place.

And the theory behind the work:

The Nonsite (an indoor earthwork) is a three dimensional logical picture that is abstract, yet it represents an actual site in N.J. (The Pine Barrens Plains). It is by this three dimensional metaphor that one site can represent another site which does not resemble itthus The Nonsite. To understand this language of sites is to appreciate the metaphor between the syntactical construct and the complex of ideas, letting the former function as a three dimensional picture which doesnt look like a picture.

As a photographer, I have to give this some thought. After all, one photographs at a site. And if the photo is hung, it can only be at a nonsite.[3]

Now lets turn to some of Smithsons major works. First, Spiral Jetty itself. Although we discussed the dematerialization of the substance in which the jetty was immersed, we never discussed the materiality of the jetty itself, 6,650 tons of sand, earth, and rock (primarily black basalt), delivered and positioned by two dump trucks, a tractor, and a front-end loaded. Here is a long thread on that topic:

Let's begin with the sand. It's difficult to see from the photo but this sand is special. The grains at the Great Salt Lake are ooilitic, meaning they are well rounded grains. This leads to a slippery walk where they are dry and you sink into the sand further than "normal" sand pic.twitter.com/m0P7iTFC0J  Carly Lee (@_Sackung) December 6, 2020

Partially Buried Woodshed, at Kent State University in Ohio:

Here is a thread showing the construction:

Robert Smithson, Partially Buried Wood Shed, 1970 pic.twitter.com/C37AXeXNVu  Yempejji Culture Channels (@yempejji) June 11, 2022

(Earth was loaded onto the roof of the woodshed until the center beam cracked.) And here we see the post-Kent State University Massacre graffiti:

Hilariously, however, the real forces of entropy at work were not the massacre, nor the slow rotting and ultimate collapse of the shed, but  just let me position my knee here so it doesnt impact anything  the university administrators:

[Smithson] valued the work at $10,000 and donated it to the university, asking that no changes be made and that the structure be allowed to deteriorate naturally. Shortly after the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings, an anonymous person added the inscription MAY 4 KENT 70 with white paint to one of the structures horizontal beams.[4] The addition of the message about May 4, 1970 helped make the Partially Buried Woodshed one of the many memorial sites on campus.[2] The work was set on fire by an unknown arsonist on March 28, 1975, burning much of the left side and causing the structures major collapse.[5] The University Arts Commission recommended in April that the roof and burned portion be removed [as opposed to being repaired]mostly citing safety concernswith the remaining walls, earthen mound, and rafters allowed to continue the natural aging process.[6] By late April, the university had much of the damaged section removed and planned to landscape the area around the sculpture as a park.[7] Smithsons widow, Nancy Holt, visited the work on May 3, 1975, and called for its preservation.[8] A committee recommended in June 1975 that the entire sculpture be removed, citing liability concerns, though university president Glenn Olds ultimately decided to keep the remains of the sculpture in 1976. Sometime in mid-1981, the center beam fully broke, and in January 1984, the remaining wooden elements of the structure were quietly removed by the university.[9] While the School of Art hosted exhibits in 1990 for the 20th anniversary of the works creation, and again in 2005 for the 35th anniversary, the location of the artwork was largely ignored until Kent State University added an informational plaque to a sidewalk near the site in 2016.[10]

Finally, Amarillo Ramp:

Here is the initial sketch for the project:

Here is Amarillo ramp then, as constructed:

And here is Amarillo ramp now, having decayed:

If you want to see this one, youd better hurry up. From Texas Highways:

In 1973, when it was completed, Amarillo Ramp was a spiral pathway jutting into Tecovas Lake, an artificial body of water outside of Amarillo. It was comprised of sandstone found in the area, compacted to an ascending height of 15 feet, and measured 140 feet in diameter. Now, with the lake long since dried up, Amarillo Ramp amounts to a quirky, failing rock formation. Stanley Marsh 3, an Amarillo arts patron, commissioned Amarillo Ramp for his vast property around the same time he enlisted the art collective Ant Farm to create the more well-known Cadillac Ranch off historic Route 66. Smithson died before the completion of Amarillo Ramp, but his widow and artistic partner, Nancy Holt, along with artist friend Richard Serra, came to the rescue and executed the project. They added but one final touch to Smithsons design: They cast the sides of the ramp at a slight angle rather than at 90 degrees. Make arrangements to view Amarillo Ramp by emailing the Holt/Smithson Foundation, which is dedicated to the legacies of the married artists, at ar@holtsmithsonfoundation.org. This rarely seen work comes with a personal tour guide and requires a 15-minute drive down a gravel road. What awaits on private land is a sliver of its original self and could easily be lost in the camouflage of the landscape. But its there, reminding us, in the service of dying, to live life before we too are just dust in the wind.

What Texas Highways doesnt say is that Smithson had gone up in a small plane[4] to inspect the site, and he and his pilot died in a crash. Heres the crash report:

Its interesting to think that earth from the Ramp, plus the crash report, would constitute a nonsite. (The note that Full narrative is not complete is so post-modern I cant stand it.)

* * *

One critique of Smithsons work is that it is not political, which art should be. In vulgar form:

the point of art is for it to Do Politics, so you can look at it and go wow politics and if only other people were as enlightened as me, to see these politics  let le wokisme win (@lyta_gold) July 30, 2022

Or, in more sophisticated form, from Ecological Art: What Do We Do Now? at, amazingly enough, Nonsite.org:

[Araeens] critique of the unseeing egoism of American earth artists such as Smithson and Morris is not without precedent. What is unusual about his manifesto is its optimism despite ecological warning signs, many of which we are alerted to by artists. While Araeen rails against ego in the realm of art that focuses on nature, he claims that the idea of making land into art in significant ways remains potent. How? Through what he calls collective work (683), a radical transformation of human consciousness. He cites Beuys famous 7000 Oaks project  begun at Documenta 7 in 1982 and continued in New York  as an example of how to make planting trees part of peoples everyday life (682).

As NC readers know, the Earths requirement is not trees, but forests. More:

Many contemporary artists share Araeens sense of urgency. They agree that fellow artists should focus on ecological issues but also caution that this emphasis is not yet sufficiently global. Araeens examples of arts ameliorative effects center on bringing water issues  specifically more widespread desalination  to the fore Basia Irland has similarly underlined the potency of social organization and participation in her many Gathering works. A Gathering of Waters; Rio Grande, Source to Sea, she reports for example, started in 1995 and took five years to complete. Hundreds of participants were invited to put a small amount of river water into a canteen, write in a logbook, and pass these downstream to another person.

[UPDATE I am having a highly irritable reaction to Irland here, brought on by Nonsites framing, more than Irlands projects themselves.] This reminds me of one of those horrid listening sessions where a consultant posts sticky notes of the attendees suggestions (and doubtless throws them away, having already written their report, or recycled it from another project. Forgive my cynicism.) More:

Connections were made that have been lasting, and groups are working together that never would have met otherwise. In order to participate in this project, you had to physically be at the river and interact with someone else downstream, thereby forming a kind of human river that brings awareness to the plight of this stream that is always asked to give more than it has.

Aesthetically, I think this is hooey, and NGO-style hooey at that. I think Irlands projects are primarily aestheticized documentation, as opposed to Capital A Art. (Implicitly my incoherent aesthetic says that art should last far beyond the milieu in which it was created, unlike, say, entertainment, socializing, or sticky notes. Objects have their own integrity that persists over historical time, regardless of whatever political use can be made of them.)

* * *

Im sure I dont need to further underline the themes of decay and entropy in Smithsons work. He is, after all, deeply concerned with the material, which decays. Thats one aspect of his work that makes him the artist for the Jackpot. But there is a second, more subtle aspect of his work, and in a classic illustration of the posts theme, I have misplaced and cannot recover the tweet that documents it. If I had the tweet, it would go in a blockquote. Its a note to the Holt-Smithson foundation:

To Whom It May Concern: Some kind but thoughtless students of mine recently visited Spiral Jetty, and brought back a gift for me: A rock they had taken from it. Enclosed please find the rock. I am returning the rock to you, in the hopes that you can return it to the Jetty.

(There was a photograph of the box the rock came in, and the note.) In this way, Spiral Jetty, as art, was able to link unexpectedly the past and the future, in this case through acts of kindness (misplaced and, er, to be placed). We will need to be able to do this during the Jackpot just as much as we will need to be able to recognize (and mourn, and cope with) decay. The Forest Service (!!) quotes Smithson:

Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.

~Robert Smithson #quotes pic.twitter.com/fNatiR0gvW  Northern Research (@usfs_nrs) November 20, 2019

And, as a lemma, Nature does not proceed in a straight line down.

NOTES

[1] Nobody seems to remark on the surrealist aspect of Spiral Jetty. A spiral jetty is just as useful as Man Rays Cadeau, an iron with nails in the sole plate:

[2] I looked at the Holt-Smithson Foundations Board of Directors and didnt see anything horrifying by NGO standards, as one might in other contexts.

[3] So as I can determine, there is no connection between Smithsons concept of a nonsite, and Nonsite,org, edited by, among others, the redoubtable Adloph Reed.

[4] Unlike, say, Jackson Pollock; see link in note [2]. This is a joke.
(Natural News) One of the first known cases of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine adverse effects being passed down from mother to baby has come to light, demonstrating the dangers of the shots for women who are or who later decide to get pregnant while being fully vaccinated.

Little Zack Reilly is now missing an arm, reports indicate, after it had to be amputated almost immediately after his birth when it was discovered that the child had developed blood clots in both his now-removed left arm as well as his brain.

The child was reportedly delivered in an emergency caesarean at 37 weeks on July 11, 2021. He had a bruised and blistered left arm, we are told, and the limb was removed after an MRI scan showed that he had suffered a stroke while still inside his mothers womb.

That stroke destroyed the childs arm and brain, though he was initially said to be adapting brilliantly, according to media reports. His parents, one of whom is a Royal Navy assistant careers advisor and the other a telecoms engineer, say he enjoyed his first family barbecue, which made them proud  but the fun did not last.

For the first few weeks of Zacks life, it felt like one thing after another was going wrong, said the boys mother. It was just heartbreaking.

In addition to losing and arm and suffering brain damage, little Zack now has seizures and no longer smiles

Libby says her pregnancy was going along smoothly until the final days before he had to be delivered early. She started feeling these sharp cramps, she says, which I thought were contractions.

We rang the hospital saying we thought it might be contractions, but they said it didnt sound like I was ready to come in yet, she told the media. Then, the next day they became worse and were so painful I couldnt feel if he was moving or not, so they said we should come in.

Zack ended up being born at 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and it was very clear, his mother says, that something was very wrong with his arm.

Hospital officials determined, based on the boys black and bruised arm, that he had suffered a blood clot requiring amputation. No apparent mention was made about any potential link between the boys disastrous health condition and Fauci Flu shots.

He was in a lot of pain at first, though, and I had to take myself away at one point, as it was just too upsetting, Libby said about the removal of her newborn sons arm.

Then, she found out that Zack had brain damage due to a suspected clot, which could leave him unable to use some muscles. He also might be debilitated once he grows up with no ability to walk or even talk.

I just felt so upset for him. Its like we were robbed of everything  normal labor, meeting my child for the first time and then having a healthy, happy family.

After taking Zack home for the first time, he appeared to be smiling and somewhat happy. That only lasted for a little while, though, as the boy stopped smiling over Christmas and suddenly started having seizures.

We are also told that Zack now has mild hearing loss, for which he now has to have hearing aids (Related: You will find more stories about covid jab injuries and deaths at CovidVaccineVictims.com).

But you can still talk to him and he understands you without them, Libby claims. We came home and celebrated, dancing around the kitchen to music together.

More related news coverage about the damage being caused by Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources include:

Newspunch.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) While this weeks Q2 GDP data confirmed that the United States is now in a recession (as traditionally defined  for decades  as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth), the Biden administration, in cooperation with its media lapdogs  and even the unbiased lads at Wikipedia, has been furiously peddling a Sith mind trick that this is not the recession youre looking for.

(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com)

Joe Biden again claims were not in a recession. pic.twitter.com/7dcGm239eO  TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 28, 2022

The Biden Administration is redefining recession in an effort to avoid political backlash. Its not a recession if you change the definition of recession. Soviet-level propaganda from a soviet-level regime. pic.twitter.com/bXtvPpOeD8  BowTiedRanger (@BowTiedRanger) July 24, 2022

Its not a recession, its a transition.

?? White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denies claims that the US is in a recession, says we are in a transition. (via @TheView) pic.twitter.com/sqmVK7uhk0  Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 28, 2022

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted that This is not an economy thats in recession, before parroting the transition narrative.

TREASURY SEC. JANET YELLEN: This is not an economy thats in recession. Were in a period of transition in which growth is slowing, and thats necessary and appropriate.pic.twitter.com/tzRtURrUH8  Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 25, 2022

Nevermind Bidens own economic advisers defining recession as two quarters of negative GDP growth as recently as last May (h/t Philip Wegmann).

Given the recent confusion on the topic, perhaps we need a former president to set the record straight?

A recession is two quarters in a row of negative growth.  President Clinton, Dec. 19, 2000 pic.twitter.com/h04jcPX7P3  Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) July 28, 2022

What say you, Karine Jean-Pierre?

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
(Natural News) Democrats are nothing if not massive hypocrites, especially when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

Most Democratic leaders are all in favor of Joe Bidens open borders policies until they have to deal with hordes of illegal immigrants themselves.

Last spring, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to begin bussing migrants who had illegally crossed into his state to Washington, D.C., as a means of punishing Democrats and Biden for refusing to get serious about border security.

Abbott announced last week that he was directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to transport migrants released from federal custody in Texas to the nations capital and other locations outside his state, Fox News reported in April, shortly after the GOP governor made his pledge.

By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border, Abbott said in a statement at the time.

Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden administrations failure to secure our border, he added.

Not long after, the first busses from Texas full of illegal aliens began arriving in the nations capital. Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey followed suit and began busing illegal aliens to D.C. as well.

The White House initially dismissed Abbotts original plan as a publicity stunt, but Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is now asking for federal assistance in dealing with the crush of migrants because they are now taking up all available space in the citys homeless shelters while absorbing other resources.

Bowser discussed the issue during a recent interview on CBSs Face the Nation.

So, I want to ask you, The New York Times had this piece on the housing crisis and homelessness in America and it highlighted D.C. as just one of those cities that has just persistently not had enough housing to meet demand, host Margaret Brennan said before asking: Youve been working on reducing homelessness. Is the prime issue supply?

Well, weve been working on creating affordable housing and producing more and preserving more. And we are among the jurisdictions, I would say, that lead the nation in being a local partner in production. So, just in the last seven years, weve invested more than $1.4 billion in doing exactly that, Bowser began.

Were equally invested in making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in our city. And we have a plan to get there. Weve seen our rates of family homelessness, for example, decrease by 78 percent. Chronic homelessness also. Were attacking and driving those numbers down for most categories, she said.

Homeless shelters in Washington D.C. are filling up with asylum seekers from Texas and Arizona. Mayor Bowser says I fear that theyre being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America. pic.twitter.com/7OOH6F2Dpl  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 17, 2022

Brennan continued along the line of questioning: The Washington Post reported last week that homeless shelters in D.C. were filling up and groups are getting overwhelmed by these buses that the governors of Texas and Arizona are sending here full of migrants. How significant is this influx? How many people?

Well, this is a very significant issue, Bowser responded. We have, for sure, called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses. We think theyre largely asylum seekers who are going to final destinations that are not Washington, D.C.

First off, they are not tricked into getting on the buses. The migrants know exactly where they are going.

Bowser isnt the only Democrat to complain. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is complaining, too  only, Biden is sending migrants to his city, not Abbott or Ducey.

Eric Adams just realized what happens when Democrats allow millions of illegals to waltz into USA. Our schools are going to be impacted. Our healthcare system is going to be impacted. Our infrastructure is going to be impacted.pic.twitter.com/N9GwyxHzQF  Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) July 25, 2022

Abbott responded to Adams complaints: Mayor Adams problem is not with Texas. It is with President Bidens refusal to stop this border crisis and secure our southern border. President Bidens open border policies created this ongoing humanitarian crisis, allowing record-high illegal crossings and deadly drugs like fentanyl to flood into our state.

A crisis that has overrun and overwhelmed our border towns and communities across our state, whose requests for help have gone ignored and unanswered by the Biden Administration. I launched our border busing mission back in April to help our local partners, busing over 5,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. so far. Texas has not bused any migrants to New York.

Instead, it is President Biden who has flown planeloads of migrants to New York. Mayor Adams should address his frustration with migrants to the root cause: Joe Biden.

Sources include:

FoxNews.com

Gov.Texas.gov
(Natural News) New disclosures are demolishing the continued denials of President Biden that he had no knowledge and nothing to do with his sons business interests. The emails (reviewed by Fox and The Daily Mail) include exchanges with at least 14 of Hunter Bidens business associates while Joe Biden was vice president. They cast further doubt on the presidents repeated claims that he had no knowledge of his sons foreign business dealings. In one almost plaintive email, Hunter actually complains to an associate that he had delivered on everything that was demanded of him in getting access to his father and the White House.

(Article republished from JonathanTurley.org)

President Biden and the White House continue to repeat his denial from the campaign trail in 2019: I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings. These denials have continued even after an audiotape surfaced showing President Biden leaving a message for Hunter specifically discussing coverage of those dealings.

Some of us have written for two years that Bidens denial of knowledge is patently false. Indeed, it is baffling how Attorney General Garland can ignore the myriad of references to Joe Biden in refusing to appoint a special counsel.

There are emails of Ukrainian and other foreign clients thanking Hunter Biden for arranging meetings with his father. There are photos from dinners and meetings that tie President Biden to these figures, including a 2015 dinner with a group of Hunter Bidens Russian and Kazakh clients.

People apparently were told to avoid directly referring to President Biden. In one email, Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunters, was instructed by Biden associate James Gilliar not to speak of the former veeps connection to any transactions: Dont mention Joe being involved, its only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.

Instead, the emails apparently refer to President Biden with code names such as Celtic or the big guy. In one, the big guy is discussed as possibly receiving a 10 percent cut on a deal with a Chinese energy firm; other emails reportedly refer to Hunter Biden paying portions of his fathers expenses and taxes.

The new disclosures only add details to the the extent of his knowledge and involvement. It appears that Biden met with at least 14 of Hunters business associates from the U.S., Mexico, Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan over the course of his vice presidency. That includes Hunters Mexican business associates, Miguel Aleman Velasco and Miguel Aleman Magnani who visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014, and Joe was later photographed with Hunter giving Velasco and Magnani a tour of the White House Brady Press Briefing room.

Hunter is clearly eager to get photos as a deliverable for the visits. In one email in April 2014 to David Lienemann, Bidens official photographer, Hunter asks Do you have pictures from the lunch I had in dads office (I think on 2/26) with Miguel Alleman [sic] Sr. And Jr. And Jeff Cooper? If so let me know and I can send someone to pick them up. Thanks. How was Kiev?

Other emails show Hunter using trips with his Dad to arrange meetings with business associates like Magnani. Indeed, in one exchange with Magnani, Hunter complains that he is not getting responses on his business dealings, objecting

I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the Fing White House and the Vice Presidents house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent,. I dont know what it is that I did but Id like to know why Ive delivered on every single thing youve ever asked  and you make me feel like Ive done something to offend you.

The cringeworthy email only adds to the embarrassment not of Hunter Biden but Merrick Garland who continues to refuse the obvious need for a special counsel. Indeed, the public could raise the objection raised by Hunter: what does it take?

Read more at: JonathanTurley.org
(Natural News) Members of the House Intelligence Committee are beginning to speak up about DNA harvesting and its relationship to biological weapon development.

Representative Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a member of the Committee, recently spoke at the Aspen Security Forum. He noted that DNA harvesting is taking place on a mass scale to advance biological weapon development.

There are now weapons under development, and developed, that are designed to target specific people, he said. Thats what this is, where you can actually take someones DNA, take their medical profile, and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable.

DNA surveillance is now commonplace around the world, with no privacy protections

During the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) scandal, populations around the world were manipulated and coerced to give away their DNA using mouth swabs, nasal probes and anal swabs. Today, people routinely give away their DNA to corporations, governments and third parties without question. At-home COVID-19 testing kits are now commonplace. Employers use DNA swabs to harass and discriminate against employees who do not consent to experimental vaccine programs.

In addition, DNA testing services allow consumers to spit in a cup to learn more about their ancestry. These DNA testing companies sell this private health information to third parties, where the information can be used for surveillance or other nefarious purposes.

According to Crow, young people have very little expectation of privacy today.

People will very rapidly spit into a cup and send it to 23andMe and get really interesting data about their background, Crow said. And guess what? Their DNA is now owned by a private company. It can be sold off with very little intellectual property protection or privacy protection.

The Committee discussed the need for new guidelines to protect Americans personal health data, including DNA. Crow warned that private health data is being collected and analyzed to develop biological weapons that target individuals and groups.

The weapons may also target livestock or specific regions of people. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told the Committee that Americas adversaries can also develop bioweapons that target livestock and crops. Theres a number of ways we can look at biological weapons and the need to make sure not only are we securing human beings, but then also the food that will sustain us, Ernst warned.

Bioweapons research taking place across Ukraine, with no oversight

When populations readily give away their DNA samples, third parties can buy up that genetic information or steal it and use it to understand immune system vulnerabilities in a given population.

In 2022, the Russian military uncovered a network of bioweapons research in Ukraine. When Russia first made the allegations at the United National Security Council, U.S. officials tried to conceal their involvement, claiming it was disinformation.

However, the U.S. has since admitted to spending $224 million from 2005 to 2022 to conduct biological research in Ukraine. The Pentagon has funded up to 46 biological research facilities in Ukraine. Now, U.S. officials insist that the research is necessary and is only used for public health purposes.

But this research involves viral, bacterial, human, animal and crop DNA. This information can be analyzed by intelligence agencies and weaponized for militaristic and national defense purposes. Biological research includes information about antibiotic resistance and antibodies to find vulnerabilities in a given population. This information can be used to develop medicines, but it may also be used to suppress treatments, conceal antidotes and/or develop biological weapons that exploit populations of specific regions.

To make matters worse, DNA harvesting could be used to advance gain-of-function virology research to create new predatory vaccines and corresponding pathogens of pandemic potential.

Sources include:

StrangeSounds.org

NaturalNews.com 1

NaturalNews.com 2
(Natural News) Germany has agreed to bail out embattled energy company Uniper with a $15 billion rescue deal. Uniper is Germanys biggest importer of gas, and it has been hit hard by the severe reduction in flows of natural gas from Russian pipelines. This has led to soaring prices in Europes largest economy.

Under the package, the German state will obtain an equity stake of 30 percent in Uniper. Unipers Finnish majority owner, Fortum, released a statement announcing the stabilization package agreement with the government.

Fortum CEO and President Markus Rauramo said: We are living through an unprecedented energy crisis that requires robust measures. After intensive but constructive negotiations, we found a solution that in an acceptable way met the interest of all parties involved.

He added: We were driven by urgency and the need to protect Europes security of supply in a time of war.

Rauramo characterized the events as a new framework for European energy companies resulting from a severe shake-up to the European energy system in light of the new geopolitical realities. He said that further work will be needed in order to make the gas industry sustainable.

The bailout will see Fortums stake in Uniper drop from 80 percent to 56 percent. Fortum added that the German government will provide additional support should Unipers losses from the gas squeeze surpass 9 billion euros.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz highlighted the prominent role Uniper played in the German economy in his announcement of the deal, saying the company is of paramount importance for the economic development of our country, for the energy supply of the individual citizen, but also of many companies.

Europe learning hard lessons about dependence on Russian gas

Gas supplies from Russia to Europe have dropped since the countrys invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions that Western nations have placed on Moscow. Because Uniper only received a fraction of contracted gas volumes from the Russian gas giant Gazprom, it has been forced to buy gas at spot market prices, which are significantly higher.

Germany is considered especially vulnerable to the severe drop in Russian gas imports as the country has long depended on gas from Moscow to power both German homes and heavy industry; Russian gas makes up more than half of the long-term supply contracts held by Uniper.

In the European benchmark for natural gas trading, the Dutch TTF hub, the front-month gas price for natural gas trading on Friday reached 164 per megawatt-hour. Prices have risen by more than 650 percent in the past year.

The move comes after Unipers announcement last week that it was already drawing down gas from its storage facilities, which was compromising the supplies needed to get Germany through the coming long and cold winter. It was an untenable situation, and Uniper said at the time that they needed help in a matter of days, not weeks.

In June, Gazprom slashed gas shipments by 60 percent across the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which provided a direct link for Moscows gas to Germany, over a dispute surrounding returning a turbine from Canada to Russia.

According to a survey carried out by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, one out of every six German and industrial companies has felt forced to reduce their production on account of high energy prices.

The EU has vowed to reduce its consumption of Russian gas by 66 percent before next year, before ending its dependence entirely by 2027. It unveiled an emergency gas rationing plan earlier this month with a target for member states to reduce gas demand by 15 percent between August and next March.

Sources for this article include:

OilPrice.com

CNN.com

CNBC.com
(Natural News) Published reports and other evidence showed that President Joe Biden met with at least 14 business partners of Hunter Biden while he was still vice president under the Obama administration. This contradicts the elder Bidens repeated claims that he didnt meddle with his sons business dealings at the time.

A report by Fox News shed light on the issue, presenting information that the elder Biden met with his sons business associates while serving as vice president. These business partners hailed from countries in Latin America and the former Soviet Union.

The report mentioned businessman and former Mexican senator Miguel Aleman Velasco and his son Miguel Aleman Magnani as among these associates. The father and son duo visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014, which White House visitor logs that time confirmed. Both Bidens were later pictured with the Alemans while touring the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

More than a year later, the Alemans attended a meeting with the Bidens at the vice presidential residence. This time, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Biden family friend Jeff Cooper were also part of the Nov. 29, 2015 meeting. Photos of the meeting were subsequently published by the Daily Mail.

Prior to his meetings with the Alemans and Slim, the elder Biden also met with former Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arago at the vice presidential residence. A March 2, 2012 entry in Hunters personal calendar, obtained by the New York Post, confirmed this meeting. The outlet added that former Rosemont Seneca President Eric Schwerin also joined in the talks.

Later that same day, Hunter scheduled a lunch at Cafe Milano with Pastrana and Juan Esteban Orduz, president of the Colombian Coffee Federation.

Joe also met with Hunters business partners from Ukraine, Russia

The Fox News report also found that the elder Biden met with his sons business partners from the former Soviet Union. According to records from Hunters infamous laptop from hell, the then-vice president attended a dinner on April 16, 2015 at Cafe Milano.

The guest list for the April 2015 dinner included Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma. It also included the late Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his wife Elena Baturina.

Former World Food Program USA President and CEO Rick Leach, who was also invited, confirmed that the then-vice president did show up at the dinner. However, he clarified that the elder Biden did not stay long and that there were no discussions of politics or business.

A day after the dinner, Pozharskyi sent an email to Hunter thanking the latter for inviting him to DC and giving an opportunity to meet [Joe] and [spend] some time together. This aforementioned email was part of the trove of documents obtained by the Post back in October 2020. (Related: Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad.)

Later, Baturinas involvement with Hunter came to light after she wired $3.5 million to a bank account owned by Rosemont Seneca. The amount wired in February 2014 was purportedly part of a consultancy agreement.

Aside from this, Baturina also sent 11 other wires amounting to almost $400,000 to a bank account belonging to technology company BAK USA between May and December 2015. Nine of the 11 wires amounting to $241,797 were initially sent to another Rosemont Seneca account before being transferred to the technology firm.

I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings, the elder Biden said back in 2019. He reiterated this while on the presidential campaign trail in 2020. Two years later, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the same sentiment.

The Fox News analysis disproved those claims by Biden.

Watch Harrison Smith discussing Joe and Hunter Bidens meetings with different business associates.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Matrixxx Grooove: Jeff and Shady talk about Hunter Bidens LAPTOP FROM HELL  Brighteon.TV.

Senate committee to investigate newly released smoking gun Hunter Biden emails.

Hunter Biden had links with questionable personalities during his fathers tenure.

The plot thickens: Hunter Biden investment firm funded Ukraine biolabs.

Secret Service confirms: Travel logs align with Hunter Biden emails.

Sources include:

ThePostMillennial.com

FoxNews.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) More Texas counties are declaring invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border amid historically high illegal immigration and the Biden administrations inaction.

A report by the Texan said the Parker County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to invoke a law declaring that both the U.S. and Texas are under invasion. Citing the significant presence of illegal immigration and drug trafficking, Parker Countys declaration aligned with the use of invasion in both the state and federal constitutions.

Ahead of the vote, Parker County Sheriff Russ Authier told commissioners during a meeting: I think we all know the border is a mess. We see different aspects of it other than our partners who are on the border seeing the human side of the smuggling [and] trafficking of people. A lot of what were seeing here is drug smuggling.

The Atascosa County Commissioners Court also expressed support for declaring an invasion. County Judge Russell Wilson granted their request by signing a declaration that affirmed the border invasion on July 25. The court must vote to approve his declaration, which it is likely to do.

Wilsons declaration stated that the country is facing an imminent threat of disaster for the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration and human trafficking and drug smuggling across the U.S. border from Mexico. He added that the border crisis constitutes an invasion of Texas that calls for extraordinary measures must be taken to ensure the protection, health and safety of county residents.

The Atascosa and Parker counties followed several counties that declared an invasion. These include the counties of Goliad, Edwards, Jeff Davis, Terrell, Presidio, Uvalde and Kinney.

Kinney County Attorney Brett Smith said that with the declarations from Parker and Atascosa counties, the significance of the border crisis cannot be overstated. (Related: Texas border county says it is seeing an invasion, urges Gov. Abbott to acknowledge.)

It clearly establishes that the border crisis impacts every county in the state, and is not limited to those communities near the Rio Grande, he told the Center Square. The safety and security of every Texan is threatened by the federal governments abandonment of its constitutional duty.

Abbott yet to formally declare an invasion

Earlier in July, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an order authorizing the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to apprehend illegal aliens and return them to the border. However, he did not declare an invasion at the time.

While President [Joe] Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the state of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border, he said.

Parker Countys declaration quoted Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the federal government shall protect [every state] against invasion. However, Abbott accused Biden of reneging on this duty.

Given Washington, D.C.s inaction, Article 4, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution  which Parker County cited in its declaration  empowers the governor to protect the state from invasion.

He shall be commander-in-chief of the military forces of the state, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the state, to suppress insurrections and to repel invasions.

Russel Vought and Ken Cuccinelli, both from the Center for Renewing America, said in a statement that Abbotts order brought no significant changes to current policy.

We acknowledge [the governors] recognition that the facts on the ground along the border comport with the Constitutions understanding of an invasion. However, [he] does not appear to formally declare an invasion, nor direct the National Guard and DPS to remove illegals across the border directly to Mexico. That is critical; otherwise, this is still catch and release.

Watch Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb talking about the Texas counties invasion declaration below.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Texas Governor Abbott responds affirmatively to border county petition, invokes invasion powers to deal with illegal alien onslaught.

Migrant invasion of U.S. worsens as 10,000 Haitians crowd under Texas bridge and lawmaker calls on governor for answers.

First busload of ILLEGAL ALIENS from Texas arrives in DC, passengers dropped off near Capitol.

Report: Arizona follows Texas lead and starts busing illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C.

SECOND bus from Texas loaded with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS arrives in Washington, DC.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

TheTexan.news

TheCenterSquare.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Joe Bidens regime has proved once again that Americans are now subjected to a two-tier, politicized system of justice, where the power elite and those connected to the left-wing deep state can get away with just about anything.

Case in point: Bidens Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency that is supposed to enforce laws against illegal stock trades, has just charged a former Republican lawmaker from Indiana with insider trading just days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosis multimillionaire husband, Paul Pelosi, purchased millions in computer chip stocks as his wife was preparing the House to vote on a bill that would have greatly subsidized U.S. chip manufacturing.

According to CNBC:

Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Buyer has been charged with insider trading by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, both offices announced Monday.

Buyer, who left Congress in 2011, is accused of buying more than $1.5 million worth of stock in Sprint and Navigant Consulting based on nonpublic information he received as a consultant after he left office.

Buyer allegedly used seven different accounts to hide the stock purchases. They included accounts he shared with his wife, his son, his cousin, and one that belonged to an unidentified woman who had been romantically linked to Buyer.

His biggest crime appears to be that he is a Republican; he served in Congress from 1993 to 2011, representing Indianas 4th Congressional District, which was previously numbered the states 5th Congressional District.

Prosecutors allege that the former lawmaker in 2018 and 2019 bought more than $1.5 million worth of Sprint and Navigant Consulting stock based on insider information that he obtained while doing some consulting work. Later, he sold the shares after the information became public, according to prosecutors.

Federal authorities claim that Buyer used four different accounts to purchase 112,000 shares in Sprint over one week in 2018. He went on to sell those shares in August of that year after news that Sprint was merging with T-Mobile became public, profiting more than $126,000, the indictment claims.

In 2019, he allegedly bought more than 16,000 shares of Navigant using multiple accounts, and then sold nearly all of them on the same day, after news became public that Navigant would be acquired by Guidehouse, authorities said. The Navigant stock sale netted approximately $223,000 in profit, CNBC added.

Now, its quite possible that Buyer is guilty; thats not really the issue. The point is that Paul Pelosi has made several stock purchases while his wife has controlled the House voting agenda, and the most recent one involved $5 million worth of stock in U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, as a vote loomed on a bill to provide $52 billion in subsidies to chip manufacturers.

After the purchase became public  further adding to suspicions  Paul Pelosi this week sold the same stock and at a loss, according to the New York Post.

Its unclear whether the couple sold their entire stake or just a portion of it. They could still own as much as $6.5 million in Nvidia, according to congresstrading.com, the outlet reported, adding: Meanwhile, the Pelosis still hold a stake in semiconductor company Micron worth as much as $500,000, filings show.

Insider trading? The Post notes further:

The Nvidia selloff is a dramatic reversal for the Pelosis. Paul began snapping up semiconductor stocks in June 2021  the same month the first draft of the bill was introduced. He bought between $2.75 million and $11.5 million over the past year and has been actively trading these shares the entire time the bill has wended its way through Congress.

Just last month as the bill moved towards a vote, now slated for Thursday in the House, Pelosi bought between $1 million and $5 million more in Nvidia shares.

But Pelosi, of course, is a Democrat, and especially during the Biden regime, Democrats are off-limits for being charged with illegal activities.

The fact that Bidens dirtbag son, Hunter Biden, remains a free man is further proof of that.

Sources include:

CNBC.com

NYPost.com
(Natural News) Researchers from Queen Mary University of London put together a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that shows monkeypox, or PridePox, to be a primarily homosexual and bisexual disease that spreads among LGBT males.

The largest PridePox study conducted so far, the paper reveals that 98 percent of all infections are in gay or bisexual men (Related: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] is going out of its way to avoid linking monkeypox to homosexuality).

The study looked at 528 PridePox infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24 of this year at 43 sites in 16 countries. Based on this, researchers concluded that many, but not all, cases have been linked to men who have sex with men.

Another interesting discovery is that 41 percent of homosexual or bisexual men with PridePox also have HIV, another primarily gay disease that we are told got its start back in the 1980s.

The paper does not look at any potential connection between PridePox and Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, even though there is growing speculation that the monkey virus might be an adverse effect of the jab.

Researchers avoid labeling monkeypox as a gay disease to stay politically correct

The fact that most PridePox lesions seem to be occurring near the genitals and anus of male LGBTs may also suggest that this is some kind of new sexually transmitted disease (STD).

It had to start somewhere, of course, but the fact that this particular demographic is bearing the brunt of it following orgies and other deviant behavior following Pride month in June is suspicious.

Queen Mary researchers made sure to throw a politically correct disclaimer in the paper about how PridePox is supposedly not a gay disease, despite everything seeming to point to the fact that it is, in fact, a gay disease.

It can affect anyone, the paper reads. We identified nine heterosexual men with monkeypox. We urge vigilance when examining unusual acute rashes in any person, especially when rashes are combined with systemic symptoms, to avoid missing diagnoses in heterosexual persons.

So far, no public health officials anywhere have dared to make the suggestion that homosexual and bisexual men avoid their deviant behavior in order to stop the spread.

Because LGBTs is a specially protected group, they are not receiving the same treatment that the world incurred after the announcement of the Chinese Virus, which resulted in harsh lockdowns, mask mandates, and other forms of medical fascism and tyranny.

In the comment section at Infowars, one person speculated that this new manifestation of disease among LGBT males might be a fulfillment of Romans 1:27, which reads:

In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Another wrote that because of rampant perversion and abomination throughout the West, many people are now awakening to the fact that if you give evil an inch, it will take a mile.

Abomination parades and the promotion of filth brings wrath, pestilence, disease, and death, this person added.

No society can exist as an atheistic theocracy. No society can survive based on subjective morality that permits or tolerates abomination. Time to recognize that atheistic secularism is not neutral, it is a rebellion against God and is weaponizing government against the religious. Pray for peace, repent, and pray for Gods mercy.

Someone else commented that PridePox is a great example of why parents need to keep their innocent children far, far away from drag queens at libraries, restaurants, parades, and everywhere else they have become an infestation.

The latest news about PridePox can be found at Outbreak.news.

Sources include:

Infowars.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) America First Legal (AFL) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to investigate unconstitutional acts between the federal government and the Big Tech social media platforms. AFL obtained 256 pages of communication between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Google, Facebook and Twitter. These pages document egregious violations of the US Constitution and provide evidence that the Federal Government violated the Nuremberg Code.

AFL President Stephen Miller issued a statement:

These explosive smoking-gun documents, obtained as a result of America First Legals litigation against the Biden Administration, conclusively demonstrate that Big Tech has unlawfully colluded with the federal government to silence, censor, and suppress Americans free speech and violate their First Amendment rights. Government is expressly prohibited from censoring competing or dissenting viewpoints or from silencing its political opponents whether it does so directly or whether it uses an outside corporation to achieve its draconian, totalitarian ends. AFL will not rest in the fight against illegal collusion between Big Tech and Big Government to trample on your voices and the Bill of Rights.

CDC conspired with Big Tech to censor Americans and destroy the informed consent principle

In July 2021, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki revealed that the Biden administration was regularly making sure to identify public health disinformation while working with social media networks to have it removed. And we work to engage with them [Big Tech] to better understand the enforcement of social media platform policies, Psaki proclaimed in July of last year. The Biden regime went public with their censorship goals, targeting twelve sources of information that they claimed were the dirty disinformation dozen. The Biden regime subsequently called on Big Tech to completely remove these individuals from all social media platforms.

According to the latest document release, officials with the CDC and the Biden administration colluded with content moderation teams at Google, Twitter and Facebook to block US citizens from receiving the most basic level of informed consent about the emergency use covid-19 vaccines. The US government not only violated the free speech clause of the US Constitution, but they also conspired to withhold relevant medical information in the informed consent process, violating basic medical ethics on a grand scale.

US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendment 1:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Nuremberg Code, First Principle:

The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision

Biden regime, CDC used Big Tech to force destructive, deadly experiments onto global population

The CDC documents detail regular communications between the federal government and the three biggest social media platforms. These included regular be on the lookout meetings to identify information that conflicted with the CDCs VAX-all agenda. Federal officials provided examples of posts that should be flagged and posts that should be censored entirely.

On top of all the censorship, Facebook elevated government and pharmaceutical propaganda by gifting the CDC $15 million-worth of ad credits. These ad credits were used to promote social distancing, travel restrictions and vaccine uptake while hiding relevant information on the covid-19 vaccines. The CDC also established a list of verifiable information sources with Facebook to protect social media posts released by the State Department of Health.

At Twitter, employees arranged regular chats with CDC officials and warned Facebook officials that their algorithms were not doing a good enough job at eliminating vaccine misinformation. Twitter officials reached out to the CDC and asked for help to identify misinformation that should be censored off the platform. CDC officials sent Twitter officials an official chart detailing the tweets that they wanted to target as misinformation. The CDC targeted and eliminated specific information on vaccine injury, vaccine shedding, miscarriage risk, menstrual cycle disruption, and information on genetic alterations caused by the vaccine.

At Google, CDC officials went as far as editing Googles code for its Knowledgebase. These edits were focused on promoting isolation, mask and vaccine use. CDC officials told Google to use the SEARCH engine itself to promote the CDCs vaccine page. The CDC also utilized Googles signal boost to promote similar propaganda coming from the World Health Organization and to promote comprehensive global training on tracking, analyzing and addressing misinformation.

CDC officials did not want to get caught colluding with social media. In the emails, CDC officials instructed Twitter employees not to share their directives. Please do not share outside your trust and safety teams, the CDC officials wrote. The CDC has tried to bury important information about the COVID vaccines  information that is essential to the informed consent process. As AFL brings these crimes up in court, its time for each and every individual involved in this deceitful, unconstitutional process to be held accountable and brought forth to stand trial.

Sources include:

ReclaimtheNet.org

NaturalNews.com

USHMM.org

NaturalNews.com

AFL.org

Docs.ReclaimtheNet.org [PDF]
(Natural News) Sen. Charles Grassley has what he describes as current and former highly credible whistleblowers who revealed that the Hunter Biden case was deliberately sabotaged.

(Article republished from en-Volve.com)

The FBI improperly sought to discredit it by labeling verified and verifiable derogatory information about the presidents son as disinformation.

That label meant the probe was brought to a halt.

If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are  and have been  institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law, wrote Mr. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Nothing from the DOJ or FBI as of yet.

In May, Mr. Grassley requested the Justice Department inspector general open an investigation into Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault and others. They led the FBIs Hunter Biden probe in 2020 when Hunters father, now Joe Biden, was running for the White House.

Mr. Thibault has come under fire for alleged partisan social media posts, including retweeting Lincoln Project posts and other anti-Trump groups and slamming Republicans. He has since hidden his social media content from public view.

In his letter, Mr. Grassley wrote that the whistleblowers told him that the Justice Department and FBI are required to follow strict guidelines to open an investigation and alleged that Mr. Thibault did not follow those guidelines.

According to the senator, Thibault shut down a line of inquiry into Hunter Biden in October 2020 because it was false information, even though some of the details were known to be accurate at the time.

They sabotaged a legitimate criminal case.

All of the reporting (in the case) was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants, he wrote, adding Mr. Thibault ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required.

NEW: Multiple highly credible FBI whistleblowers have come forward to senior Senate Republican @ChuckGrassley alleging widespread effort to downplay or discredit negative information about the President s son Hunter Biden, according to letters @CBSNews https://t.co/hw5kGiTFVv pic.twitter.com/xAgMcpdXMu  Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) July 26, 2022

Read more at: en-Volve.com
Due to the harms that domestic cats inflict on birds and other animals, a fairly reputable Polish scientific institute has labeled them "invasive alien species."

Mixed Reaction

This month's decision has elicited strong emotional responses from some cat lovers, who have put the lead scientist behind it on the defense.

When Wojciech Solarz placed "Felis catus," the scientific term for the common house cat, into a national database administered by the academy's Institute of Nature Conservation, he was unprepared for the negative public reaction. Solarz is a biologist at the state-owned Polish Academy of Sciences.

Also Read: Invasive Mouse Threatens Albatross Population

Already Considered as Invasive

According to Solarz, 1,786 additional species were previously included in the database with no concerns, he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He said that some media accounts that gave the misleading impression that his institution was advocating the euthanasia of feral and other cats were to blame for the outcry over invasive alien species No. 1,787.

Given the quantity of birds and animals that domestic cats pursue and kill, there is a growing body of scientific evidence, according to Solarz, indicating they hurt biodiversity.

He claimed that the cat "completely meets" the requirements for inclusion as an alien invasive species.

Debating the Environmental Impact

The scientist and a veterinarian debated Solarz's assessment of the risks cats cause to animals last week in a televised segment carried by independent channel TVN.

Dorota Suminska, the author of "The Happy Cat," mentioned other factors contributing to the decline in biodiversity, such as environmental pollution and urban building facades that can kill birds in flight.

Asserting that cats were unfairly given too much responsibility, Suminska added, "Ask if a man is on the list of non-invasive alien animals."

In response, Solarz said that cats in Poland kill 140 million birds annually.

The Polish Academy institute posted an article on its website earlier this month mentioning the "controversy" and attempting to explain its viewpoint. The institution maintained that its categorization was in accordance with European Union regulations and emphasized that it was "opposed to any cruelty towards animals."

Keeping Eye on Pet Cats

According to the institution, "Felis catus" is a species foreign to Europe from a purely scientific perspective since it was tamed in the ancient Middle East, where the great civilizations of antiquity originated, possibly approximately 10,000 years ago.

The institute made clear that it was only advising cat owners to keep their cats indoors when birds are reproducing.

Solarz stated, "I have a dog, but I don't have anything against cats.

Why are invasive species harmful?

Cats and other invasive species frequently have disastrous effects when they upset the delicate balance of species that have coexisted for millions of years.

As of 1999, the United States alone had more than 4,000 invasive species-typically imported species that did not develop in a specific location. The presence of invasive plants and animals may easily upset the delicate balance of nature that gave rise to rare species like the Marvelous Spatuletail of Peru and the Maui Parrotbill of Hawaii.

Invasive species can impair human health and cause significant economic losses by competing with native species, spreading illnesses, or even eradicating native species. The effects of invasive species worsen as humans continue to split habitats.

Related Article: Urban Felines: How Big Cats Managed to Survive in Big Cities

For more updates about the latest animal news, don't forget to follow Nature World News
In Nepal, tigers have almost tripled, but at what cost? Currently, the nation is home to 355 tigers, but some claim that the emphasis on conservation has endangered the tigers' human neighbors.

Tiger Conservation

The world's leader in tiger conservation is now Nepal.

Today, the nation revealed that it had 355 threatened animals within its borders, nearly triple its estimated 2009 tiger population of 121.

All 13 nations with tigers in the wild committed to double their tiger populations at the Global Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2010. Nepal has only accomplished it.

According to Abishek Harihar, the deputy director of the tiger program at the wildcat conservation organization Panthera, which recently supported Nepal's efforts to survey its Bengal tiger population, the success of the nation is mainly attributable to "strong government buy-in" for tiger conservation and the enforcement of strict anti-poaching policies.

Panthera reported that more than 100,000 tigers inhabited the earth at the beginning of the 20th century, but habitat destruction wiped off more than 90% of their range. Tiger populations were also significantly decreased by trophy hunting and poaching for their skins and bones, which were used in China and other parts of Asia to manufacture goods like tiger bone "wine," a traditional concoction some think can give the drinker the animal's vigor. No tigers live in the wild now in southern China, Laos, Cambodia, or Vietnam.

Harihar said that the penalty for tiger poaching in Nepal is 15 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Also Read: Urban Felines: How Big Cats Managed to Survive in Big Cities

Tiger Attacks

Most of Nepal's tigers are housed in five national parks constructed since the 1970s. Army officers and park employees monitor them extensively. Other vulnerable species, including pangolins, rhinos, and elephants, have also benefited from tiger safeguards.

Some of Nepal's increased numbers of tigers can be attributed to improved sampling techniques like camera traps. According to Harihar, there has also been a noticeable increase in the number of tigers born. While India, Bhutan, and Thailand have all made progress in recent years, he asserts that Nepal has come the closest to its tiger goals of all the nations.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world's foremost expert on the status of endangered species, declared earlier this month that tiger populations are "stable or increasing" globally. Its most recent count indicates between 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers-a 40% increase from the 2015 estimate. IUCN observed that increased monitoring was mostly responsible for the improvement rather than an increase in the number of threatened species.

Although some opponents claim that the emphasis on tiger expansion is at odds with community safety, Nepal's tiger growth has not come without a price. In recent years, tiger assaults on residents close to tiger habitat have risen, as has livestock predation, endangering livelihoods. According to Kumar Paudel, the director of Kathmandu-based group Greenhood Nepal, "government organizations and environmentalists haven't thought enough about how to keep people safe in those villages."

He declares, "I'm happy to see the tiger numbers, but the price of this conservation is terrible.

Babu Ram Lamichhane, a scientist with the National Trust of Nature Conservation in Nepal, said that between July 2021 and July 2022, tigers murdered 16 humans in Chitwan National Park, the big cat's primary habitat. He claims that, in contrast, there were ten assaults (and associated fatalities) in the park during the preceding five years combined.

While she was gathering firewood in the Bardiya district, near one of the major regions of tiger habitat, a tiger attacked and wounded a 41-year-old lady. According to The Kathmandu Post, the event enraged the neighborhood, and protesters stopped the major route to demand improved animal protection. Security personnel used tear gas shells and live ammunition to scatter the demonstrators, resulting in several injuries and one fatality.

Endangering Human Lives

According to research by Lamichhane's team, tigers that attack or murder humans are frequently physically weak or without territory-they are distressed animals hunting for quick meat. He claims that higher tiger concentrations lead certain cats to look for territory in outlying locations where they are more likely to come into contact with people.

He adds that timely control, such as the tiger's euthanasia, and better surveillance of these animals may help decrease assaults. He also argues against moving felines who have attacked humans in the past because doing so puts them in danger of doing so again.

According to Kanchan Thapa, the country's head of wildlife programs for the World Wildlife Fund-Nepal, most people living close to national parks still rely on the forest for everyday necessities, such as wood for fire. Accordingly, he contends that the government and other conservation partners should concentrate on giving these people alternatives to subsistence farming.

Possible Coexistence

With the disclosure of the updated world population figures, the IUCN called on nations to keep growing and linking protected areas and recommended increased cooperation with local groups residing in and around tiger habitats.

According to Paudel, the connection between humans and tigers is the main issue. Governments must "think about the social cost of conservation and how we can all share it."

Related Article: How to Behave Around Wildlife: Important Tips for Travelers

For more updates about the latest animal news, don't forget to follow Nature World News
Can the regrowth of mangroves shield Miami from sea level rise? Mangrove-lined living shorelines can reduce floods, stabilize beaches, and cost landowners less money.

Also Read: Experts Question the Reliability of Blue Carbon in Restoring Coastal Vegetation

Protecting Florida

This Florida island, which was more of a marshy sandspit than a piece of land at the turn of the century, was covered with mangroves. Mangroves were mostly recognized as the homes of alligators, other reptiles, and blizzards of mosquitoes due to their gnarled roots standing knee-deep in tidal waters. And by 1915, they had vanished. One of Miami Beach's founders, Carl Fisher, had stripped the island naked as his first move in transforming it into the legendary vacation destination it is today.

The future as seen by city leaders in the twenty-first century is different: they envision a resilient Miami Beach at the forefront of climate change, adjusting to rising seas and worsening storms by installing enormous pumps, elevating streets, and, yes, reintroducing the humble mangrove, which acts as nature's storm tide buffer. To establish a "living coastline" along the same length where mangroves were cleared out a century ago, volunteers will plant 680 mangrove trees in the largest park in the city next week.

Although mangroves were once thought to be doomed to extinction, their benefits to the environment today are practically unmatched. Even after Miami-Dade County recently rejected an Army Corps of Engineers proposal to build a substantial seawall, they are still difficult to sell here. According to the argument, the county did not present a substitute design because mangroves would obstruct the view.

Even though the trees are typically not very tall, they have dirty, gangly limbs. And let's not forget the mosquitoes.

According to Lisa Spadafina, assistant director of the Miami-Dade division of natural resources, "I don't believe people often think of mangrove shorelines as the desired approach to stabilize their homes."

However, it is generally known that mangrove forests may act as a shock absorber for hurricane-force winds and tidal surges. According to a 2020 study published in Scientific Reports, mangroves protect 15 million people worldwide from dangerous severe storms and prevent $65 billion in property damages. In 2004, one of the worst tsunamis in recorded history blasted over the Indian Ocean, demonstrating their importance. Mangroves protected Indian and Malaysian villages, reducing damage and fatalities. The Indian government outlawed the clearing of mangroves in 2005.

Mangroves, even in tiny stands, may protect coasts from erosion and purify contaminated water of poisons. The food, shade, shelter from predators, tidal surges, and heat that mangroves offer also serve as a nursery for birds, fish, crustaceans, and even sharks. In addition, mangroves store much more carbon emissions than terrestrial forests-up to five times more acres.

Mangrove Seedlings

The arrival of the new mangrove seedlings at Miami Beach's Brittany Bay Park would seem to make them the main actors in the $1.8 million renovation of the waterfront park. To support efforts to combat flooding, the living shoreline there will combine natural elements (mangroves) with man-made features (a barrier) as South Florida confronts the possibility of a two-foot sea rise by the middle of the century.

Sea Level Rise

The resilience officer for Miami Beach, Amy Knowles, points off some of the city's raised streets and enormous pumps as she takes a recent morning stroll. "As sea levels rise, building up a living coastline is simpler than reconstructing a whole new bulwark." Is it the first line of defense? It's a piece of our complete toolkit of choices.

However, the city is constrained in what it can do. Its 55 miles of shoreline are wholly privately owned, except for five.

Related Article: Mangrove in the Desert: Thriving Effort to Combat Climate Change

For more environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
JACKSON, KY - JULY 29: Flooding in downtown Jackson, Kentucky on July 29, 2022 in Breathitt County, Kentucky. At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds had to be rescued amid flooding from heavy rainfall. (Photo : Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

After devastating floods in Kentucky, a number of 16 individuals have died, notably youngsters, and the casualty count is likely to grow a much worse, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated Friday.

Beshear spoke at a media briefing Friday morning that an enormous total of folks were unaccounted, as searchers tried to penetrate difficult-to-reach places.

The Devastating Kentucky Flood

The county executive informed CNN's Wolf Blitzer Friday night that the authoritative national casualty count may possibly quadruple if extra details from state and local officials arrives.

Owing to the devastated facilities, obtaining an accurate count of persons who are lost or were dead has been challenging. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stated Friday that a bunch of folks are still missing as a result of the disastrous floodwaters. Authorities claim how committed they are to do everything they can to recover everybody else, while not naming any of the unaccounted individuals.

On Friday, Beshear surveyed the destruction via aircraft, calling it the heaviest disaster he's witnessed after taking power. Beshear announced Friday afternoon that he had heard about the finding of four children's remains, but added that they did not receive a formal report at this time as they need to be validated by the Department of Public Health, as per ABC News update.

On Thursday, Beshear labeled the severe flooding one of the worst, most disastrous in the government's record, predicting that it will be one of the bloodiest in Kentucky in a rather lot longer.

Depression struck Kentucky late Wednesday, dumping 2 to 5 inches of precipitation on the county. As per the governor, Kentucky is dealing with washed-out highways, ruined houses, and inundated institutions.

It is expected that thousands of citizens to evacuate their houses. While over 294 individuals have been saved from flooding in eastern Kentucky as of now, and that figure is expected to grow, according to Beshear.

According to CBS News, just under eight months ago, a succession of storms blasted across Kentucky, resulting in the deaths 74 individuals. Mayfield, in southeastern Kentucky, was one of the most damaged places. Authorities there are likewise aiding with flooding recovery operations in the country's east.

Also read: Miners from Angola Discover the Largest Pink Diamond Ever in 300 Years

15 Deaths or More Due to Flooding in Kentucky

Precipitation is anticipated to resume to Kentucky Sunday Evening until the initial of coming week, however not in major amounts. Although precipitation tallies are not projected to be as significant, inundation persists a risk owing to soft soil.

President Joe Biden has signed a flood warning and is gathering briefings quite often, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

The officials also expressed their sympathies to grieve for the relatives of those who have died or simply disappeared, as well as for all others who were affected. Moreover, the administration did not release a new strain on Friday afternoon, stating that authorities were currently gathering information from community chiefs.

In recent report from Reuters, numerous fatalities are being disclosed, according to Beshear, since they must be validated by the ministry of health prior being announced.

According to the head of state, at least 6 youngsters were proven killed following the remains of four lost children in Knott County were discovered.

Brandi Smith, the children's aunt, informed CNN on Friday that the four youngsters were related. Smith, the children's mother's sister, named the 4 kids as Chance who's 2, Nevaeh, 4 years old, Riley Jr., aged 6, and Madison, who turned 8.

Throughout the flooding, the family's vacation home was immediately swamped with rainwater, forcing the household to take cover on the rooftop, as per Smith, who heard of the tragic deaths from the children's mother, USA Today covered.

Related article: Potentially Deadly Bacterium Detected in U.S. Soil and Water Samples
Wildlife experts were taken aback when a loggerhead turtle on a Spanish beach coast laid an astounding 131 eggs in a single clutch.

Turtle experts and volunteers assisted the turtle in giving laying eggs in the shallow nest she had dug on Les Ortigues beach in Guardamar del Segura, in southern Valencia, as seen in video footage of the historic birth. The turtle had been fitted with a GPS transmitter before birth.

The loggerhead turtle is then brought back to the sea, obviously exhausted. As she enters the water, a happy crowd applauds her as she navigates the surf.

According to Valencia Mayor Jose Luis Saez, the turtle, which has a GPS satellite transmitter attached so that experts can monitor it, dug a small nest before laying a record-breaking 131 eggs.

The turtle was examined by experts before being returned to the sea, according to Saez, who added that the video was taken by a local municipal employee.

78 x 71 centimeters, or about 30.7 inches by 27.9 inches, or a loggerhead turtle with 131 eggs was discovered this morning on Les Ortigues beach in Guardamar, according to Saez, who said the incident happened on Tuesday morning.

Katherine the Loggerhead Turtle

The specimen, Saez continued, was partially covered in sand. Specialists from L'Oceanografic together with experts from the University of Valencia have attached a GPS locator to it. Similar to that, a review was conducted, and the results showed that it was in excellent health.

It will likely start laying eggs again in about 15 days, according to an ultrasound that the experts performed. This egg-laying occurrence is the biggest the Valencian Community has ever seen.

According to Saez, she was put back in the water at 2:30 PM and given the name "Katherine" in honor of a promising young American marine biologist who passed away recently.

L'Oceanografic

To incubate the 131 eggs and produce as many hatchlings as possible, they have been transported to L'Oceanografic.

In Valencia, there is an oceanarium called L'Oceanografic. It claims to be the biggest aquarium in Europe and has a capacity of up to 45,000 living things from 500 various species, Newsweek reports.

Read also: Leatherback Turtles: Hatchlings the Roam the Shores

Loggerhead Turtles

On the Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are classified as vulnerable.

The primary threats to their survival are plastic pollution, human-made fishing gear, human habitat destruction, and encroachment, as well as artificial lighting systems that deter them from nesting and make it difficult for their young to find their way to the water's edge.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the large heads of loggerhead turtles support strong jaw muscles that enable them to grind hard-shelled prey such as sea urchins and clams. Particularly in comparison to other sea turtles, they are far less likely to be killed for their meat or shell. Because loggerhead turtles frequently interact with fisheries, bycatch, or the unintentional capture of sea creatures in fishing equipment, is a significant issue for them.

Related article: Loggerhead Sea Turtle Hit and Killed by a Car, But 70 Eggs Saved by Researchers
Two men were sucked into a sinkhole that appeared in the middle of a swimming pool at a gathering in Israel. Both one death and one injury were the results of the incident.

According to The Times of Israel, it took rescue efforts four hours to extract the man's body from the 43-foot-deep sinkhole on July 21. Klil Kimhi, 32, was later identified, but it is still unclear as to the cause of death. Investigations are underway to determine whether he was crushed to death, drowned, or perished in the fall.

In a video shared on social media, the pool floor in a private residence in Karmei Yosef, central Israel, is seen collapsing and buckling inwards, suckling in most of the pool water in a matter of seconds. Two men were dragged into the sinkhole by a vortex that swept them up.

One of the men, age 34, was able to escape, but Kimhi was later discovered dead. There were six people in the pool at the time, but all of them were unharmed.

Sinkholes

As stated by the U.S. Geological Survey, while sinkholes can form in a variety of ways, they typically happen when the ground beneath the surface of the land crumbles into the groundwater. It is then washed away, leaving an open cavern with only a thin layer of ground covering it.

In regions with limestone, carbonate, or salt bed-derived rocks, sinkholes are common. construction techniques and groundwater pumping can alter the natural ground structure and water drainage patterns, which can lead to the formation of sinkholes.

The sinkhole becomes more dramatic as the chasm below the land surface grows; occasionally, entire cars or even entire houses can fall into the ground when the thin layer of surface eventually gives way. The states in the United States that suffer the most damage from sinkholes are Florida, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

In Dover, Florida, in 2010, during a single freeze event, more than 100 sinkholes developed because farmers irrigated their crops exceedingly to protect them from the cold, which caused the groundwater levels to drop noticeably. The sinkholes obliterated houses, roads, and cultivated land in its entirety.

Read also: Cave Explorers Discover Thriving Ancient Forest in 600-Feet Sinkhole

Swimming Pool Sinkhole

As they searched for the missing man in Israel, search crews constructed a support structure to keep the swimming pool floor from further collapsing onto the crew. The fact that there might have been additional tunnels connected to the primary sinkhole culvert that could have collapsed as well and put the rescue teams in danger complicated the search.

One man has been injured and another is missing after a sinkhole opened up in a inground pool at a home in central Israel.



The incident occurred during a pool party." pic.twitter.com/S9cByAFebx  natureismetal (@NIMactual) July 21, 2022

Police in Israel has announced that they are investigating the death and will look into the licensing procedures related to the pool's construction. The owner of the residence has reportedly been questioned by local police on charges of negligent manslaughter. It stated that the owner did not request a permit before constructing the pool, Newsweek reports.

Related article: New York City Came Into a Standstill as Sinkholes Swallow Van, Halt Transportation Following Torrential Rain
An enormous piece of SpaceX Dragon debris seems to have fallen from the sky and touched down on a sheep farm in Australia.

According to ABC Australia, on July 9 residents in the Snowy Mountains, southern New South Wales heard a bang. It could be heard for miles and by people in Albury, Wagga Wagga, and Canberra.

When a space rocket is launched, pieces of the vehicle frequently separate from the main payload and fall back to Earth. When they contact the air, the majority of these fragments burn up. Larger fragments that survive the atmosphere typically fall into the ocean, which covers two-thirds of the planet's surface. But sometimes they do manage to crash on land.

Sheep Farm and Its Neighboring Lot

Then, on July 25, sheep farmer Mick Miners discovered a strange, burned material on his ranch, south of Jindabyne. Miners acknowledged that he did not know what to think and that he didn't know what it was.

A 10-foot-long piece of charred metal was wedged into the ground in a remote area of Miners' sheep paddock.

Miners was not the only one affected by the debris fallout. Jock Wallace, his neighbor, also discovered some peculiar debris nearby.

Wallace claimed he was not aware of the bang, although his daughters reported that it was extremely loud. The fact that the wreckage has just fallen from the sky worries him. He expressed extreme worry that the debris would cause a terrible mess if it fell on a house.

The charred debris from the space rocket had serial numbers on them that were noted by authorities.

Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist from the Australian National University College of Science, explained that The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft's trunk section is most likely where the debris came from. The wreckage may have fallen as the spacecraft reentered the Earth's atmosphere after its 2020 launch.

Read also: Why SpaceX is Sending Ants and Avocados to Space Stations Aboard Dragon

Supposedly for the Ocean

According to Tucker, the bang that was heard all over was probably caused by space debris.

Although the plane was supposed to drop in the Pacific Ocean, landing locations are not always predictable.

When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, the empty portion is discarded to reduce weight and falls to Earth.

The discovery in Jindabyne is exceptionally rare because, according to NASA, there is very little chance that space debris will strike a populated area. According to NASA, the likelihood of being struck by debris is approximately 1 in 3,200.

However, that risk is rising as a result of the rise in rocket launches. There is a one in ten chance that over the next ten years, at least one person will be hit by falling space debris resulting in death, according to research that was published in Nature Astronomy on July 11, Newsweek reports.

How About the Sheep?

Meanwhile, there are no updates about whether the debris from SpaceX Dragon caused any injuries, to either the sheep or the residents in the area.

Related article: SpaceX Rocket Fumes are Hazardous to Both Humans and the Climate: Scientists Issue Warning
As the most severe heatwave causes temperatures in the Pacific Northwest to reach 102 degrees, cooling centers begin to open.

The June 2021 heat wave set all-time highs, but this week's heat had more persistence, baking the area for five to seven days in temperatures above average.

The Pacific Northwest experienced its worst heat wave since the deadly 2021 heat wave, which broke records in the area. This one occurred during the week of July 24.

Triple-Digit Temperatures

Monday marked the start of the region's heat wave, with temperatures reaching the upper 100s in places east of the Cascades, including Medford, Oregon, which peaked at 107 degrees. According to the US drought monitor, the city of Pendleton in northeastern Oregon reached 102 degrees, exacerbating an already parched region of the state that is in some places experiencing an extreme drought.

The region may experience issues later on, such as intensifying drought conditions, as a result of the region's increasing dryness, which contributed to the heat wave. Rather than wasting time and energy on dissipating moisture from the soil, the dry ground allows the extreme July sunshine to heat the air more quickly. This can help raise temperatures during a time of year that is already warm by up to 20 degrees.

As so many daily high records were broken in Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, it became clear that it would be a hotter day overall for the Pacific Northwest. One of those locations was the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington, which on Tuesday recorded a high of 94 degrees, breaking the previous daily record high by 2 degrees.

Further south, Olympia also set a new daily high with a temperature of 97 degrees. Tuesday saw temperatures in other parts of Washington go over 100, with some places, like Dallasport, Washington, going over 110. The city of Ellensburg, which is 90 miles from Seattle, set a new daily high record on Tuesday when the temperature topped 103.

To ensure that more resources were made available even with the heat on Tuesday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency in 25 counties as a result of the extreme heat that spread south and affected much of the state.

In a press release, Brown emphasized how important it is for all levels of government to have the resources necessary to support keeping Oregonians safe and healthy.

Tuesday's temperature in Portland, Oregon, was 102 degrees, breaking the past daily record by 2 degrees. The heat in Portland as well as other areas of the Pacific Northwest persisted for the majority of the week, but a little relief Wednesday and Thursday kept temperatures a little bit lower.

Read also: Severe Weather with Possible Isolated Tornadoes and Storm Looms Over NYC for Two Days, Ending Heatwave

Temporary Relief from a Patch of Clouds

On Wednesday, patchy high clouds caused by some fringe moisture from the North American Monsoon over the Southwest moved further north. The clouds provided a small amount of relief as some locations experienced a slight drop in temperature from Tuesday.

Cloud cover provided relief, keeping temperatures in Portland, Oregon, below 100, and Seattle just above 90, keeping these locations away from record high temperatures.

The solace was momentary, though, as daily record highs were once more broken on Thursday and Friday. Once again, Medford experienced some of the hottest temperatures of the week, with a Friday high of 115 degrees. This not only broke the past daily record of 109 degrees set in 2009 but also tied the city's all-time high-temperature record. This was also the city's sixth straight day with temperatures in the triple digits, and at least one more day is likely to have high temperatures this weekend.

As compared to last year's record-breaking heat, the current heat wave persisted longer in many Pacific coast locations. Even though temperatures didn't reach last year's record-breaking heights, residents of coastal areas had to endure five to seven days of oppressive heat before relief arrived.

Hazardous Heat and Cooling Centers

People with respiratory issues, the elderly, young children, and those who are homeless may experience serious problems due to the prolonged heat, particularly along the shoreline where there are very few air-conditioned houses than the national average.

In the Pacific Northwest, cooling centers have been of great assistance to those without air conditioning, Accuweather reports.

Related article: Heatwaves in Europe Drastically Affects Crop Production
Around 100 bottlenose dolphins have died amid new Faroe Island dolphin hunting that occurred on Friday, July 29.

The sea turned red as Faroe islanders reportedly stabbed dolphins to death using a variety of blunt objects like hooks, knives, and spears.

Some of the marine animals also suffocated on shore while grasping for oxygen after a number of inhabitants in Faroe Islands lined them up waiting to be butchered.

A footage of the display was made available in the days after the perceived gruesome event.

However, the locals claimed it is part of their tradition.

The incident also sparked fresh outrage on social media, particularly after details of the slaughter emerged over the weekend.

While deemed by residents to be normal, some wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists are denouncing the practice, which has been ongoing for several centuries already.

Due to its cultural roots, the Faroese authorities, since the 1940s, have only regulated the dolphin hunting activity, instead of completely banning them.

The European island country is part of Denmark but is a self-governing entity situated in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Norway.

100 Bottlenose Dolphins Killed

A shocking footage, initially taken by the non-profit wildlife conservation organization Sea Shepherd UK, of the dolphin killings was uploaded by the Independent on Saturday, July 30.

The recording is in addition to the myriad of videos posted online, showing the mammals were lined up in a pier.

The UK-based media outlet said that a conservationist is claiming that the latest incident signals the world that the hunters are ignoring the opinion of other citizens of Faroe Islands or the international community.

Meanwhile, the conservation group estimated that the animal victims included 98 adults, including an unborn dolphin baby and a young calf.

The recent dolphin killings came several weeks after local authorities reduced the maximum number of dolphins that can be killed to 500 each year.

In September 2021, the largest number of fatalities linked to the event occurred when approximately 1,400 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were killed.

This echoed to the international community, especially in the United Kingdom.

Also Read: Faroe Islands Hunting Season Commence with 60 Pilot Whales Slaughter

Faroe Islands Dolphin Hunt

In particular, the incident occurred in Skalafjorour where the dolphins were dragged into its bay.

It is also the same site where the September 2021 Faroe dolphin hunt transpired, according to the Daily Mail.

The UK newspaper also cited the sentiment of the conservation group, The Blue Planet Society, after it condemned the dolphin mass killings via social media, as well as posted photos of it.

According to Only One, Inc., a US-based non-profit organization, the so-called annual pilot whale hunt, or sometimes referred to as "The Grind," have been questioned by both locals and health experts.

The skepticism towards the practice is reportedly based on decades of research that shows eating dolphin and pilot whale meat has health consequences, including the presence of mercury levels stored in the fats of the marine animals.

Related Article: Faroe Islands Faces Backlash as 500 Dolphins Set to be Slaughtered
Your best Summit starts right here, at registration, where NCSL staff and Colorado volunteers are on hand to answer questions and help you get the most from your visit to Denver.

By Mark Wolf | Aug. 1, 2022 | State Legislatures News | Print

NCSLs Legislative Summit is policy. And its leadership, teamwork, training and recognition. Its networking and socializing.

Take it from the boss: NCSL is thrilled to be hosting our 47th Legislative Summit in the Mile High Cityand that its back to our normal turnout with over 4,700 legislators, legislative staff and others expected to attend, Tim Storey, NCSLs CEO and podcaster, says.

The NCSL Summit is the largest gathering of public policy geeks in the United States each year. It brings together state lawmakers, staff, international parliamentarians, government officials, government relations professionals and many others to share solutions to the problems facing the states and the nation. They learn from each other and take home innovative ideas to strengthen their states and the legislative institutions they serve.

The NCSL Summit is the largest gathering of public policy geeks in the United States each year. Tim Storey, NCSLs CEO

The Summit, which spent the pandemic buffing up for its muscular return, kicks off today and runs through Wednesday at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.

From the front-line policymakers to the behind-the-scenes staffers and experts of all stripes, the Summit packs innovative ideas into dozens of sessions.

And stick around to the end: Theres dancing.

Out and About in Denver Let NCSLs staffers be your guide to the Mile High Citys diversions, whether you want to find a souvenir to take home, have a meal or just soak up some Colorado sunshine. Read More

Policy on Tap

Remember when your dad would hit a pothole and mutter, This would be a good place for a road? Find out where those roads, bridges and other transit projects are being built with funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Federal transportation and environment officials have the latest news.

Want insight and inspiration from tough competitors? We have Missy Franklin, winner of four individual Olympic gold medals in swimming, addressing the Salute to Legislative Staff and adventure racing world champion Robyn Benincasa speaking to Mondays opening session. Clint Hurdle, who managed the Colorado Rockies to a berth in the World Series, will talk about how to get your goals around third and across the plate.

What would Summit be without elections and redistrictingespecially this year? Charlie Cook, venerable political analyst and founder of the Cook Political Report, offers insight and analysis for the coming midterms. And we have sessions on ensuring election accuracy and two leading election attorneys talking about the independent state legislatures theory and how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act comes into play in both redistricting and elections.

That box of Chocolate Cheerios costs how much? Nick Sly, economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, dives into the state of the U.S. economy and what could be on the horizon for the states. Another session deals with how supply chain issues have affected state purchasing practices.

In The Resilient Legislature, a first-of-its-kind panel of staffers discusses the ways remote voting, remote work, social distancing on the floor and other issues affected the legislature during the pandemic and what those challenges could mean going forward.

New Voices

Some of those kids you told to get off your lawn wound up winning seats in state legislatures. Several of them will talk about their experience as rookie lawmakers.

Women have risen to a historic high of 30% of legislators. You can learn about their journeys in the session Turning Smart People into Smart Teamsincluding the Missouri senators who celebrate their story in a new children's book, You Can, Too. And in another session, Lessons in Leadership: Women in the C-Suite, female CEOs share their stories and explore intersections with political leadership in a discussion with a policymaker who was named a top woman in business by the Colorado Womens Chamber of Commerce.

The session Essential But Unequal: The Pandemics Toll on Working Women examines why, with much of the workforce recovered, over 1 million jobs held by womenmost considered essentialhave yet to return, and the economic and mental health challenges women face.

Walking the social media tightrope has never been trickier. How do you engage? How do you make sure it stays civil? In How to Connect with Constituents, a panel of lawmakers and staffers helps you map your way to success while avoiding potential pitfalls.

You mean real cops dont solve every cold case in an hour like they do on CSI? In Cracking a Cold Case, an expert in genome sequencing and a Denver police officer who just solved a 40-year-old case discuss the latest methods.

And So Much MoreWith Fireworks!

Storytelling, investing in education, the future of child welfare, the costs of college, closing the digital divide, the census undercounts, the effects of incarceration on job-huntersyou can find all of it and more at this years Summit.

Among the timeliest sessions is Supreme Court Center Stage, in which the courts historic 2021-22 term is dissected and analyzed by a pair of lawyers who each clerked for a sitting justice.

NASA has a lunar launch date later this month with mannequins, but we have a real-life astronaut at Summit. Matthew Dominick, product of DEvelyn High School in suburban Denver, gives us an insiders look at the Artemis Project, the space agencys planned return to the moon in 2024. Hes joined in the closing session by Shark Tank host Kevin OLeary, who offers insights about growing an idea and negotiating for success.

Cant make it to Denver? We will stream 10 sessions you can enjoy at your leisure. But youll have to provide your own food, drinks, games, dancing, rock climbing, axe throwing and, finally, fireworks at the Mile High Extravaganza at the Sculpture Park next to the Convention Center as the 2022 Legislative Summit closes shop.

And we start planning for 2023s Summit in Indianapolis.

Mark Wolf is a senior editor in NCSLs Communications Division.

Additional Resources
Alice B. McGinty (alicebmcginty.com) is the award-winning author of almost 50 books for children and is taking registrations for her Words on Fire Writing Camp for Teens this summer at wordsonfirecamp.wordpress.com/.
Film Critic

Chuck Koplinski is The News-Gazette's film critic. His email is chuckkoplinski@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter (@ckoplinski).
John Frayne hosts Classics of the Phonograh on Saturdays at WILL-FM and, in retirement, teaches at the UI. His email is frayne@illinois.edu.
Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death.

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Ralph Martire is Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a bipartisan fiscal policy think tank, and the Arthur Rubloff Professor of Public Policy at Roosevelt University.
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Thomas A. Hemphill is David M. French Distinguished Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Public Policy in the School of Management at the University of Michigan-Flint. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
New research published in JASN reveals profound sex differences in the detection, monitoring, and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Sweden. Efforts to ensure equitable care between sexes could have important implications in reducing the burden of CKD in the country and elsewhere.

Worldwide, there are sex differences in the causes, prevalence rates, progression, and outcomes of persons with CKD that could be explained by biological differences between men and women, but also by differences in the quality of care provided to them. Importantly, guidelines have well-defined recommendations on how to screen, diagnose, monitor, and care for individuals at risk of CKD or with established CKD, and these recommendations are not sex-based.

A team led by Juan Jesus Carrero, Pharm, PhD and Oskar Swartling, an MD, PhD student (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) studied a variety of CKD-care indicators among 227,847 people with a first-ever detected low level of kidney function denoting probable CKD in Stockholm's health system from 20092017.

The investigators found that compared with men with similar characteristics, women were less likely to receive a diagnostic code related to CKD, be referred to a nephrologist, and have their kidney function monitored. Additionally, women were less likely to receive guideline-recommended medications.

We were expecting to find small or no disparities in how men and women were managed, because guidelines do not make distinctions by sex. Instead, we observed profound differences in the detection work up and management of chronic kidney disease suggesting suboptimal care among women. Surprisingly, these differences were observed across high-risk groups and indications, such as women with diabetes, macroalbuminuria, or advanced chronic kidney disease. This study identifies healthcare gaps that may explain previously reported sex differences in the prevalence, progression rates, and outcomes of persons with chronic kidney disease." Dr. Juan Jesus Carrero, Pharm, PhD

Analyses of time trends during the last decade showed that many indicators are improving over time-;for example, there has been an increase in the rate of certain tests of kidney function over the years, but the rate of testing among women with CKD has been persistently lower than that of men.

"We are unable to identify the reasons between this potential under-management, and speculate on possible causes, such as challenges in interpreting serum creatinine-; a marker of kidney function and a waste product of the normal wear and tear on muscles of the body-;in women who on average are smaller and have lower muscle mass than men," said Swartling. "It is also possible that subconscious biases operate among healthcare professionals, believing that CKD is less problematic in women, or that women themselves more likely deny their disease. In any case, our study brings attention to healthcare gaps amenable to correction."

Although it's unclear whether the findings are generalizable to other health systems, isolated observations in other reports support the existence of such sex gaps in the UK, Canada, and the US.
(Newser)  One by one, items purportedly taken from Native Americans massacred at Wounded Knee Creek emerged from the display cases where theyve sat for more than a century in a museum in rural Massachusetts. Moccasins, necklaces, clothing, ceremonial pipes, tools, and other objects were laid out as a photographer snapped pictures. It was a key step in returning scores of items displayed at the Founders Museum in Barre to tribes in South Dakota that have sought them since the 1990s. "This is real personal," says Leola One Feather of the Oglala Sioux Tribe as she observed the process as part of a two-person tribal delegation last week. "It may be sad for them to lose these items, but its even sadder for us because weve been looking for them for so long."

Recent efforts to repatriate human remains and other culturally significant items such as those at the Founders Museum represent significant and solemn moments for tribes. But they also underscore the slow pace and the monumental task at hand. Some 870,000 Native American artifactsincluding nearly 110,000 human remainsthat should be returned to tribes under federal law are still in the possession of colleges, museums, and other institutions across the country, according to an AP review of data maintained by the National Park Service.

The University of California, Berkeley tops the list, followed closely by the Ohio History Connection, the states historical society. State museums and universities in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, and Kansas as well as Harvard University round out the other top institutions. And thats not even counting items held by private institutions such as the Founders Museum, which maintains it does not receive federal funds and therefore doesnt fall under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, the 1990 law governing the return of tribal objects by institutions receiving federal money.

"Theyve had more than three decades," says Shannon OLoughlin, chief executive of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a national group that assists tribes with repatriations. "The time for talk is over. Enough reports and studying. Its time to repatriate." Museum officials say theyve stepped up efforts with added funding and staff, but continue to struggle with identifying artifacts collected during archaeology's early years. They also say federal regulations governing repatriations remain time-consuming and cumbersome. (Read the full story for details on how UC Berkeley and other institutions are responding.)
(Newser)  Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died. Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula, told the AP on Saturday. He was 98. Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the US Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr., and Thomas H. Begay. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists.

Forming the code was difficult because the Navajo language doesn't have words for military equipment or personnel, Sandoval told the Arizona Republic. About 600 Navajo code words were developed, which the Code Talkers had to memorize. Sandoval recalled a Marine who seemed to stick with him throughout the war. "He was always by me," Sandoval said, adding that he eventually thought of him as a friend. After the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, Sandoval's commanding officer told him, "He's your bodyguard." All Code Talkers were assigned bodyguards, he learned. He also learned why the Marine carried a pistol. "In the event that you get captured by the enemy, that pistol is for you," Sandoval said.

The Code Talkers are celebrated each Aug. 14, the day Japan surrendered, and Malula Sandoval said her husband had been looking forward to participating in the celebration this year and seeing a museum built in honor of the Code Talkers. "Sam always said, 'I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world,'" she said Saturday, "that the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy." As a child, Sandoval had attended a New Mexico school where he was discouraged from speaking his native language, per Veteran Affairs. (Read more obituary stories.)
(Newser)  Sen. Joe Manchin isn't sure that his frequent fellow Democratic holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, will support the legislative agreement he struck with their majority leader last week, either. Sinema has made no promises, Axios reports, which has her party worried. Democrats need all of their 50 Senate votes to pass climate, health care, and tax legislation, and any changes Sinema might want could cause the deal to collapse. It took Manchin and Sen. Chuck Schumer months to get the package to this point. Sinema got on a flight to Arizona on Friday with a printout of the 725-page bill.

Manchin said Sunday he has hope, per the Hill. Sinema wasn't part of the negotiations, but Manchin said the Arizona senator is invested, especially on the part allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. "She has so much in this piece of legislation," Manchin said on CNN's State of the Union. He and Schumer didn't include her in the negotiations, which Manchin said Sunday was because he didn't think they'd reach a deal anyway. That could backfire this week, per Axios. Sinema has indicated she won't try to stop GOP senators from making changes in the package, and that's their plan.

Republicans want to add amendments to force vulnerable Democrats to make choices they don't want to make, on the record; the process the Senate will be using allows an unlimited number of amendments to be proposed. In some areas, Schumer made assumptions on Sinema's positions that may not hold up when it's time to vote on the package. "Hopefully, she will be positive about it," Manchin said on CNN's State of the Union. "But she'll make her decision. I respect that." Sinema was a no-show at the Democratic caucus meeting Thursday. She'll face pressure from home, too, should she be responsible for derailing climate change legislation. She's up for reelection in 2024, and Democratic candidates who would vote yes are waiting in the wings in Arizona. (Read more Kyrsten Sinema stories.)
(Newser)  Prince Charles is enduring another batch of negative headlines related to one of his charities, this time over a link to an infamous name. The UK Times of London revealed this weekend that the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund accepted about $1.2 million in 2013 from the family of Osama bin Laden. Charles brokered the donation himself after meeting with bin Laden's half-brother Bakr, according to the report, which adds that the prince went through with the deal over the objections of top advisers. Royal officials confirmed that the donation was made, but disputed Charles' role in engineering it, per the AP.

"The decision to accept was taken by the charitys trustees alone and any attempt to characterize it otherwise is false, said a statement from Charles' office, Clarence House. It added that "due diligence was undertaken" in the decision to accept the money. The donation came from Bakr and another half-brother, Shafiq, about two years after Osama bin Laden was killed, and the New York Times notes that the half-brothers have never been linked to terrorism of any kind, let alone the 9/11 attacks.

Still, as Johnny Dymond of the BBC asks, did Charles "or his inner circle really think it was a good idea to take money from the bin Ladens? Or did they think it was fine so long as it was never made public?" Because, as evidenced by this weekend's controversy, "it was always going to look horrible" once the news surfaced. Separately, police in London are investigating reports that officials with another of Charles' charities, the Prince's Foundation, offered to help a Saudi billionaire secure citizenship in exchange for a donation. And last month, it was revealed that Charles accepted bags of cash for his charities from a Qatari billionaire. (Read more Prince Charles stories.)
(Newser)  Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus Saturday, calling the city the epicenter of the outbreak. The announcement Saturday by Mayor Eric Adams and health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said as many as 150,000 city residents could be at risk of infection, per the AP. The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend code provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread. New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second-most, with 799.

In the last two days, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency declaration and the state health department called monkeypox an imminent threat to public health. The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on July 23, and San Francisco's mayor on Thursday announced a state of emergency over the growing number of cases. To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo.

The virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact as well as sharing bedding, towels, and clothing. In Europe and North America, it has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, though health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone. The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. Spain reported a second monkeypox death Saturday.

(Read more monkeypox stories.)
(Newser)  Police in rural Wisconsin are trying to piece together what prompted a deadly stabbing spree Saturday among people tubing on the Apple River. A 17-year-old male from Minnesota was killed and four other young adults wounded in the attack in Somerset, reports KARE11. Police arrested a 52-year-old Minnesota man following the afternoon assault. "Thank goodness a witness had taken a photo of him," St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson told reporters, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Another witness located him at the exit of the tubing area, where he was taken into custody."

Police have not spoken about a motive. "We don't know yet who was connected to who, who knew each other, or what precipitated it," says Knudson. "It's a tragic day." The stabbings took place at a relatively inaccessible spot on the river, and deputies had to wade through waist-deep water to reach the victims, per the New York Times. Other tubers helped them treat the injured, believed to be in their 20s. The river is a popular locale for residents of the Twin Cities, with companies offering tubing outings with shuttles. (Read more Wisconsin stories.)
(Newser)  Nancy Pelosi begins a trip to Asia on Sunday, but the question on everyone's mind is still unanswered: Will she go to Taiwan? A statement issued by her office on Saturday lists stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan, but it has no mention of Taiwan, reports the New York Times. That, however, doesn't mean the House speaker and her small congressional delegation won't make what Reuters reports would be a "dramatic" visit, even if it's a short and symbolic one.

Chinese officialswho view the self-governing democracy as part of Chinahave made clear they would view any such trip by a high-ranking US official as a provocation, one that would lead to serious, if unspecified, consequences. In a phone call with President Biden on Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned the US about "playing with fire." Biden himself has sounded less than thrilled with the prospect of a Pelosi visit there, saying the "military thinks it's not a good idea right now." (Read more Nancy Pelosi stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 73F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy in the evening with more clouds for later at night. Low 51F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.


Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other senior leaders of the Party and the state, including Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan, attend a reception held by the Ministry of National Defense to celebrate the 95th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 31, 2022. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Sunday attended a reception to celebrate the 95th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on Aug. 1.

The reception was held at the Great Hall of the People by the Ministry of National Defense.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), was joined by other senior leaders of the Party and the state, including Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan.

Entrusted by Xi, CMC member, State Councilor, and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe extended festive greetings to all the officers and personnel of the PLA, members of the armed police, and others on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the CMC.

Wei paid tribute to veterans and heroes who contributed to the development of people's armed forces and representatives of army role models. He also sent regards to people dedicating themselves to the front of defense-related science, technology, and industry. He expressed gratitude to Party committees, governments, and people's organizations at all levels that have unrelentingly supported the efforts to strengthen the country's national defense and armed forces.

The PLA is the people's armed forces founded by the CPC, Wei said while addressing the event. Over the past 95 years, under the firm leadership of the CPC, the people's military has made indelible achievements in realizing national independence, liberating the Chinese people, and making the country prosperous and strong, he added.

The PLA has underpinned the efforts to protect the country's national sovereignty, security and development interests, and made significant contributions to safeguarding peace and tranquility in the world, Wei said.

Wei called for thoroughly implementing Xi Jinping's thinking on strengthening the military and speeding up the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.

He also underscored efforts to build a solid national defense and powerful armed forces, commensurate with China's international standing and meeting the needs of its security and development interests, thus providing strategic support for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday expressed its sympathy and solidarity with the United States and condolences to the victims of the flooding unleashed by epic torrential rainfall that left at least 25 casualties, including 4 children.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conveyed its sincere condolences to the US Government and people, as well as the families of the victims, wishing those injured a speedy recovery and a safe return for the missing persons.

The floods marked the second major national disaster to strike Kentucky in seven months, following a swarm of tornadoes that claimed nearly 80 lives in the western part of the state in December.

Governor Andy Beshear said the number of confirmed flood-related fatalities yesterday rose to 25 from 15, including at least four children, and that the death toll would almost certainly climb as floodwaters recede and search teams find more bodies.

"There's still a lot of people unaccounted for," he said, declining to quantify the number missing. The floods resulted from downpours of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 cm) of rain that fell over the region in 24 hours, a deluge that may prove unprecedented in the region's record books, said William Haneberg, an environmental sciences professor and director of the Kentucky Geological Survey.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Combining efforts and working as a team is crucial to overcoming the health crisis currently gripping the world, Bahrains top infectious disease consultant said. In a tweet yesterday, Dr Lt Col Manaf Al Qahtani said that only through concerted efforts world could tackle the challenges, including that of the monkeypox outbreak.

The solution to the challenges lies in our ability to combine efforts to work as a team, the Infectious Disease Consultant and Microbiologist at the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital stressed.

It is no secret to anyone that the world faces several challenges, including social, economic and health, Dr Al Qahtani, also a member of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19), further wrote. The world is still suffering from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of the virus that causes monkeypox. He also reminds, Whatever the reasons, the solution to meet these challenges is to combine efforts to work in a team spirit and to ensure success in keeping pace with the changes.

The statement comes as Bahrain has strengthened its battle against the monkeypox virus, particularly in light of a global rise in cases, by adding it to the list of communicable diseases. The World Health Organisation had declared the multi-country Monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

WHOs 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, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had said.

Bahrain, the Minister of Health, Dr Jaleela bint Sayed Jawad Hassan said, also adopted protocols related to testing, isolation and treatment based on global WHO recommendations and standards on Friday. The ministry also confirmed Bahrain has not detected any monkeypox cases, so far.

The decision also makes it mandatory for people to stay in isolation for 21 days after getting infected and coming in contact with an infected person. The order also states that specialists overseeing the isolation can increase or decrease it if needed. As per the latest data by the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention), the top US medical body, the country has over 5,189 cases, one of the highest in the world. New York has recorded 1,345 cases so far and California and Illinois are among other states where the spike has been worrying.

Worldwide, according to the CDC data, more than 22,000 cases have been reported. The UN agency is recommending vaccination for high-risk groups, including healthcare workers. It cautioned that it takes several weeks after getting the second dose of vaccine to be fully protected, so people should take other precautions until that point.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Indian Ambassador Piyush Srivastava has called on community members in the Kingdom to participate in the flag hoisting ceremony at the Embassy on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of India's Independence on the 15th of August at 7 am.

"This will be a special day and a milestone in the journey of India's Independence, especially in in-person mode after a two-year hiatus amid the pandemic," said the Indian Ambassador. Srivastava was addressing an open house held at the Embassy with the participation of 60 community members, the Embassy's consular team and a panel of lawyers.

The interactive session, chaired by Piyush Srivastava, discussed consular and labour matters and praised the Indian community, organisations including ICRF, TASCA, World NRI Council and volunteers for working with the Embassy in resolving most of the cases raised in the last open house.

The Ambassador briefed the meeting on the successful repatriation of several workers, including Packiriswamy & family, Pachamuthu, Kaliyamoorthy, Usha Kaur, Abhimanyu Singh and Mukkan Thayyullathil Chandran, with the assistance of local authorities. Srivastava thanked LMRA and the Government of Bahrain authorities for their support and facilitation.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A man arrested from the Bahrain International Airport for attempting to smuggle heroin-filled capsules by swallowing them will now serve a life term in a Bahraini jail. The man, an Asian national, had confessed to interrogators that he was working as a drug carrier in return for BD161 or 90,000 Pakistani rupees. He swallowed the capsules stuffed with drugs before boarding a plane to Bahrain. However, customs officers who grew suspicious of the mans behaviour during checkin busted the smuggling attempt.

Officers told the court that the man was in an abnormal condition when they spotted him. We checked him but found nothing. Hence, we escorted him to the red lane, for he was also abnormal in his behaviour. From there, an officer searched his baggage but failed to spot anything suspicious. So, we took him for an x-ray examination, which revealed the capsules in his stomach.

During the examination, the man complained of nausea and requested to use the washroom, to which an officer escorted him. He said he was experiencing an unsettled feeling in his stomach with an urge to vomit.

This, however, also resulted in him vomiting around 25 capsules, the officer who arrested the man told prosecutors. Following the incident, we took him to the Salmaniya Medical Complex, where doctors recovered another 50 capsules from his stomach. Later, he also confessed to interrogators that he was part of an international network specialised in smuggling drugs.

Public Prosecution had charged him with smuggling drugs into the Kingdom. Tribune recently reported several cases where police arrested suspects for carrying drug-filled capsules in their stomachs. In the latest incident, High Criminal Court in Bahrain awarded a life term to a man for attempting to smuggle 110 drug capsules.

He had also landed in Bahrain from Pakistan. And in a similar incident reported earlier, the High Appeals Court had confirmed a fiveyear jail term awarded to a man caught smuggling more than 100 drug capsules in his stomach.

This suspect also landed in police custody at the Bahrain International Airport after customs officers, who grew suspicious of his behaviour, subjected him to further checks and medical scans.

Experts, however, caution these acts as incredibly risky because the package people swallow can burst at any moment, causing death from overdose. They say that if someone swallows such capsules, there is mostly only one way for it to come out. Reportedly, most carriers also take a drug called Loperamide for diarrhoea to avoid passing the drugs during flight. To bring it out, doctors give laxatives that could make the bowel squeeze more strongly. Afterwards, some poor souls have to go through whatever passed out.

Human couriers

A UN report says that many victims of human trafficking are used to ferry drugs across international borders. Popularly known as drug mules, the victims are made to swallow balloons containing illicit drugs and are then transported across borders.

Once they have reached their destination, these balloons are retrieved from the victims body. The balloons are made with multilayered condoms and are often force-fed to the victim. The traffickers use a special machine to open the condom and put drugs into it. On many occasions, the drug mules are first given a soup laced with drugs to numb their throats.

The soup is very oily and makes the balloons slide down their throat. The victims mouth can also be sprayed with anaesthesia, enabling them to swallow up to 120 balloons. A drug mule may be forced to swallow up to one kg of illicit drugs and this painful procedure can lead to serious injuries to the throat.

During the journey, they are given medication to inhibit bowel movement. Once they have reached their destination, they are fed laxatives and the balloons pass through their bodies. This medically dangerous way of transporting drugs can lead and has led to the death of persons, says the UN report.
California claims to know how much climate-warming gas is going into the air from within its borders. It's the law: California limits climate pollution and each year the limits get stricter.

The state has also been a major oil and gas producer for more than a century, and authorities are well aware some 35,000 old, inactive oil and gas wells perforate the landscape.

Yet officials with the agency responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions say they don't include methane that leaks from these idle wells in their inventory of the state's emissions.

Ira Leifer, an independent scientist and CEO of Bubbleology Research International, said the lack of data on emissions pouring or seeping out of idle wells calls into question the states ability to meet its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

Residents and environmentalists from across the state have been voicing concern about the possibility of leaking idle or abandoned wells for years, but the concerns were heightened in May and June when 21 idle wells were discovered to be leaking methane in or near two Bakersfield neighborhoods. They say that the leaking wells are an urgent public health issue, because when a well is leaking methane, other gases often escape too.

Leifer said these ridealong gases were his biggest concern with the wells.

"Those other gases have significant health impacts, Leifer said, yet we know even less about their quantities than we do about the methane.

In July, residents who live in the communities nearest the leaking wells protested at the California Geologic Management Divisions field offices, calling for better oversight.

Its clear that they are willing to ignore this public health emergency. Our communities are done waiting. CalGEM needs to do their job, Cesar Aguirre, a community organizer with the Central California Environmental Justice Network, said in a statement.

Robert Howarth, a Cornell University methane researcher, agreed with Leifer that the amount of methane emissions from leaking wells isnt well known and that its not a major source of emissions when compared with methane emissions from across the oil and gas industry.

Still, he said, its adding something very clearly, and we shouldnt be allowing it to happen.

A ton of methane is 83 times worse for the climate than a ton of carbon dioxide, when compared over twenty years.

A 2020 study said emissions from idle wells are more substantial than from plugged wells in California, but recommended more data collection on inactive wells at the major oil and gas fields throughout the state.

Robert Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist and co-author on that study, said they found high emissions from some of the idle wells they measured in the study.

In order to get a better idea of how much methane is leaking, the state of California is investing in projects on the ground and in the air. David Clegern, a spokesperson for CARB, said the agency is beginning a project to measure emissions from a sample of properly and improperly abandoned wells to estimate statewide emissions from them.

And in June, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget that includes participation in a global effort to slash emissions called the Methane Accountability Project. The state will spend $100 million to use satellites to track large methane leaks in order to help the state identify sources of the gas and cap leaks.

Some research has already been done, too, to find out how much methane is coming from oil and gas facilities. A 2019 Nature study found that 26% of state methane emissions is coming from oil and gas. A new investigation by the Associated Press found methane is billowing from oil and gas equipment in the Permian Basin in Texas and companies under report it.

Howarth said even if methane from idle oil and gas wells isn't a major pollution source, it should be a priority not just in California, but nationwide, to help the country meet its climate pledges.

Methane dissipates pretty quickly in the atmosphere, he said, so cutting the emissions is really one of the simplest ways we have to slow the rate of global warming and meet that Paris target.

A new Senate proposal would provide hundreds of millions dollars to plug wells and reduce pollution from them, especially in hard hit communities.

___

This story was first published on July 31, 2022. It was updated on August 2, 2022 to correct the affiliation of Ira Leifer. He is an independent scientist and CEO of Bubbleology Research International, an environmental research firm. He is no longer at the University of California Santa Barbara.

___

Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Rajesh Thakur, head of state party in Jharkhand, asserted that there is a plot to topple the government after three Congress MLAs from that state were apprehended on Saturday with a sizable sum of cash in West Bengals Howrah.

Shiv Sena MLAs who rebelled against the party leader and remained in Guwahati, Assam, during the Maharashtra political crisis were the ones who brought down the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet last month. Irfan Ansari, an MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, an MLA from Khijri, and Naman Bixal, an MLA from Kolebira, were among the three lawmakers who were arrested earlier on Saturday. The enormous sum of money was found in their automobiles in Howarah on Saturday night.

In a statement, Thakur said, Everyone witnessed how Assam became into the main point for overthrowing governments; drama ensued for 15 days before the Maharashtra government was overthrown; this suggests that there is a plot to overthrow the Jharkhand government. The future will bring more clarity.

The occurrence, according to the Congress state chairman, is regrettable, and the state committee will report on it to the partys top command.

He further stated It wont be appropriate to discuss it until the investigation is complete, but given the state of the nation, detained MLAs can provide a more thorough explanation. The event is heartbreaking, though. Well provide our high leadership a report. Everyone implicated must pay.

Jharkhand Congress working President Bandhu Tirkey informed, BJP will always attempt to topple any administration that is not their own. The government of Chief Minister Hemant Soren has been targeted in a similar manner. They were just given money (by the BJP) in order to bring down the administration.

After the event, the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked the Congress, claiming that since the states administration was formed, corruption has been out of control.

Aditya Sahu, Jharkhand BJP state general secretary remarked, Corruption has increased since their administration took office. Large sums of money have also previously been discovered in officials houses in Jharkhand. They spend the hard-earned money of the people on other things. When the police captured them, it became public.
Police said on Sunday that a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist had been slain in the Binner neighbourhood of Jammu and Kashmirs Baramulla district.

Irshad Ahmed Bhat, a Pattani terrorist who has been active since May 2022, has been named as the assassin. Additionally, one AK-47, two magazines, and 30 bullets were found by the police.

Irshad Ahmed Bhat of Pattan Baramulla, active since 5/2022 and connected to the outlawed terrorist group LeT, has been identified as the terrorist who was killed. 30 bullets, 2 magazines, and 1 AK-47 were found Police in Kashmir Zone tweeted.

The altercation started in the wee hours of Saturday night.

In a combined operation earlier on Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police killed one terrorist in the Baramulla hamlet of Wanigam Bala.

In the course of operation, three members of the security forces suffered just minor wounds, while one attack dog from the Indian Army also perished.

However in response to a particular input, the Police, Army (29RR), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) (2nd Bn) together conducted a cordon-and-search operation, during which they seized evidence from the scene of the encounter, including an AK-47 rifle, three AK magazines, seven AK rounds, one pouch, and one bag.

During an encounter in Baramulla, the J-K police had also captured two hybrid terrorists from the outlawed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Combined Naka set up by Sopore police, 32 RR, and 92 CRPF men at approximately 5.30 p.m. in Dangiwacha led to the terrorists attempts to leave, according to the police, who claim that they were captured after they tried to do so.

The apprehended individuals identified themselves as Tariq Ah Wanu and Ishfaq Ah Wani, both of whom are natives of the J-Old Ks Rangreths Airfield neighbourhood.

The police statement said that terrorists were always looking for a chance to carry out attacks on these security forces and citizens in the Union Territory. The police also found two firearms, two pistol magazines, and 11 live cartridges in their hands.

In Rafiabad, police have also filed a First Information Report in accordance with sections 7 and 25 of the 13 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address the valedictory session of the two-day joint national executive meeting of different BJP cells on Sunday, a party leader said.

Shah is expected to address the session at 4 pm in Patna, he said.

BJP president J P Nadda will be present at the event.

Later, the home minister along with the partys national president will reach the state BJP office in the evening and interact with its leaders. They will also inaugurate and lay foundation stones for party offices in a number of Bihar districts through video-conferencing, BJP state media in-charge Rajib Ranjan said

The two-day joint national executive meeting of the BJP cell was inaugurated by BJP president J P Nadda.
Religious groups including the All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council (AISSC), Saturday, July 31 proposed a ban on organizations like Popular Front of India (PFI) for indulging in anti-national activities. The proposal was kept forward at an interfaith conference organised in New Delhi

The AISSC said, Organisations like PFI and any other such fronts, who have been indulging in anti-national activities, pursuing a divisive agenda and creating discord amongst our citizens must be banned and action initiated against them as per the law of the land.

According to media reports, AISSC chief Syed Naseeruddin Chishti said, We want to give the message that all religious leaders have a responsibility to guide their community, and especially the youth, to aspire to be responsible citizens of India.

It is observed that social media platforms are being used for promoting hatred against religions and their followers. We request the Govt to take serious note and initiate appropriate measures to curb the menace, he added.

National security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was present at the conference. He advised the leaders of different religions to counter the radical forces trying to create hatred in the name of religion and ideology, which adversely affect the country and have international influence.

Some people try to create animosity in the name of religion that adversely affects the entire country and also has ramifications internationally, he said.

We cannot be a mute spectator to this. To counter religious animosity, we have to work together and make every religious body feel part of India. In this, we sail and sink together, Doval said at the conference.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo / Contributed Photo

NORTH HAVEN  A motorcyclist was killed after a collision with another vehicle Saturday, according to police.

In a Facebook post, police said officers responded Saturday evening to a crash involving a collision between a small SUV and a motorcycle.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has condemned former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubus attack on ex-vice president, Atiku Abubakar. The vice pres...

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has condemned former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubus attack on ex-vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told Tinubu that he isnt the best politician in Nigeria.

The governor was reacting to Tinubus comment that his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima was better.

In a statement by his spokesman, Olisa Ifeajika, Okowa advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate to leave the campaign of calumny.

The Delta helmsman advised Tinubu to check his record in politics, in the legislature and in governance.

Okowa recalled the interview where Atiku reiterated that the APC leader wanted to become his running mate in 2007.

He said rather than reply, Tinubu took a swipe at him, saying that his own running mate was better than Atikus.

We know Senator Bola Tinubu as a good politician and former governor of Lagos State.

But we expect him to know that there are other politicians that are towering and are good, patriotic and have tried in their tracks to be statesmen.

If Tinubu thinks that he is good, he should not foreclose that there wont be other persons that are good or even better in politics where he thrives.

It was his choice to pick his own running mate for whatever criteria he had, the statement reads.

It informed Tinubu that the National Health Act came from the effort of Okowa when he was in the Senate.

Ifeajika advised the APC flagbearer to face his contestand leave the campaign of calumny.

Tinubu should be discussing issues affecting the wellbeing of the people, not discussing individuals, the statement added.
Sola Sobowale, the ace actress, has recalled how she left Nigeria to do menial jobs in order to cater to her children who were schooling i...

Sola Sobowale, the ace actress, has recalled how she left Nigeria to do menial jobs in order to cater to her children who were schooling in the United Kingdom.

Speaking in the latest episode of #WithChude, the film star said she left the fame and stardom to give her children the motherly love they so richly desire while they were studying in UK varsities.

Sobowale also recounted how she left her mouthwatering acting job, which was fetching her over N5 million within months  during the early 2000s  for menial jobs in England.

She said while in the UK, she worked multiple 7.5 pounds per hour jobs like cleaning, cooking, and mopping office floors to make ends meet.

I went back to England and noticed the kids lack motherly touch. Then I moved to England and forgot stardom, she told Chude Jideonwo, the media personality.

Now, all of them are working and they appreciate me for my sacrifice.

I was practically living in Enugu where I was shooting a movie, Christ In Me. After the movie, fame came. So I was given another film job. I got over 10 movie jobs so I was stationed in Enugu. And in one location, I spent one week. In that one week, I was on N800,000 and that was in the year 2000.

So like that, when I was going back to Lagos, I had over N5 million within how many months. The money was blowing.

So I left that for 7 pounds per hour jobs in England. Then before I could make 1000 pounds I will have to work extra hard. There is nothing this woman cannot do because I know what is called dignity in labour. I will sweep anywhere so far it will put food on my table, cloth on my children, and shelter on my head.

I swept, cooked, washed, mopped, cleaned offices. Yes, I did all those. The other thing is I wasnt sleeping. On the train or bus, I make sure I wear my uniform with the name of the company like that.

Then you hear Nigerians say She isnt the one, Sola Sobowale, no she isnt the one. I will then tell them its me, my name is Sola Sobowale, so they will ask what Im doing here and I ask them the same question. I made a lot of friends. Now, Im happy because its now history.

She also revealed that she had initially wanted them to attend one of the top varsities in Nigeria but was discouraged due to the incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Education is the only legacy you can give your children. So inside me, I said if my children want to go to university they will either go to the University of Ibadan, Ife, or Lagos but unfortunately, the varsities are always on strike. A course of 3 years ends up to be 6 years, she added.

So I thought if I can pay this much for primary and secondary, I should be able to for university too. So let my children leave Nigeria, that was why I moved my children to London.

Watch the video below:
Twenty-four hours after prominent Nollywood actors and members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornel, a...

Twenty-four hours after prominent Nollywood actors and members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornel, aka Agbogidi, were kidnapped in an Enugu suburb, their abductors have contacted their families.

The actors were reported missing after their family members confirmed they didnt return home from a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu state, on Thursday.

Both actors are renowned for starring in movies shot in Enugu and Delta states.

On Saturday, the AGN national president, Emeka Rollas, revealed that the kidnappers are requesting a lump sum in dollars.

He said, The kidnappers have made contact with the families and are demanding the sum of $100,000. We pray to God for his intervention and for Him to put confusion in their midst.

We are also working closely with the different security operatives, but we are not sure what to expect from them because the same thing is happening everywhere in the country.

Mr Rollas also said members of the Guild are working closely with the families of the victims and the security forces to ensure their safe release.\

In a Punch newspaper interview published Saturday, Mr Rollas said, the kidnappers cleared the monies in Cynthia Okerekes account this morning.

As part of measures to forestall a repeat occurrence, Mr Rollas said that the Guild had ordered its members not to shoot outside of the metropolis and to ensure that they make adequate provisions for security in their locations.

AGNs Director of Communications, Monalisa Chinda, broke the news of the kidnap of the actors in a statement made available to NE

Ms Chinda said their kidnap had increased fear amongst members about the safety of actors filming in the country.
Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, has asked Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, to stop complaining about the outcome of the presidenti...

Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, has asked Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, to stop complaining about the outcome of the presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Lamido spoke in an interview with THISDAY , which was published on Sunday.

In May, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar won the PDP presidential ticket after he polled 371 votes, while Wike, his closest challenger, secured 237 votes.

Prior to the selection of a running mate, many believed that Wike would be favoured by Atiku but the former VP picked Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta.

Explaining the rationale behind his decision, Atiku said he chose someone he could work with amicably.

Wike subsequently reacted by saying the former vice-president told many lies.

Speaking on the development, Lamido, a PDP chieftain, advised Wike to learn from Peter Odili, a former Rivers governor, who did not get the PDP presidential ticket for the 2007 election.

Lamido also said Wike should emulate Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, who both lost the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary.

A day to the PDPs presidential convention, which Peter Odili of Rivers State was bound to win and was also bound to win the presidential election, he was stopped by the party which went on to nominate President Umaru Musa YarAdua, who did not even show interest, Lamido said.

He was promised a vice presidential ticket and yet he was not given. He took everything as the mature man he is.

Look at the APC, Vice-President Osinbajo was humiliated; the senate president was also humiliated and even his countryman, Amaechi was given the same treatment; they took it as mature men and did not go about complaining as Wike is doing. This is called maturity.

Do you know why? This is because the party is supreme. You cannot be bigger than your party. Party is organic. The convention has come and gone.

Osinbajo, Lawan and Amaechi have shown maturity because their party has spoken. If Wike is in the APC will he be talking and behaving as he is doing now?

When I say that the party is supreme, I mean that the PDP is an organic party. Many people defected to the APC in 2015, but the PDP remained strong because it is organic with root structures; it is not a one-man party.

Wike should show maturity as the matter is no longer between him and Atiku. Atiku is now the PDP candidate; whatever he is doing now is not a fight against Atiku but the party. The party made him.

Let him learn from his former boss, Peter Odili. He will tell him a story that is so touching because I have never seen a person who was cheated on and who was so denied as Peter Odili.

The man is so humble, so tolerant. I mean he is everything good. Wike offered himself to be elected. I came from the old order that respects political party culture. His candidate for the governorship in Rivers state was imposed by him.

Others wanted to be governor; have they reconciled? The guy he imposed won the governorship ticket at the congress. Who offended Wike? Did the convention offend Wike? How? There is no reconciliation. He is a party man and after the convention, he said the process was very credible. He said so.
The Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi, was on Sunday declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress Ebonyi South Senatori...

The Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi, was on Sunday declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone fresh primary election.

Earlier, the chairman of the APC electoral panel, Prof Emmanuel Adebayo Kehinde said that five contestants participated in the fresh primary election of the party.

The election, which took place at the Afikpo North Local Government Area headquarters, witnessed the presence of prominent stakeholders of the state, including the members of the state executive council.

The contestants included; Austin Chukwu Umahi, David Umahi, Mrs Ann Agom-Eze, Mrs Ibiam Margret Ezenwanyi, and Mrs Chiko Elizabeth Nwakaego.

Declaring the results of the election, Prof. Kehinde, said that Umahi pulled a total of 260 votes to emerge the winner of the election.

He noted that Ezenwanyi scored 3 votes, Nwakaego scored 5 votes, while 7 votes were invalid.

It was gathered that Umahi and his younger brother, Austin Chukwu Umahi, came first and second respectively, while Agom-Eze had zero votes at the time of filing this report.

It was also learnt that Umahis younger brother boycotted the election.

In a swift reaction, Umahi thanked the entire people of Ebonyi State for the opportunity given to him to clinch the ticket.
Muyiwa Adekeye, media aide to Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has explained why his principal discussed with President Muhammadu Buhar...

Muyiwa Adekeye, media aide to Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has explained why his principal discussed with President Muhammadu Buhari on a kidnap threat.

In a video that surfaced over the weekend, bandits had threatened to abduct the president and the governor.

Speaking on the development on Wednesday, el-Rufai had said the president was unaware of the threat before he discussed the matter with him.

Giving further details on why the governor was the first to inform Buhari about the kidnap threat, Adekeye, in a statement on Friday, said it was not an attempt to show security agencies were not effective.

The suggestion and storylines by a section of the media that this amounted to a failing by the security agencies to brief Mr. President is not what the Governor expressly said in the Hausa language interview, the statement reads.

At all times, it is important that the media exercises restraint and ensures contextual accuracy in reporting, and avoids issues that may arise from or be lost in translation.

We must not by acts of commission or omission glorify the terrorists or demonise officials charged with the duty to contain and destroy them. Nigerias security challenges should neither be politicised nor deployed to mislead our people.
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Something is smoldering in Tennessee Williams Summer and Smoke. Its just a question of whether the fire is burning out or rekindling.

Former neighbors Alma Winemiller and John Buchanan have become reacquainted in their small town of Glorious Hill, Mississippi. Alma is the daughter of the town minister and as a teenager adored John. He has become a doctor, and though hes moved home to take over for his fathers practice, his interest in bodies is also about pleasure, including drinking and chasing women.

Summer and Smoke is the centerpiece of the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans season themed around Southern Gothic works. It opens at Marigny Opera House on Aug. 5.

The company started its season with parodies of Tennessee Williams works, including Christopher Durangs Desire, Desire, Desire and For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls. Summer and Smoke is more like a pillar of the Southern Gothic genre.

Were doing gold standard Tennessee Williams with the (Mississippi) Delta, all the foreshadowing, poetry and longing, says company co-founder Augustin J. Correro, who is directing the work.

Sexual desire driving a character to conflict or misery is a Williams signature. He also often set works in Mississippi small towns, making the most of social pressures and religious mores. Thats the crux of Summer and Smoke, as Alma still loves the church, and John prefers drinking and finding companions to go to the Moon Lake Casino.

Its the preachers daughter and the hedonist trope, Correro says. In the 1940s, when (Summer and Smoke) came out, it wasnt too tropey. It was just on time. It framed these Southern characters, which Williams did in a way that nobody else was doing at the time.

With her mother stricken by mental illness, Alma had to both care for her and fill in for her in the church community while still a teenager. It was as if she was the preachers daughter and wife, Correro says. Embracing the role has made her look like a spinster as a young woman.

John experienced similar pressure to step into his fathers shoes as the town doctor. But being away from home studying medicine allowed him much more personal freedom.

The set features the church rectory, Johns medical office and a statue of an angel set in the center of town. Alma and John once were kindred spirits and could be again, but theyve dealt differently with the roles set out for them.

Summer and Smoke was written at about the same time as A Streetcar Named Desire, and Alma is sometimes compared to Blanche DuBois, who fled rural Mississippi when she came to visit Stanley and Stella Kowalski in New Orleans. Both struggle with desire and the social pressures of a small town. But Correro says Alma has more in common with Amanda Wingfield of The Glass Menagerie, which debuted in 1944. At the beginning of Summer and Smoke, Alma is more like the frustrated Amanda, who talks of all the suitors she attracted as a younger woman.

Summer and Smoke debuted on Broadway in 1948 and didnt do well. But a revival off Broadway was a big hit and led to a film version. Williams also returned to the story a decade later and rewrote it as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Correro says the company expects to produce that show at a later date.

Williams wouldnt have kept coming back to it if there wasnt something special and electric about these characters that he was trying to say, Correro says.

Summer and Smoke runs Aug. 5-21 at Marigny Opera House. Find tickets and information at twtheatrenola.com.
A fire broke out at the abandoned naval base in the Bywater Sunday morning, drawing firefighters to the blighted complex for second time this month, according to the New Orleans Fire Department.

Firefighters responded to a call at 8:34 a.m. and found flames on the third floor of a building at the base, located at 4400 Dauphine Street (map).

The base most recently burned in a fire on July 16, four days after the city removed as many as 50 squatters and began to secure the city-owned property.

The graffiti-covered complex has been a magnet for people without homes since the Navy gave it to New Orleans nine years ago. Real estate developer Joe Jaeger holds rights to the property; he says a lack of federal funding is preventing him from redeveloping it.

Neighbors have complained about the condition of the sprawling, 103-year-old base, which is home to three multistory buildings. Police were called to the address or the adjacent area 176 times from June 2021 to May 2022, according to police.

The Fire Department did not immediately provide details about Sunday's fire.
Five months after the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office warned residents to stop using the big blue U.S Postal Service collection boxes, authorities want residents to be aware that mail theft continues to be a problem.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office in June issued the same warning to its residents after seeing an uptick in bank fraud cases related to stolen mail.

"Hitting boxes," as the scheme is known by some, has become a popular crime, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, a spokesperson for the Jefferson Sheriff's Office.

+2 Detectives who staked out Elmwood Post Office bust prolific mail theft suspect Authorities say a New Orleans man who had stolen mail from the blue collection boxes in front of the Elmwood Post Office on at least a dozen o

Thieves with stolen postal keys loot the locked, blue collection boxes which are usually stationed outside of post offices or in public spaces. They target letters with checks or money orders, altering them to steal from personal and business bank accounts, authorities say.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office began seeing an increase in mail theft and related crimes in 2020. Over the last several months, the department has arrested 10 suspects accused of stealing mail out of mailboxes and another 13 accused of trying to cash or deposit altered checks taken from collection boxes, Rivarde said.

Those suspects include Earl Vincent IV, 24, who is accused of stealing mail from the collection boxes at the Elmwood post office on Citrus Boulevard on more than a dozen occasions since April, Rivarde said.

Chad Woods, 26, and Darryl Alexander, 19, were arrested in June, accused of stealing mail from Kenner collection boxes. Woods, Alexander and Vincent were arrested by detectives conducting surveillance at various locations to catch thieves in the act.

Some of the postal keys used by mail thieves are stolen from U.S. Postal Service employees, according to authorities. In February, two gunmen robbed a letter carrier in Gentilly, stealing a master key. A similar holdup in Baton Rouge led to a spike in stolen mail and check fraud there last fall.

But Woods told Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office investigators he purchased the postal key he allegedly used to open collection boxes, according to authorities.

Woods might have purchased the key, known as an arrow key, online through the dark web or on other internet black market spaces, according to David Maimon, a professor and director of Georgia State University's Evidence Based Cybersecurity Research Group.

While gathering data about cybercrime in online marketplaces over the past two years, Maimon's researchers noticed an increasing trend in stolen checks and postal keys being sold there.

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Posters display photos their illicit wares, postal keys, debit and credit cards or stolen checks that buyers can alter for financial crimes.

We see videos of people using the keys to open mailboxes. These guys are sophisticated, part of a very elaborate supply chain, Maimon said.

The more extensive operations buy the stolen checks for access to personal information such as names and addresses that can be used to create fake identifications or passports, according to Maimon. Others have co-conspirators in credit bureaus that can provide accompanying social security information.

"It's not science fiction," Maimon said. "We see it all the time. It's really a nightmare, at this point, how extensive it is."

Maimon's group has seen checks for sale that have been stolen from almost every state in the country.

"I see checks from Louisiana all the time," he said, noting that Louisiana is the sixth most-targeted state based on the number of stolen checks found for sale on online marketplaces in May.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S post office's law enforcement division, has teamed with local law enforcement agencies to investigate reports of mail theft, according to U.S. Postal Inspector Silvia Torres, a spokesperson for the agency.

"The Postal Inspection Service also works closely with the Postal Service to ensure the security and safety of the U.S. Mail, including the security of collection boxes, and provides recommendations on security issues," Torres said.

But for now, it's not clear how the U.S. Postal Service can secure its blue collection boxes. So Maimon and law enforcement agencies are continuing to recommend that residents avoid using them.

In some areas around the region, the boxes have been taped up so they won't be used.

"They are not safe," Maimon said.

To prevent mail theft and check fraud, authorities suggest the following:
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Rupee rises 28 paise to close at 79.46 (provisional) against US dollar.

Mining lease row: SC says since it is seized of the matter, Jharkhand high court shall not proceed with the matter.

Mining lease row: SC reserves judgement on pleas of Hemant Soren, J'khand govt against high court order for probe.
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The rapper known as JayDaYoungan, real name Javorius Tykies Scott, died of gunshot wounds after being shot outside his home in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on Wednesday night.

The Bogalusa Police Department confirmed the shooting of the 24-year-old along with close relative Kenyatta Scott Sr., who was shot roughly 30 minutes after the first attack. The incident occurred shortly before 6 p.m. on July 27.

JayDaYoungan was quickly transported to the hospital. Police said he succumbed to his injuries before midnight. His relative was also hospitalized and remains in stable condition. The shootings may be linked, officials suggest.

This is a very fluid situation, said in a statement issued by police. Our officers are working diligently to identify the subjects responsible for these crimes.

One month before the shooting, JayDaYoungan was released from jail after serving a seven-month term for charges of illegally bearing firearms. He was on house arrest as stated on release conditions after pleading guilty to violating the Federal Gun Control Act.

The young rapper faced assault charges and illegal possession of oxycodone last year, as well as being unlawfully armed with a pistol.

His partner, CaRena, posted a message following his death in the caption of a series of videos.

Thank god my last words to you were I love you, I hope you know how much tho Im so hurt bae, how could you leave me like that, the message began. I wouldve never left you EVER, one thing we could do is make each other smile, such a kind-hearted sweet soul.
A steelworker was seriously injured and taken to the hospital Thursday after an industrial accident at the Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor mill in East Chicago.

The steelworker was pinned under a steel coil on a man-made peninsula in Lake Michigan and was then airlifted to the intensive care unit at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

"Cleveland-Cliffs confirms that an accident involving one employee occurred on Thursday afternoon at its Indiana Harbor facility which resulted in the employee being transported to the hospital," Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson Patricia Persico said. "Due to standard privacy protocols, we are not at liberty to disclose the name of the employee or any further personal details."

United Steelworkers District 7 Director Mike Millsap said the industrial accident was being investigated. Fellow union workers strove to free the recent high school graduate who was hurt at the mill.

"A coil rolled on the lower part of his body below the waist," Millsap said. "He was taken to the University of Chicago. He is in stable condition. He has a broken femur."

Though not as deadly as they once were, steel mills remain dangerous places to work with many inherent hazards like heavy machinery, rumbling trucks, barreling trains, molten metal, raging temperatures, high catwalks and steel coil that's weighed by the ton. The Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration estimates steel mills had 7.3 recordable illnesses or injuries per 100 qualifying hours in 2020, the most recent year for which data was available, making it one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.
Jerry Davich Jerrys career began in 1995 as a political cartoonist/columnist with The Times of NWI, writing thousands of columns and stories through narrative storytelling, or shining a light on societys darkest corners, or provoking unpopular conversations. Follow Jerry Davich 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

Frank Calabrese Jr. unknowingly adjusted the crucifix dangling around his neck after confessing to crimes he committed as a younger man for the Chicago mob.

I did a lot of bad stuff over 20 years, he said. Ill never tell you I was a victim.

Calabrese believes in good and evil, salvation and redemption, forgiveness and an afterlife.

I also believe in karma, he said, forgetting for a moment his whereabouts.

We sat at a private table inside Karma Cigar Bar in Merrillville, which hosted a public presentation about his remarkable life. Presented by "Case Files Chicago" and his longtime friend, Lisette Guillen, Calabrese shared insights about his notorious relationship with his murderous father, Frank Calabrese Sr., a made man and kingpin in the Chicago Outfit.

I mightve got some raw deals from my dad, but just because I didnt like his ways doesnt mean I didnt stop loving him, Calabrese said with a noticeable accent from Chicagos south side.

The last time Calabrese saw his father was in court, at the end of the FBI investigation dubbed Operation Family Secrets, triggered by Calabreses 1998 letter to the bureau revealing his interest in flipping on his father to keep his dad in prison for life. As Calabrese Jr. wrote, I feel I have to help you keep this sick man locked up forever. And he did. (For the backstory, read my previous column at nwi.com.)

In that courtroom, I looked at him and tears were coming out of my eyes, Calabrese said. I told myself, oh my God, I better get a good look because I know its the last time Im ever going to see him alive. It was sad.

At that point, Calabrese hadnt seen his father for six years, not until that trial in 2007, two years after a 45-page indictment against five mobsters  all found guilty. Two of the trials 100-plus witnesses were Calabrese Jr. and his uncle, Nick Calabrese, who also turned against his own brother, Calabrese Sr.

My uncle is the first guy in the history of the Chicago mob  as a made man  to cooperate like that with the FBI, Calabrese Jr. said.

Calabrese wore a wire for the FBI to rat on his dad, prompting him to feel like both a savior and an executioner inside that courtroom. He wanted to embrace his father. It was too late for such a loving gesture.

Its the hardest thing I ever had to do, Calabrese recalled. I was overcome with emotion even though my dad put a hit on my head.

His father was sent to the worst of the worst federal penitentiary, located in North Carolina, incarcerated in solitary confinement with his evil deeds and growing paranoia. He allegedly read the Bible, his attorney once told a judge, especially the early books with a vengeful God, what Calabrese Sr. referred to as the First Testament.

Whatever it is  at least he read it, his attorney told the court.

In 2012, Calabrese Sr. died in prison on his favorite date of the year, Christmas Day, from natural causes  a remarkable karmic gift for a man who killed, injured and intimidated so many victims. He was 75.

My dad had no soul, Calabrese said. But I think he got one when he died. I really do. I feel hes above us and hes sorry for what he did to our family. He finally realizes what he did to us.

His father, though, never verbalized such remorse. Calabrese always figured his dad would go straight to hell, where he would torment his son throughout eternity.

From hell, he would somehow try to still get me, Calabrese said. But from heaven, I honestly think hes up above watching down on me, making sure I do the right thing.

Calabrese has been doing a lot of right things since being released from prison after serving nearly three years for racketeering with his fathers mob, The Outfit. Still, a part of him misses the unparalleled adrenaline rush of hustling on the streets.

I always miss the hustle. Im still hustling, but Im doing it legally, Calabrese said before updating guests about his 2012 book, Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family.

His book is being turned into a Hollywood movie with the production company operated by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. An announcement will be made in the coming months, he said.

Calabrese, 62, never dreamed of any of this when he first got locked up at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, then sent to a prison in Milan, Michigan.

Id never thought Id live to 30, he said. Now Ive doubled it.

He also has doubled down in life, transforming his mobster upbringing into a career of organized success. It all started in prison, where he lost his fears, his wife, his cocaine addiction and his physical health.

My foot was dragging and doctors didnt know why, he explained after hobbling to a table inside the cigar bar. (Watch videos in his own words at nwi.com and on my Facebook page.)

He was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, living with it for 22 years.

I try to focus on the positive, said Calabrese, who has two kids in their thirties. Theyre my higher power and moral compass.

Calabrese, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, no longer fears that the mob will kill him for ratting out his father. Its more plausible that a teenage punk who just binged on mob movies may try to make a name for himself.

By coming up behind me and shooting me in the back of the head, Calabrese said, waving his tattooed arms around like his father wielded weapons.

Calabrese has his dads infamous temper, but its totally under control, he said: I never liked violence, even as a kid. Nice is who I am.

His reformed life has gone from bullet holes in alleys to bullet points for public presentations. Hes working with the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, with plans to offer private tours, public shows, and a possible podcast.

It keeps me out of trouble, Calabrese said with a sly smile.

PHOTOS: Frank Calabrese Jr. speaks in Merrillville
WHITING  Theres nothing quite like a grandma, especially when shes in curlers, knee-high stockings and plenty of lipstick.

Throw in a healthy use of the word damn, and you have the buscias, Polish for grandmothers, of Pierogi Fest.

Six women entertained Saturday with their annual cooking show, this year with a "Wizard of Oz" theme.

Theres no place like home for a good meal, family, friends and camaraderie, said Carolyn Kruszynski, one of the six, adding, and a little Jeezy, a Polish liquor.

A Robertsdale resident, Kruszynski said there arent many requirements for being a buscia.

Being a grandma, she explained, means you take care of your family. She cooks, cleans, laughs and makes sure everyone is taken care of.

Most of the buscias come from the Hammond-Whiting area, and most have been together nearly every year of the festival since 1993.

We enjoy each other, Kruszynski said. Our cheeks hurt from laughing, and we love the interaction with the people.

Those people come from all over, including North and South Carolina, Texas and Maryland. Buscias have met international visitors from Africa, Australia, Poland and the former Yugoslavia.

Media coverage also draws visitors, Kruszynski said. Some people discovered the fest on the Travel Channel. Others, she said, saw it on the news in the morning and came in the evening.

Sue Betustak, a 20-year veteran, said being a buscia is just a lot of fun. We laugh a lot, and we meet a lot of people from across the area and the country.

Theresa Meyer is a relatively new buscia of six years. Originally from Robertsdale and a Clark High School graduate, she now lives in Hobart. Her two daughters, both recent college graduates, were in the Oliver Street stage audience.

Besides the fun aspect, Meyer said, Im carrying on my heritage. My father came to this country from Poland in 1952. I was the third child, so I understand a little Polish.

Meyer tries to continue traditions, such as the oplatki wafers at Christmas.

When it came time for the cooking show, John Lovasko, the husband of one of the buscias, led the women.

Dressed in bright green as the great and powerful Oz, Lovasko commented, My wife talked me into this.

Every show begins with the concoction of the libation because, as the buscias say, Liquor lets everything go down better.

This years buscia brew featured Blue Curacao, vodka and orange and pineapple juices and was topped with a maraschino cherry. The fruit juices, the women said, provide the drinker with vitamin C.

First up were cucumber sandwiches as an appetizer, followed by sausage and sauerkraut and homemade pierogies.

As Kruszynski noted, Its all safe, and, if not, they know where we live.

Judging from audience responses, many people make their own pierogies. Recipes vary, but one constant, certainly among the buscias, is butter, from drenching to frying.

After eating these pierogies, Kruszynski said to women, youll never have to use lip gloss again.

Although the buscias cannot give samples of their cooking to everyone, they set up a table for two area women, Margaret Saliga and Ann Kruszynski.

Both women praised the meal. Can I reserve a seat for next year? Ann Kruszynski asked.

Saying they had no damn time to make desserts, the buscias provided their audience with Ding Dong chocolate treats in honor of the dead witch song from the Wizard of Oz.

There was also time for a game of pin the heart on the Tin Man. Using a cardboard cutout of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, the buscias moved their target to further baffle contestants. For their efforts, contestants received a deluxe prize of either a giant lollipop or a soap-on-a-rope kit.

Gayleen Hume, of Stickney, Illinois, actually stuck the Tin Man.

I loved the show, said Hume, who is a little Polish. Theyre a blast.

Carol Bobby, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was a first-time Pierogi Fest attendee, coming with her three sisters.

The show was excellent, said Bobby, whose mother is of Ukrainian descent. They had so much fun doing their stuff.

Rick and Melanie Aulbach, of Annapolis, Maryland, are also part of the family. The show was fantastic, Rick said. They just flowed with their routines.

Melanie Aulbach, who makes her own pierogies and has an apron her mother made in 1950, added, I fell in love with the buscias.

She said she combines her potato and kraut fillings in pierogies to cut down the sourness.

Diane Kaminsky, the buscia who made the sausage and kraut, said that regardless of ones ethnicity, we remind them of their grandmothers.

Kaminsky is also passing down her cooking heritage to her young niece, Maggie Peller, of Whiting.

This has helped me a lot, Peller said. Im learning traditions and passing them on to a younger generation.
What is your reaction to the video?

What is one thing you learned about the current situation?

What is one question you hope will be answered in the featured article?

Questions for Writing and Discussion

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. Read the five introductory paragraphs to the article and respond to the following questions:

What are some of the locations in Almaty, the countrys largest city, that have been affected by protests?

How did the president respond to the protests?

What do these protests symbolize about larger tension in the region?

2. On the most surface level, what led to the protests? When digging deeper, what are some of the more complex and longstanding issues that contribute to the anger and frustration that many Kazakhs feel?

3. What changes do protesters want to see in their country?

4. Up until this point, how has Kazakhstan been regarded from the outside? What is the countrys relationship to Russia?

5. Why might the crisis in Kazakhstan undermine Moscows sway in the region? What could this mean for countries like Ukraine and Belarus? What does it mean for the United States?

6. What are some of the actions the government has taken to meet demonstrators demands? What has the government done to try to shut down protests?
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
I was dismissed from three or four vineyards. I was OK with that; I looked at it as, this is not the right one for me. Then I met one vineyard owner and I actually liked her because she would answer all of my questions. She was open-minded to the things that I wanted to do and thats what I liked about her.

There are people that judge you just based on what you look like. So, you have to prove yourself. I will always be tested because Im not the norm. Even when retailers reach out, the first thing they say is, Why should we buy B. Stuyvesant? I say, You have the option to purchase what you like. I dont lead my brand with Im a woman or Im Black. I lead with the quality of the product.

Describe your vision for the headquarters and tasting space.

I designed it myself: The walls are navy blue because thats the color of the label for our grand reserve, our signature cuvee, which was the first cuvee that I moved forward with. We laid new floors. We are at the Navy Yard, in an old building. This place was very interesting looking: gray walls, not pretty. We put time and money into the space.

When people come to an event, we want it to be an experience. No two events are the same. I guide everybody through the tastings. I talk about my adventures in France, I even suggest other champagnes. There are so many beautiful champagnes out there.
One person was killed and four others were hospitalized on Saturday after they were stabbed in their midsections while tubing on the Apple River in Wisconsin, a popular summer spot that attracts visitors from across the region, the authorities said.

The suspect, a 52-year-old man from Prior Lake, Minn., had left the scene but was taken into custody after a witness identified him at a point where tubers on the river exit, said Sheriff Scott Knudson of the St. Croix County Sheriffs Office. The sheriffs office later identified him as Nicolae Miu and said he was due for a court appearance on Monday.

The authorities did not release the names of the victims. One of the victims, a 17-year-old from Stillwater, Minn., was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. Four additional victims were said to be in critical condition on Saturday but by Sunday were in stable condition, the authorities said.
Lets be aware that this a new normal of incredibly catastrophic events, which are going to hit our most vulnerable communities, said Alex Gibson, the executive director of Appalshop, the arts and education center in Whitesburg, Ky., comparing the litany of flooding disasters in eastern Kentucky with the devastation faced by poor island nations around the world in the era of climate change.

In the vast stretches of the state now contending with the aftermaths of flooding and tornadoes, Mr. Bailey said, the infrastructure had already been inadequate and the communities had been impoverished. We have people who are living on the edge, he said.

So much of the wealth has been extracted, he said. In a topography that has been stripped, literally, of trees and mountainsides, flooding in particular becomes more likely, more risky, more dangerous  thats what were seeing.

And as much as the communities want to rely on one another to recover from the devastation, it would be difficult to summon the necessary resources on their own.

The strain has been immense, Judge Mosley, who is also an officer in the Kentucky Association of Counties, said of the widespread consequences from major disasters.

Without outside support, this would be unsurvivable, he said. The federal governments resources and our faith in God is the only thing thats going to get us through this.

Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.
As international outrage swelled, Ukraine on Saturday called on global organizations including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to quickly investigate an explosion that ripped through a Russian prison camp holding dozens of Ukrainian soldiers, leaving only charred bodies and twisted metal bunks.

The Ukrainians moved swiftly and forcefully on Friday to counter the official Russian narrative that the Ukrainians had used American-made precision weapons to strike the prison and kill their own fighters to deter any who might consider surrendering to Russian forces.

Ukrainian officials said the notion that they would murder their own soldiers  many of whom fought to defend the Azovstal Iron and Steel works in the city of Mariupol and are widely regarded as national heroes  was absurd.
Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that there is mounting evidence that an explosion at a Russian penal colony that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners was ordered and carried out by Russian forces, citing newly released satellite photos as evidence that the soldiers were not killed in a missile strike.

Since the explosion late Thursday at the camp in Russian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, both sides have traded accusations over what was the source of the blast that killed at least 50 prisoners, many considered national heroes after being captured during a siege of a steelworks in the coastal city of Mariupol.

While the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Sunday it would allow the International Committee for the Red Cross and the United Nations access to the blast site, neither organization confirmed the claim. The Red Cross said in a statement Saturday that its request to visit had not been granted and did not immediately respond to the Russian statement.
He has located these textures around the world  in the Bronx, New York; Naples, Italy; Havana  translating these degraded environments into deeply felt portraits of human movements. Like Julie Mehretu, Parla challenges the historical parameters of abstraction, but he works in a realist style, a focus that goes back to his earliest days of painting burners  large, elaborate wall works with aerosol  in Miami and Atlanta in the late 1980s and early 90s. In terms of visual information, the wall, for Parla, is of as crucial importance as the line or brush stroke or any other mark.

Polarities is the first body of work he has completed and exhibited since his hospitalization. In its mere existence, it defies his doctors prognosis that he would likely not be able to paint again. Not that his recovery was easy. Known for his dynamic style of mural making  leaping off scaffolding while keeping his brush in contact with the canvas to achieve continuous, loping arcs, as he did for One: Union of the Senses (2015), a 90-foot mural in the lobby of One World Trade Center, in Manhattan  Parla found himself barely able to walk a few steps without being exhausted.

Eventually one of the doctors brought me watercolors and watercolor paper, and I was able to do these tiny landscape paintings, and that really helped me to feel, OK, I can still color and I can still make lines, but I had atrophy  my brother and one of the doctors would help me grasp brushes or pens because my hands didnt have the strength, he said. By the time he was discharged, in 2021, Parla had been inside a hospital in New York for five months.
Over the last decade, tech companies and education reformers have pushed schools to adopt software systems that can catalog and categorize students classroom outbursts, absenteeism and learning challenges. The intent of such tools is well meaning: to help educators identify and intervene with at-risk students. As these student-tracking systems have spread, however, so have cyberattacks on school software vendors  including a recent hack that affected Chicago Public Schools, the nations third-largest district.

Now some cybersecurity and privacy experts say that the cyberattack on Illuminate Education amounts to a warning for industry and government regulators. Although it was not the largest hack on an ed tech company, these experts say they are troubled by the nature and scope of the data breach  which, in some cases, involved delicate personal details about students or student data dating back more than a decade. At a moment when some education technology companies have amassed sensitive information on millions of school children, they say, safeguards for student data seem wholly inadequate.

There has really been an epic failure, said Hector Balderas, the attorney general of New Mexico, whose office has sued tech companies for violating the privacy of children and students.

In a recent interview, Mr. Balderas said that Congress had failed to enact modern, meaningful data protections for students while regulators had failed to hold ed tech firms accountable for flouting student data privacy and security.
An estimated 200,000 Koreans have been adopted globally since 1953, roughly three-quarters of them by parents in the United States, said Eleana J. Kim, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging.

The aftermath of the Korean War left some children, many of foreign paternity, abandoned because of poverty and racial prejudice, she said. During the subsequent decades, in the absence of South Koreas welfare support for poor families, children born in poverty were quickly shuttled to overseas adoption agencies, which viewed South Korea as the main source of adoptable children.

In the United States, the number of babies available for adoption dropped in the 1970s, and American families turned to those agencies. Today, Korean adoptees remain the nations largest group of transracial adoptees.

Food is a complex part of the adoption experience for many people born abroad because of the tight connection between cultural identity and cooking, said Kim Park Nelson, an associate professor of ethnic studies at Winona State University, the author of Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences and Racial Exceptionalism and a Korean adoptee herself.

The most common example I hear, and what I have experienced, is being asked if I like kimchi, Dr. Park Nelson said. I do, but not all adoptees are crazy about kimchi.

There is almost a nationalistic connection between kimchi and Korea, she added. Its like a test question: Are you actually Korean?
That afternoon, he left and was stopped by New York City police officers after failing to obey a stop sign. He was arrested after the police determined that he was driving without a license and that his license had been suspended, the complaint said.

The police found a suitcase on the rear seat of the car, containing the AK-47 with an obliterated serial number, the complaint said. The rifle was loaded with a round in the chamber and a magazine attached, along with a second, separate magazine and about 66 rounds of ammunition. The rifle had markings showing it was made by Norinco, a Chinese state-owned manufacturer of firearms and military supplies.

The complaint does not identify Ms. Alinejad, an American citizen, but she said in a phone interview on Sunday that she was told by the authorities that the man in question was outside her house. She also said she had home security footage showing him outside her front door.

I came here in America to be safe, she said. First, they were trying to kidnap me. And now I see a man with a loaded gun trying to enter my house. I mean, its shocking.
Take my case: Pregnancy in organ transplant recipients like me is a high-risk endeavor. Should I choose to become pregnant one day, my pregnancy will need to be carefully considered and closely monitored. Many transplant recipients and a slew of others living with chronic health conditions are on medications that have irreversible and negative effects on a fetus, and in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, they would need access to abortion. Pregnancy can also threaten our transplanted organs.

Even in anti-abortion states where abortion is still legal in the case of a life-threatening situation, what constitutes life-threatening is narrow. Cancer likely isnt threatening enough to warrant terminating a pregnancy. Bleeding out might be, but doctors and hospitals will have to make that call in real time by consulting their lawyers. Then theres the cruel truth disabled people know better than most: Your health can be harmed in life-altering ways without causing what doctors call imminent death.

Disabled people have long been sexually infantilized, opening the door for paternalism to run roughshod over our bodies and lives. We are more than three times as likely to be victims of sexual violence and rape as our nondisabled peers. The same movement that has fought to block access to abortion throughout history has sought to control and brutalize disabled pregnant people and parents by engaging in state-sanctioned eugenics.

In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, the Supreme Court gave states permission to sterilize those held in public institutions. At the center of the case was a woman who had been raped and become pregnant. She was committed to an institution, where she was forced to give up her baby, and then she became the focus of a burgeoning eugenics movement that sought to sterilize disability, poverty and color out of American society.

Control over the reproduction of disabled people still exists. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a 2007 opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, affirmed the governments interest in forcing two disabled people to have abortions, saying that accepting the wishes of patients who lack (and have always lacked) the mental capacity to make medical decisions does not make logical sense and would cause erroneous medical decisions. In June he made a total moral about-face as one of the five Supreme Court justices to overturn our individual liberty by withdrawing our constitutional right to an abortion.

The loss of access to legal abortion has entirely altered the process of deciding whether to have children. It has magnified both the danger of getting pregnant and my fear. It is deeply ironic that the people who swore they were fighting for my right to exist now threaten my right to thrive and survive. The hypocrisy is enraging.
As gently as I can, I tell them that when they are ready  as anyone really can be for any of this  we will stop the medications and the tubes that are prolonging life. I tell them that the bedside nurse will give other meds, often morphine or a similar drug, to make sure that their loved one is not in pain. Sometimes they ask if this medication will hasten death, and I explain that it can, but that our primary goal is always to relieve discomfort.

We even have a term for this balance, the principle of double effect  as doctors, we accept the risk of a negative consequence like hastening death, so long as our intended outcome is to help the patient by alleviating symptoms. The pain-relieving meds that we administer do not themselves cause death; instead they ensure that our patients are as comfortable as they can be while dying from their underlying disease.

Some family members ask us to stop everything all at once. Others ask for a longer process, to stop one medicine and then another. Someone recently asked the nurse to let every medication run out and not to replace the IV bags. Some ask us to remove the breathing tube; others do not. I am often surprised to what extent people have ideas about what feels right to them, about how the unimaginable should play out. Sometimes there is music. Jerry Garcia. Beethoven. For others, this is all one decision too many, and they sit in silence.

A resident doctor in training came to me recently after one such family meeting, worried that by telling a family that their loved one was dying, he had made it true. If we define dying solely by physiology, by a falling blood pressure or oxygen level, then perhaps that concern is valid. But if we broaden our definition, if we think of dying in the intensive care unit as something that begins when an acceptable outcome is no longer possible, then we are acknowledging the inevitable.

Which is what I told my patients wife that day outside his room. We had given her husband every chance to rebound, to show us that he could make it through, but the insults his body faced were too great. We could press on, but to what end? He would never make it home, never be able to do the things that made his life worth living.

She was right: The timing of this conversation was, in a way, arbitrary. Had I been dealing with a patient in extremis, I might not have stopped her outside the room that day. But once we recognized the reality of her husbands medical condition, what choice was there?
Nixons new order reached into the Supreme Court, too, just as he said it would. His predecessors had made their first nominations to the court by the fluid standards presidents tended to apply to the process: Dwight Eisenhower wanted a moderate Republican who seemed like a statesman, John Kennedy someone with the vigor of a New Frontiersman, Johnson an old Washington hand who understood where his loyalties lay. For his first appointment, in May 1969, Nixon chose a little-known federal judge, Warren Burger, with an extensive record supporting prosecutorial and police power over the rights of the accused.

When a second seat opened a few months later, he followed the same pattern, twice nominating judges who had at one point either expressed opposition to the integration of the races or whose rulings were regarded as favoring segregation. Only when the Senate rejected both of them did Nixon fall back on Harry Blackmun, the sort of centrist Ike would have loved.

Two more justices stepped down in September 1971. Again Nixon picked nominees who he knew would be tough on crime and soft on civil rights  and by then, he had a more expansive agenda in mind. It included an aversion to government regulation of the private sector  and so one pick was the courtly corporate lawyer Lewis Powell, who had written an influential memo that year to the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce advocating a robust corporate defense of the free enterprise system. Another item on Nixons agenda was to devolve federal power down to the states. William Rehnquist, an assistant attorney general committed to that view, was his other pick. The two foundational principles of an increasingly energized conservatism were set into the court by Nixons determination to select his nominees through a precisely defined litmus test previous presidents hadnt imagined applying.

Our view of the Burger court may be skewed in part because Nixons test didnt include abortion. By 1971, abortion politics had become furiously contested, but the divisions followed demography as well as political affiliation: In polling then (which wasnt as representative as it is today), among white people, men were slightly more likely than women to support the right to choose, the non-Catholic college-educated more likely than those without college degrees, non-Catholics far more likely than Catholics, who anchored the opposition. So it wasnt surprising that after oral arguments, three of the four white Protestant men Nixon had put on the court voted for Roe and that one of them wrote the majority opinion.

Justice Blackmun was still drafting the courts decision in May 1972 when Nixon sent a letter to New Yorks Catholic cardinal, offering his admiration, sympathy and support for the church stepping in as defenders of the right to life of the unborn. The Republican assemblywoman who had led New Yorks decriminalization of abortion denounced his intervention as a patent pitch for the Catholic vote. That it was. In November, Nixon carried the Catholic vote, thanks to a move that gave the abortion wars a partisan alignment they hadnt had before.

Nixons version of law and order has endured, through Ronald Reagans war on drugs, George H.W. Bushs Crime Control Act of 1990 and Bill Clintons crime bill to broken windows, stop-and-frisk and the inexorable rise in mass incarceration. The ideological vetting of justices has increased in intensity and in precision.
Only the broad contours of Ms. Johnsons life are known. She was 22 years old when accused, may have had a mental disability and never married or had children, which were factors that could make a woman a target in the trials, Ms. LaPierre said.

The governor of Massachusetts at the time granted Ms. Johnson a reprieve from death, and she died in 1747 at the age of 77. But unlike others convicted at the trials, Ms. Johnson did not have any known descendants who could fight to clear her name. Previous efforts to exonerate people convicted of witchcraft overlooked Ms. Johnson, perhaps because of administrative confusion, historians said: Her mother, who had the same name, was also convicted but was exonerated earlier.

The effort to clear Ms. Johnsons name was a dream project for the eighth-grade civics class, Ms. LaPierre said. It allowed her to teach students about research methods, including the use of primary sources; the process by which a bill becomes a law; and ways to contact state lawmakers. The project also taught students the value of persistence: After an intensive letter-writing campaign, the bill to exonerate Ms. Johnson was essentially dead. As the students turned their efforts to lobbying the governor for a pardon, their state senator, Diana DiZoglio, added an amendment to the budget bill, reviving the exoneration effort.

These students have set an incredible example of the power of advocacy and speaking up for others who dont have a voice, Ms. DiZoglio, a Democrat whose district includes North Andover, said in an interview.
At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, the first 911 call was made after about five minutes, and the first officers arrived at the school less than four minutes later. Still, 20 children and six adults were killed. In Parkland, Fla., the gunman killed 17 people in just under six minutes.

Even in Uvalde, where the police have been criticized for waiting on site for more than an hour, the gunman is believed to have fired more than 100 rounds within the first three minutes, according to a state report.

Time is all that matters, Mr. Irvine said. Its that simple.

Of the eight school employees being trained, Mandi was in some ways an anomaly. She was the only woman in the group. Several others were administrators  a superintendent, a principal  rather than teachers.

In other ways, she was typical.

Everyone had some comfort with guns. Mandi described hunting with her husband and shooting at a gun range on weekends. She said she had taken other firearms classes, including concealed carry training, one of the prerequisites to participate in FASTER.

Like others, she worked in a rural area, where carrying guns in schools is more common, in part because of longer response times by the police. One group in the training, from Oklahoma, estimated the response time in its area was at least 22 minutes.

The last thing I want is for people to think we are just a bunch of gunslinging teachers who want an excuse to carry guns in schools, said Mark, a middle-school teacher in Ohio who described measuring his schools hallway to determine how far he needed to learn to shoot.
A fast-growing wildfire fueled by strong winds from thunderstorms and high temperatures in Northern California has grown to 55,000 acres, becoming the states largest wildfire so far this year and forcing evacuations in rural neighborhoods.

The blaze, named the McKinney fire, began burning through dry timber on Friday in the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County, Calif., near the Oregon state line, the authorities said. On Monday, the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office said two people had been found dead over the weekend in a vehicle in a driveway, west of the Klamath River, the first fatalities that have been associated with the fire.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency for Siskiyou County on Saturday, and nearly 3,000 people have been ordered to evacuate since then.
American officials doubt the Chinese military will interfere with Ms. Pelosis ability to land safely in Taiwan, betting that Beijing does not want a direct confrontation with the United States. But they say it is possible that Chinese planes will escort Ms. Pelosis plane, as a demonstration of control over the air routes.

Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions Card 1 of 4 Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions What does China mean to Taiwan? China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy of 23 million people, as its territory and has long vowed to take it back, by force if necessary. The island, to which Chiang Kai-sheks Chinese forces retreated after the Communist Revolution of 1949, has never been part of the Peoples Republic of China. Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions What does Xi Jinping want? Chinas leader has made it clearer than any of his predecessors that he sees unifying Taiwan with China to be a primary goal of his rule  and a key to what he calls Chinas national rejuvenation. Mr. Xi is also keen to project an image of strength ahead of his expected confirmation to an unprecedented third term this fall. Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions How is the U.S. involved? In an intentionally ambiguous diplomatic arrangement adopted in 1979, the United States maintains a one China policy that acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijings claim over Taiwan. U.S. leaders have remained vague about how they would help Taiwan if China attacked, but President Biden has pledged to defend the island. Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions Why are tensions rising now? Speaker Nancy Pelosis recent trip to Taiwan  the highest level visit to the island by an American official since 1997  has ignited regional tensions, prompting China to conduct its largest-ever military exercises near Taiwan. A chorus of official Chinese bodies portrayed her trip as part of an American effort to sabotage Chinas efforts at unification with Taiwan.







That sets up the possibility, officials fear, of an accident  akin to the kind that happened two decades ago when a Chinese air force plane collided with, and brought down, an American spy plane, leading to an early crisis in the George W. Bush administration.

Officials say they have no reliable intelligence on what the Chinese government may be planning. But they expect that the largest reaction could come after Ms. Pelosi departs, and that it could include military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait, cyberattacks or communications cutoffs that would demonstrate Beijings ability to choke off the island, which is also the worlds  and Chinas  largest supplier of the most advanced semiconductors in the world.

In recent weeks, American intelligence officials have warned that China may be preparing to act against the island sooner rather than later. Intelligence analysts have concluded that China may fear that the United States commitment to help turn the island into a porcupine  armed with weaponry of the kind provided to Ukraine to fend off the Russians  may make Mr. Xi and his military think that they need to move in the next 18 months, lest they lose military advantage.

A move could involve an incident in the Strait or an effort to squeeze and isolate the island, without a full invasion. But the warning is based more on analysis, officials say, than new intelligence discoveries.

William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, said in July that China appeared unsettled by Russias struggles in Ukraine and may conclude that it needs to develop overwhelming capabilities before considering any move against Taiwan.
Mr. Ferlazzo, a 32-year-old factory worker, is being held on charges of homicide and robbery because he took Mr. Ogorchukwus cellphone after the episode. Matteo Luconi, the chief police investigator in Macerata overseeing the case, said in a telephone interview that an autopsy later this week would establish the cause of death. Nothing has emerged from investigations to suggest elements of racial hatred, he added. A statement issued by the police said the motive for the murder appeared to be traceable to petty reasons.

In addition to its violence and the bystanders, the killing touched a nerve because the Marches region, where Civitanova is, has been the scene of heinous crimes against migrants. In February 2018, an Italian right-wing sympathizer shot and wounded six African immigrants in Macerata, some 19 miles inland from Civitanova Marche, marking the city as a bastion of intolerance. Two years earlier, a Nigerian man was killed in the city of Fermo, just south of Civitanova, after he tried to defend his wife from racist slurs.

Italians have been leaving bouquets of flowers, potted plants and scribbled notes at the scene of the deadly beating. Stop racism, read one note.

In an email, Mr. Ferlazzos lawyer, Roberta Bizzarri, said her client, his girlfriend and his mother all felt pain because of what had transpired, adding that Mr. Ferlazzo had overt psychiatric disorders, a recognized borderline diagnosis. She also said that this very sad story was not a case of racism.

Fabrizio Ciarapica, the mayor of Civitanova Marche, met with Mr. Ogorchukwus widow on Saturday, and on Sunday, the municipal administration approved a motion to assist the family. Funds have been set aside to help pay for the funeral, and a bank account was opened for donations. The community is always ready to extend a hand to those in need, Mr. Ciarapica said in a statement sent on Sunday.

The mayor also pledged to protect the image and values of Civitanova, which has always been a civilized, welcoming, generous, peaceful and supportive city and which is dismayed and grieved by an affair foreign to its character and soul.
Prisoners recently released from a Russian prison camp where an explosion killed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers late Thursday have described torture and hellish conditions. Guards provided just enough food for prisoners to survive and meted out regular beatings, they say.

Stas Hlushko, 37, a civilian prisoner released on July 4 from the camp, Correctional Colony No. 120, said the blast site was far from the barracks where hundreds of prisoners are being held.

He described how new inmates were beaten upon arrival.

As prison guards explained to us, its important for the prisoner to be humiliated at once, he said. The torture of us civilians was not so bad as for soldiers. He described how camp guards would create a corridor and force new prisoners to run the gantlet as he was beaten with chains, metal pipes and so on.
Anatoly Chubais, who resigned as a top Kremlin adviser shortly after Russias invasion of Ukraine, was hospitalized on Sunday in a western European country in critical condition with the symptoms of a rare neurological disorder. Mr. Chubais had suddenly grown numb in his hands and legs, his wife, Avodtya Smirnova, told the Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak.

Mr. Chubais, 67, told Ms. Sobchak himself that he had been diagnosed with the rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, in which the bodys immune system attacks its nerves.

According to Ms. Sobchaks news channel, specialists in chemical protection suits examined the room in which he suddenly became ill.
However, the I.C.R.C. said hours later that  despite having requested access to the site, the wounded and the dead as soon as it learned of the attack  it still had not yet received any confirmation that access would be granted.

It noted in a statement that all parties to the conflict have an obligation under international law to give the I.C.R.C. access to prisoners of war.

We are ready to deploy to Olenivka, the I.C.R.C. said, adding that it already had medical, forensic and humanitarian teams in the vicinity. It is imperative that the I.C.R.C. be granted immediate access to the Olenivka facility, and other places where the wounded and dead might have been transferred.

The Olenivka facility is a few miles from the front line in Donetsk, where fighting has intensified following a brief pause in July after the Russians gained control over nearly all of the neighboring Luhansk Province.
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Russia has published a list of 32 New Zealanders banned from entering the country, including city mayors, officials, academics, Defence Force brass, and journalists accused of forming a "Russophobic agenda". The Russian Foreign...
Rumble 04 Aug 2022

Rain is helping keep the growth of the McKinney fire down, but hotter, drier days ahead is expected to cause increased activity in..
The UN said two people died after peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the east of the country. It comes after heightened..

Deutsche Welle 31 Jul 2022
Opalesque Industry Update - Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries, today announced the launch of its new, updated global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy. The new strategy further advances Fitch's DEI efforts by strengthening the accountability of all employees, increasing transparency and reinforcing a companywide commitment to gender equity and expanded opportunities for underrepresented talent. "We are very pleased to launch our updated DEI strategy which builds on the existing culture at Fitch, said Paul Taylor, President and chief executive officer of Fitch Group. Everyone in the company has an important role to play in taking our DEI efforts forward. This strategy will serve as a comprehensive roadmap for fostering a stronger, more inclusive culture where all people at Fitch are able to reach their full potential." The strategy incorporates feedback from hundreds of Fitch colleagues, internal and external data insights, and market comparisons. The multi-faceted plan establishes a set of DEI guiding principles for the whole business and five core strategic pillars to drive change. It also includes measurable objectives to provide actionable goals for the coming year. In recent years, Fitch has prioritized the expansion of its DEI initiatives with the goal of retaining, developing and advancing diverse talent. In September 2021, the company welcomed Dr. Maria Angelica Perez as its first Head of DEI, followed by the appointment of Andrew Johnson, Jr. as non-executive advisor on DEI.
Opalesque Industry Update - Hedge fund redemptions accelerated slightly in May 2022 to -$27.53 billion (-0.54% of industry assets), according to the Barclay Fund Flow Indicator published by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. A -$26.36 billion trading loss in May brought total hedge fund industry assets to $5.07 trillion as the month ended, down from $5.11 trillion a month earlier. Despite the broader industry trend, some hedge fund subsectors did manage to add to assets in May.?? In dollar-terms Multi-Strategy funds led the way adding $2.90 billion while Merger Arbitrage funds brought in $812.81 million, Option Strategies funds saw $760.22 million in inflows, Convertible Arbitrage funds added $318.52 million and Equity Long/Short funds brought in $283.52 million. On a percentage basis the subsectors that fared best were Option Strategies funds (+1.39% of sector assets); Emerging Markets - Latin America funds (+1.39% of sector assets); and Convertible Arbitrage funds (+0.85% of sector assets). Fixed Income funds suffered the most in dollar net outflows, shedding -$16.50 billion during the month. Other subsectors seeing significant outflows in May included Emerging Markets - Asia funds with -$5.57 billion in redemptions, Balanced (Stocks & Bonds) funds shedding -$3.54 billion, Macro funds with -$3.11 billion exiting and Equity Long Bias funds with -$1.81 billion in outflows. On a percentage basis, the subsectors hardest hit were Emerging Markets - Asia (-3.25% of sector assets); Fixed Income funds (-1.70% of sector assets); Macro funds (-1.52% of sector assets); and Emerging Markets - Eastern Europe (-1.32% of sector assets). For the fourth month in a row, the managed futures industry has had a better result, recording $1.79 billion in inflows in May, during which all four CTA subsectors had net inflows for the month. "During the month of May, capital continued to ebb from Hedge Funds and flow into CTAs, though not in equal measure nor velocity. Thus far in 2022, the Managed Futures industry has grown its asset base by around $10.40 billion. A portion of which has undoubtedly come from the $77 billion investor flight from other Hedge Fund strategies," remarked Ben Crawford, Head of Research at BarclayHedge. "If there's anything surprising here it is that the pace of rotation into managed futures funds appears to be slowing when we might reasonably have expected to see an acceleration." All four CTA subsectors tracked indicated net inflows in May. Systematic CTAs brought in $907.81 million (+0.26% of assets); Multi-Advisor Futures Funds added $794.77 million (+4.83% of assets); Discretionary funds saw $588.12 million in inflows (+2.79% of assets); and Hybrid funds added $294.10 million, (+1.42% of assets).?? 12-Month Flow Trends For the 12 months through May, the global hedge fund industry experienced $23.68 billion in inflows. A $258.08 trading loss over the period brought total industry assets to the $5.07 trillion figure as May ended,?? up from $4.32 trillion a year earlier. Multi-Strategy funds continued to lead the pack of hedge fund subsectors with $43.20 billion (+9.97% subsector assets). Sector Specific funds are up a combined $19.19 billion (+5.61% subsector assets) followed by Merger Arbitrage funds which have swollen to $11.79 billion (+13.48% subsector assets). On a proportional basis, Convertible Arbitrage funds have fared best over the past year, picking up $5.75 billion in new capital (+18.59% in assets). Hedge fund subsectors with the largest 12-month dollar outflows were led by Fixed Income funds which have seen a combined -$23.32 billion in net redemptions (-2.55% of assets). Emerging Markets - Global funds have lost capital to the tune of -$16.33 billion (-8.15% of assets) and Macro funds became -$12.20 billion lighter (-6.09% of assets). Percentage-wise, however, the worst hemorrhages have been seen amongst Emerging Markets - Latin America funds (-12.92% of assets) and Emerging Markets - Global funds (-8.15% of assets), followed closely by Macro funds with their losses previously noted. Over the 12 months through May, the Managed Futures industry has sopped up an additional $4.02 billion in net inflows. 12-months' cumulative trading profits of $44.60 billion elevated industry assets to the $384.41 billion level, up from $339.94 billion a year earlier. Three of the four CTA subsectors have benefited from net inflows over the trailing 12-month period. Discretionary CTAs have benefited most, both in absolute and relative terms, adding $3.49 billion (+22.64% of assets) over the trailing 12 months. Multi-Advisor Futures Funds have also prospered, netting an additional $2.48 billion (+18.28% of assets). Hybrid CTAs scooped up a new $1.26 billion, swelling their capital base by +7.11% of assets. The lone subsector experiencing 12-month redemptions through May was Systematic CTAs which saw -$795.22 million in outflows. However, it should be noted that this amounted to an asset reduction of only 25 basis points. Article source - Opalesque is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China's water and meteorological authorities and agencies issued alerts on Wednesday for rainstorms and mountain torrents in some parts of the country.

From 8 p.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Thursday, rainstorms are expected in parts of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan, according to a blue alert for rainstorms issued by the National Meteorological Center.

Heavy downpours of up to 200 mm may lash parts of these regions, and some areas will also experience short-term heavy rainfall, with over 70 mm of hourly precipitation, accompanied by thunderstorms and gales, the center said.

China's Ministry of Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration also jointly issued a blue alert for possible mountain torrents on Wednesday.

From 8 p.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Thursday, some regions in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning will be prone to mountain torrents, according to the alert.

A yellow alert was issued for the western part of Hebei, which is highly likely to see mountain floods.

The authorities have advised related government agencies to prepare for heavy rainfall, strengthen real-time monitoring and flood warnings, and brace for the evacuation of local residents.

Drivers have been alerted to watch out for flooding and traffic jams, while orders have been given to check the drainage systems in cities, farmland and fishponds.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. 
General Capital Limited advises that its subsidiary General Finance Limited, a licensed Non-bank Deposit Taker, has uploaded its quarterly report for the quarter ended 30 June 2022 to the Disclose Register.

The unaudited quarterly report shows that General Finances business has continued to grow with the achievement of new record levels in its total assets ($112m, up 13% from 31 March 2022) and quarterly NPAT ($672k, up 75% from average quarterly NPAT in the financial year ended 31 March 2022).

Mr. Brent King, Managing Director, explained that this report is required as General Finance Limited holds a Non-bank Deposit Taker licence and the reporting is a requirement of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.

We will continue to advise the market each time General Finance Limited uploads a document to the Disclose Register, said Mr. King.

The information can be found at www.disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz.

For further information contact:

Brent King

Managing Director

General Capital Limited

+64 21 632 660

Brent.King@gencap.co.nz

29 July 2022

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BEIRUT (AP)  A section of Beirut's massive port grain silos, shredded in the 2020 explosion, collapsed in a huge cloud of dust on Sunday after a weekslong fire, triggered by grains that had fermented and ignited in the summer heat.

The northern block of the silos toppled after what sounded like an explosion, kicking up thick gray dust that enveloped the iconic structure and the port next to a residential area. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Assaad Haddad the General Director of the Port Silo, told The Associated Press that everything is under control but that the situation has not subsided yet. Minutes later, the dust subsided and calm returned.

However, Youssef Mallah, from the Civil Defense department, said that other parts of the silos' northern block were at risk and that other sections of the giant ruin could collapse.

The 50 year-old, 48 meter (157 feet) tall silos had withstood the force of the explosion two years ago, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.

In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for weeks, a nasty smell spreading around. The environment and health ministries last week issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

The fire and the dramatic sight of the partially blackened silo revived memories and in some cases, the trauma for the survivors of the gigantic explosion that tore through the port on Aug. 4, 2020.

Many rushed to close windows and return indoors after the collapse Sunday.

Rima Zahed, whose brother died in the 2020 blast and who has been part of a survivors' group lobbying for the preservation of the silos as a testament to the port explosion, blamed the government for not taking action to put out the weekslong fire.

We were talking about this three weeks ago, but they chose to do nothing and leave it on fire, she said. This shows the states failure.

When the fermenting grains ignited earlier in July, Lebanese firefighters and army soldiers had tried to put out the fire, but officials and experts told them to stop, fearing the additional moisture from the water would worsen the situation. The Interior Ministry said over a week later that the fire had spread, after reaching some electric cables nearby.

The silos continued smoldering for weeks as the stench of the fermented grains seeped into nearby neighborhoods. Residents and survivors of the explosion told the AP that seeing the smoking silos was akin to reliving their trauma of the port blast. The environment and health ministries last week instructed residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

The Lebanese Red Cross distributed K-N95 masks to those living nearby, and officials ordered firefighters and port workers to stay away from the immediate area near the silos.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told the AP earlier in July that the northern block of the silo had been slowly tilting over time but that the recent fire accelerated the rate and caused irreversible damage to the already weakened structure. He told the AP on Sunday that he sent warnings that other parts of the northern block may also collapse imminently

Durand has been monitoring the silos from thousands of miles away using data produced by sensors he installed over a year ago, and updating a team of Lebanese government and security officials on the developments in a WhatsApp group. He repeatedly warned that a collapse was imminent.

Last April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blasts victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the tragic incident.

The Beirut Port blast was one of the largest explosions in Lebanon's troubled history. It took place less than a year after an uprising rocked Lebanon, with hundreds of thousands protesting the country's entrenched sectarian political parties. The blast also precipitated Lebanon's economic crisis, costing billions of dollars in damages and destroying thousands of tons of grain. Three-quarters of the population now lives in poverty.

The silos, barely standing, have since become an iconic structure in the heart of the devastated port, surrounded to this day by crushed vehicles and warehouses, and piles of debris.

Sunday's collapse of a part of the silos' northern section comes just days ahead of the second anniversary of 2020 explosion.

The Lebanese probe has revealed that senior government and security officials knew about the dangerous material stored at the port, though no officials have been convicted thus far. The implicated officials subsequently brought legal challenges against the judge leading the probe, which has left the investigation suspended since December.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - A Libyan newspaper has highlighted the deadly clashes between armed groups in Tripoli and Misrata, about 220 km east of the Libyan capital, between supporters of Libya's two rival prime ministers, saying they have heightened fears of a general conflagration in the country
Photo: (Photo : Nicci Coertze-Kruger)

Miscarriage is when a baby dies in the womb or uterus before 20 weeks of pregnancy. For women aware of their pregnancies, approximately 10- to 15 percent of 100 pregnancies end up in miscarriage.

Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy. Most miscarriages are usually caused by a genetic abnormality that keeps the fetus from developing normally.

Many women are surprised by the intensity of emotions after a miscarriage as feelings can run from shock and sadness to irrational guilt and anxiety about future pregnancies. On the other hand, men struggle with feelings of loss and inadequacy as they are unsure how to help their partner through such a difficult period.

Women experience a roller coaster of emotion weeks after the miscarriage. Women who just had a miscarriage are going through hormonal shifts as the body readjusts to not being pregnant. A woman's changing hormones may intensify the emotion she is feeling, per Standford Children's Health.

Emotional instability and imbalance

Miscarriage grief is a real thing, but it is not often discussed. Many women who lose a baby are always told to try again and just move on with their lives; thus, the grieving process is silent and unsupported by many. Fortunately, many people are becoming more aware as time goes by that experiencing extreme grief after a miscarriage is normal, and people who miscarried need care and support.

Nancy Jo Reedy, an instructor who took nurse-midwifery education at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and a Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois in Chicago, said that miscarriage early on is like the worst period of a woman's entire life.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, about 85 percent of women who experience pregnancy loss will most likely have healthy pregnancies. For women with two or three miscarriages, the number is 75 percent, but in most cases, it is something they would not expect to happen again in the future. Reedy said that for women who have problems, there is a test that will help to avert another miscarriage, per Online Nursing.

Read Also: 5 Reasons Why Pregnant Women Get Miscarriage

Allowing oneself to feel and express emotions

According to a 2019 study, "Posttraumatic Stress, Anxiety and Depression Following Miscarriage and Ectopic Pregnancy: A Multicenter, Prospective, Cohort Study," almost a third of women who experienced early pregnancy loss met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder one month later, and around 18 percent nine months later.

Therefore, some women experience their bodies as traumatic sites after a miscarriage.

Men and women usually respond differently to a miscarriage. Men sometimes shift into problem-solving mode when encountering a major crisis. They may feel helpless when they can't fix or help their partner's grief. Miscommunication is a common problem during these times as a man will no longer talk about a baby if he sees his partner crying, and because he doesn't bring it up, the woman might feel her partner doesn't care when he does.

These stages of recovery are normal. Experts advise men to show how much they care and to open up and share thoughts and feelings, as this will help counter the effects of a miscarriage on a couple's relationships.

Most doctors suggest trying again after a woman has one normal menstrual cycle after the miscarriage. This usually occurs about 4 to 6 weeks after you've miscarried, per Very Well Mind.

Related Article: Miscarriage Emphathy Cards: 'Greeting Cards' By Psychologist Seek To Comfort Women, Couples Who've Had Miscarriages
Photo: (Photo : Public Domain Pictures)

A mom left behind her three children, ages ten, five, and four months old, after she got killed in a hit-and-run accident while crossing the road. Tributes flooded in for the 30-year-old victim named Keita Mullen.

Mullen was crossing the road in A638 High Street in Bawtry, Doncaster, together with a 33-year-old woman who suffered minor injuries. They were hit by a car that failed to stop, and Mullen died at the scene due to severe injuries.

The second victim was immediately taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The South Yorkshire Police were immediately called to the scene just after midnight on Sunday, and they believed that a Nissan Juke, traveling along High Street to the Great North Road, was the vehicle involved.

The vehicle didn't bother to stop and just fled the scene, per Yorkshire Live.

A mother and another woman knocked down in Doncaster

South Yorkshire Police have arrested a 49-year-old woman on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. According to the reports, she was released but is still under investigation.

Her family is now being supported by specialist officers who deal with the most urgent policing activities requiring immediate action and have requested their privacy be respected.

Hundreds of tributes have poured in for Mullen, whose death was a sad and tragic loss. The community extended their condolences to the family and children.

The Police Department is appealing for information following the crash. Its roads policing team continues to appeal for any dash cam footage that could help with the investigation. Anyone with information can call police on 101 quoting incident number 14 of 25 July 2022, per Mirror News.

Read Also: 2-Year-Old Baby Girl Hit By 4x4 Car, Suffered Broken Ankle; Culprit Still Unidentified

A hit-and-run accident

Hit and runs include any accident where a vehicle hits a person, object, or another vehicle, and the driver knowingly leaves the scene without providing their information.

There is more than one hit-and-run accident every minute in the U.S. In 2016, there were 2,049 known hit-and-run fatalities in America. On average, there are 682,000 hit-and-run accidents each year. New Mexico, Louisiana, and Florida have the highest hit-and-run fatality rates per capita. Hits and runs caused approximately 20 percent of pedestrian deaths in the last ten years.

According to Dr. David Yang, Executive Director of the (AAA) Automobile Association of America, hit-and-run crashes in the United States are trending in the wrong direction as deaths have soared by 7.2 percent since 2009. He added that while cars are getting safer, this particular safety concern has worsened.

According to Allstate reports, in 2010, some states considered an accident a hit-and-run, even if the accident did not occur on a road or highway, with 69 percent of hit-and-run claims involving parked cars. This number has undoubtedly gone up since then, per I Drive Safely, given the increase in accidents.

Related Article: 2 Kids Died After ATV Hit-and-Run Crash During the 4th of July Celebration Weekend
Photo: (Photo : Thomas Ulrich)

The lawsuits against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, stated it should be held accountable for causing and contributing to the burgeoning mental health crisis of teenagers in the United States.

The lawsuits alleged that Instagram caused disturbing eating disorders and mental health problems ranging from anxiety and depression, leading to addiction and suicide attempts in teenage girls.

Instagram is a social networking application allowing users to share photos and videos with friends. It can be downloaded for free from the usual application stores. The company was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who graduated from Stanford University, and now has approximately 200 million users. Facebook, the social networking giant, obtained the company in 2012. While the basic premise is sharing photos, the site's popularity comes from its picture-editing functionality, per Webwise.

Reason behind mental health problems and eating disorders

The first lawsuit was filed by the family of a girl identified as CN. Her mother, Candace Wuest of Kentucky, alleged that CN was only 12 when she started using Instagram and became addicted to it, and eventually attempted suicide.

According to the lawsuit, the way CN uses Instagram contributed to the decline in her mental health. It pushed the 12-year-old girl down a dangerous rabbit hole. The lawsuit accused Meta of strict liability, negligence, fraud, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment.

The lawsuit claimed that meta knew and was aware that its product contributes to teen depression, anxiety, suicide attempts, and self-harm. It questioned why it doesn't change these harmful product features and prevent utilizing algorithms in connection, at least, with teen accounts. The lawsuit further alleged that Meta's priority is growth and competition concerns; thus, it sees acquiring and retaining teens as necessary to its survival.

According to Good Morning America, the lawsuit sought unspecified monetary damages. It presented comparison pictures to show the alleged change in the teenage girl's appearance and depictions of the artwork she used to express her eating disorder and depression.

Read Also: Late night eating disorder may signal serious mental health problems

Attempted suicide and multiple hospitalization

On the other hand, the second lawsuit claimed the plaintiff, Alexandra Martin, also of Kentucky, started using Instagram when she was 12 and was encouraged by the social media platform to open multiple accounts despite her young age.

Martin, now 19 years old, saw eating disorder-related content in the application and began to show symptoms of anxiety and depression.

She was later diagnosed with Anorexia and had to be hospitalized and seek inpatient treatment for her condition. In 2019, the lawsuit stated that Martin attempted suicide twice and was hospitalized. She became addicted to Instagram and could not stop using it. The social media product directed and amplified high amounts of harmful content into Martin's Instagram accounts.

The lawsuit claimed that Martin was frequently bombarded with and exposed to content recommended or made available to her by Meta, which increasingly included underweight models, unhealthy eating, and content about eating disorders. This lawsuit included Martin's parents, Benjamin and Jennifer Martin, as plaintiffs and sought monetary damages.

The two families are represented in their lawsuits by Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center and filed their cases in federal court in San Francisco, per Reuters.

Related Article: Anorexia Is More Likely In Girls From High-Achieving Families And All Girls Schools
Photo: (Photo : Rodin Eckenroth)

Jack Black is an American actor and producer known for his comic roles in the movies "School of Rock," "Tenacious D in the Pick of Teny," and "Gulliver's Travels." He is also known for his voice-over roles in the Kung Fu Panda franchise.

Black was selected to appear in a commercial for a video game titled Pitfall in 1982. He studied at Culver City High School and Poseidon School and later attended Crossroads High School for Arts & Sciences, Santa Monica. Although Black grew up in Culver City, California, just miles from Hollywood, he didn't grow up in show business. Born to two full-time aerospace engineers, he describes his parents as unconventional and progressive.

The comedian said that his parents never told him "No," and there wasn't a lot of discipline. He describes his upbringing as a 60s era, free-thinking, new age with both advantages and disadvantages. It was a little chaotic, but it was also a lot of fun, and the actor was able to express himself and his creativity in cool ways.

The comedian didn't think he wanted to be a parent himself

While he has no complaints about his childhood, he feels that there are some things he'd like to try to make things a little different. He thinks it is only natural for parents to take the good and try to prevent the pitfalls their own parents might have fallen into.

The dad of two said that he didn't imagine becoming a parent because when he was working on the "School of Rock" movie, he was opposed to tying the knot and having a child. He thought then that he was not having kids and not getting married as it was not for him.

Jack recalls being intimidated by the child actors he was working with, but when they got on the set and had their first read-through with the cast, he thought it was all magical and claimed that it would work as they were on the same team.

"And I was like, 'What was I afraid of? I was born for this role 'cause I'm like a kid'," says the actor.

It ended up being a good lesson for the star, and he noted that just because you're afraid of a thing doesn't mean it's not going to be great, and for the actor, it was the best thing in his career, per Parents.

Read Also: Mean Teacher Problem: Smart Parenting Ways to Handle Children Complaining About 'Bad Teachers'

Getting more quality time with his teenage sons

Black, who shares teen sons, Samuel and Thomas, with his wife, Tanya Haden, noted that these days, he is grappling with squeezing in family time.

They liked to jam out a lot, listen to music, and dance around to music when the boys were younger, but now that they are teenagers, they can't stand my musical taste. They often wear headphone and doesn't even let me hear what they're listening to, says the actor.

The "Jumanji" actor said that transitioning to teenhood is not easy. He and his kids have had fun adventures, but it gets harder to get quality time with them as they get older because they've grown out of kids' activities. When he told his son that he was still his child and asked if they could still go to Disneyland, his son told him that it was not cool anymore. On the other hand, Black understands that it is just part of growing up, and you got to let them gradually leave the nest.

Related Article: Coping with Empty Nest Syndrome; Giving Kids Space to Grow and Flourish
Photo: (Photo : Moerschy)

Massiah Browne, a 7-year-old boy from Sacramento, was swimming with his relatives at the apartment complex where he lives with his mother and brother when he saw something out of the ordinary.

The second-grade student was playing in the pool when he saw a boy at the bottom, so he went to get him with the help of his 9-year-old relative, Savannah.

According to his mom, Tiara Delvalle, who rushed to the scene from her apartment after being alerted by relatives, her son swam down into 6-feet deep water to rescue the boy.

The California boy noticed the 3-year-old boy, a stranger to him, with his mouth and eyes open and dove down to get him, grabbing his arm and pulling him to the pool's surface. From there, Savannah pulled the boy onto the pool deck, where adults came to help, and then called 911.

"Savannah brought him to his mom, and then they did CPR on the boy, and then they called the doctor," Browne told Good Morning America (GMA).

A quick-thinking action that saved the three-year-old boy

A spokesperson for the Sacramento Fire Department confirmed that the first responder responded to a 911 call at the apartment complex's pool on July 19. They performed CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) on the boy, who was already breathing when first responders arrived.

The spokesperson said that the child was eventually transported in critical condition with advanced life support efforts provided by Sacramento firefighters.

Delvalle said that she was in touch with the mother of the boy, whom she reports is doing well, and called the boy's survival a miracle. The young boy's father, Marcus Browne, a boxer who competed for the United States at the 2012 London Olympics, said that even though his son swims like a fish, he was beyond surprised upon hearing of his heroic efforts.

Browne said he couldn't believe what his son, who also goes by his superhero nickname "Siah Fire," did and told him he was a good kid.

Read Also: Drowning: Leading Cause of Death in Young Children [Useful Tips to Prevent Them From Happening]

AAP safety tips to prevent drowning

Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report found that male toddlers and teenage boys are at the highest risk of drowning.

According to the AAP, close, constant, attentive, and capable adult supervision is a must when children are in and around water, as well as life jacket use among children and adults.

To prevent unsupervised access to water, parents must use four-sided pool fencing at least 4 feet tall with self-closing and self-latching gates that completely isolate the pool from the house and yard.

Parents must also remember that infant bath seats can tip over, and children can slip out of them and drown even in just a few inches of water in a bathtub. Infants should never be left alone in a tub, even for a minute.

The AAP also warned that containers, such as pails and buckets, should be emptied immediately after use.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S., drowning is the main cause of death for kids between the ages of 1 and 4 and the second leading cause of death for kids up to age 14.

Related Article: Amber and Granger Smith Raise Awareness on Drowning Prevention Following the Death of Their Son Years Ago
Photo: (Photo : Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

A quiet couple from Hawaii has been arrested for aggravated identity theft after assuming the profiles of two dead Texas babies to apply for Social Security cards, passports and driver's licenses. Federal agents also allege that they were Russian spies who worked in the U.S. government.

Per Hawaii News Now, Walter Glenn Primose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both 67 years old, stole the identities of Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague in the 1980s. Primrose then enlisted with the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1990s, earning a secret-level security clearance.

He retired in 2016 to work as a contractor with the U.S. Department of Defense in counter-terrorism and counter-drug operations. Former military lawyer Kevin O'Grady said that Primrose likely accessed information that could be valuable to the KGB.

Read Also: Ohio Baker Steals Baby's Identity to Claim $1.5 Million Pandemic Relief, DOJ Says

Raid on the couple's home reveals damning secrets

Investigators raided the couple's home Friday, July 22, and found some correspondence that the agents believe were Primrose's links to espionage. They also found photos of the pair dressed in KGB uniforms.

Their lawyer Megan Kau however, denied the links to the KGB and said that those photos in uniform were for fun. Kau also said that despite their fake identities, the pair have been law-abiding Hawaiians for decades.

"She is not a spy," Megan Kau, attorney for alleged Russian spy Gwynn Morrison claims her client posed in a KGB uniform for fun in the 1980's.

Gov't accuses her, husband Walter Primose of stealing the identities of dead babies. More: https://t.co/gwVHFQieMR #hawaiinewsnow pic.twitter.com/SkXNFuo6Bc  Lynn Kawano (@LynnKawano) July 28, 2022

According to CBS News, Primrose's stolen identity was actually that of an infant who died in 1967. Morrison took the identity of a baby who died in 1968. Both were from the same hospital.

They moved away from Texas in the 1980s, telling some family members that they were going into the witness protection program. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Myers said that they also told some colleagues that they will have to change their names for financial and legal reasons.

Court records show that "Fort and Montague" got married in 1988. The criminal complaint indicated that "Fort" was issued five U.S. passports and "Montague" had three, thus they were also charged with false statements in passport applications and conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S.

While under "witness protection," Morrison opened a post office box under her real name for family members to contact her. However, law enforcement was alerted to the couple's fraudulent activities when a family member sought police help when they could no longer communicate with the couple after Morrison's father died.

Myers has asked the Hawaii court to detain the pair without bail as they are major flight risks. The federal agents believe that Primrose has the skill and ability to communicate in secret thus it was imperative that he remains confined before his trial.

Father of the dead Texas baby shocked

John Montague told KIRO 7 that he could not believe someone stole Julie Lynn's identity. She was only three weeks old when she died.

"The odds are like one-in-a-trillion that they found her and used her name," the father said, adding that his child should have been left to rest in peace.

Tonda Ferguson, Montague's sister said that their mom, who died in 2003, would have been traumatized if she knew that her dead sister's identity was being used for fraudulent activities. Ferguson was 8 years old when she lost her sister and never got to see or hold her in person. They buried her in Burnet, Texas.

Meanwhile, neighbors of the couple, who refer to them as Bob and Lynn, were also in disbelief. Mai Ly Schara, whose house is next door, said that they were nerdy couples who kept to themselves but were friendly to them. Joshua Guieb-Pangan said the couple would wave to cars passing by their street.

Schara was not sure of Primrose's job but she thought it was military-related. On the other hand, she knew Morrison worked at the Waikiki hotel and tutored the kids in their neighborhood.

Related Article: Mom Pleads Guilty to Stealing Daughter's Identity, so She Could Attend College and Date Younger Men
Photo: (Photo : Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear issued an alarming update on Friday, July 29, saying that at least six children are among the dead in the devastating rainfall that deluged the eastern part of the state.

According to an NBC News tally, at least 19 people have died in the historic Kentucky flooding. Beshear said that the number of children who died increased to six after the bodies of four young siblings, who were swept away from their parents' grip by the floodwaters, had been found.

Beshear said it is hard and it is even harder for those families and those communities. He told everyone to keep praying, saying there is still a lot of people out there, still a lot of people unaccounted for and they are going to do their best to find them all.

Biden issues major disaster declaration in Kentucky

According to a news release from the White House, President Joe Biden also issued a major disaster declaration in the state of Kentucky on Friday, ordering federal aid to be sent to areas that were affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides.

Beshear said the state of Kentucky made around 50 air rescues and hundreds of boat rescues on Thursday, July 28. A total of 294 people have been rescued so far and 337 people are in shelters. He added that this situation is ongoing and they are still in the search and rescue mode. He pointed out that the water is not going to crest until tomorrow in some areas.

According to a report by the Associated Press, rescue teams, assisted by the National Guard, were searching for more missing people on Friday. Jerry Stacy, who is the emergency management director in Perry County, said that they have got volunteers coming in to help. He added that they do still have people missing and that is going to be their focus. He made it clear that they are doing everything in their power to find them.

Read Also: Florida Mom Allegedly Shot Dead By Woman in Backseat of Uber After They Got Into an Argument

State ordered evacuation of Panbowl Lake area due to flooding

It was not clear how many people were still unaccounted for on Friday morning. The state ordered on Thursday the evacuation of the Panbowl Lake area in eastern Kentucky's Breathitt County. Officials there are worried that the dam will breach.

The Kentucky Energy & Environment Cabinet recommended the evacuation after a muddy discharge was observed at the Panbowl Lake dam as well as rising waters at the North Fork of the Kentucky River, according to LEX18.

Beshear said they have already gone door to door and around to try to evacuate as many people who are willing to go. He made a plea to the residents, telling them to just get somewhere safe. The governor added that they don't want to lose any more people than they have to.

Related Article: Baby Formula Shortage Still Persists in the US as FDA Admits it Will Take a While to Fix This Problem
Photo: (Photo : Henryk Niestroj/Pixabay)

A 12-year-old girl had to run for her life while clutching her 11-month-old baby brother when a teen bully opened fire at her as she was in their front yard.

Rubi Olivas scrambled to get to safety while her mom, Rosa Olivas, went outside to check the commotion. Rosa was hit on her upper right thigh by one of the 14 bullets from the boy's gun and broke her femur. She has undergone surgery but the doctors told her the bullet will have to remain in her body.

The incident, which took place in Kansas, Missouri, was captured by the Olivas' front porch security camera, which showed the teenager running towards Rubi on their lawn. According to KCTV, it's still unknown how long the boy was waiting to spot Rubi.

Read Also: Mom of Alleged Bully Blamed for Burning Connecticut Boy Shows Proof Son Wasn't the Aggressor

The family knows the teen bully

Rosa's co-workers opened a GoFundMe for her to help with the medical bills. The mother also wrote a message in the fundraiser and said that they are fortunate no one from her children was hurt.

Her daughter, however, was indeed the target of the bully thus they are planning to move houses once she is discharged from the hospital.

"There is zero chance of us going back," Rosa said.

In a statement to the cops, Rosa said that they know the boy who attacked her daughter and he has since been arrested. However, the police did not divulge any details of the teen bully to the press since he is a juvenile. His case is being handled by the local juvenile court.

Rosa also reminded parents, whose children might have had encounters with bullies, to reach out and talk to the school to ensure the safety of their son or daughter. The mother believes that a guardian angel was keeping watch over her children that's why they were spared. She hailed her daughter as a champ and a hero for holding on to her brother amid the attack.

Bully's victim will never be the same

Meanwhile, a teen bullying victim did not have the same outcome as the Olivas as a 13-year-old girl from Hull in the U.K. will never be the herself again after she suffered a brain injury at the hands of a bully on the school playground.

Neeka Atkinson was dropped head first on the concrete ground and lost consciousness. She was rushed to the hospital after the attack, where doctors determined that she developed a blood clot in her brain and had to undergo surgery, per The Sun.

When she woke up from her two-week coma, Atkinson could no longer speak and her body's left side became paralyzed. Her family said she is fighting every day as she faces a long rehabilitation.



Atkinson's teen bully has been arrested while the school community protested at the Archbishop Sentamu Academy. Apparently, more than one child, who had been the instigator of bullying, was suspended in the school this year. The school, however, said it can't comment on the matter as the police are still investigating.

Related Article: Dad Sues School After Son Dies by Suicide Because He Was Bullied to Death by a Classmate
Photo: (Photo : CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)

A cluster of 23 infants in the state of Tennessee was diagnosed with a potentially severe childhood virus within a six-week span this spring, an unusually short amount of time for such a large number of cases to be recorded, doctors reported on Thursday, July 29.

According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infants aged five to three months old were infected with a type of parechovirus. This type of virus is not uncommon in kids, but it can be particularly dangerous for babies younger than six months, causing seizures, fevers, and brain inflammation.

All newborns developed a complication called parechovirus meningoencephalitis, an inflammation of the brain and brain lining. They were treated at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville. All but one of them were ultimately admitted to the hospital.

Report comes after CDC issued a nationwide health alert related to parechovirus

The CDC's report comes several weeks after the federal agency issued a nationwide health alert about an increase in cases of parechovirus meningoencephalitis. The CDC alert said that a particular strain of the parechovirus, called PeV-A3, was circulating in multiple states. The agency added in the alert that the strain is most often associated with severe illness.

Among the cases reported in Tennessee, 21 infants fully recovered from the virus, but one baby was left with lasting seizures. Another infant appears to have developed hearing loss, according to NBC News.

Dr. Ritu Banerjee, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and the author of the new report, said that what was surprising to them, and why they put this report together, is that they saw a higher than usual number of babies with this infection than they have seen in prior years.

Banerjee said 19 such cases were diagnosed at the children's hospital over five months back in 2018, the first year testing for the parechovirus was available. Only seven cases were diagnosed from 2019 through 2021.

Read Also: Little-known Adeno-viruses May Be Key to Solving Unexplained Hepatitis in Children

Uptick in parechovirus cases seen in the U.S.

The findings from Tennessee's health department and doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday. Fever, low appetite, and fussiness were the most common symptoms among babies admitted to the study.

It comes as pediatric infectious diseases doctors around the United States have been probing a potential uptick in parechovirus cases. CBS affiliate WFSB-TV reported earlier this month on a family mourning the death of a baby in Connecticut after the child suffered seizures from his infection.

Dr. Tomatis Souverbielle of Ohio's Nationwide Children's Hospital co-authored a study published last year that routinely tested infants in multiple parts of the body, including the blood and spinal fluid, looking for parechovirus. He said they had seen around 20 cases so far this year, starting mostly around June.

Related Article: Heartbroken Parents Call for Major Change After Teen Son Dies on School Trip in Germany
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday cut the sod for the construction of the 23 kilometre road that links Dome in the Greater Accra Region to the Kitase Road in the Eastern Region.



The 35 million dollar road project which is expected to be completed in 12 months would serve as an alternate route connecting Accra to Kumasi road, and the Accra-Aburi-Koforidua road.



The road would also provide access to the Ashesi University at Berekuso. The project is being funded by the Government with the support of the Kuwaiti Government. Messrs First Sky Construction Ltd, an indigenous company is undertaking the project.



Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony, President Akufo-Addo noted that the construction of that stretch of road had been the subject of promises made by various political parties and successive Governments over the years.



I am happy that it is under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the rehabilitation of the Dome to Kitase Road is finally being undertaken, he said.



The President told the gathering that the project was in line with the Governments agenda to provide good, quality road infrastructure to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country.



He highlighted some of the major road sector projects undertaken by his administration to facilitate transportation in the country.



These include the construction of 100 kilometres of roads and auxiliary infrastructure under the Kumasi Inner Ring Road and adjacent streets project. Under this project, roads in Nyhiaeso, Bantama, Oforikrom, Manhyia, Subin, Tafo Pankrono, Asokwa, Suame and Kwadaso have been constructed.



Other road projects include the construction of 22 kilometres of Cape Coast Inner City Roads under the Sino Hydro Project; the construction of 10 ten kilometres of Prestea and Heman Inner City Roads under the Sino Hydro Project; the completion of the 56.4km Jasikan-Dodo-Pepesu Road on the Eastern Corridor, constructed under the SinoHydro Project; and the 31 kilometre Agona Swedru to Bawjiase Road, which has been substantially completed by M/S China Railway Wuju.



The President also mentioned the ongoing works on the second 100-kilometre Kumasi Inner City Roads Project, which is being undertaken by M/S Sino Hydro, and is currently 10 percent complete.



He said the Government was working on the dualisation of Tema- Aflao Road, including the construction of interchanges at Kpone, Savana, Dawhenya and Prampram, as well as the widening of the Beach Road, from Independence Square to Tema, in the Greater Accra Region.



Work is also ongoing to upgrade the 15.4-kilometre Ofankor to Nsawam Road into a ten-lane facility, including the erection of interchanges at Amasaman, Pobiman, Medie and Nsawam, has just commenced.



Asphaltic overlay works throughout the country are also ongoing. One thousand and five kilometres were completed between 2017 and 2020, and 739kms of asphaltic overlay have been completed between 2021 and now. Governments target of constructing, in this second term, one thousand, five hundred kilometres (1,500kms) of asphalt overlay works is very much on course, he said.



President Akufo-Addo urged the Ministry of Roads and Highways to put in place the necessary traffic management measures to reduce any inconvenience to the public during the construction period.



He also asked the contractor to ensure the completion of the project on time and on budget.



The scope of work on the Dome-Kitase road project includes the provision of a 16.3km single carriageway way with asphaltic concrete surfacing, a 2.85km dual carriageway, a one kilometre two-lane single carriageway for Ashesi University, the provision of 1.45km three-lane single carriageway with auxiliary lanes for drop off/pick up on both sides, and a 1.9km two-lane carriageway link.



Road furniture, including street lighting, signs, markings and guard rails would be provided. The project would also provide traffic control systems, concrete curbs and pedestrian walkways, drainage structures, ducts for future utility line crossings and relocation of affected utility lines.





Source: GNA









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Brazil and Spain have reported their first monkeypox deaths.



A 41-year-old man in Brazil became the first fatality from the virus outside Africa. Spain announced its first death soon afterwards, which is also the first in Europe.



Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.



But infections are usually mild and the risk to the general population is low.



According to Brazil's health ministry, the victim there suffered from lymphoma and a weakened immune system, and "comorbidities aggravated his condition".



Brazil has so far reported 1,066 confirmed cases and 513 suspected cases of the virus. Data from Brazil's health ministry indicates that more than 98% of confirmed cases were in men who have sex with men.



Shortly afterwards, Spain's health ministry confirmed Europe's first death from the virus.



In a report, it said that of 3,750 monkeypox patients with available information, 120 or 3.2% had been hospitalised and one had died. It did not give any further information about the victim.



According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 21,148 cases worldwide.



The monkeypox virus is a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and experts say chances of infection are low.



It occurs mostly in remote parts of central and west African countries, near tropical rainforests.



Health officials are recommending people at highest risk of exposure to the virus - including some gay and bisexual men, as well as some healthcare workers - should be offered a vaccine.



Last week, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said declaring the outbreak a global health emergency would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.



Dr Tedros said the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally, but high in Europe.



But, he added, "this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups". The WHO is issuing recommendations, which it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop transmission of the virus and protect those most at risk.

Source: BBC









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Even though Ghana has been thwarted as the gate way to Africa, the country still lack behind certain policy directions in relation to visa application refund policy.



Currently, Ghana doesnt have any universal policy or guideline for it citizens to demand refund from embassies when their visa application forms are refused.



This development has empowered some embassies in the country to act evasive towards citizens by refusing them visas without any reasonable grounds.



Based on this, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Marrer Ghana Limited and Susatgad Boat Industries, Mr. Novihoho Afaglo is appealing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and Interior through the Ghana Immigration Service to immediately adopt a visa refund policy.



Mr. Afaglo said the policy will help citizens demand for visa refund when the embassies denied their visa applications wrongly or intentionally.



Speaking to the Republic Press, he said is high time the Ghana government adopt policies to check activities of these embassies and how they are treating Ghanaian citizens.



It is sometimes strange and unexplainable how these embassies deny visa applications forms to Ghanaians whose documents and paper works are genuine, he stated.



Mr. Afaglo mentioned Nigeria as one of the countries in African that has taking a step further in the visa refund policy.



The policy in Nigeria states that a refund will be issued, upon request, and with supporting proof and or evidence from the customer, for an acceptable reasons for a refund to be made.



Notwithstanding the above, Nigeria Immigration Services reserves the right to grant or deny refunds to anyone for any reason.



He therefore called on the government of Ghana to initiate programmes towards the immediate adoption and implementation of visa refund policy to easy the pressure of citizens whose applications are denied without refund.

Source: Philip Antoh









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All the factories financed by the Ghana Export and Import (GEXIM) Bank in the Central Region are in dire need of constant raw materials to produce at full capacities for the nation to enjoy their full benefits.



"It is interesting to believe that the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices Factory that is selling in Ivory Coast and USA produces only between eight and ten days monthly due to lack of raw materials," Mr Bright Evans Darkoh, the Head of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises at GEXIM has said.



Additionally, he pointed out that GEXIM had invested more than GH100 million into 12 companies under the One-District, One-Factory (1D1F) programme since its inception in the Central Region.



Mr Darkoh disclosed this on Wednesday, at an engagement with the 22 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) engagement with GEXIM as part of the ongoing Central Regional Trade, Tourism and Investment Fair 2022.



The forum which was on the theme: "Time with Ghana EXIM Bank", afforded the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) the opportunity to make presentations on economic resources in their districts with potential for support.



The MMDAs expositions did not only concentrate on grey areas but touched on companies that were financially distressed for capital injection.



Nevertheless, Mr Darkoh gave the assurance that the Bank had initiated raw materials development project hinged on a solid collaboration between the bank and stakeholders to develop adequate raw materials based on the six value chain.



That include; pineapple, coconut, watermelon, oil palm, lemon, and avocado.



Under the initiative, he said, farmers would be supported through an out-grower system to grow the crops and get ready market for their produce whilst it also provides technical assistance in good agronomic practices for them1qq1



Mr Donkoh also encouraged the companies and others to take advantage of the Banks support for exports through the export trade facility, receivable, and export guarantee to expand their operations.



The financial products seek to provide medium to long-term finance to exporters to set up new export projects, revitalization, acquisition of additional assets for expansion and or expansion of existing production companies for exports



Also, to give a strong boost to the acquisition, rehabilitation and expansion of farms or plantations to produce and processing of exportable products, acquisition of machinery spare parts and packaging materials for the manufacture of exportable products and other activities that may be acceptable to GEXIM.



Leveraging on the government's vision of Ghana 'Beyond Aid', Mr Darkoh reiterated the Banks commitment to unearthing unique platforms that add value to the non-traditional raw material resources in the Central Region to rake in foreign exchange for development.



That buttresses the mandate of GEXIM Bank to become a strong financial institution that will be a key engine in the development of Ghanas export trade, facilitate cross-border trade and make Ghana a pillar in regional and continental trade.



The move is anticipated to increase the number of factories and will in turn boost the countrys export earnings while cutting down on imports to spur industrialization.



"By doing so, jobs will be created, standard of living will be improved and poverty will be alleviated from our various communities," Mr Darkoh noted.



Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister called on all the 22 MMDAs to monitor the various 1D1F companies in their jurisdiction and support them to grow.



That will open partnerships leading to the transformation and development of the non-traditional business economy of the region to improve the livelihoods of the people.





Source: GNA









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Madam Esther Tawiah, Executive Director, Gender Centre for Empowering Development (GenCed), has advised gender-based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to strengthen their relations with female Members of Parliament (MPs) to enhance gender equality policies and legislation.



She explained that gender issues were cross-cutting and as such there was the need to expand the advocacy beyond the Gender Caucus to other Committees of Parliament.



This is the mistake a lot of us doing gender work makeWe assume that because there is a Gender Caucus, they should be able to understand all the gender issues, she said.



Madam Tawiah gave the advice at the maiden seminar on Gender Advocacy in Parliament, organized by the Parliamentary Network Africa (PN Africa) at Parliament House, in Accra.



PN Africa, is a civil society parliamentary monitoring organization working across Africa to promote open Parliament.



Madam Tawiah also emphasized the need to mainstream gender matters at all the various Committees of Parliament since gender issues cut across all the facets of society.



She said CSOs working on gender need to understand the parliamentary process to be able to make the necessary impact in terms of advocacy.



She urged the CSOs to sustain their engagement with the female MPs to ensure better parliamentary activism.



Mr Sammy Obeng, Executive Director, Parliamentary Network Africa in his comment stated that even though women make up the majority of the Ghanaian population yet their voices and that of girls are under-represented.



He, however, stated that the situation seems to have a global dimension, which trickles down to the local parliaments.



Citing an instance, Mr Obeng said after the 2020 general elections in Ghana, the number of Women in Parliament worldwide was about 25.5 percent, meaning a quarter of women the world over are women.



Parliamentary statistics show that there is growth in women representation from what happened in the past.



However, in the Ghanaian contest, only 40 out of the 275 MPs are women, constituting about 15 percent of all the members, which is far less than the global average of 25.5 percent.



Mr Obeng further quoted the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the global association of all parliaments, which he said had said that it would take not less than 50 years to have any dream of gender parity in parliaments worldwide.



So, if at 25.5 percent the anticipation is that it would take 50 years for this to happen, then, we can very much appreciate how long it may take to have any semblance of what we are looking for in the Ghanaian contest, he added.





Source: GNA









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Two Nollywood actors, Clemson Cornel popularly known as Agbogidi and Cynthia Okereke have been reportedly abducted while filming in Enugu State.



According to a statement released on social media, by the Director of Communications, Actors Guild of Nigeria,AGN, Mrs Monalisa Chinda-Coker, the family of the actors confirmed that they havent returned home since they left a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu.



The statement reads in part: The two members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Cynthia Okereke and Clenson Cornel aka Agbogidi were suspected missing after their family members confirmed they didnt come back from a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu State.



The two members were suspected to have been kidnapped and this has increased fear amongst members about the safety of actors filming in the country.



In view of this sad development, the National President of the Guild, Mr. Ejezie Emeka Rollas, has instructed all actors to avoid going to the outskirt of cities to film except full security cover is provided to ensure their safety,



Mr Rollas, however, expressed shock over the ugly development while urging the security agencies to speed up investigations that would lead to their safe rescue.

Source: Vanguardngr









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Sergio Ramirez Wins Three Circuit Rings in 10 Days at WSOPC Choctaw Durant

July 30, 2022 Connor Richards Editor & Live Reporter U.S.

The latest World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit stop is currently underway in Oklahomas Choctaw Durant and has already had plenty of big winners.

The Circuit stop has been particularly kind to New Jersey's Sergio Ramirez, who won an incredible three rings in just seven events. The East Coast grinder now has an impressive five Circuit rings to his name after winning his second ring just weeks earlier in an online Circuit event.

Ring After Ring

Ramirez started his Choctaw Durant heater with a bang, taking down the very first event, $600 Pot-Limit Omaha, for $26,118, his second-biggest Hendon Mob-reported score to date, after getting through the field of 215 entrants. He was just getting started.

A few days later, Ramirez took down Event #6: $400 No-Limit Hold'em for $12,867 and his second ring of the series after defeating Forth Worth's Robin Glaysher during heads-up play. Ramirez followed up the victory with a win in the next event, Event #7: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack, to take home a third golden ring and $19,860.

Sergio Ramirez after winning his third career ring and first of the series

Between the three events, Ramirez cashed for $58,845 and earned three Circuit rings, bringing his total collection to five. Less than two dozen players have five Circuit rings to their name, among them Phil Hui, Loni Hui, Raymond Henson and Martin Kabrhel.

But this isn't the first time Ramirez has run hot in Choctaw. His biggest live cash of $49,935 came from a third-place finish in a $400 No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2018 WSOPC Choctaw Durant stop.

With a handful of events left, there is still time for Ramirez to pick up another ring in Choctaw Durant.

Other Winners

There have been other big winners at WSOPC Choctaw Durant, including Missouri's Dakotah Odell, who got through a field of 1,739 runners in Event #3: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Gargantuan to win his first ring and $84,875, the biggest cash prize awarded so far at the Circuit stop.

Later, Wisconsin's Jason Rice took down Event #5: $400 No-Limit Hold'em, getting through a field of 342 players to win his first ring and $24,062.

More recently, Florida's Steven Buckner, who PokerNews spoke to earlier this month during the World Poker Tour Venetian (WPT) Main Event, took down to win $25,363 and his first piece of WSOP hardware. This venue has been kind to Buckner, who in May finished runner-up in the WPT Choctaw Main Event for a career-best $320,000.

Steven Buckner

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The $1,700 buy-in Main Event got underway this weekend and will wrap up on Sunday, July 31. A full list of winners so far at the WSOPC stop in Choctaw Durant is available in the table below.

WSOPC Choctaw Durant Results So Far

TOURNAMENT ENTRIES PRIZE POOL WINNER HOMETOWN PRIZE (IN USD) WSOPC Event #1: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha 215 $101,765 Sergio Ramirez South Plainfield, NJ $26,118 WSOPC Event #2: $250 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack 442 $92,400 Terry Harrell Oklahoma City, OK $18,200 WSOPC Event #3: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Gargantuan 1,739 $573,870 Dakotah Odell Springfield, MO $84,875 WSOPC Event #4: $250 No-Limit Hold'em The Twilight 704 $140,800 Jason Loving Hurst, TX $25,631 WSOPC Event #5: $400 No-Limit Hold'em 342 $112,860 Jason Rice Kenosha, WI $24,062 WSOPC Event #6: $400 No-Limit Hold'em 150 $49,500 Sergio Ramirez South Plainfield, NJ $12,867 WSOPC Event #7: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack 272 $89,760 Sergio Ramirez South Plainfield, NJ $19,860 WSOPC Event #8: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mammoth Stack 366 $120,780 Steven Buckner Margate, FL $25,363

Photos courtesy WSOP
Members of the public will get a chance to learn about STEM in a week long camp beginning Aug. 1.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Marcus Schoultz, with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, said this is the second year for the camp. There are approximately 40 kids in grades 5th through 9th participating.

This is an opportunity to be able to teach the kids about STEM, Schoultz said. ...One of the main goals for this camp is we're going to teach the kids the developmental foundation of developing a website ... each student will have an opportunity to build a website.

Denzell Washington, a member of True to Your Sole, one of the sponsors of the STEM camp, said that on the last day of camp, the campers will be able to present their work to invited guests.

Schoultz said he hopes the camp will inspire the students to pursue a STEM career.

Following the weeklong camp will be the Aiken STEAM Day on Aug. 6. This event will feature different vendors who will show members of the public how STEAM can be used in jobs and that is more than just computers, said Washington.

The Saturday event will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Second Baptist Church, 1151 York Street NE.

The camp is hosted by Sky is the Limit Foundation, True To Your Sole, and Second Baptist Church in collaboration with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic.

+8 SAHS graduate, Second Baptist host STEM program for students Dozens of local students are getting a massive helping of encouragement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics this week, with as
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
COLUMBIA  As South Carolinas troubled and understaffed juvenile justice agency tries to turn around after a federal civil rights case and calls to reform, security remains a problem at its Columbia facilities.

Just a few months after the state Department of Juvenile Justice agreed with federal watchdogs to make changes to its Broad River Road prison complex for teenage offenders to improve safety, state SWAT officers were called in July 10 after several youth offenders broke into staff offices and one offender managed to climb over razor wire and onto a roof.

At the Juvenile Detention Center, a short-term facility in Columbia for juvenile offenders awaiting trial, a detained teenager managed to bring a loaded gun into the facility in May.

DJJ's new director, Eden Hendrick, has said that reforming the the agency will take time.

Plans are in the works for a new $20 million facility to house juvenile offenders who have mental illnesses to put them in a more suitable environment for rehabilitation.

In the meantime, staffing remains a problem, despite recent pay raises for law enforcement officers. At the long-term complex, 41 of 101 for juvenile corrections officers jobs are filled, according to the department. Pay starts at $39,140 a year.

DJJ has needed to call State Law Enforcement Division officers for assistance several times this year.

"If I know that making that phone call (to SLED), is going to keep everyone safe, I'm going to always do that," said Hendrick, a former prosecutor who took over DJJ in May after a nine-month stint as interim director.

Hendrick succeeded Freddie Pough, who was embattled during his four-year tenure amid staffing shortages and the federal civil rights case, which had been launched in 2017. The case began after major riots in 2015 and 2016 that led to the resignation of Pough's predecessor.

The federal civil rights case settled in April found that DJJ failed to protect children housed at the Broad River Road complex from harm from staff and other children, and used prolonged isolation as punishment.

According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, the states DJJ agreed to make changes to staffing patterns, the development of a positive behavior management program to reduce youth-on-youth violence and increased video surveillance.

In the statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said all children held in the custody of the state deserve safe and humane conditions that can bring about rehabilitation and reform.

As reforms take shape, violence continues.

Earlier this month, at the Broad River Road complex, a residential facility for youth offenders serving long-term sentences and focus of the civil rights case, a group of juveniles gained unauthorized access to a school building on site and rummaged through several offices, according to a statement from the DJJ.

The next day, a group of seven juvenile offenders damaged their unit and staff offices. They smashed open an office door and, by working as a team, they were able to use clothes and other items to help get one of the juveniles over razor wire and onto the roof. From the top of the Holly Dorm, the offender threw various items including water bottles, drinks, electronics and toiletries.

SLED SWAT officers were called to the scene due to limited staffing, according to the DJJ statement.

State Sen. Katrina Shealy, a Lexington Republican who has been an advocate for safe conditions for both DJJ staff and detained juveniles, said SLED officers have been called more often than they have been in the past.

SLED SWAT officers have responded to calls to the complex three times so far this year and four times last year, according to agency spokeswoman Renee Wunderlich. In 2020, SLED SWAT had no requests from DJJ to respond to the Broad River Road complex.

Hendrick said she would rather call in SLED, which would also mean releasing a statement to the media on the incident, than risk injury to her staff, who do not carry protective weapons such as pepper spray. Hendrick said its a quick and efficient way to de-escalate a situation.

During the incidents early July, SLED was able to control the situation in a short period of time and no juveniles or staff were injured, according to the DJJ. The offender on the roof went safely down on a ladder.

The teenage offender managing to get a loaded gun past security and into the short-term detention center in May was a wake up call, Hendrick said.

There's no need to downplay it. That was one of the scariest incidents ever. You know, I was there that night and just even thinking about it upsets me, Hendrick said. Weve tried to learn from it.

Hendrick said immediately after that happened she hired an out-of-state consultant who came to the facility within the week to come up with an action plan to improve security.

Juvenile Detention Center is overcrowded, housing 107 juveniles, but Hendrick said the facility is meant for only 72.

Juveniles from all over the state are being sent to the center because of limited space. Greenville Juvenile Detention Center closed and Charleston has a new juvenile detention building, but it cannot fully open because of staffing shortages.

Were absorbing the entire states juveniles, Hendrick said. No one else can house them."

Not only are they overcrowded, but they are short-staffed. Of 38 vacancies for juvenile corrections officer positions at the short-term facility, 28 positions filled.

While facilities work to tighten security with a limited staff, the superintendent and others in the DJJ school district figured out a way to work around the staffing issue and get more young offenders an opportunity to earn their high school diploma while detained.

DJJ Superintendent Floyd Lyles said he tried something new this year. Certified teachers at DJJ's Birchwood School traveled to evaluation centers and also taught the students those facilities virtually to allow students the opportunity to earn their high school diploma.

Lyles said the hard work paid off. Ten youth offenders earned their high school diploma from behind the fence, a record number according to Lyles. In years past, he says no more than three students would earn their high school diploma.

Staffing has been a longstanding issues for the state's corrections facilities, according to Shealy, who joined DJJ workers in a protest over working conditions in June 2021.

Weve given them the money, theres plenty of money to hire people. Thats not the issue," she said. "Its finding the people that want to work out there.

Hendrick made a statement thanking Governor Henry McMaster and lawmakers for the salary increases for law enforcement officers that took effect this month and bonuses for the fall. Along with that, she has $20 million for a new facility to house juveniles who have mental illnesses.

SCDJJ employees are very deserving of this as it's also a great tool to assist us in recruiting," she wrote.

But Shealy said one of the issues with hiring is the dangerous work conditions.

"People can work safer jobs for the same salary," she said, adding that many who do work at DJJ facilities do it because they have a love or passion for the work.

When asked how to hire more staff, Shealy said, I wish someone would give me an idea.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain this afternoon. High 83F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.
GREENVILLE  After a land developer knocked down a historic house in rural southern Greenville County following rejection of a subdivision plan earlier this spring, his plan returned again to the Greenville County Planning Commission.

The new request was materially the same plan that was previously rejected. Once again, the planning commission voted no.

It was the fourth time the commission denied it, citing a proposed density that didnt fit the rural character of the surrounding farms and pastures. The property touches Augusta and Garrison roads, near Woodville. The plan also included 174 homes all on septic systems at a time when the countys comprehensive plan calls for reducing by half the number of residences using septic.

The latest iteration of Langford Hills proposed two fewer houses than the last time, and left two more acres of the 164-acre site as open space, but didnt make further material changes to the plan or density.

During the July 27 meeting, commissioners and residents also noted the move by longtime Spartanburg developer John Beeson to tear down a 1850s-era home next to the subdivision

Beeson bought that house, known as the McDavid House, and another historic home next to it and initially planned to tear down the pair of homes to build the Langford Hills subdivision. After residents drew attention to the houses, he offered to sell at least one of them to Preservation South, but the deal fell through over the groups concern about the terms Beesons company, Mark III Properties, set in the contract.

The house was owned at one time by A.W. McDavid, a magistrate judge in Greenville County.

The development company has fought for two years to put a subdivision on the site. In April, a trust in Beesons name bought the land for $1.2 million, just before he came to the planning commission and threatened to tear down the pair of houses if his plan didnt get approved. He said then that if his plan wasnt approved, the very first thing well do is tear down that first house because its an eyesore.

When the planning commission rejected it for the third time in late April, Mark III Properties filed an appeal before the 13th Circuit Court. That appeal was dismissed in late June. Another appeal by Mark III Properties filed in February was also dismissed by the court in early June.

Thats when someone made an anonymous request for Greenville County Codes Enforcement to check on the McDavid House, which had been lived in for years by a man who residents said didnt own the home or allow anyone inside.

Residents acknowledged the house was filthy but said it was structurally sound. It included original mantles and framework. Historian, author and Piedmont resident Anne Peden said they hoped to keep it as an example of a period house along the U.S. 25 historic corridor.

Inspectors condemned the home. Beeson brought in a bulldozer and knocked it down June 7, four days after Circuit Court Judge Letitia Verdin ruled against his appeal. The Greenville News first reported the homes destruction.

This was a slap in the face of our community, said John Hill, who lives nearby and spoke at the planning commission meeting on July 27. He urged the commission to once again deny the subdivision.

At the same time, Peden said she feared the developer would knock down the remaining house if he didnt get his way.

I cannot say how broken-hearted the whole community was at the loss of the historic McDavid House from the 1850s, Peden said. We worked with the developer in order to try to save this house and the other house. Theres another house in danger of being destroyed again.

Beeson didnt attend the planning commission meeting and did not return a phoned request for comment left at his office July 28. His son, Jay Beeson, said Mark III had been involved in the prior attempts to put a subdivision on the site but the current project was being pursued by his father outside of the company. He did say the company may become involved again if the project is approved.

Darren Webb, who also works for Mark III Properties, spoke on behalf of Beeson at the commission meeting July 27, but Jay Beeson said he also was not representing the company at that meeting. Webb is listed as the developer on the most recent application, though the site plan still lists Beeson as the developer and applicant.

Jay Beeson said the project had become a mess the company was trying to untangle itself from in order to preserve its reputation.

He said he had been inside the McDavid house before it was torn down. He called it a drug house that was in poor shape and had extensive termite damage.

Waverly Wilkes, an engineer with Gray Engineering, said the developer made an attempt through a lengthy process to save the house before it was condemned and torn down.

Neither of the houses were considered historic under the countys rules because they were not currently on the National Register of Historic Places. The McDavid House could have been eligible for the register before it was torn down. The remaining older home was listed outside the border of the subdivision and wouldnt be part of Langford Hills, Wilkes said.

The historical houses are no longer an issue, said Marcelo Torricos, an attorney representing the developer.

Steve Bichel, chairman of the commission, said the judge had agreed that the commissions vote to deny Langford Hills was for an authorized reason.

The commission voted 4-3 to deny Langford Hills.
In its first week as the new 988 hotline for mental health needs in South Carolina, the call center was swamped with calls. And while backup is on the way, the nonprofit operating the line needs a more steady source of funding.

After years as the South Carolina Lifeline for suicide prevention, the conversion as part of the national 988 system to provide a help line for all mental health needs strained the capacity of Mental Health America of Greenville County to answer, Executive Director Jennifer Piver said.

Calls increased 101 percent in the week since its July 16 launch. The center had been answering 80 percent or better of its calls for the previous nine months, but that now ranged from 57.7 percent to 86.7 percent per day, for an average of 74.8 percent for the week, Piver said.

"There was a big swing depending on staffing," she said.

Calls the group cannot answer roll over to another call center "that could be in Phoenix, it could be in California," said Jennifer Roberts, executive director of the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center. Those centers may not know of resources in South Carolina, so it would be better if South Carolina calls were answered within the state, she said.

The Legislature appropriated $1.3 million to build a second call center in Charleston, which already operates a call center for the state's Mobile Crisis teams. The second 988 center will hopefully be online in January, Roberts said.

In the meantime, the Greenville nonprofit is grateful for support from various sources, including through federal grants in partnership with the Department of Mental Health, money from the Department of Education and support from foundations and local groups, Piver said.

"Right now, were really trying to quilt funds together," she said, and staffing levels are dependent on that funding.

What would be more helpful is a steady and dependable stream of funding for the service. The national model suggests 988 be funded similar to the way 911 is funded, through a small fee on phone bills, and "treat it like an emergency service," Piver said.

But so far, only four states have adopted that fee to fund 988, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. The Legislature does support 988, as evidenced by a new law that requires the number on all student IDs in the state, but so far no one has stepped forward to sponsor the fee legislation, Piver said.

Still, the group is hopeful and talks are ongoing.

"Its a complex issue and we want to make sure we get it right," Piver said. "We just want to make sure the calls are answered in state. Thats the most critical thing."
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
The publisher of U.S. Sen. Tim Scott's forthcoming political memoir acknowledged over the weekend that it made a mistake when it claimed the South Carolina Republican is preparing a presidential bid this year.

Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing characterized the book blunder as "our error" in a written statement shared with The Post and Courier.

The statement further clarifies that Scott, who is often mentioned as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, did not sign off on the two-sentence proclamation of a future White House bid that appears in small font on the copyright page of his new book, "America, a Redemption Story."

"The description on the copyright page was our error and is not accurate. It was not done at the direction or approval of the Senator or his team. We are working to correct this immediately," a spokesperson for Thomas Nelson said.

How the publisher plans to correct the error is still unclear.

Scott's book is set to be released nationwide Aug. 9, and the pre-sale period for the book is already well underway.

Additionally, a book launch event is scheduled to take place Aug. 6 at Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, with signed copies of the book included with the cost of admission.

A spokesperson for Thomas Nelson said she was unable to share any additional information at this time when asked if the error could result in reprints of the book.

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The publisher's attempt to quickly set the record straight comes after reporting by The Post and Courier revealed the eyebrow-raising lines in the senator's memoir.

Printed in small font on the copyright page alongside information about how the work should be catalogued in the Library of Congress, it reads: "Senator Scott is a rising star who sees and understands the importance of bipartisanship to move America forward. This book is a political memoir that includes his core messages as he prepares to make a presidential bid in 2022."

In a July 29 interview, Scott responded to the revelation by saying, "I have not," followed by, "Thats fascinating that thats the copy on the book." South Carolina's junior senator said the book is an opportunity to share his story with the American people, but cautioned that it is "absolutely not" the start of an Oval Office bid.

Scott said his political focus is on winning reelection in November. To date, Scott has raised more than $46 million for his reelection against longshot challenger Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews of Ladson, making him the top fundraiser among all congressional Republicans.

Asked again if the book is the start of a future White House bid, Scott replied: "Not for me its not."

The memoir will be Scott's third book.

His previous books include "Opportunity Knocks: How Hard Work, Community, and Business Can Improve Lives and End Poverty," which published in 2020, and "Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Country" which he wrote alongside former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy in 2018.

A review of the most recent congressional financial disclosure report shows Harper Collins Christian Publisher paid Scott $184,167 for his latest book, "America, a Redemption Story."
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A Guam daughter who serves as a United States diplomat will be back on island to meet with members of the islands Chamber of Commerce.

According to an invitation from the chamber, the event with Ambassador Yuri Kim will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at the organization's office in Hagatna

"This is a great opportunity to meet with a daughter of Guam who now serves the United States in the capacity of U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Albania. In her career as a diplomat, she worked on key foreign policy and national security challenges across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the Guam Chamber of Commerce stated in the invitation.

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Kim, nominated by former President Donald Trump, took the post in 2019. She was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of counselor, and has served in the Department of State as the director of the Office of Southern European Affairs.

Previously, she was the director of the State Departments Center for the Study of Diplomacy, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of state, and director of the Office of European Security and Political-Military Affairs. She also has served as special assistant to the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as a member of the United States delegation to the Six-Party Talks to end North Koreas nuclear program, Post files show.

Her confirmation marked the first time a Korean-American woman represented the nation as an ambassador. She is also the first person from Guam to become an ambassador.

Kim is a graduate of the Academy of Our Lady of Guam. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's from Cambridge University.

Yuri Kim's family offers student scholarships to high school and college students on Guam in honor of her late mother, Jane Wha-Young Kim. Her mother was one of the 228 passengers on Korean Air Flight 801, which crashed on Nimitz Hill on Aug. 6, 1997, 25 years ago.

Light refreshments will be served at the meet-and-greet event. While there is no registration fee, space is limited. Members can RSVP online.
On June 25, high school students representing the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as Saipans InafaMaolek Youth Ambassadors attended the Native Youth Climate Adaptation and Leadership Congress (NYCALC).

The nationwide event was hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in West Virginia.

The group included Kagman High School students Angelica Mario, Danahlei Rodriguez, Juneya Quitano, Melady Manahane, Jude Litulumar and Richard Lacson and Kina Rangamar from Marianas High School. Their mentors and advisers, Eva Aguon Cruz, Jessielyn Quitano, and CNMI lawmaker Sheila Babauta accompanied the students as they attended various presentations by native professionals in the field, according to a recent news release.

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The group also took part in the National Conservation Training Center workshops and their annual river trip, taking the group down the Potomac River paddling the 12 miles.

Youth-led presentations consisted of topics about Indigenous education, language, customs, government policies, sustainable development, and sustainable agriculture, according to InafaMaolek Youth.

Mario expressed her gratitude for the experience and for the opportunity to learn about other native and island cultures.

Our similarities stand out just as much as our differences. Were all facing the same problems with climate change, commercialization, and sustainability. We were all able to educate each other on what steps could be taken to circumvent such obstacles. I hope to be able to implement all that I learned on this trip within my community," she said.

For Litulumar, finding similarities between people with many different backgrounds opened his eyes to a "new level" of thinking.

"Now I see myself wanting to know more about our past and wanting to make a positive impact for our future. Coming from an island with a rich history, we have the option to integrate ourselves into modern society while protecting our culture and environment through our Indigenous knowledge," he said.

The students also toured Washington, D.C., and visited CNMI Del. Gregorio Kilili Sablans office to ask relevant questions related to the congressmans work and the issues discussed at the NYCALC.

On their last trip to Oahu, Hawaii, the students were exposed to renowned sustainability practices, urban development, and Pacific history of the island.

Youth visited Kaala Farms in Waianae and learned of their rich history, traditional farming practices, and natural water systems.

Rangamar explained that "being exposed to other cultures and environments gave us all a new perspective to our own home and identity."

"Ive never felt so supported about a passion to solve issues within my community until getting involved with this project and organization, Im so grateful for that," she said.
Whenever I want to get Lucretia spun up, I say something like, Pssst. . . Ill need to check with Bill Kristol on that! And then I sit back and open up a new bottle of peaty single-malt. But I did relent when she pointed out that Bill had lately embraced the idea that Democrats are best-suited to fix the countrys problems. Maybe he was just trolling again? Lucretia wont let him off that easily:

For many conservatives who for years looked forward to the arrival of William Kristols Weekly Standard, expecting to devour cover-to-cover the excellent articles, analysis, and commentary, Kristols descent into near-fatal Trump Derangement Syndrome has been distressing, to say the least.

The rabid anti-Trump posture adopted by the Weekly Standard proved to be its undoing (I cancelled my subscription in December, 2016), but the cadre of NeverTrumpers doubled-down on their failure. Some still pretended to be conservatives, wanting to save the Republican Party and conservatism from Trump; others, like Kristol, aligned themselves clearly with the left in opposition not only to Trump but to any conservative so misguided and corrupt as to continue to support Trump populism or the Republican Party Trump dominates.

Kristol nowadays calls himself a well-wisher of the Democratic Party despite the sub-optimal performances of it leaders, writes a wistful column in the laughable, no tribal prejudices Bulwark. The Democratic Party faces challenges: the party needs to defend (urgently!) democracy, moderation, and the rule of law; and the party needs to advance (urgently!) major reforms in our broken or damaged institutions.

This is major league self-delusion. Does Kristol really not understand that democracy for the Democratic Party simply means we win and we get our way? Anything else is not democracy. Voter integrity? If that means Democrats lose, then its voter suppression and therefore racism. Moderation? Kristol lists all the ways Democrats need to reform our institutions, as if it were not Democrats who intentionally intended to destroy those institutions to advance their own political power. Kristol calls on Democrats to defend congressional government while pledging to reform Congress: does he not recall that Democrats are those willing to destroy longstanding norms such as the filibuster to force through their unpopular agendas? He calls on Democrats to defend law and order: does he not recall that it was Democrats who encouraged the violent protests allegedly in response to the police killing of a violent, fentanyl-crazed felon and the demand to defund the police?

Kristol calls on Democrats to to defend the rule of law while being appropriately critical of the current Supreme Court. This is especially disingenuous on multiple levels: it has become abundantly clear that Democrats define the rule of law as simply punishing their political enemies (e.g., the treatment of the January 6 protestors versus the treatment of Stephen Colberts film crew illegally trespassing the halls of Congress). With respect to the Supreme Court, I suppose it was necessary for Kristol to make that obsequious comment; after all, if Kristol were to admit that the Courts recent rulings do in fact advance the rule of law by returning political power to the appropriate venues for exercising that power (the states, Congress, the American people), he would have to admit that Trumps appointments to the Court were salutarysomething his TDS would never allow. So Kristol is willing to pretend he never favored a conservative understanding of the proper role of the Supreme Court. He may be a little uncomfortable with the lack of moderation in some Democratic methods of protest against the overturning of Roe, for instance, but he can certainly understand the frustration!

Kristol believes that the Biden Administration had the right idea with Build Back Better, because the country really did need to build back after the Trump years and the pandemic. The real problem, of course, is that the country was so thoroughly destroyed by Trump that the challenges we face are very, very serious. And we will need serious, thoughtful Democratic Party leadership, presidential leadership, to meet those challenges. What Kristol does not say, but also does not deny, is that there is no one currently waiting in the wings in the Democratic Party who is capable of providing that kind of leadership. His silence on that point may be his only honest moment in the whole piece.
Sidechick is the word that sends shivers down the spine of some married women during a conversation about their husbands.

A side chick is a mistress or a woman a man secretly dates in addition to his girlfriend or wife.

No woman loves or enjoys being told that her husband has a mistress. Neither does she pray to walk in on her husband in bed with another woman.

Should you ever find out that your husband has a mistress, rather than engage in a physical confrontation, here are five other unconventional ways to deal with the issue.

Do your research

Before you decide to attack your husbands side chick or start ranting about the situation, do some research.

Find out facts about the side chick like her name, relationship status, and, if you can, how she and your husband met.

The research provides better insight into the situation. For example, While you might think she is the side chick, from her point of view, its not the case as your husband might have secretly married her.

Dont jump to conclusions; instead, take time to reflect and investigate.

Never confront her

I dont know who needs to hear this, but when it comes to infidelity in your marriage, you have no issue with the side chick; all your anger should be directed at your husband.

Some married women have the habit of visiting their husbands side chicks houses to physically and verbally abuse them. Avoid taking this route by dismissing the idea of confronting your side chick.

ALSO READ: Five places to meet husband material in Nigeria

Remember that she is a third party, not part of the legal union.

Speak to your husband

In situations like this, communication is critical. Dont allow your emotions to get the best of you, causing you to grab your bags and leave.

After hearing about his infidelity, take time to get yourself together before approaching him.

As expected, he will deny it at first but keep pressing on the issue and provide evidence to back up your claim.

If he later admits to the act, calmly ask him why he did it.

Seek marriage counselling

Now, if you notice that despite his infidelity, you still love him and hope to continue the marriage, you should see a good marriage counsellor.

Speak to him about this idea, and ensure he is on board before contacting a counsellor. During your sessions, open up to the counsellor about your feelings. Discuss how his infidelity affected you and the current position it has kept you both in.

The best way for this healing process to work is to keep an open mind and listen to what the counsellor and husband have to say. This is assuming you attend the counselling sessions with your husband.

Make a decision

Every way has led up to this final moment. After speaking to your husband and seeing a marriage counsellor, its now time for you to decide if you are going to attempt to work on the marriage or pack your bags and leave.

While there might be no perfect answer on what you should do, remember to do what would make you happy and mentally/emotionally stable.

Bonus Tip: For your safety, kindly endeavour to visit a medical centre to know if you have contacted any STDs or STIs due to your husbands infidelity. Your mental health matters too, so guard her heart jealously.
Twenty-four hours after prominent Nollywood actors and members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornel, aka Agbogidi, were kidnapped in an Enugu suburb, their abductors have contacted their families.

The actors were reported missing after their family members confirmed they didnt return home from a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu state, on Thursday.

Both actors are renowned for starring in movies shot in Enugu and Delta states.

On Saturday, the AGN national president, Emeka Rollas, told PREMIUM TIMES that the kidnappers are requesting a lump sum in dollars.

He said, The kidnappers have made contact with the families and are demanding the sum of $100,000. We pray to God for his intervention and for Him to put confusion in their midst.

We are also working closely with the different security operatives, but we are not sure what to expect from them because the same thing is happening everywhere in the country.

Mr Rollas also said members of the Guild are working closely with the families of the victims and the security forces to ensure their safe release.

In a Punch newspaper interview published Saturday, Mr Rollas said, the kidnappers cleared the monies in Cynthia Okerekes account this morning.

Extra measures

As part of measures to forestall a repeat occurrence, Mr Rollas said that the Guild had ordered its members not to shoot outside of the metropolis and to ensure that they make adequate provisions for security in their locations.

AGNs Director of Communications, Monalisa Chinda, broke the news of the kidnap of the actors in a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday.

Ms Chinda said their kidnap had increased fear amongst members about the safety of actors filming in the country.
Title of Movie: Money Miss Road

Release Date: July 22, 2022

Running time: 95 minutes.

Director: Obi Emelonye

Cast: Jide Kene Achufusi, Melvin Oduah, Josh Alfred, Charly Boy, Anthony Monjaro, Chioma Adibe and Others.

The concept of money as a solution to every problem is not alien to Nigerians.

As a result, there appears to be a race towards being the first to make am, especially among young people.

As this has been our reality for ages, it is not surprising that Nigerian movies are nuanced towards exploring these and other related themes.

Money-miss-road is street parlance that describes individuals who chanced upon riches and failed to adapt to a personality fitting their newfound status.

Plot

In this Obi Emenloye-directed offering, Joseph (Jidekene Achufusi), a street fighter and his manager Josiah (Josh Alfred aka Josh2Funny) are down on their luck in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.

Joseph finds himself in a hotel and, by happenstance, ends up in the wrong room, initially occupied by Diokpa (Charly Boy), where he stumbles on a vast cache of money.

After stealing and concealing the money, Joseph and his manager are launched into a life they could only dream of hours prior.

Diokpa, a wanted baron, goes all out to track down the duo who have fled to Lagos to binge on their loot. The events that unfold lead to a night of running, jumping, highspeed chase and kidnapping.

Review

For a theme that may be commonplace, Emeleonye did his best to make Money Miss Road stand out.

Even though the producers may have overstretched their description of action-comedy, it was nonetheless a reasonable attempt.

Though fast-paced, Money Miss Road is somewhat relaxing and suitable for audiences wanting to let their hair down. But it is not without its faults, as captured below.

1-Nudity in a family-themed plot.

From the outset, the movie comes across as something a family should see together, especially given the humour and the storyline.

Josiah has a wife and three daughters whom he abandoned in his quest for the good life. The wife, tired of waiting for her husband, gathers her kids and goes in search of their father.

With all of those elements present, somewhere in the movie, without warning, the director springs a steamy scene on the viewers.

2-Poor play at humour

Some of the scenes designed as humorous fell flat, failing to elicit the expected response from viewers. It is in addition to the fact that most of the actors failed to deliver.

Charly Boy, for instance, failed to put up a performance worthy of a street baron.

At some point, it felt like Josh2Funny, who had his first feature appearance in the film, was the one carrying the film along.

3-Watered down action

The action-adventure tag on Money Miss Road is just another promise the movie fails to deliver on. It may probably have something to do with the fact that Nollywood is not at that point where it makes the heart-thumping kind of action Hollywood is famous for.

However, for a movie they said was shot with a minimalist budget, the producers should have focused more on the scripting.

Conclusion

Overall, if we can look past some of the movies shortcomings, Money Miss Road is not a bad film. Despite its shortcomings, Money Miss Road is a great story with lessons for an audience who seems to have accepted the get-rich-or-die-trying mantra as a way of life.
The University of Cambridge has said it is supporting a claim for the return of 116 stolen Benin artefacts to Nigeria.

The artefacts were looted by the British armed forces during the Benin punitive expedition of 1897. They are currently held in the universitys Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).

According to a statement on the universitys website, physical transfer of the artefacts will be arranged in due course, subject to approval by the UK Charity Commission, and in collaboration with other UK museums committed to returning Benin objects.

However, Nigerias National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) said it welcomes proposals for loan arrangements that enable artefacts to remain on display, with appropriate acknowledgement, at the MAA.

The university said its decision is in line with similar commitments recently made by other US and European museums and reflects a sector-wide move away from keeping artefacts irrespective of how they were collected.

Across the international museum sector, there is growing recognition that illegitimately acquired artefacts should be returned to their countries of origin, Director of MAA Nicholas Thomas said, adding that Smithsonian and major European museums have announced decisions to return collections to a number of countries.

The NCMM 7 January sent a formal claim for the return to the museum. University curators identified 116 objects either known or presumed to have been taken during the 1897 Benin Expedition for return.

On 18 July, the university council considered and supported the claim for the return of the artefacts to Nigeria.

The university is submitting the case to the UKs Charity Commission, requesting authorisation to transfer legal title to the objects to the NCMM. The commission is expected to consider the case by autumn 2022.

The Nigerian government is developing the Edo Museum of West African Arts, along with a storage and study facility, for returned artefacts. The museum is currently under construction next to the existing Benin City museum.

Cambridge hosted the Benin Dialogue Group in 2017. Since then, we have visited Benin City and joined collaborations of many kinds. These include work across provenance research, and towards exhibitions and artists residencies, that have exemplified the value of international academic and cultural engagement, Mr Thomas said.

According to the statement, MAA curators have participated in study and liaison visits to Benin City in 2018 and 2019, meeting the Oba of Benin, other members of the court, state and federal government leaders, along with academics and other cultural representatives.

Additionally, the universitys Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Kamal Munir, welcomed representatives of the Royal Court of Benin, the NCMM and other Benin delegates at the MAA in October 2021.

The university had also 2021 returned the statue of a bronze cockerel looted in the same year (1897) to Nigeria.

The statue, locally called Okukur, was given to Jesus College in 1905 by the father of a student, BBC reported.

The colleges Legacy of Slavery Working Party in 2019 concluded that the cockerel belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin.

Like Cambridge, like Germany; the Nigerian government earlier this month in Berlin signed a declaration that will see the return of 1,130 Benin Bronzes from Germany.

125 years after the artefacts were stolen from Benin, Nigeria has intensified calls for the return of what is originally hers.

The NCMM had earlier this year said no fewer than 1,500 Nigerian artefacts taken away will be retrieved from across the world in 2022.

Abba Tijani, director-general, NCMM, said these were part of the over 5,000 artefacts carted away from different locations in Nigeria, decades ago.

Mr Tijani said the artefacts would be retrieved from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and other individual museums across the globe.

Despite what looks like general acceptance to return various loots to their roots, there are still pushbacks. For instance, British police have continued to hold on to a stolen Ife Head as Nigerian officials and a Belgian antique dealer fail to reach an agreement on its return.

The Ife Head is a bronze cast head from the old Ife kingdom which is believed to be about 700 years old. There are only about 20 of them still in existence.

Like some other missing artefacts, the Ife Head was stolen from the Jos museum on January 14, 1987. Thieves broke into the museum, severely beat up the guard and carted away nine of the museums most precious treasures.

Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
At least 49 people were killed last week (July 24-30) by non-state actors in various attacks across Nigeria.

Out of the total number, nine were soldiers including two officers, five were police officers while the remaining 35 were civilians.

A total of 12 incidents were recorded across five geopolitical zones. Only the North-east recorded no incident.

One of the attacks was on a unit of the Presidential Guards Brigade in Abuja whose duty is to protect the president. Eight soldiers were killed in that incident.

The incident has been condemned by Nigerians, raising questions about the security in the Nigerian capital.

PREMIUM TIMES compiled the incidents from media reports. Thus, unreported cases are not included.

Below are the recorded incidents:

North-west

At least four people, including the driver, were killed when bandits attacked a Katsina State Transport Authority bus with number plate KT 14D-58 KT on Sunday morning.

The attack occurred around Mil Takwas and Farun Bala villages, five kilometres from the Natsinta Army Barrack around 11:34 a.m.

In Zamfara, residents said four people were killed while over 30 others were abducted in the Morai community of Talata Mafara Local Government in Zamfara State after terrorists invaded the town on Monday morning.

Residents said the bandits attacked the community around 02:30 a.m. and operated till 06:15 a.m.

In Kaduna, bandits on Wednesday killed three persons and kidnapped 13 others when they invaded Damari town in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The bandits also looted shops in the community.

In Sokoto, no fewer than 20 persons were reportedly killed following an attack by terrorists on Duma village in the Tureta Local Government Area.

A witness said the bandits attacked the village at about 8 a.m. on Wednesday and operated for several hours, terrorising locals and rustling livestock.

South-west

A police inspector and one kidnapper were killed in a gun battle when suspected herdsmen attempted to abduct two foreign miners in Osun.

The incident happened at Aruwa village of Ifewara community in Atakunmonsa West Local Government Area of Osun State. Four of the kidnappers were later arrested.

In neighbouring Ondo State, gunmen killed a police officer during a midnight attack on a police division in Okuta Elerinla, Akure.

Funmilayo Odunlami, the police spokesperson in the state, said the attack occurred on Monday at 1 a.m.

South-south

Gunmen, in the early hours of Sunday, reportedly killed three police officers on patrol duty at Okpanam in Oshimili Local Government Area of Delta State.

Security sources said the incident occurred when the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Okpanam Division received a distress call from a community leader that the vigilante team in his street had been attacked.

Also in Delta, a popular member of the All Progressives Congress in Ward 6, Sapele, Cyril Mudiagbe, popularly called Cyril Makanaki, who is also an aide to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, was shot dead by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

The incident reportedly occurred at his house in the Decima area of Sapele between Saturday night and early Sunday.

North-central

Terrorists attacked some officials of the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade.

The incident, which took place late Friday night, around the Bwari Area Council of Abuja, left three soldiers wounded and eight personnel killed. It was only reported on Monday.

Also in Abuja, terrorists attacked an army checkpoint at Zuma Rock on Thursday night, killing one soldier while two other soldiers sustained injuries as a result of the gunfight that ensued.

Sources disclosed that while many of the terrorists came on motorcycles, others came in a Hilux Van to launch the attack at the checkpoint which is located at the boundary between FCT and Niger State.

South-East

An official of a commercial bank was, on Tuesday, killed when armed robbers ambushed a bullion van conveying money to Umuahia, the Abia State capital, the police said.

The incident occurred around Ntigha Junction along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state

The National Youth Service Corps, on Saturday, confirmed the death of a corps member, Eunice Igweike, who was said to have been killed by suspected ritualists.

The deceased, a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, in Anambra State, left her base in Abia for the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Sagamu, Ogun State, having been deployed under the 2022 Batch B Service Year.

Impeachment Threat

Frustrated by the worsening insecurity, some lawmakers on Wednesday threatened to commence the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Senators had a closed-door meeting during which they resolved to give the president six weeks ultimatum to either improve the security situation or face impeachment.

However, after the private meeting, Senate President Ahmad Lawan refused to allow the matter to be discussed in plenary.

This angered opposition senators who walked out of the Senate chamber.

A day after the meeting, President Buhari called a National Security Council meeting.

At the meeting, heads of military institutions told the president they had adopted a new strategy to deal with the security situation.
Non-state actors killed at least 65 police officers in the first half of this year (January-June), as the security situation in Nigeria continues to get worse.

Aside from the slain law enforcement officers, at least 92 other security operatives were killed in the same period. These include 81 soldiers, two correctional service officials, two NDLEA officers, five officers of the NSCDC and two FRSC officials.

PREMIUM TIMES compiled the data from media reports. Thus, unreported cases were not included. The police also refused to provide its official figure for the number of slain officers within the period.

The 157 slain security personnel are among the thousands of people killed in the first half of 2022 with about 3,000 people killed in the first three months.

The killings spread across the country but were mostly carried out in the South-east, North-west and North-central regions. The three regions witnessed many attacks by various armed groups during the period.

A total of 22 deaths were recorded in the South-east with Enugu accounting for 11, Imo  six, Anambra  two and Ebonyi  three.

The South-east was followed by the North-west where 19 police officers were killed with Kebbi State accounting for 16 deaths, followed by Jigawa with two and Katsina with one. No death was recorded in Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto and Kaduna.

Data from the other regions showed that 16 deaths were recorded in the North-central, three in the South-west, three in the South-south and two in the Boko Haram troubled North-east region.

While communities in the North-west and parts of the North-central have been repeatedly attacked by terrorists, locally called bandits, the South-east has seen frequent attacks by the ESN, the militant wing of its separatist group, IPOB, as well as other armed groups.

PREMIUM TIMES has since 2021 been collating, weekly, the data of civilians and security officials killed by non-state actors. Since the beginning of the collation of data, there has been no week that there was no killing by non-state actors.

The spokesperson of the police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, could not provide the actual number of officers killed but confirmed that the police lost many officers during the period.

I dont have any figure here off the hat and I dont believe in counting losses like that because even a soul of a policeman is so crucial to Nigeria, so, I may not be able to give you an accurate figure here, Mr Adejobi said. But we know we have lost our men to battles, our men have been killed by these insurgents and juvenile elements most especially in the South-south, South-east, and some parts of the North and all over the country.

A senior official at the police headquarters in Abuja, however, told PREMIUM TIMES that over 100 police officers were killed within the period, across the country.

The source added that the police will come up with an official figure in the coming weeks.

On payment of compensation to families, Mr Adejobi said the police have been up to date, adding that more will be paid in the coming days.

There are provisions in the public service rules and police system in Nigeria that when you lose officers in active service like that, there are certain amounts of money they will get and it is statutory, it is non-negotiable. The figures are there up to the IGPs rank.

And aside from that, we have our insurance unit in the force that compiles the list of slain officers and they pay them accordingly on regular basis.

Recently in Zamfara, they gave out cheques to families of slain officers, he said.

He said the police also support families internally through the office of the president of the Police Officers Wives Association who, he said, had been going around to give support to widows and children of slain officers.

We have not left them abandoned, we always carry them along, they are part of us and will continue to be a part of the police family forever and well never leave them abandoned, he said.

Agony, pains

But some affected families have said their lives have not been the same since the death of their breadwinners.

One of the widows, Susan Danladi, who delivered a child after the death of her husband, an Inspector who was killed in one of the attacks in Enugu State, said taking care of the family has not been easy.

My husband didnt have a house of his own, we were paying rent before he died and I have to continue all alone.

I have nobody to help me out and the little money the state where my husband was serving gave to us is almost finished, she said.

She said she has yet to receive any of her husbands entitlement from the police.

Abel Sambo, 19, who lost his father, a superintendent, during an attack in the North-west, said the burden of his entire family now rests on his shoulders as the eldest child.

I cannot go to the university now because my younger ones need to enrol in school.

We dont have the money to sponsor ourselves and we have not received any payment from the police, although they have contacted us in that regard, he said.

Worried, concerned colleagues

Some serving police officers, particularly in the troubled regions, also expressed their worry over what they described as their vulnerability.

An inspector serving in Anambra State said officers do not wear uniforms to work anymore as they have become soft targets.

We dont wear uniforms and if you see us at the station, we are always on alert, he said.

Another police officer, an assistant superintendent of police, said his worry is his family.

I hope that the system will not allow my family to turn into beggars if I am killed in the line of duty. If someone should lay his life down in defence of his country, those he left behind should not be allowed to suffer, he said.

Zonal insecurity

Terrorists, locally called bandits, have been attacking and killing thousands of persons, including security agents, in the countrys North-west since 2017.

They have attacked rural communities, destroyed farmlands and in many cases demanded protection fees to allow farmers to go to their farms.

They have also targeted travellers in what some analysts say is one of the most lucrative kidnap-for-ransom syndicates on the continent.

In the North-east, the Islamist group, Boko Haram, has waged a bloody insurgency against the country. An estimated 35,000 people have been killed and over 3 million people displaced by the conflict since 2009.

In the South-east, armed persons, believed to be members of ESN, have killed several people.

They especially target government buildings and security personnel. They also run a kidnap-for-ransom operation in the region.

In the South-south region, there has been a lull in attacks by the Niger Delta militant groups. However, cult clashes are still rampant in River State.

In Cross River and Akwa Ibom, many villages have been sacked and hundreds of people killed in communal clashes. Cult clashes and armed robbery are also rife in the South-west.

Way forward

Security experts who commented on the killings of security operatives said the government should do better for security operatives and the families of slain officers.

One of the security experts, Timothy Avele, the Managing Director of Agent-X security company, urged the government to provide adequate protective kits for frontline security agents.

He also said terrorists should face the full wrath of the law rather than get amnesty from the government.

Killing of security personnel by non-state actors demoralises officers in discharging their work fully. But its even worse if the authorities do not speedily compensate and care for loved ones left behind.

Secondly, officers are deeply affected too when political authorities pat the criminals shoulders not to sin again and let them go without proper punishment enforced.

It will be good if the government and by extension, security agencies management should adequately equip frontline officers with modern personal protective gears such as bulletproof vests, helmets, improvised bulletproof of operation vehicles (e.g with removable bulletproof curtains) and above all retraining of these officers in irregular warfare (in both remote & urban areas) that we now face. Of course, not to be overlooked is force protection Intelligence in all operations, he said.

A researcher at the Lake Chad Basin Programme, Institute for Security Studies, Teniola Tayo, said the attacks can easily demoralise security agents.

The immediate impact of this can be a further decline in the morale of the security forces. They are already working under tough conditions and facing several challenges.

Increased casualties within their ranks can affect their commitment and even drive them to get involved in the economies of violence. This can include selling intelligence to VEGs or supporting them in their logistics. The implication of all this is a prolongation of the insurgency.

On how the government can avert killings, Ms Tayo suggested improved intelligence gathering in their operations.

Key here is increased and improved intelligence on the operations of the violent groups. The protection of security agents should be a priority. It also has to be said that curbing the excesses of the security forces can help improve their relations with communities, which can aid intelligence gathering for early warning.
Doctors under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have again threatened to commence strike if the Nigerian government fails to meet their demands.

This development is contained in a communique issued at the end of the NARDs National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held from 25th to 30th July in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

The communique was signed by the president of the association, Godiya Ishaya.

The doctors said both the federal and state governments had defaulted on agreements made with the doctors in the past.

It said four states  Imo, Ondo, Ekiti, and Gombe  are owing doctors in their workforce 10, five, three, and two months respectively, in salaries and other arrears.

The NEC shall by the expiration of the two weeks ultimatum, reconvene to review the progress made so far and take further actions for which nationwide industrial harmony may not be guaranteed, the doctors said in their communique.

Other Demands

The doctors are demanding, amongst other things, the immediate implementation and payment of the new hazard allowance and arrears.

NARD said some arrears for 2014, 2015, and 2016 have remained unpaid despite several negotiations with the government.

The doctors noted that since the implementation of a new minimum wage in 2019, some of their members are yet to benefit from the consequential adjustment.

The NEC demands immediate payment of consequential adjustment of minimum wage to our members who have been deprived of this benefit since it was implemented several years ago.

The doctors are also demanding an immediate review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and other related allowances given the current economic situation in the country.

The doctors said this is also in line with the agreed terms from the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that it will be reviewed regularly.

NARD noted that the Abia State Government had made little progress towards implementing the Medical Residency Training Act (MRTA 2007), and payment of 26 months salary areas owed resident doctors at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH).

It appealed to the state government to keep to the latest agreement of paying seven months salary arrears within one week in the first instance, and two months salary arrears monthly to its members until the arrears are cleared.

Health sector activities

The association appealed to the government to increase allocation to the health sector to 15 per cent of the national budget as agreed by heads of African countries.

The doctors called for steps to be taken toward curtailing the brain drain in the health sector and finding ways of eliminating all bureaucratic bottlenecks in the employment and replacement of doctors leaving the nation for greener pastures.

The NARD also condemned attacks on its members by the public and, as well, on other health professionals in their workplaces.

It enjoined the government at all levels to look into the issue and thoroughly investigate the ongoing cases.

It also called for measures to be put in place to nip this menace in the bud to forestall future occurrences, noting that these inhumane acts have affected its members both physically and mentally.

One of many strikes

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the last strike embarked on by doctors left patients stranded at various health institutions.

In 2020 alone, medical practitioners were on strike three times over demands for allowances for treating COVID-19 patients and an increment in basic salary.

They cited several reasons, including delays in the payment of their salaries and allowances.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) has rescued no fewer than 615 victims of human trafficking in Katsina State from January 2022 to date, an official has said.

The NAPTIP Commander in the state, Musa Aliyu, said this while briefing journalists on Saturday in Katsina to mark the World Day against trafficking in persons.

Mr Aliyu said that NAPTIP received the victims in collaboration with stakeholders from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigeria Police Force and the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) operating in the state.

He urged the Nigerian youth not to be deceived by the so-called greener pastures, noting that this years theme for the celebration is Use and Abuse of Technology.

According to him, the theme focuses on the use of technology as a tool that can enable and impede human trafficking.

The state Coordinator of the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL), Shola Babadiya, described cyber technology as an avenue used by human traffickers to further their nefarious activities under its power of anonymity.

He pointed out that the traffickers use cyber technology to not only mobilise and recruit their victims but also arrange for their transportation and logistics.

Mr Babadiya called on Nigerians to be on alert and always collaborate with NAPTIP to end the act of human trafficking in the state.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Rabiah Muhammad, also urged media practitioners to intensify efforts on an anti-human trafficking awareness campaign.

Especially among the general public on the ills of human trafficking amid the tactics employed by traffickers in luring their victims into their nets, she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the news conference was organised by the state Ministry of Women Affairs, NAPTIP and NACTAL.

(NAN)
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently instruct Mr Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture to withdraw the threat to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust over their documentaries on terrorism in the country, whether through the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) or any other agency of government.

According to reports, Mr Mohammed had last Thursday stated that the federal government would sanction the BBC and Trust Tv for airing documentaries that allegedly glorify, promote, and fuel terrorism and banditry in Nigeria.

In a letter dated 30 July and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said, The media has the duty to impart information and ideas on issues of public importance. If carried out, the threat to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust would inhibit the media from reporting on issues of public interest.

According to SERAP, Media houses and journalists ought to be given the room to determine how best to present information of public interest, especially information about the growing violence and killings across the country.

The organization said, Rather than punishing the media for promoting access to diverse opinions and information on issues of public importance, your government should focus on delivering your promises to ensure the security of Nigerians.

The organisation also said, Carrying out the threat to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust would lessen the flow of diverse viewpoints and information to the public.

The letter read in part: We would be grateful if the requested action is taken within 48 hours of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions in the public interest.

A free, uncensored, and unhindered press or other media is essential in any society to ensure freedom of opinion and expression and the enjoyment of other rights. It constitutes one of the cornerstones of a democratic society.

Sanctioning the BBC and Daily Trust would be entirely inconsistent and incompatible with Nigerias obligations under article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The threat if carried out would impermissibly restrict the constitutional and international rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and victims right to justice and effective remedies that are central to public debate and accountability in a democratic society.

Access to information is essential for the enjoyment of other human rights and freedoms and constitutes a fundamental pillar for building a democratic society and strengthening democracy.

Allowing the media to freely carry out their duties is essential to building secure society and leaving no one behind. Conversely, imposing impermissible restrictions on media houses, journalists and other Nigerians undermines the security that builds a healthy and vibrant society.

The grounds for sanctioning the BBC and Daily Trust as stated by Mr Mohammed fail to meet the requirements of legality, necessity, and proportionality.

The requirement of necessity also implies an assessment of the proportionality of the grounds, with the aim of ensuring that the excuse of glorifying, promoting, and fuelling terrorism and banditry are not used as a pretext to unduly intrude upon the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.

Any interference with the constitutional and legal duties of the BBC and Daily Trust would not be justified in the context of the right to information.

The Federal Government has not shown that the documentaries by the media houses would impose a specific risk of harm to a legitimate State interest that outweighs the publics interest in the information provided by the documentaries.

The documentaries by the BBC and Daily pose no risk to any definite interest in national security or public order.

It is inconsistent and compatible with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] to invoke the grounds of glorifying, promoting, and fuelling terrorism and banditry as justifications for suppressing freedom of expression or withholding from the public information of legitimate public interest that does not harm national security.

It is contrary to both the Nigerian Constitution and international standards to threaten or punish journalists and media houses such as the BBC and Daily Trust for disseminating such information.

The vague and overbroad definitions of glorifying, promoting, and fuelling raise concerns that the threat by the Federal Government if carried out would unduly interfere with the rights to access to information, and disproportionate to any purported legitimate governmental aim. Ill-defined and/or overly broad grounds are open to arbitrary application and abuse.

The broad definitions of what may constitute glorifying, promoting, and fuelling also heighten concerns of overreach, confer far-reaching discretion on the government, and suggest that the grounds cited by the Federal Government are more intrusive than necessary.

These words do not indicate precisely what kind of individual conduct would fall within their ambit.

The use of these words by the Federal Government, given their opaque and ambiguous meaning, leaves open the possibility for application beyond unequivocal incitement to hatred, hostility, or violence. Such words may function to interpret legitimate reporting by media houses, journalists, and other Nigerians as unlawful.

The grounds cited by the Federal Government for sanctioning the BBC and Daily Trust also fail to establish a direct and immediate connection between the reporting by the media houses and any risks to national security and peace.

The threat if carried out would also create an environment that unduly deters and penalizes media houses and journalists, and the reporting of government wrongdoing more generally.

The cumulative effect of any attempt to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust would be the gagging of the media from reporting on cases of violence and killings by terrorists and kidnappers, the reporting and information that is clearly in the public interest.

SERAP recalls that in your 2022 new year message, you raised concerns about persistent insecurity in certain parts of the country and promised to remain resolute in giving utmost attention to the problem.

While your government has the obligation to maintain national security, this obligation is not set apart from the obligation to protect and ensure human rights. National security is a necessary and integral part of the right to security guaranteed to each person individually.
An aviation sector participant, Bankole Bernard, suggested in Ikeja on Sunday that shopping malls should be built in 18 unviable airports in the country to generate revenue.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria that only four airports, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano, out of 22 airports in the country, are viable.

The operations of the other 18 airports had been unviable over the years, he added.

Mr Bernard, the group managing director of a holding company in the aviation sector, was speaking with NAN on the sideline of the 26th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents.

According to him, efforts to enhance the operations of Owerri airport to operate from sunrise to sunset had proved abortive over the years.

He urged the federal and state governments to consider the construction of shopping malls and other facilities that would attract more commercial activities to the unviable airports.

He emphasised that aviation operates using international standards and appealed to governments at all levels to take a cue from other countries which ensured commercial viability of their airports by thinking outside the box.

What are the possible solutions to consider given the numerous challenges we are faced with in the industry? We can start with the modernisation of airport terminals with shopping malls.

This will contribute to the commercial viability of the airports and other necessary infrastructures like the internet and constant power supply to support businesses.

We must begin to think of an alternative power supply like renewable energy to keep the airports functional and reduce the cost of operation in the long run.

This will also make the airports viable and attractive.

There is the area of interconnectivity within airports. The interconnectivity of the local airports to the international airports will contribute to the economic viability of the airports, he said.

He argued that the suggestions he made would further enhance commercial activities and boost non-aeronautics revenues in the 18 airports that had remained unviable.

He added that government could also consider the provision of affordable hotels, which would give credence to investments in the industry.

Mr Bernard emphasised that the ability to provide Bed & Breakfast hotels around the terminals of some of the moribund airports would be of great attraction, while also increasing the viability of the airports as well.

NAN reports that the theme of the airports correspondents seminar is: Sunset Airports  the Safety and Economic Implication.

(NAN)
The police in Lagos State on Saturday said no INEC official was arrested on Friday in connection with the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise in the state.

The commands spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, while reacting to the incident.

NAN reports that some online media on Friday reported that thugs invaded an INEC CVR centre at St. Bridget Catholic Church, ljesha, in Surulere, and carted away INEC enrollment machines.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos, Olusegun Agbaje, had also described reports of the arrest of the commissions officials as fake news.

Mr Hundeyin, however, said that police got information about the presence of some INEC officials in a church, stressing that the DPO, police division in Ijeshatedo, swung into action and brought the INEC officials and materials to the station.

He said the DPO decided to bring the officials and others around to the station, because the church was not conducive to such investigation, to avoid break down of law and order.

The spokesperson noted that after the DPOs findings, there was a mix-up of address location and he requested the INEC officials to move to the correct address.

Mr Hundeyin pointed out that the police carried INEC materials and officials out of the church, not hoodlums as being speculated on social media.

The INEC officials were assigned to Imam Thani Street, by House No. 9A for the exercise. They were, however, found within the church premises. Residents raised concerns and informed the police.

Preliminary findings show that a resident of the area who volunteered to transport the officials from their office to the centre was responsible for the mix-up, deliberate or not, further investigation will reveal.

Meanwhile, the officials were immediately released to proceed to the correct centre to continue their assignment, he said.

(NAN)
A PREMIUM TIMES report on Nigerians seeking asylum in Canada has bagged the award for the best story in the online category of the 2022 Reporting Migration Competition. The award is organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency.

Supported by the European Union, the award ceremony was held Thursday in Abuja to foster quality reporting on the reintegration and the protection of migrants.

IOM said it hopes to encourage investigative journalism on migration in order to counter negative discourses and narratives about West and Central Africa.

The winning entry for the online category was authored by Yusuf Akinpelu and Kabir Yusuf.

Mr Akinpelu is a former staffer of PREMIUM TIMES who now works as an interactive journalist with BBC Africa while Mr Yusuf is a reporter on the PREMIUM TIMES Investigations and Data Desk.

Published in January, the yearlong investigation revealed what Nigerians are telling Canadian immigration authorities to claim asylum in the North American country.

The reporters analysed at least 5,000 pages of court transcripts to provide the public with a thorough understanding of what the Nigerians are saying to flee their country.

Even though the story is about 15 minutes read, we had to grind hard and dig deep to arrive at the end product, Mr Akinpelu said. This award is to those sleepless nights and long hours of us staring at the screen, analysing data and poring through thousands of pages of court transcripts.

More than that, Im glad that the story itself was told and it was well received because it added to the public discourse on migration. The drive to leave Nigeria- what we call japa in local parlance  among our compatriots would never be well understood unless stories like this are told, he added.

The IOM had earlier shortlisted 12 finalists from newsrooms across the country for four categories of the awards (Radio, Television, Online and Print). It stated that the finalists were selected from a pool of over 50 applications.

It said the submissions were reviewed by a jury of experienced judges including a representative from the Government of Nigeria, a representative of the European Union Delegation, a representative from the Academia, two representatives of the International Organization for Migration and two media representatives.

The winner of the award for each category goes home with $800 while the runner-up and second runner-up were given $500 and $300 respectively.

Im grateful to God for this award and I want to dedicate it to the fantastic team at PREMIUM TIMES for the encouragement and support, Mr Yusuf said at the prize-giving ceremony.

As the need to Japa grows, so does the demand for thorough reporting on migration and we must continue to tell stories like this to reveal the disturbing pattern of lies that some Nigerians are telling international authorities.

Lastly, rewards like this show that we are not working in vain and it will no doubt motivate us to do more, he said.

The runner-up award for the online category was won by Alexander Okere of the Punch newspaper while Tunde Omolehin of AsheNews took home the second runner-up award.

The Guardians reporter, Gbenga Salau, won the first prize award for the print category while the second and third places in the same category were won by Alfred Olufemi of Punch and Innocent Duru of The Nation newspaper respectively.

Zainab Sanni of Agidigbo FM clinched the first prize for the radio category, followed by Martha Okere of Nigeria Info FM and Chinedu Ekeja of KU FM

Also, Mojisola Matanmi won the Television category for TV360; Sam Olukoya of Inter Press Service came second and Funmi Unuajefe of Plus TV Africa won the third prize.
A 39-year-old Nigerian man, Alika Ogorchukwu, was on Friday beaten to death by an Italian man in Civitanova Marche city, Italy.

According to a statement by the Nigerian embassy in Italy, the incident occurred on a busy street, in front of shocked onlookers, some of whom made videos of the attack, with little or no attempt to prevent it.

Nigerias Ambassador to Italy, Mfawa Abam, while condemning the murder of Mr Ogorchukwu urged Nigerians in Italy to remain calm and not take laws into their hands.

According to the statement, Mr Abam commiserated with the family of the deceased and directed the provision of immediate consular assistance as appropriate.

The Embassy is currently collaborating with relevant Italian authorities to ensure justice is served and to provide succour to the family of the deceased, the statement read.

Mr Ogorchukwus murder is the third case of diaspora murder recorded in one week.

On 23 July, in the City of Vaughan, Canada, two Nigerian men were murdered while on duty. The suspected murderer is at large while a Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued.

According to York Regional Police, the deceased victims, Tosin Amos-Arowoshegbe, 25 and Chibueze Momah, 22, were employed as security guards for ATL Lounge.

An altercation took place in the lounge that led to the shooting. The suspect fled the scene prior to police arriving, York Regional Police said.

An injured victim, a 20-year-old female, was only a patron at the lounge on the said day.

The men succumbed to their injuries but the lady was transported to a hospital and is currently in stable condition.

Kensworth Alton Francis, 27, of Mississauga, believed to be originally from the Bahamas, is wanted for first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Saturday, visited the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in Rivers State.

Mr Dogara, with a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, met with Mr Wike at his country home in Rumueprikom in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State for a closed-door meeting, according to a Channels TV report.

The report quoted Mr Dogara as saying that Mr Wike is indispensable in Nigerias politics.

Everyone agrees with us that Governor Wike is one of those indispensable political leaders. And for us, it is a search to build an all-inclusive Nigeria. So we feel that as part of the agenda-setting, we should meet with him and thats the reason why we are here, the former speaker said to reporters after the meeting.

The former SGF, Mr Lawal, said the visit was in fulfilment of a biblical injunction that brothers should visit one another.

We came to visit our brother. He is our brother and every now and then the bible enjoins you to visit one another. Thats what we have just done, he said.

Messrs Dogara and Lawal are both members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Both politicians recently criticised the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of their party and said that Christians would fight against it with their voters cards and prayers ahead of the 2023 election.

Christians all over the country see this ticket as a deliberate and premeditated attempt to introduce and firmly entrench religion into the politics of the country, which could lead to further disharmony, Mr Lawal had said.

This is truly a wake-up call for all Nigerian Christians. We didnt start this religious politics; APC and its candidates did. So, all of us should take note and act as appropriate, he added.

Governor Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is not having a cordial relationship with his partys presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The governor on Friday said Mr Atiku lied against him. He also described some of their partys chieftains as attack dogs of Atiku.

The relationship between the two appeared to have deteriorated after Atiku failed to pick the Rivers State governor as his running mate.

Mr Wike came second after Atiku in the PDP presidential primary in May.

Because of the visits to Mr Wike by top APC chieftains, including governors, there were rumours that the Rivers State governor had joined the leading opposition party.

But the governor has vowed to remain in the PDP.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Police Force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, has called on Nigerians to constantly and urgently share information with security agencies that will help to check insecurity in the country.

Mr Adejobi, a chief superintendent of police, made the call on Sunday on his verified Twitter handle monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

He said security intelligence was not for public consumption, stressing that he detested sharing intelligence in the news or on social media.

He said anyone or group of persons who derived pleasure in making security intelligence public did that in ignorance because such could not be regarded as intelligence, but rather, eye service and sabotage.

Security agencies work together, gather intelligence and share same amongst themselves for coordinated operations, which will be in the collective interest and benefits for all.

Nigerians should see and perceive insecurity in the country as a common enemy of the land. They are to share information on insecurity with the police.

I am sure that at present, the crop of officers in the police wants a better system and security for Nigeria, so they will take any intelligence received serious,  he said.

Also, the police image maker said that there was the need for every sector of the Nigerian society to wake up and do the needful; not to be accusing everyone, everywhere and every day.

We need a functional approach to tackle our common enemy. We urge Nigerians to constantly share information with security agencies as soon as possible.

A stitch in time saves nine, he said.

(NAN)
A total of 159 persons Sunday graduated with PhD certificates across various disciplines during the 20th undergraduate and 11th postgraduate convocation ceremony of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State.

It is the highest number of PhD graduands produced by the institution in its 23 years of existence.

The universitys vice-chancellor, Ademola Tayo, in his address, noted that 2,077 undergraduates would receive their diplomas and degrees while 471 would graduate from postgraduate school, making a total of 2,548.

He added that the university is recording the highest number of postgraduate graduates, with 159 PhDs.

The vice-chancellor noted that the PhD graduates include two senior advocates of Nigeria, a brigadier general serving in the army, members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Taxation and the council of Institute of administrators.

He urged the students to present themselves to the world at large as precious individuals testing to rule the world and bring about positive change in this unpredictable and conflict-led world.

Behind scheduled academic calendar

Speaking further, the vice chancellor acknowledged that the convocation came slightly behind the regular academic calendar put in place since 1999. He said it was already a culture at the university to hold the convocation ceremony every first Sunday of June.

He attributed the series of daunting challenges to the COVID-19 pandemic and a long period of lockdown, which he noted then inspired the establishment of virtual learning systems.

The Babcock University pioneered virtual learning and virtual examination in Nigeria to overcome excessive academic disruption and the danger of keeping abled dynamic and restless young men and women idle at home, he said.

He also assured that the normal calendar will be re-stabilised in the 2023 academic session.

I wish to say that Babcock University belongs to a network of over 118 universities and colleges in all the continents of the world. And we benchmark our programme with Best global practices, he added.

He added that Babcock university is the second private university to be approved to run the Centre for open and distant learning.
Before Dr Dahirus announcement, concerns had been raised about the prolonged delay in implementing the Climate Change Act, especially considering the five-year Action Plan timeline, with projections that the first plan should be produced no later than 12 months from the commencement of the Act. The legislation places climate change action in the broader context of efforts to achieve inclusive green and sustainable economic development for the most populous black country in the world.

On Monday, 25 July, Dr Salisu Mohammed Dahiru became the Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), following his appointment by Nigerias President, Muhammadu Buhari.

In a role that he is expected to occupy for the next four years, Dr Dahiru will be responsible for driving the implementation of Nigerias Climate Change Agenda, National Climate Change Action Plan, the development of a carbon market framework, and a National Adaptation Plan, which will be in sync with the aspirations enshrined in Nigerias Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi, in confirming this announcement, said this appointment will signpost the beginning of the implementation of the Climate Change Act, which was signed on 18 November 2021.

Along with the establishement of the National Council on Climate Change, other key objectives of the climate law include providing an overarching legal framework for achieving Nigerias long-term climate goals, including a net-zero carbon emission target, national climate resilience, an adequate volume of climate finance, and the mainstreaming of climate change actions into national development priorities.

About Dr Salisu Mohammed Dahiru

Until his appointment, Dr Dahiru was the National Project Coordinator of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) for Nigeria. ACReSAL Nigeria is a six-year World Bank-assisted project that seeks to increase the implementation of sustainable landscape management practices in targeted watersheds in northern Nigeria and strengthen Nigerias long-term enabling environment for integrated climate-resilient landscape management.

Before this appointment, Dr Salisu Dahiru was equally the National Project Coordinator for the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), also funded by the World Bank. Dahiru pioneered and led Nigerias Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Programme, while he has also been a lead negotiator for Nigeria in the Agriculture, Forest and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As part of his thirty-seven years of cognate experience in environmental management, sustainable development, and academia, Dr Dahiru served as the Federal Director of Forestry for eight years and is a Fellow of the Forestry Association of Nigeria (FAN).

Under his watch, the secretariat is enabled to secure funding for the NCCC through fines and charges issued to private and public entities from flouting climate change mitigation and adaptation obligations. The fines may arise as a result of public and private entities not creating measures to achieve targets in line with the action plan, as well as failing to report on its climate emission reduction and adaptation plan.

Concerns About Delayed Implementation of Nigerias Climate Change Act

Before Dr Dahirus announcement, concerns had been raised about the prolonged delay in implementing the Climate Change Act, especially considering the five-year Action Plan timeline, with projections that the first plan should be produced no later than 12 months from the commencement of the Act. The legislation places climate change action in the broader context of efforts to achieve inclusive green and sustainable economic development for the most populous black country in the world.

On Thursday, 21 July, a few days before the announcement, House of Representatives member, Sam Onuigbo, the sponsor of the climate change bill, had expressed dismay at how bureaucratic processes have stalled the appointment of the Director General, in line with the climate change act. I dont know what has been delaying this. We have done our part in developing a reasonably comprehensive guideline and having seen it through to the point of becoming an Act. Now is time to implement the Act and stop committees and reviews. If there are gaps to be taken care of, that can be done at a later time, he said.

Sharon Ikeazor, the former Minister of State for the Environment, now Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, described the presidents initiation of the Act as Nigerias loudest statement on fighting climate change and was looking forward to fully operationalising the council/secretariat.

Expectations from the Director General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC)

The Director-General of the National Council on Climate Changes secretariat draws power from the Presidency and is in a position to aid the Council in the performance of its duties and objectives. It is stated that the Council shall be headed by the President as its Chairman, the Vice President as its Vice Chairman and a cross-section of other players in government and stakeholders, which include the Ministers of Environment, Budget and National Planning; Power, Transportation; Petroleum Resources; Agriculture and Rural Development; Water resources, among others.

The Council is empowered to perform a number of functions which, amongst others, include: the mobilisation of finance for climate change adaptation, overseeing the countrys carbon tax regime, implementation of the countrys climate change plan, etc.

Under his watch, the secretariat is enabled to secure funding for the NCCC through fines and charges issued to private and public entities from flouting climate change mitigation and adaptation obligations. The fines may arise as a result of public and private entities not creating measures to achieve targets in line with the action plan, as well as failing to report on its climate emission reduction and adaptation plan.

Seyifunmi Adebote, an environmentalist and Host of the Climate Talk Podcast. He writes from Abuja and can be reached via seyi@climatetalkpodcast.com
The incumbent Chairman of Tangaza Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Bashir Kalanjeni, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Kalanjeni defected to the APC alongside eight serving and two former councillors in the area.

This is contained in a statement issued by Bashar Abubakar, the media assistant to a senator, Aliyu Wamakko (APC-Sokoto North), on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Abubakar listed the councillors as Zakariyya Madugu, Abubakar Kalanjeni, Abubakar Aliyu, Halilu Aliyu, Ibrahim Sarkin-Tudu, Musa Sakkwai, Abdullahi Garba and Jamilu Muhammad.

He named the two ex-councillors as Abdullahi Garba and Jamilu Muhammad.

Mr Wamakko, while welcoming them into the party assured them that they would be carried along for the development of the party and the state as a whole.

He expressed confidence that APC would win the 2023 general elections with landslide victories across Nigeria.

(NAN)
SHANGHAI, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The inauguration ceremony of Shanghai Electric New Energy Development Co., Ltd . was held on July 15, marking the accelerated expansion and growth of Shanghai Electric's green, low-carbon business.

During the ceremony, Shanghai Electric Group announced its renewable energy roadmap alongside agreements with five partners to jointly develop renewable energy projects, in addition to establishing strategic partnerships with over ten financial institutions and industry partners to build a financial ecosystem for the renewable energy sector.

Shanghai Electric aims to develop renewable energy projects and build a financial ecosystem in the sector Shanghai Electric aims to develop renewable energy projects and build a financial ecosystem in the sector

Shanghai Electric, a leading global integrated manufacturer of high-end equipment, has been building new comprehensive power systems and a complete solution for futuristic zero-carbon industrial parks in a move to take the lead in helping the Chinese government achieve its de-carbonization goals.

The Chinese government's carbon peak and carbon neutral policies, also known as the dual carbon goals, is a systemic change that is expected to have a broad and profound impact on both the economy and the whole of society while building a zero carbon society.

As a response to China's 14th Five-Year Plan, the company has developed a roadmap that focuses on the development of wind, solar, hydrogen and storage energy projects, alongside industrial intelligence, high-end medical equipment, and other new businesses.

The establishment of the renewable energy entity is a vital step in the right direction. The new company has received a total investment of RMB 3 billion, including RMB 2 billion from Shanghai Electric Group and RMB 1 billion from Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group each, and is aimed to become the most integrated and innovative provider of renewable energy projects and full lifecycle services.

With the domestic market as the initial area of expansion and an eye on expanding into international markets, Shanghai Electric New Energy Development will be committed to building a full lifecycle service platform for a renewable energy future by developing wind, solar, storage, thermal and hydrogen energy projects, as well as expanding the source-grid-load-storage integrated business. Based on the platform, the firm plans to create integrated solutions centered around system optimization, streamlined equipment, and intelligent control systems, providing strong support to the quality-driven development of Shanghai Electric Group's renewable energy business.

In the future, Shanghai Electric intends to focus on promoting industrial intelligence and the application of technologies while facilitating interactions between the energy and the industrial internet. Furthermore, the company plans to advance sustainable industrial development globally through the use of technologies by collaborating with government-owned parks, business customers, venture capital firms, technology partners and financial institutions, with the ultimate goal of creating a better world for all.

Fengxian District Party Committee secretary, Li Zheng, and Shanghai Electric Group's Party Committee secretary and chairman, Leng Weiqing, both delivered speeches at the inauguration ceremony and welcomed the start of the new business.

In attendance were several government officials and top management executives, including Fengxian District Party Committee deputy secretary and mayor, Yuan Quan; Shanghai Electric's Party Committee deputy secretary and president, Liu Ping; Bank of China Shanghai Branch general manger, Zhang Shouchuan; Shanghai Guosheng Group's Party Committee secretary and chairman and Shanghai Guosheng Capital Management chairman, Shou Weiguang; Shanghai Electric Power Construction's Party Committee secretary and chairman, Jiang Lindi; and China Merchants Bank executive VP and Shanghai Branch general manager, Shi Shunhua.

In addition, other executives from Shanghai Electric Group and major financial institutions, including banks, and securities firms and trust companies, as well as several journalists were also part of the ceremony.

About Shanghai Electric

Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited (SEHK: 2727, SSE: 601727) is a world-class high-end equipment manufacturer, focusing on smart energy, intelligent manufacturing and smart infrastructure to provide green and intelligent industrial-grade system solutions. It has a global presence in industries such as new energy, efficient clean energy, industrial automation, medical devices and environmental protection.

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SOURCE Shanghai Electric
FROM THE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2022

Top Tier Clinicians and Researchers Find the Tests Are:

- Full of Revolutionary Potential

- Valuable Now For Research and Treatment Trials

- Not Ready Yet for the Healthcare Provider's Office

CHICAGO and SAN DIEGO, July 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alzheimer's disease blood biomarkers (BBMs) may revolutionize the diagnosis of Alzheimer's in the future, but are not yet ready for widespread use, according to a newly-published article by leading international clinicians and researchers convened by the Alzheimer's Association. At the same time, they are important and valuable for current research trials and cautious initial use in specialized memory clinics.

"Blood-based markers show promise for improving, and possibly even redefining, the diagnostic work-up for Alzheimer's," said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association chief science officer and a co-author of the article. "Remarkable progress has been made, but additional data are needed before BBMs can be used as a stand-alone test for diagnosis, and before considering broad use in primary care settings."

"In this article, the expert workgroup clearly defines both short- and long-term research priorities needed to fill significant knowledge gaps that still exist, such as how well these blood-based markers work in diverse communities and in those living with multiple health conditions," Carrillo added. "Also included are consensus appropriate use recommendations for use of BBMs in the clinic and in research trials."

"The Alzheimer's Association Appropriate Use Recommendations for Blood Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease," by Oskar Hansson, M.D., Ph.D., et al, is published online today by Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association . The recommendations will be reported today and tomorrow at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference  (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego and online.

"Blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's are already improving the design of clinical trials, and they are very likely to revolutionize the diagnosis of Alzheimer's in the future," said Oskar Hansson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at Lund University and Skane University Hospital, Malmo, Sweden, and first author on the newly published article. "That said, the implementation of such markers in trials and practice must be done in a careful and controlled way so as not to accidentally cause more harm than good. Much more research is needed before widespread clinical use of BBMs."

According to the article, BBMs show "great promise"  especially markers for Alzheimer's-related brain changes related to nerve cell damage/death, and tau and beta amyloid accumulation  for "future use in both clinical practice and trials. However, few prospective studies have investigated the implementation of such BBMs in more heterogeneous populations."

Not ready for "prime time"

The workgroup points out that no studies have extensively evaluated BBMs for neurodegenerative diseases in primary care, and calls for "well-performed BBM studies in diverse primary care populations." Such studies should also evaluate the impact of BBMs on diagnostic accuracy and change in patient management.

In addition, use of BBMs for general population risk screening and as direct-to-consumer risk tests are not recommended.

The workgroup also says that BBMs should not yet be used as primary endpoints in pivotal treatment trials. However, this does not preclude the use of certain BBMs for decision making in clinical trials with adaptive design, where they could be used to inform decisions on continuing a trial or not.

Many current uses

There are current uses for Alzheimer's BBMs, according to the workgroup. For example, they "recommend use of BBMs as (pre-)screeners to identify individuals likely to have Alzheimer's pathological changes for inclusion in trials evaluating disease-modifying therapies, provided Alzheimer's status is confirmed with positron emission tomography (PET) or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing."

BBMs can be used as exploratory outcomes in most clinical trials in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative dementias. In non-Alzheimer's trials, BBMs can be used to identify patients who likely have Alzheimer's-related brain changes, if that is a condition of exclusion from the study.

"We also recommend cautiously starting use of BBMs in specialized memory clinics as part of the diagnostic work-up of patients already experiencing cognitive symptoms, as long as the results are confirmed whenever possible with CSF or PET, which are the current reference standards," said Charlotte E. Teunissen, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Neurochemistry Laboratory at Amsterdam University Medical Centers, the Netherlands and senior author on the article.

"The implementation of BBMs in primary care will likely take a much longer time because there are very few relevant and high-quality research studies on Alzheimer's-related BBMs conducted in this setting, but more prospective studies are expected to launch in the coming years," Teunissen added.

Establishing the path for BBMs in research

The appropriate use recommendations (AURs) provide specific guidance for current use of, and research needed on, the four most advanced types of Alzheimer's plasma biomarkers: plasma amyloid-beta 42/ amyloid-beta 40 (A42/A40), phospho-tau (p-tau), neurofilament light (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as well as potential combinations of markers. For example, the need for:

Real-world studies on the robustness of plasma A42/A40 as a diagnostic test for cerebral A pathology.

Head-to-head studies comparing the performance of different forms of p-tau in different clinical contexts and across disease stages.

Most important and enlightening are the recommendations repeated by the authors throughout the AURs or those they say apply across the biomarkers, including:

Perform prospective studies in primary care settings, including representative and diverse populations with cognitive symptoms. Evaluate the causes of false positives and negatives; the reference standard must be of high quality and preferably include CSF or PET.

Study whether BBMs outperform what is already available today in primary care, and if they also improve diagnosis and management, including treatment decisions.

[Gain] better understanding of biological and disease-associated variability and potential impact of medical comorbidities and concomitant medications.

[Learn whether] certain BBM-based algorithms can be used alone to support an Alzheimer's diagnosis, or should they only be used as a gatekeeper to CSF/PET.

Eventually (a) perform head-to-head comparisons of different plasma biomarker assays, and (b) establish the most optimal combinations of easily accessible biomarkers.

Defining the need

According to the workgroup, about 25-30% of patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia are misdiagnosed when assessed at specialized dementia clinics, and the accuracy of clinical diagnosis is similar or even lower for other dementias, including frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and vascular dementia. In fact, in most countries, most patients with cognitive or behavioral symptoms are managed in primary care where the misdiagnosis is even higher. The problem is especially acute in the earliest stages of the disease.

"There is a great global need for accurate BBM-based diagnostic and prognostic algorithms that can substantially improve the accuracy of a diagnostic work-up of Alzheimer's, particularly in the early stages of the disease," said Reisa Sperling, M.D., professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a co-author of the article.

The established CSF and PET measures have excellent diagnostic properties, but are less useful outside very specialized clinics due to limited accessibility, invasiveness (e.g., CSF measures require a lumbar puncture, and PET requires infusion of stable isotopes and exposure to radiation) and high costs. This precludes use of CSF and PET biomarkers in most primary and secondary care settings worldwide.

"A major benefit of the use of blood-based biomarkers is that the collection of blood is less invasive and likely less costly than CSF or neuroimaging markers, and more feasible for primary care practitioners," said Adam Boxer, M.D., Ph.D., Endowed Professor in Memory in Aging at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco and a co-author of the article. "This may enable earlier and more equitable referral of individuals to dementia specialists and participation in clinical trials of potential new therapies."

For full disclosures from all authors, please see the published article .

Alzheimer's & Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association

Alzheimer's & Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association bridges the knowledge gaps across a wide range of bench-to-bedside investigations. Content emphasizes interdisciplinary investigations and integrative/translational articles related to: etiology, risk factors, early detection, disease modifying interventions, prevention of dementia and applications of new technologies in health services.

About the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC)

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

AAIC 2022 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/

AAIC 2022 newsroom: www.alz.org/aaic/pressroom.asp

AAIC 2022 hashtag: #AAIC22

About the Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer''s and all other dementia  by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer''s and all other dementia. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

At AAIC 2022, the talk on The Alzheimer's Association Appropriate Use Recommendations for Blood Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease will be held during the developing topics session on Sunday, July 31, 2022 starting at 8 a.m. PT. They will also be discussed briefly as part of the symposium titled, "The Road To Clinical Implementation Of Plasma Biomarkers," on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. PT.

SOURCE Alzheimers Association
LG Energy Solution to host 'LGES Battery Challenge 2022' seeking start-ups with battery related technology to fund cutting-edge research in battery sector

Through international competition, LGES aims to maintain leadership in battery industry

SEOUL, South Korea, July 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Energy Solution (LGES; 373220) continues its efforts to foster next generation battery technologies by inviting start-ups in the industry. The battery manufacturer said it is hosting the 'LGES Battery Challenge 2022,' an international competition to identify start-ups for potential investment and collaboration.

Through the program, LGES is bringing together up and coming battery start-ups to keep pace with the fast-developing industry, as growing number of economies transition to renewable energy. This is the third time the company is hosting the competition.

Start-ups, with the specialty in battery related technology, can take part in this year's Battery Challenge. This year's program largely focuses on three major categories: battery technologies on materials, management and control, and smart factory. As many as 10 start-ups will be selected as finalists and each will receive funding as well as opportunity for cooperation with LGES.

"By utilizing programs like Battery Challenge and Open Innovation, LGES aims to maintain its leading position in the battery industry," said Youngjoon Shin, CTO of LG Energy Solution. "LGES will continue to expand battery-related research with promising start-ups as well as distinguished scholars and academic organizations around the world."

Applications will be accepted through September 16 on the official website (www.lgesbatterychallenge2022.com), which is set to go live on August 1 at 9AM (KST).

About LG Energy Solution

LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220), a split-off from LG Chem, is a leading global manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobility, IT, and energy storage systems. With 30 years of experience in revolutionary battery technology and extensive research and development (R&D), the company is the top battery-related patent holder in the world with over 24,000 patents. Its robust global network, which spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, includes battery manufacturing facilities established through joint ventures with major automakers such as General Motors, Stellantis N.V. and Hyundai Motor Group. At the forefront of green business and sustainability, LG Energy Solution aims to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2050, while embodying the value of shared growth and promoting diverse and inclusive corporate culture. To learn more about LG Energy Solution's ideas and innovations, visit https://www.lgensol.com.

SOURCE LG Energy Solution
SAN DIEGO, July 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alzheimer's Association will present seven awards at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference  (AAIC) 2022, recognizing researchers for their varied expertise, noteworthy achievements and innovative contributions to the field of Alzheimer's and dementia science.

"Our understanding of dementia science today owes much to these seven researchers and their collaborators," said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., chief science officer, Alzheimer's Association. "The celebration of their accomplishments and their powerful work in diverse areas of study is an inspiration to all of us in the science community as we strive to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia."

AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards

The AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards are named in honor of Henry Wisniewski, M.D., Ph.D.; Khalid Iqbal, Ph.D.; and Bengt Winblad, M.D., Ph.D., the co-founders of the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, now known as the Alzheimer's Association International Conference. These awards honor significant contributions to Alzheimer's and dementia research, either through a single scientific discovery or a body of work.

Agneta Nordberg, M.D., Ph.D., is the recipient of the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a professor of clinical neuroscience and director of the Nordberg Translational Molecular Imaging Lab at the Karolinska Institutet, as well as a senior consultant in geriatric medicine at Karolinska University Hospital. Her research currently focuses on developing early diagnostic biomarkers and new drug targets in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Nordberg has contributed greatly to the field's understanding of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine's role in dementia, and has pioneered the use of brain amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to visualize abnormalities in tau protein and reactive astrogliosis.

Keith Johnson, M.D., is the recipient of the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School, the director of molecular neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is the co-principal investigator of the Harvard Aging Brain Study and leads the PET component of the Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC). Johnson's pioneering neuroimaging work has contributed greatly to the understanding of tau and amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's, especially in the preclinical and early stages of the disease. His recent studies have focused on identifying the origins of tau pathology in deep brain structures and optimizing outcomes for molecular imaging in Alzheimer's disease prevention trials.

Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a professor of health policy and management (School of Public Health) and associate of the Center for Health Equity (School of Medicine) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is also a co-investigator for the Alzheimer's Association's New IDEAS Study, which investigates brain amyloid PET scans in diverse populations with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Dilworth-Anderson's research on health disparities in caregiving for Alzheimer's and other dementia and development of methods/strategies to advance an inclusive science in the study of Alzheimer's have greatly informed the conduct of culturally relevant research and has enabled wider dissemination of information about Alzheimer's and dementia in medically underserved populations.

Bill Thies Award

The Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART (the Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment ) recognizes an ISTAART member who has provided continued and outstanding service to the ISTAART community. The award honors William (Bill) Thies, Ph.D., who passed away on Aug. 16, 2020. During his tenure from 1998 to 2020 as the Alzheimer's Association's chief medical and scientific officer, and then as senior medical science advisor, Thies was instrumental in bringing AAIC under the Association's management. He launched the peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association , and the Alzheimer's Association Research Roundtable .

Sandra E. Black, O.C, M.D., is the recipient of the 2022 Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART. She is a professor of neurology at the Sunnybrook site, University of Toronto and director of the Dr. Sandra Black Center for Brain Resilience & Recovery at Sunnybrook Research Institute. As a stroke and cognitive neurologist, Black helped to build the Ontario Stroke System, and is site director of the Heart & Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery. She was the inaugural executive director of the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance, a University of Toronto network of memory clinics assessing more than 2,000 new patients annually. Black served as vice-chair and chair of the ISTAART Advisory Council between 2014 and 2018. She also co-chaired the Neuroimaging Professional Interest Area, served on the AAIC Scientific Planning Committee, and has been active in the Vascular PIA Executive Committee since its inception. Her research spans 30+ years and more than 600 papers, and has had an invaluable impact on our understanding of the connection between dementia and vascular health.

Zaven Khachaturian Award

Cynthia A. Lemere, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Zaven Khachaturian Award at AAIC 2022. This award is presented to an individual whose compelling vision, selfless dedication and extraordinary achievement has significantly advanced the field of Alzheimer's science. Lemere is an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Lemere's current research examines the potential for preclinical antibody treatments, vaccines and ultrasound to disrupt the formation of amyloid plaques. She also is investigating the effects of cosmic radiation on brain aging and Alzheimer's risk, in preparation for NASA's planned mission to Mars in the 2030s. As a whole, Lemere's work has contributed greatly to our understanding of the therapeutic power of the immune system to potentially prevent and treat Alzheimer's.

Inge-Grundke-Iqbal Award

Rakez Kayed, Ph.D., is this year's recipient of the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer's Research. This award is presented to the senior author of the most impactful study published in Alzheimer's research during the two calendar years preceding AAIC. Kayed is a professor of neurology and a primary investigator in the Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas, Galveston. His work focuses on the mechanisms of protein misfolding and aggregation, novel methods for studying forms of amyloid, and the role of tau in abnormal cell transmission, cell death and disease progression in Alzheimer's. He is receiving the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for his July 2021 paper in Cell Reports, "Tau oligomer induced HMGB1 release contributes to cellular senescence and neuropathology linked to Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia." Kayed and team found that by blocking a specific protein in the brain, they could reduce neuroinflammation and tau tangles in mice. If replicated in humans, this finding opens exciting new treatment possibilities for reducing cell death and tau abnormalities in Alzheimer's.

Blas Frangione Early Career Achievement Award

Mychael Vinicius Lourenco, Ph.D., is the 2022 recipient of the Blas Frangione Early Career Achievement Award. This award recognizes early career researchers whose cutting edge research in Alzheimer's and dementia has the potential to impact the field by propelling it in novel directions. Lourenco is an assistant professor of neuroscience and the principal investigator of the Lourenco Lab at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He completed his B.S., M.S., Ph.D. and postdoctoral training at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His innovative research focuses on how inflammation and cellular stress contribute to memory loss, as well as on the potential beneficial effects of the hormone irisin and physical exercise in Alzheimer's models.

About the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC)

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

AAIC 2022 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/

AAIC 2022 newsroom: www.alz.org/aaic/pressroom.asp

AAIC 2022 hashtag: #AAIC22

About the Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia  by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

SOURCE Alzheimers Association
Ahmedabad, July 31 : Tuberculosis (TB) has proven to be more deadlier than Covid-19 in Gujarat between January-May 2022, with 2,675 deaths recorded due to TB in the state during this period.

During this five-month period, 825 people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 while more than 68,000 people have become victims of TB in the country.

Though, there has also been a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Gujarat with 1,128 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Three persons have died of Covid-19 in Ahmedabad during the last 24 hours with 400 of the total 902 people recovering from the disease reported in the city till Saturday. The overall recovery rate of Covid-19 in the state has reduced to 98.63 per cent.

According to information shared by the Union government in the Lok Sabha, 18.05 lakh people were infected with TB in 2020 and around 21.35 lakh in 2021 across the country under the TB elimination programme.

From January to May 2022, 68,718 people have died due to TB in Gujarat while the mortality rate from it is more than four per cent.

Apart from this, it has been revealed that an average of more than 13,000 people are suffering from TB every month in Gujarat.

Among the states which have the highest number of deaths due to TB between January-May 2022, Uttar Pradesh is at the top with 6,896, Maharashtra is second with 2845, while Gujarat is third.

From 2018 to May 2022, a total of more than 6.47 lakh people have contracted TB in Gujarat.

It was decided in the meeting held at Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation 's Health and Solid Waste Management Committee that most of the primary tests can now be done in all 90 urban health centres and 11 community health centres managed by AMC.

The blood test of a patient and tests, including dengue, chikungunya, typhoid and diarrhoea, can be done free of cost.

The machines have been made operational at urban health centres and community health centres at a cost of more than Rs two crore. Apart from this, sonography machines have also been placed at all community health centres.

Bharat Patel, Chairman of Health and Solid Waste Management Committee, said that machines for various tests should be installed in all urban health centres. After discussing with the officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the machines for each test were ordered for which all the procedures have now been completed and the machines for detecting fever, dengue, typhoid, chikungunya etc. have been placed into operation at all urban health centres and community health centres.

Epidemics usually increase during monsoons. In various areas and slums, the incidence of diseases is increasing so free mega medical camps are organised by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

During this year, it was decided that a total of 20 free mega medical camps will be conducted in different areas of the city by the city Municipal Corporation.

This mega medical camp will be started after August 10, for which an announcement will be made by the Municipal Corporation. Free medicine and treatment will be given to the patients coming to these medical camps.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Lucknow, July 31 : A team of Bahraich district police in plain clothes was taken by surprise during a routine patrol when they were intercepted by four 'cops' in their early 20s, who flashed 'police identity cards' and then demanded money from them, for "roaming around in suspicious condition".

However, the situation took a u-turn as the 'real' police patrol team then arrested the imposter cops and put them behind bars for fleecing the innocent.

The incident took place in Visheswarganj police station area.

Bahraich Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), K.G. Singh, said on Sunday that the four arrested were identified as Ajay Kumar Singh, Satish Kumar Singh, Pintoo and Shriram Mishra.

All the four accused have been booked under the alleged charges of extortion and the Arms Act.

"We also recovered a country-made pistol and fake police ID cards from them," Singh added.

The police officer further said that a relative of one of the accused happens to be in the police department and he will soon be questioned as well.

Singh added that the four accused had stopped two men on a bike near Visheswarganj crossing for not wearing helmets and then intercepted two other commuters.

"In the meantime, a police patrol unit clearing encroachment reached the spot and demanded to know their identities. In response, the youths charged upon the team and instead asked for their identities. Enraged over this, the patrol unit nabbed the youths and brought them to Visheswarganj police station," the ASP said.
Prayagraj, July 31 : The Allahabad high court has said that if a person admitted to hospital due to Covid-19 dies during treatment, it should be considered a Covid death, even if the immediate cause is heart failure or dysfunction of any other organ.

This will ensure relief for many people who have been denied compensation due to "technical reasons".

The dependents of any such deceased person would be entitled for the compensation or ex-gratia payment as already fixed by the government, the court added.

Allowing writ petitions filed by Kusum Lata Yadav and several others, a division bench comprising Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Vikram D Chauhan directed the state authorities to release the ex-gratia payment to the dependents of Covid victims within a period of one month.

The petitioners in this case are dependents of deceased government employees, who were engaged in election duty, and died due to Covid-19 thereafter.

They challenged clause 12 of the government order (GO) dated June 1, 2021, primarily on the ground that it allows payment of compensation only if death has occurred within 30 days of election duty.

The petitioners would be entitled for ex-gratia payment to the tune of Rs 30 lakh as per GO issued by the state government to compensate the dependents of any such deceased person.

However, the other similarly situated persons will be compensated as per government notification issued in this connection.

The petitioner argued that the object of this GO is to compensate the family, which has lost its breadearner during panchayat elections due to Covid-19.

It was contended that the state authorities admit that the death of the petitioner's husband was caused due to Covid-19, but the payment is being denied only because of the ceiling contained in clause 12, which restricts payment of compensation only if the death has occurred within 30 days.
Kiev, July 31 : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked civilians remaining in parts of eastern Donetsk, which is still under Kiev's control, to evacuate as Russia has intensified fighting in the region.

In his nightly video address to the nation on Saturday, the President said: "There are hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands of children... Many people refuse to leave... But it really needs to be done. This decision will have to be made... And the sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region, the fewer people the Russian army will be able to kill.

"The government has taken a decision to begin mandatory evacuation from Donetsk. It's all been organised: full support, full assistance, both logistical and financial. We only need those people who have not yet made this decision to make this decision at last.

"We are not Russia. That is why every life is important for us. And we will use all available opportunities to save as many lives as possible and to limit Russian terror as much as possible.

"At this stage of the war, terror is the main weapon for Russia. And that is why the main task of every Ukrainian, every defender of freedom and humanity in the world is to do everything to isolate the terrorist state and to protect as many people as possible from Russian attacks." Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced the government will introduce mandatory evacuation of residents from the unoccupied areas of Donetsk.

She added that if anyone refuses to leave, these people will be forced to sign a waiver form, that they understand all the consequences and are responsible for their life, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

"There is absolutely no gas supply in Donetsk, we repaired all the gas pipelines that could be repaired, but, unfortunately, the enemy again and again destroys everything that would help keep people warm in winter. In short, there will be no heat in the Donetsk region in the winter.

"There are 52,000 children in Donetsk Oblast, they need to be evacuated, they cannot be exposed to mortal danger in the winter without heat, without light, without the possibility of heating," the Deputy Prime Minister was quoted as saying.

The development comes as Moscow invited UN and Red Cross officials to investigate the deaths of 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in another part of Donetsk region held by Russian-backed separatists.

The troops were killed in unclear circumstances during an attack on a prison in Olenivka, with both sides blaming each other.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Web Series: 'Paper Rocket' (Tamil; Releasing on Zee5). Duration: 7 episodes (total time: 220 minutes) Writer and Director: Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi. Cast: Kalidas Jayaram, Nagineedu, Tanya S. Ravichandran, K. Renuka, Karunakaran, Nirmal Palazhi, Gouri G. Kishan, Chinni Jayanth, Kaali Venkat and Poornima Baghyaraj.

IANS Rating: ***1/2Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi's 'Paper Rocket' is a heart-warming tale that revolves around a group of six people who, through a road trip, end up healing themselves and others. The wounds they have suffered are deep because they have been caused either by death, depression, anger or exploitation.

The story is like a gentle stream that meanders its way into viewers' hearts. It begins with Jeeva (Kalidas Jayaram), a much-sought after acquisitions and merger expert, who lives a luxurious life alone in Chennai.

His father Gunaseelan (Nagineedu) is a doting dad but someone who prefers to stay in his native place by the sea. Father and son share a wonderful, admirable bond, regularly talking over phone or staying in touch through voice messages on WhatsApp.

Jeeva's skills are unmatched and his boss looks to make the most of it. He assigns him the responsibility to close his most precious deals that are worth several hundred crores.

Jeeva as such has no problem. His only problem is that it's been six months since he last visited his dad, who has been eagerly awaiting his return. Whenever Jeeva makes an effort to head home, his boss has some other important deal for him to attend to. Eventually, the trips keep getting postponed.

One night, late after finishing work, Jeeva attempts to call his dad. He doesn't get a response. He checks out the WhatsApp messages and sees that his father has posted a voice message for him in which he expresses a desire to go on a long drive in the car with his son.

The next morning, Jeeva sees a series of missed calls on his phone and calls back only to learn that his dad has passed away. He is overcome by guilt of not having been there with his dad when he needed him the most.

Days pass but Jeeva is unable to come to terms with the tragedy. He goes to a doctor (Poornima Baghyaraj) who invites him to a discussion with a group of five other people who are trying to overcome their own problems. How the group gets together and helps each other is what the series is about.

Kalidas Jayaram as Jeeva steals the limelight. He looks every bit the part and is absolutely at ease playing this character. Combining well with Nagineedu(who plays his dad) and Kaali Venkat (who plays a friend), Kalidas is easily the thread holding together all the beads of the beautiful necklace called 'Paper Rocket'.

Tanya Ravichandran as Elakkya, a feminist with anger issues, does a decent job. K Renuka as Valliyamma comes up with a convincing neat performance as does Gouri G who plays an injured swimmer called Charu.

Karunakaran as Tiger and Nirmal Palazhi are adorable but their characterisation isn't very convincing.

The series has some breathtakingly beautiful visuals all through. Richard M. Nathan's camera has had a field day, capturing stunningly beautiful visuals of vales, mountains, mists and the sea. Full marks to the cinematographer! Music is another strength of the series. Be it the background score or the songs, the music department deserves a pat on the back for having done their jobs well.

Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi delivers a neat, clean, entertaining series that may well be worth your time.
Mumbai, July 31 : A day before the Supreme Court hearing on MLAs disqualification issues, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) swooped on Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut here on Sunday.

A team of ED along with a posse of police and Central security agency landed at Raut's Bhandup residence at dawn as part of the investigations into the Patra Chawl land scam case.

Raut tweeted: "Shiv Sena zindabad. Will keep fighting", even as scores of his supporters staged a sit-in protest outside his home.

The ED has in the past recorded the statements of Raut and his wife Varsha Raut.

Earlier, the ED had attached properties worth Rs 9 crore linked to Raut's aide Pravin Raut besides assets valued at around Rs 2 crore, belonging to his wife Varsha.

The stormy petrel of Shiv Sena, Raut (60), is a four-time MP and Shiv Sena's Parliamentary Party leader, faces a case that has been registered against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act vis-a-vis the Rs 1,034 crore land scam.

Sena Mumbai South MP Arvind Sawant termed the ED action as "an act of vengeance done with political motive".

He also said that both Raut and his wife had appeared before the ED and their statements have been recorded.

Congress Chief Spokespersons Atul Londhe slammed the raids and said that now all the Central agencies have become "political tools" of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to harass politicians and opponents.

Nationalist Congress Party's Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar declined to comment saying that he has not got the full details of the ED action against Raut.

BJP' Kirit Somaiya, Ram Kadam and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Group MLAs welcomed the ED action on the Sena leader.
Lucknow, July 31 : Numbers play a crucial role in politics and every politician knows it.

Some political leaders however, have a fetish for particular numbers, especially when it comes to the registration of their vehicles and also their telephone numbers.

In most parts of the state, politicians are recognised by the registration numbers of their vehicles. The number remain the same even though the registration series changes. The colours of vehicles also remain the same.

Dhananjay Singh, a former BSP MP and the newly-appointed national secretary of JD(U), has a series of SUVs with the registration number 9777. He has various models of Fortuner, Scorpio, Safari but all have the same number and are black in colour.

Former Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a. Raja Bhaiyya's convoy of top range SUVs has the registration number of 0001 and majority of his vehicles are white in colour.

BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on the other hand, has a penchant for the number 9000 and all his vehicles have the same number, albeit in different series.

BJP MLA Sushil Singh, who is the nephew of mafia don Brijesh Singh, prefers 0001 as the number for his cars that are black in colour.

Abhay Singh, SP MLA from Gosainganj in Ayodhya, has a fleet of SUVs with the registration number 7273. The vehicles are black in colour.

Former MLA Chandra Bhadra Singh a.k.a. Sonu Singh from Sultanpur, prefers 0001 registration number for all his vehicles that are usually white in colour.

Ajay Sipahi, who graduated from being a police constable to mafia don, chooses 7272 number for his vehicles.

Jailed don and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari's fleet of cars bear the number 786 which is considered holy by Muslims.

For getting numbers of their choice, these political leaders have to pay substantial amount of money -- Rs 5 lakhs for 0001, Rs 3 lakhs for single digit numbers preceded by 0.

Talking to IANS, one of the politicians said: "I choose my vehicle number after consulting my astrologer. Since the number is lucky for me, I do not mind paying extra money." Another politician admitted that having multiple vehicles with one registration number, gives then a district identity.

"When I travel in my constituency, my vehicle is my identity. People know now that this number belongs to me. Even the traffic cops know my number and this is an additional benefit," he said.

A senior official in the Transport Department said that it was routine for politicians to seek fancy number for the vehicles.

"We get requests and there is no problem since they are willing to pay the prescribed amount. In fact, some politicians even prefer to wait to buy the vehicle till the number they want is available," he said.
Kolkata, July 31 : Ever since the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal ending the 34-year Left Front rule in May 2011, there have been several instances of senior party leaders being embroiled in financial scams and getting arrested.

In the Saradha chit fund scam those who had to spend time in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody included current Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay, the then state transport minister and current party MLA, Madan Mitra and former Trinamool Congress parliamentarians, late Tapas Paul and Srinjoy Basu, among others.

In the Narada video tape scam, the CBI took into custody transport minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim and former panchayat minister, late Subrata Mukherjee and also Madan Mitra.

In all these cases, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee stood like a rock in support of her cabinet and party colleagues and vehemently criticized the BJP and the Union government for allegedly resorting to vendetta politics.

However, things have taken the reverse direction in the recent West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) multi-crore scam involving former education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee and his close aide, Arpita Mukherjee. Since the arrest of Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee on July 23, an all-out effort is being made to distance the Trinamool Congress from Chatterjee.

The initiative was taken by senior Trinamool Congress leaders who said that the onus is on Partha Chatterjee and not on the party or the state government. But understanding that the attempts of these leaders were not cutting much ice, Mamata Banerjee at a government programme took the same stand and also assured that disciplinary action will be taken against Partha Chatterjee if he is proved guilty. However, within 48 hours Chatterjee was stripped of all his ministerial and party portfolios.

This action was taken within six days of his arrest in the WBSSC scam, something which was unheard of before in the Trinamool Congress. Now the question is whether this is just an attempt to give the party leadership a clean image? Or is it out of the fear that its impact will reach the doorsteps of the chief minister? IANS spoke to a number of political leaders and analysts on this issue. Barring the Trinamool Congress leaders, all believed that the drastic action was a fallout of the fear factor and absolutely no morality was behind the action.

According to Trinamool Congress' national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, after certain circumstantial evidence came to light, the decision was taken to strip Chatterjee of his ministerial and party portfolios. "No other party has ever taken such prompt action. It is the Trinamool Congress which gave the benefit of doubt to the people instead of the party's secretary general," he claimed.

CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that had the moral ground been so high then the chief minister would have taken these steps after the first seizure of cash from Arpita Mukherjee's south Kolkata residence. "The chief minister understood that the heat of the WBSSC scam had started reaching her doorstep and hence she took the drastic decision. What she is trying to do now is to just get rid of Partha Chatterjee, once her second-in-command in the party, to save her own skin," Chakraborty added.

According to the BJP's national vice-president and party MP, Dilip Ghosh, the fear factor was evident in the body language of the chief minister, when for the first time she spoke on the issue at a state government event. "In that programme she clearly said that she will not tolerate any attempt to drag her into the scam and if such attempts continue, she will retaliate. Her clear message to the media was that they can write anything against Partha Chatterjee but don't try to drag her into the scandal. Is this not a clear indication of her fear factor?" Ghosh asked.

Political analyst Amal Kumar Mukherjee said that when Calcutta High Court's single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI enquiry into the WBSSC scam, he made an observation as well as a suggestion that for the sake of fairness Mamata Banerjee should remove Partha Chatterjee from his ministerial portfolios. "Had that been done than Trinamool Congress' tall claims of morality would have been justified. But now it is evident it was not morality but an attempt to shrug off Partha Chatterjee that prompted his removal from his ministerial and party portfolios," he said.

Former ADGP of the West Bengal police, Nazrul Islam said that the chief minister cannot duck her responsibility in the entire issue by saying that Arpita Mukherjee is unknown to her. "There is a viral video clip, where at the inauguration of Puja, the chief minister was not only spotted with Arpita Mukherjee but was also heartily praising her. The chief minister praised her knowledge of the Oriya language and said that Mukherjee also frequents another member of her cabinet, Firhad Hakim," Islam pointed out.
Bengaluru, July 31 : The political slugfest over the serial killings in coastal Karnataka region has threatened to create more divide between communities in the communally sensitive region. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's gesture of paying visit only to the BJP activist's residence and announcement of a compensation package to the family of the Hindu youth and turning a blind eye to the families of the Muslim youth has stirred a controversy that the ruling party is treading on the communal path.

Alleging partial treatment by the ruling BJP government, prominent Muslim organisations have boycotted the peace meeting organised by the police department in Dakshina Kannada district. Three murders, two of Muslim youth and one of BJP activist in the last 10 days have shaken the state and raised concerns.

J.R. Lobo, former MLA alleged that the partial stand of CM Bommai to visit only Hindu victim and turning a blind eye towards the Muslim victims is the main reason for the absence of Muslim organisations from the peace meeting. "Compensation is given from the government to Praveen's family. But, CM Bommai did not bother to visit one of the Muslim victim Masood's place located close by,' He said.

Moreover, the political slugfest between CM Bommai and Siddaramaiah on the killings of more than 30 Hindu and Muslim youths in the state, especially in the coastal region between 2013 and 2017, has reopened the wounds. Police sources reveal that the war of words between two top leaders will only ensure further communal divide in the state.

Following the murder of BJP activist Praveen Kumar Nettaru, CM Bommai attacked Siddaramaiah stating that withdrawing the cases against the SDPI and PFI organisations lodged in the killings of 22 Hindu youths was the main reason behind such developments in the state.

CM Bommai stated that the organisations have become emboldened to carry out such activities. Siddaramaiah has also reacted sharply against CM Bommai and the ruling BJP.

"During my tenure as CM a total of 23 murders took place due to the political rivalry and communal conflicts. Among 23, 12 are Hindus and 11 are Muslims. SDPI and PFI workers are accused in 8 murder cases of Hindus among 12. In one case a Congress worker was made an accused. 99 persons have been arrested and investigation is on," Siddaramaiah stated.

"Bajrang Dal activists were made accused in 8 murder cases of Muslims and Hindu Jagaran Vedike, Sri Rama Sene and VHP workers were made accused in other three murder cases. The action has been taken against 115 accused persons," Siddramaiah maintained.

However, the BJP leaders claim that during the rule of Siddaramaiah more than 30 Hindu youths were killed. The BJP in the 2018 elections made it a major issue and the party sweeped coastal region Assembly seats.

National General Secretary and BJP MP C.T. Ravi stated in the back drop of Praveen's murder that banning SDPI and PFI was not the solution and the problem has to be dealt in a different way. Minister for Higher Education Dr C.N. Ashwath Narayan stated that the time was ripe for the elements to be dealt with strongly. "We won't hesitate to go five steps ahead of the Yogi Adityanath government," he added.

Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy declared that he will visit the Muslim victims in Dakshina Kannada district and slammed CM Bommai for lacking in following the "Raj Dharma" laid down by former Late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"CM Bommai has violated the sanctity of the oath taken during the swearing-in ceremony by visiting only the BJP victim's house and not visiting the family of Muslim youth. Forget about following Raj Dharma, the BJP is not even giving justice to its cadres," he maintained.

With the Assembly elections less than 10 months away, Karnataka, known as one of the progressive states, remains deeply divided on the communal lines. It is to be seen how things shape up in the coming days, when political parties turn heat to win elections at any cost.
Film: 'Gulu Gulu' (Playing in Theatres). Duration: 150 minutes Director: Rathna Kumar. Cast: Santhanam, Namitha Krishnamoorthy, Athulya Chandra, Pradeep Rawat, Dheena and Mariyam George.

IANS Rating: ***1/2Rathna Kumar's 'Gulu Gulu' is a dark comedy that by and large works, primarily because of the manner in which the story is told and more importantly, because of the way Santhanam, who plays the lead character of Google, is presented in the film.

In fact, don't be surprised if 'Gulu Gulu' goes down as a landmark film in Santhanam's career for, it presents a different side of the actor, hitherto unknown to audiences and even to many of his fans.

'Gulu Gulu' is a story about a wanderer called 'Google' (Santhanam). A Venezulan by birth, 'Google', who has widely travelled and knows 13 languages, chooses to stay in Tamil Nadu and speaks Tamil. Life has always been harsh, cruel and unfair to Google but he has nothing but kindness and help to offer in return.

The story has two subplots that eventually combine into one. The first plot revolves around a young woman called Matilda (Athulya Chandra) who wishes to see the face of her dead father one last time. Her vicious step-brothers, however, are determined not to let that happen. They hire a bunch of simpletons to kidnap her.

The second plot revolves around a bunch of four selfish, ungrateful friends, who hatch a kidnap plan to find out if the dad of one of them really loves his son. Both these plots eventually combine into one major plot with 'Google' in the thick of things. What happens then is what 'Gulu Gulu' is all about.

Santhanam's performance as 'Google' in this film is just perfect. The man, who has until now only appeared in roles where he looks to speak a lot, mock and ridicule others and crack crude jokes is silent for the most part in this film. In fact, on the contrary, he is even the butt of a couple of jokes.

Understanding, soft-spoken and kind, Santhanam's character simply wins your heart. The characterisation is so refreshing and welcome that it makes you wonder why the man never thought of doing such characters before.

The film also has great performances coming in from some of the other members of its cast. Mariyam George is funny and brilliant as Ilangaiyan in the film. Pradeep Rawat as the villain David is also outstanding.

Black comedies demand great writing and perfect timing. Rathna Kumar's 'Gulu Gulu' has, by and large, both of these.

Be it humour, romance or action, the manner in which each of these segments have been dealt with in this film is refreshingly fresh.

Sample this. A cop in a patrol vehicle throws his weight around, insulting and abusing common people. A woman begging for alms, with a child in her hand, is physically manhandled by the cop for no fault of hers.

When a kind-hearted Google offers to attend to her injuries, she breaks down, her dignity and self respect making her seethe with anger. She asks him if he can slap the cop in public. How Google does that wins your admiration.

It is not that the film does not have its drawbacks. It has. The film becomes a drag in some places in the first half. Too many characters in the plot also make it quite difficult for audiences to follow the plots.

Santhosh Narayanan's music is a mixed bag for this film. While the background score is neat and apt, the songs are unbearable. If you are the kind who likes to listen to mellifluous numbers, you may be in for a rude shock. But set these aside and you have a decent entertainer to enjoy.

The highlight of 'Gulu Gulu' is that while it looks to entertain, it also looks to gently, yet firmly convey the message that kindness is what matters above everything else. And just for that, Rathna Kumar deserves a round of applause.
Los Angeles, July 31 : Actress Reese Witherspoon has unveiled more details about 'Legally Blonde 3'. She said that Tom Cruise-starrer 'Top Gun: Maverick' provided inspiration for the third installment of 'Legally Blonde'.

The 46-year-old actress is set to return as Elle Woods in the long-awaited follow-up to 2003's 'Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde', the sequel to the 2001 original.

She loved how they included a throwback from the first 'Top Gun' movie in its sequel that was released more than 30 years after the 1986 original, reports aceshowbiz.com.

She told USA Today, "I'm still hoping that 'Legally Blonde 3' is gonna come together in the right way." She added, "It's just like 'Top Gun'. They waited a long time to make another version of that movie, and I loved the nostalgia piece they incorporated in it." "So definitely that gave us a lot of inspiration about what we would want to do with Elle Woods and make sure that we had all those same touchstones that mattered to people (back) then." Witherspoon says the characters are so beloved to her that she wants to make sure the move is perfect.

She added: "I feel like these characters are my friends, so I safeguard them. I would never make the subpar, mediocre version of their story." Mindy Kaling is penning the script with Dan Goor. Selma Blair recently said she hopes to at least make a cameo in 'Legally Blonde 3'. The 50-year-old star played Vivian Kensington in the 2001 comedy, and she is hoping to make an appearance in the upcoming flick.

She told the 'Shut Up Evan' podcast, "I'm hoping, hoping that that legacy can continue, because talk about the good things in life. That movie is one of the good things in life. It's a highlight. I really feel like, 'Yeah, my obit's gonna look okay.' " Blair also discussed an alternate ending where Vivian and lead star Reese's alter ego Elle Woods end up together and said she'd have been so up for that.
Bengaluru, July 31 : In a major development in the BJP activist Praveen Kumar Nettare's murder case, the special investigative team has apprehended a suspect from Kerala's Talacherry.

The suspect has been identified as Abid and the accused worked in a chicken shop and has connections with a political organisation, police said on Saturday.

Police further stated that the investigations revealed that Abid was not in the town on the day Praveen was hacked to death. The police have already arrested Zakir Savanur (29) and Shafeeq Bellare (27) in connection with the murder of Praveen.

Investigations have revealed that the accused had been hatching the conspiracy to kill Praveen since the past two months. The accused were in touch through whatsApp calls and made threatening calls to Praveen.

Praveen had shared about the threat calls with his friends and he had also informed about this to the Bellare police orally. Police are now investigating all the leads.

On July 26, bike-borne miscreants attacked Praveen in the Bellare town of Dakshina Kannada district in front of his chicken shop and hacked him to death.

Following the murder of Praveen, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had cancelled celebration of his one-year term in office. He visited Praveen's family and issued a cheque of Rs 25 lakh as compensation from the government. The party had given Rs 25 lakh separately.

The incident triggered a chain of protests from the BJP workers all over the state against the ruling BJP. The agitators laid siege at Home Minister Araga Jnanendra's residence causing severe embarrassment to the ruling establishment.
Colombo, July 31 : Sri Lankan police said that they have arrested 13 people for unruly behaviour at fuel stations.

Police said that most of the arrested were under the influence of alcohol, and some had attempted to obstruct the duties of police officers deployed to guard the stations, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sri Lanka has been facing fuel shortages since February 2022 due to foreign currency shortages.

State-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation suspended retail oil distribution at the end of June, only to have restarted in mid-July.

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said last week that fuel stations will only accept the national fuel pass or QR code system from August 1.
'RRR', 'KGF', 'Pushpa: The Rise', 'Baahubali' and other such big hits, and one would think that the South Indian film industry is rolling in money! Evidently, it is not so. And that is what bothers the filmmakers in the South.

Their malady is that just about everybody connected with the making of a film, from the stars to the technicians, makes money when a film is being made except for the producer. To contemplate on this issue, the Active Telugu Film Producers Guild (ATFPG) met last week.

Films such as 'Baahubali', 'Pushpa', 'RRR' are a flash in the pan and the media celebrates only those. But the Guild contends that against these few blockbusters, which appear periodically, there are many other films that drag a film producer deep into the red.

That a film producer always makes money is a perception people live with because of the stars. The stars are the face of the film industry. Their riches and the glamour quotient are for the people to see, not the plight of those behind the scenes. In the popular perception, if stars make so much money, certainly, the ones who employ them must be earning so much more! How one hopes this was true, that producers were the ones employing stars! The fact is that once a star is signed, a producer starts working for the star. In the Hindi industry, all but a successful few borrowed at the rate of 3 per cent per month, or 36 per cent per annum! The interest was chargeable every quarter and deducted while landing.

It was a desperate situation for a film producer. Because, not only his film, even his household ran on this borrowed money. He was a full-time filmmaker and had no other source of income. All this because though this was called an Industry, it was never recognised as one and therefore not privy to institutional finance. Which, if nothing, would be available at a reasonable rate of interest.

Usually, a film producer lived on liabilities, always owing money to his financiers, which got transferred from one film to the next, unless his film turned out to be a big hit. Only that day did he stand a chance to pay up his debts and emerge clean. That, too, depended a lot on his distributors and if they paid his overflow (share of the profit after recovering his investment). The distributors were, almost always, only partly honest.

There were some filmmakers whose finances were structured in such a way that even the world rights of their movies vested with the financer. He controlled all the transactions, including the profit earned by the film, till he recovered his investment, or over a stipulated period. In such an event, even if the film was a hit, the profits went to this world rights holder.

The best case of such an understanding was film producer Yash Johar, the founder of Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. Yash Johar enjoyed tremendous goodwill in the industry, making many well-received films such as 'Duniya', 'Duplicate', 'Agneepath' and 'Gumrah' with the biggest of stars. Yet, Johar never tasted success.

Finally, when success came to him with 'Dostana' (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha), his profit was mortgaged to the film's world rights controller for the next 10 years! Yash Johar, such as he was, would laugh at his situation. One hit I make and the profit goes to someone else. That is the way the film business worked. The producer was the one who put together a project, slogged for a year or two but got little or nothing back at the end. The producer knew his situation well, but had no way of coming out of the quagmire.

Recently, the Multiplex Association of India (MAI) decided that a Hindi film will be released on OTT platforms only after eight weeks of its theatrical release! Whose film is it, who is the producer? And, why does MAI decide on such matters for a producer? Well, that is the way it has been for a long time. From the number of screens to be assigned to a film to the admission rates, it is all decided by the multiplex operators.

Filmmakers, in Mumbai or in the South, are all facing similar problems that make filmmaking a risky business for them. The major problems faced by them are also the same: high admission rates at the cinemas; impractical out-of-proportion star earnings and the OTT effect on the box-office prospects of films.

South Indian filmmakers, especially the Telugu film industry, have decided to tackle these three problems to start with. The Hindi filmmakers, despite (or due to) four associations representing the production sector, have shown neither the courage, nor the inclination to take the lead. They are kind of used to the terms being dictated by others, whether the cinemas or the stars.

Now, the producers in South India, especially in the Telugu film industry, have decided to do something about it. The Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce has broadly classified films into small, medium and big budget for the purpose of implementation of its resolutions.

Accordingly, films will have to keep a four-week window between their theatrical and OTT releases, but the big- budget ones will have to adhere to an eight-week window before their OTT release.

The admission rates for small-budget films in the A and B centres should start from a maximum of Rs 100 for single screens and Rs 125 for multiplexes. For medium-budget films, the rates should start from Rs 122 for single screens and Rs 177 for multiplexes. The respective rates for big budget films should be Rs 177 and Rs 295.

These admission rates apply to Telangana because in Andhra Pradsh, which is also a Telugu film market, the rate ceilings have already been applied by the state government.

The producers also discussed the high fees charged by the stars, contending that nobody else but them were making money in the film industry. All these problems, which are faced equally by the Hindi film industry, were discussed in the meeting, which concluded by noting: "Producers and distributors had gotten into the habit of inflating box-office collections of films to paint a rosy picture of the stars of those films in a bid to satisfy their egos." This, according to the producers, spurred the stars to further hike their remunerations.

The Telugu industry appears to be serious about the matter and has decided to stop all film activities, including shoots, from August 1.

The Hindi industry, on the other hand, has taken no initiative yet to solve its problems. Looks like they have started believing in their own inflated box-office figures and are happy. Who are these figures fooling except the filmmakers themselves?
Islamabad, July 31 : The Islamabad administration has sealed two cafeterias of Parliament House in the Pakistani capital after cockroaches were found in the food.

Many of the Parliamentarians had already stopped having meals in these cafeterias owing to substandard food, Samaa TV reported.

After the latest incident where the lawmakers discovered cockroaches in their food, they lodged a complaint with Islamabad's district administration.

When the administration officials conducted a raid there, they witnessed pests in the cafeteria and kitchen besides poor hygiene practices.

Following this, they sealed two cafeterias.

This is not the first such incident of the sort, Samaa TV reported.

In 2014, a cockroach was found inside a ketchup bottle in a cafeteria of the House.

The lawmakers had also raised questions on the quality of meat used in the meals in 2019.

The abysmal cleanliness standard is not limited to Parliament House only.

Mice infestation had also been reported in Parliament Lodges in the past.
bovine animals dead bodies are disposed unscientifically in Kutch district, cattles died because of lumpy virus. Image Source: IANS News

bovine animals dead bodies are disposed unscientifically in Kutch district, cattles died because of lumpy virus. Image Source: IANS News

bovine animals dead bodies are disposed unscientifically in Kutch district, cattles died because of lumpy virus. Image Source: IANS News

bovine animals dead bodies are disposed unscientifically in Kutch district, cattles died because of lumpy virus. Image Source: IANS News

Ahmedabad, July 31 : Gujarat Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel has said that 1240 cattle have died so far due to lumpy skin disease in the state.

However, Opposition alleged that the death toll is 25 to 30 times higher, claiming the state government is hiding the death toll as it did during corona pandemic.

Around 50,000 cattle infected with lumpy virus are being treated, 1240 died and 15 lakh are being vaccinated, the minister said in Jamnagar on Saturday evening, after a meeting with Jamnagar Municipal Corporation officers.

Kutch District Congress Committee president Yajuvendrasinh Jadeja alleged that the government figures are far from truth and around 25,000 - 30,00 cattle have died in Kutch itself.

Jadega said there is no scientific disposal system, the dead cattle are simply being dumped on the outskirts of town or villages.

"If you visit the town, you can find cattle bodies lying on streets. Municipality is running short of manpower and infrastructure to collect bodies and dispose," Jadega alleged.

Bhuj municipality President Ghanshyam Thakkar, said "Initially, we could not ascertain how fast the disease is spreading or how many cattle lost life but as large number of cattle deaths are being reported, municipality has dug deep pits and bought two metric tonnes of salt for the disposal of bodies.

"In Rajkot city too, there is a long waiting list for getting cattle bodies disposed. Sometimes, the corporation does not even respond to calls," Ranjit Mundhva, pastoralist from Rajkot, alleged.

Mundhva fears that if bodies will remain lying on the street for long, it will create other health issues.

Kutch Congress Committee has started a survey and is asking pastorals to fill forms sharing details of dead cattle, Jadeja said, adding that the idea is to know the right number of deaths and run a movement for compensation.
SARL website

The SARL (South African Radio League) IT team would like to thank you for your patience while we sorted out some gremlins in the system. Most of these are now out of the way and the site is very much more usable than it has been in the past few weeks. Thank you to all those who have given us positive feedback and made some very nice comments - in e-mails and on the forum.

Our members abroad are still feeling the impact of some of the mitigating measures we put in place, but these should be removed in the next few days, then they too will be able to enjoy the SARL website as we now do.



The SARL would like to thank Hans van Groenendaal, ZS6AKV and Peter Hers, ZS1PHD for the effort and commitment they showed in resolving the issue.



While everyone slowly starts returning to the website, logging on to the SA-QSL system, and trolling through the forums, the work continues for the SARL IT team. New content is being put into the site by the content developers while the portal continues to develop and evolve. The membership system is very close to completion and the team has already started working on the new SA-QSL system. Discussions are also taking place about the future home of the RAE system, although this will not be moved until after the close of this RAE registration period.



A dedicated team of developers and testers meet every Thursday evening and continue to chip away at the to-do list. We sure could use your help though! If you have web development expertise with Laravel you could be of great help to us. However, Laravel development is only one part of it - we need content developers too. Have you thought about putting an article together for the new website? If you would like to contribute to the new SARL website, please contact the Secretary Dennis, ZS4BS and find out how you can help!



We also need dreamers. Yes, dreamers - send us your suggestions for new features by e-mail to om@zs2dh.co.za and help us create a friendly website with everything you need right at your fingertips
New Delhi, July 31 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested people to put the Tricolour as profile pictures on their social media accounts from August 2.

Addressing his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister said: "I have a suggestion that from August 2 to 15, all of us can place the Tricolor in our social media profile pictures." He said that under the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav initiative, a programme called 'Har Ghar Tiranga' will be organised from August 13-15.

"By becoming a part of this movement, from August 13 to 15, you must hoist the Tricolor at your residence, or adorn your home with it. The Tricolor connects us, inspires us to do something for the country," Modi said.

The Prime Minister mentioned that August 2 also has a special connection with our Tricolor.

"This day is the birth anniversary of Pingali Venkaiah ji who designed our national flag. I pay my respectful homage to him. Talking about our national flag, I will also remember the great revolutionary Madam Cama. Her role in shaping the Tricolor has been very important," he said.

The Prime Minister mentioned that Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is taking the form of a mass movement and people from all walks of life and from every section of the society are participating in the initiative to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence.

He also spoke of 'Azadi Ki Railgadi, Aur Railway Station', an effort to make people understand the role of Indian Railways in the freedom struggle.

"Seventy-five such railway stations have been identified spread over 24 states across the country. These stations are being decorated very ornately. Many types of programs are also being organized in these. I urge the students of the nearby school, and the teachers to take the small children of their school to the station and narrate the whole chain of events to those children, explaining them." Modi also said that farmers are performing similar wonders in the production of honey which in turn is increasing their income.

"The country started campaigns like the 'National Beekeeping and Honey Mission' and farmers worked hard... The sweetness of our honey started reaching across the world. There are still huge possibilities in this field. I would like our youth to join these opportunities and take advantage of them and realize new possibilities," he said.

The Prime Minister noted that India has full potential to become a powerhouse in toy exports.

"Today, when it comes to Indian toys, the echo of Vocal for Local is being heard everywhere. You will also like to know that now the number of toys coming from abroad in India is continuously decreasing. Earlier, where toys worth more than Rs 3,000 crore used to come from outside, now their import has reduced by 70 per cent and it is a matter of joy that during this period, India has exported toys worth more than Rs 2,600 crore to foreign countries. Whereas earlier, only toys worth Rs 300-400 crore used to go out of India," he added.
Tehran, July 31 : The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that it recently arrested a Swedish citizen over "espionage" charges.

The detainee had some "suspicious behaviour and communication during his previous multiple trips to Iran", Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in a statement.

It noted that the suspect had communicated with a number of "European and non-European suspicious elements who were under surveillance in Iran".

The suspect entered Iran a few months ago "after the arrest of another European spy, with the mission of obtaining information on how the identity of that spy had revealed and the type and amount of information that had been fallen to the hand of the Ministry", the statement added.

The arrested person had also a history of visiting Israel before travelling to Iran, the statement said without specifying the name of the suspect.

In June, a Swedish court sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison after being convicted of committing "war crimes and murder" in the 1980s.

The accusations were rejected by the convict.
Los Angeles, July 31 : Comedian Chris Rock is back doing what he loves and does the best - making jokes. In his first comedy show after Will Smith released a new video apologising for slapping him at the 2022 Oscars, the comedian joked about the slap.

However, Rock didn't address Smith's apology, reports People magazine.

According to People, hours after Smith's video apology for slapping the comedian on live television at March's Oscars ceremony, Rock, 57, took the stage at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

People quoted Chris saying: "Everybody is trying to be a f---ing victim." Rock said further: "If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims. Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids." (Rock's reference of Smith as "Suge Smith" appeared to be a play on the name of currently jailed Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight.) "Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face," Rock added during the show, which is one of several he is performing at the Fox Theatre through Sunday, as part of his Ego Death World Tour.

In his apology video, the 'King Richard' actor said, in part, "I will say to you, Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable, and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk." Smith, 53, also revealed he received a message back that Rock was "not ready to talk" and would "reach out" when he was.

At the March 27 ceremony, before his win for Best Actor, Smith walked onstage and slapped Rock across the face after taking issue with a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head. (Jada, 50, lives with alopecia.) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum explained in a statement days later that the punchline was "too much for me to bear" and he "reacted emotionally".

Smith, who later resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending their ceremonies for the next 10 years, said in his statement, "I would like to publicly apologise to you, Chris." "I was out of line and I was wrong," he added. "I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."
Phnom Penh, July 31 : Cambodian Ministry of Health (MoH) has called on the public to continue to exercise caution as the Southeast Asian nation has seen a spike in new Covid-19 cases.

Forty-seven new cases were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in the country on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 136,753, with 133,495 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the MoH said.

No new deaths have been reported from the pandemic since April, the Ministry added.

MOH's spokesperson Or Vandine urged people to strictly follow health protocols, including wearing a face mask, washing hands regularly and maintaining physical distancing, and to get their booster doses in order to prevent a big surge in new cases.

"Complacency is a window of opportunity for Covid-19 virus to circulate in the community," she wrote on social media.

"To sustain a new normal, everyone must continue to implement public health measures and to get vaccines as soon as possible when your turn comes." Buoyed by its high vaccination rates, Cambodia has resumed all socioeconomic activities and reopened its borders to travellers without quarantine since November last year.

Some 15.1 million people, or 94.4 per cent of Cambodia's 16 million population, have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the MoH said, adding that 14.4 million, or 90 per cent of the population, have been fully vaccinated with two required shots.

Meanwhile 9.74 million Cambodians, or 61 per cent of the population, have received a third dose, about 3.5 million, or 22 per cent of the population, have received a fourth dose, and 473,845, or 3 per cent of the population, have received a fifth dose.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
He learnt to spell protest early in life - as a college student leading the protest against the Principal's order mandating students to wear blazers made from imported British cloth and getting expelled, to being fired from his first job for insubordination.

It was Madan Lal Dhingra who, while studying in England, assassinated William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a retired British Indian army and administrative officer, on July 1, 1909.

He was born in the wealthy family of Dr. Ditta Mal Dhingra, a civil surgeon in Amritsar, on February 18, 1883.

Dhingra also worked as a labourer in a factory, where he attempted to organise a union but was sacked for making the effort.

He then worked in Bombay briefly, before his elder brother convinced him to move to England to finish his studies.

Dr. Chaman Lal, retired JNU Professor, an expert on Bhagat Singh and adviser to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre in the capital, tells IANS: "He was initially influenced by the 'Pagdi Sambhal Jatta' movement of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh. In England, he took admission in an engineering course and came in contact with Shyamji Krishna Varma and Veer Savarkar.

"Both Dhingra and Savarkar were of the same age group. The latter came to England on a scholarship established by Varma, but was inclined towards Hindutva ideology. Varma was more liberal and rational in his views, but he had to leave for Paris when the British government started harassing him.

"Madan Lal was now under the spell of Savarkar and it was he who inspired him to shoot Curzon Wyllie, who was notorious for using Indians as informers for the British government. In fact, even the pistol for this purpose was provided by Savarkar." Also, several weeks before assassinating Curzon Wyllie, Dhingra had tried to kill George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India. He had also planned to assassinate the ex-Governor of Bengal, Bampfylde Fuller.

The revolutionary, who shot Wyllie multiple times in the face was arrested on the spot immediately. During his trial, he represented himself and did not recognise the legitimacy of the court. After the judge pronounced him guilty, he said: "I am proud to have the honour of laying down my life for my country. But remember, we shall have our time in the days to come." He was hanged on August 17, 1909.

"We can say that a major trigger for Mahatma Gandhi to write 'Hind Swaraj' was Madan Lal Dhingra," Dr. Lal says.

On account of several revolutionaries not given their due by successive governments, Dr. Lal says that every political party has its own agenda and acts on how history textbooks suit their narrative.

"Essentially, it is about people -- whether they choose to remember or forget. And what can you do if they choose the latter?" says Dr. Lal.

The expert emphasies that major steps need to be taken to make history more interesting for school children. He signs off by adding: "Believe me, even I never liked it as a child. I have been writing extensively about the need to overhaul the education system. Things can improve."
He was only 19 when he was hanged for attempting to derail an ammunition train and steadfastly refusing to betray his accomplices.

A leading member of the Swaraj Sena, a student organisation affiliated to the All India Students Federation (AISF), Hemu Kalani (March 23, 1923 to January 21, 1943) was one of the youngest revolutionaries to be martyred during India's freedom struggle, being executed by the British colonial authorities two months before his 20th birthday.

On August 21, 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had unveiled a life-size statue of Hemu Kalani in the Parliament Complex.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi released a stamp in his memory on October 18, 1983 at the Viswa Sindhi Sammelan in New Delhi. There are also innumerable memorials in Kalani's name at various cities in northern and western India, including a Shaheed Hemu Kalani Savodaya Bal Vidyalaya in New Delhi.

His birthday coincides with the day Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sent to the gallows and as a child and young man, he campaigned with his friends for the boycott of foreign goods and tried to persuade people to use Swadeshi goods.

It is said that Kalani was so happy upon being handed the death sentence that, contrary to usual, he gained a good deal of weight during the time between his sentencing and his execution. On the day of his execution, he appeared extremely overjoyed and walked to the gallows with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in his hands, smiling and humming the whole way.

Mahatma Gandhi had declared the Quit India Movement on August 8, 1942, and inspired by his uncle, Kalani, born in a middle-class family residing at Sukkur in Sindh, who was highly influenced by the movement, joined the Swaraj Sena revolutionary organisation and became its leading member.

This outfit, at one of its secret meetings created a Revolutionary Command to undertake some drastic revolutionary deeds for removing the shackles of slavery from India.

Seldom would people of his age even think of doing something for the nation, but here was a student on the verge of appearing for his matriculation exam, fanatic to the cause of driving the British away from Indian soil.

On October 2, 1942, the Swaraj Sena received secret information that a train carrying military personnel and hardware was to proceed to quell the political uprising in the North-West Frontier Province, where the 'Khudai Khidmatgars' of the Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan had created virtual hell for the British colonialists.

Kalani resolved to stop the ammunition from reaching its destination and decided to derail the train. He called an urgent meeting of his revolutionary group where it was decided that he along with two companions would remove the fishplates despite the fact that neither he nor his colleagues had the necessary tools and so had to use a rope as a means to uproot the fixings.

Unfortunately for the trio, the noise created by their operation reached the ears of the guards stationed in the area and on hearing the heavy footsteps of the guards, his two accomplices fled, but Kalani let himself to fall into the arms of his captors.

Kalani underwent third degree torture by the Indian Imperial Police to reveal the names of his accomplices and the organization to which he belonged but refused to divulge any information and bravely bore the brunt of the repeated assaults on him.

He took the entire blame upon himself and stated to the authorities that if they believed their acts of subverting the freedom struggle with arms and ammunitions was justified, then so was his intended act of derailing the train.

Sindh at the time was under Martial Law and his case was referred to a Martial Law Court at Hyderabad/Sukkur, where the authorities tried Kalani for treason against the British Empire and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

But, realising the immense popularity that Kalani had acquired across the region and fearing that his act of bravery would have a huge influence on the minds of the Indians, they decided to set an apt example to extinguish the expected flurry of patriotic emotions and enhanced the verdict to a death sentence.

Kalani's brother Tekchand recalled later: "My father went to all the leading British men and begged for clemency. He even volunteered to be hanged himself in exchange for the life of his young son." An appeal for mercy was referred to the Martial Law Administrator, Colonel Richardson, by some of Sindh's most influential citizens. Thousands of signed petitions were sent to the Viceroy to revoke the death sentence. Unfortunately, all appeals fell to deaf ears and were turned down.

Even as his parents and admirers ran from pillar to post, trying desperately to have his sentence altered, Kalani himself was a picture of calm and composure, unflustered by the prospect of losing his life, waiting for the D-Day when his name would be inscribed in the golden pages of history.

He breathed his last with a smile on his face, and the slogans 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' on his lips. It is widely believed that when he was asked to state his customary last wish, Kalani, before having the noose tightened around his neck, wished that everyone around him, including the British official, raise nationalist slogans.

On January 23, 1943, Kalani's mortal remains were consigned to the flames on the banks of the Indus with due honour, and the day is celebrated as Sindhi Youth Day and Martyrdom Day by Sindhis every year to keep his memory alive and to inspire the youth of today.
The moment of legendary freedom-fighter Bhikaiji Patel-Cama first hoisting the Indian flag in Germany and issuing a simple appeal to the world to support India's struggle for independence is etched in golden letters in the country's history, as it was during a time when the freedom movement had very few women at the forefront.

It was on August 2, 1907, when the 46-year-old feminist-nationalist Bhikaiji Cama was in Stuttgart attending the International Socialist Conference - during her forced sojourn in Europe, US and later north Africa - that she took the opportunity to unveil the Indian flag before the world and sought their support for her motherland's freedom from the British oppression.

She told the horrors of the famine that had ravaged India, the flouting of human rights, and equality by Britain and demanded independence from the British Raj.

The flag, later smuggled into India and currently housed at a Pune museum, was jointly designed by Bhikaiji Cama and Shyamji Krishnavarma and later inspired the national tricolour that was created for independent India.

Her flag comprised a green stripe at the top with eight lotuses in bloom symbolising the country's provinces, 'Bande Mataram' scribbled at the centre in Hindi on the saffron stripe, along with a sun on the left and a crescent moon on the right, symbolising the two dominant faiths - Hinduism and Islam - in the country.

That small act - coming from a woman - succeeded in drawing big attention to India's plight, its yearning and struggle for independence, before the global comity, embarrassing the British rulers.

Born into a wealthy Zoroastrian (Parsi) merchant family to Sorabji and Jaijibai Patel on September 24, 1861, Bhikaiji Patel was drawn to the fledgling Indian freedom struggle, at a very young age, thus, taking baby steps after the historic First War of Independence of 1857.

Educated at the famed Alexandra Girls English Institution, Byculla and blessed with the ability to pick up languages quickly - which later helped her espouse India's cause in different countries - she got married to Rustomji Cama, a famous pro-Raj lawyer in 1885.

However, the couple remained at odds, as she was a nationalist with her disdain for the British and he had unabashed adulation for the Raj. The marriage was literally on the rocks as both remained immersed in their respective interests.

During the devastating bubonic plague that broke in the Bombay Presidency in 1896, Bhikaiji Cama volunteered to help the infected but ended up catching the fatal disease, and though she survived, it took an enormous toll on her frail health.

As doctors suggested she go to Europe for convalescence, she left the Indian shores in 1902 - blissfully unaware at that time, of what would be a long, forced foreign exile and travel that would last for over 3 decades, starting with - ironically, London.

It proved worthwhile as she met one of the doyens of the freedom struggle Dadabhai Naoroji and even became active with the Indian National Congress, founded on December 28, 1895, by meeting others like Lala Hardayal, Krishnavarma, addressed spirited meetings at the Hyde Park, and drummed up support for the cause.

Probably unknown to Bhikaiji Cama, around that time, a young Indian Gujarati barrister had launched his first anti-apartheid political movement in 1906 in South Africa, and decades later became a household name worldwide - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. However, 13 years later, he was thrown out of a train in that country in June, 1893.

Disapproving her anti-British activities, at one point, the British rulers in London warned that she would be debarred from returning to India unless she signed an undertaking to keep off the nationalistic movement for freedom, but she declined and chose to remain exiled in Europe.

In 1909, she tactically moved to France and met other stalwarts like Munchershah Burjorji Godrej, Singh Rewabhai Rana, and founded the Paris Indian Society, with her home serving as the hub of Indian freedom struggle activities in Europe.

Along with many other activists, they penned, printed and distributed revolutionary literature, including the banned patriotic song "Vande Mataram", and others paying tributes to martyrs like Madan Lal Dhingra.

Bhikaiji travelled to several European countries, the US and Egypt to effectively espouse the Indian cause and expose the British rule, its excesses on the Indian masses and other social-economic-political issues in a fiery style.

During the First World War (1914-1918) she and other revolutionaries adopted an aggressive anti-Britain stance, which France - its ally - did not entertain, and imposed restrictions on her, though she continued to visit army camps, maintain links with Indian, Irish, and Arab revolutionaries crusading for similar causes.

Resigned to her prolonged exile, leading a hyper-active life with hectic international travel, in 1935 Bhikaiji Cama suffered a paralytic stroke and pleaded with the British government to permit her 'ghar wapasi'.

When seeing her delicate health condition convinced them that she would be unfit for any more political activism, they finally granted her permission and she returned to her motherland after 33 years in November 1935.

Even though she attained her cherished dream of returning home after so many years, she barely survived another nine months and passed away on August 13, 1936, aged 75 - one of the biggest but forgotten icons of the early Indian freedom struggle.

Before her death, the Bombay-born woman had donated portions of her assets to the Bai Avabai Framji Patel Orphanage for Girls, in Bandra and a Parsi Fire Temple in Mazagaon.

Over the years, a grateful nation acknowledged her contributions in the form of a commemorative postage stamp in 1962, an Indian Coast Guard vessel was dedicated to her in 1997 as 'ICGS Bhikaiji Cama', one of the most famous roads in south Mumbai is named as Madam Cama Road during her birth centennial in 1961, a commercial complex in Delhi, etc.

She had once said: "Do not forget the important role women play in building a nation". Years after her death, it proved true in the form of top Indian women leaders like the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former President Pratibha Patil and the current President Droupadi Murmu.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
Thanks to ace movie director SS Rajamouli and his blockbuster 'RRR', the name Alluri Sita Rama Raju, who was the inspiration for the fictional character played by Telugu star Ram Charan, may no longer be an unfamiliar name for a large swathe of Indians across regions and languages.

But for generations of Telugu-speaking people, the name has invoked visions of a brave young man who dared the might of the British Raj and died a martyr. Statues of Alluri Sita Rama Raju at important locations, are a common feature in many Andhra cities and towns.

What sets apart this young freedom fighter in a remote part of present-day Andhra Pradesh is that he rallied tribals for his guerrilla warfare against the British rulers in the Agency areas of Madras Presidency. Much like Chatrapati Shivaji mobilised the Mavalas to strike with impunity at the mighty Mughals.

Known as 'Manyam Veerudu' or 'Forest Warrior', Alluri Sita Rama Raju was the face and propelling force behind the Rampa Rebellion between 1922-24. Armed with primitive weapons like spears, bows and arrows, Alluri Sita Rama Raju and his band of tribals harried the British authorities in the Visakhapatnam-Godavari Agency area in the erstwhile Madras Presidency.

Giving up the comforts of life in the plains where he was born and brought up, Alluri Sita Rama Raju took up the life of the tribals that he led in the fight against the British rulers. A well-built man, with striking looks and mesmerising personality, he wore the saffron cloth of an ascetic but was armed with a bow and quiver of arrows.

Born on July 4, 1897, Alluri Sita Rama Raju was barely eight years by the time he lost his father. Thereafter, he was brought up by his maternal uncle. Although not very academically inclined, the young lad was attracted to spirituality. He was also very active in sporting activities and was reputed to be an ace horseman. When he was eighteen years old, Sita Rama Raju was attracted towards asceticism and decided to become a sanyasi. To satisfy his spiritual thirst, he undertook a tour of India and visited several places including present-day Bangladesh.

However, his travels across India opened his eyes to the exploitation of Indians by the British rulers. Touched by the deprivations suffered by his countrymen, particularly tribals, Sita Rama Raju decided to do something for them.

Returning home, he began working in the agency areas of Visakhapatnam and Godavari districts of the Madras Presidency. His selfless service and noble demeanour endeared him to the tribals who loved and respected him as their own.

The Madras Forest Act introduced by the British Raj in 1882 was resented by the tribals. Apart from barring the tribals from entering forests for grazing cattle, collecting firewood, and forest produce, the law forbade them from practising podu cultivation or shifting agriculture.

Moved by the plight of the tribals, Alluri Sita Rama Raju decided that fighting back was the best way to counter British exploitation, and launched the Rampa Rebellion. Organising the tribals into a guerrilla force, he began targeting British forces. Armed with just bows and arrows, and spears, Alluri Sita Rama Raju and his band of tribal warriors launched several lightning strikes against police stations and looted the modern weapons like pistols, revolvers and rifles. He was so audacious that after attacking a police station, he would sign a letter detailing the weapons looted in the operation.

Despite their best efforts, the British failed to capture Alluri Sita Rama Raju as he went about harrying them for close to two years. While the locals refused to betray him, Sita Rama Raju himself did not succumb to the inducements offered by the British.

Faced with an embarassing situation, the British pressed in all the resources and finally managed to capture the young freedom fighter. Such was the fear that he had created in the British that without losing moment, they had Alluri Sita Rama Raju executed on the spot.

Thus, on May 7, 1924, ended the extremely brief but fulfilling life of this young torchbearer of Indian independence. He was just 27 at the time.

India is poised to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2022. The year also marks the 125th birth anniversary of Alluri Sita Rama Raju, a freedom fighter who died for the country almost two decades before India was freed from the British yoke.

It is only now that India is waking up to the sacrifices of this fiery votary of India's freedom. This year on July 4 while commemorating this great hero's 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a massive 30 foot-tall bronze statue of Alluri Sita Rama Raju at Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh.

While Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence may have finally unshackled India from the British yoke, heroes like Alluri Sita Rama Raju are proof that Indians are capable fighters too.
The Gujarat government is spending Rs 1,200 crore to make the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram a world class tourist spot. But the place where Gandhi started his ashram life is being sidelined nowadays.

Gandhi started his first ashram at Kochrab village near Paldi, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned home from South Africa and started looking for a place to establish an ashram, Rabindranath Tagore suggested to him to start the ashram in Santiniketan.

Then the people of Rajkot in Gujarat urged Gandhi to establish an ashram, but when Gandhi passed through Ahmedabad many friends chose a place there and started the exercise of establishing an ashram. They said they will bear all the expenses of the ashram.

Gandhi's barrister friend Jivanlal Vrajrai Desai rented a house in then Kochrab village near Paldi, Ahmedabad and gave it to Gandhi who performed a special puja there on 20 May 1915.

On May 22 he came to live at Kochrab and on 25 May 1915 Kochrab Ashram was established and was named 'Satyagraha'. The ashram was a witness to Gandhi's first fast in his initial days of public life. It also witnessed the first movement to remove untouchability from the society, and the seeds of India's freedom movement were also sown there.

On June 1, 1915, one of the ashram inmates was found to be lying, so Gandhi fasted and he confessed to the lie.

In the beginning 20 to 25 people lived there with Gandhi, including South Africans, South Indians and Telugu speakers. Apart from this, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, Gujarati poet Sundaram, Naykar, Rukhiben, Santokben, Manilal, Radhaben, Ramdas, Devdas, Gujarati and Konkani writer Kakasaheb Kalelkar, Vinoba Bhave, Mamasaheb Phadke, Amritalal Thakkar aka Thakkarbapa, Doodabhai, Daniben, Lakshmiben and Swamiyanand were staying in Kochrab Ashram.

Pravin Parikh, director of Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram, told IANS that the ashramvasis first encounter with untouchability is a well known incident. After three to four months of the ashram's establishment, Dudabhai and his family came to the ashram with a reference from Gandhi's old friend Thakkarbapa.

As Dudabhai, his wife, Dahibahen, and his daughter Laxmibahen came to the ashram, Kasturba and Raliatben, Gandhi's elder sister, opposed them. Gandhi had a big argument with his sister and Raliatben left the ashram. Gandhi tried to convince Kasturba, but many other inmates who also believed strongly in untouchability were not happy with Dudabhai's family being there and were not cooperating with them.

Gandhi came to know about this through ashram manager Maganbhai. He told everyone that he would go and live with Dudabhai's community, but he won't drive them out of the ashram. Gradually all the businessmen and the ashram's donors came to know about this incident and they stopped their donations. They had put a condition before Gandhi before starting the donations to not support untouchables. Gandhi had remained silent and did not promise anything.

Gandhi was left with two days' ration, so they were about to leave the place. Suddenly, industrialist Ambalal Sarabhai, father of scientist Vikram Sarabhai, reached there and gave a cheque of Rs 13,000 to Gandhi. This enabled them to stay on for about two years.

Now the ashram which started with 25 people increased to 80 and it became too crowded. There was also an outbreak of plague in the Paldi and Kochrab area. To save the inmates' lives and to have more space this ashram was shifted to Sabarmati.

Pravin Parikh shares an interesting anecdote about the first meeting of Gandhi and Vinoba. Parikh said Vinoba was confused about taking the path of spiritualism and going to the Himalayas and someone suggested he meet Mahatma Gandhi. Vinoba thought of Gandhi as a spiritual saint.

Gandhi was cutting vegetables for cooking when Vinoba reached him. Gandhi made him sit and cut vegetables with him. Vinoba was surprised to see Gandhi and thought what kind of a Mahatma is this. Vinoba then went on to stay with Gandhi for two years.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 31 : A flight attendant with a private airline company was arrested at Karippur airport in Kerala's Kozhikode on Sunday.

The arrested Mohammed Shamim was trying to smuggle in gold worth Rs 1 crore through the airport green channel after an international flight from a Middle Eastern country landed at the airport.

CISF officials told IANS that 2,647 grams of gold worth Rs 1 crore were seized from the flight attendant which was in the form of a liquid mixture.

It may be noted that Karippur airport in Kozhikode has been a hub of gold smuggling activities with several airline employees arrested earlier by the Customs and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Gold smuggling has become a major social and law and order issue in Kozhikode, Kannur, and Kasargod districts of Kerala. Several carriers are being used by the gold smuggling racket offering them to and fro air tickets to Middle Eastern countries and an amount of Rs 25,000 to 30,000 as the fee for carrying gold.

According to gold bullion traders if gold worth one kg is smuggled into India it fetches Rs 5 lakh in profit to the smuggler and after spending an amount close to Rs 75,000 for a carrier, including his flight ticket and the pocket money he is given, the smuggling network gets a profit of around 4.25 lakhs.
Chandigarh, July 31 : Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday asked Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the borders of the state for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border.

The Director General called on the Chief Minister here.

During deliberations, the Chief Minister said Punjab being a border state Punjab faces numerous challenges in the wake of the smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the fence.

He said this needs to be checked with a heavy hand as it poses a grave threat to the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country.

Mann said Punjab is fighting the country's war against drug menace as not even a single ounce of drug is produced in Punjab but as the state is on transit route of drug supply, so it is battling hard to prevent smuggling of drugs into the country.

The Chief Minister said that meticulous planning and flawless execution of strategy against drug smuggling by the BSF and the state police can act as a 'barrier' to save the country from the poison of drugs.

He said this is the need of the hour to break the backbone of narco-gangster-terrorist nexus, which is trying to flex its muscles for disturbing the hard earned peace of state.

Mann, however, assured full support and cooperation to the Director General for this cause.

Underlining the need for equipping the BSF and the state police with the latest weapons and gadgets to combat cross border terrorism and smuggling more effectively, the Chief Minister said he had already flagged this issue with the Union government.

He said both Punjab Police and the BSF are working tirelessly for checking the cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs, adding that strenuous efforts on part of both the forces will bear the desired results.

Mann also lauded the services rendered by the BSF for safeguarding the border of the country in general and the state in particular.
He is truly a forgotten warrior of the freedom movement.

Few know about him and fewer are familiar with his name but delve into the pages of history and you realise that he deserves a better place.

He participated in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in the Battle of Shamli between the British and the anti-colonialist ulema. The scholars were ultimately defeated at that battle.

He was Mohammad Qasim Nanautawi.

Nanautawi was born in 1832 into the Siddiqui family of Nanauta, a town near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

He was schooled at Nanauta, where he memorised the Quran and learned calligraphy.

At the age of nine, Nanautawi moved to Deoband where he studied at the madrasa of Karamat Hussain. The teacher at this madrasa was Mehtab Ali, the uncle of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi.

On the instruction of Mehtab Ali, Nanautawi completed the primary books of Arabic grammar and syntax.

Thereafter, his mother sent him to Saharanpur, where his maternal grandfather Wajihuddin Wakil, who was a poet of Urdu and Persian, lived.

Wakil enrolled his grandson in the Persian class of Muhammad Nawaz Saharanpuri, under whom, Nanautawi, then aged twelve, completed Persian studies.

In 1844, Nanautawi joined the Delhi College. Although was enrolled in the college, he would take private classes at his teachers' home, instead of the college.

Nanautawi stayed in Delhi for around five or six years and graduated, at the age of 17.

After the completion of his education, Nanautawi became the editor of the press at Matbah-e-Ahmadi.

During this period, he wrote a scholium on the last few portions of Sahihul Bukhari.

Before the establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband, he taught for some time at the Chhatta Masjid. His lectures were delivered at the printing press. His teaching produced a group of accomplished Ulama, the example of which had not been seen since Shah Abdul Ghani's time.

In 1860, he performed Haj and, on his return, he accepted a profession of collating books at Matbah-e-Mujtaba in Meerut. Nanautavi remained attached to this press until 1868.

In May 1876, a aFair for God-Consciousness was held at Chandapur village, near Shahjahanpur.

Christians, Hindus, and Muslims were invited through posters to attend and prove the truthfulness of their respective religions.

All prominent Ulama delivered speeches at the fair. Nanautawi repudiated the Doctrine of the Trinity, speaking in support of the Islamic conception of God.

Christians did not reply to the objections raised by the followers of Islam, while the Muslims replied to the Christians word by word and won.

Mohammad Qasim Nanautawi established the Darul Uloom Deoband in 1866 with the financial help and funding of the Muslim states within India and the rich individuals of the Muslim Indian community.

He conformed to the Sharia and worked to motivate other people to do so. It was through his work that a prominent madrasa was established in Deoband and a mosque was built in 1868. Through his efforts, Islamic schools were established at various other locations as well.

His greatest achievement was the revival of an educational movement for the renaissance of religious sciences in India and the creation of guiding principles for the madaris (schools).

Under his attention and supervision, madaris were established in several areas.

Under Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi's guidance, these religious schools, at least in the beginning, remained distant from politics and devoted their services to providing only religious education to Muslim children.

Nanautawi died on 15 April 1880 at the age of 47. His grave is to the north of the Darul-Uloom.

Since Qasim Nanautawi is buried there, the place is known as Qabrastan-e-Qasimi, where countless Deobandi scholars, students, and others are buried.

Significantly, the elders of Deoband took more and more part in the struggle for the independence of the country.

After the establishment of Darul-Uloom, the period of participation in national politics began.

Darul-Uloom, Deoband, was a centre of revolution and political, training. It nurtured such a body of such a body of self-sacrificing soldiers of Islam and sympathisers of the community who themselves wept in the grief of the community and also made others weep; who themselves tossed about restlessly for the restitution of the Muslims' dignity and caused others also to toss about.

They shattered the Muslims' intellectual stagnation, they broke up the spell of the British imperialism, and, grappling with the contemporary tyrannical powers, dispelled fear and anxiety from the minds of the country.

They also kindled the candle of freedom in the political wilderness.

It is a historical fact that the political awakening in the beginning of the twentieth century was indebted to Deoband and some other revolutionary movements in the country, and the revolutionary freedom-lovers who rose up there were the products of the grace from the spring of thought of Deoband.

Then, after the establishment of Pakistan, the Indian leaders of Deoband guided the Indian Muslims in utterly adverse circumstances and helped keep up their spirits high.
Chennai, July 31 : The unit of Telugu film 'Karthikeya 2', featuring actor Nikhil Siddhartha in the lead, on Sunday released the first clue to its treasure hunt contest -- 'Karthikeya 2 Mystical Quest'-- it had announced to promote its film.

Taking to Instagram, Actor Nikhil Siddhartha posted a video clip in which he gave out the first clue for those in Hyderabad.

The actor said: "As you all know, our film 'Karthikeya 2' releases on August 12. As in the first part, we go searching for answers to big mysteries and queries using clues in this part too. We thought we'd give you a taste of that." "We have come up with a treasure hunt contest called 'Karthikeya 2 Quest'. For this contest, we have got four beautiful Sri Krishna idols made of pure gold, and kept them in four different cities -- Vijayawada, Vizag, Tirupati and Hyderabad. We will test your intelligence. If you are able to solve this test and manage to crack the clues, the gold, worth lakhs, is yours." Asking participants to tag him and the production house among others, he said, "Hyderabad! Here's the first clue to win Sri Krishna Gold Idol in the 'Karthikeya Quest': Vishwam Oka Poosala Dandaa Nidhi nee Bhagyam lo undi ante Bhagyanagarapu Nadiboddu lo unna Janala Poosala Dandani cheruko. Get searching," he said and added, "You will find the second clue there which will lead to the gold." On Saturday, the actor said: "You can win six lakhs worth of gold Lord Krishna Idols. #Karthikeya2 the epic mystical adventure comes with a Mystical Quest in four cities, four mysteries, and four idols.Participate in the 'Karthikeya 2 Quest' and win gold idols worth six Lakhs. Stay tuned to @actor_Nikhil, @anupamaparameswaran96, @peoplemediafactory, @aaartsofficial for the first clue tomorrow at 11AM. Gear up for the 'Karthikeya 2 Mystical Quest' for a treasure like never before!" The film, which has been directed by Chandoo Mondeti, features Anupama Parameswaran as the female lead and was originally scheduled to be released on July 22. However, the release of the film was postponed and the crew has said that it will now release on August 12.
Bengaluru, July 31 : Kittur Chennamma, the queen of Kittur is a common household name in Karnataka. The armed struggle that she waged against the British much before the famous First War of Indian Independence in 1857, inspires the younger generation till date.

Droupadi Murmu, the country's 15th President, mentioned Rani Chennamma during her first address to Parliament after she was sworn in on July 25. Kittur Rani Chennamma is considered Karnataka's pride as well as a symbol of valour.

Her statues are installed across Karnataka and one was also unveiled in the Parliament Complex in New Delhi in 2007 by then President Pratibha Patil.

During 1824, the British East India Company, was taking over kingdoms ruled by Indians one after the other. When they set their eyes on the Kittur kingdom, the British never thought the queen would put up such a brave fight and defeat them.

Born on November 14, 1778, in a small village called Kakati in Karnataka's Belagavi district, Rani Chennamma received horse training, sword fighting, and archery with the support of her father in childhood. She was married to Raja Mallasarja at the age of 15.

Following the deaths of her husband Mallasarja and later her son in 1824, the British came forward to annex Kittur with their Doctrine of Lapse.

The Doctrine laid out that in case the ruler died without a child, the right of state would be taken over by the East India Company.

Chennamma not only defied the rule but went on to adopt Shivalingappa as her heir and challenged the British regime. She wrote a letter to Mountstuart Elphinstone, who was then the Lieutenant-Governor of Bombay. Her request was turned down and the British waged war on her kingdom with an army of 20,797 soldiers and 437 guns.

The army led by Rani Chennamma and trusted military chief, Sangoli Rayanna, defeated the British in the first round, killing the Collector and Political Agent St John Thackeray. Her army captured two British officers, Sir Wallet Eliot and Stevenson.

The British Commissioner for Dharwad, a man named Chaplin arrived at an agreement under which the war would be terminated, the kingdom recognised and the British officers released.

But Chaplin continued the war.

Though her army fought valiantly against the enemy and inflicted heavy losses, Rani Chennamma was captured.

She was kept as a prisoner in Bailhongal Fort, where she died on February 21, 1829. Rayanna did not give up. He continued to wage a guerrilla war against the British.

The government of India released a commemorative postage stamp in 1977. The Coast Guard commissioned a ship named 'Kittur Chennamma' in 1983. The exploits of the queen are immortalised in ballads and 'lavani' and 'gigi pada' folk songs. She was also played by B. Saroja Devi in a Kannada film made in 1961.

Rani Chennamma's burial place is in Bailhongal. The Karnataka government celebrates her victory and legacy in the form of Kittur Utsava on October 22 to 24 every year.
Lucknow, July 31 : The three-day training camp of BJP ministers, leaders and office bearers, that concluded in Chitrakoot on Sunday, has asked the party to aggressively market the various schemes of the Modi and Yogi governments among the poor and also focus its ideology for the upcoming Lok Sabah elections.

The BJP has decided to focus on the 'slips' made by the opposition, the recent remark against President made by Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, being one of them.

The BJP leaders claimed the remark reflected the Congress's 'anti-tribal' bias.

Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev said at the meet: "The Congress had insulted leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, Karpoori Thakur and Sharad Yadav. By helping a tribal woman reach the country's top post, the BJP has shown how it cares for the tribals and marginalized but as is evident by the uncouth remark, the Congress has insulted the President. The cadres need to go to the people and tell them how Congress has traditionally hurt the weaker sections of society." The saffron party also asked its cadre to talk about the highly effective strategy of the BJP government in tackling the pandemic.

Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who is also the Health Minister, talked about how the Modi government's policies of test, trace and treatment and subsequently of free vaccination doses during a global scare like Covid-19, that helped the country.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma spoke of the party's contribution in the national restructuring mission, while BJP MP Laxmikant Bajpai spoke of the country's growing global profile and Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi spoke of media and election management with reference to elections.

The BJP cadres were warned against being lulled into a sense of complacency, induced by series of spectacular wins.

The party also indicated that it would aggressively continue to pursue the path of "cultural nationalism".

The BJP leadership is also devising strategies to connect with Pasmanda (backward) Muslims as well as Muslim women, who party leaders feel, are now more politically receptive, due to initiatives like ban on the 'triple talaq' instant divorce practice.
Amaravati, July 31 : An eight-year-old boy in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur was found with suspected symptoms of monkeypox.

Health officials said on Sunday that his samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

The boy has been admitted to the isolation ward at Government General Hospital (GGH), Guntur.

The boy, son of daily wage workers from Odisha, approached the hospital with fever and rashes. The doctors isolated him and collected his samples. The samples, including swab from throat, blood, urine, from lesions on skin, have been sent to Pune.

Officials said the reports are likely to be available on Monday.

The boy's parents came to Yedlpapdu in Palnadu district in search of work 15 days ago. He developed fever and rashes a week ago and his parents initially thought it was nothing serious. As the boy's condition didn't get better even after a week, they rushed him to Guntur GGH on July 28.

The doctors examined the boy and noticed rashes and fever, both symptoms of Monkeypox and shifted him to an isolation ward.

According to doctors, his condition is stable. His parents have also been kept under observation as a precautionary measure.

This is the second suspected case of Monkeypox in Andhra Pradesh. The first suspected case was reported from Vijayawada on July 17.

A two-year-old child, who had gone to Dubai with family, was found with skin rashes on return. However, the samples sent to NIV, Pune tested negative for Monkeypox.

Last week, the first suspected case of Monkeypox in neighbouring Telangana had also tested positive.

The 40-year-old man had arrived in Kamareddy town from Kuwait on July 6. He had later developed fever and rashes on the body.

Suspecting it to be a case of Monkeypox, doctors had sent him to Hyderabad, where he was admitted in Fever Hospital. However, the samples tested negative for Monkeypox.

Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak
Kolkata, July 31 : Bengali actress Subhashree Ganguly has made her entry into OTT space with upcoming series 'Indubala Bhaater Hotel'. She says that she is a tad bit nervous but also extremely excited to star in the webshow.

Directed by Debaloy Bhattacharya and starring Subhashree, this series will drop on Hoichoi.

Talking about making her OTT debut and her character in the series, Subhashree Ganguly said: "First of all I'm extremely excited to finally make my OTT debut and that too with a platform like hoichoi, that is the leading Bengali OTT platform and has a plethora of quality content that 'Indubala Bhaater Hotel' will soon be a part of!" She added: "This series honestly feels like the right one to make my OTT debut with as the character is extremely layered and that's a challenge. Indubala is complex, inspirational and powerful and I am a tad bit nervous but also extremely excited to play it." "Also, I have wanted to work with Debaloy Bhattacharya for a long time and this series provides me with the opportunity to do so. I look forward to it and I'm sure the entire team will work super hard to make this a success." 'Indubala Bhaater Hotel' tells a story about Indu, a young girl from east Pakistan's Kalpota village in Khulna. Married to a drunkard in Kolkata, Indu becomes a widow with an infant, at a very tender age.

Her story takes a turn the day east Pakistan became Bangladesh; the hearth in 'Indubala Bhaater Hotel' was lit for the first time with help of the meager savings that Indu had managed to acquire with a Bihari fisherwoman- Lachmi's assistance.

The delicacies of Indubala's hotel are seasoned with stories of both the Bengals (India's West Bengal and Bangladesh) and the tale of a woman's journey in this city. Time passes by and Indubala's hotel flourishes as more and more people, food and every bengali's desire to return to their birth land across borders, stays alive in Indubala's Bhaater Hotel.

'Indubala Bhaater Hotel' is all set to start filming from end of August 2022.
New Delhi, July 31 : The government, for the second consecutive time, decided to go ahead with an inter-cadre appointment to choose Sanjay Arora as the new Commissioner of Delhi Police, after his predecessor Rakesh Asthana (Gujarat cadre IPS officer). Arora, a 1988-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer, will succeed Rakesh Asthana, whose tenure was set to end on Sunday. Arora will assume the charge on Monday (August 1). A graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Malviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur (Rajasthan), Sanjay Arora has received several accolades for his services throughout his career spanning over three decades.

He was awarded the Police Medal for meritorious service in 2004, President's Police Medal for distinguished service in 2014, Police Special Duty Medal, Antrik Suraksha Seva and UN Peacekeeping Medal among others.

After joining the IPS, he served in various capacities in Tamil Nadu police. He was Superintendent of Police (SP), Special Task Force, where he achieved significant success against the Veerappan gang, for which he was even awarded the Chief Minister's Gallantry Medal for bravery and heroic action.

In 1991 after being trained by NSG, Arora had played a pivotal role in forming the Special Security Group (SSG) to provide security to the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu during the days of LTTE activity. He also served as the Superintendent of Police in various districts of the state.

Arora also had the privilege of serving in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on deputation as commandant from 1997 to 2002. He had commanded a border guarding ITBP battalion in Matli, Uttarakhand from 1997 to 2000. As an instructor, he had made contributions in the field of training, serving as commandant (Combat Wing) at the ITBP Academy, Mussoorie from 2000 to 2002.

The senior IPS officer earlier served as Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore city from 2002 to 2004. He has also served as Deputy Inspector General of Police, Villupuram range and Deputy Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption. Arora led the Chennai City Police as - Additional Commissioner - Crime & Headquarters and Additional Commissioner - Traffic. On promotion, he was appointed as ADGP (Operations) and ADGP (Administration) in Tamil Nadu Police. He assumed the charge of DG ITBP on August 31, 2021 as the 31st chief of the force.
Chennai, July 31 : Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday presented the prestigious 'President's Colours' to the Tamil Nadu police.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin received the 'President's Colours' in a customary ceremony at the Rajarathinam Stadium, Chennai on Sunday.

He also released a special postal cover to mark the presentation of the 'President's Colours' to the Tamil Nadu police. The special Postal cover was received by the Chief Minister.

Tamil Nadu police is one among the very few police forces in the country to receive the coveted 'President's Colours.

The 'President's Colours' was approved by the Tamil Nadu police in August 2019 when the late Chief Minister and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi was alive.

Chief Minister Stalin announced that a medal would be awarded to each policeman in the Tamil Nadu police force.

The Vice President during his speech said that Tamil Nadu police was one of the best in the country and that it was known for its commendable service.

Vice President Naidu lauded the state for its first woman commando unit in the country but added that a lot has to be done to provide the unit with equal opportunity.

He also urged the Tamil Nadu police to be 'extra sensitive' to crimes against women and said that the force must keep up its reputation and tradition as a good force.

The Vice President called upon the Tamil Nadu police to handle modern-day crimes like cyber crimes and online frauds.

He commended the Tamil Nadu government for providing housing facilities to police personnel in the state.

The Chief Minister in his speech said that receiving 'President's Colours' was not only a matter of pride for the state police force but also for the state of Tamil Nadu.

Chief Minister Stalin also said that it was late M. Karunanidhi, during whose regime, women were inducted into state police force in 1973.

He also called upon the police to ensure that there are no custodial deaths in the state and added that police custodial deaths have come down from 17 in 2018 to four in 2021.

The Chief Minister also asked the state police to arrest the accused in POCSO cases immediately and to deal them with an iron fist.

Vice President Naidu took the ceremonial salute and inspected the Guard of Honour by State Disaster Response Force, Commandos, and Coastal Security Group.

Director General of Police C. Sylendra Babu and Chennai City Police Commissioner, Shankar Jiwal spoke during the event.
Seoul, July 31 : The defence chiefs of South Korea and the US have agreed to reinforce both policy and military measures to reinforce readiness against evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats, an official here said on Sunday.

During their talks in Washington on Friday, Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup and his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, decided to restart the allies' high-level Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) meeting at an early date and strengthen the Table Top Exercise (TTX), Yonhap News Agency quoted the official as saying.

Seoul and Washington have been seeking to resume the EDSCG, a gathering of the allies' vice-ministerial defence and diplomatic officials, which was suspended in 2018 amid joint efforts to promote diplomacy with Pyongyang.

The EDSCG is a key policy dialogue that Seoul has been counting on to enhance the credibility of America's extended deterrence -- its stated commitment to mobilizing a full range of its military capabilities, including its nuclear options, to defend its Asian ally.

Expected to resume in September, the gathering itself is predicted to send a message of deterrence to the North, observers pointed out.

Along with the policy coordination, the two countries are also seeking to step up their military training.

TTX is an exercise aimed at practicing possible allied responses to hypothetical nuclear scenarios, like the North's nuclear blackmail, its impending nuclear use and actual use of nuclear arms.

"TTX is aimed at arriving at optimal allied responses in the event of the North's nuclear use," the official told reporters.

"The strengthening of TTX is in line with the efforts to enhance the credibility of extended deterrence." At last week's talks, Lee and Austin also agreed to conduct this year's summertime combined training based on the concept of an "all-out" war, the official said, an indication of the breadth of the training set to take place from August 22-September 1.

The training, newly named "Ulchi Freedom Shield", involves the computer simulation-based command post training, field maneouvers and Ulchi civil contingency drills -- a makeup tantamount to a revival of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) drills.

The UFG was abolished in 2018 under the then liberal Moon Jae-in administration, as it remained keen on facilitating diplomacy with the North, which has decried the exercise as a war rehearsal.
New Delhi, July 31 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted searches in Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala in a case pertaining to the arrest of one Sathik Batcha alias Icama Sathik, who was intercepted, along with four other accused while driving a black Scorpio vehicle at Nidur, Mayiladuthurai on February 21.

The accused are allegedly involved in terror activities, The NIA is trying to establish the terror angle with the help of the evidence, said sources.

The NIA had said earlier, "Md. Sathik Batcha, alias Icama Sadik of Mayiladuthurai, who along with four other suspects had hatched a conspiracy for threatening the public and police officials. They had also attempted to murder police personnel during a vehicle check on February 21, 2022." An official said, "They were stopped by a police team tasked to secure the accused in Mayiladuthurai. The accused attempted to run over the police party with the said vehicle." The case was initially registered on February 21 and re-registered by the NIA on April 30 under sections 148, 506 (ii) IPC, Section 13, 38, 39 of UA(P) Act, 1967 and Section 28 of Arms Act.

"The search conducted today has led to seizure of digital devices and incriminating documents," said the official.

Further investigations in the case are in progress.
Mumbai, July 31 : Director Siddharth Anand, who celebrates his birthday on Sunday, is "living and breathing" every moment of his upcoming Shah Rukh Khan-starrer film 'Pathaan'.

'Pathaan', touted to be a visual spectacle, is a part of Yash Raj Films' spy universe and also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham.

Talking about the same, Siddharth said in a statement, "It is a very special birthday for me this year as I'm working on one of the most special films of my career, 'Pathaan'. I'm living and breathing 'Pathaan' every moment of my life and I want to give audiences an experience that is spectacular and like no other." Earlier, the title broke the internet thrice with its release of three different units - the date announcement video which gave a glimpse of SRK, Shah Rukh's first look and recently a glimpse of Deepika's look in the film.

Adding further, the director said, "I'm thrilled with the unanimously positive response to every asset of the film that we have launched so far. Starting with the announcement video, to Shah Rukh Khan's first look in the film, to us unveiling a glimpse of Deepika Padukone. We are fortunate that everything has been loved by audiences. What the audience thinks and feels is of utmost importance to us all and we are happy that Pathaan has started off on such a strong note with them." SRK and Deepika form one of the most loved on-screen pairings in Bollywood. The two have earlier worked together in films like 'Om Shanti Om', 'Chennai Express'.

The two had shot a hugely mounted song in Mallorca as SRK was papped flaunting an eight-pack and Deepika her perfect bikini bod. Later, they headed to Cadiz and Jerez in Spain where they wrapped the schedule on March 27.

'Pathaan' produced by Adiyta Chopra under the banner of YRF, is set to release on January 25, 2023 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Vijayawada, July 31 : A woman assaulted the driver of a bus of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) in Vijayawada after an accident in which the bus hit her two-wheeler.

The woman, who had escaped unhurt, got angry over this. She boarded the bus and vented her ire at the driver. She repeatedly slapped the driver and even snatched his mobile phone. The woman's behaviour shocked the bus passengers and the passersby.

The incident occurred on Saturday near the Control Room in the city but a video surfaced on social media on Sunday. Police said they have taken note of the incident and were investigating.

This is the second such incident in the city this year. Earlier in February, a woman had manhandled an APSRTC driver on a busy road in Vijayawada.

The woman had indiscriminately attacked the driver, slapped and kicked him repeatedly. The driver's clothes had torn.

After the video went viral, police had registered a case and arrested the woman.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 31 : Kerala witnessed a sad and heart-wrenching scene on July 26 when an octogenarian, Devassy protested in front of scam-hit Karuvannur Cooperative Bank in Thrissur district of the southern state with his wife Philomina's coffin.

Devassy and his family were protesting in front of the bank as his wife had died at Thrissur government medical college following his inability to provide her better treatment in a good private hospital due to lack of funds. Devassy has a deposit of Rs 30 lakh in the bank but the bank did not pay him his money when he needed it most to provide better treatment to his wife who was a retired employee of Kerala government.

The death of Philomina and the family bringing her dead body in front of the Karuvannur Cooperative Bank headquarters has CPI-M - which controls the bank - running for cover. While the party maintains that it has taken strong action against all those involved in the scam including the party's local level leaders, several skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard.

Sunil Kumar's father who was the Secretary of the bank and who is in jail told media persons that his son was innocent and had given money to people according to the wishes of former CPI-M district secretary C.K. Chandran, and former minister and former CPI-M district secretary A.C. Moideen.

Devassy while speaking to IANS said: "It was the life time savings of me and my wife. I had done several odd jobs in Mumbai and saved my money and now I am driving an autorickshaw at the age of eighty. The entire retirement benefits of my wife were deposited in this bank. I could not provide better treatment to my wife and I strongly believe that if I had money I would have given her better treatment at a private hospital in Thrissur." He said that the bank authorities treated him like a beggar and were asking umpteen questions as if he had gone to the bank for alms.

In another tragic incident, 70-year-old E.V. Raman of Thalikulam in Thrissur died after failing to get treatment following lack of funds. Raman has a deposit of Rs 10.04 lakh in the scam-hit Karuvannur Cooperative Bank.

He had to pay Rs 3 lakh for the nerve treatment in a private hospital and after he had given a request to the bank, they paid him only Rs 50,000 and he was shifted to a small hospital where facilities were not proper. He passed away on July 25 without getting adequate treatment even though he had sufficient money in the bank. Sadly, Raman had sold his house and deposited the money in the bank and was staying with his sister.

Another woman Sarojini (71), a widow and her divorcee daughter were living off the interest of a deposit of Rs 18 lakh in the bank. When the bank was hit by scam, they were paid a meagre amount of Rs 20,000 and the bank officials were not properly listening to their demand.

Speaking to IANS, Sarojini said: "The bank manager was asking me why I was admitting my granddaughter to an expensive school in Thrissur when I told him that I need money urgently to pay her school fee. This is ridiculous and criminal. We have put our money and the bank doesn't have any answer to where the money has gone but they are insulting the depositors. More than that we have to stand in queue for long hours to even meet the bank manager." Meanwhile, the opposition Congress has stepped up the agitation against the scam, and leader of Opposition in the Kerala legislative assembly, V.D. Satheeshan called for a CBI inquiry.

Satheeshan while speaking to media persons said: "The cooperative bank is controlled by CPI-M and there are reports that those who are having good connections in the party were able to get back their money but a majority of the hapless depositors are left in the lurch." He said: "It has been a year since the fraud was detected and the bank was unable to pay depositors and the total loss is around Rs 300 crore. We are now hearing heart-wrenching stories of how people suffered as they were unable to get their money for medical or educational needs." He said that the scam involved not only the bank employees but was part of a deep-rooted conspiracy and hence, a CBI probe is necessary.

The state higher education minister R. Bindu who is the local MLA, made matters worse by stating that money was given to the family of deceased Philomina and that the public display of her dead body before the headquarters of the bank was part of a political conspiracy. The minister drew flak from across the state and she had to hurriedly withdraw her statement saying that her words were distorted by the media.

The opposition leader in his letter to the Chief Minister called upon the government to initiate a CBI probe and urged the government to pass an Ordinance to strengthen the Deposit Guarantee Scheme and pledged the full support of the opposition for saving the cooperative movement which is the backbone of the rural economy of Kerala.

In another development the state minister in-charge of cooperatives and senior leader of CPI-M, V.N. Vasavan said that around 124 cooperative banks in the state had some issues but the government will support these banks and help them come up.
San Francisco, July 31 : In a bid to avoid a repeat of the January 6 controversy, the US Secret Service is considering turning off employees' ability to send iMessages on their work-issued iPhones.

According to Politico, the Secret Service is hoping to head off repeats of the current controversy embroiling the agency over deleted text messages related to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

"This is actually something we are looking at very closely," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi was quoted as saying.

"Director James Murray has ordered a benchmarking study to further examine the feasibility of disabling iMessage and whether it could have any operational impacts," Guglielmi added.

Guglielmi said Murray ordered the review "earlier this week".

Missing text messages have become a recent flashpoint in investigations into January 6, 2021, riot, the report said.

On July 13, the DHS inspector general informed Congress that the Secret Service lost texts related to the attack while erasing its employees' phones as part of a change to how it manages those devices.

That revelation prompted the House committee investigating the attack to subpoena the agency for its records. The panel's leaders suggested that the agency may have violated federal records laws by failing to preserve the messages.

The phone resets occurred as the Secret Service was implementing a new mobile device management platform, a technology that employers use to centrally manage and preserve emails, photos and other data stored on employees' phones.

Apple's iMessage cannot be backed up by this system, because they are encrypted and stored on users' devices, unlike regular text messages, as per the report.

Because of this issue, the Secret Service couldn't store iMessages in a central location the way it managed its email system and other technologies.

Thus, when individual agents failed to manually back up their data before their phones were erased and reconfigured for the new management system, the only copies of those iMessages were lost.
New Delhi, July 31 : The country will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day in just a fortnight and the skies will be filled with colourful kites, adding a special flavour to the pan-India celebrations.

Kite flying has been an integral part of Indian culture for several decades, especially during the time of Independence Day.

Turning over the pages of history, the tradition of kite flying around August 15 began during India's freedom movement to counter British rule. British politician, John Simon, was supposed to arrive in India in 1928 to study constitutional reforms in Britain's largest and most important possession.

However, the Simon Commission was opposed 'tooth and nail' by the Indians and the slogans of 'Simon Commission Go Back' rented the air of the Indian subcontinent. It was at that time, some people chose to fly kites with 'Simon Commission Go Back' written on it and years later after India gained Independence, it became a tradition.

But who would have thought that such a delightful sport would one day become a serious cause of concern! The problem is not with the tradition of kite flying but the thread, popularly known as Chinese Manjha, used to fly it. The manufacturers of Chinese Manjha use glass and metal powder coating over it which at times causes grievous and fatal injuries to humans and birds.

After much deliberations, Delhi government had banned the sale, production, storage, supply, import, and use of kite flying thread made out of nylon, plastic or any other synthetic material, including popularly known as "Chinese manjha" and any other kite-flying thread that is sharp or made sharp such as by being laced with glass, metal or any other sharp materials in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in 2017, however, even after five years of prohibition, the dangerous thread is still claiming lives of humans, birds and even animals.

But how is this thing killing people? Kite flying is a popular sport in Delhi and it catches pace weeks before, during and after the Independence Day celebrations in the month of August every year. The sport of kite flying is played between two people. The way to win the battle is by severing the kite thread of the rival. However, the severed thread plummets downwards often entangling between streets and roads causing injuries to an unsuspecting pedestrian or even death to a two-wheeler-borne person.

Just a few days back on July 26, a father lost his 30-year-old son, identified as Sumit Ranga, when the latter, riding on his motorcycle, got his throat slit with a Chinese Manjha on the Haiderpur Flyover in northwest Delhi. Sumit was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late for him.

This was not an isolated case but every year, deaths due to the kite strings are reported from several parts of the country. The number of incidents involving Chinese manjha is the highest in the last week of July and first half of August when kite flying happens the most.

The police in the national capital are presently on toes to avert such tragedies and are vigorously conducting raids to nab the suppliers of such kinds of strings.

"These banned kite flying threads are stronger due to coating of metallic powder but are very dangerous due to its innocuous nature which makes it easy for birds to get tangled in the string while flying or even sitting on trees," a senior Delhi Police official told IANS.

It is due to this sharp powdered metal coating, the Chinese Manjha easily slices through flesh, leaving the humans, animals and birds gravely injured. "While there is a ban on all types of such manjha, many vendors still sell it. Most offenders get away as it is difficult to trace them," the senior official said.

In this regard, Assistant Commissioners of Police in several districts of Delhi have issued notifications with order that no person shall store, sell and use the special manjha with metallic powder or glass coating.

"It has become very difficult to find clues regarding culprits involved in selling 'Chinese Manjha' because they take utmost care in this activity. It was found that they have adopted tactics to not sell it directly in the market to every customer but selling the same in discreet manner on demand by using codewords etc," the official said.

During continuous raids, the police found that wholesalers of Chinese Manjha were receiving demands on telephone only from their identified retailers through codewords and were delivering the same by opening their locked godowns for a very short time preferably during the night hours.

Recently, a storage house full of Chinese Manjha, having 205 cartons containing 11,760 rolls, was busted in northwest Delhi. Apart from the northwest district, several people have been booked in other districts of the national capital along with recovery of large quantities of illegal strings.

(Ujwal Jalali can be reached at ujwal.j@ians.in)
Bhopal, July 31 : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday reviewed the preparation of 'Har Ghar Tiranga' (Tri-colours at every home) programme, a Centre's initiative to mark 75th anniversary of Independence Day.

During the two-day campaign from August 13 to 15, fixed by the Centre, the Madhya Pradesh government has set a target to hoist 1.50 crore Tri-colours across the state. Out of total 1.51 crore tri-colours to be hoisted, 51 lakh of them will be received from the Centre, while the rest one crore will be made in the state itself.

The review meeting was attended by cabinet minister Bhupendra Singh, Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains, DGP Sudhir Saxena, Personal Secretary (cultural) Shivshekhar Shukla and some more.

During the meeting, the chief minister was apprised that the state has so far received around 20 lakh Tri-colours from the Centre and remaining 31 lakh will be received soon.

Further, around 63 lakh Tri-colours have been prepared by 'self group' of women. "Tri-colours are being made by self group of women across Madhya Pradesh. The government will set up around 36,000 centres across 52 district to distribute and sale these Tri-colours. Individuals will also be allowed to buy Tri-colours and distribute them in the society," Shukla added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister directed district administrations to hold meetings and prepare a detailed plan regarding 'Har Ghar Tiranga' programme.

He also appealed religious and social leaders along with politicians and other groups in the state to encourage people to hoist Tri-colours at their homes on the occasion of 75th anniversary of the Independence Day.

The next review meeting will be held on July 8.
Mumbai, July 31 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday detained Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with an alleged money-laundering case in the Patra Chawl land scam.

He will be taken to the ED office later on Sunday evening for further action, including the strong probability of arrest, on alleged grounds of 'non-cooperation' with the probe.

The MP's brother MLA Sunil Raut told a private news channel that the ED could not locate certain documents pertaining to the Patra Chawl case, leading to Sanjay Raut's detention and he would be taken to the ED offices.

The ED action came after its sleuths swooped on Raut's Bhandup residence, 'Maitri' at dawn on Sunday and carried out searches for over 9 hours.

The developments followed Raut skipping two ED summons and then seeking time till August 7 as he was tied up in Parliament-related commitments.

Hundreds of Shiv Sainiks converged outside and staged protests, raised slogans and condemned the detention of Raut.

The government had deployed tight security by the Mumbai Police and Central Reserve Police Force.
Chennai, July 31 : Actor Kunchacko Boban and his team from the upcoming Malayalam film, 'Nna Thaan Case Kodu' paid a surprise visit to Malabar Cancer Centre to attend Survivors Meet arranged by the centre.

Taking to Instagram, Kunchacko Boban shared pictures and a video clip of his visit to MCC and wrote: "You find more meaning to your life seeing the smiling faces of the real fighters in life!! Made a surprise visit to Amritam 2022, the Survivors Meet conducted by the Malabar Cancer Centre, Thalassery. God bless the team of Dr Satheesh Balasubramanian and MCC. Thank you A. N. Shamseer MLA for inviting me!! Thank you all for the love pouring in and vibing along with Ambaass Rajeevan and Devadoothar. We are humbled 'Nna Thaan Case Kodu'." Meanwhile, Boban has disclosed that Advocate Gangadharan plays himself in the film. Boban himself plays a character called Kozhummal Rajeevan aka Ambaas Rajeevan in the film, which has been directed by Ratish Poduval.

The film, which went on floors in Cheruvathoor in Kerala, will feature Tamil actress Gayathrie, who is making her debut in Malayalam with this film, along with Kunchacko Boban in the lead.

Rakesh Haridas, the cinematographer of the acclaimed Hindi movie 'Sherni', is the director of Photography for this film. Interestingly, he also happens to be a Malayali and a collegemate of Kunchacko Boban at S.B. college. Manoj Kannoth is the editor of the film, which will have make-up by Hassan Wandoor.
Chennai, July 31 : A 22-year-old engineering student has been arrested for allegedly having links with Islamic State (IS) and planning a terror attack.

Meer Anas Ali, a resident of Masudi street in Ambur district of Tamil Nadu was arrested by the police on Saturday after Central intelligence agencies received information about him having regular contact with the IS groups through telegram and other social media platforms.

Ali, who is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student at a private college in Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu, was taken to Anaicut police station in Vellore, police sources told IANS.

Ali has come on the radar of Central Intelligence Bureau after some of his online activities raised suspicion in the police officers.

According to sources in the Tamil Nadu police, Ali was conspiring to kill an important personality in Tamil Nadu to instill fear among the non-Muslim communities in the state.

Police have registered FIR against him under IPC Sections 121 (waging war, or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the Indian state), 122 (collecting arms, etc with the intention of waging a war against India, 125 (waging of war or abetting of war against any Asiatic power that is in alliance with India) and various other sections under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

He was produced before a magistrate court during the early hours of Sunday and remanded in Vellore Central Prison.
Chandigarh, July 31 : Four legislators in Haryana received death threat and extortion calls from multiple phone numbers tracing to the countries in the Middle East from June 24 to 28, the police said on Sunday.

First Information Reports (FIRs) were lodged against the threats and had been assigned to the Special Task Force STF by DGP P.K. Agrawal to investigate.

Technical analysis of these mobiles has confirmed that these numbers are registered in the Middle Eastern countries and were being operated from Pakistan, said an official statement.

Some former legislators of Punjab had also received similar threats from these numbers.

Different tones and conversational styles, like Mumbaikar tone and Punjabi language, were used during these conversations with these legislators.

IGP (STF) Satish Balan had formed an SIT under the leadership of SP (STF) Sumit Kumar to investigate these cases.

The two-week long operation was personally monitored and supervised by DGP Agrawal.

In this context the DGP was aided by central agencies. STF conducted a technical analysis of these mobile numbers and IP addresses.

This involved five separate teams working on this technical analysis.

To track the account numbers, two parallel teams conducted raids across Mumbai and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

On July 19, Congress MP Deepender Hooda targeted the state government and demanded a white paper on the state's law and order situation.

"Unfortunate that five Haryana MLAs received life threats in past 10 days and the government neither able to find out culprits nor provide a safe environment for MLAs. The mining mafia is showing its ugly face. The CM should take up responsibility and issue a White Paper on state's law and order," he had said.
Chennai, July 31 : Actress Kaniha, who has been a part of several Tamil films and is best known for her role in the Malayalam superhit, 'Pazhassi Raja', has urged her followers on social media to adopt a pet.

Taking to Instagram, the actress posted a picture of herself with her dog and wrote: "I adopted Maggie during the Covid 2020 season.

"The moment I spotted her on Dogs of Madras, I knew I wanted to give her a home. I was initially skeptical to have another pet after I lost my first. I was scared to go through the whole love, loss rollercoaster." "But this girl, the moment she landed on my lap changed my world...filled it with so much of love,naughtiness and craziness. She's a big part of us today. She turns two today." "In case you are reading this and contemplating on becoming a petowner, I have a little teeny weeny request: Please adopt a pet. Give them a home, Show them love. They will love you back hundred folds," she concluded.
Chennai, July 31 : A 35-year-old man who arrived at Tiruchi airport on Friday and had a skin rash -- a symptom of monkeypox, is kept in isolation at Pudukkottai Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu.

The man was sent to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, Tiruchi on Friday but he went missing from the place. The hospital authorities informed the police and the health department about it.

Later, he was found at his residence in Pudukkottai on Saturday and taken to the Medical College Hospital there.

The authorities instructed the family of the person to isolate themselves until a complete diagnosis is made.

The hospital authorities told media persons that the person has not displayed any symptoms of monkeypox in the initial diagnosis. Doctors said that the rashes found on the skin could be due to some skin ailment.

The doctors also told media persons that he was kept in isolation at the hospital as a precautionary case and that his swab samples has been sent to the National Virology Institute, Pune for testing. He would be kept in isolation till the test report of his swab samples is received.

Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak
Mumbai, July 31 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with an alleged money-laundering case in the Patra Chawl land scam, here on Sunday evening.

He was earlier grilled for several hours prior to shifting him to the ED office for further action -- with arrest not ruled out -- on alleged grounds of 'non-cooperation' with the probe.

As he was escorted out of his 'Maitri' bungalow, Raut waved at the hundreds of supporters waiting outside, while his wife Varsha, mother and other family members looked on grimly.

En route, Raut told a private news channel on phone that he was "fully cooperating with the ED" and would not be cowed down by the political tactics employed to destroy the Shiv Sena.

"I am not scared... There's no question of non-cooperation with the law, I am ready to sacrifice myself for the Shiv Sena. The ED team came without giving any notice early morning, no papers have been found from me on this so-called case," Raut said.

He reiterated that he was being pressurised in the past to help topple the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government (which fell on June 29), and termed the ED allegations against him as 'false', declaring he would not bend before anybody, but continue to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Raut said that he had sought time from the ED since he was tied up in the upcoming Vice-Presidential elections for which he was coordinating with various Opposition parties.

"The party is behind me, Uddhav Thackeray is supporting me... We shall not surrender before such pressures, intended to silence us and finish off Shiv Sena," Raut declared.

Earlier, his brother MLA Sunil Raut told a private news channel that the ED could not locate certain documents pertaining to the Patra Chawl case, leading to Sanjay Raut's detention and he would be taken to the ED offices.

The ED action came after its sleuths swooped on Raut's Bhandup residence, 'Maitri' at dawn on Sunday and carried out searches for over 9 hours.

The developments followed Raut skipping two ED summons and then seeking time till August 7 as he was tied up in parliament-related commitments.

Hundreds of Shiv Sainiks converged outside and staged protests, raised slogans and condemned the detention and arrest of Raut.

The ED move comes a day ahead of the crucial hearing before the Supreme Court pertaining to the disqualification of 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs which could chart the further course of Maharashtra politics, in an upheaval since June 20.

The government had deployed tight security by the Mumbai Police and Central Reserve Police Force, to avoid any untoward incident.

ED had earlier questioned Pune businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody in DHFL Yes Bank case, and sources claimed that they wanted to grill Raut in this matter too.

Sources claimed that Patra Chawl case of ED is also linked to DHFL case.

Raut earlier took to Twitter to allege that he was being victimised on the instructions of the Centre.

In April, the ED had attached Raut's property in connection with the land scam.

A property worth Rs 9 crore of Raut's associate Pravin Raut and assets worth Rs 2 crore belonging to Varsha Raut, the wife of Sanjay Raut, were attached by the ED.

Pravin had eight land parcels in Alibaug and a flat registered in the name of Varsha Raut which were attached.

The ED had arrested Pravin in connection with the matter.

"We had filed a chargesheet in the matter against Pravin, Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan of HDIL and Guru Ashish Construction and others were named as an accused in the chargesheet," said an ED official.

The ED came to know during the probe that Pravin allegedly paid Rs 55 lakh to Varsha. This was paid from the bank account of Pravin's wife.
Vijayawada, July 31 : The Central government will release a special commemorative postage stamp in memory of Pingali Venkayya, the designer of the national flag, on August 2.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the stamp at a programme to be held in New Delhi to mark the birth anniversary of the freedom fighter.

This was announced by union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy here on Sunday. He revealed that the original flag designed by Pingali will be displayed at the event.

The Central government has invited family members of Pingali for the programme to be held in the national capital. Union home minister Amit Shah will honour them. The Prime Minister will also interact with the family members of Pingali.

Born near Machilipatnam on August 2, 1876, Pingali had designed many models of the national flag. In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi approved a design during the Indian National Congress meeting in Vijayawada.

Kishan Reddy noted that there is a demand to confer Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, on Pingali Venkaiah.

The minister said he had no information about the Andhra Pradesh government sending a proposal to the Centre in this regard.

"The issue will be examined and an appropriate decision will be taken," he said.

Kishan Reddy said the programme was being organised at a time when India was celebrating 75 years of independence.

The Central government is organising a 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign to mark 75 years of independence. Tiranga yatra will be held in Delhi on August 3.

The union minister said the state governments, non-governmental organisations and all political parties have been asked to organise the celebrations in every village, city, town and every street in the name of Prabhat Pheeri from August 9 to August 13.

He said since a large-scale massacre took place on August 14 during India's partition, programmes will be organised on that day to pay tributes to those who lost their lives. Candle light marches will also be taken out.

He appealed to people to hoist tricolour on every house on August 15.

Kishan Reddy also revealed that the Central government has decided to organise birth centenary celebrations of well-known composer Ghantasala.
San Francisco, July 31 : As the new Google Pixel 6a is now available more widely, some users have noticed that any fingerprint is able to unlock their new phones in a rather worrying security lapse by the tech giant.

According to 9To5Google, last week, two reports emerged about the Pixel 6a's under-display fingerprint sensor (UDFPS) allowing anybody to unlock it. This includes people that did not register their fingerprints ahead of time.

Now there are, so far, six additional reports of this occurring. They range from being able to unlock with a different finger that was not registered to being able to unlock another person's Pixel 6a, the report said.

One person said the issue did not occur again after removing all saved fingerprints and re-adding them.

The report mentioned that most buyers do not appear to have this issue with the Pixel 6a.

It is unclear if a new update will resolve the issue or whether there is a deeper hardware problem on affected phones, the report said.

This month, a report said that 36 per cent of Google Pixel owners wish to switch to other brands amid issues.
Birmingham, July 31 : India's bowlers, led by off-spinner Sneh Rana (2-15) and left-arm spinner Radha Yadav (2-18), put out an impressive show to bowl out Pakistan for just 99 in their second Group A match of 2022 Commonwealth Games at Edgbaston.

Despite losing the toss and rain reducing the match to 18 overs per side, everything went right for the Indian bowlers. The pacers got the ball to nip around and then the spinners bowled slow and got some turn as well to never let Pakistan break free in the innings.

Sneh was the pick of the bowlers, with her double-wicket strike in the ninth over triggering Pakistan's wobble, where they lost their last five wickets in eight balls. After Renuka Singh began with a maiden in the opening over, Meghana Singh tested Iram Javed with balls outside off-stump and eventually succeeded in getting her nick behind to wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia.

Muneeba Ali came out of her shell by slamming Renuka for back-to-back boundaries - a slash over point was followed by hoick through mid-wicket. Despite India continuing to maintain the pressure on Pakistan, Muneeba found boundaries against Meghana - a four off top-edge on pull was followed by a crunched slog over deep mid-wicket.

Her 50-run stand with captain Bismah Maroof came to an end when the latter was trapped lbw while trying to sweep off Sneh. One brought two for India as Muneeba gave a simple return catch back to Sneh operating with round-the-wicket angle for the left-handers.

Renuka had her first wicket of the day by getting Ayesha Naseem to mistime a slog to running deep mid-wicket taking a sharp catch. A confusion in the middle caused the run-out of Omaima Sohail.

Aliya Riaz hit two boundaries in a bid to give Pakistan a good finish. But a direct hit from Meghana at mid-off caught her a yard short of the crease. On the very next ball, Shafali Verma completed a stunning low return catch to send Fatima Sana back to the pavilion.

Radha Yadav had Diana stumped in the final over while Tuba Hassan was run-out by a throw in the deep by substitute fielder Harleen Deol. She finished off by having Kainat Imtiaz stumped on the final ball of the innings to end Pakistan's misery with the bat.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 99 all out in 18 overs (Muneeba Ali 32, Aliya Riaz 18; Sneh Rana 2-15, Radha Yadav 2-18) against India

Latest updates on Commonwealth Games 2022
Los Angeles, July 31 : Canadian screenwriter-director Paul Haggis, who is known for his work in 'Million Dollar Baby', 'Crash' and 'Casino Royale' has got a relief in the non-consensual sex case.

A judge in the southern Italian city of Lecce has ruled that there are no grounds to further pursue an investigation into allegations that the Oscar-winning director had sex without the consent of the young girl, reports 'Variety'.

Haggis' lawyer Michele Laforgia in a statement accessed by 'Variety' said, "After viewing the evidence and hearing arguments from both sides, the District Court of Lecce, an appellate court with three judges, unanimously rejected a prosecutor's appeal to have Haggis' house arrest reinstated." Haggis was arrested on June 19 in Ostuni, a location in the southern region of Puglia on the heel of the Italian boot, on charges of sexual assault allegedly inflicted to a 28-year British woman over the course of two days in June.

According to 'Variety', the 69-year-old director spent 16 days under house arrest in a hotel, before being released from detention.

Laforgia further mentioned in the statement, "Two weeks ago, Judge Vilma Gilli of the Court of Brindisi questioned the alleged victim and then immediately overturned Haggis' house arrest." The Prosecutor of Brindisi appealed her decision to the Court of Lecce, where Haggis' lawyer presented what he says is "irrefutable and objective evidence that the woman told multiple lies to investigators and the court, with facts and witnesses completely contradicting her story".

'Variety' further states that there was no immediate comment from the alleged victim's legal team.

Laforgia stated that Haggis' arrest was the result of a judicial error ansd, based on the evidence, the prosecutors must now close the case. This is expected to happen in the coming weeks, unless new evidence surfaces.

The Court of Lecce contacted attorneys for both parties to inform them of the courtaAs decision, rejecting the public prosecutor's appeal and confirming the decision made by judge Gilli. Four judges have now ruled in favour of Haggis.

Haggis is also facing court proceedings in the US where he is being sued by film publicist Haleigh Breest, who alleges that Haggis raped her in January 2013.

Breest originally filed suit in December 2017, although proceedings were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A trial date has now been set for October 11 in Manhattan. Haggis says the encounter with Breest, which allegedly took place after a premiere, was consensual.
Patna, July 31 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who arrived here for two-day Joint National Executive Meeting (JNEM) starting July 30, was welcomed by the BJP supporters in grand style on Sunday.

Shah will address the valedictory session of the Joint National Executive Meeting of different BJP cells at Patna's Gyan Bhawan for the preparation of 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Earlier, J.P. Nadda, the national president of BJP, came to Patna on July 30 for the event.

BJP has already completed the two-day 'Prawas Programme' in 200 assembly constituencies of Bihar. The officials of the BJP stayed in those constituencies and gave feedback to the party's top leadership during the JNEM event.

Shah is expected to direct his party workers to prepare for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Shah and Nadda are likely to return to Delhi on Sunday night at 10 pm.
New Delhi, July 31 : The BJP on Sunday claimed that the Trinamool Congress workers "involved in scams and other illegal activities are worried" after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee "dumped" Partha Chatterjee.

West Bengal BJP co-incharge Amit Malviya tweeted, "After Mamata Banerjee dumped Partha, her close confidant, every criminal in the Trinamool, from minister to ordinary worker, who are involved in scams, rapes and murders, are worried. They acted on the assurance that Mamata would protect them but now they feel slighted. Law is supreme." The ED has arrested Chatterjee in the SSC scam and recovered around Rs 50 crore, several kilograms of gold, and documents of several properties from his close associate Arpita Mukherjee.

On Thursday, Chatterjee was removed from the state cabinet and the party.

Earlier Malviya had asked why West Bengal minister of state for education Paresh Adhikari has not been sacked after an FIR was filed against him. "The rot of SSC Scam is so deep that the Calcutta High Court had to cancel illegal appointment of Ankita Adhikari, daughter of Paresh Adhikari,... Why has he not been sacked? Will Mamata Banerjee explain," he had said.

"It is abundantly clear that Mamata Banerjee is feeling the heat. Obscene amount of cash recovered has exposed the dark underbelly of the Trinamool government. Getting rid of Partha Chatterjee is an admission that the noose is tightening and it is just a matter of time before it ropes in Mamata," Malviya had added.
Hyderabad, July 31 : As many as 80 per cent of patients with diabetic foot in rural areas need amputation while only 20 per cent of patients in urban areas face this situation, said doctors at a conference here on Sunday.

Foot care is most important in diabetes. Even a small injury leads to closure of vessels, and infection/gangrene, eventually leading to amputation of the limbs, they warned.

According to doctors, diabetes causes a dangerous combination of nerve damage and impaired blood circulation that contribute to ineffective wound healing in lower extremities.

In major cities like Hyderabad, 80 per cent of the patients with diabetic foot are getting relief.

Doctors say the modern technology in vascular surgery is key in salvaging limbs in the diabetic foot. However, the number of vascular surgeons in India is very low.

The KIMS Institute of Vascular and Sndovascular Surgery, in association with the Vascular Foundation, on Sunday organised a conference to create awareness among the doctors regarding the advanced treatments in vascular and endovascular surgery and wound management.

About 150 doctors attended the conference inaugurated by Dr Bhaskar Rao, MD of KIMS Hospitals. Dr Narendranadh Meda, Head of Department, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery believed that prevention and patient education is the key in the diabetic foot.

"Regular annual foot care examination and self-examination of the foot daily by the patients help in preventing the ulcer and identifying any problem in the early stage. Diabetic patients should avoid barefoot walking, proper well-fitted footwear should be worn and preventing cracks/injury to the foot helps in most patients. Regular walking and exercise help in maintaining blood circulation," he said.

"Many people who have diabetes tend to be negligent when their feet are injured. As a result, the lesion does not heal and the nerves are gradually clogged. They do their treatment or go to local RMPs until the fingers are completely damaged. Only when there is no benefit then will they go to the leading doctors. By then the damage will already have happened," said Dr Ranjith Kumar.

According to Dr Rahul Laxminaryanan, a vascular surgeon, diabetic foot is one of the most common and severe complications of diabetes. People with diabetes are 10 to 20 times more likely to have their legs amputated as compared to those who do not have diabetes.

"Normally, the lower part of the foot needs to be removed only when there are serious injuries. But in diabetic patients, the need is 80 per cent Ahigher. Minor injuries to the lower parts of the feet will not be healed because of the damage to the nerves and blockage of blood circulation due to diabetes. As a result, the fingers or leg have to be removed. In some cases, gangrene/infection may develop if not treated urgently. Foot ulcers account for 85 per cent of the causes of amputation of the leg in people with diabetes," he said.

Podiatric surgeon Dr Priya Bharathi pointed out that high blood sugar levels can affect the functioning of the muscles and nerves of the feet. "Walking with a damaged leg can lead to cracks and further damage. It is very difficult to save damaged legs due to diabetes. If we can save the leg, it will have the potential to reduce infections in the future. These procedures have to be done with care as the vessels in diabetics have extensive disease, calcification, and occlusion and are small in calibre (2 to 1.5mm in diameter). The first shot is the best shot for these patients. Multiple attempts or incomplete procedures can do more harm than good," she said.

"Vascular surgery practices in India have been around for 3-4 years. Wounds can heal 100 per cent if they can restore circulation in the blood vessels. Proper dressing and using good footwear are also essential for wound healing," added the surgeon.
The course of human history can be quite irreversible, whether we like it or not. Some may hanker for a golden past of homogeneity and tradition (usually imagined), but at best, they can only replicate its essence -- and in part only, for it is impossible to recreate conditions of even a year back, leave alone centuries. Take Tsarist Russia, for example.

It may be argued that Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, is as autocratic, expansionist, and opaque as Imperial Russia under the Romanovs, but there have been important changes down the years. This was not at least due to the Bolsheviks, who wiped out the 'ancien regime' and they were pretty thorough. Time and changing circumstances and political, social, economic, and technological norms did the rest.

Rhe Russia of the Tsars, of the opulent aristocracy, the unbounded despotism, the wide social and economic gulf, which fuelled fatalism, nihilism, and an unquenchable revolutionary fervour manifesting itself in a spate of assassinations, bombings, and conspiracies, can now only be found in the annals of history.

Yet, human ingenuity has ensured another way to relive the past -- through the medium of historical fiction.

A flavour of Tsarist Russia can be found in the period's abundant literature -- the Golden Age of Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, down on to Count Leo Tolstoy and Boris Pasternak, but there are many writers -- both Russian and non-Russian -- who have also dealt engagingly with the period, in all genres, especially in historical detective fiction.

Prominent among the Russian writers is the Soviet/Russian language expert of Georgian descent, Grigori Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, aka Boris Akunin, creator of the Fandorin series of historical detective fiction.

Detective fiction had always been a favourite of Russian readers in all periods -- Sherlock Holmes was most popular -- but in the turmoil of the post-Soviet period, it descended into typically pulp -- full of sex and gore, yet still popular. Chkhartishvili's wife was also an aficionado of these, but had to read them surreptitiously.

It was a desire to give a quality boost to the detective genre and write books that no one would be chary of, reading that inspired him, otherwise a Japanese language and culture expert, to turn his hand to it.

Chkhartishvili -- a name quite unpronounceable for the English reader -- chose the pen name Akunin (Japanese for 'great evil man' but modified by the author to mean a 'bad man who makes his own rules') for the series, which includes 13 full-length books, two collections of short stories, and one stage play spanning nearly five decades, from the last quarter of the 19th century to the Russian Revolution and the consequent Civil War.

The eloquent writing (which comes out well in the translations too), the singular characters, the intelligent and intricately plotted mysteries, and host of references to Russian history and literature, would have made the series a surefire winner in any case, but Akunin went one step further. Each of the 16 books pays homage to one particular sub-set of the detective mystery genre -- which he estimated at the same number -- terrorist conspiracy, spy hunt, closed circle murder, serial killer, government conspiracy, political crime, and the like.

Before we see some of the oeuvre, let's look at our hero -- Erast Petrovich Fandorin. We first meet him in "Azazel/The Winter Queen" (1998), when he is a junior -- yet enterprising and energetic -- operative in the Moscow CID. We learn he is of an affluent-turned-impoverished background, with his father having done well during the railroad boom and then losing everything in the banking boom, leading him to quit the world.

Fandorin, however, is born lucky, and suspects it's fate's way of compensating for his father's very bad luck. He is handsome (save for the hair at his temples going grey at the end of the first book, after its sudden, shocking denouement), and always fashionably turned-out and attired.

On the other hand, he has a tendency to stutter (caused by the same reason as why his temples go grey) but this disappears in the critical moments, unnerving those he is talking with, or when he is very angry. And then, he does not have a particular catchphrase, but instead, has the habit of listing his deductions, as "that's one, that's two and that's three". Later, he also acquires the habit of clicking on a jade rosary while thinking or agitated.

"The Winter Queen" is about how his dogged investigation of a young Moscow playboy leads to an unearthing of a diabolical conspiracy -- and brings him great personal tragedy.

"The Turkish Gambit" (1998, English 2005) has Fandorin, still overwrought from the loss he suffered at the end of Book No. 1, enlisting as a volunteer in Bulgaria during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877, but getting drawn into a counterintelligence operation to stop an effective Turkish spy.

"Murder on the Leviathan" (1998; English 2004), set in 1877, is a pure mystery beginning with the gruesome murder of an English lord, seven of his servants and two children of servants in Paris -- all bludgeoned with an ancient Indian idol.

One clue is found from the spot, showing the perpetrator is a first-class passenger on a ship sailing to Calcutta. A bombastic French policeman (aptly named Gauche) boards the ship and stumbles upon a rich range of suspects -- a scatterbrained English aristocrat, the pregnant wife of a Swiss banker, a mysterious Japanese man, a spendthrift English spinster, an expert in Indian antiquities and a young Russian en route to a diplomatic post in Japan.

The last, who is our hero, debunks the inept policeman's theories of the murderer's identity and is forced to find the killer himself -- when the policeman and some others join the list of victims. The ending is not what you might expect.

The next "The Death of Achilles" (1998; English 2005) has Fandorin back in Moscow from his Japan stint and he he gets embroiled in investigating the death of a celebrated general, found dead in his hotel room, but with some foul play suspected -- identifying the sub-genre will be a spoiler.

What he did in Japan and what happened to him only comes to be known in the latter part of Book 10, the very dark "The Diamond Chariot" (2003; English 2011).

Among the rest of the series, political themes show up in "The State Counsellor" (1999; English 2008), which is one of the best expositions of revolutionary activity in pre-1917 Russia and the murky atmosphere in which they operated; "The Coronation" (2000, English 2009), related to the accession of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, lays bare his weaknesses that would doom him, his family and dynasty around two decades hence; "Black City" (2012; English 2018) again brings in the Bolsheviks and other revolutionaries and ends a bit tragically too, as does "Not Saying Goodbye" (2018; English 2020), which brings the series to an end literally with a bang.

Pure crime is the focus of "Special Assignments" (1999), basically two novellas about a clever gang of conmen and Jack the Ripper in Moscow, "She Lover of Death" (2001; English 2009) and "He Lover of Death" (2001; English 2010), both intertwined and influenced by Charles Dickens, and "All the World's a Stage" (2009; English 2018), with its tip to "The Phantom of the Opera", is perhaps the only one which ends happily for our hero.

What is inexplicable is that the two collections of short stories and novellas -- "The Jade Rosary" (2006) and "Planet Water" (2015), which fill gaps in his life, as well as his adventures in the US and an encounter with Sherlock Holmes -- have never been translated into English. We can just hope that this shortcoming will be rectified soon.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
Guwahati, 31 July : The Assam police on Sunday seized heroin valued at around Rs 8 crore, and arrested two persons on charges of drug peddling from Bokajan area of Karbi Anglong district.

As per reports, the police had specific information about the activity of the peddlers in the area and on this, they intercepted a vehicle at Khatkhati in Bokajan. Following the search of the vehicle, around 75 boxes containing 966 grams of heroin were seized.

Police held two persons who were in the vehicle. They were identified as Soleman Thuyer and Simaan Thuyer.

According to sources, the duo transported the contraband from Dimapur and may had a plan to head towards Guwahati.

A case has been registered against them under the NDPS Act and further investigation is this matter is underway, an official said.

Drug peddling has gone up in the Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts in recent times and it is a matter of concern. However, the police are on constant alert to apprehend those involved in the drug menace, the official added.

Notably, the Assam police on Saturday torched the drugs worth rupees more than Rs 2,000 crore that were seized in the last few months from different locations of the state.
Kolkata, July 31 : Three Congress MLAs, who were nabbed with huge quantities of cash by the West Bengal police at Panchla in Howrah district of West Bengal on late Saturday evening, were remanded to 10 days Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody by a lower court on Sunday afternoon.

The three MLAs are Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kacchap from Khijri (ST) and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira (ST). Besides the three MLAs, one more person travelling with them and driver of the vehicle where the cash was seized was also remanded to the CID custody for 10 days. The vehicle had the board of Jamtara MLA, Irfan Ansari. A little over Rs 49 lakh was seized from that vehicle.

On Sunday morning, a special team of CID- West Bengal officials reached Panchla police station, where the three MLAs were interrogated throughout the day about the sources of this huge cash. After the court order, the CID team took the three MLAs, the driver and the fifth person travelling in the car to the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in Kolkata. "They will be interrogated again by us tonight only," confirmed a CID official.

However, all the three MLAs are sticking to their earlier point that they that they represent tribal-dominated constituencies in Jharkhand and they came to Kolkata to purchase sarees in large quantities from Burrabazar wholesale market for the purpose of distribution in their respective constituencies on the occasion of the forthcoming World Tribal Day on August 9, 2022.

However, the police have not found their statements convincing as none of them could specify on the sources of the funds. Meanwhile, Congress has already suspended these three MLAs from the party.
Islamabad, July 31 : Former Pakistan interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Sunday said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who decided to oust former premier Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence, is now considering the option of leaving the government, the media reported.

"The decision on the no-confidence motion was made in London. The same Nawaz Sharif is now talking about leaving the government," Rasheed tweeted, once again turning his guns to the PML-N leadership, Geo News reported.

He said that the country is in an "economic jam" and the people cannot pay bills of electricity and gas alongside a fixed tax.

The politician went on to say that the coalition government "just keeps holding ineffective press conferences" while Imran Khan has "taken over" after a brief campaign.

"The government is at zero, while he (Imran Khan) has become a hero," said Rasheed, a close aide of the former Prime Minister, Geo News reported.

In a separate tweet, Rasheed further stated that "neither China, Dubai, Qatar nor Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan this time", nor has the country secured funds under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme.

"China has extreme reservations regarding the US conditions for the aid, while (Pakistan is left with) reserves enough for only 45 days instead of 90 days," the Awami Muslim League leader wrote, Geo News reported.

Rasheed then criticised JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying that he and outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) "have the same stance" on the integration of former Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Noida, July 31 : Two people were killed while another was critically injured in a bus and car head-on collision in Noida on Sunday, an official said. The deceased were identified as Purushottam (45) and Rinku (35), both residents of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.

According to the official, the incident took place on the Jhaajar-Rabupura road near village Mohammadpur when a private bus on its way to Rabupura from Jhaajar crashed into a Renault Triber that was coming from the opposite side.

Immediately after the incident, the driver of the alleged bus fled from the spot and is yet to be nabbed. "All the three occupants of the car were critically injured in the accident and were immediately rushed to the hospital where one of the persons, Purushottam was declared dead by the doctors," a police officer informed IANS over phone.

He said the second person died during treatment at the Kailash Hospital in the city. "We have sent the bodies of the deceased for postmortem," the officer said, adding necessary legal action is being taken.
Kabul, July 31 : Rahmatullah Nabil, former director of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has claimed that American drones were spotted in Kabul's airspace and attacked various locations here, local media reported.

Following reports of at least two explosions in the capital's Wazir Akbar Khan and Sherpur areas, Nabil posted his statement on his Twitter handle.

"American drones were seen in the airspace of KBL and struck different locations in Kabul," the former NDS director wrote.

Nabil also stated that the explosions that occurred on Sunday in Kabul are "most likely" a "IS-K hideout," citing a clause of the Doha agreement, to which the US and the Taliban are parties, which states that the US will help the Taliban combat and defeat IS-K, Khaama Press reported.

He also cautioned that Afghanistan is in "grave danger of turning into a haven and sanctuary for extremists and terrorists".

Taliban security authorities claim that a rocket was launched at the Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul and landed close to the area's 11th street following the release of news about the occurrence of at least two explosions in the capital.

The rocket struck a vacant house, according to Khalid Zadran, the Taliban's spokesman for the Kabul Police on Sunday. No one was injured in the incidents.

Another explosion in Kabul's Dehmazang area was also reported by the locals, resulting in no immediate casualties.

Both occurrences have not yet been claimed by a group or organisation.
Chamba, July 31 : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched a state-level programme 'Pragatisheel Himachal: Sthapna Ke 75 Varsh' (Progressive Himachal: 75 Years of Formation), to commemorate 75 years of formation of the state at historic Chamba Chaugan on Sunday.

The Chief Minister was here at the closing ceremony of 'Minjar Fair'.

Addressing the gathering, he said that when the nation was celebrating 75 years of independence, the state was also celebrating 75 years of its formation.

"The state during all these 75 years have made unparalleled development and progress in all spheres and credit of this goes to every hardworking and honest Himachali," he asserted.

The Chief Minister congratulated the people of the state and particularly the people of Chamba for celebrating the Minjar Fair for centuries, saying that the fair is symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.

"Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in his 'Mann Ki Baat' programme made special references to Chamba Minjar, Sayar fair and Jagra fair celebrated in the state," he said.

Notably, Prime Minister Modi in his 'Mann Ki Baat' programme made special reference to 'Minjar Fair' of Chamba and even recited a few lines of Chambiayali song praising the natural beauty of Chamba. The Prime Minister also made reference to 'Sayar Fair' celebrated in Shimla, Mandi, Solan, and Kullu district and 'Jagra' mela celebrated in Shimla and Sirmour district.

The CM on the occasion of the Minjar fair announced the International status of Minjar Fair.

He announced that proper lighting would be made for the beautification of Chamba Chaugan.

Earlier, he inaugurated the exhibition based on the theme 'Himachal Tub Aur Ab' put up by various departments, boards, and corporations on the occasion.

A theme song on 75 years of existence of Himachal Pradesh was also released on the occasion. A documentary based on 75 years of the 'glorious history' of the state was also screened on the occasion.

He also inaugurated Rs 13.68 crore upgradation work of Bhareri-Sillagharat road, Rs 3.24 crore Model Career Center Building of District Employment office and Rs 80 lakh building of PHC Dhulara.

He also laid the foundation stone of a residential buildings for the employees of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau at Chamba.

Local MLA Pawan Nayyar, Deputy Speaker State Vidhan Sabha Hans Raj, Chief Whip Bikram Jaryal were among other who were present on the occasion.
The moment of legendary freedom-fighter Bhikaiji Patel-Cama first hoisting the Indian flag in Germany and issuing a simple appeal to the world to support India's struggle for independence is etched in golden letters in the country's history, as it was during a time when the freedom movement had very few women at the forefront.

It was on August 2, 1907, when the 46-year-old feminist-nationalist Bhikaiji Cama was in Stuttgart attending the International Socialist Conference - during her forced sojourn in Europe, US and later north Africa - that she took the opportunity to unveil the Indian flag before the world and sought their support for her motherland's freedom from the British oppression.

She told the horrors of the famine that had ravaged India, the flouting of human rights, and equality by Britain and demanded independence from the British Raj.

The flag, later smuggled into India and currently housed at a Pune museum, was jointly designed by Bhikaiji Cama and Shyamji Krishnavarma and later inspired the national tricolour that was created for independent India.

Her flag comprised a green stripe at the top with eight lotuses in bloom symbolising the country's provinces, 'Bande Mataram' scribbled at the centre in Hindi on the saffron stripe, along with a sun on the left and a crescent moon on the right, symbolising the two dominant faiths - Hinduism and Islam - in the country.

That small act - coming from a woman - succeeded in drawing big attention to India's plight, its yearning and struggle for independence, before the global comity, embarrassing the British rulers.

Born into a wealthy Zoroastrian (Parsi) merchant family to Sorabji and Jaijibai Patel on September 24, 1861, Bhikaiji Patel was drawn to the fledgling Indian freedom struggle, at a very young age, as it was taking baby steps after the historic First War of Independence of 1857.

Educated at the famed Alexandra Girls English Institution, Byculla and blessed with the ability to pick up languages quickly - which later helped her espouse India's cause in different countries - she got married to Rustomji Cama, a famous pro-Raj lawyer in 1885.

However, the couple remained at odds, as she was a nationalist with her disdain for the British and he had unabashed adulation for the Raj. The marriage was literally on the rocks as both remained immersed in their respective interests.

During the devastating bubonic plague that broke in the Bombay Presidency in 1896, Bhikaiji Cama volunteered to help the infected but ended up catching the fatal disease, and though she survived, it took an enormous toll on her frail health.

As doctors suggested she go to Europe for convalescence, she left the Indian shores in 1902 - blissfully unaware at that time, of what would be a long, forced foreign exile and travel that would last for over 3 decades, starting with - ironically, London.

It proved worthwhile as she met one of the doyens of the freedom struggle Dadabhai Naoroji and even became active with the Indian National Congress, founded on December 28, 1895, by meeting others like Lala Hardayal, Krishnavarma, addressed spirited meetings at the Hyde Park, and drummed up support for the cause.

Probably unknown to Bhikaiji Cama, around that time, a young Indian Gujarati barrister had launched his first anti-apartheid political movement in 1906 in South Africa, and decades later became a household name worldwide - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. However, 13 years before, he was thrown out of a train in that country in June, 1893.

Disapproving her anti-British activities, at one point, the British rulers in London warned that she would be debarred from returning to India unless she signed an undertaking to keep off the nationalistic movement for freedom, but she declined and chose to remain exiled in Europe.

In 1909, she tactically moved to France and met other stalwarts like Munchershah Burjorji Godrej, Singh Rewabhai Rana, and founded the Paris Indian Society, with her home serving as the hub of Indian freedom struggle activities in Europe.

Along with many other activists, they penned, printed and distributed revolutionary literature, including the banned patriotic song "Vande Mataram", and others paying tributes to martyrs like Madan Lal Dhingra.

Bhikaiji travelled to several European countries, the US and Egypt to effectively espouse the Indian cause and expose the British rule, its excesses on the Indian masses and other social-economic-political issues in a fiery style.

During the First World War (1914-1918) she and other revolutionaries adopted an aggressive anti-Britain stance, which France - its ally - did not entertain, and imposed restrictions on her, though she continued to visit army camps, maintain links with Indian, Irish, and Arab revolutionaries crusading for similar causes.

Resigned to her prolonged exile, leading a hyper-active life with hectic international travel, in 1935 Bhikaiji Cama suffered a paralytic stroke and pleaded with the British government to permit her 'ghar wapasi'.

When seeing her delicate health condition convinced them that she would be unfit for any more political activism, they finally granted her permission and she returned to her motherland after 33 years in November 1935.

Even though she attained her cherished dream of returning home after so many years, she barely survived another nine months and passed away on August 13, 1936, aged 75 - one of the biggest but forgotten icons of the early Indian freedom struggle.

Before her death, the Bombay-born woman had donated portions of her assets to the Bai Avabai Framji Patel Orphanage for Girls, in Bandra and a Parsi Fire Temple in Mazagaon.

Over the years, a grateful nation acknowledged her contributions in the form of a commemorative postage stamp in 1962, an Indian Coast Guard vessel was dedicated to her in 1997 as 'ICGS Bhikaiji Cama', one of the most famous roads in south Mumbai is named as Madam Cama Road during her birth centennial in 1961, a commercial complex in Delhi, etc.

She had once said: "Do not forget the important role women play in building a nation". Years after her death, it proved true in the form of top Indian women leaders like the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former President Pratibha Patil and the current President Droupadi Murmu.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
Islamabad, July 31 : Pakistan is heading towards an unavoidable political crisis after the thumping victory of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the recently held by-election in Punjab province. Out of the total 20 provincial seats, PTI won 15 seats in the home turf of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), which could secure only four seats.

This outcome has sufficiently weakened the nine-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government, including PML-N. Immediately after the results' announcement, Imran Khan called for early National Assembly (NA) elections in Pakistan. This demand is the main bone of contention and will lead to increased political uncertainty and possible street violence if the ruling coalition does not heed to Khan's demands.

PML-N has lost Punjab after the recent polls outcome and may result in the ouster of Hamza Sharif as the chief minister on July 22. There is an understanding in Pakistan that whoever rules Punjab, rules the country.

As a result, if the PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) coalition comes back to power in the province, the Shehbaz Sharif-led government in Islamabad may not be able to survive for long.

Besides failing politically, the ruling PDM alliance has proven unsuccessful in handling the country's dwindling economy. In such a situation, the powerful military establishment may dump the PDM government.

Although, the coalition partners have shown no signs of holding early elections and are looking forward to finishing the term until mid-next year. This will not go down well with Imran Khan who is far more confident after the recent win in Punjab.

Khan has been going with all guns blazing against the PDM coalition parties, military and Pakistan's election commission after his embarrassing ouster from power in April. His narrative against the state institutions and the 'foreign conspiracy' propaganda targeted at the US is resonating well with the voters, both in the urban and rural constituencies.

Punjab by-election results underscore that the Khan factor, which had prevailed in the 2018 election, has again helped the PTI to massively sway the electorate.

Whereas, the PDM government is struggling to sell anything substantial to Pakistani people, who are facing severe food and energy crisis, and long power blackouts. The ruling coalition has also failed to revive the stalled International Monetary Fund bailout programme, leading to more economic uncertainty in the country.

After the Punjab defeat, PML-N supremo and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement that the party paid the price of 'difficult decisions' taken by the coalition government that came into power in April.

Nevertheless, the two main political parties -- PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) -- of the PDM coalition are not in favour of holding early elections as they fear adverse outcomes. Both parties have reportedly agreed to delay general polls until the mid-next year in order to provide the PDM some breathing space to take 'populist' decisions, make key electoral reforms, improve country's economic outlook, and find legal ways to target Imran Khan and his key party leaders.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the "long-delayed" judgment in the prohibited funding case, previously referred to as the foreign funding case, against the PTI. The ECP had reserved its verdict last month.

In an address to his party supporters on July 18, Imran Khan criticised the ECP for being "biased" and demanded Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja's resignation over his alleged favouring of the PML-N in electoral battles.

These allegations and counter allegations from the PDM and Khan's PTI are likely to deteriorate political environment in Pakistan. Consequently, Pakistan is staring at a greater risk of financial default amid growing political uncertainty.

What is also noteworthy here is that the process to select the new Chief of Army Staff in Pakistan will start in the coming months as Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has decided to not seek the 'second' extension.

Therefore, it seems unlikely that the PDM leadership would miss out on the chance to select the new army chief, who could, in some ways, help their government face the Imran Khan 'challenge'.

Khan, on the other hand, is putting pressure on the election commission to conduct snap polls, possibly before October this year, so that he could pick the new army chief after coming back to power in Islamabad.

Moreover, he thinks that fresh elections are the only solution to Pakistan's economic problems. But besides rhetoric, PTI is also enjoying the downfall of PML-N, which has been blamed for taking 'tough decisions' to the country's economy.

A day after Punjab by-election results announcement, Pakistani rupee nosedived PKR 4.25 in a single day and hit an "all-time low" at PKR 215.20 against the US dollar -- an immediate consequence of the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

While Imran Khan is feeling vindicated after defeating PML-N in Punjab, Pakistan's economy is fast heading to a disaster. With more political uncertainty in the offing, neither the Shehbaz Sharif-led PDM government nor Khan's possible return to power can provide relief to the desperate population of Pakistan.
We can boast about being a sovereign State that will not be dictated to by foreign elements but at this particular point in time, we are in a state of anarchy.

One does not need to have a crystal ball to deduce that this is bound to get worse. I am among the many citizens who have noted and mentioned this over the past year. The worrying part is that nobody within the Eswatini echelons of political power has noted or mentioned the same thing. Our leadership seems to be singing from a different hymn book than that of the ordinary citizen. My dictionary defines anarchy as disorder, chaos, mayhem and lawlessness. Eswatini is in a serious state of lawlessness. I will cite a few recent examples of this disastrous situation. Let me start by one of the videos circulating on some social media platforms. It shows a group of inebriated bar patrons interrogating a man who is said to be a member of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF). They throw several questions at him, asking him to identify the people who killed unarmed citizens during the June 29, 2021 riots.

Responds

The equally drunk soldier responds to some of the questions and mentions certain names. It is not clear if what he is saying is the truth or he was just playing along to save his skin. What is clear is that this is an abnormal situation. No civilised society, with law and order still intact, would allow such to happen. In countries where the law still exists, police and soldiers are held in high esteem and are the people to go to when citizens feel threatened by anything. They are not waylaid by not-so-sober citizens and asked questions about stuff they might not even have a clue about.

Yes, while many members of the security forces have been seen assaulting unarmed protestors or torturing suspects, some of them are actually very good people who uphold professionalism in all they do. It is unfortunate that in our country, security forces have lost all the respect they previously commanded. Not only that, they have become the enemy of the general public. It all began on the same June 29, everybody is talking about, when dozens of people were killed, allegedly by security forces. The nation has been calling for the arrest of the killers, to no avail.

The fact that this does not seem to bother those who have power to ensure that the cases of murder are investigated angers the public. We are still talking about lawlessness, which has gripped Eswatini in a manner never seen before. We have seen unknown people killing police officers in cold blood. The killers were not known at the time of writing this analysis but some people calling themselves `ground forces are alleged to have claimed responsibility, apparently saying they were killing the officers as a vengeful reaction to the deaths of many emaSwati during last years riots. This has not yet been verified as investigations continue. Police officers are humans first and security agents later.

Scared

They are rightfully scared for their lives after the series of shootings. One cannot really blame them for being apprehensive about getting out of their respective stations when people make distress calls. After the last few incidents when such calls were meant to make them leave the charge office, so that the killers could easily attack them, who is to know what will befall them when they get out? At the same time, policing is their duty; it is what we taxpayers pay them for and we expect them to respond to our emergency calls immediately without showing any signs of being terrified. Trouble is, now that the police are reluctant to venture out, criminal elements are taking advantage and terrorising residents everywhere.

Car thieves are also having the time of their lives, knowing that the response time from members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), which was never impressive in the first place, is now almost non-existent. Last week, two police officers were assaulted and one of them stabbed in Siphofaneni, for allegedly singing a song associated with the Incwala sacred ceremony. This is yet another sign of lawlessness and hatred between citizens and State security agents. Two days later, it was reported that a mob had assaulted and killed two people for alleged housebreaking and theft. This happened in Lombiwako, an area under Nsingizini near Hluthi. Two suspects, a male and female, died after being assaulted by a mob. The police had been called but did not respond until the following day.

Tortured

While waiting for police, the suspects were tortured and taken around the community. They were forced to admit to all the crimes they had committed.

This REPS slow response has contributed greatly to the rise in crime cases in Eswatini, especially those associated with violence. Crimes like arson are a cause for concern as well. In the last few months, they have escalated to worrying levels, leaving many families without food, shelter or clothing.

Arsonists normally attack under the veil of darkness. Knowing that neither the fire and emergency services nor the police will respond to emergency calls, they strike knowing that their evil mission will be fulfilled without hindrance. A recent arson attack was at the Mpolonjeni umphakatsi, which was being attacked for the second time.

Whether it is politically motivated or a result of a chieftaincy dispute, the fact that fire was used as a weapon is another grim reminder that Eswatini is now a lawless country. Before this, some buildings at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) had also been set alight, resulting in millions of Emalangeni worth of damage. When will it all end? This anarchy will not end just because National Commissioner of Police William Tsitsibala Dlamini said the police were not afraid of their killers, who should face them instead of attacking discreetly. The challenge of lawlessness needs a political solution because it is the result of the mishandling of political matters.
Mamallapuram : , July 31 (IANS) An Estonian chess player fainted on Sunday while playing at the 44th Chess Olympiad and was rushed to the hospital where his condition is said to be stable, said officials.

Kanep Meelis, 39, fainted while playing against his Jamaican opponent here,All India Chess Association (AICF) President, Dr Sanjay Kapoor, told IANS.

Meelis was rushed to a private hospital where his condition is stable.

The Estonian fainted at about 7 p.m. about four hours after the third round started.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 31 : Fishermen and fishing boat owners of Kerala are concerned after the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned fishermen from foraying into the sea for the next four days commencing from July 31.

Incidentally, the 52-day trawling ban which started on June 9 is to end on the midnight of Sunday, and around 3,600 boats including long liners were planning to venture into the seas.

"The IMD failed to issue properly and timely alert during the Ockhi cyclone leading to the loss of lives of several fishermen. After this, the IMD has been issuing frequent weather warnings leading to a blanket ban on fishing activities," All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association General Secretary, Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal told IANS.

He said that in 2020 fishermen were allowed to fish only on 53 days and in 2021 only 52 fishing days were made available.

Kalappurackal added that fishermen would go to the sea from Sunday night if the Navy, Coast Guard, and the state fisheries department wouldn't intervene.

He also said that during the initial days after the trawling ban, fishermen are hopeful of a good catch and that rains would have brought nutrients to the sea attracting a large volume of fish.

"Another major problem encountered by the fishermen in the state is the presence of fibre boats of Tamil Nadu on the Kerala coast. Many of these boats were present in the water during the trawler ban period," Kalappurackal asserted.

Antony Joseph, a fisherman from Vypeen told IANS that he and his team of seven fishermen have made all preparations and were expecting a good catch from Sunday late night onwards but the warning from the IMD has dampened their spirits. "We don't know how we will make up the 52-day ban period if we are not allowed to venture into the sea at least from Sunday night onwards."
Two Indians engaged in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa, which is known in history books as the 'dirty war', were to leave behind their imprint on their mother country's history.

Their paths may not have crossed in the course of the war, which was being covered, incidentally, by a reporter for the 'Morning Post' named Winston Churchill, who was to become very important for India later, but when the two Indians met finally in 1921, they gave birth to the Tricolour, which is being celebrated in a massive way by the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign this Independence Day.

One of the Indians was Sergeant Major Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, leader of the Natal Indian Ambulance Corps, who hoped, mistakenly, to gain British sympathy for Indians living in South Africa, because of the stellar work done by his band of stretcher bearers. It got him the Kaiser-i-Hind medal -- and little else.

The other was young Pingali Venkayya, a British Indian Army soldier despatched to South Africa to fight in the war. It was in South Africa that the young man was struck by the sense of nationhood the Union Jack inspired among British soldiers. He may have been young, but he recognised the ceremonial importance and binding power of a national flag.

The morning and evening flag rituals of the British Indian Army stayed in his mind and upon his return to India, he dedicated many years to designing a flag that represented the country's ethos and national aspirations.

The credit for unfurling the first Indian national flag in Stuttgart, Germany, on August 22, 1907, goes to Bhikaiji Cama, a globe-trotting nationalist from Bombay, but it was Venkayya's design that inspired the Congress flag during the freedom struggle, and thereafter, the Tricolour.

Venkayya was born on August 2,1876, at Bhatlapenumarru, close to present-day Machilipatnam town in Andhra Pradesh. He was a farmer, a geologist, a lecturer at the Andhra National College in Machilipatnam, and fluent in Japanese -- so fluent that he first attracted attention when he was able to deliver a full-length lecture in that language at a school in Bapatla, a town in Andhra Pradesh, in 1913. He became instantly famous as 'Japan Venkayya'.

He was also known as Patti Venkayya because of his research into the Cambodia Cotton. Patti means 'cotton', which was very important for Machilipatnam, a former port city that became famous for its Kalamkari handloom weaves.

Despite these diversions, Venkayya did not lose sight of his ambition to design a national flag for India. In 1916, he published a booklet titled 'A National Flag for India'. It not only surveyed the flags of other nations, but also offered 30-odd designs of what could develop into the Indian flag.

That was all very good, but he had to catch the attention of someone prominent and sell his design for a national flag. He decided to catch up with Gandhi, about whom he evidently knew from his days in South Africa, but he could not, although he tried to catch his eye in the Congress sessions held between 1918 and 1921.

Finally, the big opportunity came at an extraordinary session of the All India Congress Committee on March 31 and April 1, 1921, in Bezawada (today's Vijayawada, the second biggest city of Andhra Pradesh), where the Congress was meeting to accept the overarching leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

On March 31, Gandhi spared some time for Venkayya, who presented his version of the national flag to the Mahatma -- it consisted of two stripes (green and red) and the Gandhian charkha at the centre (from left to right). On Gandhi's suggestion, Venkayya added a white stripe on top, and this was the original Tricolour.

The design obviously struck a chord with Gandhi because he called Venkayya for another meeting the next day, but his preoccupation with the Congress Working Committee kept him away. He acknowledged this meeting in an editorial in his newspaper, 'Young India', where he explained that the red band symbolised the Hindus and the green, the Muslims.

It was very different from the flag unfurled by Bhikaiji Cama in Stuttgart, which was green (representing Muslims, oddly with a row of lotuses running across the band), yellow (for the Buddhists, with Vande Mataram inscribed in Devanagari script) and red (for the Hindus, with a crescent-shaped moon and the sun on two corners of this band).

It must have been the simplicity of Venkayya's design and the primacy it gave to the charkha, the symbol of the spirit of Swaraj, that appealed to Gandhi, who spoke at the Bezawada session in favour of the idea of having a national flag ready.

Venkayya's flag was used informally at all Congress meetings since 1921, but it was not until its 1931 session that the Congress adopted the Tricolour with the colour scheme we have grown up with -- saffron, white and green -- and the charkha at the centre.

It became the standard of the freedom movement that the Mahatma's non-violent soldiers carried with pride and hoisted on their home and shops, braving police lathis and imprisonment.

Venkayya died in penury and oblivion in 1963, only to be retrieved from the footnotes of history much later. A postage stamp in his honour was released in 2009; the Vijayawada station of the All India Radio was named after him in 2014. And last year, his name was proposed for the Bharat Ratna by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

In his lifetime, Venkayya never sought state honours or any compensation for his contribution to designing an essential part of our national identity.

His greatest reward was the fruition of the seed of an idea that had been planted in his formative mind during the Second Boer War.
Madrid, July 31 : FC Barcelona and Real Club Celta de Vigo have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of Oscar Mingueza, the Catalan said in statement on Sunday.

The 23-year-old, who can play as either a right back or in central defense, will sign a four-year contract with Celta after making 66 first team appearances for Barca.

Although Barca have not given details of the agreement, it is thought Celta will pay around three million euros for Mingueza, with Barca reserving the right to a percentage of the profits from any future sale and a buyback option.

Mingueza was promoted from the Barca B-team under Ronald Koeman and performed solidly, but the arrival of Xavi Hernandez midway through last season saw him lose protagonism and Xavi didn't include him in the squad for their pre-season tour of the United States.

The arrival of Jules Kounde from Sevilla and Sergi Roberto's recovery from a long-term injury has further complicated Mingueza's place at Barca, convincing him to make the move.
Srinagar, July 31 : The Army on Sunday in a military ceremony paid homage to elite assault dog Axel who lost his life after being hit by the bullets of the terrorist during a gunfight between army and a terrorist at Wanigam Bala in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Saturday.

"The ceremony was held at HQ 10 Sect RR Hyderbaig, Pattan and was attended by Maj. Gen. S.S. Slaria, GOC Kilo Force, Officers and ranks of 10 sect RR and reps of JKP," army said.

"Wreaths were laid by the KILO force commander, Cdr 10 sect RR, CO 29 RR and reps of JKP." In addition the Officer Commanding, 26 Army Dog Unit and Axel's handler also paid last respects to the fallen canine.

On Saturday, the army had launched an anti-terror operation in Baramulla.

Axel was sent inside a house to monitor the movement of terrorist. The dog was killed in terrorist firing. During the encounter one terrorist was killed and three security forces personnel were injured.
New Delhi, July 31 : A Dubai-bound passenger was held with foreign currency worth Rs 60 lakh at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday, the CISF said.

A CISF official said that around 11.30 a.m. surveillance and intelligence staff noticed suspicious activities of a passenger, later identified as Paramjeet Singh, bound for Dubai in the check-in area.

On suspicion, he was diverted to random checking point for thorough checking of his luggage, where the x-ray scan revealed some currency concealed in the side layer of his hand bag. Senior CISF and Customs officials were subsequently.

Thereafter, the passenger was allowed to complete the check-in formalities but kept under close watch through physical and electronic measures. After clearing the check-in process and Immigration formalities, the passenger was intercepted by CISF surveillance and intelligence staff.

"On thorough checking of his bag, in the presence of custom officials, foreign currency (2,62,500 Saudi Riyal and 5,000 USD) worth Rs 60 Lakh were found concealed in the "side false layer of his hand bag" to avoid detection. On enquiry, he could not produce valid documents for carry such an amount of foreign currency," said the official.

Singh, and the foreign currency, were handed over to Custom officials for further action.
New Delhi, July 31 : Taking a dig at the arrest of three Jharkhand Congress MLAs with cash, the BJP on Sunday asked can the lawmakers be honest when party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are "accused on bail".

BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi remarked "will they (arrested Congress MLAs) not follow their masters and loot the nation".

"Three Jharkhand Congress MLAs were arrested with huge cash in their vehicles. When Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are 'accused on bail', can its MLAs be honest? Will they not follow the footsteps of their master and loot the nation?" Ravi tweeted.

On Saturday evening, three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand -- Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Vixal Kongadi -- were caught with bags of notes at Rani Haat in Howrah district of West Bengal.

When the notes were counted, the total amount was found to be Rs 48 lakh. These three MLAs were travelling in an SUV along with two other individuals.

On the basis of intelligence inputs, the West Bengal police caught them during checking. This SUV had the board of Jamtara MLA of Jharkhand.

It is reported that the three MLAs who were taken into police custody could not give clear information about the cash found from the vehicle.

The Congress on Sunday suspended those three Jharkhand MLAs.
Guwahati, July 31 : In a bid to support the children who lost their parents during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Assam government provided financial assistance to eight children under its Sishu Seva scheme.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma provided the assistance to the orphans at a function on Sunday. The beneficiaries include Manjeet Baro, Taslima Khatun, Raju Chouhan, Annas Ali, Arjun Pegu, Shiba Pegu, Shivani Pegu, and Priyanka Kalita.

Financial assistance was also provided to the orphan children who lost their parents in a horrific murder case that happened in September 2021 in Boko area of Kamrup district. Moinod D. Sangma and Salje R. Marak lost their lives when miscreants attacked them with sharp weapons on the night of September 1, 2021. They had two children.

Under the assistance given, the children will be provided with a monthly income scheme (MIS) of Rs 3,500 per month, as the interest accrued on a Fixed Deposit of Rs. 7.67 lakh deposited in their respective names. The MIS will continue till they attain the age of 24 years when the principal amount will be deposited into their savings accounts.

"The state government has taken the responsibilities of those orphaned children till they attain a sufficient age to take care of themselves," the Chief Minister said.
Patna, July 31 : The BJP will contest 2024 Lok Sabha election and 2025 Assembly elections with its present alliance partners in Bihar, party General Secretary Arun Singh said on Sunday.

"BJP respects its alliance partners. Hence, it will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election with the same alliance in Bihar. Even, the 2025 Vidhan Sabha election will be also contested in similar fashion," Singh said during the interaction with media persons after the end of two-day Joint National Executive Meeting (JNEM) of the party here.

The BJP announced the election campaign for 2024 Lok Sabha from the soil of Bihar with the motive to make Narendra Modi Prime Minister for the third time.

"During the inaugural session of JNEM, national President J.P. Nadda asked BJP leaders to reach at every booth of the state and add people of every caste and community," Singh said.

During the Prawas programme in 200 Assembly constituencies of Bihar, party leaders will seek to make common people aware about the work done by the seven wings of BJP frontal organisations in the country, he said.

"This was an important development which was discussed during the two day meeting. Besides, we also discussed about how we respect Dalit, marginalised, and tribal communities in the past and will do in future. The BJP workers also took the oath to host tricolour flags at every house and also respect the freedom fighters of the country under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav programme," Singh said.

"We have also decided to publicly listen to Man Ki Baat of PM Narendra Modi at every booth and the party leaders will execute it," he added.
New Delhi, July 31 : The All India Kisan Congress Chairman Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Sunday expressed serious concern at the plight of farmers in the country and demanded Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee for farmers.

To press this demand, Khaira announced to undertake a country-wide tour soon to meet farmers in different states to understand their problems.

He demanded that the Centre must guarantee MSP for all crops and stop favouring the corporate sector at the cost of farmers and farm workers.

The Central government had already constituted a committee that will work to make the MSP more effective and transparent.

Apart from MSP, the committee will also promote a zero budget-based farming and changing crop patterns, keeping in mind the changing needs of the country.

Zero budget natural farming means raising crops without using any fertiliser and pesticide or any other external materials. The word 'zero budget' refers to zero cost of production of all crops.

The committee, which will be headed by former Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal, will consist of representatives from the Centre and state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists and economists.

Apart from the Congress, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconstitute the committee on MSP for crops by giving due representation to his state.

In a letter marked to the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Mann said, "It is ironical that the state which has most successfully implemented MSP since the initiation of this scheme has been kept out the committee."
Madam,

What a mockery to Vision 2022!

Can someone tell us what is happening with the eyesore Eswatini Association of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (ESASCCO) building just above the beautiful New Mall in Mbabane. Rumour has it that in addition to the unfinished building being an eyesore, it has turned to a dagga smoking and sex den for pupils from schools around Mbabane.

Rumour also has it that a handful of pupils, including girls from one of the top schools in the capital city were recently nabbed by police smoking weed during school hours in the comfort or discomfort of the building. It is alleged that one of the girls who was spooked by the possibility of going to jail for dagga possession admitted to lesser misdemeanor of honouring sexual advances from one of the boys and the ugly building was suitable for the rendezvous.

Financed

When the construction of the building started, it was financed by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA). It was reported that members of SASCCO were supposed to fork out around E25 million for the construction while DBSA was going to pay the balance for the completion of the building. Apparently this original arrangement failed. Some years ago it was reported that Tibiyo, which has just declared a E288 million profit had shown interest in buying the unfinished building which, according to evaluators would cost around E40 million to E50 million at the time and a committee was apparently set up to look into the acquisition of the building.

Converted

At one point it was also reported that the building was to be converted into a hotel. Can someone enlighten us what is the position now? As a resident of Mbabane, a ratepayer and taxpayer I wonder why we have to endure this ugly sight when entities like Tibiyo are more than capable of converting the building into a world class structure. Isnt there a section in the municipal regulations that stipulates limits on timeframes for construction of buildings in town.
Birmingham, July 31 : While everyone in the country was focused on weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga claiming the gold medal in Men's 67kg division despite being injured, the Women's Fours team in lawn bowls stormed into the semifinal, setting themselves up for a historic tilt at a medal at the Commonwealth Games Victoria Park in Warwick near here on Sunday.

There was more success for India in the little-known sport as the men's pairs as Sunil Bahadur and Deepak Kumar reached the quarterfinals before bowing out to a strong Northern Ireland team in a late match.

But the day belonged to the Women's Fours as they reached the semifinals.

The women's lawn bowls team of Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey set themselves for a historic tilt at a medal when it defeated Norfolk Island 17-9 in the Women's Four quarterfinals and set up a semifinal clash against a strong New Zealand side, who edged out Botswana 17-13 in another quarterfinal.

If they beat New Zealand on Monday, the team will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Fiji and South Africa or face the loser of the match in the bronze medal playoff.

It was Super Sunday for the Indian lawn ball players as Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar got the better of England's Jamie Walker and Sam Tolchard 18-15 in a section C encounter, which confirmed their quarterfinal spot in the men's pairs event.

The Indians surged ahead from the second end and did not allow the English pair a chance to come back. The Indians qualified for the knockout stage ahead of Malaysia thanks to their better performance against England.

"It was a super game, and we played our own game from our heart. From the beginning when we got the lead, we got the confidence that we can match this (team)," said team lead Sunil Bahadur after the win against England.

Talking about achieving qualification to the knockout stage instead of Malaysia, he said, "Malaysia was not able to settle (in their game against the Cook Islands), but once we were in the lead (against England), we were calculating the difference of the scores, and we are very happy and excited being in the quarterfinals." The Indian pair will now take on Northern Ireland in the quarterfinals and Sunil Bahadur said they want to make further history in Commonwealth Games by winning a medal.

"We want to perform and prove that we deserve it (the quarterfinal place). Our target is to win a medal. We want to make history in the Commonwealth Games and we have an opportunity to stand on the podium," he said.

Latest updates on Commonwealth Games 2022
Chandigarh/Gurugram, Aug 1 : Four legislators in Haryana received death threat and extortion calls from multiple phone numbers tracing to the countries in the Middle East from June 24 to 28, the police said.

First Information Reports (FIRs) were lodged against the threats and had been assigned to the Haryana Special Task Force (STF) by Director General of Police (DGP), P.K. Agrawal to investigate the matter.

Later, in a joint operation conducted by the Haryana STF, central agencies, Mumbai Police Crime Branch and the Bihar STF, six criminals were arrested for their alleged involvement in threatening and making extortion calls to four Haryana MLAs, the Haryana STF officials said on Sunday.

The accused were arrested from Mumbai and Muzaffarpur in Bihar, they added.

The technical analysis of these mobile phones has confirmed that these numbers are registered in the Middle Eastern countries and were being operated from Pakistan, said an official statement.

Some former Punjab legislators had also received similar threats from these mobile numbers.

Inspector General of Police (Haryana STF), Satish Balan had formed a Special Investigation Team under the leadership of Superintendent of Police (Haryana STF), Sumit Kumar to investigate these cases.

The two-week long operation was personally monitored and supervised by Haryana DGP Agrawal.

In connection with the case, the DGP was aided by central agencies. The Haryana STF conducted a technical analysis of these mobile numbers and IP addresses.

This involved five separate teams working on this technical analysis.

To track the account numbers, two parallel teams conducted raids across Mumbai and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

On July 19, Congress MP Deepender Hooda targeted the Haryana government and demanded a white paper on the state's law and order situation.

"Unfortunate that five Haryana MLAs received life threats in past 10 days and the government was neither able to find out culprits nor provide a safe environment for the MLAs. The mining mafia is showing its ugly face. The Chief Minister should take up responsibility and issue a white paper on the state's law and order," Hooda said.

Those arrested have been identified as Dulesh Alam, a resident of Bettiah district, Bihar, and Badre Alam hailing from Basti district, Uttar Pradesh, were arrested from Mumbai. They were found possessing around 20 passbook/cheque books, 18 ATMs, 14 fake SIM cards, one diary and five mobile phones.

Similarly, from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, the Haryana STF arrested four more accused identified as Amit Yadav aka Radheshyam Yadav of Gopalganj district, Bihar; Saddiq Anwar of Motihari district, Bihar; Sanoj Kumar of Muzaffarpur district, Bihar; and Kash Alam of Bettiah district, Bihar.

The STF recovered two passbook/cheque books, two diaries, one register, 42 SIM cards, 19 mobile phones and 37 ATMs from the four accused.

In total 55 ATMs, 24 mobile phones, 56 SIM cards, 22 passbook/cheque books, cash worth Rs 3,97,000, one TATA Punch car, three diaries and one register have been found in the possession of these accused.

While disclosing their modus operandi, IGP (Haryana STF), Satish Balan, said, "These culprits often enticed poor or general public by offering them Rs 15,000-20,000 and convinced them to open bank accounts and would then keep all the documents (passbook/cheque book/ATM card/ATM pin) with themselves and would buy fake SIM cards to operate these accounts." Balan added that during the raids, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, Bihar STF and Bihar Police offered complete support to Haryana STF.

"During interrogation, the Haryana STF found that there were 10 Pakistani residents through whom the threats and extortion were routed," he said, adding that "these accused do not belong to any criminal gang or terrorist organisation".

"This is a gang of trained criminals who are involved in professional fraud, and money laundering and have their members across Pakistan, the Middle East and India. People sitting across these other countries would entice victims by naming "Kaun Banega Crorepati" or lotteries or by extortion calls and would make them transfer money to the account numbers given by Dulesh or Amit. The duo then either withdraw this money through ATMs or would transfer this amount to the Indian accounts of their Pakistan-based gang members," Haryana STF IGP said.

A different case in this regard was registered at different police stations in Haryana.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 1 : One person died and another got injured, both hailing from Tamil Nadu, after being swept away in a flash flood at a poular tourist attraction -- Kumbhavurutty Falls located in Kollam district of Kerala -- due to heavy rainfall in the surrounding forest area.

This incident has occurred after the Indian Meteorological Department warned of heavy rains in several districts of Kerala since July 31.

The deceased has been identified as Kumaran from Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

The incident took place at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Another person, Kishore from Erode in Tamil Nadu is critically injured in the same incident and has been admitted to a local hospital.

The Kerala Forest Department is trying to rescue five tourists, who are struck on the other side of the waterfall.

The Forest officials said that a landslip in the deep forests could be the reason for the sudden gushing of waters into the waterfall.

Heavy rains continue to lash several parts of the interior areas of Kerala, especially in southern districts of the state.

In Vithura, Thiruvananthapuram, heavy rains have led to an increase in water levels at the Meenmutti waterfalls.

Several tourists are feared trapped and the Forest, Fire officials, police and the disaster response team have started rescue operations.

Heavy rains are expected in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Idukki, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts and an yellow alert has been issued.
Phnom Penh, Aug 1 : World Health Organisation representative to Cambodia, Li Ailan has urged people to get their booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines as the number of daily cases has seen an uptick.

Thirty-six new cases were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on Sunday, lifting the national case tally to 136,789, with 133,517 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, adding that no new deaths have been reported since April.

"We are seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases recently in Cambodia," Li wrote on social media.

"Your health is precious. Get vaccinated with all doses recommended to you." She said that Covid-19 vaccination remains one of the most effective tools to prevent severe diseases, protect the healthcare system and ensure business recovery, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Together, we protect the healthcare system and ensure a sustainable and successful reopening in Cambodia," she added.

Propelled by its high vaccination rates, the Southeast Asian nation has resumed all socio-economic activities and reopened its borders to travellers without quarantine since November 2021.

According to the Health Ministry, 94.5 per cent of Cambodia's 16 million population have so far received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, 90 per cent have taken two basic shots, 61 per cent have received a third dose, 22 per cent have obtained a fourth dose, and three per cent have received a fifth dose.

China's Sinovac and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines have been widely used in the kingdom's immunisation programme.

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Tehran, Aug 1 : Iran has submitted proposed ideas in "both substance and form" to the other sides of the Vienna talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, to pave the way for the "swift conclusion" of the talks, Iran's top negotiator said.

Ali Bagheri Kani, also Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, said on Sunday through Twitter that Tehran is ready to conclude the negotiations in a short period provided that the other sides would also be prepared to do the same.

Bagheri Kani added that the nuclear talks, which started in the Austrian capital in April 2021, were aimed at "fixing the damaging complicated situation caused by the US unilateral and unlawful withdrawal" from the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018.

He gave the assurance that Iran is working closely with its JCPOA partners, in particular the European Union Foreign Policy Chief and Coordinator of the JCPOA Joint Commission Josep Borrell, to give the US another chance to prove its "good faith" and "act responsibly".

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear programme in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact, Xinhua news agency reported.

The talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.

After a three-month pause, the talks resumed in late June in Qatar's capital Doha but failed to settle the differences.
The film is about Rocky, one of the most famous rock stars in the world, and Audrey, a transcriptionist for the American Red Cross. When their paths cross again, it can only lead to...inspiration.

The musical adventure comedy will feature an original rock soundtrack and will be sold for distribution to Disney.

Dominic Harrison is represented by CAA, UTA, and Interscope Records.
"Swing State," the new Nardis CD and first all-instrumental album by Ben Sidran. The three of us [bassist Billy Peterson and drummer Leo Sidran] share a special musical feel.

Sixty years into a wildly accomplished career that counts music as only the foremost of many aspects, Ben Sidran takes yet another new direction with the September 16 release of "Swing State" (Bonsai/Nardis). Long known for his lively, bluesy singing style (in the vein of his mentor Mose Allison), the 78-year-old finally gives his vocal cords a rest with an all-instrumental jazz album with Leo Sidran, his son, on drums and Billy Peterson, a co-conspirator of nearly five decades, on bass.

If a strictly instrumental album seems to have been a long time coming, Sidran can honestly say that hes been busy with many, many other things. Aside from singing and playing piano, the hats hes worn across the years include academic, rock star, session player, songwriter, record producer, film composer, author, and broadcaster. Let nobody accuse him of being afraid of trying something new.

Even so, Sidran acknowledges that he got nervous about putting out a piano record when he considered the competition. With all the brilliant piano players around, he says, I never wanted to enter that fray.

The finished product, however, is not a leap into some great unknown. Anyone who knows the boisterous personality, blues roots, and storytellers polish of Sidrans singing voice will immediately recognize it in his piano voice, too. He need not open his mouth to imbue either the classic swinger Stompin at the Savoy or the ballad Laura with his quirky perspective and wry humor. Likewise, his original Swing State makes as powerful a rhythmic and melodic statement as Sidrans vocals ever didwithout his uttering a syllable.

Nor does the lack of vocal work throw off his accompanists, both of whom are more than acquainted with Sidrans sound and persona. The three of us share a special musical feel, the pianist says. Indeed, Leo Sidran (another multifaceted artist of equal accomplishment to his father) has played drums with Ben practically since he was old enough to reach the kitand almost as long with Peterson, whos worked with the elder Sidran since before the younger was born.

All told, these elements make "Swing State" less a bold new venture than another very natural extension of Sidrans considerable artistic range. The wait for it only increases the welcome.

Ben Sidran was born August 12, 1943, in Chicago. He grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, but learned jazz through the records that his advertising executive father brought him from work in the Second City. His first love was boogie-woogie, which he taught himself to play on pianobut when he received a Horace Silver album for his bar mitzvah, he knew that that was the direction for him.

Attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sidran befriended future icons of the San Francisco scene Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, joining them in a blues band called the Ardells. They separated when Sidran traveled to England to earn his masters and doctorate degrees but reunited in 1968 to record what would become the first album by the Steve Miller Band. Sidran would soon enjoy a brief stint as a member, and for several years remain an auxiliary contributor to the band, writing their early hit Space Cowboy.

Meanwhile, Sidran was working on his dissertation (which became the first of his five books); working on sessions with the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Peter Frampton; and making records of his own, beginning with 1971s Feel Your Groove. He also became a renowned and highly successful producer, collaborating with artists ranging from the Steve Miller Band and Van Morrison to Diana Ross and Mose Allison in addition to producing his own albums. He even became a broadcaster, hosting two award-winning National Public Radio series ("Jazz Alive" and "Sidran on Record") and the VH1 television program "New Visions", which won a Cable Ace Award.

Making music remained Sidrans primary passion, however, and his discography has become extensive. "Swing State" is his 40th release under his own name. He and his trio will celebrate its release with engagements at Crooners, Minneapolis, 8/19-20; Cafe Coda, Madison, WI, 8/23; Neranenah, Atlanta, 8/25; and the Green Mill in Chicago, 8/26-27.
Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Shoe Emporium Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The Sacramento employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that Shoe Emporium Inc. violated the California Labor Code. The Shoe Emporium Inc., class action lawsuit, Case No. 34-2022-00322906, is currently pending in the Sacramento County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

The complaint alleges Shoe Emporium Inc. failed to reimburse employees for required business expenses. California Labor Code  2802 expressly states that "an employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties..." During employment, Plaintiff and other California Class Members were allegedly required to use their personal cellular phones and incurred business expenses as a result.

Additionally, the complaint alleges Shoe Emporium failed to fully relieve Plaintiff and other California Class Members for their legally required thirty (30) minute meal breaks. Employees were also allegedly required, from time to time, to work in excess of four (4) hours without being provided the legally required ten (10) minute rest periods. The California Supreme Court defines off-duty rest periods as time during which an employee is relieved from all work related duties and free from employer control.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Shoe Emporium Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/31/2022



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[ Spoilers: This report contains spoilers on Emily and Kobe's relationship and if the couple got married or split up -- and if they are still together now].

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So did Kobe and Emily break up or get married, and is the couple still together now?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

's ninth season has shown Emily Bieberly and Kobe Blaise disagreeing on gender roles and where they should settle down with two kids, so did Emily and Kobe go through with getting married or did they split up? What do spoilers reveal about Kobe and Emily's relationship now?Kobe from Cameroon, Africa and Emily from Salina, Kansas, met in Xi'an, China during a fun night out, which ended with the couple conceiving a baby.Emily gave birth to her first child, a boy named Koban, in July 2019 while she was still living in China, and then she had to return to the U.S. alone.Once the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, Kobe's K-1 visa was postponed two years, and so he had to miss the first two years of his beloved son's life.However 's ninth season showed Kobe moving to the United States and finally reuniting with his family.Emily knew Kobe and Koban would develop a connection and good relationship in time, but she worried about co-parenting with him since she had never seen him act like a father or be hands-on with a baby before.And Kobe wasn't onboard with some of Emily's parenting choices. He didn't approve of her breastfeeding out in the open and also criticized how Emily was still breastfeeding her son nearly two years into his life.But that was only the beginning of the couple's problems.Kobe got angry when Emily forced him to sleep in another bedroom as to not disrupt Koban's sleeping schedule, and Emily didn't appreciate her fiance trying to tell her what to do."Emily feels she already has a plan for everything and I'm just going to fill the space, but I'm not that kind of a person. I set my own rules and I live by those rules as a man," Kobe explained in a confessional.Kobe also didn't take well to farm life and Emily bossing him around.When Kobe helped Emily's parents shovel horse manure, he vented to the cameras, "I miss life back home. And sometimes, part of me feels like Emily doesn't care about the sacrifices I made by leaving my home in Africa to be here, and it's really weighing down on me."Kobe even swore at Emily during a fight, which she insisted she'd never put up with again.Emily found the bickering "exhausting" and worried her chemistry with Kobe wasn't going to be enough to make their relationship work long-term. While Emily called Kobe rude, he thought she was too controlling.In addition, Emily wanted a big wedding and a sizable diamond ring to go with it. Kobe, however, only had $4,000 in savings, and he was still trying to convince Emily's parents that he could take care of her and Koban."I don't feel like I'm high maintenance. I just like what I like and I don't want anything less than that," Emily said in a confessional.In attempt to make Emily happy, Kobe bought Emily a nice ring and proposed during a romantic dinner out at a restaurant."Will you marry me?" Kobe asked."It's so pretty!" Emily gushed. "Of course [I will marry you]! I am so happy! I want to go home and f-ck, I love it!"Once the pair returned home, Emily confessed to Kobe how she had purchased an engagement ring for herself and intended to return it. Kobe refused to look at the ring and felt like Emily never had faith in him to do things right.Kobe began developing trust issues as a result, thinking Emily didn't take his words seriously or was trying to undermine him. Kobe said he felt hurt and "so insulted."With 23 days left to wed on the K-1 visa, Emily revealed to Kobe that her period was late and so they should take an at-home pregnancy test. Emily hadn't been taking birth control, and the pair had been practicing the pull-out method.Emily and Kobe apparently had unprotected sex one day, but she didn't want to be pregnant again. Emily just thought it was bad timing, especially because she had promised her parents she wouldn't get pregnant again before getting married and settling down.When Emily and Kobe left the convenient store bathroom, Kobe said, "Oh my goodness," and Emily said, "Oh my God."Emily had taken two pregnancy tests, and they both came back with a positive result.Emily and Kobe were therefore expecting another baby together, and the pair agreed this wasn't the right time to bring another baby into the world.Emily told Kobe that they shouldn't share the news with her parents until after the wedding, when her belly would be showing.Kobe didn't seem happy about the pregnancy, and Emily was disappointed her husband wasn't more excited.Kobe's friend Temperature then traveled from Ohio to see Kobe. The men were like brothers.Kobe told Temperature that Emily was wife material but had a "nasty attitude" and always tried to control things.Temperature thought it was "madness" that a woman was trying to run his household, and then Kobe told Temperate about the pregnancy, even though Emily had asked him not to tell anybody about the baby.Temperature let it be known that the man should be the boss in any relationship, and then Kobe announced how the man should always be on top -- even though the woman also has a role to play.Temperature suggested the couple should move to Columbus because there were many Cameroonians living there, but Emily immediately shot down the idea and said "no."Emily then got upset when she discovered Kobe had told Temperature about his baby on the way. She couldn't even imagine marrying Kobe in light of the fact he had betrayed her trust.With only two days left to wed, Emily was worried Kobe wasn't happy in Kansas and so that's something they needed to talk about.Suddenly, Emily saw on the screen of Kobe's iPad that there were one-bedroom apartments available in Ohio. She immediately got angry and flustered, and she knew it wouldn't make sense for them to live with one bedroom considering they were going to have two kids together.Emily asked why he was searching for that, and Kobe explained Temperature had sent him a link and he was just innocently checking it out.Emily said she wouldn't be comfortable moving away from her family since they'd be having another baby, and Emily put her foot down and said they weren't going to move to Ohio.Emily believed Temperature wanted Kobe to move there -- without his family -- but Kobe insisted to Emily that he'd never leave her behind and she was making "a big deal out of nothing."Kobe, however, said he was wondering if he'd be able to better provide for his family in Ohio."I feel like I am sacrificing a lot because I have to let go of every decision and everything that I want... for Emily. It's really hard for me. This relationship will never work for me if I'm the only one making compromises," Kobe told the cameras.Emily really wanted to believe that Kobe was committed to her and their family, but she was afraid of how he viewed gender roles.She said these weren't the type of conversations they should be having two days before getting married.Kobe posted a photo of Emily and their son Koban in late April, and he captioned it with three red hearts and wrote, "My [heart] beats."Emily appeared to be wearing a wedding ring in the photo, suggesting the pair got married once Kobe moved to the United States.In the comments, the pair also wrote "love you" to each other.In early May, Kobe uploaded a selfie with Emily and captioned it, "Somewhere safe."A fan asked Kobe if he and Emily were still together, and he wrote, "We were meant for each other forever."A few days later, Kobe gushed about Emily in a touching Instagram post for Mother's Day."Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful moms out there who've been through a lot just to put a smile on a child's face. I wish my mom was still Alive so I could tell her how much I love her but still I got this wonderful woman who has made my life more meaningful," Kobe gushed."Babe, you are an example of what a good mom is all about, I love you and I really appreciate all you've been through in raising Koban in my absence. Happy Mother's Day once again."Emily replied to the post, "I love you," along with a red heart. "Thanks, baby."And then Kobe responded to her comment, "Love you."However, by June, Kobe sparked breakup speculation by posting cryptic TikTok videos on Instagram about people needing to know their "worth" and "value.""Know your worth and never feel bad to break a relationship or leave a place where you're not appreciated," Kobe captioned a video of himself telling fans to never let anybody make you feel less than."Some people are in your life for a reason while others are there for a season and most of the times those seasonal people in your life will make you feel like you can't survive without them. Remember God does not only bless people financially, taking someone out of your can also be a blessing. We move."And on June 13, Kobe wrote on Instagram about how people need to love themselves and give themselves some credit when credit is due."Forget about our worries. It's another opportunity to reshape your life. It's a blessing... Do you know that you are important? Do you know that your dreams count? Your vision matters. Most of the time, we fail to acknowledge ourselves... You are important. Always start with yourself," Kobe said in a video.However, Emily gushed about Kobe as a father on June 19."Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Especially to these two men who are true examples of what a father should be... loving, caring, supportive, encouraging and overall good humans. We are all so incredibly blessed to have you," she captioned a video of clips featuring Kobe as well as her own father.According to Instagrammer, @FraudedMedia, Emily's second pregnancy resulted in her giving birth to a baby girl.Emily, Kobe, and their infant daughter were spotted at the Tell-All taping in New York City in June 2022.The @Fraudedmedia Instagram account posted a video at the time claiming Emily did not "hit it and quit it" with Kobe."Emily in fact got pregnant, again," the Instagram account wrote. "They had a baby girl. She was at the Tell All. She could be about 3-4 months [old]."The account also obtained photos from the Tell-All taping in New York City.An anonymous source taken or obtained photos showing Emily and Kobe with a little girl, as they appeared to walk on a New York City sidewalk with Kara Bass and Guillermo Rojer.Emily then posted a video of Koban and many sonogram images of Baby No. 2 on July 11 and wrote, "Secret's out! Our family is growing and we are all so excited."In late July, Emily posted a video of Kobe dancing, followed by footage of her son shaking his hips."Moves like daddy," Emily captioned the video.Emily also shares some of Kobe's motivational speeches and advice on her Instagram Stories, showing that they support each other.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Madam,

Once again, MPs have been caught sleeping on the job. How can the Decentralisation Bill, which was first initiated during the 8th Parliament, take over decade to see the light of day? Why are the members of the 11th Parliament pussyfooting on the second highest piece of legislation after the Constitution of 2005.

Just to put you up to speed Madam Editor; decentralisation is entrenched in the countrys Constitution as the basis of the Tinkhundla-based System of Government, whose primary objective is to bring government closer to the people so that the people at sub-national or local community level progressively take control of their own affairs and govern themselves. It is a global agenda which has been effectively used as a political power sharing people empowerment tool to enhance the participation of all the people in a country in both political and socio-economic development processes and activities.

This is the Bill which is supposed to promote transparency and increase public accountability; voice and participation in the development of public policies and monitoring of the quality of public services, the overall goal being to attain sustainable local governance and development, high levels of efficiency, high quality of life as well as equity and effectiveness in the delivery of public services.

My main gripe madam Editor is on the overdue improvement in service delivery. The more financial resources become limited, the higher the need to adopt a decentralised approach to tackle these economic and societal challenges. Amid the rising cost of fuel prices and the recent hike in bus fares, emaSwati cannot afford to part with a hard earned E50 to go to Mbabane or Manzini just for basic services such as the issuing of birth, marriages and death certificates, national identity cards, immigration services, basic health services, stamps or signatures of the Commissioner of Oaths, revenue services and social welfare.

Why should gogo travel all the way from Maphalaleni to Mbabane for basic social services after irresponsible parents have dumped her grandchildren on her lap? Why should citizens go all the way to Manzini for passports? We are sick and tired of standing in long super spreader queues just to get identity documents only to be turned back to come back the next day, depleting the little hard-earned cash we have on unnecessary bus fares.

Why should gogo travel all the way from Dlangeni to Mbabane just to get a signature from the Commisioner of Oaths or a revenue stamp for her grandchildren to access free primary education.

As for the hypocritical concerns on budget implications of the implementation of the Decentralisation Bill, I says budget my foot! Whose money are MPs concerned about? Is it not the very same taxpayer who has been sold a dummy for a whole decade that is footing the bill for overdue service delivery? Some have been advocating for the use of tinkhundla as venues for the much anticipated national dialogue. What have they done to rebuild the tinkhundla centres which were torched and reduced to ugly ruins by faceless comrades who were incited by the incompetency of the very same Tinkhundla System of Governance?

It seems foreigners have overtaken emaSwati in this decentralisation concept. The Chinese have taken electricity into rural areas and the Asians have taken grocery shops and mobile money outlets closer to the people. We dont need enemies of tinkhundla in this our tinkhundlaelected Parliament. Push the Bill Mr Deputy Prime Minister. Crack the whip Mr Speaker!
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/31/2022



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[ Spoilers: This report contains spoilers about Jibri and Miona and if the couple has split up or are married and still together.]

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So did Miona and Jibri break up or get married, and is the couple still together now?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Jibri Bell and Miona have been shown planning their wedding against the wishes of Jibri's parents on Season 9, so did the couple actually get married or did they break up? And if Miona and Jibri wed, do spoilers reveal that they are still together now?Jibri, a 28-year-old band frontman from Rapid City, SD, was living in Los Angeles, CA, when he met Miona, a 23-year-old makeup artist from Nis, Serbia, while touring with his band called Black Serbs, who create "space punk music," in Serbia.Jibri said they got engaged in Thailand and then she planned to move to South Dakota on a K-1 visa. While Jibri thought Rapid City was "a hidden gem" and they could save money by living with his parents for awhile, Miona preferred moving to a big city like Los Angeles, CA."I definitely can't provide for the Kardashian lifestyle Miona is used to," Jibri lamented. "Historically, I haven't been smart with my money, and so that's something I'm really trying to work on for the next year."Jibri told the cameras that Los Angeles could maybe happen one day, but not any time soon. He planned to live in South Dakota for six to 12 months and possibly get married there.Miona then finally arrived in America, and Jibri said it felt amazing to be reunited with the love of his life, an aspiring makeup artist."America is usually always represented as a perfect life and chasing the American dream, so I definitely expect a better standard and way of living. And Jibri promised that we would move to [L.A.]. If that doesn't happen, then I would want to leave," Miona said in a confessional.When Jibri proceeded to give Miona a tour through Rapid City, she was disappointed by the scenery and noted, "There is nothing."Jibri and Miona hit more bumps in the road when they began living together under the roof of Jibri's parents' home.Miona and Jibri's best friend, who's more like a brother, didn't get along, and Jibri accused Miona of being "rude and inconsiderate," especially because his music depended on maintaining a strong relationship with David.David thought Miona was a distraction as well as Miona's main priority, which he didn't think would benefit Jibri's career and personal goals."I feel like I did give up the band for her. I don't know how to do both... I just don't want to get distracted and lost and give up on my dream. I got in a little over my head... It's just a lot, man," Jibri lamented to David after a recording session.Miona also wasn't comfortable living in Jibri's parents' house and following his mother Mahala's strict rules, such as dressing in a conservative manner."It makes me feel like a kid again, so honestly, she's pushing me to want to move out of here even more. I'm definitely going to tell that to Jibri after today," Miona noted.Mahala wasn't sure she could support Jibri marrying Miona within 90 days because she didn't know Miona well enough yet.Miona also wanted an expensive beach wedding when Jibri felt he really couldn't afford it.After Miona was shown trying on wedding dresses, Jibri confessed that if he had more time, he'd postpone the wedding -- but he knew he didn't have that luxury.With 39 days left to wed, Jibri opened up to Miona about how he was feeling. Jibri said he felt immense pressure and stress as well as "conflicting emotions," and Miona seemed ready and willing to listen.Miona believed Jibri's parents were trying to influence him and he needed to step away from them and "act like a man" if he wanted their relationship to succeed."If you're going to be stubborn and in your way, like, 'I want a wedding and I don't want to talk to your mom' and you don't care to have that relationship, that is a big f-cking red flag for me," Jibri vented.But Miona admitted she would leave Jibri if he wanted to delay their wedding. She said she'd never return to Serbia and continue dating Jibri long-distance. She thought Jibri was being very selfish and needed to grow up.Jibri was afraid Miona was going to end the relationship if her demands couldn't be met, and Miona was upset about Jibri feeling so "doubtful."Jibri's father said if Miona was willing to leave Jibri, then she didn't love him or was as committed as she had said, but Miona said Jibri refusing to marry her would essentially be a betrayal."It would be throwing everything away we did and fought for," Miona explained.Mahala called Jibri's romance "fragile" and didn't think her son's marriage was going to last. Mahala and her husband also determined they couldn't attend their son's wedding because it was planned so last minute.Mahala thought her son was being pressured to do something he didn't want to do.Jibri said he saw potential in Miona for them to create an amazing life together, but he wanted them to be co-stars in a movie rather than starring in their own respective movies.Jibri therefore confronted Miona about his concerns, and she agreed to find ways to be a little more independent in South Dakota.With only five weeks left on their K-1 visa, Miona suggested they could elope in California, but she said she was never going to come around to a "freezing" South Dakota wedding.Jibri and Miona discussed eloping and then planning a big wedding a later date so Jibri and Miona's families could both attend. An elopement would allow the couple to save their money for a big event later on, and Miona was interested in marrying at Joshua Tree National Park.Miona thought Mahala had been nice and accepting of her plans, but Mahala vented to her husband about the whole situation. Jibri's father thought it was "bullsh-t" and said there wasn't a single person who supported this "trainwreck" of a marriage."But I don't want Miona, or how we feel about Miona, to come between our relationship with Jibri. So let's be as supportive as we can right now," Mahala told her husband.Jibri's parents Brian and Mahala then sat down with the couple after a few months of living together. Brian brought up Jibri and Miona moving out by the end of the year, which was another whole month away, and so Jibri felt he was being kicked out.Jibri said the way his parents were acting was "bullsh-it" and they weren't being supportive or helping them out. He called the conversation a slap in his face.Miona felt bad for Jibri and said she felt horrible, but at the same time, she was ready to move forward with her future husband.Jibri and Miona were subsequently shown moving out of their parents' house and driving to Joshua Tree, where they planned to get married.Miona was happy to be on her own with Jibri, and she said, "We are finally starting to live like a normal couple should... We are finally feeling free and I'm definitely counting down the days until the wedding. It's exciting."Jibri was hoping his parents would pop up and surprise him at the wedding, but it didn't seem like his parents were planning anything.Jibri promised his parents that they'd be proud of him, but they believed he was acting too impulsively.Mahala said not being able to go to his son's wedding was a painful consequence of Jibri's decisions.Miona, who revealed on Facebook in December 2021 that she "moved to the USA almost 3 months ago," according to In Touch Weekly, is definitely still dating Jibri.Not only do the couple share the same last name on Instagram, indicating they've tied the knot and gotten married, but they also have a joint social media account full of pictures and videos of each other.In late July 2022, Jibri posted a video of himself giving Miona a pep talk and commending her on making money and working hard. He wrote in the caption, "Keep your foot on the gas! Don't stop chasing your dreams! Daily talks with my partner in crime.""I'm so proud of you," Jibri tells Miona in the video."I love you," she is heard saying while recording her man's speech."I love you too," Jibri replies.On June 28, Jibri and Miona posted two photos of themselves all dressed up, and Miona captioned the pictures, "On 26th of June we celebrated our dating anniversary! Jibri made a surprise for me."It was apparently their three-year anniversary.Jibri and Miona also traveled to Chicago, IL, and Phoenix, AZ, together in July, and Jibri called Miona his "twin flame" on July 3.In late June, Jibri celebrated Miona's 24th birthday by posting a sweet video of the couple and writing on Instagram, "Everybody go wish her a happy birthday. #love."Meanwhile, Miona received a birthday-cake surprise from Jibri and wrote on Instagram, "Love you baby."On June 5, Jibri uploaded selfies with Miona and told his followers how they were thinking of doing a tour through the United States. He asked for recommendations on which cities to visit first.Jibri called Miona his "everything" in May, and the pair love showing off their matching fashions and shoes.On May 22, Miona posted a photo of her straddling Jibri's waist on the beach and she captioned it, "I hope Jibri's mom approves." Jibri shared the post as well.Jibri has gushed on Instagram how "love conquers all" and he's "so grateful" for Miona, but he has also pointed out how "relationships require compromise."It appeared the couple was still living in South Dakota in May. Many of the couple's videos featured a prairie landscape in the background at the time, and Jibri also tagged his location as South Dakota in early May.According to Miona and Jibri's Instagram accounts, they got engaged in December 2019."She said YES!!!" Jibri captioned a photo of the couple posing at sunset in Thailand."For those of you who truly know me know that I'm usually not nervous or scared to do anything... but this had my palms sweating... I'm talking almost dropped the ring and put it on the wrong finger!"He added, "Thank you for inspiring me and speaking to my heart. Today marks a new chapter for both of us."Six months after the couple got engaged, Jibri referred to Miona as his "wife" when speaking with a Serbian news publication, Telegraf, in June 2020."It's always been my second home, a home away from home for me," Jibri said at the time of Serbia.He added, "My wife's Serbian, and my life's Serbian, and everything Serbian to me is right. Serbia is my second home and I want everyone to see and see how open and friendly it is here."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Author and animal rights advocate Katherine Schwarzenegger paid tribute to her father, film icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Instagram this weekend.

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"Happy birthday daddy!! We love you so much! You're the best and most fun opa and dad and we are all so lucky to have you in our lives! Happy happy!!" Katherine captioned a gallery of photos of her as a child with her father.

Her husband, actor Chris Pratt, posted his own message on the social media platform.

"Happy birthday to the man, the myth, and the legend. Love you @schwarzenegger!" Pratt wrote, alongside a photo of him and his father-in-law smoking cigars.

Arnold is known for his movie roles in The Terminator franchise, True Lies, Twins, Kindergarton Cop and The Expendables, as well as for serving as governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

He was married to broadcast journalist Maria Shriver 1986 to 2021. They share four adult children together, but are now divorced.

Arnold also has an adult son from an extramarital affair.
With the overwhelming change that college brings to your life, one aspect that can either make or break your experience is having a roommate. College roommates have the potential to be built-in best friends, but they can also be someone you never speak to again after move-out day.
As of July 15, the Department of Public Health (DPH) had confirmed 93 cases of Monkeypox in Georgia, a number more than double confirmed cases reported as of July 12, as the state is set to start the the rollout of vaccinations for the illness.
GFH Financial Group (GFH) said that its subsidiary Roebuck Asset Management and ICG Real Estate, of Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), have formed a joint venture (JV) to aggregate an urban logistics/last mile portfolio across Spain.



The partnership represents another milestone for GFH as it continues its expansion and the realisation of the Groups asset management aspirations with a stronger footprint and growing portfolio in Europe.



The strategy, with a target gross asset value (GAV) of 400 million ($409 million) over the next 18 months, will predominantly target index-linked long income assets in strong micro-locations via direct sale and leaseback opportunities or secondary acquisitions, but will also seek out build to suit and forward funding opportunities that fit the thematic investment criteria.



Building on Roebucks strong knowledge and position in the Spanish market, the new JV has already completed the acquisition of three urban logistics assets across Spain. The assets form a seed portfolio of triple-net long income, backed by good covenants, in locations that are critical to their tenants needs, providing a robust platform from which to aggregate.



Hugh Macdonald-Brown, Managing Partner of Roebuck, said: We are delighted to announced this new partnership, which has already identified a strong pipeline of assets across core Spanish city markets and completed three strategic acquisitions.



The JV builds on Roebucks well established track record as a pan European asset manager and its presence in the Spanish market, having established Roebuck Iberia in 2020 following the transaction of 300 million of Spanish logistics and increased investor demand for access to Spain. We see great promise in the last mile urban logistics market in the country, which continues to demonstrate positive fundamentals. ICG have an exceptionally strong reputation in the European marketplace and the synergies between our businesses is yielding immediate results.



We are actively reviewing new opportunities to follow the first three successful acquisitions weve completed and look forward to working with investors, developers and strengthening our already strong tenant relationships, whilst also building and expanding Roebuck Iberias team, he added.



Roebuck is a pan European asset management company specialising in European Logistics that has transacted 2.5 billion since formation in 2009.  TradeArabia News Service
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 72F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low near 60F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo / Contributed Photo

A man and woman from New Britain were killed in a rollover crash on Interstate 290 in Massachusetts early Saturday, officials said.

According to Massachusetts State Police, the two-vehicle crash was reported about 7 a.m. on the eastbound side of the highway in the area of Exit 24 in Worcester.
STAMFORD  A Stamford man was sentenced to more than four years in prison Friday who tried to traffic kilogram quantities of fentanyl, according to federal prosecutors.

Luis Miguel Rosario-Peralta, 32, was sentenced to 54 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, in U.S. District Court in Hartford, the U.S. attorneys Office for Connecticut said.

He had previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, prosecutors said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency and Stamford police identified Rosario-Peralta as a large-scale fentanyl trafficker, then, in July 2019, intercepted a phone call via wiretap in which he allegedly negotiated the sale of kilogram quantities of narcotics, according to prosecutors.

Rosario-Peralta was arrested on July 5, 2019, in Yonkers, N.Y, officials said, after he traveled to a drug stash location there and picked up approximately 3 kilograms of fentanyl.

In her sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie T. Levick said Rosario-Peralta sold drugs in the Stamford area, including fentanyl, from at least the start of 2018 until his arrest.

She called for a fair, just and reasonable sentence, noting the seriousness of Rosario-Peraltas offense and the difficulty of his life, which includes issues with gambling and substance abuse.

Mr. Rosario-Peralta now expresses remorse and shame for hurting others, and a desire to change turn his life around, Levick said.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Rosario-Peralta will face immigration proceedings at the end of his prison term, officials said.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Newtown Police Department / Facebook

NEWTOWN  A Willington man was arrested this week after allegedly selling a Newtown mans home without his knowledge, according to police.

Edwin Robert Lewis was charged with second-degree money laundering, first-degree identity theft, first-degree larceny, criminal impersonation and second-degree forgery, police said in a post on Facebook.
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HARTFORD  A Rocky Hill man and smoke shop owner will serve five years in prison after trafficking fentanyl, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

While investigating Sean Thomas, 32, police found more 50,000 lethal doses of fentanyl in his home  copious amounts of it stored in an ottoman in the family room, according to court documents. Law enforcement also discovered three pounds of marijuana in his smoke shop, Puff Palace on New Britain Avenue, according to U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery and court documents.

Thomas pleaded guilty in January to possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. In Hartford on Friday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant sentenced Thomas to 60 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release. He was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals Service after sentencing, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

This was Thomas first criminal conviction, according to court documents.

Hartford police started investigating Thomas and others in 2020 for distributing fentanyl and marijuana. As part of the investigation, an undercover officer purchased marijuana from an employee at Thomas smoke shop, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

On June 2, 2020, investigators were watching Thomas as they prepared to execute multiple search warrants. Law enforcement saw Thomas drive his car from his home in Rocky Hill to Kenneth Street in Hartford where he got into a parked Dodge Durango, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Police believed Thomas was conducting a narcotics transaction, so detectives approached the car. The driver, Tafarie Green, accelerated and drove straight at detectives who jumped out of the way, the U.S. Attorneys office said. Green then drove at a high rate of speed onto a sidewalk and through two chain link fences before he crashed into a tree.

Green ran away and investigators apprehended Thomas, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Later, law enforcement searched Thomas home and found more than 100 grams of unpackaged fentanyl  or about 50,000 lethal doses  3,500 bags of packaged fentanyl, items used to process and package narcotics for street sale and about $16,500 in cash, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Green, who was on federal supervised release at the time, was arrested on July 13, 2020. He pleaded guilty in August 2021 to possession of a firearm by a felon and was sentenced to 62 months in prison, according tot he U.S. Attorneys office.
Zain Bahrain, a telecommunications industry innovator in the kingdom, has signed an MoU with Bahrain Mobility International Centre for the purpose of exchanging knowledge and aiding the growth of an inclusive community.

As part of Zain Bahrains efforts in creating a diverse and inclusive work environment, the signing ceremony took place in the presence of Parliament Representative, Ebrahim Al Nefaei, and Zain Bahrain employees.

Part of Zain Bahrains Sustainability and Inclusion (S&I) strategy is to consciously embed inclusivity in the business operation. Zain Bahrain implemented different inclusive initiatives such as creating a special hotline for PwDs and their caretakers, designing wheelchair friendly branches, and training employees on sign language to deliver an exceptional customer service experience by ensuring that the companys services are accessible for all members of the community.

Encouraging inclusivity

Fatima Haider, Zain Bahrain Sustainability and Inclusivity Manager, commented: We are honoured to be collaborating with Bahrain Mobility International Centre through this MoU to continue encouraging inclusivity in our local community and in support of the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)  Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals, as we value partnerships and believe that combining forces with a diverse range of communities will make a greater impact in helping us achieve a growing sustainable business.

Adel Sultan Almotawa, President of Bahrain Mobility International Centre, added: It is our pleasure to be signing this MoU to work closely with Zain Bahrain to promote an inclusive community with equal access and opportunities.--TradeArabia News Service
Dams and sand dredging are behind the problem, which has devastated riparian communities.

Sand dredging has eroded this riverbank along the Mekong River in Laos, July 2022.

Upstream dams and sand mining have caused significant erosion along the Mekong River in western Laos, according to experts, devastating riparian communities in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation with high waters and powerful currents.

But residents of those communities say they believe that other issues are to blame.

Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Energy, Water, and Sustainability Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., said upstream activities had created a hungry river phenomenon responsible for the severe erosion.

There is a natural phenomenon called a hungry river where a river which has been robbed of its sediments looks for new sediment to fill its course, he said. Sediment is taken out of a river system by upstream dams and sand mining, so when the river goes hungry it pulls new sediment into it from river banks through erosion processes.

Upstream dams in China have removed more than half of the sediment from the Mekong mainstream and now that Laos has built about 100 dams, the effects are being felt even more severely, he said.

If dams must be built, their designs should include sediment flushing mechanisms to allow sediment to pass through the structure, Eyler said.

If they dont include the flushing systems, the situation will get worse and worse because the river will get hungrier and hungrier as time passes, he added.

Direct impact

The dams are part of Laos ambitious plan to become the battery of Southeast Asia and boost the landlocked nations economy by selling the generated electricity to neighboring countries like Thailand. But the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers, and financial and power demand arrangements.

Ian Baird, director of the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there are many factors responsible for the Mekong River erosion, including sand dredging and deforestation, though he agreed that the main cause is the hungry water phenomenon.

This phenomenon takes place because all the dams on the Mekong River collect all the sediment, [and] the water released from the dams has less sediment, he said. When the water gets hungrier, it causes erosion along the Mekong River bank in the region below the dams.

The erosion has a direct impact on riparian communities, causing the collapse of roads, and the washing away of land, forcing Laotians who live near the riverbank to relocate, Baird said.

The villagers who used to grow vegetables like tomatoes and chili peppers in the dry season on the riverbank cant do that anymore, he said. If they still want to grow vegetables, theyll have to grow them on higher ground, to which theyll have to pump the water up. Theyll have to pay for electricity [to do that].

Growing vegetables on higher ground also means that the crops will not benefit from river sediment that acts as a natural fertilizer, so farmers will have to buy fertilizer as well, Baird said.

Land subsidence from erosion has cracked this road near the bank of the Mekong River in Paksan, Bolikhamxay province, central Laos, July 16, 2022. Credit: RFA

Many erosion hotspots

Lao officials point to other possible explanations for the erosion that wipes out houses and land in riparian communities.

In Bokeo province in the northern part of the country, an entire village of 300 households was lost to the river over the past 24 years due to powerful waves caused by ship movement, an official from the provinces Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA.

The culprit is the large and heavy ships weighing up to 100 tons running through the river, he said. The ships are the worst enemies of the riverbank. Their strong waves destroy the riverbank. Some waves are more than one meter (3.3 feet) high.

At least 73 kilometers (45 miles) of the 179 kilometers (111 miles) of Mekong River bank in central Laos Borikhamxay province is severely eroded, said Vixay Phoumy, director of the provinces Public Works and Transport Department at the agencys annual meeting on July 7. Only 21 kilometers (13 miles) of the stretch is protected by retaining walls.

We have many hotspots in Thaphabath and Borikhan districts where the erosion is worse, an official from the provinces Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA.

From our inspection, we know that the riverbank slides down the most in the rainy season, he said. Of course, some homes and farmland have been washed away too.

Farther downstream, strong currents in the Mekong have eroded about 90 kilometers, or nearly 50%, of riverbank, in Saravan province, an official of the provinces Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA.

A stretch of eroded riverbank along the Mekong River in Pakkading district, Bolikhamxay province, central Laos, July 2022. Credit: RFA

Our common problem

The severe erosion is not confined to the Laos side of the Mekong River and affects banks on the Thai side as well, said Omboon Thipsuna, secretary-general of the Mekong Community Organizations Network Association, 7 Provinces, Northeastern Region (NCPO) in Thailand.

The main cause is the upstream dams releasing and holding water, she told RFA. Its obvious that the sediment has disappeared.

The water goes up and down, she said. They [riparian residents] see it tumbling down every day.

Thipsuna called for bilateral talks between Laos and Thailand to find a solution to the erosion issue.

Its our common problem, she said.

The Sanakham Dam, a proposed hydropower project on the Mekong mainstream between Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces in Laos will make the erosion worse, she said, adding that water levels currently can go up to four meters (13 meters) high daily.

The cash-strapped Lao government can only afford to build erosion-prevention barriers in a few locations, leaving the residents of many other areas to deal with the issue on their own.

The Mekong River bank erosion has been occurring for years, causing a lot of concerns to our riparian residents, said a villager in the town of Paksan, capital of Borikhamxay province. The erosion has caused a lot of damage every year. The authorities havent said anything [because] they dont care about this.

A resident of the Sangthong district of Vientiane noted severe erosion there as well, but said limited government funding may prevent the erection of an erosion wall.

The authorities conducted a survey recently and planned to build a revetment, he said. The problem is that the government budget for building revetment is limited. The plan might be delayed further.

A bank of the Mekong River in the Vientiane area of Laos has eroded, July 2022. Credit: RFA

Further studies needed

An official with the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told RFA that the government is well aware of the erosion problem and its impact on land and natural resources.

The cause of the erosion is sand dredging, said the official. As for the fluctuation of water, it needs more study to prove whether the fluctuation is caused by dams and/or climate change.

Meanwhile, the Thai government appears to be making more headway in addressing the issue. It set aside 4 billion baht (U.S. $110 million) to build barriers in 181 hotspots in eight riparian provinces along the Mekong River between 2021 and 2024.

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
SOFIA -- An explosion early on July 31 blasted an ammunition depot owned by arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, Bulgarian state news agency BTA reported.



The blast occurred at around 3:30 a.m. local time at the EMCO ammunition depot near the city of Karnobat in southeastern Bulgaria.



No injuries were reported and the fire was quickly extinguished, BTA reported.



Gebrev told BNR Radio that the warehouse stored ammunition that had been ordered by companies but not yet paid for.



He said the cause of the blast had not yet been determined.



In April 2021, Bulgaria expelled a Russian diplomat after the country's authorities said they suspected six Russian citizens of involvement in a series of blasts that hit four weapons and armament facilities over the previous 10 years.



Bulgarias Foreign Ministry declared one more Russian diplomat persona non grata and requested the law-enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation to provide full assistance to the Bulgarian authorities in their investigation into the blasts, the ministry said at the time.



Bulgarian prosecutors said in April 2021 that there was a reasonable assumption that the blasts that rocked the four warehouses and production facilities in Bulgaria between 2011 and 2020 were connected to the near-fatal poisoning of Gebrev in 2015.

Gebrev, who blamed the Russians for the attack, fell into a coma on April 28, 2015, with symptoms of severe poisoning. He survived the poisoning, as did his son and a company executive who were treated for similar symptoms.



It was not immediately clear why the Kremlin would target Gebrev, but In 2021, he told The New York Times that his company had shipped military equipment to Ukraine after 2014, when Kremlin-backed separatists began a still-ongoing war against Kyiv and Russia also illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.



The poisoning case carried hallmarks of the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in 2018 in Britain.



Moscow has denied it had any involvement in the Skripal poisoning, which led to a series of sanctions against Russia by the West and tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and other actions.
New investment in Russia through Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) fell to zero in the first half of 2022, while Chinese outlays in Pakistan dropped by 56 percent during the same period.



These are the findings of a new report from the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai, which point to growing headwinds facing Chinese President Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy venture that he once dubbed the project of the century.



Both Russia and Pakistan have been among the top beneficiaries of Chinese development spending through the BRI. Moscow signed deals worth about $2 billion in 2021 alone and Islamabad hosts a $62 billion collection of infrastructure and energy projects known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).



The Fudan University report highlights the changing nature of the BRI as it adapts to a combination of a strained global economy, Chinas shifting position in the world, and many countries who inked deals and took out loans through the initiative now grappling with a growing debt crisis.



BRI spending has been declining for several years as Beijing becomes more risk averse. The report shows a total of $28.4 billion in Chinese investment across 147 BRI countries over the first half of 2022, down from $29.6 billion over the same period last year.



The BRIs rapid expansion since 2013 has helped China become the worlds largest source of development credit, and how Beijing navigates the programs future will have global consequences.



To find out more, RFE/RL spoke with Christoph Nedopil Wang, the director of the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University who helped write the report.



RFE/RL: One of the leading takeaways from your report is that China is increasingly investing in oil and gas, making up about 80 percent of Chinese overseas energy investments for the first half of 2022 and 66 percent of Chinese construction contracts. Saudi Arabia has become a major recipient of Chinese investment along with other nations in the Middle East. What does this tell us about the current state of the BRI and also where it is heading?

Christoph Nedopil Wang: We saw last year in the 2021 report that one of the major recipients of Chinese engagement was Iraq and it was similarly through fossil fuel-backed projects. I think one of the interpretations that we are exploring is that resource-backed investments are increasing because they are a way to reduce risks.



China has been trying to manage financial risks for a number of different reasons, including that the overall [Chinese] economy after [the] COVID-19 [pandemic] -- as well as in a lot of the BRI countries -- has not been performing as well as expected. Therefore, [Chinese] government sponsored projects or sovereign guarantees from these [BRI] countries are much harder to get for a variety of other projects.



Whereas, if you have resource backed projects like oil and gas it is relatively clear how you're going to get your money back. Therefore, these projects tend to be a lot lower risk and quite lucrative, particularly in today's markets of high fossil fuel prices.



RFE/RL: Another finding of the report is that some countries that were leading partners of the BRI received no Chinese engagement so far this year, including Russia. Is this drop-off in investment in Russia largely due to Beijing wanting to avoid secondary U.S. sanctions over Moscows war in Ukraine or are there other factors that help explain this?



Nedopil Wang: It's the first time that in any of the recorded periods that we looked at [where] we couldn't identify any large deal between China and Russia. It's an event that hasn't happened before, [but] of course, all of the questions and potential reasons about why this happened are speculation for the moment.



China has never confirmed that it's trying to avoid the sanctions with Russia, and it is [still] trading very regularly, particularly in fossil fuels, with Russia. So, it's not that there is no engagement between China and Russia. It's that there's no construction and investment recorded in the first half of 2022. It might be that Beijing is playing it safe and reducing the risk of any secondary sanctions, but it might also have other factors behind it.

That applies for other countries that have seen a drop in Chinese engagement such as Egypt. I think its not possible to say there is a trend yet and that [this drop] is because Egypt has fallen out of favor with Beijing. China is actually constructing quite a bit of the new capital in Egypt and its therefore a bit tricky to make big conclusions from a half-year window. Some larger deals might be announced later in the year and so its still somewhat difficult to decipher the long-term trend.



RFE/RL: But are these drop-offs surprising to you? It seems like a noteworthy shift, especially for Russia, given where things stood in previous years.



Nedopil Wang: It was definitely a surprising finding. It's the first time that we did not see any engagement in Russia for any period of time.



But again, we can only speculate on the exact reasons right now and there will not be an official announcement by China about why this has happened.



RFE/RL: Chinas engagement in Pakistan through the CPEC has been one of the flagship projects of the BRI. But your findings show that investment dropped by about 56 percent. What would you say is the main reason for this and what does it say about the future of the project overall?

Nedopil Wang: Pakistan has, since the establishment of the BRI through CPEC, been one of the most prominent corridors and China and Pakistan have exchanged a number of really impressive contracts to build infrastructure for energy, road, and rail transportation over the years.

Pakistan went through some big political changes last year and this year and there has been some reevaluation of the political risks from the Chinese side, as well as some reevaluation about the current economic situation in the country, which is not as strong as it was when a lot of this investment started.



With that in mind, perhaps its not too surprising. It might also be healthy for CPEC to have a breather and reevaluate what kind of projects are actually driving it forward and what is working, what is not, and what might be needed.

RFE/RL: Were entering an interesting period as the BRI approaches its 10-year anniversary. The venture has shifted and adapted in many ways already. Currently, there is discussion of a potential overseas debt crisis mounting with BRI. Do you think that these problems are prompting a rethink in Beijing about the economic risks from the type of big infrastructure lending weve traditionally seen?



Nedopil Wang: I would be very surprised if not all of the involved players in China, from the ministries to the financial institutions and also the developers, are having to rethink their engagement in a number of different ways.



The number one reason is that the overall economic situation in a lot of the BRI countries is different now. A lot of the deals were done back when everybody was still in kumbaya mode believing that they could develop and finance anything. That has changed. There have been some sovereign debt crises and defaults in some BRI countries, and they have been trying to renegotiate their debt with China.

Theres a clear recognition now of the risks involved and also a reduced appetite for further financial engagement. You also have other impediments right now, such as China having very strict travel controls due to COVID restrictions.



It's very hard right now for Chinese managers or Chinese developers to travel from China to any of the BRI countries to make deals or to actually do due diligence and plan a large-scale project. Thats a major detriment to making new deals. It doesnt mean that there arent any new deals, because Chinese companies and financial institutions have staff on the ground, but things are just more cumbersome now.

China is also domestically in a different situation than it was in 2015-2017 when a lot of these BRI deals were being signed. Chinese financial institutions are focusing a lot of their effort to support the domestic economy and are potentially less interested in adding on more loans to foreign projects. So, there's also a reevaluation happening from the financial institutions.



Overall, there's a host of reasons why we're seeing a shift from these larger-scale projects to potentially smaller ones.



Going back to your first question, there is a growing focus on resource deals. In a way, those are perfect projects for any developer because the risk is very low. Essentially, you get your financing and there is a more straightforward way for you to get your money back, which is not the case with other big infrastructure projects that have much longer payback periods with much higher uncertainty.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
A Russian ammunition storage unit in northern Crimea has exploded, Russia's Defense Ministry said, injuring at least two people and prompting the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents. The ministry blamed the blast on sabotage.

Local news organizations, meanwhile, reported a second explosion on August 16 at a nearby electrical substation in the Dzhankoy district of the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula.

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.

It was unclear if the two incidents, which occurred around the same time, were related.

Ukrainian officials avoided publicly or directly claiming responsibility for the incidents but some appeared to suggest Kyiv was involved.

Crimea was captured and annexed by Russia in 2014 and is still internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, but Moscow has threatened severe reprisals for any attacks on the peninsula.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed senior Ukrainian official as saying an elite Ukrainian military unit that was operating behind enemy lines was responsible for the explosions.

The head of Zelenskiy's office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Twitter that "the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue the filigree 'demilitarization' operation to fully rid our land of Russian invaders."

"Our soldiers are the best sponsors of a good mood," Yermak added, "Crimea is Ukraine."

Mykhaylo Podolyak, another top Zelenskiy aide, said on Twitter that thelatest blasts were a reminder that the "Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses, explosions and a high risk of death for invaders and thieves."

"What is stolen does not bring prosperity," Podolyak later told Ukrainian television.

Video and photographs posted on Telegram and other social media showed a series of blasts and explosions in the district, which is not far from the administrative border with the mainland Ukrainian region of Kherson, now occupied by Russian forces.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the explosion occurred at a temporary storage facility for ammunition. The ministry later blamed the blast on unidentified saboteurs.

"On the morning of August 16, as a result of sabotage, a military warehouse near the village of Dzhankoy was damaged. A number of civilian facilities, including power lines, a power plant, a railway track, as well as a number of residential buildings, were damaged," the ministry said in a statement.

"There are no serious casualties. Necessary measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of sabotage," it added.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed governor for the peninsula, said two people had been injured and that railway traffic had been disrupted. About 3,000 people were also evacuated from a nearby village, he said.

Refat Chubarov, a prominent leader of the Crimean Tatar community, also said in a post on Facebook that the explosion occurred at an ammunition depot.

Two local Crimea news organizations, Kryminform and Crimean Wind, reported that a transformer at an electrical substation had also exploded or caught fire.

Russia's Energy Ministry was quoted by news agencies as confirming a fire at the Crimea substation, but said it had been contained. No cause was given.

The incidents came roughly a week after a series of explosions tore through Russia's Saky air base in a western district of Crimea, destroying a number of Russian warplanes.

There's been no confirmation as to what caused those explosions, though satellite imagery showed extensive destruction at the base. Most observers suggest Ukrainian forces were responsible but Kyiv has not claimed any responsibility.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a post to Twitter that the latest blasts were a reminder that the "Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses, explosions and a high risk of death for invaders and thieves."

"What is stolen does not bring prosperity," Podolyak later told Ukrainian television.

The Dzhankoy district is about 50 kilometers from the Russian-occupied region of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

With reporting by Crimea.Realities, a project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, and AP
Taliban and Iranian border guards have been engaged in gun battles along the Iran-Afghan frontier, leaving at least one person dead on the Afghan side, police officials said.

"We have one killed and one wounded; the cause of the clash is not clear yet," Bahram Haqmal, the police spokesman for the southern Afghan province of Nimroze, told Reuters on July 31.



Maysam Barazandeh, the governor of the Iranian border area of Hirmand, told the semiofficial Fars news agency that the fighting had ceased and that there were no casualties on the Iranian side.



Both sides accused the other of opening fire first.



According to Irans Tasnim news agency, the clashes broke out after Taliban forces tried to raise their flag "in an area that is not Afghan territory."



Taliban fighters have frequently clashed with Iranian security forces since the Islamist group took control of Afghanistan last August.



Iran has struggled to cope with an influx of some 5 million Afghans who have fled since the Taliban seized power.



The two countries share a 900-kilometer border. Tehran has not recognized the Talibans claim to be Afghanistans ruling government.



The rest of the international community has also refused to recognize the Taliban's rule, demanding that it respect human rights and show tolerance for other groups.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa
PRISTINA -- Kosovar authorities have paused issuing documents to Serbs entering the country after agreeing to delay implementation of two regulations regarding automobile license plates and travel papers for visitors from Serbia after consultations with U.S. and European Union representatives.



The pause came after local Serbs in northern Kosovo agreed to remove all the barricades that were put on the roads leading to two border crossing points with Serbia.

Barricades set up at border crossings by ethnic Serbs in Kosovo were being removed on August 1 as the first documents of the Internal Affairs Ministry of Kosovo for entry and exit for citizens of Serbia were issued at the border crossings with Serbia that had opened.

Under the agreement, reached in the early hours of August 1, there will be a delay of 30 days in the new regulations.

"As we promised last night, as the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, by removing barricades and ensuring freedom of movement for our citizens, we moved the implementation of the decisions to September 1, 2022, in order to maintain stability in the country and the region", Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla confirmed on Facebook.

Svecla also confirmed that two border crossings in the northern part of Kosovo opened for traffic after all road blockages were removed.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti said earlier that he expected that barricades at the two border crossings, Jarinje and Brnjak, would be removed during the day on August 1.

RFE/RL journalists confirmed that in Rudare, a town near the Jarinje border crossing, the removal of vehicles that had been placed as barricades on the roads in the north of Kosovo has begun.

However, two border crossings in the north, Jarinje and Brnjak, remain closed for traffic because, according to Prime Minister Albin Kurti, "the roads leading there are still blocked." He added that there had been a total of nine barricades erected and clearing them will take time.

"We expect that during today they will all be removed," Kurti said.

Late on July 31, U.S. Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier had urged Kosovo to postpone implementation of the regulations for 30 days "because there seems to be disinformation and misunderstanding of these decisions."

The Kosovar government had said that starting on August 1 travelers arriving from Serbia would have their Serbia-issued documents exchanged for new entry-exit identification documents issued by Pristina, valid for three months.

The policy matches a long-standing practice in place by Belgrade for Kosovo citizens visiting Serbia.

The move triggered riots by minority Serbs who put up roadblocks, sounded air raid sirens and fired their guns into the air.

The Kosovo government had accused neighboring Serbia of instigating the riots in order to destabilize the country that declared independence in 2008 after a NATO intervention that stopped Serbias bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.

"We hope that we will work with this government and colleagues from the European Union to ensure that these agreements are better understood and thus lower tensions," Hovenier added.

The NATO-led mission in Kosovo also said on July 31 that it was monitoring the "tense" situation in the northern municipalities and that it was "prepared to intervene if stability is jeopardized."

Ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo have been using car plates issued by Serbian institutions since the war in 1999 with acronyms of Kosovo cities, such as KM (Kosovska Mitrovica), PR (Pristina), or UR (Urosevac).

The government in Kosovo regards the plates as illegal but has tolerated them in four northern municipalities with Serb majorities.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovos independence nor its right to impose rules and regulations such as registering cars and trucks. Most EU countries recognize Kosovo, though Russia and China, allies of Serbia, do not.

The EU has tried to broker a dialogue between the two Balkans neighbors for over a decade, but so far the efforts have failed to achieve a normalization of ties.

Kurti has said Kosovo will formally apply to become a member of the European Union by the end of 2022 despite concerns over tensions with Serbia, also an EU aspirant.
Uzbekistan hosted an international conference on Afghanistan on July 25-26 with Taliban representatives in attendance. Tashkent has led the way in Central Asia in engaging with the Taliban since they returned to power in August 2021, but not everyone agrees with the Uzbek governments decision to host representatives of a group that many consider to be extremist. On this weeks Majlis podcast we look at the challenges and potential benefits for Uzbekistan, and more broadly Central Asia, in dealing with the Taliban.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has condemned an attack on a prison site where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed this week in territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In a statement issued on July 31, the Red Cross said it had not yet received permission to visit the site of the July 29 attack on the Olenivka prison facility.



While demanding that an impartial probe be conducted into the attack, it added that it was not the organization that is mandated to carry out such an investigation.

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"Families must receive urgent news of and answers on what happened to their loved ones, the ICRC said.



The parties must do everything in their power, including through impartial investigations, to help determine the facts behind the attack and bring clarity to this issue.



However, it is not the role or mandate of the ICRC to carry out public investigations into alleged war crimes," it added.



Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over who is to blame for the missile strike or blast that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners in the town of Olenivka on the front lines of the conflict.



Russia's Defense Ministry invited the United Nations and the ICRC to conduct an investigation at the prison in separatist-controlled territory.



"Russia has officially invited UN and International Committee of the Red Cross experts to engage in an impartial investigation into an attack on a pre-trial detention center in Olenivka, which killed a large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a July 31 statement.



Prior to the Russian Defense Ministry's statement, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said it would send investigators to the prison if both Russia and Ukraine agreed.



Russian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded 75. The Russian Defense Ministry on July 30 published a list naming 48 Ukrainian fighters aged 20 to 62 who were killed in the attack.

Russia has claimed that the POWs were killed by a Ukrainian strike using U.S.-supplied precision rockets.

The Ukrainian military has denied the allegation and accused the Russians, aided by pro-Russia separatist forces in the Donetsk region, of shelling the prison holding Ukrainian POWs to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.

Satellite photos taken before and after the attack show that a small building in the middle of the Olenivka prison complex was damaged, its roof in splinters. The ICRC has sought access to the site and offered to help evacuate the wounded.

Our priority right now is making sure that the wounded receive lifesaving treatment and that the bodies of those who lost their lives are dealt with in a dignified manner, the Red Cross said earlier.

After reporting difficulties gaining an invitation to visit the site in Russia-controlled territory, the ICRC said in a July 30 tweet that "granting ICRC access to POWs is an obligation of parties to conflict under the Geneva Convention."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the UN and ICRC have a duty to react to the attack.

It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war, Zelenskiy said in a video address late on July 30. There should be a clear legal recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences over the deaths in a phone call on July 29 with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to a State Department statement on July 30.

The United States is committed to "hold Russia accountable for atrocities committed by its forces against the people of Ukraine," Blinken told Kuleba.

Following the attack, the European Union on July 29 expressed shock at the attack on the site, which it said held Ukrainian POWs including surrendered defenders of Mariupols Azovstal steel plant who were "in Russias legal protection under international humanitarian law."

EU high representative Josep Borrell condemned in "the strongest terms the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and their proxies."

Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians since its invasion began on February 24 and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians and has denied allegations of war crimes.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and TASS
Sharjahs exhibition and conference season will soon kick off with a wide range of major local, regional, and international events hosted and organised by the Expo Centre Sharjah during the last four months of 2022.



From August 26 to January 1, 2023, Sharjah will host a total of 11 business, commercial, and cultural events that will draw a huge turnout of companies, visitors, and professionals from all over the world.



These include the International Government Communication Forum, the 50th edition of Watch & Jewellery Middle East Show, Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), National Career Exhibition, International Education Show, and Acres Real Estate Exhibition, in addition to the first edition of the Gulf Coatings Show and many more retail trade shows.



Saif Mohammed Al Midfa, CEO of Expo Centre Sharjah, stressed that the exhibitions and conference industry in Sharjah has experienced a significant jump in 2022, with the number of diversified and specialized exhibitions remarkably growing. He also noted that the centre has successfully organized and hosted 11 exhibitions and events in the first half of 2022.



Al Midfa said that the center is all set to welcome guests and exhibitors from across the globe and that it will continue to be fully committed to using the best international standards and procedures developed in the industry.



The event-packed calendar will undoubtedly boost the economic and development contributions of exhibition industry and will positively reflect on numerous sectors; thus, pushing Sharjah's growth journey to the next level, he added.



An exceptional edition of the Watch & Jewellery Middle East Show will be held from October 5 to 10 to mark its golden jubilee. The show will draw a sizable international audience from Latin America and Europe as well as a brand-new group of visitors and participants from African nations.



It will feature many innovative events, programs, and cultural workshops on jewellery and precious stones. The National Career Exhibition and the International Education Show will both take place be organized in the centre in the same month, precisely from October 18 to 22.



In addition to the first edition of the Gulf Coatings Show, the centre will also host the Acres Real Estate Exhibition from November 24 to 27. It will be organised by the Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, represented by the Real Estate Sector Business Group working.



The Sharjah Book Authority will also organize the Sharjah International Book Fair, the biggest event of its kind in the region to provide visitors with a leading cultural and knowledge platform, while the International Government Communication Center of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau will stage the International Government Communication Forum.



Other events include the Furniture 360, Big Shopper Sale, and Back-to-School Exhibition, with the centre concluding its busy schedule of events with the Winter Clearance Sale, which will be held from December 23 to January 1.  TradeArabia News Service
SKOPJE -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered his support for North Macedonia in its bid to join the European Union, saying the Western Balkan nation has put its European vision before any other interests.

Sanchezs comments on July 31 during a visit to Skopje came a day after he voiced similar backing for Bosnia-Herzegovina to become an EU candidate during a stop in Sarajevo.

Sanchez is also visiting Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania during his regional trip.

The Spanish prime minister said during a news conference with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski that North Macedonia is in Europe, both geographically and historically.

He said the country is now one step closer to the desired goal and that it can count on Spain's support for the next steps for EU membership.

Sanchez expressed "gratitude for your broadness and responsibility, for putting the future of the country and your European vision before any other interest. You made the right choice. You unblocked the path that would bring North Macedonia to where it should be."

On July 18, the bloc's 27 member states agreed to open accession talks with North Macedonia after Skopje resolved a long dispute with its EU neighbor Bulgaria.

Bulgaria had until recently blocked any progress for accession talks because of a dispute between the countries over a long list of linguistic and historical issues.

But on July 17, the two countries signed an agreement in Sofia a day after North Macedonias parliament approved a French-proposed compromise to lift Bulgarias veto of Skopjes EU accession bid.

Bulgaria, which has been an EU member since 2007, had insisted that North Macedonia formally recognize that its language had Bulgarian roots, acknowledge in its constitution a Bulgarian minority, and renounce what it said was hate speech against Bulgaria.

The compromise envisages an effort to amend North Macedonias constitution to recognize a Bulgarian minority but leaves other previous sticking points to be worked out between Skopje and Sofia. It reportedly leaves open Bulgarian recognition of the Macedonian language.

Nationalists in both countries had opposed the compromise, claiming that their government had conceded too much to the other side.

Kovachevski said Sanchezs visit is a symbol of the nearly 30-year excellent bilateral relations between the two countries, expressing gratitude for Spain's strong support for North Macedonia's EU membership.

"We are ready for the EU and are moving forward with a firm step toward full membership of the union. It is a process from which we will not give up, because our place is in the EU. We have closed a chapter and are opening a new, European one, in which we will share a European future with our friends, such as Spain," Kovachevski said.

A day earlier, Sanchez said Spain supports Bosnia-Herzegovinas European perspective.

He urged the country to continue to take necessary steps to become a membership candidate.

Spain will take over the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2023.

Sanchez said that he has told fellow heads of EU governments of my full support in favor or Bosnia-Herzegovina being designated a candidate country.
We are living now exclusively on faith, hope, on plans for the future and memories of the past, said Anastasia, whose husband was among the defenders of the Azovstal steel mill in the southern city of Mariupol who surrendered on May 16 after more than two months of concentrated assault by Russian forces.



Since the surrender, Anastasias husband, her father, and her sisters husband -- all Azovstal defenders -- have been held at the Olenivka prison complex in territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.



On July 29, dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion at Olenivka that Russia and Ukraine have each blamed on the other.



Russian officials have said 53 POWs were killed and 75 wounded in the blast, which Moscow claims was carried out by Ukrainian forces using U.S.-supplied precision rockets.



Kyiv has accused the Russians and their proxies in Ukraine of orchestrating the explosion to cover up the alleged torture and execution of prisoners at the site.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations are seeking access to the site and the opportunity to evacuate the wounded.



Our whole existence revolves around the fact that our loved ones are now in the most horrific conditions, said Anastasia, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her POW relatives. We thought nothing could be worse than Azovstal, but after what happened [on July 29] it turns out there can be something worse.



Alina, whose husband was also an Azovstal defender who has been held at Olenivka since mid-May, told Current Time that she has not heard from her husband since his last night in the massive steelworks.



We dont use the phrase the last time, she said when asked about her last communication with her husband.



He sent photographs of himself, of his face, because I wanted to see him, she recalled. Since he left Azovstal, I have had no communication with him.

'Exhausted' And 'Emaciated' POWs



Although neither Anastasia nor Alina have had contact with their relatives at Olenivka, they have identified them from photographs and videos posted on Russian social-media chat groups.



I found out from sources such as Telegram groups, Russian ones, Alina said. You could see how the Azovstal prisoners were standing in formation at Olenivka. I saw my husband, close up, together with the others. Then in another video I saw him walking into the dining hall.

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.

Alina and Anastasia are both active in chat groups with the families of other Azovstal POWs.

They speak in general about how their relatives are treated, how they are all exhausted, emaciated, how they are fed twice a day with tiny portions of food that can hardly be called food at all, Anastasia told Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. They are given water from a stream. They are allowed to bathe, I think, twice a week.

Many Russian and separatist officials have reserved a special animus for the Azovstal defenders, many of whom are members of the ultranationalist Azov Regiment, calling for them to face tribunals and even execution.



Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called them Nazi criminals in May and said they should not be included in any prisoner exchanges. Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky endorsed the idea of tribunals and said Russia should lift its 1996 moratorium on the death penalty.



The whole world should see that Ukrainian nationalists deserve only execution, he said.



On July 29, Russias Embassy in London said on Twitter -- in a post that violated the platform's rules about hateful conduct -- that Azov militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they are not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death.

The Azov Regiment is a far-right, volunteer group that has been part of Ukraines National Guard since 2014. Formerly a paramilitary militia known as the Azov Battalion, it espouses an ultranationalist ideology that U.S. law enforcement authorities have linked with neo-Nazi extremism. But supporters see it as a patriotic and effective part of the countrys defense forces.

The two women and other relatives of Azovstal POWs at Olenivka say they are determined to make sure the government and the international community do not forget their relatives.



Demonstrations are being held in Kyiv demanding the return of our heroes, Anastasia said. And not only in Kyiv. Such demonstrations are being organized in other countries so that they are not forgotten and so that we get help bringing them home.



We have seen that the Russians do not comply with any rules of warfare, she added. This was confirmed by [the July 29] events, so now we have really begun to sound the alarm.

RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report.
According to Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1203 dated November 30, 1995, consolidated information about Russian exports and imports of precious stones, except for natural rough diamonds, is classified as a state secret. Thus, it is impossible to assess the role of Russia in the world market of coloured gemstones based on the data of the Federal Customs Service, Federal State Statistics Service or the Ministry of Finance of Russia. Although the data on the precious stones balance reserves in the Russias subsoil are not secret, as well as the volumes of their extraction from the earths depths and production, nevertheless, it is better to focus exclusively on the available data on exports and imports obtained from foreign sources to avoid the risk of violating this Decree.

For an expert assessment, the data on the global trade in rubies, sapphires and emeralds obtained from the Internet platform Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) and maintained by Datawheel will be used, (https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/rubies-sapphires-and-emeralds-worked-but-not-set).

According to the OEC, the volume of global exports of cut and polished (worked) rubies, sapphires and emeralds (code HS6 ID 710391) reached $2.83 bn in 2020, which accounted for 64.7% of the entire market for coloured gemstones*.

The OEC allows you to trace the detailed dynamics of exports and imports for this code from 1998 to 2020, which is enough for a clear vision of the situation.

According to the OEC, the Russias share in the global turnover of cut and polished rubies, sapphires and emeralds was very small and amounted to only $0.468 mn in exports in 2020 (0.017% of world exports in this subgroup) and $3.88 mn in imports (0.14% of world imports) in this subgroup).

Exports of rubies, sapphires and emeralds from Russia, 2020





Green - Russia. Red - Other countries.

There is no commercial production and working (cutting and polishing) of rubies and sapphires in Russia at all, so worked emeralds make all the exports in this subgroup. Over the past quarter of a century, the emerald mining has been extremely uneven, which also had an impact on exports. Russia could not boast of regular customers on the world market either. In some years, there was a surge in the exports of emeralds:

- 1999, to the USA ($3 mn);

- 2011, to China ($4.52 mn);

- 2013, to the UK ($3.3 mn);

- 2016, to China ($1.73 mn);

- 2019, to Switzerland ($2.43 mn).

Over 25 years, there was also very insignificant (from less than $0.1 mn to $0.9 mn) and sporadic export of emeralds from Russia to Belgium, India, France, and Japan. Although over the last decade, the exports of emeralds from Russia have more or less stabilized, their volumes remained completely insignificant on the global market, and they showed a downward trend.

Imports of rubies, sapphires and emeralds to Russia, 2020





Green - Russia. Red - Other countries.

According to the OEC, imports of cut and polished rubies, sapphires and emeralds to Russia in any noticeable amount began around 2004. At first, the supplies were from Thailand (from $0.316 mn to a peak of $5.16 mn in 2008 and to the latest surge of $3.26 mn in 2014), but in recent years, the imports of these stones from Thailand have decreased significantly (down to $0.466 in 2020).

According to the OEC data, the peak year for Russia in terms of imports of cut and polished rubies, sapphires and emeralds was 2008 when, in addition the gemstones imported from Thailand, they were also imported from Great Britain ($2.66 mn), Hong Kong ($1.98 mn), Germany ($1.47 mn), as well as - in smaller quantities - from India, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland.

Since 2010, Armenia began to play the role of the main supplier of cut and polished rubies, sapphires and emeralds to the Russian market due to the development of the EAEU Customs Union. In 2010, the volume was only $0.103, reaching $10.4 mn in 2019. However, in 2020, there was a decline in the imports of these gemstones from Armenia, to $1.69 mn. That year, Switzerland supplied gemstones to Russia for $1.54 mn, Thailand - for $0.466, and Germany - for $0.095.

CONCLUSIONS

Taking into account the fact that in general, the share of Russia in the global production of jewellery is still higher, about 4%, and there is no own mining (and cutting&polishing) of rubies and sapphires in Russia (i. e., all these stones are imported to Russia), the Russias 0.14-percent share in the global imports of rubies, sapphires and emeralds is clearly disproportionately small.

The explanation can be simple: since the USSR times, Russian women have been accustomed to jewellery pieces exclusively with low-end studs made of synthetic stones. Countless cut and polished synthetic rubies of huge sizes (up to 10 carats and more) were displayed in jewellery stores in the Soviet times. There were rather fewer synthetic emeralds and sapphires, and coloured crystals were often used in jewellery pieces. In the country, there was no culture of having coloured gemstones at all.

Such asceticism in wearing coloured precious stones was successfully maintained all the years in new Russia, too. This is mainly due to national legislation that prohibits - with surprising persistence - the Russians not only to make transactions with precious stones, but even to store them if they are not in jewellery pieces, and a criminal liability is established.

The absence of a truly free market for coloured gemstones in todays Russia has led to the degradation of the cutting and polishing industry and the lack of commercial promotion of the very idea of the value of owning natural rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

Today, few Russians understand the real value of high-quality coloured gemstones or have a practical interest in them at all. The Russians understand the value of diamonds, but they think that coloured precious stones are not valuable ... And only a small number of customers know to some extent the price depending on the quality of coloured precious stones.

Of course, there are exceptions to any rule. Some of the wealthy Russians purchased jewellery pieces with high-quality coloured gemstones when they travel abroad. Some bought jewellery items with high-quality rubies, sapphires and emeralds in Russia, mainly, from jewellers manufacturing very exclusive jewellery items that were piece works. But the mass production of jewellery with coloured precious stones in Russia was not of global scale.

In addition to the low demand for coloured gemstones, there are other factors in the Russian market that reduce the imports of rubies, sapphires and emeralds - the majority of the population are not wealthy, and the naive desire of wealthy people to buy some high-end goods at a low price. Therefore, those coloured gemstones that are still imported to Russia are usually of very low quality and small-sized. And the quality of cutting and polishing is poor, too.

And, besides, such gemstones (with a probability of 99%) are also significantly treated. Here is an example: if the gemstones are rubies, they contain much glass; if these are sapphires, diffusion (and not thermal treating) is probably used to improve their colour; if these are emeralds, they are very much impregnated, and its good if with colourless substances. That is why they are cheap.

Unfortunately, the domestic sale of high-end, untreated Ural emeralds is not promising in such a market - there is almost no demand for them. At least, there is no mass demand for them.

There are several other factors reducing the capacity of the Russian market for coloured gemstones. But these factors apply both to this particular subgroup, and to all the imported precious and semi-precious stones, precious metals, jewellery, etc. This is, first of all, administering the import procedure is complex and costly. In Russia, in addition to customs control, there is another so-called state control applied to the imports of precious and semi-precious stones. And importing these precious goods is only possible through specialized customs points having a necessary competence, and the customs duties must be paid.

It is important that any type of business in Russia related to jewellery and precious metals and precious stones is very tightly controlled by the Russian State Assay Chamber according to the current industry legislation. Such control leads to higher business costs, decreases the margins and, ultimately, makes the business less attractive. And the introduction of the State Integrated Information System in the Sphere of Control over the Circulation of Precious Metals and Precious Stones (SIIS PMPS), made doing business related to precious metals and stones even more difficult and costly.

Is it possible to improve the situation in the coloured gemstones domestic market by increasing its potential capacity? Of course, it is possible, because historically, the Russians always loved gemstones. It is not their fault that the people turned out to get accustomed to the low-end synthetic gemstones and not to natural ones. If there is no promotion and advertising of goods - there is no demand; and there is no supply without demand. But no market can exist without being free.

All that needs to be done to develop a robust domestic market for coloured gemstones and increase demand for them is to make the market for coloured gemstones completely free through withdrawing the coloured gemstones from Articles 191 and 192 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as through changing the norms of the Federal Law On Precious Metals and Precious Stones by renaming it into the Federal Law On Precious Metals and Diamonds. That is, those objects of regulation should be mentioned that are really important for the national economy.

And the private initiatives will help develop the market of coloured precious stones, which, by the way, should be better called not precious stones, but jewellery (gem-quality) stones. The Russian market will become capacious - although not immediately, but in some years!

* - other shares of the market of coloured gemstones are grouped under the code HS6 ID 710399 Worked Precious and Semiprecious Stones, ($1.13 bn, or 25.9% of the total market for coloured gemstones) and under the code HS6 ID 710310 Precious, Semiprecious Stones, Rough or Partially Worked, ($0.41 bn, or 9.39%).
They call themselves the Radiant Rays  10 girls who went through a five-week internship at the Center for Energy Education, an internship which rewarded them with $1,500 scholarships at the end of the program.

The name they gave themselves seemed fitting as they cheered one another on through a reception held in their honor at the center Friday evening where they discussed the program and gave the audience an overview of their accomplishments.

The internships are the first of their kind in the country, said the centers executive director, Mozine Lowe.

(The interns are: MaChiya Arrington, a rising senior at Halifax County Early College; Rakeya Brinkley, a rising senior at Halifax County Early College; Anyah Brown, a graduate of Northwest who will be attending St. Augustines University; Jamiya Cabiness, a Warren County High School graduate who will be attending UNC-Greensboro; Mihkayla Hammie, a rising senior at Weldon High School; Jaslyn McKinney, a rising senior at Halifax County Early College; Zakeiryh Perry, a Northwest graduate who will be attending UNC-G; Mikayla Watson, a rising senior at Roanoke Rapids Early College; Janine Williams, a rising senior at Halifax County Early College; and Shamyra Wright, a rising senior at KIPP Pride High)

These 10 girls, they have made history, Lowe said. This is the very first program for women in solar, young girls of color. The industry is growing at a tremendous rate. It is coming to Halifax County. There are so many jobs that are available to any and everyone. You have to know that the jobs are out there and you have to know the people that have the jobs that are out there.

Lowe said the 10 girls have had a tremendous experience. They were first of all identified by their academic leaders in the community. They were deliberately selected to be part of the Young Women in Solar at the Center for Energy Education.

Lowe said the program received strong funding from well-established solar companies  Duke Energy, Geenex Solar, Engie, EDF Renewables, Roanoke Electric and many other associations.

The goal of the program, Lowe said, was for the girls to meet high-level leaders in companies. We wanted them to sit in their board rooms. We wanted them to talk to them about their jobs, their careers, how they managed to be at the top of their jobs.

She said the organizers wanted the girls to ask these leaders what they were doing to make it possible for girls of color to have jobs in these companies.

The internship took the girls to Geenex in Charlotte, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University, and the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. We wanted the company leaders to meet them, to get to know them, to consider being their mentors next summer.



https://www.rrspin.com/news/6224-radiant-rays-see-bright-future-in-renewable-energy.html#sigProIddac77acd6d View the embedded image gallery online at:

Lowe said this will not be the last opportunity. With the partnerships with the local schools, we hope to continue this program throughout the school year.

And the journey for the Radiant Rays doesnt end with the internship. They have been talking with a videographer in London who is creating a film about the girls. He is telling their story to the world because theyre very unique. Its just amazing how these 10 young women have embraced all of this newness  coming to the center, learning about clean energy, meeting company leaders, going to Dominion Energy into the dam. Its just amazing. They went to Howard University. We tried to give them the opportunity to see as many universities, to meet company leaders and just to know what the world is like.

The plan going forward, Lowe said, is for the 10 girls to become Center for Energy Education ambassadors and to meet once a month. We have big plans.

There is a Solar Fest event coming up on October 6 where the girls will be featured as presenters.

The North Carolina State University Clean Energy Technology Center has plans for the girls to present at the 2023 Energy Conference. I want you to know that they have done some tremendous things and I realize that it was through your support and the support of the schools that this was possible, Lowe said. Companies are really interested in them and following their career path and theres just so much more to come.

In her welcoming remarks, Brown said, For the last five weeks me and my sisters have been networking and meeting new people in renewable energy careers and traveling to different colleges.

In her remote message to the students and the audience, Rita L. Joyner, a senior advisor for the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, said, Im so proud of the young ladies and their achievements.

Joyners message focused on a three-point plan for success. You must dream with your eyes open, she said. I want you to spend time with yourself and explore your possibilities.

She advised the students to write out their goals. Write with detail. What will it look like? What will it feel like  and use all of your senses as youre writing down your plan.

The third point, Joyner said, is to achieve those dreams. Work at it until your definition of success is accomplished.

Jim Harris, director of land development for Geenex, said, This is Geenexs dream. This was George Veits and Mozine Lowes dream to bring a center for energy education to the area to help the communities that we work in.

Harris said, Whats impressive about these young ladies here is their taking advantage of that vision. It is so wonderful to see a community come together and support these young women. It is so wonderful that I get to work with a company that sees that vision.

Afterward, Wright said, One thing I learned is that networking is very important because sometimes its not about what you know but who you know.

Said Cabiness: The takeaway I got from this is its a great opportunity and my generation will be the generation to right the wrongs.
Two more of Russias largest banks, MKB and DOM.FR, have stated they are preparing to issue Union Pay cards  MKB and DOM.RF, with the facilities expected to be open from early 2023, while others are also considering the move.

Russias Industrial & Commercial Bank (ICB) is considering the possibility of issuing cards through the Chinas Union Pay system, while DOM.RF plans to start issuing Union Pay cards that will be co-branded the existing Russian Mir card. UnionPay is a Chinese financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme in mainland China and is increasing its global presence.

Union Pay acts as an association for Chinas banking card industry, operating under the approval of the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC, Chinas Central Bank). It is also an electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) network, and the only interbank network in China that links all the automatic teller machine (ATMs) of all banks throughout the country. UnionPay cards can be used in 180 countries and regions around the world.

In 2015, Union Pay overtook Visa and Mastercard in total value of payments made by customers and became the largest card payment processing organization (debit and credit cards combined) in the world surpassing the two. However, only 0.5% of this payment volume was outside of China.

Other Russian banks, including Absolut Bank, Rosbank, Ak Bars and Home Credit have also all expressed plans to issue cards via Union Pay. Absolut Bank is going through the process of agreeing an application for connection to Union Pay, while Ak Bars Bank also confirmed that they are actively working on the issue of launching Union Pay, but the time scale has not yet been announced.

Home Credit is assessing the demand for Union Pay cards by its customers and the possible economic effect of their launch. Demand for Union Pay cards has been assessed through Russian public opinion polls regularly conducted by Home Credit, which show that 9% of customers planned to request new cards. A final decision will be made later in the year.

Russias Novikombank has stated that Union Pays global distribution should not be overestimated, and it is not considered a total replacement for Visa and MasterCard. However, they do feel that Union Pay can achieve a 58% share of the Russian payment card market should Visa and MasterCard not return in the near future. Eleven Russian banks officially issue such cards, comprising of Russian Standard, MTS Bank, Gazprombank, RSHB, Solidarity, Bank Saint Petersburg, Primsotsbank, RRDB, Primorye, Zenit, Post Bank, while numerous other banks are undergoing approval procedures with Union Pay.

Evgeny Romanov, a leading analyst for banking ratings at Expert RA, states that the demand for Union Pay cards in Russia will depend on the cost, and that the use of these cards is primarily intended for Chinese tourism. Although Russians can use Union Pay cards in other countries and in Russian shopping centres, and malls in smaller venues there may be difficulties in finding Union Pay ATMs and machines.

In addition, he said, it should be remembered that only a limited number of Russian banks can work with Union Pay, as sanctions have blocked payments by users to and from Russia. But the network is extremely well developed in China, where there should be no problems with their use.

In Russia 2022 to date, Union Pay have issues more than 85,000 cards, including those co-badged with Mir. Post Bank has been issuing about 10,000 Union Pay cards a month.

Post Bank have stated that from March to June 2022, their customers spent about 4 billion rubles (US$64.3 million) via Union Pay, of which over 90% was spent abroad. Typical usage was on replenishing electronic wallets, buying air tickets, clothes, business services and car parts.

The largest number of Union Pay transactions by Russian customers were made in Italy, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and the Netherlands . In June, the average purchase on cards abroad amounted to 15,600 rubles,(US$250) and the average ATM cash withdrawals 26,000 rubles (US$416).

China though has an eye on secondary sanctions, although is balancing this against the desire to maintain and expand the use of Union Pay cards around the world. There may be a reaction if Union pay begins to challenge Visa and MasterCard, meaning Union Pay are proceeding with some caution in developing markets.

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RTHK: Ukraine's Zelensky demands evacuation of Donetsk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia.

In a late-night television address, Zelenskiy also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighboring Luhansk region, needed to leave.

"The more people leave (the) Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation.

Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation needed to take place before winter begins since the region's natural gas supplies had been destroyed.

Zelenskiy said hundreds of thousands of people were still living in areas of Donbas where fighting was fierce.

"Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," the president said. "If you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave."

It is not the first time Ukrainian authorities have called for civilians to evacuate areas they control in Donetsk, and John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, told Reuters it could be due to expectations of heavier fighting rather than fuel shortages.

"I dont know why Zelenskiy issued the call," he said. "What I do know is that there has been fierce fighting in Donetsk. The Russians took (neighbouring) Luhansk (oblast) several weeks ago. I expect further fierce fighting in Donetsk."

Herbst said he did not expect Russia to capture the rest of Donetsk given the longer logistics lines they would need and the Ukrainian forces use of advanced long-range artillery and rocket systems provided by the United States and others.

Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine's military said more than 100 Russian soldiers had been killed and seven tanks destroyed in fighting in the south on Friday, including the Kherson region that is the focus of Kyiv's counteroffensive in that part of the country and a key link in Moscow's supply lines. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Iran says proposed ideas submitted to accelerate nuclear talks

Tehran, July 31 (UNI) Iran has submitted proposed ideas in "both substance and form" to the other sides of the Vienna talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, to pave the way for the "swift conclusion" of the talks, Iran's top negotiator said Sunday.



Ali Bagheri Kani, also deputy Iranian foreign minister for political affairs, said on Twitter that Tehran is ready to conclude the negotiations in a short period provided that the other sides would also be prepared to do the same.
One dies in border clash between Iran, Taliban : Reports

Kabul, July 31 (UNI) One person has died and another got injured in a clash between border forces of Iran and the Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorist activities) in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Nimruz, Afghan media reported on Sunday.

According to the TOLOnews broadcaster, citing a local border commander, the clash took place in the Kang district, resulting in one Taliban fighter killed and another one injured. He noted that the incident was started by the Iranian side.

Islamist militia Taliban had captured power on August 15, 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops from the country and the fall of the US-backed government.
For Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest, which serves San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties, seeing out-of-state patients is the new norm. In the month since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped Americans of the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, out-of-state patients have made up 21% of abortion visits, a 513% increase, a spokesperson said.

Planned Parenthood Northern California hasnt seen as dramatic a surge, but is also serving more out-of-state patients. It used to see a couple of out-of-state patients per month. Now, its clinics see three to four patients traveling across state lines every week.

Several California clinics providing abortion services told The Chronicle they are adding new staffers, expanding hours and making other changes to accommodate the increased demand.

We knew that it was likely that this was coming down the pipeline, said Gloria Martinez, Planned Parenthood Northern California senior director of operations. Weve been planning for this as soon as we got word of the SCOTUS leak ahead of the Supreme Court decision.

Planned Parenthood Northern California created a new position this month  a patient navigator whose role is to help out-of-state abortion seekers navigate reproductive health care services in the Golden State. The organization said it saw a 10% increase in monthly callers after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

Callers from area codes outside of California are automatically flagged for the patient navigator to assist, Martinez said. Theres currently only one navigator servicing Northern Californias 17 Planned Parenthood locations, but Martinez said she may look to hire more should demand rise.

Thats only one of several measures the organization has taken to expand its services.

Were looking into not only expanding clinic hours into Saturdays, but also looking into Sundays, which isnt something weve previously had to do, Martinez said.

FPA Womens Health, which operates 25 clinics spread across the state, expanded the types of services it offers to handle an increasing number of out-of-state patients. The reproductive health care provider said it is using telehealth appointments to accommodate the surge in demand.

FPA is also offering medication abortion services, in which California patients receive pills in the mail, allowing more openings for surgical appointments for out-of-state patients.

Virtual health care providers like Choix and Hey Jane, which provide telemedicine abortion services, have both fielded more online traffic over the past month. Choix saw a 600% increase in traffic to its site the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe, said Chief Executive Officer Cindy Adam. Hey Jane has seen a 20% increase in patients.

As with all health care, state residency is not a requirement for accessing care, but people do need to be in the states we serve for their telehealth visits and in order to receive medication, Adams wrote in an email. We are actively looking into ways we can help support patients outside of the states we currently serve.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health also has seen more people from other states inquire about appointments, a spokesperson wrote in an email. The department has provided services to patients from Louisiana, Idaho, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas.

Patients traveling to California from other states face financial and logistical barriers. They dont have access to MediCal and other state-funded programs, which is why Planned Parenthood locations throughout the state partner with organizations like Access Reproductive Justice to provide financial support. The Oakland agency provides funds for the procedure itself and to help women overcome other practical barriers.

We want to cover any logistical needs that folks have: gas money, lodging, child care, money for food or to help offset prescription costs, said Access Healthline Coordinator Sasha, who asked that only her first name be used due to privacy concerns.

One bill currently making its way through the state Legislature, SB1142, would establish a state-administered abortion fund that encourages donations from the private sector. Its part of a package of abortion-related bills intended to establish California as a safe haven for abortion seekers.

Access primarily assists Californians, though since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the organization has been fielding more calls from outside the state. Most of those trying to obtain services hail from Arizona, Texas and Nevada, but Access has also fielded calls from Mississippi, Minnesota and Georgia, Sasha said. (Abortion is legal in Minnesota and Nevada.)

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For comparison, Access helped four callers from Arizona in April  two months before the SCOTUS decision, Sasha said. This month, the organization helped 14 Arizonans.

There has also been a significant increase in the number of people wanting to volunteer at Access, Sasha said. The organization had to pause receiving submissions for volunteers because it received 3,000 in the past month: a huge jump from its normal 50.

Access also plans to hire more staff. The organization hired two new employees to handle calls starting next month.

Though the Supreme Court decision dramatically limited access to abortion services across the country, people have been traveling across state lines for reproductive health services for years. Earlier this month, the Guttmacher Institute released a report that found that even before Roe was overturned, nearly 1 in 10 abortion-seekers crossed state lines to obtain the procedure.

The proportion of abortion patients traveling out of state for reproductive health care increased steadily from 2011 to 2020, according to the report. That time period also saw a record-breaking number of state abortion restrictions, Senior Research Associate Isaac Maddow-Zimet said.

Clearly, abortion restrictions were driving quite a bit of this, Maddow-Zimet said. Most of the increase in the proportion of people obtaining abortions traveling out of state was really focused in on those states that were really hostile to abortion rights.

But since the Dobbs decision, more states have further restricted or eliminated access to abortion services.

And that means people are going to have to travel a lot farther to obtain care, Maddow-Zimet said.

Camryn Pak is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: camryn.pak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @camrynpak
A dead man was found inside of a burned car early Sunday morning in San Jose.

First responders first received a report of a suspicious car fire near Pomona and Barnard avenues about a quarter before 6 a.m., the San Jose Police Department said on social media.

The body of a dead male was discovered inside of the vehicle.

The Police Department said it will assist the citys Fire Department in the investigation.

If the mans death is deemed a homicide, it will be San Joses 24th of the year.

A 77-year-old San Jose woman was charged last month for allegedly starting a house fire that led to her husbands death. The womans son and public defender say she had been experiencing declining mental health and that the family was working on getting her conserved at the time of the fire.

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This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Raheem Hosseini (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @raheemfh
Parts of the Bay Area saw some light rain Sunday as increasing monsoonal moisture spread across the region, according to the National Weather Service.

The moisture coming from the southeast was why high clouds were visible around the Bay Area, said NWS meteorologist Jeff Lorber.

Just dont expect those clouds to produce more than a few isolated drizzles and drabs, he cautioned.

Looking at the local radar we do see some returns, but most of what were seeing is likely evaporating before it reaches the surface, he said. Theres a lot of dry air above the marine layer.

Lorber said the weather service received a couple reports Sunday morning of light rain. With clouds and moisture all over the Bay Area, rainfall could occur pretty much anywhere, he said.

Lorber said Bay Area residents could see more localized heavy showers with precipitation continuing through Monday with thunder, lighting and showers.

Were not expecting flooding, but there could be brief, heavy downpours, he said. But it would be localized.

Noting that lighting can strike outside of where the rain is falling, Lorber said the risk of a lightning-caused wildfire increases in inland areas at elevations above 2,500 feet, where parched vegetation would be especially susceptible to an electrical spark.

Those are the areas that havent gotten the moisture from the marine layer thats been persistent over the last few weeks, he added.

A red flag warning was issued from 2 p.m. Sunday in a large part of Northern California that includes where the McKinney Fire is burning, which had scorched more than 51,000 acres as of Sunday. Isolated thunderstorms could result in lightning strikes on dry vegetation, bringing with it possible high winds at 30 to 50 mph.

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The city of Yreka in Siskiyou County, where the McKinney Fire is burning, was forecast to reach triple digits on Sunday.

Temperatures were forecast in the 60s to low 70s along the coast, and mid-60s in midtown San Francisco, in the low 80s around San Jose and the mid-80s in the far East Bay, Lorber said. Monday will be a few degrees warmer and temperatures are expected to reach the low to mid-90s by midweek in Concord and Livermore.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
Search and rescue teams evacuated 60 hikers from the Northern California side of the Pacific Crest Trail, stretches of which closed this weekend because of the McKinney Fire and other blazes, authorities said.

In a Facebook post, the Jackson County Sheriffs Office in Medford, Ore., said it reached the five dozen hikers near the Red Buttes Wilderness area Saturday afternoon.

The hikers were taken to a bar at Applegate Lake in southern Oregon, where the Rogue Valley Transportation District then transported them in two buses to Ashland or Medford. It was unclear whether any injuries were reported. The Sheriffs Office did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.

The Pacific Crest Trail Association announced the 110-mile trail closure Saturday. The association recommended staying off the trail between Etna Summit (mile 1600) in Northern California and the Mount Ashland Campground (mile 1710) in Southern Oregon on its website. The association added that hikers in those areas should evacuate to the nearest towns.

This stretch of the trail was under evacuation orders because of the McKinney Fire in northern Siskiyou County, the Sheriffs Office said. The McKinney Fire ballooned to 51,468 acres Sunday afternoon, while the much smaller China 2 Fire in Seiad Valley grew to 300 acres.

Several fires in Oregon, including the Tolo Mountain Fire and a blaze burning at Windigo Pass, have closed the trail between Crater Lake and Bend, Ore.

Hikers were also advised to avoid Highway 138 (mile 1848) north of Crater Lake National Park and Highway 58 (mile 1908) at Willamette Pass in Oregon.

The notoriously challenging, 2,600-mile trail attracts huge numbers of through-hikers each year. But it has become even more difficult to navigate in recent years as climate change intensifies.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jessica Flores contributed to this report.

Emma Talley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: emma.talley@sfchronicle.com Twitter @EmmaT332
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UPDATE: McKinney Fire in Siskiyou County grows as crews work to keep it away from Yreka

A wildfire burning in far Northern California that began on Friday exploded to more than 51,000 acres in less than 48 hours due to windy conditions and other extreme weather.

The McKinney Fire, which was burning about 9 miles from the Siskiyou County seat of Yreka as of Saturday mid-afternoon, sent up a massive cumulus cloud and prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency for the county.

The governors office had estimated Saturday afternoon that some 2,000 people were under evacuation orders due to the fire; the orders later expanded to include western parts of Yreka, with evacuation warnings in place for all city residents west of Interstate 5.

Officials said thunderstorms and unpredictable winds in the area have made it difficult to determine the trajectory of the fire, which is burning in Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border.

The fire was 0% contained as of Sunday morning, and fire weather warnings were in effect for the area Sunday and Monday. A long stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail was evacuated.

It has been a crazy time period, said Yreka resident Kiko Gomez, speaking by phone on Saturday afternoon. Im feeling a bit nervous, not only for myself but others.

Gomez, who left Yreka on Saturday evening, said that after living in the area for over a decade, this is the closest a fire has ever been.

In a sign of its extreme behavior, the wildfire sent a 50,000 foot pyrocumulonimbus cloud  a plume generated by intensely burning fires  into the air, pushing smoke high above the clouds, climate scientist Daniel Swain noted on Twitter.

Smoke from the fire was blowing to the northeast and was not expected to affect the Bay Area.

Siskiyou County Supervisor Brandon Criss, whose district is east of Yreka, said he has friends in the city packing and getting ready to leave. He said he could smell the thick smoke at his home in Dorris, just south of the Oregon border.

The fire has grown exponentially over the last short while, he said. He added the Board of Supervisors will likely declare a state of emergency in the county during its meeting on Tuesday.

No information is available on the cause of the fire. The state of emergency declaration from Newsoms office will help cut red tape and speed resources to the region, including potentially from other states.

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The area around the fire was under a fire weather watch through Monday as lightning was expected over dry vegetation. Two additional fires in Siskiyou County  the China 2 and Evans fires  are also prompting evacuation warnings for over 200 residents. The two blazes merged earlier today and have burned more than 300 acres.

Crews from multiple agencies are battling the flames. Firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service are currently in charge, but a California Incident Management Team, which coordinates agencies like the Forest Service and Cal Fire, was scheduled to take over Sunday morning.

Siskiyou County Supervisor Ed Valenzuela, who represents Mount Shasta, said even though he is miles away from the blaze, he can see the clouds of smoke from his backyard.

Hopefully with the weather moderating they can get a handle on it, he said. This is not the first rodeo. We've gone through fires.

Danielle Echeverria and Emma Talley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com emma.talley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev @EmmaT332
Efforts to address the dueling mental health and substance abuse crises on Californias streets have ramped up in recent years. The latest and showiest of these efforts is the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Cour t, put forth by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Pitched as an upstream diversion to prevent people with severe mental illness from ending up incarcerated or conserved, CARE Courts would work like this: First, any family member, case worker, or first-responder, including police, who believes a person needs intervention for mental health or substance use issues, could make a referral to a civil court. The person in need of care would then receive a clinical evaluation by their county behavioral health system. A public defender and case manager would then be assigned, and a CARE Plan would be drafted, which could include a 12-month plan for medication, housing, and behavioral health treatment.

The plan is flashy. Its well-branded. But dig just a little under the surface, and things dont look so shiny. For a bill centered around care, its remarkably careless. And if San Francisco officials were hoping CARE Courts will sweep in to solve our issues for us, consider that idea dead in the water.

San Francisco has long battled with the ethical quandary of whether it is more humane to force someone who is very ill into involuntary treatment or grant them the freedom to make their own decisions about their life and care. Much of the discussion around CARE Courts centers on this debate. And these are valuable conversations to have.

But its doubtful CARE Courts will even get that far.

The most glaring flaw is a lack of funding and key infrastructure. The bill creates an entirely new system that can be used to compel treatment but includes only $65 million to support court expansion. It relies on already oversubscribed county programs to somehow accommodate an influx of new patients in need of court-mandated drug abuse treatment, mental health care and housing.

That a lack of resources is available to accommodate these mandates is obvious. Our existing systems to address the intersection of mental health and substance use issues can hardly operate. People accepted to mental health diversion programs are languishing in the county jail for months waiting for a bed to open. The lead judge of San Franciscos Adult Drug Court said at a March Board of Supervisors hearing that due to this shortage, his staff has abandoned hope of getting anyone with both diagnoses into a treatment program. And a damning Board of Supervisors hearing last week discussed five people who have taken more than 1,700 ambulance rides in the past five years, costing the city upward of $4 million. When mental health professionals tried to conserve one person, there was nowhere to put them.

California  and in particular, San Francisco  is already suffering from a severe shortage of behavioral health workers. In interviews with employees from both nonprofit and city health programs, we were told repeatedly that there simply isnt anyone to hire for a growing number of vacant positions.

Across the bay, its not much better. A civil grand jury report on Alameda Countys behavioral health found understaffing on crisis phone lines, and incarceration used in place of psychiatric treatment.

When asked about the lack of funding attached to this bill, Newsoms senior counselor Jason Elliott said that, The whole thing only succeeds if we massively expand the behavioral health clinical network. He noted that since Newsom took office in 2020, $4.5 billion has been allocated for this purpose across the state. I have a hard time with the argument that we haven't invested enough sufficiently to be able to do CARE Court, he said.

But the results have been slow to appear: In the past two years, San Francisco has added only 180 new psychiatric treatment beds. It currently has none to spare. And CARE Courts would be implemented next year.

With this lack of attention to resources, its almost certain that CARE Court will fall flat. If San Francisco, a city with a $14 billion annual budget, cant find a single bed for someone racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in ambulance rides, how will smaller, less wealthy, counties fare with these new requirements?

This, of course, begs the question: If people could already access health resources, why would they even need a court order?

Until we provide more housing and treatment beds, train, hire and fund behavioral health workers, and improve access to care for people at every step of their journey to recovery, we may never find out.

Correction: An earlier version of this column misstated the amount the state had allocated for behavioral health.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
Solitary confinement is torture. I know this because I spent more than a decade of my life held in isolation. My first experience in solitary confinement took place in the California Youth Authority when I was 16 years old. I was sent there because I had been caught with drugs. I needed treatment for addiction and counseling.

Instead, I was placed in isolation.

Once a week, I was given a novel, five pieces of paper and a pencil. Talking to my neighbors while we were in our cells was prohibited. My only human contact came during one hour of exercise in the yard.

The loneliness was crushing and unbearable. Our cells were designed to deprive us of any sensory experience, with the windows covered by a painted dense metal grate. But the worst thing was the lack of human contact. I would often become so desperate to break that silence that I would ask myself questions and answer them out loud as if I was interviewing myself. I would also recite every memory that I could think of since birth just as a way to keep my mind active. Sometimes I would just sit there and cry.

Later, when I was moved to solitary at the notorious Pelican Bay prison, I would forget what human touch felt like. I was so desperate for contacta handshake, a hug  that I would caress myself. When human touch finally did come it was in the form of handcuffs slapped on my wrists and guards hands squeezing the back of my neck.

I often tell people that I would have preferred a physical beating to being held in isolation. Bruises and cuts heal, but the wounds in my mind and soul are so deep that I do not believe I will ever fully recover.

Research has shown that exposure to solitary confinement can cause serious and often permanent harm to individuals. It also has greater repercussions for our society. Numerous studies have shown the practice leads to higher rates of recidivism, lowers parole grants and perpetuates cycles of violence in carceral settings. Recent studies have also shown that solitary confinement increases the risk of premature death, even after release, as well as health care costs. Some medical experts estimate that reducing the practice in supermax facilities across the nation could save taxpayers $155 million dollars in total future health care costs.

Since my release from prison, I have started a new life. I am now attending the University of California at Berkeley and am a member of the Underground Scholars Program, which is building a prison-to-school pipeline for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Im also working with other solitary survivors in California to limit how this practice is used in our prisons and jails.

I am among the lucky few able to land on my feet after surviving solitary. Most of us end up drowned in addiction or so crippled by mental health challenges that we are incapable of living a healthy life.

For many solitary survivors, our best opportunity at healing has come through working together to create change. In 2011 and 2013, I joined thousands of other prisoners in a hunger strike to protest the use of solitary confinement in Californias prisons, a practice that was widespread at the time and kept some people in isolation for more than a decade. This organizing, coupled with brilliant legal work in a class-action lawsuit by thousands of individuals who were held in prolonged solitary confinement in California, led to the Ashker settlement, which helped reshape solitary in California.

The settlement challenged the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations indefinite use of solitary confinement. Despite the success of the litigation, however, judges have found the department has continued to deny individuals due process and violate the terms of the agreement. Other states, including New York, have recently passed legislation to limit the use of solitary. The United Nations has declared the use of prolonged solitary confinement as torture under the Nelson Mandela Rules.

Solitary survivors, including myself, are now advocating for California to join this movement. AB2632, The California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement by Assembly Member Chris Holden, would help us do just that. The bill ends the use of prolonged solitary confinement, setting a strict limit of 15 days. It also bans solitary for special populations, including pregnant women, people with disabilities and people under 25 and over 65. The goal of the bill is to show that alternatives to solitary confinement exist and are rooted in providing programming and human interaction as a means to ensure everyone's safety.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has claimed that the bill will cost the state billions and will require new construction at every facility. This claim is untrue and put forward in bad faith. In 2017, the Legislative Analysts Office noted that Gov. Jerry Browns 2016-17 and 2017-18 budgets accounted for more than $50 million in savings by converting 469 high security beds  i.e. solitary  to 533 sensitive needs beds. This transition took place because of the Ashker settlement, and it demonstrates how costly solitary is. The Legislative Analyst further noted: Because security housing units require more custody staff than most other units, these conversions would result in net savings.

I recently co-authored a report that demonstrates how reducing the use of solitary confinement can save California more than $60 million, with tens of millions of savings into the future.

More important than saving money is the simple fact that the bill will save lives. We need to protect future generations from the cruel and permanent harm that is solitary confinement.

Kevin McCarthy is a solitary survivor and a member of the UC Berkeley Underground Scholars. He is also the co-author of The Cost of Solitary Confinement: Why Ending Isolation in California Prisons Can Save Money and Save Lives.
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Mount Lyell, Half Dome, Clouds Rest  behind every mountains name is a story. For Sing Peak, a 10,000-foot giant that straddles Yosemite National Park and the Sierra National Forest, the story begins with its namesake: Tie Sing, a legendary 19th century backcountry chef.

In early August, Yosemite park staff and members of a Los Angeles-based historical society began trekking to the summit in honor of Sing and as part of the 10th annual Yosemite-Sing Peak Pilgrimage. The event went as planned, after organizers closely monitored the almost fully contained Washburn Fire in southern Yosemite and the nearby Oak Fire west of the park.

Sing, who had a mountain named after him in 1899, worked as the head chef of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1888 until his death in 1918 at age 52. At a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was being fueled by the Chinese Exclusion Act, Sing overcame systemic obstacles to become something of a celebrity chef, preparing inventive and flavorful dishes that heightened the outdoor experience for government officials, business leaders and others who would later take significant steps to safeguard Americas national parks.

Sings story is one of many that Park Ranger Yenyen Chan has spent more than a decade researching. Since the early 2000s, Chan has played a pivotal role in producing Yosemites cultural programs that showcase the contributions of Chinese immigrants to the park. Its an abundant history that grows fuller as she delves deeper into Yosemites past.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

Chan said that during her research, she was surprised to learn there were so many Chinese who had a huge role in the development of the American West.

I had never learned about their role, she said. I wanted that story to be told, the fact that they did so much and not have that be forgotten today.

Rushing into Yosemites past

Through years of research, Chan discovered Yosemites Chinese history going back to the mid-19th century. The year 1848 marked the start of the Gold Rush, during which an influx of people from out of state and abroad came to California with hopes of making a fortune.

This included more than 20,000 Chinese immigrants, mostly men fleeing economic instability from South China, who settled in California to work in gold mining and related industries in those early years, said David Torres-Rouff, an associate professor at UC Merced.

The California Gold Rush was an opportunity to get transformational wealth literally just by taking it out of the ground, Torres-Rouff said. Starting in 1849, theres a rather significant influx of immigrants from China.

But in 1850, the state passed the first Foreign Miners Tax Act, imposing a steep monthly fee on all non-citizen miners.

That very much changes the landscape of work for Chinese immigrants, Torres-Rouff explained. With limited employment opportunities, many Chinese workers left mining for jobs in other sectors, such as agriculture and construction.

In parallel to these shifts, Chinese immigrants in Yosemite were building essential infrastructure and working in many of the parks historic hotels. Chans research documents how the park was shaped during this time. In 1874, about 300 Chinese workers built the 23-mile Wawona Road and the Washburn Trail, leading to Yosemite National Parks largest sequoia grove. In 1883, hundreds of Chinese workers helped build the 56-mile Tioga Road, one of the parks main arteries.

U.S. Geological Survey 1909

Chinese immigrants also worked as cooks and laundry attendants at many of the parks hotels, including the Wawona Hotel, which started as a family-owned operation before it was sold to the National Park Service in 1932.

There were a number of notable Chinese cuisiniers, such as Ah You, the Wawona Hotels head chef from 1886 to 1933, who served influential guests including former U.S. presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.

Then there was Tie Sing. Sing was well known for his ingenuity, adaptability and creativity. During his three-decade tenure, Sing impressed government officials with his famous meals, so much so that the USGS named a mountain after him near the end of the 19th century.

A few years before his death, Sing was selected to serve as head chef on two expeditions helmed by then-Assistant Secretary of the Interior Stephen Mather. These trips, known as the Mather Mountain parties, persuaded the federal government to protect parks by creating the National Park Service in 1916.

Even with few tools, Sing expertly stored and prepared dishes in the wilderness. During these trips, he deployed a variety of unique strategies, such as using the body heat of pack mules to keep packaged dough warm for fresh bread. In an article published by the George Wright Society, Chan wrote of one meal consisting of soup, trout, venison, fried potatoes, string beans, plum pudding, cheese, and coffee.

Several attendees noted Sings meals in their personal records. Mather, who later became the first director of the National Park Service, felt Sings food was an essential element in creating an enjoyable outdoor experience for his guests.

Courtesy Yenyen Chan

Scenery is a splendid thing when it is viewed by a man who is in a contented frame of mind, Mather once said. Give him a poor breakfast after he has had a bad nights sleep, and he will not care how fine your scenery is.

Sing garnered celebrity chef status despite living in an era of systemic racism and rampant xenophobia. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which Torres-Rouff said severely constricted who could enter the country. Anti-Chinese violence exploded in the wake of the laws passage.

Throughout the late 19th century, Torres-Rouff explained, urban conditions remained fraught and unstable, driving Chinese migration around the state, especially to urban areas such as San Francisco. But despite the difficult circumstances, Chinese immigrants built and improved communities, formed institutions and contributed greatly to the growth and success of the West.

More than 100 years later, a second-generation Chinese American woman from Los Angeles would discover how Chinese workers built the trails and roads  the bones  of the place she has worked and loved for years.

Showcasing Chinese history

Born and raised in L.A., Chan became interested in Yosemites cultural history as an intern for the National Park Service in the early 1990s. She first heard about the important role Chinese immigrants played in the making of the park from her supervisor at the time.

After graduating with a bachelors degree from Yale University and a masters in engineering management from Yale School of the Environment, Chan worked in the nonprofit and consulting industries doing environmental research. Then, in 2003, she returned to Yosemite as a full-time interpretive park ranger.

Yosemites interpretive park rangers research the park through an interdisciplinary lens, then produce programs and educational resources to help visitors understand and form personal connections with the park.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

Chan began researching Chinese history in Yosemite in 2006. Through old photographs, library books, historical diaries and more, she learned about the undertold stories of the Chinese immigrants who had helped make the park what it is today.

When I started working in the environmental field, there were very few Asian Americans that I saw that were doing this type of work, Chan said. I think thats also why I wanted to tell (these stories) because (of) my personal connection as a Chinese American growing up.

In her role as an interpretive ranger, Chan has discussed Chinese history in Yosemite at various venues; produced educational materials, such as journal articles and a seven-minute video; and spearheaded some of the parks historical and cultural programs on the subject, including the Yosemite-Sing Peak Pilgrimage.

Each summer since 2013, Yosemite  in collaboration with the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California  puts on the six-day event, consisting of ranger-led nature walks and talks about Chinese history in the park, a group dinner and a three-day backpacking trip to Sing Peak for a small group of qualified hikers.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

On Friday, dozens of guests visited the park to learn about its past and present. Their plans for the first three days included learning about the parks history on nature walks, a discussion with artist Rich Lo about his illustrative work for a book about Sing, a guided activity about Cantonese cuisine with award-winning Sacramento-based chef David SooHoo, and a potluck.

Although the event is usually based in the southern part of Yosemite, this years gathering was held outside the northeast corner of the park due to the Washburn Fire. On Aug. 1, after most of the group headed home, one or two small groups of experienced backpackers started a three-day journey to the summit of Sing Peak. Chan was among them, leading a group just as shes done every year for the past decade.

As a park ranger, one of the things that gives me joy in my job is just meeting people and also having the opportunity to share these natural landscapes and our countrys cultural history with the public, Chan said. Hopefully that inspires people to think deeper and to see their own connections with the environment.

In addition to the Yosemite-Sing Peak Pilgrimage, there have been a number of other initiatives designed to showcase Chinese history in Yosemite. Last October, the park restored the historic Chinese laundry building in Wawona, where 19th-century hotel support staff used to work. The restoration project was supported by a $100,000 gift from donors Sandra and Franklin Yee.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

The park has plans to continue showcasing its cultural history and spotlighting diverse stories. Yosemite Conservancy, a park partner that has raised more than $140 million since 1988 for preservation and to supplement federal funds, has played a pivotal role in funding the parks restorative and educational programs.

In June, Yosemite Conservancy announced it was giving the park $14 million this year to address climate change, sustainability, and diversity. Some of these funds will go toward filling in gaps in Yosemites Chinese history.

The park plans to add exhibits to its Chinese laundry building, which could be installed as soon as next year, according to Frank Dean, the president and CEO of Yosemite Conservancy. The park also has plans to change the name of its Pioneer Yosemite History Center to simply the Yosemite History Center based on survey results and because of negative connotations associated with the word pioneer. The name change is intended to make the space more inclusive.

There are grant funds set aside to continue researching the contributions of Chinese workers to the parks historical infrastructure, such as roads. Additionally, the park plans to add exhibits on other marginalized communities, such as the Buffalo Soldiers of Yosemite. There is about $230,000 allocated for exhibit work alone, not including grants from previous years.

Dean said that these initiatives are a part of the parks efforts to connect with its diverse visitors on a more personal level.

Its important that we create the next generation of stewards for the park, Dean added.

Chan echoed this statement: She said its important to her to tell these stories so that the next generation and the next generation learns about this history.

Chasity Hale is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chasity.hale@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chas_hale
Kyiv, July 31 (UNI) Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered all civilians still living in parts of eastern Donetsk region under Ukrainian control to evacuate, BBC reported on Sunday.

Speaking during a late-night address from Kyiv, Zelensky warned the people still living there that there could be an intensification in the fighting.

"The more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said.

The region,large parts of which are already controlled by Russian forces has seen heavy clashes even as it has greatly slowed the advance of Russian forces.

Zelensky's intervention comes as Russia invited UN and Red Cross officials to investigate the deaths of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in another part of Donetsk region held by Russian-backed separatists.

The troops were killed in unclear circumstances during an attack on a prison in Olenivka, with both sides blaming each other.

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Weeks after California approved sweeping legislation meant to drastically curb plastic pollution, some environmental groups and legislators are urging the state to go even further by approving a separate bill that targets waste generated by online shopping.

AB2026, the additional bill, seeks to reduce the amount of single-use plastic packaging and filler material that online retailers commonly use while shipping their products. The bill was approved by the state Assembly in May and is being considered by the Senates appropriations committee, where it faces a crucial deadline in less than two weeks.

Senators are weighing AB2026 after the Legislature already endorsed a much broader plastic-reduction measure, SB54, that was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in late June. SB54 gives manufacturers 10 years to make sure that plastic packaging and food ware items can be recycled, composted or reused. They also have to cut back the amount of plastic they generate to begin with.

But State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said Saturday that AB2026 is still needed so California can specifically address the issue of plastic waste from online retail.

Now we have a chance to really start moving the dial on packaging, Wiener, one of the bills principal co-authors, told reporters at a Pier 39 news conference.

Wiener said hes commonly received item ordered online that are packaged in excessive amounts of plastic.

These companies really dont have a lot of incentive to try to minimize it, Wiener said. Theyre gonna keep doing it until theyre told not to do it. And thats what this bill is all about.

Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, jointly wrote AB2026 with Assembly Member Laura Friedman, D-Glendale (Los Angeles County).

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

AB2026, in its current form, would require online retailers to curtail the amount of single-use plastic shipping envelopes, cushioning and filler they use by yet-to-be-specified percentages by 2030. The bill has to advance from the appropriations committee by Aug. 11, Wiener said, and clear the Senate floor by the end of August in order to reach the governors desk.

Right now, plastic waste is clogging landfills, littering communities and polluting our oceans, Ben Grundy, an associate with Environment California, said at the news conference. We cannot recycle our way out of this problem. We are drowning in plastic and its time to turn off the tap.

Grundy and Wiener were joined by student canvassers from Environment California and the California Public Interest Research Group, or CALPIRG, who have been trying to rally support for AB2026 among Bay Area residents.

This is an impossible battle to fight alone, said canvasser Kalilla Garcia, an 18-year old incoming freshman at UC Davis. We know there is a problem and we must work together to solve it.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
McKinney Fire updates: Get info on the McKinney Fire from the U.S. Forest Service.

Information line: 530-643-0279

Evacuations: Get the latest info from ZoneHaven. An evacuation center is open at the Weed Community Center.

Wildfire cameras: Livestreaming from AlertWildfire.

For Monday's updates, click here.

LATEST August 1, 6:13 a.m. Two people were found deceased in a vehicle that was burned in the path of the McKinney Fire on Sunday, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office reports. Fire personnel found the bodies at approximately 9:57 a.m. in a residential driveway along Doggett Creek Road, which is off of Highway 96, west of the community of Klamath River, California. No other details were immediately available.

****

A raging wildfire along the California-Oregon border is now forcing evacuations in Yreka as high temperatures and punishing winds continue to stoke the blaze. The McKinney Fire in Siskiyou County has blackened 51,468 acres, according to the U.S. Forest Service's latest update Sunday morning. After clawing up to 1% containment on Saturday, crews are now back down to no containment.

"Yreka Police Department has issued an Evacuation Order for the area west of Fairchild Street and Shasta Street to include Oakridge Mobile Estates," the Forest Service announced Saturday evening. "This area is being evacuated due to proximity to the fire and the need for additional time necessary for this this group of residents to safely evacuate. Residents in the Evacuation Order area should evacuate immediately.

"An Evacuation Warning has been issued for all areas of Yreka west of I-5. Residents in the Evacuation Warning area should prepare to evacuate and should be ready if the area is changed to an order."

Weather conditions are not favorable for fire crews. On Sunday, they're expecting single-digit humidity, lightning, blazing temperatures and gusting winds, which "will continue to be the drivers for the extreme fire behavior." The red flag conditions "can be extremely dangerous for firefighters, as winds can be erratic and extremely strong, causing fire to spread in any direction," the Forest Service said Sunday. "New lightning fires are still being detected, including one overnight at the top of Doggett Creek north of the main fire."

READ MORE: Worrying weather in forecast as crews battle McKinney Fire

"Crews were actively engaged in structure protection overnight, especially in the Klamath River area. Little progression was observed on the fires edge closest to Yreka City," it continued. "Priorities for today are to continue structure preparation and protection in the Highway 96 corridor, and around the communities of Fort Jones and Yreka City."

Over the next day, they're projecting "fire growth ... to spread in all directions as Red Flag Warning for thunderstorms and lightning are in the forecast. Fire could impact Gottville, Humbug Road area on the east flank. Movement towards Scott Bar is expected as the fire moves off Collins Baldy."

Noah Berger/AP

ALSO READ: Dozens rescued from Pacific Crest Trail as McKinney Fire threatens

The McKinney Fire broke out on Friday in the Klamath National Forest, about 15 miles south of the Oregon border, sending out a massive pyrocumulus cloud and triggering a flurry of evacuations in small forestland communities in the northern most part of the Golden State. The McKinney Fire was reported at 300 acres on Friday night with no containment, and exploded overnight, reaching 18,000 acres by Saturday morning, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Because of the erratic winds the fire is going all over the place, Caroline Quintanilla, a public information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, told SFGATE on Saturday afternoon.

The blaze started at 2:38 p.m. in the Oak Knoll Ranger District west of the Walker Creek Bridge on the south side of the Klamath River, the U.S. Forest Service said. Thunderstorms passed over the region Friday night and may have exacerbated the blaze."We had 100 lightning strikes in western Siskiyou County last night," said Brad Schaaf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Medford, Ore.

"It looks like the fire definitely came first, before the thunderstorms," Schaaf said. "It looks like there was a wind gust from the fire that aided the thunderstorm development. The first lightning strikes happened after 7 p.m."

Schaaf said the fire put out a 39,000-foot-tall pyrocumulus cloud at 11:30 p.m. Friday. "It's unusual for a fire to put out a fire cloud of that size late at night because usually fires stabilize after sunset," he said.

Pyrocumulus clouds, also known as fire clouds, form when air heats up and moves upward, pushing smoke, ash and vapor up with it. They are a sign that fire activity on the ground is increasing.

Multiple roads were closed due to the blaze including Highway 96, Scott River Road, Highway 96 and Highway 263, the Siskiyou Office of Emergency Services said.

Two other smaller fires were reported near the McKinney Fire, the China Peak Fire and the Evans Peak Fire. The Klamath National Forest said at 11 a.m. on Saturday that the China Fire had combined with the Evans Fire and was about 300 to 350 acres and 2 to 3 miles west of the town of Seiad Valley.

"Persistent drought conditions have caused extremely dry, receptive fuels which have resulted in rapid fire spread," the Forest Service said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Thirty-five is a mess of a number, the adolescence of middle age. Teen vampire flick The Lost Boys turns 35 today, and theres no better time to honor this summer blockbuster, which inspired an entire genre that is still going strong today.

Critics damned the film with faint praise, but contrary to experts opinions, people did take notice in big ways  both of the genre and its stunning Central Coast location, Santa Cruz.

Just ask Jordan Peele.

Peele pays homage to 'The Lost Boys'

The Lost Boys was a major influence on Peele, this generations it horror director, who recently resurrected an icon of the Bay Areas recent past in Nope.

Peele loved The Lost Boys so much, he insisted the opener of his 2019 genre-bending suspense Us be filmed at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk as an homage to The Lost Boys. And he did such a good job tapping into the quirky, freaky soul of Santa Cruz that a rumor even started that the film was scaring tourists away.

Photo by Charles Russo

But, in mind-bending Peele fashion, he didnt stop there. Instead, he got really meta with his tribute.

Us opens in 1986, the year The Lost Boys was filmed  showcasing a film crew at the boardwalk, which is, of course, meant to be The Lost Boys production.

We shot in Santa Cruz and the first scene of our movie is there, Peele told Uproxx. Its the same beach, its the same amusement park. And its even 1986.

There is a reference to The Lost Boys shooting by the carousel, he added. Theyre walking down the ... boardwalk and the mother says, You know theyre shooting a movie over there by the carousel.

Photo by Charles Russo

The boardwalk is a pivotal place, also another character in The Lost Boys and Us, Visit Santa Cruz County spokesperson and film commissioner Christina Glynn told SFGATE. I think for even a casual fan of film, you come here and you recognize the boardwalk right away, but for die-hard Lost Boys fans, we have a map for more off-the-beaten-path gems. Youd be surprised how many people come here to find as many places they can in person.

The Lost Boys a flop in critics eyes

Even in his very lukewarm reception of The Lost Boys, Roger Ebert recognized that there could be something there with the concept of teenage vampires: If you really stop to think about it, a bunch of vampire teenagers would be a terrible shame, a tragedy, a heartbreaking loss of innocence for them, let alone their victims, Ebert wrote in his two-and-a-half-star review. Am I silly to take them seriously? Maybe so. The movie doesnt.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ebert went on to praise the cast, which was headlined by Dianne Wiest, who was coming off an Oscar win in 1986 for Best Supporting Actress in Hannah and Her Sisters. Other notables included longtime stage and television actor Barnard Hughes as Wiests father and character actor Edward Herrmann as a local comic book store owner and Wiests love interest.

Photo by Charles Russo

But it was the teens that did the heavy lifting, including the mischievous Coreys (Haim and Feldman), heartthrobs Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland as dueling good boy/bad boy vampire besties and Jami Gertz as the femme fatale.

If there was anything they could get into, the little troublemakers, they did, assistant director Bill Beasley previously told SFGATE of Haim and Feldmans on-set antics. They would find it and do it. They were a handful.

Second assistant director Judith Bouley, who was also responsible for location scouting and casting extras, wrangled thousands of potential extras for The Lost Boys, many of whom, she noted, were Santa Cruz locals.

Photo by Charles Russo

I did it at the Holiday Inn in Santa Cruz, and we announced it in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, she told SFGATE. More than 2,400 people showed up in her two days of casting, and 800 were eventually selected to fill out the boardwalk scenes.

In spite of the extra effort to keep the shoot Santa Cruz weird, critics of the era were not impressed. Theres some good stuff in the movie including a cast thats good right down the line and a willingness to have some fun with teenage culture, Ebert wrote. ...But when everything is all over, theres nothing to leave the theater with  no real horrors, no real dread, no real imagination  just technique at the service of formula.

Sacramento Bee reviewer George Williams, who also gave the film two stars, wasnt as kind, or forward-thinking in his appraisal: The movie, directed by Joel Schumacher (St. Elmos Fire and DC Cab) and put together by the crew that created The Goonies, including executive producer Richard Donner, is on to something very promising at the start, he wrote. But director Schumacher doesnt trust these ideas ... stretching his story into nonsensical alleyways. The Lost Boys never recovers.

Did Kiefer Sutherland stumble on to the mullet?

Despite the critical pans, The Lost Boys defied expectations and rallied to a stellar $5.2 million opening weekend. It debuted at No. 2, just behind Timothy Daltons James Bond film The Living Daylights, and recouped most of its $8.2 million budget en route to grossing $32.2 million.

Archive Photos/Getty Images

The teen horror-comedy also went on to become one of Warner Bros. best-selling home video releases of all time, spawning a cultural avalanche of teen vampire literature and film that is ubiquitous today, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Twilight. Yet only a few decades ago, this was something brand new.

Another legacy of the film: It helped popularize the mullet.

I thought Billy Idol was really cool and I thought he looked really cool and I still think he looks really cool, Sutherland recently told GQ in a retrospective of his favorite roles. His hair was all spiky and kind of punk up front  so I got that haircut but I left enough at the back  and I think kind of accidentally might have at least been part of the movement that created maybe one of the worst hairstyles of all time  the mullet.

A mystical place ... a perfect place for the mystical Santa Carla

The Lost Boys turned Santa Cruz into a filming destination, and that tradition continues today, Glynn says.

Photo by Charles Russo

The film captured the zeitgeist of the late 80s and touched on the counterculture flavor of Santa Cruz, she says. Some say Santa Cruz is a mystical place, and it is a perfect place for the mystical Santa Carla. The Lost Boys was really ground zero. It really married a teen movie with the vampire genre and put us on the map as a location.

Besides Us, recent big-budget features that have filmed in Santa Cruz include Sandra Bullocks 2018 viral Netflix hit Bird Box and the 2018 expansion of the Transformers universe Bumblebee.

And if you see California coastline or towering redwoods in a commercial or a magazine ad  chances are it was shot in Santa Cruz as well.

Our bread and butter is still photography and commercials, Glynn says. Highway 9 through the Santa Cruz mountains and Highway 1 north of town are the most popular. We work with two or three very prominent location scouts and were on their radar. You can be at the boardwalk or the beach and 15 minutes later in a redwood forest. Its both economical and very dramatic landscapes.

Santa Cruz is forever linked with The Lost Boys

Though Hollywoods spotlight continues to shine on Santa Cruz, nothing stands alone quite like The Lost Boys and the fandom it still conjures, Glynn admits.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

And if you werent able to get to the boardwalk or Atlantis Fantasyworld comic book store or the old Pogonip Clubhouse this weekend to pay tribute, rest assured: Santa Cruz is still planning a big The Lost Boys anniversary celebration this Halloween weekend, with a free showing of the film on the beach in front of the Colonnade at the Boardwalk at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.

Coming through the pandemic, the boardwalk has had to pare it down a little this summer, Glynn says. But we wouldnt miss an anniversary for The Lost Boys. Were forever linked to this cult classic.
If youve ever grabbed a Disneyland snack from Trolley Treats as you walked into Disney California Adventure, youve likely been face to face with a huge piece of Disney history hidden in plain sight.

The model of Disney Imagineerings first-ever attempt at expansion of Disneyland park, Rock Candy Mountain, which later became Matterhorn Bobsleds, lives in the window for all to see.

Trolley Treats, the confectionery store on Buena Vista Street, is home to a model of the mountain made of candy, complete with a working trolley running through it. Today, it just looks like an enticement to come into the store and buy a sweet treat  but this working window scene would be instantly recognizable to guests if the work of Disney Legend Claude Coats and other Imagineers had come to fruition back in 1957.

In Disneylands first year of operation, starting in July 1955, the park welcomed 5 million guests. By 1956, Walt Disneys team was hard at work planning and creating more magic for the theme park to entice return visitors and reach even more new fans.

Rock Candy Mountain was set to be the large-scale, whimsical centerpiece to Fantasyland, originally planned to house the Casey Jr. Circus Train and be part of the Storybook Land Canal Boats. The train would have taken guests up, around and over the Rio Fudge River, through Taffy Valley and over Dew Drop Hills.

Josh May / Special to SFGATE

But it wasnt always lollipops and gumdrops. The mountain's original concept was to be built completely out of crystal formations, but Walt thought it would be too difficult to keep clean and sparkling, so Imagineers restructured the attraction into a candy mountain. Walt reportedly told Herb Ryman, With all the smog down there in Anaheim, well never be able to keep that thing clean.

Disneylands Fantasyland, although smaller in footprint than any other of the parks lands, receives an outsized amount of attention from guests. The land is so important to the park experience that on any given day Peter Pans Flight is rumored to have more than 10,000 guests take flight, even with an average wait time of 48 minutes for a 2-minute-long attraction.

Building up this first peak in what is now Disneylands collective mountain range would have brought a bright, soaring focal point into the space. That's exactly what Disney Legends and master model makers Harriet Burns and Fred Joerger tried to show by building a model based closely on Coats' original design.

Burns once told the tale of meticulously gluing dozens and dozens of candies including licorice, gumdrops, candy canes and fudge to a model at Walt Disney Imagineering, which was then WED Enterprises. But the model received a less-than-enthusiastic reaction from Walt and the team took it as yet another stumbling block for the possible expansion.

Imagineers would attempt to reformulate this mountain idea many times, including a design addition where the interior of the mountain featured scenes from the Land of Oz, which Disney had acquired the rights to in 1954. The design of Rock Candy Mountain at one point included a finale scene depicting Dorothy's birthday party.

The project was finally scrapped after Imagineers presented the finished model to John Hench. He told Walt, When you have a meal of meat and potatoes, you really enjoy a dessert of candy, but when you just see piles and piles of it, it kind of turns you off. They all decided it would look unappealing and possibly make riders queasy.

Walt agreed, saying, You know, youre right. Just forget the whole thing.

And just like that, Harriet Burns said, we opened the door, and pushed the entire candy mountain platform outside. The blue jays came down and ate peanuts out of the peanut brittle and the pecans out of the fudge, and that was the end of Candy Mountain.

Josh May / Special to SFGATE

Rock Candy Mountain did focus Walt Disney on adding a mountain of some kind to Disneyland. After the idea was permanently shelved, during filming of the 1959 live action film, Third Man on the Mountain, in Zermatt, Switzerland, Walt became fascinated with the Matterhorn. His thoughts shifted to how he could incorporate this inspiration into Disneyland. Rock Candy Mountains core idea of an attraction through a mountain eventually became the one-of-a-kind Matterhorn Bobsleds.

Next time you walk down Buena Vista Street and its beautifully showcased window displays, stop and admire the working trolley running up, down and through the mountain of candy with crystal rock formations on top. Imagine a Disneyland where this unrealized attraction is the focus of our beloved Fantasyland.

The simple homage shows that at Disneyland, even scrapped ideas never truly die.
More than a year after Zuni Cafe implemented a mandatory service surcharge in lieu of tipping, restaurant owner Gilbert Pilgram said that he has no plans to revert to the former model despite employee pushback.

A number of Zuni Cafe workers told the San Francisco Chronicle that the move has made it challenging to make ends meet without the help of tips and that they have reached the point of discussing a walkout or unionizing to put pressure on Zuni, the Chronicle reported. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.)

While the pressure has stirred Pilgram to reassess the current model in place, he told the Chronicle that reinstating tips wasnt an option. At this time, its unclear what changes will be made to the surcharge, if any. SFGATE reached out to Zuni Cafe for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Its in no restaurateurs interest to have a system that keeps any of the parts of the restaurant unhappy. Thats a recipe for disaster, owner Gilbert Pilgram told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The no-tip policy has been a source of contention for Zuni Cafe employees since it was first adopted in 2021. When chef Nate Norris added a 20% service surcharge to customer tabs in order to replace tips, his goal then, and now, was to create a system that would alleviate pay inequity so that both front and back of house workers could benefit.

A lot of my career, I would have viewed [the pay equality gap] through the lens of, kind of bitterness and unfairness, and it had some animosity towards the staff members who were better compensated than I was, because of structural inequities, Norris told SFGATE last year.  I'm not mad that the servers have been making a good wage. I am upset that we don't have a system that makes it easier for the back of the house employees to also have that good wage.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

For his part, Norris has worked hard to tear down the division between servers and back of house workers so that tips can be distributed fairly. He told the Chronicle that in his experience, hes observed servers view that money as theirs. But Zuni Cafe waiters told the Chronicle that the current system has taken its toll.

I do agree that the back-of-house deserves to get more money, Kate Sachen, who is a Zuni Cafe server, told the Chronicle. We, servers, are suffering a lot of the brunt of it. A lot of us wish that it would just go back to the old system.

Last year, a former Zuni Cafe employee named Marshall C., who was granted anonymity per Hearst's ethics policy, told SFGATE that he was offered an hourly wage of $24 under the no-tip policy to return to Zuni Cafe. At the time of the deal, Marshall had been laid off from Zuni Cafe amid the pandemic. He shared that he found the removal of tips stunning and, after some thought, decided to turn down the offer when he reasoned that he would not be able to make rent or other personal expenses. (Norris later told SFGATE that the $24 hourly starting wage was not representative of all offers).

Marshall added that seven front-of-house workers had allegedly turned down offers based on the removal of tips. Moreover, the Chronicle found that Zuni Cafe has retained fewer servers compared with cooks throughout the pandemic, with only three of the former 23 servers staying on board.

Norris told the Chronicle that hes unsure whether the dip in waiters was a direct result of the no-tip rule, especially since many folks have left the hospitality industry or moved out of the state. He added that the restaurant is currently fully staffed.

Following the Chronicle report, Zuni Cafe shared an Instagram post on Thursday where it said that it knew that removing tips would create challenges and offer the opportunity to learn from the change.

We remain committed to the goals of paying dignified wages and benefits that reflect the value of labor and engaging our community as we work to make sure we achieve these goals, Zuni Cafe wrote.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  A third person who was struck by gunfire in an April shooting at a crowded Iowa nightclub has died, and charges against one of the two suspects will be updated.

Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that Marvin Cox, 31, of Cedar Rapids, who was shot in the head on April 10 at the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge in Cedar Rapids, died July 24. He had been on life support. Nine other people were also hurt that night.
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)  Apollo John Rwamparo speaks forlornly of the eight-legged stool, a symbol of authority for his ancient kingdom in Uganda, now glimpsed through a glass barrier at a museum thousands of miles away in Britain.

The wooden stool is permanently exhibited at the University of Oxford, one of at least 279 objects there taken from Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom during the colonial era. Oxford has resisted attempts to have the stool repatriated, saying it was donated by a royal from a breakaway kingdom.

Its quite frustrating, said Rwamparo, a deputy prime minister and minister for tourism for the kingdom. "The best is for them to swallow their pride, like the French and the Germans have done, and return the artifacts.

African countries' efforts at restitution, after long resistance from authorities in Europe, are now blossoming with the return of treasured pieces that once were thought unattainable.

Most recently, Nigeria and Germany signed a deal for the return of hundreds of artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes. The deal followed French President Emmanuel Macron's decision last year to sign over 26 pieces known as the Abomey Treasures, priceless artworks of the 19th century Dahomey kingdom in present-day Benin.

African officials seek much more, from the exquisite to the macabre. Some are concerned that the British government in particular has been evasive, offering no commitments on restitution.

In Uganda, which won independence from Britain in 1962, antiquities officials are preparing for a November trip to the U.K., where they will negotiate with the University of Cambridge for an unknown number of artifacts there. Cambridge, which recently gave back to Nigeria an elaborate bronze cockerel, appears forthcoming, said Rose Mwanja Nkaale, Uganda's commissioner for museums and monuments.

London's British Museum by comparison is difficult to penetrate, said Nkaale. We can start with those that are willing to cooperate. It is not useful to fight these people."

The British Museum, which holds an extensive collection from across Africa, is protected by a 1963 law forbidding the trustees from repatriating items except under certain circumstances, including if an object is deemed unfit or useless. Some African officials believe that stand is increasingly weak as other institutions in Europe respond more positively.

Nigeria is applying pressure so that laws in the U.K. and elsewhere are amended to allow for the repatriation of disputed collections, said Abba Isa Tijani, director-general of Nigerias National Commission for Museums and Monuments. But he expressed concern that while some countries are starting to open up, in Britain such efforts have not even started.

Many of the desirable artifacts from Africa can't even be traced, leading an organization founded by the late Congolese art collector Sindika Dokolo to offer to buy looted African art from collections abroad. By 2020, when Dokolo died in a diving accident in Dubai, his campaign had successfully retrieved 15 items.

Restitution remains a struggle for African governments, and the African Union has put the return of looted cultural property on its agenda. The continental body aims to have a common policy on the issue.

Zimbabwe has pushed for the repatriation of about 3,000 artifacts from Britain. They include spears and swagger sticks as well as the skulls of fighters who resisted colonialism. They were decapitated and their heads shipped abroad as war trophies.

Talks between British and Zimbabwean authorities have produced no breakthrough, but the matter is so important for the southern African nation that President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year suggested an exchange: the remains of colonialist Cecil Rhodes, who's buried in Zimbabwe, in return for the ancestral remains that mean so much to his people.

Some Zimbabwean activists have started an online campaign called #bringbackourbones, protesting last year outside the British High Commission in neighboring South Africa.

Items of funereal or ritualistic interest have no resonance outside Africa, said Raphael Chikukwa, who runs the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

Why should we allow those so-called museums, which in fact are crime scenes and houses of stolen goods, to dictate to us, telling us that we have to prove that the items belong to us? he told The Associated Press. As much as we celebrate the return of former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumbas tooth (from Belgium), lets not celebrate too much. Lets remind ourselves that the work has just started."

Similar efforts are underway in South Africa, where the Ifa Lethu Foundation seeks to repatriate a range of items taken during the apartheid era, often by diplomats or private collectors. The organization has repatriated more than 700 pieces including valuable works by South African artist Gerard Sekoto, who died in Paris in 1993.

In Rwanda, recent cooperation with former colonial master Belgium included the sharing of digital copies of over 4,000 songs and other recordings kept at the Royal Museum for Central Africa outside Brussels.

Items including royal regalia remain at large, and since the digital sound archives weren't shared in the context of repatriation you cannot say Belgium has already handed them back," said Andre Ntagwabira, a specialist in archaeological research at Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy.

The heritage, both tangible and intangible items, are the footprints of our ancestors and we should own them, he said.

The whereabouts of the remains of one of Rwanda's last monarchs, Yuhi Musinga, is a sore issue in the East African country. Many Rwandans believe the body of Musinga, who resisted the Belgians, was deposed in 1931 and died in Congo in 1944, was sent to Belgium.

There must be accountability in that case, said Antoine Nyagahene, a professor of history at Rwandas Gitwe University.

We were robbed of our cultural values and, as you know, a people without roots are a people without a soul, he said.

___

Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe, and Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria. Associated Press writers Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda, and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed.
Amid a climbing death toll, frantic searches for the missing and the daunting cleanup of mud-soaked homes and businesses, Kentucky authorities braced for the possibility of more storms and flash floods Sunday.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on NBCs Meet The Press that the death toll had risen by one to 26 from last weeks storms. Dozens more were unaccounted for according to a daily briefing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
LANSING  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced more than 1,650 communities in Michigan will receive more than $321 million to help them invest in infrastructure, grow their economies and continue delivering essential services as part of the second batch of federal American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund payments.

This funding will empower over 1,650 communities across Michigan continue getting things done that make a real difference in peoples lives, said Whitmer in a press release. As we focus on growing our economy and creating good-paying jobs, todays over $321 million in funding will help counties, cities, villages, and townships across the state invest in local roads and bridges, support essential workers, and protect safe drinking water. Local officials have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make lasting investments in the kitchen-table issues that matter most."

"Lets keep working together to get things done, Whitmer said

Manistee County is slated to get $4,770,104.

According to the press release, Benzie County is slated to receive $3,450,837.

The funding provided to counties, cities, villages and townships across the state can be used to respond to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously, the first half of Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund payments totaling more than $321 million was distributed to smaller communities within the last year. In total, ARPA provided more than $642 million in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to Michigan's smaller communities.

The U.S. Department of Treasury is responsible for directly distributing $1.80 billion to 49 Michigan metropolitan cities and townships and $1.93 billion to all 83 Michigan counties. The state of Michigan is responsible for distributing Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds dollars to smaller cities, villages and townships.

The Michigan Department of Treasury worked with local government partners and local communities to provide technical assistance and education through webinars, phone calls and certified letters to ensure local officials would not miss the opportunity to claim their allotted federal funds. If a local community received payments from the first round, no further action is required from local officials.

My team is ready to continue to assist local communities receiving this important aid, said state Treasurer Rachael Eubanks. Local officials are encouraged to reach out to our team if they encounter issues receiving a payment.

The U.S. Department of Treasury is responsible for providing rules on how local units of government can spend their ARPA dollars.

Details about the first and second batch of state Treasury Department disbursements to smaller communities are available. To learn more about the program, go to Michigan.gov/ARPA.
DECATUR, Ill. (AP)  A 14-year-old girl from Chicago was fatally shot Sunday outside a graduation party in Decatur, authorities said.

Three more people were injured. The Macon County coroner identified the teenager as TEarra Moore.

As the party was concluding about 2 a.m. people were exiting the establishment or already in the parking lot when shots were fired. ... Ms. Moore apparently fled the parking lot where the shooting occurred and collapsed in a back lot of a nearby business," Michael Day said.

Decatur police urged the public to call (217) 424-2734 with any tips.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  A small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone blew up Sunday at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula, wounding six people and prompting the cancellation of ceremonies there honoring Russia's navy, authorities said.

Meanwhile, one of Ukraine's richest men, a grain merchant, was killed in what Ukrainian authorities said was a carefully targeted Russian missile strike on his home.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone explosion in a courtyard at the naval headquarters in the city of Sevastopol. But the seemingly improvised, small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility that it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents trying to drive out Russian forces.

A Russian lawmaker from Crimea, Olga Kovitidi, told Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti that the drone was launched from Sevastopol itself. She said the incident was being treated as a terrorist act, the news agency said.

Crimean authorities raised the terrorism threat level for the region to yellow, the second-highest tier.

Sevastopol, which was seized along with the rest of Crimea from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, is about 170 kilometers (100 miles) south of the Ukrainian mainland. Russian forces control much of the mainland along the Black Sea.

The Black Sea Fleet's press service said the drone appeared to be homemade. It described the explosive device as low-power. Sevastopol Mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev said six people were wounded. Observances of Russias Navy Day holiday were canceled in the city.

Ukraine's navy and an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the reported drone attack underlined the weakness of Russian air defenses.

Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans? Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram.

If such an attack is possible by Ukraine, he said, the destruction of the Crimean bridge in such situations no longer sounds unrealistic  a reference to the span that Russia built to connect its mainland to Crimea after the annexation.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the mayor of the major port city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said shelling killed one of Ukraine's wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed a grain production and export business.

Another presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted.

It "was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder. Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike, he said.

Vadatursky's agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad.

In the Sumy region in Ukraine's north, near the Russian border, shelling killed one person, the regional administration said. And three people died in attacks over the past day in the Donetsk region, which is partly under the control of Russian-backed separatist forces, said regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Podolyak said on Twitter that images of the prison where at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion on Friday indicated that the blast came from within the building in Olenivka, which is under Russian control.

Russian officials have claimed the building was attacked by Ukraine with the aim of silencing POWs who might be giving information about Ukrainian military operations. Ukraine has blamed Russia for the explosion, saying it was done to cover up the torture and execution of prisoners.

Satellite photos taken before and after show that a small, squarish building in the middle of the prison complex was demolished, its roof in splinters.

Podolyak said those images and the lack of damage to adjacent structures showed that the building was not attacked from the air or by artillery. He contended the evidence was consistent with a thermobaric bomb, a powerful device sometimes called a vacuum bomb, being set off inside.

The International Red Cross asked to immediately visit the prison to make sure the scores of wounded POWs had proper treatment, but said Sunday that its request had yet to be granted. It said that denying the Red Cross access would violate the Geneva Convention on the rights of POWs.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said that the war has significantly reduced the size of Ukraines grain harvest compared with past years, but that Ukraine is working on ways to export what it has to avoid a global food crisis.

The Ukrainian harvest this year is in danger of being half as large, he said on Twitter.

Russia and Ukraine recently reached an agreement that would allow the release of millions of tons of grain held up in Black Sea ports. Officials have said they expect the shipments to begin soon.

___

Follow APs coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Coconino National Forest Supervisor Laura Jo West has retired after 33 years of serving in the U.S. Forest Service.

Deputy Forest Supervisor Michelle Paduani will be the acting forest supervisor as the Southwestern Regional Office searches for a replacement for West, who officially retired Saturday.
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BERLIN (AP)  Rising concern over the impact of a potential Russian gas cutoff is fueling the debate in Germany over whether the country should switch off its last three nuclear power plants as planned at the end of this year.

The door to some kind of extension appeared to open a crack after the Economy Ministry in mid-July announced a new stress test on the security of electricity supplies. It's supposed to take into account a tougher scenario than a previous test, concluded in May, that found supplies were assured.

Since then, Russia has reduced natural gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20% of capacity amid tensions over the war in Ukraine. It cited technical issues that Germany says are only an excuse for a political power play. Russia recently has accounted for about a third of Germany's gas supply, and there are concerns it could turn off the tap altogether.

The main opposition Union bloc has made increasingly frequent demands for an extension of the nuclear plants' lives. Similar calls are coming from the smallest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government, the pro-business Free Democrats.

A lot speaks for not switching off the safe and climate-friendly nuclear power plants, but if necessary using them until 2024, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the Free Democrats' leader, told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. He called for Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is responsible for energy, to stop the use of gas to generate electricity.

Calls for extending the use of nuclear power are awkward for the other two governing parties, Scholz's center-left Social Democrats and, particularly, Habeck's environmentalist Greens. Opposition to nuclear power is a cornerstone of the Greens' identity; a Social Democrat-Green government launched Germany's exit from nuclear power two decades ago.

A government made up of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union and the Free Democrats set the nuclear exit's current form in 2011, shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. It calls for the three still-operational reactors to go offline at the end of December.

Habeck has long argued that keeping those reactors running would be legally and technically complex and do little to address the problems caused by a shortfall of gas, arguing that natural gas isnt so much a factor in generating electricity as in fueling industrial processes and providing heating.

We have a heating problem or an industry problem, but not an electricity problem  at least not generally throughout the country, he said in early July.

In this years first quarter, nuclear plants accounted for 6% of Germanys electricity generation and gas for 13%. Lindner said we must work to ensure that an electricity crisis doesn't come on top of the gas crisis.

Some Greens have indicated a degree of openness in recent days to allowing one or more reactors to keep running for a short period with their existing fuel rods, if the country faces a power supply emergency  though not to a longer extension.

Others aren't impressed by the idea. That is also a lifetime extension for the reactors that would require a change to the existing law, and we won't touch that, prominent Green lawmaker Juergen Trittin  Germany's environment minister when the nuclear phaseout was first drawn up  told Saturday's Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Critics say that isn't enough anyway. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz has urged the government to order new fuel rods for the remaining reactors immediately. Senior opposition lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt called for three already-shut reactors to be reactivated and told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that in this situation, lifetime extensions for nuclear energy of at least five more years are conceivable.

And Scholz's position? Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said last week that he is waiting for the results of the stress test, which are expected in the coming weeks.

The government has already given the green light for utility companies to fire up 10 dormant coal-fired power plants and six that are oil-fueled, and plans also to clear the way for dormant lignite-fired plants to be reactivated. Another 11 coal-fired power plants scheduled to be shut down in November will be allowed to keep operating.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iranian border guards clashed Sunday with the Afghan Taliban, Iranian media reported, the latest cross-border exchange since the former insurgents seized power in neighboring Afghanistan a year ago.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Meisam Barazandeh, governor of the border country of Hirmand in eastern Iran, as saying that the incident is under investigation. He did not provide details about the clash or report any casualties.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, said the Taliban opened fire on houses on the eastern edge of the county, in the area of Shoqalak, across the border from Afghanistan's Nimruz province.

The report said also that Taliban forces tried to raise the Taliban flag in an area that is not part of the territory of Afghanistan and that after the exchange, calm returned.

Tasnim later quoted Majid Mirahmadi, the country's deputy interior minister, as saying the Taliban first opened fire on Iranian guards, forcing them to return fire until the exchange subsided when the Iranian guards brought the situation under control.

The exchange lasted for an hour and a half and ended early on Sunday afternoon.

Mirahmadi also said a similar clash took place on Saturday because the Taliban do not respect the geographical and official border" between the two countries.

Clashes have repeatedly erupted between Iranian security forces and Afghan Taliban forces in various spots along the border since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last August. The exchanges of fire are often over local issues such as disputes over farmland, water or smuggling, and usually end quickly.

In some of the worst clashes, last December, the Afghan Taliban seized several checkpoints on the Iranian side but soon withdrew, and both sides called the incident a misunderstanding.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A Las Vegas man is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday after he allegedly stabbed his wife around 30 times when she asked him for a divorce, according to police.

Metro Police said 60-year-old Clifford Jacobs was booked into jail Friday on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic battery resulting in substantial bodily harm.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  Authorities have yet to release the names of a man and woman who were fatally shot in a central Las Vegas apartment complex.

Metro Police said the shooting late Friday stemmed from an apparent confrontation at the complex.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Earnest Cobbles most distressing yet heroic work day at Nashville International Airport arrived early Easter morning, April 17, as he served as a volunteer at the welcome desk, just inside the baggage claims sliding doors. Cobble previously retired from a 25-year career maintaining the terminals HVAC equipment.

I was right here talking to a family, he said, standing behind the desk staffed by BNAs 60 volunteers who spend their shifts answering questions from harried travelers throughout the facility. A young lady came up asking questions. She was kind of aggressive.

Cobble is used to confused and agitated travelers, so he wasnt immediately worried. She wanted to know where the restrooms were and how to catch a ride-hailing service, and he graciously directed her.

His calm responses didnt soften her approach. She pounded her fist on the desk and cursed as he helped another passenger: She insisted on using Cobbles cell phone to call her mother.

He agreed but, instead of making the call, she walked off in a daze.

I kept my eye on her, Cobble said.

As he fielded questions from a family standing in front of him, everything changed.

Thats when I heard a gunshot, he said.

The woman pulled a gun from her purse and held it to her head.

Thinking fast to save a life

The first gunshot she fired missed her head, where she pointed it. As the gun rested momentarily at her side, Cobble ordered airport passengers and employees to run.

He took cover behind a concrete pole and trained his focus on the woman as she picked up the gun again.

He instinctively wanted to calm her. Distract her. He said, in as normal a tone as he could muster:

Maam you shouldnt have that gun here at the airport.

She fumbled with the gun and yelled back that she was only going to hurt herself.

She aimed the gun again. This time, the shot went clean through her thigh.

Now Cobble yelled at the top of his lungs to get her attention.

Put the gun down! Dont do it!

The woman seemed to be in a fog but she looked up and locked eyes with him after hearing his pleas.

Slide the gun toward the door!

He continued to yell and, each time, she paused and made eye contact.

She gave me a startled look, he said. I think I broke her concentration.

Police officers arrived and swiftly handcuffed the woman.

She survived the incident.

Cobble, meanwhile, continues to reflect on the emotional confrontation and whether there was anything different he could have done.

Cobble saves a life, honored as a hero

Metro Nashville Airport Authority honored Cobble for his heroism at a recent meeting. He received a framed proclamation for helping to prevent a worse outcome.

As a former employee and now as a volunteer, Earnest was undeniably the right person at the right time who helped to save lives through his courageous actions, said Doug Kreulen, president of Nashville International Airport.

Cobble continues to volunteer one day a week, though he said he enjoys retirement and is busy planning his next vacation.

But now he pays closer attention to peoples hands in case theyre holding a gun.

I enjoy helping people, he said. I went back to work that Monday, but I wanted to see everyones hands.

Resources for mental health in Tennessee

There are a variety of resources for those seeking mental health support at the national, state and local level. Here are just a few.

The CDC offers a wide variety of mental health resources at cdc.gov/mentalhealth, including a mental health quiz and a tool to find a therapist.

The state of Tennessee also has a hub for behavioral and mental health resources at tn.gov/behavioral-health.

The Behavioral Health Safety Net for Adults provides free, essential outpatient mental health services to Tennesseans who lack insurance coverage. More information is available at tn.gov/bhsn or at 800-560-5767.

Tennessee offers a free crisis hotline that is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. All calls are directed to a trained counselor in the callers area. Call or text 855-CRISIS-1 (855-274-7471).

The Tennessee REDLINE is a free 24-hour resource for substance abuse treatment referrals. Anyone can call or text 800-889-9789 for confidential referrals.

The Vanderbilt Psychiatric Assessment Service can be reached 24/7 at 615-327-7000. More information is also available at vanderbiltbehavioralhealth.com.

Learn more about The Refuge Center at refugecenter.org.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Few Americans outside law enforcement and government ever see the most graphic videos or photos from the nation's worst mass shootings  in most states, such evidence is only displayed at trial and most such killers die during or immediately after their attacks. They never make it to court.

That has made the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz for his 2018 murder of 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School unusual.

As the worst U.S. mass shooting to reach trial, the surveillance videos taken during his attack and the crime scene and autopsy photos that show its horrific aftermath are being seen by jurors on shielded video screens and, after each day's court session, shown to a small group of journalists. But they are not shown in the gallery, where parents and spouses sit, or to the general public watching on TV.

Some online believe that should change  that to have an informed debate on gun violence, the public should see the carnage mass shooters like Cruz cause, often with high-velocity bullets fired from AR-15 semiautomatic rifles and similar weapons.

Others disagree. They say the public display of such videos and photos would add to the harm the victims' families already endure and might entice some who are mentally disturbed to commit their own mass shooting. They believe such evidence should remain sealed.

Liz Dunning, a vice president at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, doesn't believe releasing such videos and photos would have the political impact some think. Polls show that most Americans already support stronger background checks for gun buyers and bans or restrictions on AR-15s and similar weapons, said Dunning, whose mother was murdered by a gunman.

Public perception is not the issue, Dunning said. We should be asking more of the powerful.

Since most of the worst U.S. mass shooters were killed by themselves or police during or immediately after their attack, it is rare for anyone outside government to see such surveillance videos or police and autopsy photos. The public didn't see such evidence after the Las Vegas shooting in 2017, Orlando in 2016, Sandy Hook in 2012, Virginia Tech in 2007 and others.

But Cruz, 23, fled after his shooting and was arrested an hour later. He pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder - his trial is only to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. The videos and photos are part of the prosecution's case.

Since the trial began July 18, everyone in the courtroom and watching on TV has seen and heard heartbreaking testimony from teachers and students who saw others die. They have heard the gunshots and screams as jurors watched cellphone videos.

But when graphic videos and photos are presented, those are not shown. Usually, they only hear medical examiners and police officers give emotionless descriptions of what the jury is seeing.

Then at the end of each day, a group of reporters reviews the photos and videos, but are only allowed to write descriptions. That was a compromise as some parents feared photos of their dead children would be posted online and wanted no media access.

Miami media attorney Thomas Julin said in Florida before the internet, any photos or other evidence presented at trial could be seen and copied by anyone. Newspapers didn't print the most gruesome photos, so no one cared.

But in the mid-1990s as the internet boomed, Danny Rolling faced a death penalty trial for the serial murders of four University of Florida students and a community college student. The victims' families argued that the publication of crime scene photos would cause them emotional harm. The judge ruled that anyone could view the photos, but no one could copy them. Such compromises have since become standard in Florida's high-profile murder trials.

The surveillance video of the Stoneman Douglas shooting is silent. It shows Cruz moving methodically from floor-to-floor in a three-story classroom building, shooting down hallways and into classrooms. Victims fall. Cruz often stops and shoots them again before moving on.

The crime scene photos show the dead where they fell, sometimes on top of or next to each other, often in contorted shapes. Blood and sometimes brain matter are splattered on floors and walls.

The autopsy photos show the damage Cruz and his bullets did. Some victims have massive head wounds. One student had his elbow blown off, another had her shoulder blown open. Another had most of her forearm ripped away.

Yet, despite their gruesomeness, Columbia University journalism professor Bruce Shapiro says most autopsy and crime scene photos wouldn't have a lasting public impact because they don't have context.

The photos and videos that have a strong effect on public opinion tell a story, said Shapiro, who runs the university's think tank on how journalists should cover violence.

The photos of Emmett Till's battered body lying in its coffin after the Black teenager was tortured and killed by Mississippi white supremacists in 1955. Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over Kent State student Jeffrey Miller's body after he was shot by National Guard troops in 1970. Vietnamese child Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked after being burned by a napalm bomb in 1972. The video of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he's dead in 2020.

They work not just because they are graphic, but because they are powerful, stirring images," Shapiro said.

And even if the graphic photos and videos were released, most major newspapers, wire services and television stations would be hesitant to use them. Their editors weigh whether the public benefit of seeing an image outweighs any prurient interest  and they usually pass.

That would leave most for only the most salacious websites. They would also become fodder for potential mass shooters, who frequently research past killers. Cruz did; testimony showed he spent the seven months before his attack making hundreds of computer searches about committing massacres.

The images of the carnage will become part of their dark fantasy life, Shapiro said.
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SEATTLE (AP)  Seattle and Portland, Oregon, set records Sunday for most consecutive days of high temperatures and authorities in Oregon investigated more possible heat-related deaths.

In Seattle, the temperature rose to 91 Fahrenheit (32.8 Celsius) by early afternoon, the record sixth straight day the mercury rose above 90 F (32.2 C). In Portland, Oregon, on Sunday temperatures rose above 95 F (35 C) for the seventh day in a row, a record for the city for consecutive days above that mark.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  People were socializing. Someone may have been giving a speech, but Elise Grenier couldnt tell you what was said.

She was too distracted by the hand-painted wallpaper, its romanticized scenes by an artist who possibly had never traveled to the United States. The slow deterioration of the masterpiece in the Old Louisiana Governors Mansion's dining room was all Grenier noticed.

I couldnt even concentrate, because of the damage, she said. All I could do was look at the damage and think, I wish somebody would let me restore it.

Her wish came true in July, when the Louisiana Secretary of States Museum Division hired Grenier to restore not only the dining room wallpaper, but damaged bits and pieces in the rotunda and East Room.

Grenier is a Louisiana-born art conservator whose business, Grenier Conservation, has restored quite a few key Louisiana public artworks, including LSUs Allen Hall frescoes, ceiling art in the Louisiana State Capitols Memorial Hall and Conrad Albrizios frescoes at the Louisiana Exhibition Museum in Shreveport.

Shes also done maintenance work on a Banksy mural in New Orleans.

Now, her attention is solely focused on the wallpaper, which, she says, is a work of fine art in itself. The wallpaper is only one of three sets in the United States. The other two can be found in the White House in Washington, D.C., and at Brown University.

And it only makes sense that the Old Governors Mansion would share this decor with the White House, being that Gov. Huey Long partly expressed his dream of becoming president by designing the mansion as a smaller version of the White House.

With one exception.

Huey Long had the wallpaper put into the dining room when the mansion was built in 1930, Grenier said. The White House didnt put their wallpaper until 30 years later, in 1961.

Which prompts some speculation.

Did Jackie Kennedy visit the Old Mansion when her husband brought his presidential campaign to the Crowley Rice Festival in 1959? She did, after all, spearhead the White Houses restoration in 1961. Then again, maybe its just coincidence. The fact is the wallpaper was placed in the White House later, and its not in the dining room.

At the White House, its in one of the reception rooms, Grenier said. The interesting thing about the White House was that their set was recovered from a house in Maryland, a very old historic house that was going to be demolished. It was called the Stoner House  a nice, historic house built by a wealthy merchant in Thurmont, Maryland. The other set is in the Commons Room at Brown University.

The wallpaper in the Governor's Mansion appears as it did when it was installed  one continuous mural telling the story of an American landscape that technically doesnt exist.

Its called Scenic America, inspired by French artists engravings of American sites from the 1820s, Grenier said. French artist Jean-Julien Deltil designed the wallpaper, but Im not sure if he had ever come to America. This might be his impression of how he thought America would be.

Nevertheless, Jean Zuber and Co. produced the Scenic America wallpaper in 1834 in Alsace, France, where it has been operating since 1797. And the amazing part? The wallpaper is still available for purchase.

Grenier researched the company while spending her days surrounded by Deltils idealized 1834 American world where diverse races and ethnicities harmonize in romantic scenes of New York City and the bay from the heights of Weehawken, New Jersey, the fortification of West Point on the Hudson River, a view of Boston and its harbor, the natural bridge of Virginia and Niagara Falls.

Once visitors get their bearings on this continuous carousel, the landscape somehow becomes recognizable. And there are plenty of visitors who have viewed it while Grenier worked.

The Secretary of States office added the Old Louisiana Governors Mansion to its Museum Division in November 2021 and has since opened it to visitors free of charge.

I am incredibly excited that the Old Governors Mansion is now under the care of the Department of State, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said. This beautiful piece of our states social and political history joins the eight other museums currently under my care as Secretary of State.

The building previously had been operated by Preserve Louisiana, formerly the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.

The mansion also served as home to the Louisiana Art & Science Museum from 1964 to 1978.

Lots of visitors remember when the planetarium was here, said Sondra Mott, event coordinator for the Secretary of State and the mansions manager. We still have a switch for it on the breaker box.

And before the planetarium opened the universe for a 14-year flow of museum visitors and school years from behind the mansion, the building was home to nine governors, beginning with Huey Long.

Louisianas governors previously lived in an old house known as the Knox Mansion, which stood on the same spot. Long enlisted the aid of prison inmates to tear it down, which led to the Louisiana legislatures unsuccessful attempt to impeach the governor in 1930.

I consider it my role as its caretaker to be an incredible privilege and responsibility, Ardoin said. The mansion is our very own White House and is one of the most iconic remnants and reminders of Huey Longs legacy as governor of Louisiana.

Cost of construction was almost $150,000 with an added $22,000 for the finest damask and velvet drapes, crystal chandeliers and other high-end pieces.

That included the wallpaper, which Grenier said, involved a woodblock printing process.

According to documentation from the Old Governors Mansion files, 1,674 woodblocks were needed to produce it, Grenier said. The woodblock method requires a separate wood carving for each color present. Each wood block was lowered through a pulley system on the color pad, then lifted and lowered onto the paper to receive the design.

The paper is printed with tempera paint, and the colors are not water resistant.

The sky, that blends from a light to a dark blue would have been applied by hand before the scenes were printed, Grenier said.

Grenier used Caran dAche color pencils in the restoration, but she emphasizes that they werent used for touch-ups.

I used them to keep the wallpaper intact, she said. This is basically tempera paint on paper, and thats about the most delicate thing that there is to deal with in restoration. As long as nothing happens to it, its going to be fine, but by its very nature, tempera paint on paper is a lot more delicate than say, faux finishes, which are directly on the plaster.

And since tempera paint wallpaper isnt water resistant, water-based solutions cant be used in its restoration when it suffers dings and scratches.

Grenier looks around the room now. The paper has been reattached in the places where it had separated from the wall, cracking has been smoothed over and dings have disappeared.

And though the paper now looks as it appeared when it was first installed, the wallpapers story isnt perfect.

The paper was also not correctly aligned on some of the seams when it was first applied in 1930, Grenier said. It was designed in a continuous flow, and it does great in a circular room. Its in a circular room in the White House, but here, its interrupted by the window.

But it works, and now Grenier takes a moment to take in Jean-Julien Deltils world.

It really is a beautiful piece of fine art, she said. After years of looking at it, Im so happy that I finally had a chance to restore it.
CARROLTON, Ga. (AP)  A university instructor in Georgia has been charged with killing an 18-year-old student who was fatally shot while sitting in a car.

The Carrollton Police Department said in a news release that Richard Sigman, 47, is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the shooting death of Anna Jones, 18. Police said they believe Jones was killed when Sigman shot into a parked car following an argument with a man at a pizza restaurant. The shooting happened shortly after midnight Saturday.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Thirty Virginia legislators called on the Biden administration Saturday to take action on behalf of Asim Ghafoor, a friend and former lawyer of slain dissident Jamal Khashoggi who's been imprisoned by the United Arab Emirates.

Ghafoor, a Virginia resident, was arrested earlier this month and quickly sentenced to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. Human rights groups have questioned the conviction.
By Emily Hoeven

CalMatters

Want to make a political point in California -- and across the country? Try running ads in Florida.

That's the tack the oil and gas industry is taking following Gov. Gavin Newsom's much-discussed decision earlier this month to air campaign ads in the Sunshine State accusing Republican leaders of restricting abortion access, voting rights and free speech.

On Wednesday, the Western States Petroleum Association unveiled Florida ads of its own questioning the practicality of Newsom's climate policies, including his ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and his administration's sweeping strategy to phase out fossil fuels and put a stop to new oil fracking.

"Our governor, Gavin Newsom, attacks Florida," a woman's voice solemnly intones. "But here's what he's doing to us in California. We pay $1.65 more for a gallon of gas than you do. Our electricity rates are twice as high as yours ... California can't afford Gavin Newsom's ambition. Can Florida?"

Kevin Slagle, vice president of strategic communications for the Western States Petroleum Association, told me it spent "a little more than $100,000" to run ads for two weeks on Miami TV stations and to place periodic full-page ads in the Miami Herald. (Incidentally, that's about the same amount Newsom spent on his own ads.)

Slagle: "The number one thing with why we're in Florida is because we're trying to get the governor's attention. And the governor is focused in Florida and Texas and other states right now. ... But, here in California, there's real critical issues. These energy policies, these bans and mandates, the things that are being debated right now ... make a real difference to Californians on a day-to-day basis. ... We want the governor to engage ... and really focus on the cost and the impacts, and not just give lip service and political slogans.

Slagle added: "I think what we're hoping for here is that we'll get him focused on ... trying to find some sort of partnership to move forward on climate and energy policy. I mean, he's really good at demonizing us. What we'd like to see him do is work harder to work with us because we're the folks who can do hard things to help us get there."

Nathan Click, a spokesperson for Newsom's reelection campaign, told me in a statement: "Being attacked by the world's nastiest polluters is a badge of honor for Governor Newsom. These dirty companies are raking in massive profits while causing the deaths of countless Americans -- from extreme heat, drought, fires and choked lungs. They are attacking Governor Newsom because no governor has done more to break American's addiction to fossil fuel. As Floridians face historic sea level rise and catastrophic climate change fueled hurricanes, California leads the world in combatting this existential threat to our future."

But airing ads in Florida isn't the only quirk of California campaigns. Due in part to the structure of the Golden State's top-two primary election system, it's fairly easy for write-in candidates -- even those with very little support -- to snag the second spot on the November general election ballot in races with only one other contender, CalMatters' Sameea Kamal reports.

Indeed, state Assembly and state Senate candidates needed as few as 40 people to sign nomination papers to qualify as write-in candidates for the June 7 primary. And no matter how few votes they won, as long as they finished in second place, they advanced to the November election.

Hence the uneven matchup in a conservative Assembly district encompassing the Central Valley and parts of the Sierra Nevada: Libertarian write-in candidate Thomas Edward Nichols, who received just 15 votes in the primary, will face off in November against GOP incumbent Jim Patterson, who received more than 90,000 votes.

Nichols: The write-in process allows voters to think "outside of the duopoly that dominates our political culture. ... I really appreciate the fact that an engineer up here in the foothills could wind up on the ballot going after an incumbent. I'm satisfied with the democratic process in that respect."

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The Texas economy has been setting the standard for economic growth, leading the country in major new corporate locations for the past 10 straight years. The population is also diverse and growing, which is not the case in many parts of the country. Were also seeing the continued emergence of industries in the state as the business environment encourages growth. One segment where Texas once lagged other regions was that of biosciences and related manufacturing. Well, folks, that has changed.

Texas has world-class health care institutions, research organizations, research universities, research laboratories, and medical schools. In fact, the worlds largest medical center and the nations largest military medical complex are located here. The state has top medical schools and research universities, a large and growing technology sector, excellent research labs, a culture of innovation, and a regulatory environment conducive to progress. The result is the emergence of a vibrant medical research and technology sector.
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Las Vegas has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southwestern Inyo County in south central California...

* Until 745 PM PDT.

* At 656 PM PDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Olancha, and

is nearly stationary.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, trees, and power lines.

* Locations impacted include...

Highway 395, Olancha, and Cartago.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO LOS ANGELES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY

Flood Advisory

National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard CA

646 PM PDT Sat Jul 30 2022

...FLOOD ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 830 PM PDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Areas of roadway flooding caused by heavy rainfall

continues.

* WHERE...A portion of southwest California, including the eastern

Antelope Valley in Los Angeles county.

* WHEN...Until 830 PM PDT.

* IMPACTS...Pockets of additional heavy rainfall could generate

roadway flooding in the advisory area, especially along Highway

138.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...

- At 636 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated moderate to locally

heavy rain continuing with isolated thunderstorm activity

across central and eastern portions of the Antelope Valley,

with the strongest storm moving into Littlerock.

- Some locations that could experience flooding include...

Lake Los Angeles, Palmdale, Lancaster, Quartz Hill,

Pearblossom, Llano, Littlerock, Lake Palmdale, Valyermo,

Saddleback Butte State Park, Highway 138 between Llano and

the San Bernardino County line and Desert View Highlands.

- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SACRAMENTO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Sacramento has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

The Dixie burn scar in...

Southwestern Lassen County in northern California...

Northwestern Plumas County in northern California...

* Until 1030 PM PDT.

* At 432 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain over the Dixie Burn Scar near Greenville. Radar

estimates between 1 and 2 inches of rain have fallen along the

ridges west and south of Greenville. Flooding is most likely along

Round Valley Road and near Round Valley Reservior The expected

rainfall rate is 1 inch in 30 minutes. Additional rainfall amounts

up to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is

ongoing or expected to begin shortly.

Excessive rainfall over the warning area will cause mud slides near

steep terrain. The mud slide can consist of rock, mud, vegetation

and other loose materials.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding in and around the Dixie Burn

Scar.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of areas in and around

the Dixie Burn Scar.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Chester, Almanor, Prattville, Lake Almanor West, Lake Almanor

Country Club, Canyondam, East Shore, Caribou, Seneca, Belden,

Twain, Paxton, Indian Falls, Bald Eagle Mountain, Tobin, Crescent

Mills, Storrie, Keddie and Greenville.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

This is a life threatening situation. Heavy rainfall will cause

extensive and severe flash flooding of creeks...streams...and

ditches in the Dixie Burn Scar. Severe debris flows can also be

anticipated across roads. Roads and driveways may be washed away in

places. If you encounter flood waters...climb to safety.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in San Diego has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 815 PM PDT.

* At 521 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 1.5 inches of

rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are

possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected

to begin shortly.

HAZARD...Flash flooding caused by thunderstorms.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Flash flooding of small creeks and streams, urban

areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as

other poor drainage and low-lying areas.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Apple Valley, Lucerne Valley, Lake Arrowhead, Hwy 18 Between

Running Springs And Big Bear, Hwy 18 Between Baldwin Lake And

Lucerne Valley, Hwy 173 Between Lake Arrowhead And Hesperia,

Fawnskin, Green Valley Lake and Cedar Glen.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where

you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become

killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or

creeks.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in San Diego has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 230 PM PDT.

* At 1124 AM PDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated

thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between

0.5 and 0.75 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall

amounts of 0.5 to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Flash

flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar and automated gauges.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams,

urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Big Bear City, western Onyx Summit, eastern Lucerne Valley, Big

Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, Hwy 38 Between Onyx Summit And Sugarloaf,

Hwy 18 Between Baldwin Lake And Lucerne Valley, Hwy 38 Between

Yucaipa And Onyx Summit, western Johnson Valley and Woodlands.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in San Diego has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 430 PM PDT.

* At 121 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain between Victorville and Barstow. Between 0.5 and 1 inch

of rain has fallen. Heavy rainfall continues with an additional

inch of rain possible. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to

begin shortly.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams,

urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

I-15 Between Victorville And Barstow, northern Lucerne Valley,

Adelanto, Hwy 247 Between Lucerne Valley And Barstow, El Mirage,

Oro Grande and Helendale.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in San Diego has extended the

* Flash Flood Warning for...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 330 PM PDT.

* At 223 PM PDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated

thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Flash

flooding is ongoing.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar and automated gauges.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams,

urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Big Bear City, western Onyx Summit, eastern Lucerne Valley, Big

Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, Hwy 38 Between Onyx Summit And Sugarloaf,

Hwy 18 Between Baldwin Lake And Lucerne Valley, Hwy 38 Between

Yucaipa And Onyx Summit, western Johnson Valley and Woodlands.

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.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot daily high temperatures between 90 and

100 degrees Fahrenheit for the valleys and 85 to 105 degrees

for mid elevations up to 6000 feet. Overnight lows will also

be warmer than normal, mainly in the 60s.

* WHERE...In California, northeastern Siskiyou County including

Macdoel and Dorris and all of Modoc County except the lakes

and higher portions of the Warner Mountains. In Oregon,

Klamath County and Lake County including all areas except the

higher mountains and lakes.

* WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The duration of this heat wave will be

particularly long and is likely to be a top 5 event in the

climate record for duration. Take advantage of the cooler

overnight and morning periods if you want to beat the heat.

* View the hazard area in detail at

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=mfr

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.

...FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 315 PM PDT THIS

AFTERNOON FOR SOUTHEASTERN INYO AND SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES...

At 225 PM PDT, CHP reported roadway flooding along Kelbaker Road

south of Interstate 15.

HAZARD...Life-threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing

flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life-threatening flash flooding of low-water crossings,

creeks, normally dry washes and roads.

Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Shoshone, Cima, Kelso, Dumont Dunes, Tecopa, Mountain Pass and Sr

127 Near Dumont Dunes.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS

EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot daily high temperatures between 100 and

115 degrees Fahrenheit for the valleys, 90 to 100 degrees at

mid elevations, and 80 to 90 degrees in the mountains.

Overnight lows will also be much warmer than normal, mostly in

the mid 60s to mid 70s.

* WHERE...Most of Josephine and Jackson counties in southern

Oregon and most of Siskiyou County in Northern California.

This includes the Rogue, Illinois, Applegate, Lower Klamath

River, Scott, and Shasta Valleys as well as surrounding areas.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the

potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those

working or participating in outdoor activities.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Hanford has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

East Central Tulare County in central California...

* Until 400 PM PDT.

* At 130 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Up to 1 inch of rain has

fallen. The expected rainfall rate is 1 to 2 inches in 1 hour.

Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible in the

warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin

shortly.

HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams

and low laying areas.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Casa Vieja Meadows and Beach Meadows.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life.

In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are

potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded

roads. Find an alternate route.

Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where

you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become

killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or

creeks.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Hanford has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

Northern Kern County in central California...

Southeastern Tulare County in central California...

* Until 530 PM PDT.

* At 230 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing

heavy rain across the warned area. Up to 1 inch of rain has

fallen. The expected rainfall rate is 0.5 to 1.5 inches in 1 hour.

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...

Onyx, Weldon, Bear Peak, Pascoes, Blackrock and Kernville.

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.

Flooding is occurring or is imminent. It is important to know where

you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become

killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or

creeks.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO AMARILLO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Amarillo has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Southern Dallam County in the Panhandle of Texas...

Hartley County in the Panhandle of Texas...

* Until 1000 PM CDT.

* At 828 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 5 miles southwest

of Dalhart, moving east at 10 mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Minor damage to roofs, siding, and trees is possible.

Hail damage to vehicles is expected.

* Locations impacted include...

Dalhart, Hartley and Conlen.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SHREVEPORT Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

Special Weather Statement

National Weather Service Shreveport LA

805 PM CDT Sat Jul 30 2022

...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of northwestern De

Soto, southwestern Caddo Parishes in northwestern Louisiana and

northeastern Panola Counties through 845 PM CDT...

At 805 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near

Panola, or 17 miles northeast of Carthage, moving southeast

at 15 mph.

HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around

unsecured objects.

Locations impacted include...

Stonewall, Deberry, Keachi, Longstreet, Keat Chie, Midyett, Kickapoo,

Front and Spring Ridge.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.

Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe

shelter inside a building or vehicle.

This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio

stations and available television stations for additional information

and possible warnings from the National Weather Service.

LAT...LON 3229 9422 3238 9412 3239 9406 3225 9377

3202 9404

TIME...MOT...LOC 0105Z 315DEG 12KT 3229 9409

MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN

MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SHREVEPORT Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service in Shreveport has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...

Northwestern De Soto Parish in northwestern Louisiana...

Southwestern Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana...

Northeastern Panola County in northeastern Texas...

* Until 900 PM CDT.

* At 817 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 7 miles southeast

of Deberry, or 17 miles east of Carthage, moving southeast at 15

mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage

to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...

Stonewall, Deberry, Keachi, Longstreet, Keat Chie, Midyett,

Kickapoo and Front.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a

building.

Torrential rainfall is occurring with this storm, and may lead to

flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO PENDLETON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, July 31, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Pendleton OR

456 AM PDT Sun Jul 31 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Afternoon high temperatures of 95 to 105 degrees. Warm

overnight lows as high as the upper 50s to mid 60s.

* WHERE...In Washington, East Slopes of the Washington Cascades,

Northwest Blue Mountains. In Oregon, Ochoco-John Day Highlands,

Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon, Southern Blue Mountains of

Oregon, Grande Ronde Valley, East Slopes of the Oregon Cascades

and Wallowa County.

* WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out

of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young

children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles

under any circumstances.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS

EVENING...

* WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures of 105 to

115 degrees. Very warm overnight lows in the mid 60s to mid

70s.

* WHERE...Portions of central, south central and southeast

Washington and central, north central and northeast Oregon.

* IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the

potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those

working or participating in outdoor activities.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT

MONDAY...

* WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT Monday.

potential for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
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More than 20 years ago, Ann Mossop was on the board of Sydney Writers Festival when it broke free of the Sydney Festival to become an independent cultural organisation.

Now shes returning to the event as artistic director, succeeding Michael Williams who steered it through the past two COVID-impacted years.

Ann Mossop is studying the longlist of the Booker Prize to continue SWFs habit of inviting the winner to attend the festival. Credit:

I left the board because I was moving to live overseas, but ... Ive always been very fond of the festival and stayed in touch with what it was doing, she told The Sydney Morning Herald. It is unusual to be coming to work for an organisation where you know such a lot of the history and have been paying close attention for such a long time.

Mossop, who is director of the Centre for Ideas at UNSW, has a substantial record in staging public discussions and debates. She was head of talks and ideas at the Sydney Opera House from 2010 to 2017 and co-led the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, of which she remains a co-curator. And she was also co-founder of the annual All About Women Festival at the Opera House. Mossop has signed a three-year contract with the Sydney Writers Festival.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size This story is part of the July 31 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. Back in 2010, when Michelle Lim Davidson was about to graduate from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), she was handed advice that no aspiring actor wants to hear. Agents and industry people came directly up to me and said, I just want to let you know, youre very good. You have talent. But you will never work,  she recalls. They were like, Youll never work on television, and its going to be really hard for you to get a job in main-stage theatre. They dont hire people that look like you.  Michelle, who was born in Korea but raised in Australia, was left reeling and racked with self-doubt. I asked myself, What am I going to do? Why am I even here? I just didnt realise it would be such a problem. But only a couple of days after her WAAPA graduation showcase, she proved her doubters wrong. In the audience of that showcase was British comedian Ben Elton, who selected Michelle to be part of his 2011 TV sketch comedy show, Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth. The show would last only three episodes but it was enough to launch Michelles career. Since then she has starred in television shows such as Utopia, Doctor Doctor, Harrow, Get Krack!n, Top of the Lake China Girl, The Secret She Keeps and The Newsreader, for which she was nominated for an AACTA for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Drama. Bianca Spender Manhattan jacket, $845. Tory Burch dress, $1730. Senso Glory boots, $460. Dinosaur Designs ring, $395, and Louise Olsen ring, $250, from Dinosaur Designs. Both rings worn throughout. Credit:Jedd Cooney Michelles film credits include Ivan Sens Goldstone and she has a huge list of theatre productions to her name. But for anyone with a preschooler in the house, Michelle is probably best known as a regular presenter on Play School, a role shes held for the past 10 years. In real life, Michelle looks much younger than her 34 years, and she admits she still gets asked for ID at her local bottle shop. As someone who spends her time in front of the camera, she is surprisingly apprehensive about todays photo shoot.

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The first thing I said to everyone this morning was, Im really nervous. When I say Im nervous, Im actually terrified,  she says, laughing and hiding her face with her hands. Its her latest role, in Channel 9s upcoming drama After the Verdict, that brings her into the Sunday Life photo studio. The series is a murder mystery with a comedic twist about four people who meet while serving jury duty  Clara (Michelle), Daniel (Sullivan Stapleton), Margie (Magda Szubanski) and Ollie (Lincoln Younes). When the case is over, the four jurors start having second thoughts about the woman theyve declared not guilty and go about investigating the murder for which shed been accused. Lincoln Younes, Michelle Lim Davidson, and Magda Szubanski star in Nines upcoming drama, After the Verdict. Credit:Nine One of the things I love about the show is that were all quite different: Magda, Lincoln and Sullivan and me, says Michelle. So the relationship the characters form is a very unlikely bond. Loading Michelle describes her character, Clara, as quirky. She has absolutely no life skills that align with being like a private detective, but shes on this mission to get justice for the victim. So they end up on this extreme journey. Clara is maybe a bit similar to me; she cant back out. Theres something else that makes the role of Clara particularly significant. This is the first time a Korean-Australian character has led an Australian television show. I could not have anticipated that my journey would bring me here. Everyone said it wouldnt happen, says Michelle.

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But the path to this point hasnt been without bumps along the way. Michelle recalls once being asked to fill out her details on a form at a casting agency and under the category of Asian ethnicity there were specific options such as Chinese and Japanese, but there was no box to tick for Korean. I remember saying, Im Korean,  says Michelle. The agent just looked at me and said, Oh, you could pass as any of them.  I remember saying, Im Korean. The agent just looked at me and said, Oh, you could pass as any of them.  Michelle doubts many other actors have been asked to end their audition scene with an unscripted karate kick, or been asked if they speak Mandarin. I said, I cant speak Mandarin. And they said, What about Cantonese?  It was Michelles role as Noelene Kim on The Newsreader where she first played a Korean woman on Australian television. Even then, the role was adapted for her. I auditioned and I said, You know, Im Korean  Im not sure if thats going to fit in the show. But they were very open to it. So I had never even auditioned for a Korean woman. Bottega Veneta sweater, $1290 Dinosaur Designs Wishbone bangle, $260. Credit:Jedd Cooney Michelle was four-and-a-half months old when she was adopted by her Australian parents, who live in Newcastle. She speaks of feeling like an outsider growing up in the harbour city. I was the only Asian person at my school until year 4, she says. I never felt like I fit into the beach culture. I was not good at sports.

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Michelle says her parents joke that she didnt see the sun for the first 12 years of her life because she was so shy. But she found her personal expression through the arts and took up dancing, where her shyness would evaporate once she was on stage. Michelles parents also enrolled her into drama lessons in an attempt to bring her out of her shell. She says a switch flicked when she started year 7 at a performing arts high school. Soon she was performing in high school musicals and community theatre, and slowly merged from dancing to acting. After finishing school, Michelle worked as a sandwich artist at Subway, while applying year after year to gain entry into WAAPA. It took three attempts. The move to Perth would prove to be life-changing. But there was another important journey Michelle would take. It took many years before she felt ready to return to the country of her birth, but she eventually reconnected with her family in Korea. Its a surreal experience. Ive never really felt like I fit in here. I also dont really fit in there. Its the best and worst thing Ive done in my life. Its not what you think its going to be. Its not all Disney. Its a very unique and special connection; I felt it spiritually. I relate to my fathers home town and just feel connected to a place, to land, that I cant explain. But theres so much loss on either side, and Ive lost so much time. So I just feel like Im kind of catching up. Bianca Spender Allure shirt, $495, and Moro skirt, $425. Senso Gala boots, $320. Credit:Jedd Cooney Michelle beautifully expresses the sense of feeling caught between two worlds and not quite belonging to either. It was when I was flying home and looking at the map of the planes journey on the screen in front of me. The plane was midway across the ocean, the halfway point, and I thought maybe thats where I am.

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The plane was midway across the ocean, the halfway point, and I thought maybe thats where I am. Her experience inspired her to write a play which is titled, Where We Love

Is Home. Its ultimately about finding home within you. I feel like I carry my home. Ive made that world for myself. Its so freeing for me. I was no longer trying to fit in anymore. I just felt like I could be me. Michelle has been a regular presenter on Play School for the past 10 years: You realise how important it is for little kids to see you. Credit:ABC Besides the upcoming release of After the Verdict, and developing projects for theatre and television, Michelle is busy preparing for filming the second season of The Newsreader. She has also just wrapped a 90th anniversary special for the ABC, and its her role on Play School that brings her a special kind of joy. Loading When you get out and you meet the kids who are watching, its really enjoyable, she says. Back to that diversity, you realise how important it is for little kids to see you. I remember, a mum told me this story about how her daughter was screaming from the living room. The mum rushed in thinking something was wrong. The girl was pointing to the television saying, This girl looks like me. She has the same eyes. The girl asked her mother, One day, can I be like Michelle? And I got to say to that mum, Yes, yes, she absolutely can. 

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That was the reason Walkerden called the Red Nose Grief and Loss support line (1300 308 307, available 24 hours a day). Between July 2021 and June 2022, volunteers who have experienced the sudden and unexpected loss of a child have received 5238 calls  a 20 per cent rise compared to the previous year. Red Nose chief executive Keren Ludski said the protracted COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns had eroded normal support structures for grieving families, creating an even greater need for the service. Weve had parents who havent been able to see their families or attend their support groups, she said. Ludski said anyone affected by the death of a child or by pregnancy loss can call the helpline knowing that the person on the other end understands their grief.

They dont have to justify their feelings, Ludski said. They can tell us about their experience without worrying theyre being a burden. Natasha Walkerden with her newborn baby girl Leila. Credit: Walkerdens daughter Leila lived for 12 days, and each day, her mother and father, Jake, would take turns holding their baby skin-to-skin. She caught what would have just been a common cold for us, but her little body couldnt cope with it, Walkerden said. It took several days for Leilas death to sink in.

It was when my milk dried up. All my hormones were protesting the fact that there was no baby to feed any more. Thats when it hit me that she was gone, she said. Walkerden retreated into herself after Leilas funeral. She barely left the house and stopped eating. I knew I needed to talk to someone, she said. Being able to call Red Nose to talk to other bereaved parents, and having a support worker, Rachel, come to the house made it easier open up. Her support worker helped her through the tangle of emotions when  around Leilas due date  she and husband Jake realised she was pregnant again. The program offers support to parents in the immediate aftermath of stillbirth, neonatal death or the unexpected death of a baby.

It was bittersweet, exciting and scary, Walkerden said of her pregnancy with her son Lachlan, now six-and-a-half months old. We were very fortunate that we knew exactly where to go for support, she said. About 3000 babies and young children die suddenly and unexpectedly in Australia every year. Ludski urged people supporting grieving parents to get used to sitting in discomfort. Instead of trying to make them feel better, give them room to feel the sadness and anger and guilt, which is very difficult to talk about, she said.

Avoid any sentence that starts with at least, she said. At least you know you can get pregnant, at least youre young. It minimises their experience. Instead, try saying, I dont know what to say, Im so, so sad this has happened to you, I want to try to make you feel better, but I know I cant, she said. Talk about their baby. Remember their anniversaries and birthdays and make room for those conversations, she said. Red Nose recently received federal government funding for four years, with the aim of expanding its hospital-to-home pilot nationally to support parents in the immediate aftermath of stillbirth, neonatal death or sudden unexpected death. The program offers aggrieved parents the support of someone with lived experience who can say, These are some of the things you can think about if you are planning a funeral or Do you need help filling out Centrelink forms, or with your workplace?
A volunteer-run mutual aid project backed by the Antipoverty Centre has stepped in to supply free rapid antigen tests to concession card holders after a federal government program ended on Sunday.

The Ratbag project raised more than $2500 after launching on Twitter last night to ensure that welfare recipients could access RATs without having to sacrifice funds earmarked for food and other essentials.

Without a RAT many welfare recipients will be forced to choose between leaving home while contagious or losing their poverty payment. Others will choose between food and testing, Project coordinator Paul McMillan said.

At a time when Covid cases are peaking and new strains are emerging, we cant ask people who are already skipping meals, medication and other essentials to bear even more costs ... The government continues to let these people down, but the community is stepping up.

McMillan said the ending of the program was particularly risky for people who had to do activities to get their Centrelink payment, such as those on JobSeeker.

While living on just $46 a day, those on unemployment payments are forced to leave home to attend activities. A positive COVID test is required to avoid payment suspension when isolating and PCR tests have become increasingly hard to get.

He said the idea for the project came when Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the Albanese government would not be extending the free RATs program launched by the previous Coalition government, against the urging of the Australian Medical Association.

McMillan said system outages on Sunday meant that some welfare recipients were unable to access RATs on the last day of the scheme.

The Ratbag mutual aid project takes donations online and distributes RATs to concession and low income health care card holders who register on its website.

Since launching on Sunday, it has also received donation offers from suppliers able to supply the tests in bulk.

People who do not have a concession card because they are unable to access a welfare payment can also submit a request for access to free RATs through the website.
Warning: This story contains a photo of an Indigenous person who has died.

To be on stage with Uncle Archie Roach, Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder, was to be elevated by his spiritual energy. His voice had so many layers, textures, registers and modes of expression, striations on a sonic rock face, rich with soul. His songs were exquisite distillations of complex ideas to do with, on the one hand, his personal journey of theft of selfhood and subsequent reconciliation and, on the other, universal messages around ancestors, country, love and hope.

I first met Archie in 1995 in Pimba, South Australia, where the Indian Pacific rail line crosses the Stuart Highway. I was making Access All Areas, a series of music documentaries for the ABC, and he and his partner, the late Ruby Hunter, both featured on it. They had been travelling with an extraordinary group of musicians from everywhere possible: the WOMAD train. Archie spoke thoughtfully, often with eyes half closed, carefully choosing his words. Later, when I was learning his songs in preparation for Rubys Story, in which he and Ruby sang up their lives with the Australian Art Orchestra, I became aware that every word had musical weight, phrased and articulated with an idiosyncratic perfection.

The storytelling involved in Rubys Story took us to the dark heart of the experience of the Stolen Generation, but it also lifted us into the sunlight of forgiveness. I came to understand that this was at the heart of Archies mission and message. His relationship with Ruby was in itself a thing of beauty; she leavened his gravitas with her particular brand of irreverent humour and tender support, and he deferred to her constantly. Her death shattered Archie. But, like the children who came back in his most beloved song, Archie did too.
The NSW government has been warned its flagship metro rail projects in Sydney face scores of high risks ranging from safety threats and further cost blowouts to compromised operations and a failure to meet long-term benefits.

The extensive list of high strategic risks threatening the countrys three biggest public transport projects, which are costing more than $55 billion to build, are detailed in a sensitive report by Sydney Metro, the agency charged with overseeing the citys new automated rail network.

Driverless trains for the yet-to-open City and Southwest Metro rail line are stored near Rouse Hill in Sydneys north-west. Credit:Nick Moir

The assessment paints a concerning picture of the dangers posed to the metro rail lines under construction across Sydney, including a $26 billion underground railway from Sydneys CBD to Parramatta.

The confidential report was completed only months before the government conceded in June that the cost of one of the new lines  the City and Southwest link under Sydney Harbour  had blown out by $6 billion. It is among a trove of previously secret government documents released to the NSW upper house.
On Saturday night, Queenslands mining families were able to see what it was like in the Box Flat mine when an explosion led to the deaths of 18 miners.

The mine savagely exploded 50 years ago on July 31, 1972 at 2.47am sending thick black dust over the city of Ipswich and deep sorrow through Queensland.

Thousands of Ipswich families were woken, hundreds rushed to the site.

Hundreds watch on as mine rescue crews try to save miners trapped under the Box Flat mine at Swanbank on July 31, 1972 Credit:Courtesy of Ipswich Historical Society.

Seventeen miners were entombed when a team of senior mine safety workers, the mine owners and senior mine workers decided to fill the tunnels to the mine to prevent further fires.
The note might look like a mere scrap of paper, but to Anna-Mariia Mykytiuk it is a sacred text. The Ukrainian veterinarian had to leave so much behind when she fled her home town of Bucha for Australia in May. Her home. Her husband and parents. The animals she cared for at her clinic. Almost all her belongings.

But for as long as she lives, she plans to hold on to the letter her best friend, Tatiana, sent her just days before a Russian soldier shot her dead.

Anna-Mariia Mykytiuk holds a letter from her friend, Tatiana, a maths teacher shot dead by a Russian sniper. Credit:Kate Geraghty

This is the most important thing for me now, Mykytiuk says, clutching Tatianas letter. She is sitting in the living room of a modest flat in Gordon, on Sydneys north shore, where she lives with her two children: a son, aged 10, and daughter, 13. All three share a single bedroom.

In the letter, Tatiana assured her friend that she was alive and well, signing off with a smiley face. A week after pushing the letter under Mykytiuks door, Tatiana was walking down the street with her teenage daughter on one side and husband on the other.
A Victorian policeman who died in a skydiving accident on Saturday has been remembered for his happy demeanour and willingness to help others.

Sergeant Paul Algie, 45, was an experienced skydiving instructor and is believed to have experience trouble while descending from a12,000 feet jump before crash-landing close to Airfield Road near Morwell on Saturday afternoon.

Paul Algie has been remembered for his warmth and willingness to help people. Credit:Contributed

Australian Parachute Federation chief executive Richard McCooey told The Age on Saturday early investigations showed no issue with the parachute and suggested the man had landed awkwardly.

First aid was provided initially by the club at the airport and then by paramedics, and they werent able to save him, McCooey said.
For almost 60 years, the Catholic Church delivered millions of dollars in fees to Corrs Chambers Westgarth. The top-tier law firm provided legal advice to embattled archdioceses across Australia as they became engulfed in clerical abuse scandals and accusations of cover-ups.

It was Corrs that helped establish the Ellis defence that meant the Catholic Church did not exist as a legal entity because its assets were held inside a trust structure, which insulated it against further claims.

John Ellis (pictured) was sexually abused as a 13-year-old by Father Aidan Duggan. Credit:Steven Siewert

In the civil case against John Ellis, who was sexually abused as a 13-year-old by Father Aidan Duggan, a Corrs solicitor promised in an email to the churchs barristers that they would be greeted with open arms at the Pearly Gates for their efforts to thwart future litigants.

But last week, Corrs abruptly severed ties with the church, at a time when the legal industry is jostling to retain younger staff and attract clients expecting greater corporate responsibility.
The RSL was not consulted about the decision to light the front of the Shrine of Remembrance in LGBTQ colours, and its Victorian president says he is pleased the display was cancelled.

Robert Webster said the view of most Returned and Services League members he had spoken to was that the gesture, which was to have taken place on Sunday night, would have been inappropriate. Were a very conservative organisation, he said.

Veteran Phil Neil and LGBTQ advocate and serving navy member Rachael Cosgrove lay wreaths at the Shrine on Sunday. Credit:Eddie Jim

Lighting the St Kilda Road edifice should be directly related to the Shrines function as a place for remembrance of Australians in conflict, he said.

Webster said the RSL was also concerned about the abuse and threats the RSL and the Shrine had received in reaction to the lights plan, and he believed scrapping it would defuse the situation.
A man is in hospital after he was shot by police in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The man, aged in his 20s, was shot in the town of Pingelly, around 160 kilometres south-east of Perth.

WA Police Deputy Commissioner Allan Adams said police received multiple calls at around 4.15am relating to a disturbance at the address.

When police arrived the 20-year-old ran from the address armed with knives towards police who told him to stop, he said.
Senior NSW Liberals believe Trade Minister Stuart Ayres should stand aside pending the outcome of two inquiries into John Barilaros appointment to a US trade job as a new cache of previously secret documents relating to the decision is uncovered.

Confidential emails, reports and Barilaros credentials are among 71 documents to be made public on Monday ahead of Wednesdays resumption of the upper house inquiry probing the former deputy premiers controversial appointment.

NSW Trade Minister Stuart Ayres. Credit:Kate Geraghty

An index of the documents, seen by the Herald, reveals Barilaro was told about a public service decision to make bureaucrat Jenny West US trade commissioner six weeks before he lodged an urgent cabinet submission to make the role a ministerial appointment.

The briefing note about Wests successful candidacy was sent to Barilaro in August, before the job offer was sensationally rescinded and Barilaro appointed to the plum post in a later recruitment round.
Diego Garcia-Sayan, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said he is not aware of judges in any other country having ever participated in such a hunger strike, underlining the seriousness of Tunisian judges concern over the fate of their countrys judiciary. It is common practice among authoritarians, he said, to concentrate their efforts on attacking the judiciary, controlling the supreme court and dismissing judges. Poland and Hungary are two of the most prominent cases where the executive branch has been accused of systematically stripping away protections from the judiciary or picking government-aligned judges  earning rebukes from the European Union. One of the key elements of democracy is an independent judiciary, Garcia-Sayan said, not as a right just for judges, but mainly as a right for society. The UN watchdog has voiced his concerns over threats to Tunisias judiciary independence and has been waiting several months to enter Tunisia on a formal visit that would allow it to investigate the situation. Such a visit is required in order to write an official report to present to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Tunisia is the only democracy that came out of the Arab Spring. Under the former strongman president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the judiciary lacked independence and was largely controlled by the executive branch of the government. The countrys post-revolution constitution ensured checks and balances by strengthening the independence of the judiciary and establishing a newly independent High Judicial Council tasked with overseeing judges affairs. Then, last summer, amid political infighting and complaints over the ineffectiveness of the countrys lawmakers, Saied suspended parliament and fired the prime minister. Some immediately decried the move as an unlawful coup. Others, frustrated by years of political gridlock, celebrated it as a brave step to weed out unproductive politicians they blamed for the economic and social woes that had long plagued the country. But the suspension of parliament was soon followed by other controversial moves, including the dissolving of the independent High Judicial Council and later the firing of the judges. Saieds actions indicated a lack of belief in the separation of powers enshrined in the 2014 constitution and preference for all the branches of the government to be subordinate to him. Most recently, a new constitution written by Saied himself passed in a referendum held Monday where less than a third of the eligible voters participated.

The judiciary is the only remaining check on executive power in Tunisia, the International Commission of Jurists warned in a statement prior to the referendum. Loading The judges have been waging their own battle against what they say is the dismantling of the system of checks and balances necessary for a functioning democracy. Said Benarbia, director of the Middle East and North Africa region for the International Commission of Jurists, said the June decree and Kanzari and others dismissals is just part of the smear campaign that the president launched from the beginning about how the judiciary is corrupt and judges are corrupt. Of the 57 judges dismissed on June 1, he said, only a handful have had any cases filed against them that might involve serious allegations.

Youssef Bouzakher, who was dismissed from Tunisias highest court of appeals and was president of the High Judicial Council, said the president has to say on what grounds the judges were fired. If they do not publish the accusations, then these accusations do not exist, so this decree should be rolled back, he said. The abrupt dismissals have created a culture of intimidation among other judges who fear that they too may be dismissed without legitimate cause or warning, said Anas Hmedi, 50, president of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates. The judges on hunger strikes have been sleeping on the floor of the Judges Club in Tunis, a building that typically hosts conferences and other events but transformed into a makeshift ward. They have had regular doctor visits, and they monitor their blood pressure and oxygen levels themselves in case of medical emergencies. Its our duty [to help them], Hmedi said. Kais Saieds regime did not anticipate this; he thought Tunisian magistrates would drop it and would align with his regime. . .He was shocked and stunned not only by the resistance, but by the level of resistance.

Hes the only decider of everything, Aicha Benbelhassen, 39, vice president of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates, said of Saied. We have no guarantee and no possibility to have our rights without this hunger strike or general strike. Loading Kais Sabbehi, a judge who was also dismissed in June, joined the strike in July and has spent the past three weeks sleeping on a mattress on the floor near Kanzari. He has gone without food for more than three weeks, is experiencing extreme fatigue, stomach problems and insomnia but said he will continue his strike until further notice. Like Kanzari, he was hospitalised and sent to the intensive care unit on Thursday night. He is suffering from severe kidney malfunction, Benbelhassen said. He has two children who he said are watching his strike with a lot of anxiety, he said prior to his hospitalisation. But the solidarity of his fellow judges - both those engaged in the hunger strike and others who are offering other forms of support have kept him motivated.
Manila: Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, a US-trained ex-general who saw action in the Korean and Vietnam wars and played a key role in a 1986 pro-democracy uprising that ousted a dictator, has died. He was 94.

It was not immediately clear what caused his death but one of his longtime aides, Norman Legaspi, told The Associated Press that Ramos had been in and out of the hospital in recent years due to a heart condition and had suffered from dementia.

Fidel Ramos with Nelson Mandela in 1997. Credit:AP

Some of Ramoss relatives were with him when he died on Sunday at the Makati Medical Centre in metropolitan Manila, Legaspi said, adding the family would issue a statement on his death later Sunday.

He was an icon. We lost a hero and I lost a father, said Legaspi, a retired Philippine air force official, who served as a key staff to Ramos for about 15 years.
Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia.

In a late-night television address, Zelensky also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region, needed to leave.

After months of fierce fighting, including a tragic attack on Mariupol theatre, the Ukraine president has ordered the evacuation of Donetsk region. Credit:AP

The more people leave [the] Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill, he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation.

Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation needed to take place before winter begins since the regions natural gas supplies had been destroyed.
Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says even as China becomes more assertive in the pursuit of its interests, there are still shared interests that the two countries can and should co-operate on.

Speaking at the China Business Summit in Auckland, Ardern added that she looked forward to in-person ministerial visits and planned to lead a business delegation to China when COVID measures allowed.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Credit:Getty

New Zealand has toughened its tone recently on both security and Beijings growing presence in the South Pacific, in part due to the signing of a security pact between China and Solomon Islands earlier in the year. But at the same time New Zealand remains dependent on trade with China.

Ardern said that while there were areas that mattered deeply to New Zealand and where the countrys view differed from that of China, New Zealand was willing to engage.
BES Islands:--- The process of redesigning the dispatch center for the islands of the Caribbean Netherlands will start from early August to early October 2022. The current control room will be completely redesigned and equipped with even more modern equipment, which will benefit the population of the three islands even more.



The development of a dispatch center room for the islands of Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustatius is an indispensable link for the Dutch Caribbean Police Force in creating insight and an overview of the emergency services operation. This makes it possible to intervene quickly and decisively in the operation and to make an active contribution to effective emergency response. This facility will meet the standards of common dispatch centers in the Netherlands.

Due to the renovation, the dispatch center will be temporarily housed elsewhere in the building of the police station in Playa. During the move, there is the possibility that disruptions regarding accessibility may occur. As soon as this is the case, it will be communicated quickly via the radio and Facebook with the numbers that can be used at the moment.

The dispatch center is available 24 hours a day on 911 and 112. This is the emergency number for all emergency services such as the police, ambulance, fire brigade, the Kmar and coast guard.
~Minister Roger Lawrence addresses the public~

PHILIPSBURG:---The Honourable Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs, Silveria E. Jacobs, on behalf of the Council of Ministers (COM), hereby makes known that the Honourable Roger A. Lawrence, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport & Telecommunication (TEATT), has resigned because of medical challenges. The Council of Ministers received Minister Lawrences formal resignation, which was accepted during its meeting of Tuesday, July 26, 2022. The resignation was finalized by national decree on Friday, July 29, 2022.

As is well known, the Minister of TEATT has been unable to execute his duties for some time. As per the replacement regulation for Ministers, Minister Ottley has been carrying the responsibility for the Ministry with the support of the COM. With the official resignation, he will continue to act as Minster of TEATT until a replacement has been sworn in. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we give [Minister Lawrence] encouragement as he takes steps towards recuperation, and we pray for him to make a full return to health. said Prime Minister Jacobs.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Jacobs, Minister Lawrence issued the following statement to be shared with the people of Sint Maarten:

I wish to express my gratitude to the people of Sint Maarten as it has been a tremendous honor to serve as the Minister of TEATT, however, after much thought and prayer, I have decided to make my position as Minister of TEATT available.

Much to my dismay, medical challenges have kept me away from my governmental responsibilities as Minister of TEATT. While I have remained committed and with high hopes, throughout this challenging period, to resume the many important tasks entrusted to me under the responsibility of the Ministry of TEATT, I am still faced with uncertainty as it pertains to the specified time for my full recovery.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult decisions that I had to take. However, having the peoples best interest at heart, first and foremost, and considering the current situation of country Sint Maarten, I found comfort in taking what I consider, the honorable and unselfish decision by making my position as Minister of TEATT available.

I would also like to express my gratitude for the outpouring of public support, empathy, and encouragement received from the citizens of country Sint Maarten, the various stakeholders, and collaborators that I had the pleasure and privilege to serve and/or work with during my tenure as Minister of TEATT.

It has been my distinct honor to work for the people, a position that I accepted in August 2021 because I was asked to do so, and after much reflection, I was convinced that my professional background and knowledge of the works could positively contribute, whilst in the capacity of Minister of TEATT, to the future of this country at this critical juncture; Regretfully the journey took a different course.

Nevertheless, as a professional, I remain committed to serving, in whichever capacity that suits my background, with the same integrity and love, because I know that this country needs all of us to contribute to its wellbeing.

Whatever I undertake will always be in the best interest of the people of this country, as I remain loyal to God first and then to the people.

Considering my discharge, I wish to see our efforts continue unfolding, as many important intents are already set in motion, and these plans will certainly yield tangible results to the benefit of all, thanks to the tireless work of the devoted staff of the Ministry of TEATT.

My sincerest thanks to Prime Minister Jacobs, the Council of Ministers, and the respective support staff for the quality of our work relationship. As a coalition government, I am hopeful that together we can and will continue to make positive strides forward for the country, in the true spirit of unity.

To my cabinet staff and the staff of the Ministry of TEATT, which have displayed exemplary work ethics, I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done, especially during these past months, but first and foremost for your representation of the Ministry of TEATT; Keep up the good works.

It would be remiss of me not to express my gratitude to the United Peoples Party for their support and belief in me, for granting me the opportunity and the privilege to work on behalf of and with the people of this country.

Finally, I wish to thank my family circle, for their unwavering support, continuous prayers, and faith in God, during this challenging journey that will be halted in due time.

The Council of Ministers wishes Honourable Minister Lawrence much strength in his recovery and thanks him for his dedicated service to the country of Sint Maarten in his capacity as Minister of TEATT, said Prime Minister Jacobs.
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STAMFORD  The first three days of the trial for former Stamford Democratic City Committee Chairman John Mallozzi featured testimony about how investigators concluded that Mallozzi apparently forged the signatures on multiple absentee ballot applications and envelopes.

Mallozzi, who led the DCC from 2012 to 2016, has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree forgery and 14 counts of committing false statements in absentee balloting  all in connection with the 2015 elections for seats on the Board of Finance, Board of Education and Board of Representatives. He was arrested in 2019, released on bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In court this week, state prosecutors asserted that Mallozzi signed and submitted absentee ballot documents for people who were unaware that he was doing so. They called seven witnesses, including former Stamford city and town clerk Donna Loglisci.

Before the trial, Loglisci told investigators that she agreed to an arrangement with Mallozzi when she was in office in 2015: He or a representative would drop off completed absentee ballot applications on behalf of voters and then pick up the ballots for them.

When she was on the stand this week, Loglisci said Mallozzi told her that those voters were unable to get out to vote because of sicknesses or other reasons.

Loglisci said she gave absentee ballots to Mallozzi even though the ballots were for voters other than him. She admitted that she broke the law by doing so but has not been charged with any crimes.

Under state law, a town clerk is supposed to mail or hand an absentee ballot to the person who applied for it, though there are exceptions for situations such as a hospitalization.

An allegedly sloppy office

Throughout the trial so far, Mallozzis attorney, Stephan Seeger, has tried to paint the town clerks office under Loglisci as dysfunctional.

State Superior Court Judge Kevin Randolph has used the word sloppy to describe how Seeger has tried to depict the office. Mallozzi waived his right to a jury trial, so Randolph will be the one deciding the case.

Loglisci was on the stand longer than any other witness this week, with cross-examination by Seeger taking up the majority of that time.

When Loglisci testified, Seeger asked her to look at several absentee ballot applications from 2015 that investigators determined were not fraudulent. On an application, a voter is supposed to check off a reason for requesting an absentee ballot. The applications Loglisci reviewed on the stand had no reasons marked. She said she didnt know why her office accepted them.

Randolph eventually interjected during Seegers cross-examination, saying that impugning the integrity of the town clerks office could only go so far. He asked Seeger to draw a clear connection between his line of questioning and the charges against Mallozzi. The court then adjourned for the day.

The next day, Randolph picked up where he left off, saying the court couldnt allow for a survey of every error the town clerks office made.

During the trial, Seeger also described Mallozzi as a patsy and the subject of selective prosecution.

He said that Mallozzi exercised his right to remain silent during an investigation by state election officials. Others cooperated and were not charged, including Loglisci.

According to an affidavit for his arrest, Mallozzi initially refused to cooperate with investigators but began cooperating after hiring Seeger.

An alleged scheme

Among the documents and reports discussed in court was an investigation summary by the State Elections Enforcement Commission. The report stated that the investigation revealed an absentee ballot fraud scheme involving Mallozzi and Loglisci.

Mallozzi orchestrated the submission of fraudulent absentee ballots, and Loglisci facilitated this scheme by agreeing to let Mallozzi submit the ballots to her office, it stated.

The SEEC launched an investigation after a local man went to vote at his polling place on Election Day in 2015 and was told that he was marked as having already voted by absentee ballot.

After signing a statement swearing that he hadnt voted absentee, he was allowed to cast his vote in person.

The investigation that arose from that incident was eventually turned over to the states attorneys office for the Stamford and Norwalk Judicial District.

Another witness this week was Diane Pesiri, who worked in the town clerks office in 2015 and still works there.

Pesiri said that she and someone else who worked in the office wrote the letters JL or JM in red ink on a number of absentee ballot applications in 2015. She said JM stood for John Mallozzi. She said it was a mistake when she once wrote JL.

Pesiri said Loglisci gave her the applications and told her that Mallozzi had provided them.

Pesiri said she later put absentee ballot sets  consisting of a ballot and inner and outer envelopes  on a table in Logliscis office and saw Mallozzi pick them up.

Indications of a common authorship

On Thursday, the final day of testimony before the judge adjourned proceedings until next month, Greg Kettering, a retired forensic document examiner and expert in handwriting analysis for the state, took the stand.

Kettering, who was involved in the investigation following the 2015 elections, said experts like himself are trained to look at slant, shape, letter size, spacing and strokes when analyzing writing.

During the investigation, Kettering scrutinized the handwriting and signatures on absentee ballot materials that investigators suspected were fraudulent and compared them with writing samples that Mallozzi provided. Seeger said Mallozzi provided 680 samples in all.

In court, Assistant States Attorney Laurence Tamaccio projected Ketterings case notes onto a screen in the courtroom.

Kettering pointed out As that were slanted and had an over-extended horizontal line, Ns that had a loop in the top right corner of the letter, Zs that had rounded corners and Bs with a feather stroke in the top left corner.

He said he found indications of a common authorship between the writing on many of the absentee ballot materials and Mallozzis writing samples.

Trial resumes Aug. 29

Over the course of the three days, Mallozzi sat at a table with his attorneys, sometimes nodding his head during witness testimony and other times turning around to look at his wife, who was sitting in the gallery.

The trial is expected to pick back up Aug. 29 and conclude no later than Sept. 2. Randolph said the trial couldnt resume sooner because of scheduling conflicts.

After he cross-examines Kettering, Seeger said he plans to call six or seven witnesses of his own, including former Mayor David Martin.

After Mallozzi was arrested, Martin said in a statement that he and Mallozzi had been friends for more than three decades.

I do not know  and it is not my place to say  if John is guilty of the charges against him; I leave that responsibility to the state and the judicial process, Martin said at the time. I can only hope  for the friendship I've had with John and for the sanctity of our city's elections  that these charges are not true.

brianna.gurciullo@hearstmediact.com
Fotis Dulos texted a close friend in Greece, asking him to make a planned alibi call the morning his estranged wife disappeared, according to a search warrant obtained by federal authorities in October 2020.

The brief call made by Andreas Toutziaridis around 8:30 a.m. on May 24, 2019 placed him at the center of Connecticuts largest investigation in recent history and prompted federal authorities to examine his potential role in the death and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, court documents showed.

Special Agent Craig Bowling with the Department of Homeland Security was looking for any evidence that Toutziaridis participated in federal crimes, including interstate domestic violence, obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting and conspiracy from Feb. 1, 2019 to June 25, 2019 when he sought the federal search warrant, court documents said.

Bowling requested that his affidavit, explaining why he wanted the search warrant, the search warrant and any other federal warrants be sealed to protect the integrity of the investigation. The warrant was served, but the case was closed by acting Connecticut U.S. Attorney Leonard Boyle on Nov. 12, 2021 without an arrest, the document said.

Toutziaridis and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

The search warrant, obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group, is now part of the defense for Michelle Troconis whose attorney Jon Schoenhorn is seeking any evidence that other suspects were considered, but not charged in the case.

Schoenhorns client, who was Fotis Dulos live-in girlfriend at the time of the disappearance, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges.

Attorney Kent Mawhinney, a close friend of Fotis Dulos, has also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.

Fotis Dulos died by suicide in January 2020 while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in his wifes death and disappearance.

The New Canaan mother of five has never been found, but she has been presumed dead by authorities and her family based on evidence investigators found the night of her disappearance.

In his suicide note, Fotis Dulos said he was innocent and that Troconis and Mawhinney had nothing to do with Jennifers disappearance. He also asked investigators to stop harassing Toutziaridis.

New Canaan police asked federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security for their assistance early in the investigation, according to the search warrant, which was sealed until November 2021.

But the federal involvement was unknown to even most insiders, including the Superior Court judge presiding over the criminal cases against Troconis and Mawhinney who admitted last week he was not aware of the parallel federal investigation.

After Fotis Dulos indicated on May 25, 2019  the day after the disappearance  that he would not help authorities in their search for his estranged wife, Bowling said in his affidavit that New Canaan police asked him to join the investigation.

Bowling was initially assigned to monitor whether Fotis Dulos or Troconis made any travel arrangements, the documents stated.

Toutziaridis was added to the list after an examination of Fotis Dulos cellphone revealed the two had been in contact in the hours before the disappearance, the search warrant said.

Bowling and other federal agents seized Toutziaridis phone when he entered the U.S. on June 25, 2019 at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to stay with his friend Fotis Dulos, court documents said.

A review of his phone revealed that Fotis Dulos had called his friend the day before the disappearance, but Toutziaridis didnt answer, court documents stated.

Fotis Dulos texted Toutziaridis at 10:30 p.m. that night, instructing his friend to call the following day  May 24, 2019  at 3:30 p.m, his time in Greece, which would be 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in Connecticut, the search warrant said.

On the morning of May 24, 2019, Mawhinney and Troconis were in Fotis Dulos office at his Farmington home in an effort to establish an alibi for him while he was in New Canaan, police have said in arrest warrants.

Fotis Dulos cellphone was left in the office and rang at 8:26 a.m., arrest warrants stated. Troconis answered the phone, but claimed the connection was poor and the call failed after a few seconds, arrest warrants said.

Toutziaridis then made a calendar entry in his device in Greek that was translated to telephon(ed) Fotis, the search warrant said. The entry was for 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the court document said.

Based on my training and experience, and participation in this investigation, I believe the entry about speaking to Fotis, was a false entry, made in an attempt to conspire with (Fotis) Dulos to create an alibi for him, Bowling wrote in the search warrant.

Police believe Fotis Dulos was lying in wait for his estranged wife at her New Canaan home when she returned from dropping off their children at school around 8 a.m. that day.

While Troconis and Mawhinney were in his office in Farmington, arrest warrants said Fotis Dulos was likely trying to clean up after attacking his estranged wife in the garage of her New Canaan home, arrest warrants said.

The amount of blood and evidence of a cleanup indicated Jennifer Dulos would not have survived the attack without immediate medical intervention, according to the state medical examiners office.

Almost two hours after he made the call to Fotis Dulos cellphone, Toutziaridis sent a video to his friend and two other people through WhatsApp, the search warrant said. The video, which investigators believe is a meme available online, shows a man who is asked a question by a woman off camera, the search warrant said.

All right, you have two choices: A, you can live the rest of your life with your wife, or B... the woman says in the video, according to the search warrant.

The man then interrupts and yells B, before the video abruptly ends, the search warrant said.
STAMFORD  A former assistant principal at high schools in Norwalk and Hartford has been hired as an assistant principal at Cloonan Middle School.

Hector Huertas, who spent six years at Norwalk High as a teacher and administrator and for the past two years has been assistant principal at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, will take over the role previously held by Alexander Hanna, who moved to Rogers International School this summer.

Mr. Huertas professional background and experience we believe will be an asset to our school community, said David Tate, principal at Cloonan, in a press release from Stamford Public Schools. With his experience in urban school systems as a teacher and as an administrator ... I believe he brings an empowering perspective. We are excited to have him join our team and expand our capacity to serve the needs of all our students.

Huertas worked for Miami Dade County Public Schools from 2004 to 2014 before coming to Norwalk High and then to Bulkeley.

He holds a bachelors degree in art and architecture from the University of Pittsburgh and a masters degree in teacher education from Sacred Heart University. He has 18 years of experience in the elementary, middle and high school levels, according to the press release.

On Wednesday, Stamford schools also announced it had hired Lindsey Pontieri as the districts new assistant director of special education and related services.

Pontieri was an assistant principal at Central Middle School in Greenwich the past four years. Previously, she was a special education teacher at Greenwich Alternative High School before moving to Western Middle School, where she was a seventh and eighth grade special education teacher.

Lindseys experience as both an assistant principal and as a special education teacher will serve her well in her new role with us, said Meghan Osowiecki, the districts director of special education, in the press release. Coming from another school district will bring a different viewpoint that will help us as we strive to achieve our departments goals.

Pontieri holds a bachelors degree in political science from the State University of New York at Oswego and a masters degree in special education from Dowling College.

ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com
STAMFORD  Stamford could join the list of towns opting out of new statewide rules allowing an extra building on private property to be used as a rental, the city Zoning Board has announced.

The Zoning Board unanimously voted to have Land Use Bureau staff draft rules that could govern ADUs  auxiliary dwelling units or secondary homes on single-family lots  specific to Stamford. Zoning Board chair David Stein said that he and the zoning board's staff, which Land Use Burea Chief Ralph Blessing leads, both favored the idea of Stamford-specific rules over state ones.

"I believe that we should have our own regulations which will better fit Stanford's needs and would be narrower than what the state law has," Stein said during the meeting.

State officials and housing reform advocates call ADUs the low-hanging fruit of affordable housing reform. The units, which could be anything from a converted garage to a pool house, are smaller and cheaper than traditional homes, they say. Introducing ADU in more towns could diversify the housing types available in them.

But the state legislature's attempt to tackle Connecticut's affordable housing crisis has also triggered an intense statewide debate over local zoning control. Politicians far and wide have argued that the ADU law endangers single-family zoning, which broadly disallows multi-family housing.

The city has until January 2023 to pull out of the state accessory dwelling unit rules. The regulations, which were passed as part of a 2021 zoning reform bill, legalize these tiny homes in any part of a town or city that allows single-family homes.

Other towns and cities have already moved to reject the state ADU rules. The Western Connecticut Council of Governments  a planning organization that serves the region  recommended to all its members that they opt out of the state law. So far, many have.

Of the 20 WestCOG members, 11 have opted out so far, according to documents provided to Stamford from the organization. Darien last week began pursuing an opt-out, though the town legislature must finalize that decision in the coming months.

Though state law hands municipal zoning authorities the reins in the opt-out process, some members of the Stamford Board of Representatives last month made it clear they favored creating their own rules. Representatives Nina Sherwood, D-8; Jeffrey Stella, D-9; and Virgil De La Cruz, D-2, argued ceding power to the state was a bad idea and that creating local regulations would allow Stamford to tweak its ADU rules easily if necessary.

The Planning and Zoning Boards would have to approve any potential ADU regulations. If the boards decide to pass them, then the Zoning Board will move forward with opting out of state law, Stein told The Stamford Advocate this week.

To finalize the opt-out process, the Zoning Board and Board of Reps must both approve.

Stein added that the Zoning Board expects to introduce ADU regulations when it returns from its summer recess in September.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
Home Search ICH Question Everything! Purpose and Intent of this website: What Presidents Say Does Not Matter. It Is The Execution Of Policies That Counts. By MOA July 30, 2022: Information Clearing House -- Yesterday, on July 28/29 2022 three independent entities stated the obvious fact that the president of the United States is just a front puppet who has no power to fulfill the promises he makes during various interactions with foreign leaders. The dangers evolving from this state are enormous but rarely noted. Andrew Bacevich, the head of the Quincy Institute, writes: Something much bigger than POTUS  call it the MIC or the deep state  has de facto veto power on all matters related to national security. Writing in the New York Times, veteran foreign correspondent Edward Wong reports that the Biden administrations approach to strategic priorities is surprisingly consistent with the policies of the Trump administration. What ought to be surprising at this juncture is Wongs surprise.

...

In practice, the power wielded by the most powerful man in the world turns out to be quite limited. Factors at home and abroad constrain presidential freedom of action.

...

Two factors stand out, one structural and the other ideological.

...

The structural factor refers to the institutions whose wellbeing is dependent upon maintaining arrangements that devolved during the Cold War and survived the Cold Wars passing. Call it what you will  the Blob, the Deep State, the military-industrial-congressional complex  it exercises a de facto veto power on all matters related to basic U.S. national security policy.

...

The ideological factor rests on explicit or tacit claims of American Exceptionalism: That it is incumbent upon the United States to lead the world, with leadership tending in practice to become a synonym for global primacy and primacy tending to be expressed in military terms. With regards to Joe Biden's recent call with China's president Xi Jinping, Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism makes a similar argument: National leaders never have complete freedom to act; even autocrats have constituencies or power blocs they have to appease. In the US, it has become clear that the President has limited degrees of freedom on foreign policy matters; the military/intel interests call the shots. Mind you, there are factions so a President can push the needle to a degree; thats why, for instance, Obama was able to check Clintons plans to escalate in Syria. But the flip side is that Presidents who want to improve relations with pet enemies get nowhere. In the Oliver Stone interviews, Putin recounts how he had productive discussions with Bush and they agreed on concrete de-escalation measures. Follow ups were unanswered. Eventually Putin got a written bafflespeak climbdown. That and other examples led Putin to conclude that US presidents are hostage to bureaucratic and commercial interests. Biden is a visibly very weak president. And it appears that that has enabled the neocons to have an even bigger say over foreign policy than usual. One assumes Xi has to understand that. Yet the Chinese readout has Xi starting from lofty first principles to contend that the US and China, as leading world powers, have a duty to promote peace, global development, and prosperity. From that, Xi reasons that seeing China as a strategic rival is misperceiving US-China relations and misleading the world community. Who is Xi talking to when he goes on like that? It certainly is not to Biden. On the very same day as Yves published the above, the Global Times, the prime international outlet of the Chinese Communist Party, acknowledged Biden's inability to keep promises by publishing an editorial which makes the same observation: China-US relations have not only failed to get out of the plight created by the previous US government, but have stagnated and even deteriorated. The root lies in that these positive statements by President Biden have not been translated into the US' practical actions. In other words, from the perspective of many Chinese, there is something wrong with Washington's execution.

...

For the next step, the US side should translate the positive momentum formed in this latest exchanges into dynamics that fully reflects the execution capability, seriously consider China's statements on strategic track which are rational and in line with the two countries' interests and concerns, truly meet China half way, properly manage and develop China-US ties. Particularly, the US needs to show positive execution capability on cores issues that have major impact on bilateral ties. In this context it is interesting to see the lectures given by Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to the minion in Washington who plays his counterpart: The ministers discussed current developments in Ukraine. Sergey Lavrov laid out Russias principled approaches in the context of the special military operation in the Donetsk Peoples Republic, the Lugansk Peoples Republic and Ukraine. He emphasised that its goals and tasks will be fully achieved.

...

Mr Lavrov said that US sanctions were aggravating the situation and that US promises to make exemptions for Russian food shipments had not materialised.

...

As for the potential prisoner swap between the countries, Mr Lavrov strongly advised a return to professional dialogue in the context of quiet diplomacy without any dubious media leaks. Ouch. Reviewing the Blinken-Lavrov call the former Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar asks: Shouldnt Biden be talking directly to Putin? Such conversations as yesterdays suffer from being totally opaque. Blinken cant even articulate the substantive issues bothering Biden the cracks in the western unity. Curiously, the Biden faces two crisis situations with explosive potential at the moment  in Ukraine and over Taiwan. Indeed, it is crystal clear that both have been precipitated by Washington. Yet, the manner in which Biden is handling them couldnt be anymore dissimilar. In the case of Taiwan, Biden didnt hesitate to call up Chinese President Xi Jinping to calm the tensions. But he has chosen a different path to communicate with President Vladimir Putin. For sure, into the six month of the conflict in Ukraine, Biden has finally decided to bite the bullet and resume high-level contact with Moscow. But he opted to get through to Putin through his state secretary! The problem here is, although US-China relations are tense, Biden never took it to a personal level. He never used derogatory language to spite Xi Jinping, as he did to Putin repeatedly. Did Biden deliver on Taiwan? It is obvious that he did not. A call with him is rather useless. The problem of a call to Moscow is not that Biden denigrated and insulted Putin. The Russian president is a professional. He doesn't take such things personally. What he cares about is that stuff gets done, that promises once made are being held. The real problem, as the three first writers quoted above state, is that Biden has no say in pretty much anything. Biden could prevent Nancy Pelosi's fancy but dangerous travel to Taiwan by simply canceling her passport for national security reasons. There is supreme court sanctioned precedence for doing that. Instead he is risking a full blown military response by China. As for Blinken - for the last two decades he has been little more than Biden's errand-boy, a grifter with no real influence in the deep state bureaucracy. There the Victoria Nulands and other scheming neocons are running the real show. They are carrying their grandparents subjective grievances and are out to revenge those - no matter the costs. Any president who wants to really run U.S. policies must be a hard nosed brut. He must ruthlessly fire people left and right whenever they even think about sabotaging a stated policy. This must be done down to the third and fourth level of the state department, intelligence and pentagon bureaucracies. The justice department and the internal revenue services must be used to keep congress under control. Any senator, representative or staff who tries to resist the agenda has to be publicly exposed as the utterly corrupt egoist they all are. That would be a 'dictatorship'? Well, look how Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin run their businesses, largely to the benevolence of their people. Both got reelected by their relevant constituencies. There is no way Joe Biden will achieve that. https://www.moonofalabama.org The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Reader financed- No Advertising - No Government Grants - No Algorithm - This Is Independent Get Our Free Newsletter Registration is not necessary to post comments. We ask only that you do not use obscene or offensive language. Please be respectful of others. See also Search Information Clearing House The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
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The Border Police Inspectorate General (IPPF) informs on Saturday that approximately 500,000 persons entered through the border check points on Saturday, of whom 13,822 Ukrainian citizens, up 14.9 percent from the previous day.

According to a release sent to AGERPRES on Sunday, approximately 498,900 persons, Romanian and foreign citizens carried out the control formalities at the border points (both on the way in and on the way out), with over 129,100 means of transport.

On the way in Romania, there were 261,970 persons, most of them having crossed the border with Hungary (151,615 persons), where there was a 78.5 percent increase from last Saturday (July 23).

IGPF shows that Nadlac II was the busiest crossing point nationwide, operating on 11 lanes on the way in and eight lines on the way out, with 166,150 persons and 42,232 means of transport having crossed it, both on the way in and on the way out.

Since February 10 (pre-conflict period), until Saturday, at midnight, 1,753,232 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania through all border points.

The authorities mention that in the relevant areas, border crossing points and the green border, border police officers, alone or in collaboration with other institutions, found 65 illegal deeds (31 offenses and 34 contraventions) perpetrated both by Romanian citizens and foreign citizens, with undeclared goods about to be introduced in the country exceeding the admitted customs threshold or suspected of being counterfeit, in total value of approximately 180,400 lei, and the value of contravention fines amounts to over 11,800 lei.

At the same time, 33 foreign citizens were banned from entering Romania, as they didn't meet the legal requirements and 40 Romanian citizens were not allowed to leave the country, for various legal reasons.
The reed and the reed beds cover about 173,000 hectares of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, ensure the depollution of the water and are the habitats of some species of birds.

Perennial plant made of two distinct parts, one aerial, stem, with an annual life cycle that constitutes both the recoverable resource, and another submerged, the rhizome, fixed in the moist soil or completely covered with water, penetrating up to 1.5 meters deep, the reed is the most common plant in the Reserve and among the most important.

"The reed beds represent an important natural filter for contaminated water, constituting a barrier for the entry of pollutants into the Black Sea. The reed along the canals and rivers reduces the erosion effects of the banks caused by the water currents and contributes to the retention of sediments in the flood water. The reed beds have an important role in the depollution of the flood waters through the physico-chemical and biological properties that induce the metabolic chemical conversion," reads a paper signed by the representative of the National Institute for Research and Development Danube Delta (INCDDD), Jenica Hanganu.

The reed beds represent the main habitat for many species of birds, such as the Eurasian bittern (Botarurus stellaris), the dwarf heron, the reed harriers, the Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), the common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) and the water rail (Rallus aquaticus). Other birds use reeds for nesting, such as the pelican, the large egret and the red heron. Some birds, such as the Eurasian coot, the cormorant, the marsh tern and the herons, use varnishes and water meshes between the reed beds.

Floating reed, formations of reed rhizomes, up to 1.5 meters thick, can be fixed to the substrate or can be floating when the water level is high. The common sallow, a shrub that can have a height of up to five meters, often accompanies the reeds on the floating reed formations.

"The areas covered with common sallow have the tendency of extension, as a result of reducing the activities of reed harvesting and sanitizing by burning, activities that have the effect of partially destroying the brush of willow and common sallow," is specified in the work signed by the INCDDD researcher.

The floating reed and floating reed islands of the Delta represent a valuable and unique environment for mink, wild boars and other species, these formations offering them protection by providing an environment difficult to access by ordinary predators. In the same areas you can meet the otter, the small ermine or short-tailed weasel, the wild cat, the fox, the common raccoon dog and the muskrat.

"Many species of fish from the Danube Delta sometimes reproduce or feed in reeds. Thus, the perch, the whitewash, the crucian carp, the roach (Rutilus rutilus) and the tench (Tinca tinca) cohabitate in the reeds, and also here the carp, the luce, the catfish and the bream are sheltered in summer, during the big heats," mentions the INCDDD specialist.

Traditionally, reed is used in households as a building material, as a source of heat in winter and as fodder for domestic animals. The traditional 1 March Martisor trinckets, hats, purses, but also objects for household use, carpets, interior decoration objects, partitions, fences, shelves or shade are also made by reed. Also, from reed are made the braidings for the protection of river banks and dams from flooding.

"Reed is also an important raw material for cellulose and paper. This feature and the large volume of resources in the Danube Delta were the motivation that during the 1960s an action of knowledge of the biology and ecology of the reed was launched, being established in Maliuc the experimental reed station subordinated to the Ministry of Chemistry, to proceed to the arrangement of reed enclosures with directed hydrological regime and to import adequate harvesting equipment from the former German Democratic Republic," the source says.

In order to capitalize the mass of reed for the production of cellulose, in Chiscani, near Braila, a cellulose and paper plant was established, the reed from the Delta being transported with barges on the Danube. For harvesting, packing and loading reed, especially in the winter months, when there was an ice bridge, political prisoners were used as labour.

"I was detained in 14 places, but in the Danube Delta I went to Periprava - center, to Grindu section and on floating ferries to harvest reed. Two years I was here (...). We were deprived of minimal hygiene and medical assistance. Torture and beatings were the order of the day, especially when work norms were not met. Hunger was terrible. Each of us had at least 10-20 kilograms less than they should have had," told AGERPRES a few years ago, the president of the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Romania, Octav Bjoza.

According to INCDDD, the use of harvesting machines inadequate to the environmental conditions had as a consequence the degeneration of reed on large areas, which led to the gradual reduction of the harvested reed mass until the abandonment of the project in the 1960s. The technological line from Chiscani has been re-oriented on wooden mass, and the reed harvesting is done in smaller and smaller quantities. Thus, if in the years 1962-1964, the reed volumes harvested were 240,000 tonnes annually, in the period 2003-2004 only a few thousand tonnes were harvested.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns the shelling of the Olenivka correctional facility and the killing of Ukrainian prisoners-of-war, according to a message sent on Sunday.

"MFA strongly condemns the shelling of #Olenivka correctional facility and the killing of Ukrainian POWs. These heinous crimes committed by #Russia call for international investigation & sanctioning. Condolences to the families & full support for #Ukraine," reads the Romanian Foreign Ministry's message on Twitter.

A prison in Olenivka was shelled on Friday, most of the 193 Ukrainian prisoners-of-war having been killed or injured, according to the statements of the Russian Defence Ministry, which published on Sunday the names of 50 dead and 73 injured.

Russia says the strike came from a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher supplied by the U.S. to Ukraine, in the context in which Kyiv is trying to recover the territories controlled by the pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine. Ukraine replied it would never shoot against a civil facility, particularity one sheltering its own people, and accused Russia of having organised the attack in retaliation against the Ukrainian nationalists among the prisoners taken in Mariupol some weeks ago. AGERPRES
Romania will continue to defend the rights and interests of its minorities and make efforts to build a society as inclusive and tolerant as possible, President Klaus Iohannis said on Sunday.

"In 2022 Romania, the culture and traditions of national minorities are appreciated and promoted, and the plus value they bring is acknowledged by the society. In a modern and democratic society, intercultural dialogue is natural and becomes a source of prosperity. Romania will continue to defend the rights and interests of its minorities and make efforts to build a society as inclusive and tolerant as possible," Iohannis said at the Haferland Week Festival in Crit, Brasov County.

The head of state said that the devastating consequences of the war led by Russia in Ukraine on the heritage area strengthen solidarity round democratic values and principles.

"The war led by the Russian Federation in Ukraine and the devastating consequences it has, including in the heritage area, through the destruction of Ukrainian cultural institutions and historic monuments strengthen our solidarity round the democratic values and principles and determine us to treasure even more the historic and cultural inheritance we received from our ancestors," President Iohannis showed.

He added that the public authorities, especially the local ones, together with the citizens, must understand that they have the responsibility to contribute to preserving the traditions and protecting the authenticity of the cultural landscape, to offer the future generations the opportunity of knowing, understanding and capitalising on the identity roots.

According to Iohannis, Romania's traditions and culture become an essential economic assets in drawing investments.

"Tourism and thematic events are excellent ways to encourage and ensure access to the cultural heritage, and this is valid both on a national level and on the local communities level. History, traditions and our culture become an essential economic asset in drawing investments the moment they are acknowledged, respected and promoted in a responsible way. That is why, a proper absorption of the funds devoted to promoting cultural tourism, European funds in particular, becomes, beyond the quality of an administrative goal, a moral duty and an act of responsibility," the head of state underscored. AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said, on Sunday, at the Haferland Week at Crit, Brasov County, that this festival is a sublime example of keeping a culture intact and celebrating cultural diversity by promoting the traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons in Romania.

"I am glad and honoured to participate in the tenth edition celebrating cultural diversity by promoting the traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons in Romania. The Haferland Week has become, thanks to an excellent initiative and a tireless effort, that moment of celebrating a sublime example of keeping a culture intact, inheriting some ethnic, linguistic and religious traditions that have found their place and due respect in the Romanian cultural heritage. These days we are celebrating our common history, of the Transylvanian Saxons who stayed here, of those who come back to see again the place where their parents and grandparents were born, the villages where the same language is spoken. Round the fortified churches and inside the Saxon citadels we are proudly celebrating today a community having spanned for nine centuries. A community that has shared tough moments or fast instants of history with the Romanian people. The Transylvanian Saxons have lived here, embraced by the Carpathians and by the respect of each one of us, as part of this nation," Ciuca said.

He added that Haferland is the blessed place in the heart of Transylvania, where one finds that interior peace sensation reflecting the soul of the people and a history teaching that "unity, patience and tolerance are values making us go further together."

"At an event celebrating cultural diversity, I wish to speak about everything that unites us all, as a people, about the problems we have to overcome together," Ciuca also said. AGERPRES
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, on Sunday, at "Haferland Week" Festival in Crit, Brasov County, said that Romania is a democratic state, with different, "even opposite" visions and ideas, but they must not become radical, which is why we must fight against any form of authoritarianism, excesses based on "nationalist-populist, racist or class doctrines."

"Our affiliation to Western civilization and the society of European nations requires us to share common values, not just common interests. I am telling you clearly: Romania is a democratic state that has made considerable efforts in the last 30 years to be a reliable partner among developed Western societies. We, the Romanians, chose this path when we removed the communist regime from power and we will not leave this path. Democracy is a complicated political regime, it works best through consensus and cooperation. Of course, in a democratic society there are different visions and ideas, even opposite, which must not become radical, but must be tolerated in order to reach consensus and balance. No democracy is perfect, but it is perfected through consolidation. We learn from each other and fight against any forms of authoritarianism, radicalisation, excesses based on nationalist-populist, racist or class doctrines. At the same time, democracy must be defended, despite all the obstacles, continuously investing our energy and confidence. Only this way, by participating in democracy, will we be able to understand its values, respect them and pass them on to our children through education," Ciuca said.

He added that the actions and speeches that promote hatred and violence in society must be fought "with all our strength," noting that the promotion of democratic values on which the peace and welfare of people are based must be promoted.

"Along with national sovereignty and the unity of the people, citizenship, the constitutional values derived from political pluralism and the rule of law, the right to identity represents one of the foundations of the democratic society in which we live. As Romanian citizens, we are equal in rights and we are free to preserve, develop and express our ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity, without discrimination and privileges. As a European and democratic society, we cannot think of the world we live in from the perspective of exclusion, violence, in all its forms, or the right of the strongest. As a democratic society, we must be strong and firm in defending our values. We must combat with all our strength those actions and speeches that promote hatred and violence within society and promote, through our actions and words, the democratic values on which the peace and welfare of our communities are based," the prime minister pointed out.

Ciuca highlighted that the Government he leads has the mission of ensuring political, social and economic stability, in a period with multiple interconnected crises and a war on the border, in the context where fundamental values are endangered, such as freedom, peace and prosperity.

"Peace and the welfare of the nation and its members are the fundamental goals of any democratic society, at the same time, freedom is the supreme value of any person who lives within such a society. The freedom to think, to be informed, to be educated, as well as the freedom to express one's ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity are all expressions of human freedom, equally protected and guaranteed by the Romanian state. We see today what dramatic consequences arise when fundamental values are put at risk because of the war started by Russia in Ukraine, not far from our borders. We know that on how we manage these crises now, together with our European and transatlantic partners, depends on our future and welfare in the years to come. That is why the Government I lead has this mission, not easy, to ensure political, social and economic stability, in a period with multiple interconnected crises and a war on the border, which changed the world we live in," said Ciuca. AGERPRES
As many as 4,079 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, down 3,453 from the previous day, with over 13,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Sunday.

Of the new cases, 742 were in re-infected patients, who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.

Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 1,179, and in the counties of Cluj - 340, Constanta - 317, Sibiu - 246, Ilfov - 222.

The 14-day notification rate nationwide is 3.30 cases per 1,000 population. The highest rates are in Bucharest City - 9.03, followed by the counties of Cluj - 8.05, Ilfov - 6.44, Constanta and Sibiu - 5.99.

A number of 3,063,647 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania to date.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 3,904 people with COVID-19, up 144 from the previous reporting, including 585 children, are hospitalised in Romania at specialist care facilities.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 263 patients, up nine, including five minors, are in intensive care.

Of the 263 patients admitted to ICU, 232 are unvaccinated against COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the ministry, 16 Romanians, five men and eleven women, infected with SARS-CoV-2 are reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Of the 16 deaths, three were recorded in the age group 60-69 years, two in the age group 70-79 years, and 11 in the age group over 80 years.

All deaths were in patients with comorbidities, and 10 deaths were in unvaccinated patients.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,999 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.
ST. LOUIS  The Lutheran School of Nursing, which first opened its doors in 1898 but has struggled in recent years with finances and enrollment, has closed.

Tina Hecht, CEO at South City Hospital, wrote a letter to faculty Wednesday announcing the news. The school is part of the hospital.

It is with deep and heartfelt sorrow that we write to tell you that Lutheran School of Nursing will close effective immediately, she wrote. This has been one of the hardest decisions of our life.

For years, hospitals have complained of staffing shortages, and the need for nurses only grew during the coronavirus pandemic. As health care workers took on more work, risk and trauma, often without much more pay, many left staff positions to work as contract nurses, which paid as much as three times more, or left hospitals altogether.

At the same time, the Lutheran School of Nursing was a diploma program, which can be faster and cheaper than other programs but do not award degrees to graduates and have been less common in recent years.

Hechts letter last week cited challenging enrollment and financial trends and said that running the school is no longer an option. It said the hospital had looked into other options for running the school but found no feasible solutions.

Officials at the hospital could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Christopher Guelbert, an alumnus who now teaches nursing, said, Its such sad news, since the school had been around since 1898. Just another sign of the times changing in health care.

Many of the schools students were older than college age, coming to the program from other jobs or careers. Students could finish their studies in about two years, instead of more common three-year programs, because it was a diploma program. Graduates are then qualified to take the state exam to become a registered nurse, just as with nursing students with college degrees.

The Lutheran School of Nursing was the last nursing diploma program in Missouri.

The school had been struggling for several years. In 2015 and 2016, its pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination fell just below the 80% required for registered professional nursing schools.

The school was placed on conditional approval status and raised its scores above the cutoff level in 2017 and 2018.

But a 2019 report by the Missouri State Board of Nursing detailed problems with finances, faculty turnover and facilities. The school had to move out of one building because of problems with mold and pests.

In 2020, the school faced a hearing in Jefferson City to determine its future with the state nursing board. Before the hearing was held, at least four public officials sent letters to the nursing board, including then-mayor Lyda Krewson.

(N)ot only does the nursing school serve the public and greater good in improving healthcare and outcomes for patients, but it provides a tremendous pipeline of skilled workers to our local hospitals and medical facilities, she wrote.

This February, the school announced that it was not taking students for the upcoming term because of a moratorium of admissions from the Missouri State Board of Nursing.

South City Hospital, the 190-bed south St. Louis institution that ran the school, was formerly known as St. Alexius Hospital. In 2021, it was bought out of bankruptcy and renamed by SA Acquisition Group.

In April, the St. Louis Business Journal reported that the hospitals staff had not been receiving their paychecks on time.

Annika Merrilees of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
ST. LOUIS  June was hot and dry, ending in three wilting days of 100-degree heat. Some churches and restaurants began allowing men to leave their jackets at home. One kindly minister even said women could attend without hats.

On July 2, 1901, the Post-Dispatch published a satirical poem reminding people there were worse places to be: "For instance, take the desert of Sahara."

As heat persisted, reporting turned from fashion and humor to grinding discomfort and agony.

"I'm burning up. Won't somebody do something to relieve me?" screamed Clara Bosch of 3938 South Broadway. A short time later, her husband found Clara hanging from a rope in their basement. Her death was a suicide.

Seven others died of heat illness that same day. About 200 people in St. Louis would perish by heat before it broke on Aug. 4, when the high was only 79 degrees. The summer of 1901 lingers in history for having the highest average temperature on record in St. Louis, 82.7 degrees.

A few other summers were deadlier or had more triple-digit days, but 1901 was noteworthy for persistence. For nearly seven weeks, temperatures were above 90 on all but three days. It was 100 or hotter on 15 days, including a terrible four-day run of at least 106.

The dead included John Boepple, 59, a butcher who succumbed to heat on July 25 at his home and shop, 615 South Second Street. Local tradition has it that Boepple invented the hot dog.

Another was George Straube, 21, who fell asleep on his second-floor windowsill at 1616 Hebert Street, and fell to his death.

On July 25, after five days of triple-digit heat, owners of the Eads Bridge suspended the pedestrian toll so people could walk for free above the Mississippi River. W.C. McChesney, the Terminal Railroad's vice president, said the goal was to make things "as comfortable for the suffering citizens as possible."

Hottest St. Louis summers Based on average temperature in degrees for June, July and August. 1. 1901  82.7 2. 1936  82.3 3. 1934  82.1 4. 2012  82.0 5. 2011  81.9 6. 2010  81.7 7. 1954  81.4 8. 1980  81.3 9. 2016  81.2 10. 1983  81.0 Source: National Weather Service

A few buildings had electric fans, but most people had to rely on nature to move the stifling air, or do for themselves with hand fans. St. Louis' own Emerson Electric Co. had patented its ceiling fan only four years before.

The Post-Dispatch raised money to distribute free ice from ice-making factories for poor families. Children rushed home from the ice stations with dripping buckets.

Katie Lee, 10, whose family of seven lived in the crowded Ashley tenement at North Fourth and Biddle streets, happily hefted a basketful. "It'll make a lot of ice water, won't it?" Katie said.

On July 28, the newspaper ran photographs of prominent St. Louis families on the front porches of their summer retreats in Michigan. They looked comfortable in jackets and hats.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP)  The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan says if youre trying to smuggle its prized native dog breed out of the country, youre barking up the wrong tree.

The government is now requiring that its celebrated Alabay dogs receive a passport before they can leave the country.

A law that took effect Tuesday requires that all puppies of the breed, which is also known as the Central Asian shepherd dog, be marked in the governments pedigree book and register of pedigreed dogs. Passports will be issued including data on the dogs sex, date of birth, color, as well as details about the owner. Special government export permission will be required.

Turkmenistan, an isolated desert country of 6 million people, prides itself on its horses and dogs, honoring centuries-old herding traditions. Alabay, traditionally used for guarding livestock herds, are among the worlds largest dogs, weighing as much as 80 kilograms (175 pounds).

In 2020, then-President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov established a holiday honoring the dogs, and last year unveiled a 15-meter (50-foot)-tall golden statue of them in the nations capital, Ashgabat. The Turkmen leader extolled the Alabay for years. He published a book and wrote a song about the breed and presented Russian President Vladimir Putin with an Alabay puppy in 2017.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedovs son, Serdar, who was elected president this year, heads the international association of Alabays.
Editor's note: This item has been edited to correct the day of the week of the incident.

ST. LOUIS  Three juveniles and an adult were arrested Friday after an alleged carjacking and a bi-state chase.

St. Louis Police said a 35-year-old man was delivering pizza at 4:15 p.m. in the 3200 block of Chippewa Street in the Dutchtown neighborhood when a red car stopped nearby.

When a 20-year-old man from that car tried to enter the pizza deliverer's 2019 Dodge Challenger, the deliverer told him to stop. That is when a 17-year-old male got out of the red car and pointed a pistol at the pizza deliverer, police said.

The 20-year-old suspect fled in the victim's car, followed by the 17-year-old in the red car, police said. Half an hour later, Illinois State Police saw the victim's car in East St. Louis and began to chase it.

The Illinois troopers were in contact with St. Louis police during the pursuit, which ended in downtown St. Louis. The suspects crashed the car after trying to avoid tire spike strips, St. Louis police said.

Along with the 20-year-old and the 17-year-old men, police also arrested another 17-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl.
The party that once coddled corporations is now punishing them for supporting climate-change mitigation, LGBTQ rights, gun reform, abortion rights and more. Much as they like to pander to the anti-woke extremists in their base, Republican office holders should consider that corporations today, just like those in the heyday of country-club-Republicanism, tend to reflect mainstream society  if only because doing otherwise could hurt their bottom lines. Its the Republican Party, not the companies, that are out of step with America on these issues.

The most obvious example of the ironic rift between the GOP and corporate leaders is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attack on Disney. After the iconic company criticized DeSantis-backed legislation that attempts to silence discussion of LGBTQ issues in classrooms, DeSantis led a charge to reverse the longstanding self-governing provisions in state law that benefitted Disney World.

DeSantis, who is likely running for president, has already hurt his state with this showboat showdown against Mickey Mouse. Disney has postponed a planned move of thousands of its California employees to Florida, a development many are attributing to the DeSantis fight. But no matter  kneecapping a major employer of his state and, consequently, hurting the states economy is the cost of pandering to the base.

Reuters reports that such politically motivated attacks on corporations are coming far more frequently in state legislatures, with the vast majority undertaken by Republicans rather than Democrats. (More irony, considering the age-old knock that Democrats are anti-business.) The news service has tracked at least 44 legislative bills or new laws in 17 red states, in addition to executive orders from governors and other leaders, that penalize companies for making business decisions that the Republican base doesnt like.

The penalty of choice is for states to pull their business from companies that show too much of a social conscience. Texas has taken that strategy to punish JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other banks that have, for very rational reasons, begun limiting their business ties to companies involved in fossil fuel extraction or firearms manufacture.

Its unlikely to stop there. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, some companies are creating policies to help female employees in anti-choice states travel to pro-choice states for abortion services  a reasonable employer health care offering at a time when keeping employees happy is a hedge against staffing shortages. Yet one Texas lawmaker is already trying to outlaw such policies, telling Reuters, No corporation doing business in Texas will be allowed to subsidize  abortion travel in any manner.

Republicans once believed that free enterprise, unhindered by government, will ultimately do whats right for society, simply because its in its own financial interest to do so. Corporations havent changed in that respect. What has changed is a party that today believes in nothing but the consolidation of power by pandering to the extremists.
Germany, France, and Spain are jointly developing a new generation fighter also called FCAS (Future Combat Air System). This aircraft will replace the Rafale or Typhoon fighters the participating nations already use. Planning began in 2017 with France and Germany as the founding members. The first production contracts were signed in 2020. Later that year Spain joined the consortium.

Rafale was developed by France and entered service in 2001 while Typhoon was developed by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain and entered service in 2003. France had long built its own jet fighters while the other European nations either built their own or bought American aircraft. Now France has joined a consortium while Britain is developing its own Tempest stealth fighter with some cooperation with Japan. This provides the European competition FCAS hoped to avoid. Britain has a collaborator; Japan. This gives Britain access to formidable software and technology that the FCAS consortium lacks. This leaves only Sweden and Russia building their own fighters in Europe. In Asia, China and South Korea build their own fighters

Japan has long been a manufacturer, but is now an exporter of fighters and fighter technology. Japanese engine maker IHI is partnering with Britains Rolls-Royce to develop a new engine for Japans FX stealth aircraft as well as the British Tempest. Over half a billion dollars will be spent by the partnership to produce a demonstrator (working prototype) within a decade. Rolls Royce has been developing aircraft engines for over a century. Rolls was one of the first firms to develop a jet engine for fighters during World War II. Right after the war Rolls sold the Soviets 25 of its Nene jet engines with the condition that they would not be used for military aircraft. Technically the Russians complied, but when shot down MiG15s were examined the Russian jet engine was clearly a copy of the Nene.

While Rolls-Royce still develops some military engines, most of its business is as a primary or secondary supplier of engines for Boeing, Airbus and other commercial aircraft makers. While the American firm General Electric is the largest supplier of airliner engines, Rolls is firmly in second place.

Rolls has also partnered with Japanese engine manufacturer IHI, which also builds engines for large airliners as well as engines for Japanese F-15s and F-16s. Rolls has some operations in Japan and seemed a good fit to develop a more powerful engine for the Japanese stealth aircraft as well as a similar project Britain and other European firms are developing.

In 2016 Japan successfully flight tested its prototype X2 stealth aircraft, which was a demonstrator to prove Japan could develop and build a production model stealth fighter. The X2 project took over a decade but Japan held off on proceeding with the FX until it received its first American F-35 stealth fighters and was able to examine what made it successful. Even before Japan received its first of (0f 147) F-35s in 2018 it seemed likely that Japan could create its own. Japans first F-35 squadron was operational in early 2019 and that confirmed that what made the F-35 special was something the Japanese could produce.

Japan confirmed that it could match the stealth of the F-35 and create software similar to what the F-35 used. Japan has long been a prolific developer of complex software systems and produced the most reliable initial releases of such software. Unique software was a key element of the F-35s popularity with American and export-nation pilots. By the end of 2020 Japan decided that it could build its own stealth fighter for itself and export customers. In 2014 Japan finally changed its constitution to allow weapons exports. There were two restrictions, countries at war or under sanctions were not allowed to buy weapons.

The ability to export its new FX stealth fighter made the project affordable. The FX project will cost $12 billion and the Japanese parliament provided $703 million in the 2021 defense budget to start work. Japan has been actively developing technologies for a new fighter for over a decade, and for that reason the first FX prototype is expected to make its first flight in 2028 and enter service in the mid-2030s once the new Japan-British engine is ready for regular use. The FX prototype will be used to test the working prototype of that engine, which both nations will share the rights to. Japan is also willing to help Britain with their new Tempest sixth generation aircraft that will incorporate stealth as well as even more advanced software.

Britain was encouraged by Japans progress with its FX and both Tempest and FX are to enter service in the mid-2030s. Tempest is being jointly developed by Britain based multinational firm BAE and Rolls-Royce along with European firms Leonardo and MBDA. Tempest will replace Typhoon, which was developed from a British Aerospace prototype that flew in 1986. British Aerospace later became part of BAE. With Tempest Britain intends to develop an aircraft that will not just be a demonstrator.

Britain also bought F-35s and realized that a European firm would produce a similar aircraft that could compete with the Americans, who had long taken the lead in developing the latest aircraft, which then grabbed most of the export market. Fewer than 600 Typhoons were built and less than half as many Rafales. Contemporary American aircraft, like the F-35, are being produced in the thousands, mainly for export customers. By partnering with Japan, Britain gained an edge the Eurofighter lacked. With no American tech in the FX or Tempest the builders can export to anyone without restrictions the Americans often imposed on those using some of their tech.
(Tribune News Service)  As Capt. James Quaresimo spoke during Saturdays commissioning of the USS Fort Lauderdale, a sense of readiness could be felt throughout the invitation-only, civilian-heavy crowd of about 4,000.

Regarding the importance of controlling the sea, Quaresimo, the ships commanding officer, noted there are no foxholes to crawl into, and no trenches.

You fight and you win, or you swim, he said.

At 684 feet long and 105 feet wide, the USS Fort Lauderdale was clearly the star of the show.

But Quaresimos presence was inspiring as well.

Standing in front of the mighty new warship at Port Everglades Terminal 4, Quaresimo looked toward the ships assembled personnel.

We truly are getting the best of the best, he said. They are born in the eye of the hurricane and rocked in the cradle of waves. Theyre bathed in saltwater and excellence. Oh, yes, King Neptune would be proud of these sailors and Marines.

At one dramatic point in the ceremony the USS Fort Lauderdale hoisted its colors and its commission pennant.

After the hourlong commissioning ceremony, the sixth in the United States this year, the ship was officially entered into active service for the U.S. Navy.

This is a warship, Gen. Eric Smith said, and that makes war less likely for us as Americans.

Other speakers included Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy.

Late in the ceremony, it was time to Bring the Ship to Life, a tradition that features hundreds of sailors and Marines running aboard the ship.

Its horn blew, sailors and Marines lined its deck, and the ship was officially ready to execute any order given by the United States.

The San Antonio-class warship, in Port Everglades since Monday, is capable of carrying 350 sailors, 650 Marines, and an intimidating collection of expensive military attack vehicles.

It can simultaneously transport 14 amphibious assault vehicles (AAVs or tanks), two landing craft air cushions (LCACs or hovercrafts), a landing craft utility (LCU or boat), four helicopters and two tilt-rotor aircraft. its main function, of course, is to take Marines into battle.

The USS Fort Lauderdale is also equipped with four operating rooms, two dental operating rooms and an ICU (intensive care unit).

It should be in action for at least 40 years, and its a source of pride for the U.S. Navy and Fort Lauderdale.

This ceremony is a momentous occasion, said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. Not just for the military, but for the almost 200,000 people who call Fort Lauderdale their home.

Quaresimo spoke in a controlled but assertive tone and reminded the audience that Russia and China are challenging the United States across the globe.

But rest assured we will not allow those challenges to go unchecked, he said. For we in the surface forces are in the business of being prepared to fight and win at sea.

He also warned, The USS Fort Lauderdale stands ready to deliver Naval power to any place, on any day, at any time!

And, in closing, he issued ominous words.

And those that may wish to challenge us, they should pause. We are equipped with Americas unstoppable secret weapon that our enemies will never be able to duplicate, and that is the fierce, dedicated, unstoppable men and women of the United States Navy and Marine Corps!

2022 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Visit sun-sentinel.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
It was four in the afternoon on March 10, 1991, when the first planned explosion of Saddam Husseins chemical weapons went off at the U.S. weapons depot in Khamisiyah, Iraq, and the first gray-white smoke cloud that would come to be called The Plume wafted skyward and drifted over the troops. There would be many blasts that day.

Bill Florey, a young and proud-to-serve E-4 specialist, had just parked his truck after a days work.

Francesca Yabraian, who would become his friend and would fight the losing battle to save his life (at a time when it seemed horribly clear the Department of Veterans Affairs wasnt), was just a student half-a-world away. She was in Dallas on that day.

Pat Toomey was also half-a-world away on March 10, 1991. Pennsylvanias future Republican senator was all into the rich expectations of his first career (in international currency swap transactions and derivatives) when his hopes were shaken. Deutsche Bank acquired the London-based investment bank where he worked, and he didnt know what to expect. So, he returned to Allentown, Pa., and began a career rich with a different sort of expectations: politics.

What Toomey couldnt know back then was that, in the summer of 2022, hed be in a position to shake up the hopes and expectations of thousands who also served in Iraq with the same pride Bill Florey felt on that 1991 day.

Florey was Yabraians friend and work colleague when she became concerned about the bump near his right temple that seemed to be growing. His VA doctor said it was just an infection and injected penicillin. It kept growing. So she went to the VA with him and told the VA doctor Florey had to get an MRI that day or theyd have to drag her out! Florey got his MRI. It showed a tumor had penetrated into his brain.

Next it became a problem Washington actually should have solved. The VA denied Florey benefits for a service-related injury, claiming it was less likely than not that his cancer was caused by The Plume from Saddams chemical weapons. Then Yabraian contacted me about her friends plight. It turned out a VA study showed it was actually TWICE as likely as not that Floreys cancer came from exposure to Saddams exploded chemical warheads.

Bill Florey died on New Years Day, 2005, before the VA could grant him the benefits hed earned. And the VAs bureaucratic rules were that when military personnel die, their unpaid claim for compensation owed dies with them. His tragic story became the beginning of my 2008 book, Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles, published by Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martins Press.

Sadly, Vets Under Siege told many similar tragic tales. But it also proposed solutions; and other investigations and hearings produced many more. One was the Vietnam War-era reform in which the VA began assuming all who served in Vietnam are now presumed to have been exposed to the dangerous defoliation chemical Agent Orange. Vietnam War veterans no longer have to prove they were exposed to Agent Orange to get benefits for illnesses the chemical is known to cause.

And this summer, a new veterans reform bill was being approved with overwhelming bipartisan Senate and House support that assumed that all who were in Iraq  and who suffered cancers or other illnesses known to be caused by Iraqs chemical weapons  would be presumed to have been exposed to plumes from what the military now calls its burn pits.

But suddenly on Wednesday 25 Republican senators reversed their earlier yes votes and blocked final passage of that veterans care reform bill  just weeks after theyd joined Democrats in approving the bill with 84 votes.

Now Sen. Pat Toomey enters our story. In June, Toomey had objected to an accounting procedure for $400 billion that was in the original bill the Senate had passed and sent to the House. On Wednesday, Toomey resurfaced his objection as a reason to block the bill Republicans had already decisively supported. This time, only 55 senators voted yes; but 60 are needed to prevent a filibuster.

Why did Republicans suddenly switch from yes to no? Democrats charged that for Republicans it was just political spite. Democrats gave President Joe Biden a major victory on a spending bill compromise last week, and they say Republicans didnt want to give Biden a win on veterans care reform too. Toomey, of course, quickly denied that.

But Thursday, The Washington Post reported that the Senates No. 2 Republican leader, Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, said this veterans bill vote was separate from the overall spending deal, but conceded, about the spending compromise, obviously it doesnt help.

And so it goes in this city. Today, many thousands of military veterans who are suffering from the same exposure that killed Bill Florey are coping with their latest reality: While it is nice when Republicans sincerely thank them for their service, obviously it doesnt help them as they struggle to pay their medical bills and survive.

Tribune News Service columnist Martin Schram is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive.
VICENZA, Italy  The Army is rarely this fun.

But there they were, 68 paratroopers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, jumping from the back of C-130J Hercules at 1,250 feet of alpine airspace on a sunny summer day into the blue water of Lake Constance.

It was almost like standing on the edge of the world, said Sgt. Shannon OGara, behavioral health non-commissioned officer in charge with the brigades 173rd Support Battalion, in a phone call after the jump. It was so quiet. You see the beautiful lake, the mountains, the town... It was one of the most amazing things I could ever have imagined.

The Friday jump into the lake that lies between Germany, Switzerland and Austria, after an invitation from the German 26th (Saarland) Airborne Brigade, provided the paratroopers more than their first - and perhaps only- water jump. It was also, for most, the first time exiting the back of an aircraft that gave them minutes to view the scene below, something they dont get with usual side-door exits. And, as their jumpmasters were German, it provided them with the coveted German Parachutist Badge.

But the pleasure of the jump was paramount, said Lt. Col. Tony Newman, commander of the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion. Newman, coming up on his 19th year as a soldier, was on his 61st jump. He said hed never experienced anything like it. It was his first water jump- and the best jump ever.

It allowed our troops to hang in awe of the view - Austria, Switzerland, the mountains, towns, he said. Then all you see is crystal clear water, sailboats, spectators watching you float down.

It was surreal, he said.

He said he plopped into the water with the same velocity of a kid jumping off a 10-foot roof or after a bounce on a diving board  a far softer landing than often occurs in regular jumps. And the water temperature? Unexpectedly balmy  like a summer swimming pool, Newman said.

The troops were required beforehand to undergo wet silk training in a swimming pool and show that they could swim 25 meters, 10 underwater, followed by a 10-minute tread. The training also included swimming underneath a parachute. Of 150 paratroopers who tried, surprisingly, 135 passed, Newman said. Were in the Army, not the Navy, he said.

None of the paratroopers, all wearing life vests, encountered any difficulties in the water, Newman said. As each grouping of 10 troops jumped, German engineers in Zodiac boats would race out to the presumed landing spots  one boat per jumper  to ensure no one was caught under their canopy.

Originally, 75 paratroopers were to jump. But a thunderstorm blew in, scuttling the turns of seven soldiers. They were disappointed, Newman said.

He told them hed try to arrange another water jump next spring.

The experience was excellent for morale, Newman said, and would inspire young leaders. Reading troops social media comments about the joys of the jump had left him a little euphoric, he said.

Our troops deserve to have fun in the Army, Newman said. Its to give them moments they can always remember. Our troops will talk about this for the rest of their lives.
WASHINGTON  Comedian Jon Stewart joined lawmakers and veteran advocates at a Capitol Hill rally on Thursday to voice their anger after legislation was blocked in the Senate that would expand eligibility for health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins.

Enough is enough, said Shane Liermann, national deputy legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. How many more delays? How many more deaths? How many more suffering veterans, just to be able to wake up in the morning and not hurt, to be able to actually sleep at night, to be able to breathe without suffering? Enough is enough. Stop the delays.

Originally set to be a final push for the bills approval, the rally instead turned into a display of anger and frustration over the delay with the Senate set to go on recess in August, leaving the bill with an uncertain future.

Obviously, I'm not a military expert... But from what I understand, you're not allowed to just leave your post when the mission isn't completed, Stewart said. You take an oath, you swear an oath, and you can't leave. But these folks can leave because they're on Senate time. This is an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country, to the founders, and all that they profess to hold dear.

An earlier version of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or PACT Act, was approved by the Senate by a vote of 84-14 in June. But the Senate needed to vote again Wednesday because the House made changes to the bill before the lower chamber passed it by a 342-88 vote on July 13.

The revised legislation drew 55 votes in the Senate  short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Twenty-five Republicans who previously supported versions of the bill voted against it on the procedural vote, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was one of the senators who voted against the bill Wednesday. He said the PACT Act included more than $300 billion to be spent in the next 10 years unrelated to veterans and it was a concern for him and his colleagues.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said he had never seen anything in his 25 years in politics like what happened Wednesday on the Senate floor.

What compounds it and what makes it that much more difficult is we, in essence, yesterday took benefits away from the people who have been impacted by war, that we sent off the war, and we turn our backs and say, No, we're going to find an excuse to vote against our veterans while we wave the flag, talking about how great our fighting men and women are, Tester said Thursday at the rally. We've got some work to do, and we've got to do it very soon.

In May, Tester and Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the PACT Act. The senators have called the legislation historic and long overdue.

The PACT Act seeks to provide an easier path to health care and benefits for veterans who served near open-air burn pits, which were used throughout the 1990s and the post-9/11 wars to burn garbage, jet fuel and other materials. Veterans diagnosed with cancer, respiratory issues and lung disease at young ages have blamed exposure to the toxic fumes from these pits, but the Department of Veterans Affairs contended for years that there wasnt sufficient evidence to support their claims.

The bill also would improve the VAs workforce and claims processing to speed up efforts to meet the needs of veterans and establish 31 new VA health care facilities in 19 states. Additionally, the bill would expand health care eligibility to post-9/11 combat veterans and add 23 conditions related to burn pits and other toxic exposures to the VAs list of service presumptions. It will also expand the list of presumptions related to Agent Orange exposure to include Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll, strengthen federal research on toxic exposure, and improve the VAs resources and training. The Congressional Budget Office reported on June 6 that the PACT Acts cost estimate would be more than $600 billion.

The bill is named for Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, who was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder and lung cancer after serving with the Army National Guard in Kosovo and Iraq, where he experienced prolonged exposure to burn pits. He died in 2020.

In June, Robinsons mother-in-law, Susan Zeier, said she began wearing Robinsons Army jacket after Rosie Torres, co-founder of the advocacy group Burn Pits 360, said family members of the 9/11 first responders gained momentum pushing for legislation to help them after they began wearing firefighter and police jackets.

I've been wearing this since about summer 2018 and with this bill passing the Senate, I think it's time to retire it, Zeier said in June.

On Thursday, Zeier carried Robinsons Army jacket at the rally and put it back on.

They voted against my family, she said. They voted for all of us to suffer. They are endorsing our suffering.

Zeier said caring for Robinson became an around-the-clock effort, and she moved in with her daughter Danielle, Robinsons wife, to help. She said Robinson begged them to give him an overdose of medication to put an end to their suffering.

He felt guilty because he caused us to suffer and he didn't want to do it anymore, Zeier said. He begged us for two months to do this. That meant neither she nor I could ever leave him alone for one minute.

She said any senator who voted against the PACT Act does not support veterans.

I'm done, Zeier said. And the next time I come back here, it better be to sign the damn bill at the White House.
(Tribune News Service)  Military explosive debris keeps washing ashore in Maryland  prompting officials to close a beach area along the Assateague Island National Seashore, according to the National Park Service.

The North Beach Swimming area was once used as a testing site for rockets and bombs by the U.S. Navy in the 1940s and is now closed until further notice because of unexploded military ordnance, the agency said in a July 31 news release.

Seven and counting pieces of old explosives and rockets have washed up along the lifeguarded beach over the past two weeks, NPS said.

Beachgoers who discovered rocket fragments have brought them to nearby lifeguards and the beachs visitor center, according to the release. However, NPS urges everyone to not do this as it is potentially very dangerous.

Most of these pieces are just metal fragments, but some may still contain residue of either explosives or propellent and thus must be considered dangerous, the park service said.

After the Navy used the beach area to test munitions, the debris was buried underneath the sand along the island during a clean up in the 1950s, according to the agency. Some of these sand pits have since moved offshore due to rising sea levels and natural changes on the island.

A May noreaster is possibly to blame for the influx of explosive debris, NPS said in the release, as it is likely the storm disturbed the nearshore seafloor and uncovered one of these pits.

The public is advised to avoid any metal fragments found on the beach as the Ocean City bomb squad and a Dover Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal team have been responding to the pieces, according to the agency.

The beach areas north and south of the North Beach Swimming area is still open, the release said.

Assateague Island is 37 miles long and is in Maryland and Virginia. It is famous for its wild horses, which roam freely on the islands shores.

2022 The Charlotte Observer.

Visit charlotteobserver.com.

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HICKORY, N.C.  In an exhibit designed to reveal the person through his work, the life of Philip Moose comes into focus in artifacts and paintings.

The exhibition, at the Hickory History Center (also known as the Harper House), takes visitors on a journey through the life of the late Newton-born artist Moose, starting in his days in the United States Army.

Moose was deployed to Bury St. Edmunds, England, at the time of World War II and the green exhibition walls hold sketches from his surroundings while overseas from 1942 to 1945.

A colorful piece that appears to be created with watercolor or gouache paint hangs in the center of his charcoal sketches. The painting is titled "Inside Hut 14" and gives visitors a look into Moose's military barracks.

Sydney Ball, interning curator and an University of Kentucky student, explained that Moose was a radio technician overseas for the Army Air Forces.

Moose later taught art classes at Davidson College and then Queens College in Charlotte. The exhibit features photos of Moose throughout his teaching experience along with his passport for traveling, which was a significant part of his life.

Through his higher education journey, Moose received the Fulbright scholarship which sent him to study in what was then West Germany for a full year. He also spent a month studying in Taiwan.

Moose's studies abroad section displays his scholarship certificates as well as artifacts including personalized Taiwanese ink stamps.

In 1967, Moose embarked on a trip that took him to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, the Balkans, Europe (including the Greek islands), Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji and more.

In his later years, Moose returned to North Carolina. He settled in Blowing Rock, where he often painted pictures of the mountainous scenery.

Tucked in the right corner of the exhibit is a large painting of the Blue Ridge Mountains sitting on an easel that Moose used. Also featured is the reference picture he used for the piece.

Moose eventually moved back home to Newton, where he lived until he died in 2001. Ball said that the artifacts from Moose's estate were largely donated by his close friend and neighbor Frank Sherrill.

Lilly Underwood, interning curator and a North Carolina State University student, said the Catawba County Historical Association's Moose exhibit is unique because it features "behind the scenes" sketches from throughout his life.

Underwood said Moose's work has been displayed all over the world, but as historic curators, she and Ball wanted to capture the person instead of just his art.

Moose's artwork has been displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the N.C. Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Underwood and Ball worked together since the beginning of June to curate the exhibition.
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service)  U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough expressed confidence the Senate has enough votes to pass a bill to provide health care and benefits to 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, even after Republicans stalled the legislation.

Forty-one Republican senators switched tactics and moved to force a debate on amendments that would reduce future mandatory spending in the bill. The majority of those lawmakers had supported an essentially identical version of the bill last month.

Theres been one change since then on something completely unrelated to this issue, McDonough said on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday. So if everybody does what they did before, this has 84 votes, so I think they should just get on with it. Have the vote.

The bill has drawn support from comedian Jon Stewart and President Joe Biden, who told veterans protesting for expanded benefits outside the U.S. Capitol that hell invite them to the White House once his COVID-19 infection clears. Some veterans exposed to burn pits, used to burn trash at military sites, have reported illnesses ranging from respiratory difficulties to cancer.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will bring the legislation back to the floor this week, and that hell allow Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey to bring an amendment addressing his partys concerns for debate.

Toomey, who has consistently voted against the bill, says it creates an additional $400 billion in discretionary spending unrelated to veterans, allowing Congress to hide a spending binge.

Toomey said Sunday hes sticking to his demand for a fix. We could bang that out tomorrow night, literally, he said on CNN.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said Toomeys budget concerns will be addressed.

Pats going to get his amendment and then we will see where it goes, he said on CBS Face the Nation.

The House passed the bill on a 342-88 vote in mid-July. An issue for Senate Republicans are nontaxable benefits. The Constitution requires all bills with tax items to originate in the House.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican who initially voted for the legislation but switched his position, said ultimately he believes the health care funding will pass.

We have to stand by our veterans who have been exposed to these chemicals, Cassidy said on ABCs This Week. There was a drafting error, a $400 billion drafting error.

McDonough pushed back on the $400 billion cited by Toomey, saying you wont see it in the bill. It might be deep in some charts in the back of the Congressional Budget Offices report on the legislations budgetary impact, he said.

A spending cap proposed by Toomeys amendment could eventually amount to rationing care for vets, which is something I just cant sign on to, McDonough said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs opened a voluntary registry in 2014 for service members who might have been exposed to airborne hazards from burn pits.

The issue is personal for President Joe Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer. Beau, who was a major in the Delaware National Guard, served overseas near burn pits, and Biden has suggested that the toxins from the pits may have caused the disease.

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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We do not expect any trouble from her whatsoever.

Smith, a former soldier from Dundalk, Co Louth, was sentenced on July 22 last to 15 months for membership of the so-called Islamic State. She is the first person convicted by an Irish court of membership in another country of an Islamic terror group.

As she was convicted in the Special Criminal Court, she must serve her sentence in Limerick rather than in the Dochas Centre. This is despite the Dublin jail being far closer to her Co Louth-based family for visits.

Sources say that, so far, the mother-of-one has been a model inmate. She is housed alone in a cell, as are the majority of prisoners in Limerick.

She has been provided with all that is necessary for her to say prayers five times a day, as part of her Islamic faith. The convicted terrorist is also being given Halal food, in line with her religious beliefs.

The ex-soldier spent a month in Limerick Prison in December 2019, after she was extradited back to Ireland from a Syrian refugee camp. She was out on bail since until her recent criminal trial.

She has been here before and knows the regime, explained a prison source. We do not expect any trouble from her whatsoever.

Conditions in Limerick Prison are said to be not as favourable as those in Dublins Dochas Centre.

Prisoners at Dochas are accommodated in seven separate houses, each holding 10 to 12 women. There is one larger house which can accommodate 18 prisoners.

Women serving their sentence at Dochas have keys to their own rooms and enjoy a relaxed regime.

A new womens prison is almost completed at Limerick, and will be operational by the end of the year.
Barry Fowler and Lorna Palmer were living high on the hog of criminal enterprise

Liam Byrne carries the remains of his brother David Byrne who was shot dead in the Regency Hote. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.   Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Lorna Palmer pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice(CCJ) on Parkgate Street in Dublin after she appeared before the Court in December 2021.   Paddy Cummins - IrishPhotodesk.ie

Judge Alex Owens said in the High Court last week that Barry Fowler and his partner Lorna Palmer had been living high on the hog of criminal enterprise.

As a result of the case taken by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), Palmer lost the battle to keep the house described as her last refuge.

The judge ruled that the property in Co Wexford  which is in Palmers name  was bought with the proceeds of crime, while Fowler dropped his opposition to have 99,000 in cash seized by CAB.

Fowler is currently serving a six-year sentence for possession of cannabis worth 134,000, while Palmer is in prison for 18 months for money laundering.

Judge Owens said the pair were awash with cash and the evidence in court involved vast sums of money.

He described Fowler as a man of means with no means and that there was quite the degree of a luxury lifestyle.

Fowler, who has 20 previous convictions, had been caught with 500,000 worth of cocaine and 294,000 worth of cannabis, along with 118,000 cash in 2012.

Lorna Palmer pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice(CCJ) on Parkgate Street in Dublin after she appeared before the Court in December 2021.   Paddy Cummins - IrishPhotodesk.ie

He received a seven-year sentence for that offence, but the drug dealing continued at his home while he was behind bars. In May 2021, just months after his release, he was caught with 134,000 of cannabis.

Fowlers close links to the leader of the Byrne Organised Crime Gang also emerged in court, which heard he had been seen driving a vehicle used by Liam Byrne and which was later seized by CAB in a separate case.

Video from Palmers home at Millbrook Lawns, Tallaght, in April 2017 revealed dealing activity with money drop-offs, collections and the weighing of drugs for sale. A search of the house resulted in the seizure of 99,780 in cash for which Lorna Palmer received a prison sentence last May after pleading guilty to money laundering.

Kinahan lieutenant joins gangster moll partner behind bars following drug convictions

Kinahan cartel gangster Barry Fowler jailed for six years after being caught with 134k drugs

Kinahan gangster Barry Fowler quizzed after cannabis worth 2.2 million and 150k cash seized

The pair spent 107,527 on the house and grounds at Coolamain, Oylegate, Co Wexford and 234,911 on the house where Palmer lived at Millbrook Lawns.

Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins detailed in an affidavit how the couple created schemes to launder the cash.

This included obtaining a mortgage for the Wexford property but making payments with cash.

One loan for 50,000 taken out by a family member used in the house purchase was paid back within eight months, even though the person had no means to do so.

Lorna Palmer also made VRT payments worth 79,000 on vehicles imported into Ireland and owned by third parties.

Barry Fowler   KM

The Wexford house had been bought for 265,000 in 2008 and a mobile home was bought for 17,000, which were inconsistent with their legitimate earnings, the court heard.

Two jet-skis were also found at the property and seized by CAB.

Counsel for Palmer said that she had made mortgage repayments on the Wexford property from her modest income as an auxiliary nurse assistant at the Coombe Hospital where she first started working at the age of 18.

Judge Owens ruled that the Wexford property, in which Fowlers parents live, was bought with the proceeds of crime.

Also included in the ruling were the jet-skis, the mobile home and the 99,000 in cash. Fowler was recently sentenced to six years at Dublin Circuit Court over the cache of cannabis worth 134,000.

Undercover gardai watched as Fowler and a co-accused put something into the boot of a car before moving off in a taxi.

Fowler had only been released the previous November from another sentence for drugs and possession of a gun.

Barry Fowler   KM

He also served a three-year sentence for dangerous driving causing the death of a teenager in 2005.

In March last year the Sunday Worldphotographed Fowler in a van mocked up to look like a DHL delivery vehicle and dressed in a uniform. The company had not employed him and a spokesperson previously told the Sunday World that anyone with convictions would not pass their strict vetting system.

At Palmers money laundering trial in May, it was heard how she told gardai she didnt know why people were posting money through her door where gardai found two envelopes with 700 and 2,000 in them.

Liam Byrne carries the remains of his brother David Byrne who was shot dead in the Regency Hote. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.   Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Officers searched the house and found cash in two safes and in envelopes inside a money box amounting to 99,730.

A garda witness agreed Palmer knew the money was the proceeds of criminal conduct but was turning a blind eye to what was going on and was not involved in the criminal activity.

Judge Melanie Greally sentenced Palmer to four and half years but suspended the final three years having given credit for a number of mitigating factors.

She accepted that Palmer was under the influence of her long-term partner at the time and had pleaded guilty to the offence.

She further accepted that Palmer expressed remorse and has engaged well with the Probation Service and is considered to be at a low risk of re-offending.

Testimonials handed in on Palmers behalf described her as a compassionate and caring person, particularly in her role as a mother.
The only person I met from 2019 was Catriona Carey, Sharon told us.

ONE of the victims of the Careysfort Asset Estates scam has confirmed that the associate named to us by Catriona Carey was actively involved in the property con.

But Sharon ORiordan rejected Careys attempts to diminish her own responsibility, saying: Both of them scammed us.

Speaking with the Sunday World at her home in picturesque Castletown, Cork this week, HSE chef Sharon  who fell behind on her Start Mortgage after being ill  confirmed she had dealt with this individual but said it was not until October 2020, after she had first met Carey.

When told Catriona Carey was now claiming it was this associate who was the ringleader of the fraud, Sharon said it was Carey, and not this other man, who met her and took 5,000 from her in cash.

The only person I met from 2019 was Catriona Carey, Sharon told us.

Shes the only one who corresponded with me through text messages, phone calls and email.

I never heard of anyone else being involved until October of 2021 when her father was not well and she went to look after him.

Sharon said it was at this point the man Carey has identified to the Sunday World as the ringleader in the scam, informed her he was taking over the running of Careys affairs during this period.

I was trying to make contact with Catriona and there was no news from her.

I couldnt get through at all and he contacted me to say he was taking over  [he was] looking after people at the moment because Catrionas father was dying.

Victims of the Careysfort Asset Estates scam speaks to the Sunday World following Caitriona Carey's first interview on the scandal

Any problems or issues and we were to contact him because he would do everything to help out.

Asked whether this man had made any promises to her in relation to the difficulties she was having in getting her contracts back, Sharon said: He told me there was issues with the solicitor and with the different court cases he was having.

This went on for the best part of three or four weeks and it was every second day there was a phone call or an email or something.

By the time I finished up with him, he had told me he had physically and personally put my contracts in the post and I would have them the next day.

The next day came and there was no contract.

I made contact  it was the next day again, the next day again.

At that stage, I kind of gave up. I knew they didnt exist at all.

And I waited until I next spoke to Catriona Carey, which I believe was around the start of November, and I called her out on it.

And up to the last minute she denied any knowledge that there was anything going wrong.

Asked whether there was any difference between what Catriona was promising and what this individual was promising, Sharon said there was none at all.

Both of them were very enthusiastic, said Sharon, and claimed that the stories going around at that stage were just people with issues with her over failed contracts and other things.

And there was always just another problem, either a court hearing going on or something else  there was always something going on.

They came up with the most amazing reasons for not having the contracts ready.

Asked whether she would accept Careys claims that it was the associate who was the ringleader, Sharon said: I would say they are equally responsible.

Because both of them knew that there was no solicitor, both of them knew there was no contracts, both of them took money and both of them scammed us!

Asked if she named Careys associate while giving her statements at Midleton Garda station in Cork, Sharon confirmed to the Sunday World that she did.
After the attack, OConnor was rushed to the Mater Hospital where he was yesterday being kept alive on a ventilator

An inmate jailed for six and a half years on Wednesday was being kept alive in hospital on a ventilator last night after sustaining a serious brain injury in a horror assault in Mountjoy.

Robert OConnor (34) of Snowdrop Walk, Darndale was attacked by a number of inmates in his cell on C-wing in Mountjoy Prison at 5.40 pm on Friday evening.

Three inmates had yesterday been linked to the attack  including a violent north Dublin criminal serving a lengthy sentence for aggravated burglary, an associate of the Kinahan cartel and a third man serving a lengthy sentence for drug possession.

Investigators will look at the possibility the attack may have been ordered from outside the prison.

Sources say, although there is no CCTV covering the interior of the cell, cameras do cover the landing area and footage is to be examined to see if OConnors attackers were captured leaving the cell after the attack occurred.

After the attack, OConnor was rushed to the Mater Hospital where he was yesterday being kept alive on a ventilator after being diagnosed with a severe brain injury.

OConnor had been on remanded in custody in Cloverhill prison since last October but was moved to Mountjoy in February after picking up a six-month sentence for a separate offence.

On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a semi-automatic pistol in Finglas on October 13, 2021.

OConnors previous convictions include drugs offences, stealing cars, criminal damage, theft and road traffic offences.

The gun had three rounds of ammunition in the magazine and one round in the breach, Garda Sean Kelly told John Moher BL, prosecuting.

OConnor had been followed by gardai after he and another man had abandoned a vehicle on the N2 heading towards Finglas.

They were chased down the North Road in Finglas and were seen removing their tops before gardai managed to stop them.

He was arrested and questioned and claimed he had the gun because he was in fear of my life.

A Garda spokesperson said: Gardai are investigating a serious assault on a man in his 30s that occurred on the evening of Friday, 29th July 2022, at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

The man is currently receiving treatment for serious injuries at the Mater Hospital.

The scene has been technically examined and an incident room has been established at Mountjoy Garda Station.

Investigations into this matter are ongoing.
The car was not driven to the airport in an official capacity and the car keys were not handed in.

The bizarre incident left airport police scratching their heads and has sparked two separate investigations.

Its understood that the car, which is attached to a specialist unit in the Waterford garda division, was driven by a garda member in the company of other officers to Dublin Airport in recent weeks.

It was then left in the vicinity of the airport while the garda members flew out on holiday.

Gardai are allowed to leave official cars within assigned areas at Dublin Airport when flying out on official business. In these instances, there is an agreement that the car keys are handed in to Dublin Airport garda station so the cars can be moved or reassigned when necessary.

In this case, the car was not driven to the airport in an official capacity and the car keys were not handed in.

Instead, the car was essentially abandoned outside the airport, according to one source.

It is understood that after a couple of days, airport police raised concerns about the presence of the vehicle, and indicated it should be towed.

After officials were notified, An Garda Siochana launched an investigation and the vehicle was removed.

When contacted, garda headquarters declined to comment.

However, it is understood that an internal disciplinary investigation is now under way. The garda member who drove the car and left it without authorisation is due to be questioned, as are his colleagues.

While there is no particular shortage of garda cars at present, the incident is still unacceptable if proven to be true, a source linked to garda HQ said.

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of garda members who are under internal investigation for alleged wrongdoing, both disciplinary and potentially criminal.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has publicly pledged his commitment to root out misbehaviour and corruption within the force.
ONeill claimed he stole the drugs due to 'intimidation' surrounding his own personal debt.

Eugene ONeill avoided going to prison after a judge made the hard decision to suspend the 53-year-olds sentence.

But the judge slammed the hard-up thief for failing to stand-up and admit his guilt at an earlier point.

Originally from Northern Ireland, ONeill had been living in the Halton area of Merseyside when he robbed the pharmaceutical company where hed worked for 20 years.

ONeill stole a pallet of the erectile dysfunction medicine from Phoenix Medical Supplies in Rincorn, before hiding it and then loading it onto a van the following day.

He claimed he stole the drugs due to 'intimidation' surrounding his own personal debt.

Chester Crown Court heard that ONeill, 53, worked at the company as a supervisor.

Prosecuting, Kirsty Linforth, explained that on January 21, he took the Viagra and was seen on CCTV separating it from the consignment.

The next day, another male assisted ONeill with putting the pallet onto a Mercedes van.

On March 3, a security officer contacted the police about a significant theft over an unaccounted pallet.

ONeill, currently living with a friend in Widnes, was challenged by his employer and denied the theft.

He was then sacked after he failed to attend either of his disciplinary hearings.

A business impact statement was read out in court that spoke of the direct financial cost but also the indirect financial cost as five members of staff spent 60 hours investigating the incident.

This put lots of stress on the staff and work was delayed, creating further losses to the business.

Phoenix Medical Supplies also has a great reputation in the pharmaceuticals industry and this case has had a knock-on effect on that.

The court heard that ONeill has no previous convictions and is a man of previous good character.

Defence barrister Phil Tully said that the case has been delayed and an element of that is not O'Neill's fault.

He said that ONeill had not further offended since the incident and it was described as a one-off incident following 20 years of employment.

It was also said there was very little planning and the theft was committed at a very low point in his life.

ONeill, who is currently unemployed, accepted that he didnt engage with his employer but did later admit the theft via email.

Mr Tully added that he accepts there is a breach of trust but says it is not a role involving a high degree of trust.

He also said that it was very out of character for him, that ONeill was intimidated due to debt outside of the company, that he has shown genuine remorse and entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

Recorder Simon Parrington said that ONeill was in a position involving a high degree of trust.

He added that rehabilitation is a factor in his decision.

You failed to admit your part in the theft with your employer, said Mr Parrington.

Having worked as a diligent employee for 20 years, this was out of character for you.

Whilst you deserve to go away today the sentence will be one of 18 months that is suspended for 18 months.

ONeill must also complete 275 hours of unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge.

Steven.moore@sundayworld.com
Youre not going to believe what Im after getting! My own little Love Island water bottle! Im thrilled, she said

The comedian revealed this week that she will be joining the panel on the dating shows spin-off programme, which is hosted by Laura Whitmore, on Sunday evening.

This weeks Aftersun will be the last of the series, as the winners of Love Island will be crowned in tomorrow nights final after two months on our screens.

The Dubliner took to Instagram to announce that she was preparing to fly over to Mallorca for the show straight from her romantic getaway with boyfriend Alan Byrne in Algarve, Portugal.

Teasing her beau, Joanne wrote: Prada Peters going home with his handbags meanwhile Im off to Mallorca for @loveisland #aftersun.

Laura Whitmore

And on Sunday morning, she shared a snap of her being driven around the island, joking that she was on a magical mystery Love Island tour.

Is that the road to the villa? Apparently not, she added.

She later revealed that shed been gifted with her own personalised Love Island water bottle ahead of her Aftersun stint.

The white water bottle had Joannes name printed on the side - just like the ones the Islanders use on the show.

Youre not going to believe what Im after getting! My own little Love Island water bottle! Im thrilled, she said as she began to get ready for the panel show this evening.

The final episode of this years Love Island will take place tomorrow, and the only couple who have secured a place in the final is Dami and Indiyah.

During Fridays episode, each couple was asked to vote for the two couples they thought were the least compatible in the villa.

Dami and Indiyah didnt receive any votes from their fellow Islanders, meaning theyve automatically made it into the final.

The four other couples are all at risk of being dumped from the Island during Sunday nights episode, with the public deciding on their fate.

The four couples at risk are Davide and Ekin-Su, Adam and Paige, Gemma and Luca, and Andrew and Tasha.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on Virgin Media Two and Virgin Media Player.
New Zealands international border will be fully open from 11.59pm today.

This means cruise ships and recreational yachts are able to arrive at New Zealand ports once again.

This evening marks the final step in the Governments reconnecting plan, with visitors from non-visa waiver countries and international students able to apply for a visa to enter New Zealand, says Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and Immigration Minister Michael Wood.

Since April, visitors from our key markets such as Australia have been able to travel to New Zealand, and its great to see the recovery of the tourism sector back on track. Were seeing a strong uptick in arrivals from Australia and the US, with Queenstown in particular receiving a surge in visitors, says Nash.

Todays change in border settings marks the final milestone for our reconnecting strategy. This is great news to the tourism industry and economy as we approach spring and summer with people from the Northern hemisphere booking their winter holidays. Weve heard optimistic messages from tourism operators who are ready to welcome back international visitors from all over the world."

Nash says he is also pleased to see that the Governments $49 million Tourism Kick-start Fund has been put to good use by 481 businesses most affected by the border closure.

"This fund has helped operators gear up for the return of international visitors," says Nash.

Globally there is pent up demand for people to visit New Zealand. In January, 58 per cent of Australians who would like to visit New Zealand wanted to come within six months of borders opening. This number is even higher for our American target market, at 77 per cent and were ready for them."

Pilot Bay. Photo: Port of Tauranga.

Today also marks the opening of the maritime border to cruise ships, specialist vessels and recreational vessels such as ocean-going yachts.

The return of cruise ships is another boost for local communities. Pre-pandemic their visits were worth in excess of $500 million a year, of which $356 million was spent onshore, providing a valuable economic contribution to our regions," says Nash.

Most cruise visits are during the warmer months of October to April, and summer is our bumper tourism season overall. This means it will be full steam ahead for the industry who can plan with certainty for the rest of the year and beyond."

There are 27 cruise ship visits for Tauranga scheduled already up to December 31, 2022 with the first cruise ship - the Grand Princess - due to arrive on October 26.

Michael Wood says the changes in border settings today meant the resumption of key visa categories including students and visitors.

Now that our borders are fully open, individuals who are coming to New Zealand to work will primarily use the Accredited Employer Work Visa, which opened on 4 July, to enter the country, says Wood.

Prior to the pandemic, the international education sector was worth several billion dollars to our country and education providers. While weve continued to support the sector with border exceptions through the pandemic, the full resumption of visa processing is great news for our universities, polytechnics and wananga, and schools, English language schools, and private training establishments.



As we warmly welcome the world back to our shores, its the perfect time to showcase New Zealand to the world, says Wood.
The first Regional Workforce Plan for the Bay of Plenty launched on Friday at Whareroa Marae, and showcases the planning required for a more highly skilled workforce compared to a decade ago.

It also highlights the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries as being significant contributors to the regions economy.

The most important relationship woven into the plan produced by the Bay of Plenty Regional Skills Leadership Group - RSLG - is with Maori as Te Tiriti partner.

To adhere to our commitment to ensure iwi/Maori can exercise their tino rangatiratanga and maintain their mana motuhake over their own affairs, our plans foundation is ma te Maori, mo te Maori, says RSLG co-Chair Turi Ngatai.

Aspirations in the plan are designed to call forward equity in our workforce, says co-chair Dr Chris Tooley.

This is particularly so in the work required to partner with iwi/hapu and Maori employers around their approaches to worker support as we look for opportunities to improve Maori resilience.

The RSLG is already working alongside the Manawa Tu Work for Life Centre, supporting community workforce resilience and digital connectivity in Murupara, to see what actions can be taken to scale and grow their efforts.

With a more highly skilled workforce and focus on lifelong learning required to deliver a prosperous future, the RSLG says it is vital the regions tertiary education system aligns its performance with its needs, across the whole region.

Young Maori are crucial to the regions future wellbeing, and the Regional Workforce Plan includes actions to increase Maori engagement and participation in tertiary education and knowledge intensive industries such as science, engineering, professional services and the creative industries. It also identifies critical general capabilities like invention, innovation and entrepreneurship as important skills for the Bays future economic success.

RSLGs were established to identify and support better ways of meeting future skills and workforce needs in the regions through improved coordination and workforce planning.

The Regional Workforce Plan highlights the labour supply and demand trends for the Bay of Plenty region and identifies where change is needed from regional and national stakeholders to allow central and local government to better plan for, and address, future skills shortages.

RSLGs are regionally based and regionally led, supported by a regional and national team of data analysts, advisors and workforce specialists at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The groups work closely with local, regional and national initiatives, including the six Workforce Development Councils.

The Bay of Plenty Workforce Plan is available on the MBIE website: mbie.govt.nz/bay-of-plenty-rslg.
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Re: Surprise! Apartment owners in Karnataka do NOT own the land on which it is built Quote: GutsyGibbon Originally Posted by I was reading the documents sent to me by Mantri builders, and it specifically stated that the right to add a tower in any of the common areas remained with the builder. On top of this, the right to rebuild any of the existing towers also remained with the builder. I thought it was odd. If the land belonged to the apartment owners, why should they be tied to the same builder - why cant they shop around after 40/50 years.





The problem will arise when the building becomes old and goes for redevelopment. At that time who can apply for redevelopment of the land. Flat owners cannot apply individually as they do not own the land collectively as a single parcel, in the records.

Unless the land is conveyed from the landowners to a juristic body like Co-operative society or a company formed by the flat owners, redevelopment cannot be even submitted.



These problems are sorted out in Maharashtra with almost every apartment complex forming a Cooperative Housing Society (CHS). This society owns the land for all official purpose. Here in Karnataka we are left in the lurch. This is the real danger. The builder or the landlord retains the right to redevelop the land when law favours them. Though the individual flat owners may own the undivided share of land in their name the revenue records will still show the landowner as the owner of the collective parcel of land. This is then open to all sorts of interpretation.The problem will arise when the building becomes old and goes for redevelopment. At that time who can apply for redevelopment of the land. Flat owners cannot apply individually as they do not own the land collectively as a single parcel, in the records.Unless the land is conveyed from the landowners to a juristic body like Co-operative society or a company formed by the flat owners, redevelopment cannot be even submitted.These problems are sorted out in Maharashtra with almost every apartment complex forming a Cooperative Housing Society (CHS). This society owns the land for all official purpose. Here in Karnataka we are left in the lurch.
In a nutshell: Samsung is experimenting with a new feature in South Korea called "repair mode." As the name suggests, it's a special setting that you can toggle on when you take your phone in for repairs that protects your data from nosy repair technicians.

Now that Samsung has pointed it out, it sounds strange to say that we hand over our phones, with all their sensitive data onboard, to repair shops with the password on a slip of paper. Many minor repairs don't require the phone to be unlocked, but those that do present a significant security risk if you have important information on your phone, particularly if you use it for work.

There have been many documented instances of repair technicians misusing their access to customers' phones (or PCs before that) and getting caught. In 2016, two employees at Pegatron, one of Apple's major repair contractors, found explicit images of a college student on her phone and posted them on her Facebook account. She sued Apple for $5 million and settled privately for a multi-million dollar sum, which was eventually paid for by Pegatron. Apple conducted an "exhaustive investigation" afterward.

Samsung's repair mode is meant to prevent similar situations from happening. In the mode, the phone becomes a blank canvas: your photos, messages, and accounts all disappear and only the default apps remain visible. It lets technicians try all the normal phone functions, like taking a photo to see if the camera has been repaired successfully, but keeps them contained in an isolated environment. Ars Technica speculates that the mode works by creating a new, temporary user account within a different drive partition.

Samsung says repair mode will be added on an upcoming update for the South Korean version of the S21 series, with more devices to follow. When the feature arrives, you'll be able to find it in Settings > Battery and Device Care > Repair Mode. This will restart the phone and take you to the blank account, which doesn't require a password. To disable it, you simply restart your phone again, unlock it the usual way, and it'll be back to normal.

Given how useful it sounds, we'd like to see a repair mode become a standard feature on more devices. It could conceivably become a default Android feature, but before that can happen, Samsung needs to finish testing and release it to the public for the newer S22 series as well as internationally. No word on when that will be, but hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

Image credit: Shri
What just happened? An Australian man was arrested for allegedly creating and distributing a hacking tool to thousands of cyber criminals worldwide. The 24-year-old hacker is charged with creating and selling a remote access trojan designed to steal personal information and spy on unsuspecting targets. The virus creator made over $300,000 selling the tool, most of which appears to have been used on take-out and delivery items since age 15.

Jacob Wayne John Keen, 24, was arrested for allegedly selling a trojan virus named Imminent Monitor to cyber criminals, domestic violence perpetrators, among others from as many as 128 different countries. The tool allowed users to target unsuspecting victims to steal their personal data, track information entered into documents, and spy on them using the target's webcams and microphones.

The arrest was made following a global sting operation that was set in motion in 2017. The worldwide effort, named Operation Cephus, was started after the Australian Federal Police was provided with suspicious information from the FBI and Palo Alto Networks.

Keen allegedly created and began distributing the tool for $35 per user at age 15, while living in his mother's rental unit. Proceeds from the tool totaled between $300,000 and $400,000 until it was finally shut down in 2019. The shutdown followed the execution of several AFP-led search warrants that seized hardware and assets found to contain evidence pointing to the RAT's development. Keen's recent arrest was based on additional evidence provided to AFP from participating law enforcement agencies around the world.

According to AFP's reports, the tool was used to spy on tens of thousands of victims globally, and at least 200 of the tool's buyers came directly from Australia. A high number of those Australian-based suspects were also discovered to have been involved in previous domestic violence calls, a correlation that sheds some light on what kind of criminals leveraged the nefarious tool. Investigations into other actors that may have used the tool are still ongoing.

Evidence analyzed by authorities revealed that most of the proceeds from the hacking tool were used to buy takeaway food over the course of Keen's 9+ year involvement. He was met with six charges earlier this month and is scheduled to appear in court sometime in August. It also appears that Keen's mother, 42, may have been aware of and benefitted from the criminal activities. She was also charged with dealing in and benefitting from sales of the invasive tool.

Image credit: Taton Moise
Goodyear's new moon tires are now being developed. These out-of-this-world wheels will be used for the upcoming Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) of Lockheed Martin.

(Photo : Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Goodyear Racing Eagle tires are stacked up along a wall during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The American multinational tire manufacturer announced this detail on July 20. Goodyear already manufactured advanced wheels for other space missions.

These include the Apollo 11 mission, which launched around 53 years ago. Now, the company plans to be involved in another important space effort.

"The company will continue that tradition-focusing on lunar vehicle tires-by joining Lockheed Martin in its development of a lunar mobility vehicle," said the tire maker via its official press release.

Goodyear's New Moon Tires To Arrive!

According to PC Mag's latest report, Goodyear's recent wheels for NASA's lunar rovers are designed to last only a few days.

(Photo : Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A Goodyear store is seen on August 19, 2020 in Miami, Florida. President Donald Trump called for a boycott against Goodyear in reaction to a social media post that was purportedly from a company training session, that deemed MAGA attire unacceptable for the workplace.

Also Read: SpaceX's Starlink Design Change To Reduce Brightness; 2nd-Gen Satellites To Use Three Light Mitigations

These tires need to be replaced so that the moon vehicles of the space agency can work properly.

Now, the tire manufacturer is expected to develop new lunar wheels that can last longer and endure rugged terrain, as well as other harsh conditions.

The company's CTO, Chris Helsel, said their new collaboration with Lockheed Martin is a big deal.

Designing new moon tires for the defense corporation will give them more experience in wheel making, allowing them to create better airless tires.

Can Goodyear's Lunar Wheels Endure Moon's Environment?

As of press time, it is hard to conclude that the new tires of Goodyear can endure harsh lunar conditions.

But, the wheel maker said that it would use its advanced technologies for airless tires in Earth-based autonomous shuttles, passenger cars, as well as micro-mobility vehicles.

Although the new lunar wheels are still under development, you can definitely expect more longer-lasting moon tires from Goodyear since it has been providing strong wheels for various automakers and other companies.

Meanwhile, a luxurious space balloon is now being designed by Space Perspective.

On the other hand, Russia confirmed that Roscosmos' ISS stay had been extended until 2028.

For more news updates about the new Goodyear lunar tires and other space techs, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: NASA Gives Lockheed Martin the Contract to Build MAV and Retrieve Mars' First Samples from Perseverance

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple's new iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 brings essential security updates for severe vulnerabilities on iPads and iPhones.

(Photo : Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images )

A man uses a smartphone on the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 26, 2018 in Barcelona. - The Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, is held in Barcelona from February 26 to March 1.

These enhancements were rolled out by the tech giant manufacturer on July 20. Apple said that users need to install these security updates so that they can prevent serious flaws.

One of these is the CVE-2022-32832, which affects the Apple File System.

Cybersecurity experts explained that hackers could use the vulnerability to execute code with kernel privileges.

If the exploitation is successful, cybercriminals can gain deep access to your iPad or iPhone.

Apple iOS 15.6, iPadOS 15.6 Arrives With Essential Security Updates

According to The Wired's latest report, the new iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6 update offers fixes for 37 serious security flaws.

(Photo : Photo by PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)

A man uses his mobile phone as he walks past advertising for the new iPhones outside the Apple store in Hong Kong on October 10, 2019. - Apple on October 10 removed an app criticised by China for allowing protestors in Hong Kong to track police, as Beijing steps up pressure on foreign companies deemed to be providing support to the pro-democracy movement.

Also Read: Apple iOS 15.6: New Features Arrive with New Update-Should You Wait for iOS 16?

The giant iPhone maker explained that it was not aware that malicious actors had already used these vulnerabilities.

But, since most of them can lead to severe security breaches, the tech firm decided to launch security enhancements.

Cybersecurity experts are urging iPhone and iPad users to install the new system versions as soon as possible since they believe that hackers can combine these flaws, leading to more serious security attacks.

Updating To iOS 15.6, iPad 15.6

Apple's official Support page provides the things you need to do to install the newest iOS and iPadOS system versions.

Before you update to the latest iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6, you must back up your device using Apple's iCloud service.

On the other hand, you can also do this using your laptop or personal computer. After that, follow these steps:

First, visit your device's Settings and click the General option. After that, tap on the Software Update button. There are some instances when the option shows two versions of the new system. Just click the one you prefer to install. Then, click the Install/Download button and enter your passcode. After that, click the "Install Now" option.

Meanwhile, the new Apple iOS 16 is expected to offer new hands-free capabilities with UI-enabled accessories.

Previously, Apple iOS 16 Beta's photos crop feature was leaked.

For more news updates about iOS, iPadOS, and other Apple systems, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Apple iOS 16 iMessage: Edit History Display 'Ghost Texts' on Previously Sent-Unsend Also Arrives

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
iPhone IP ratings are life savers if you know the limit of your device when it comes to dust and water.

(Photo : Photo by Ming Yeung/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 24: LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 24: Apple launches the iPhone 13 in the UK at its Regent Street store on September 24, 2021 in London, England.

However, many users don't know how to read these codes and where to find them.

Since iPhones are considered among the most advanced handsets in the market, users tend to bring these devices with them during vacations.

Well, who doesn't love capturing images of themselves going on a beach, diving, or climbing mountains?

In 1976, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) decided to release the IP (Ingress Protection) rating so that people would know if they were already putting their smartphones in environmental conditions that were too extreme.

How To Check, Read iPhone IP Rating?

According to The Wired's latest report, it is pretty easy to identify your iPhone's IP rating. First, you need to know the code's pattern.

(Photo : Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Customers gather as they take part in a class to learn how to use their iPhones at an Apple Store on January 7, 2019 in Beijing, China. Apple Inc. lowered its revenue guidance last week, blaming China's slowing economy and weaker than expected iPhone sales.

Also Read: Apple iPhone 14 Increases Suppliers Ahead of its Launch, Says Ming-Chi Kuo! Here's Why

Most of the time, the Ingress Rating contains the "IP" code, which is followed up by two numbers. The first character denotes the device's dust resistance, and the last number denotes its water resistance.

But, there are some instances when the IP is followed by an X letter or has the last character as an X letter. If you see this, it is only dust-resistant or water-resistant.

IEC clarified that the X character doesn't mean that the device failed. It only means that the water or dust rating is absent in the device.

Now, here are all the meanings of the numbers on your iPhone's IP rating:

First Digits

0 - No protection against contact and ingress of objects

1 - Any large surface of the body, such as the back of the hand, but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part (50 mm and larger)

2 - Fingers or similar objects (12.5 mm and larger)

3 - Tools, thick wires, etc (2.5 mm and larger)

4 - Most wires, screws, etc (1 mm and larger)

5 - Dust Protected

6 - Dust Tight

Second Digits

0 - Not Protected

1 - Dripping water

2 - Dripping water when tilted up to 15 3 - Spraying water

4 - Splashing water

5 - Water jets

6 - Powerful water jets

7 - Immersion up to 1m

8 - Immersion beyond 1m

Where To Find Your iPhone's IP Rating?

If you can't find your IP rating on the back of your device or settings, then the best you can do is to visit the official Apple Support page.

On this website, you will see the models that are water, splash, and dust resistant. These include the new iPhone 13, iPhone 12, as well as other older models, including iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 in Japan is now more expensive, with its price increasing by around 20%.

On the other hand, experts provided their predictions on the official iPhone 14 Pro Max release date.

For more news updates about iPhones and other Apple products, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: If Your iPhone Stops Charging, Try These Easy Fixes Before Upgrading Like Chris Evans

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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?? El Ministerio de Salud informa que aumento a 282 los casos confirmados de #ViruelaDelMono, que corresponden a 9 regiones del Peru, todos los pacientes vienen recibiendo asistencia medica, se registraron 77 altas medicas y se esta realizando la identificacion de contactos. pic.twitter.com/NrC6kLi1Lx
"The 600 million supercar was flooded and sold for 1 million won... Those who want to use it as a decoration"
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Lara Nicholson writes for The Advocate as a Report for America Corps Member. Email her at lnicholson@theadvocate.com or follow her on Twitter @LaraNicholson_.

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Perhaps James Packers been a secret progressive this whole time. CBD can reveal the billionaire has donated $250,000 to the campaign to free Julian Assange from prison and bring him home to Australia.

The whistleblower and WikiLeaks founder has been incarcerated in Londons Belmarsh prison since 2019, while he fights efforts to extradite him to the United States where he faces espionage charges that could see him jailed for 175 years.

Of course I support Julian Assange. What has happened to him is outrageous, Packer said. A lot of fine people who I am privileged to know are working around the clock for his freedom. I will continue to support him. Whatever it takes.

James Packer and Julian Assange. Credit:Jozsef Benke

After his exit from Crown Resorts, Packer is now on a mission to rehabilitate his reputation (his words)  which seemingly involves splashing out on causes close to his heart.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size This story is part of the July 31 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories. How to celebrate a 40th birthday? From a big bash and climbing a mountain to eating a sausage in bread in the park, 14 women tell how they marked the occasion. Catriona Rowntree Television presenter Credit:GK Photogtaphy I had a wonderful 40th. I returned to the place I went with my husband for our first date  Taronga Zoo, when I was around 29 or 30  with my two children in tow. That night we had a really fantastic dinner party with my closest friends. We just laughed our heads off and had a really great time. Sally Hepworth Author

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Sally Hepworth There was a three-week period where we opened up between COVID-19 lockdowns, and in those three weeks, my two best girlfriends and me all had our 40th birthdays. And all three of us had girls-only lunches at our homes, which is really indicative of who we are in the sense that we dont like men, we dont like going out of our homes, we only like each other, and we love getting drunk in the security of our own homes. So I had a caterer come in, I had this glorious bunch of women who are all at different life stages: some of them had kids who had just left home, and they were becoming empty-nesters, and others had just had their first baby. One of my girlfriends was sitting there drinking wine and pumping bottles of breast milk at the table. Loading And eventually two people fell asleep, one of my friends with her face in her dinner. And  this is what I love about women getting older  this [other] friend, shes around 50 so has had lots of good life experience, she doesnt fall asleep with her face in her dinner any more. She went to the couch and procured a cushion, and then she leaned back in her chair and had it behind her head, and she just fell asleep like that. And I just thought, We know how to do it now that were 40! And I thought, This is just a good, good night. Sally Obermeder Television presenter and author Sally Obermeder.

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It was a bit of a let-down, as I was in the midst of my cancer treatment. So, it was a non-event, so to speak. I think I was very much like, Im happy to be here. Lets see where I go from here. It was definitely not the 40th I was expecting, but also, in a way, despite what was happening, it was still one full of a lot of gratitude. Taryn Brumfitt Writer/body image activist I had a bunch of friends say, Weve all chipped in. You can go anywhere you want to go, business class: New York, London, Paris. What do you want to do? And I was like, I just want to go to a park and eat a sausage in bread. Because I spend so much time on planes, I just wanted to go to my local park. And thats exactly what I ended up doing. And I was so happy. Narelda Jacobs Television journalist

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Credit:Tane Coffin For my 40th, I wanted to climb a mountain. So my girlfriend at the time and I went to Bali to climb Mount Agung, which is probably the most dangerous mountain to climb because theres no safety. So I spent several hours  it was about an eight-hour experience  just terrified. I seriously thought I was going to die on my 40th birthday, but it taught me a lot about myself: that I can keep going and climb a mountain. I just wanted to conquer something, to achieve something, on my 40th that I hadnt done before. Kathy Lette Author Credit: Well, as usual, I swung off a chandelier with a cocktail between my teeth. Women need to celebrate every milestone because, when you have children, you take the burnt chop, you never get the window seat, you always put yourself last. Youre tethered to the kitchen by your apron strings and your heartstrings  Youre psychologically tethered. So anytime you get to celebrate just being you, dont feel guilty. Women have a guilt gland. Our guilt glands throb all the time as mothers  we never think were good enough. If were working mothers, we think we should be at home doing creative things with Play-Doh. If were stay-at-home mums, we think we should be out, striding the world stage with venture capital portfolios tucked up each sleeve. We just feel guilty all the time  and guilt is the gift that just keeps on giving. So never, ever feel guilty about celebrating your life and your sisterhood. Because my whole theme in life is that women are each others human Wonderbras  uplifting, supportive and making each other look bigger and better. Yumi Stynes

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Presenter and author Credit: I cant even remember. Ive never been one for big birthday bashes and I particularly dont like that kind of attention that you get on your birthday when everyone sort of looks at you and theyre like, So, happy birthday! And youre like, Can you please stop, stop saying that! So, I dont know. I probably had a dinner or something, but it was nothing big. Lisa Cox Author and disability advocate Credit:Getty Images My 40th was last year, so I had grand plans to have a celebration in Europe. Obviously, that didnt happen [due to COVID-19]. My husband still made it special. He set up our apartment: he put Venice in one corner. We had drinks in Venice, then went and had drinks in my office, in Paris and Berlin. So I still went to Europe. It certainly wasnt as I had planned or hoped, but nothing in my life really is, so that was how I spent my 40th. It was still a really, really great day.

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Business, investor and environment groups are urging the Greens and the Coalition to park their objections and support the federal governments signature climate change reforms, arguing the plan has merit and bipartisan support is necessary to address the economic challenges of global warming.

The Greens party room is still considering its support for Labors Climate Change Bill, but the minor party will introduce on Monday its own climate trigger bill, which could force the environment minister to assess the effect on global warming of emissions from polluting projects, such as new coal mines or gas fields.

Blockade Australia climate change protestors in Sydney last month. Credit:Brook Mitchell

Groups representing a wide cross-section of the business community have issued a joint statement urging the Greens and Coalition to back Labors bill, which seeks to legislate a cut in greenhouse gases by 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said he would not support any moves to enshrine an emissions reduction target in law, but the Greens and crossbencher David Pocock are expected to deliver the crucial votes needed to pass Labors reform in the Senate.
Labor backbenchers will seek to reverse a 25-year ban on the ACT and Northern Territory legalising voluntary assisted dying this week, as debate begins in the federal parliament pitting territory rights against staunch opposition to euthanasia.

Luke Gosling, the MP for the Darwin seat of Solomon, and Canberra MP Alicia Payne will move a private members bill on Monday to repeal the Howard-era laws, which could go to a vote in the lower house as soon as this week.

Canberra MP Alicia Payne and Solomon MP Luke Gosling will introduce a private members bill to repeal the Andrews bill and allow territories to debate voluntary assisted dying laws. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Employment Minister Tony Burke, who in the 1990s backed the campaign by former Liberal MP Kevin Andrews to bar the territories from legalising euthanasia, is expected to be among a small number of Labor politicians who will use their conscience vote to reject the Restoring Territory Rights Bill. Coalition MPs are also anticipating they will have a conscience vote.

Gosling said he anticipated the bill would pass the lower house but face a tougher challenge in the Senate, where a vote will not happen until later in the year.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has sacked his small business and fair trading minister Eleni Petinos after allegations she bullied workers emerged during a horror week for his government.

The premier said he had confidence in Petinos last week after media reports alleged the MP berated staff with offensive language including the words retarded and stupid, triggering the departure of several staffers since she was promoted in December.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (right) has sacked his fair trading minister, Eleni Petinos, following bullying allegations. Credit:Rhett Wyman, Oscar Colman

But in a statement issued on Sunday night, Perrottet said he had spoken to Petinos after some further matters concerning her were brought to my attention and moved to stand her down immediately.

In light of these matters, Ms Petinos service as a minister will cease with immediate effect, and I will write to the Governor in this regard tomorrow, Perrottet said.
Baghdad: Thousands of followers of an influential Shiite cleric stormed into Iraqs parliament on Saturday, for the second time this week, protesting government formation efforts led by his rivals, an alliance of Iran-backed groups.

The alliance showed signs of internal division, with some calling for counter-protests  a development that would raise the spectre of civil strife  while others later urged for dialogue.

Protesters try to remove concrete barriers and cross the bridge towards the Green Zone area in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday, July 30. Credit:AP

Iraqi security forces initially used tear gas and stun grenades to try to repel the demonstrators, who are followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Once inside, the protesters declared an open-ended sit-in and claimed they would not disperse until their demands are answered.

As the numbers of protesters swelled, the police backed off. An expected parliament session did not take place and no MPs were in the hall. By late afternoon, the Ministry of Health said about 125 people were injured in the violence  100 protesters and 25 members of the security forces.
Nine year old Arlo Schmidts life changed from happy to tragedy in an instant.

Arlo went camping on July 22 with his mother, father, and six year old sister.

For reasons still unknown, a gunman attacked the family in their tent in the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground in Iowa, killing 42 year old Tyler Schmidt, his wife, 42 year old Sarah Schmidt, and their 6 year old daughter, Lula Schmidt.

Nine year old Arlo was spared in the shooting.

The gunman, identified by authorities as 23 year old Anthony Sherwin of Nebraska, then turned the gun on himself.

Police say Sherwin did not know the victims, and did not have any contact with them before the shooting.

They said Sherwin was camping with his family in the same park.

The family of the victims has been devastated by the shooting. Arlo is now staying with his grandparents.

One of Arlos uncles, Ryan Jackson, is a missile facility manager, at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. He has joined the rest of the family in Iowa.

It was my wifes sister and her husband and our niece, who was killed. And then our nephew, Arlo, is the one that survived, Jackson said.

Arlos father had been teaching him about computer programming, and Jackson said he was impressed by what his nephew had learned.

Hes just so knowledgeable about this. I know a little C++ but his dad was teaching him Ruby and Python and all these different coding languages that Ive heard about but I dont know. And at nine I didnt know what coding was at nine, Jackson added.

Donations have been flowing into a GoFundMe account set up for Arlos college education.

I think its close to $250,000 now. I havent looked in a couple of days. I imagine its close. I dont know what college is going to cost in about ten years, but Im hoping thats enough for him, said Jackson.

Arlos extended family has come together in Iowa and are struggling to deal with the tragedy. For Ryan Jackson, its very personal.

I dont want to toot my own horn or anything like that but Im pretty sure that Im the favorite uncle because he keeps asking for me by name, so I had to be here. I had to be here to support him, said Jackson.

The GoFundMe account is located at https://www.gofundme.com/f/arlo-schmidt/donate.
By Oscar Grenfell

July 30, 2022: Information Clearing House -- " WSWS " - In an interview with Oscar Grenfell of the World Socialist Website, John Pilger explains the latest manoeuvres by the US and UK authorities to extradite Julian Assange, journalist and publisher, to the US where he faces 175 years in prison for the crime of journalism.

After Home Secretary Priti Patel's announcement allowing extradition, where is the Assange case up to? Are the dangers he confronts of a greater urgency than previously?

It is a dangerous, unpredictable time. Since the Home Secretary signed the extradition order, a provisional appeal has been filed by Julian's lawyers. 'Provisional' is part of the tortuous process of appeal. The lawyers must submit what are known as 'perfected grounds of appeal' in the next few weeks, then the US and the Home Secretary file their responses. Only after that does it go to a judge (not sitting in a court) to decide whether or not he will accept it. It may sound meticulous but, having observed it, it looks to me like a finely spun blanket of obfuscation over a profoundly biased system.

Until the High Court hearing last year, I believed the country's senior judges would reject the US appeal and reclaim something of the mythologised notion of British justice if only for the system's survival, which partly depends on 'face' within the arcane reaches of the British establishment. This show of 'independence' in support of justice has happened in the past. In Julian's case, the facts are surely too outrageous - no properly constituted court would even consider it - yet I was wrong. The decision by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales last October that the US in effect had the right to fabricate and belatedly introduce 'assurances' that had not even been part of previous due process was quite shocking. There was no justice, no process; the guile and ruthlessness of US power was on show. Might is right.

Today, the US knows it is close to getting its hands on Julian. Unlike previous parliaments at Westminster, there is not a single voice speaking up for him. In spite of a tenacious campaign emphasising the threat Julian's extradition poses to a 'free press', he is barely acknowledged in the media, which remains intensely hostile to him. Journalists have never been as compliant as they are today, and Julian's case is a reminder - to some - of what they ought to be. He shames them.

You have consistently defended Julian for the past ten years. Over that period have you been shocked by the intensity with which he has been pursued?

Perhaps not shocked; as a journalist, I have had my own taste of state ruthlessness. Remember the pursuit of Julian is a measure of his achievements. He informed millions about the deceptions of governments too many trusted; he respected the right of people to know. It was a remarkable public service.

Do you think this is bound up with a broader assault on democratic rights?

Yes, it's the latest stage of the abandonment of what used to be called 'social democracy'. The 'rollback' of rights in the US and UK is in reaction to the uprising, in the 1960s an 1970s, of people and their conscientiousness and of ideas of equity. This was an historical 'moment' when society was becoming more enlightened; minority and gender rights were gaining acceptance; workers were fighting back.

At the same time, the so-called 'information age' was launched. It was only partly about information; it was really a media age, with the media establishing a ubiquitous, controlling place in people's lives. One of the most influential books of the time was 'The Greening of America'. On the cover were the words: 'There is a revolution coming. It will not be like revolutions of the past. It will originate with the individual.' The message of its author, a young Yale academic, Charles Reich, was that truth-telling and political action had failed and only 'culture' and introspection could change the world.

Within a few years, driven by new opportunities of profit, the cult of 'me-ism'. had subverted people's sense of acting together, their sense and language of social justice and internationalism. Class, gender and race were separated; class as a way of explaining society became heresy. The personal was the political, and the media was the message. The propaganda was that something called globalism was good for you. A tsunami of selling and digital surveillance related to the 'market' swept across us. Corporatism, its specious language and its authoritarianism, appropriated much about the way we lived, ensuring what the economist Ted Wheelwright called a 'Two Thirds Society' - with the bottom third beholden to debt and poverty while an unrecognised class war uprooted and destroyed the power of labour. In 2008, the election of the first black president in the land of slavery and the fabrication of a new cold war completed the political disorientation of those who, 20 years earlier, would have formed a critical opposition. Killing off the anti-war movement was Barack Obama's most memorable achievement.

Is there a relationship with the escalation of war, including the US-led confrontations with China and Russia?

Events today are the direct result of plans laid in the 1992 Defence Planning Guidance, a document that laid out how the US would maintain its empire and see off any challenges, real and imagined. The aim was US dominance at any cost, literally. Written by Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney, who would play key roles in the administration of George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq, it might have been written by Lord Curzon in the 19th century. They formed The Project for a New American Century. America, it boasted, 'would oversee a new frontier'. The role of other states would be as vassals or supplicants, or they would be crushed. It planned he conquest of Europe, and Russia, with all the zeal and thoroughness of Hitler's imperialists. The roots of Nato's current war on Russia and the provocations of China are here.

What do you think of the role being played by the Albanese Labor government? Can you comment on the Declassified Australia report, with internal briefings for Attorney-General Dreyfus, which indicated that the only focus of the Labor government is a hypothetical prison transfer, after Assange has been extradited to the US and convicted of Espionage Act charges there?

The Albanese Labor government is as right-wing and compliant as any Australian Labor government - only the Whitlam government in 1972-75 broke the mould, and it was got rid of. It was the Labor government of Julia Gillard that initiated Australia's collusion with the US to silence Assange. The 'prison transfer' idea may be seen as a weasel way of satisfying support for Julian in his homeland. Whatever happens, the US will decide and the Albanese government will do as it's told.

We are raising the need for workers and young people to come to Assange's defence, as the spearhead of the fight against war and authoritarianism. Why do you think ordinary people should take up the struggle to free Assange?

Julian Assange is the courageous embodiment of a struggle against the darkest, most oppressive force in our world; and people of principle, young and old, should oppose it as best they can; or one day it may touch their lives, and worse.

http://johnpilger.com/
The horse recovered royally after receiving big doses of love and extensive medical care

Nothing heals like love.

Bud, a used up and aged horse from a dude ranch in West Texas, was about to be sold to butchers in Mexico for his weight in horse meat. One of over fifty work horses kept at the Texas ranch for trail rides and summer camps, his treatment had left him suffering from years of starvation, parasite infestation, and poor dental care, which all led to gastrointestinal damage. Like many aged horses being sold in the same auction, he was emaciated, chronically lame, and had not received proper veterinary care in years.

At the time of auction, Buds body score condition was a 1 (generally, the scale ranges from a 1 for emaciation to a 9 for obesity). His skeleton was visible, and he had virtually no fat on his body. His back was severely swayed, and his front legs were nearly unusable.

Thats when he was saved by Christina Hays, the 27-year-old owner and founder of Forever Freedom Reins Equine Rescue Corp., a nonprofit organization based out of Spring, Texas.

I first heard of Bud through a close friend of mine who had recently been hired at this ranch. She was shocked at the conditions many of the horses were in, Hays told The Epoch Times.

In 2019, Hays purchased Bud along with seven other horses that were being sold that day. All of them were being offloaded by the dude ranch due to their deterioration and inability to work.

Instead, they found a home at Forever Freedom Reins.

Two of the eight rescued horses did not survive. One of the two was so overworked and starved that it suffered organ failure. The other had advanced joint collapse in both front legs. The remaining six, however, including Bud, recovered royally after receiving big doses of love and extensive medical care.

(Courtesy of Christina Hays)

Buds recovery took patience. It took a full year to achieve his medical recuperation. After post-rescue dental work, blood checks to assess his overall health, and radiographs to assess his lameness, he experienced severe episodes of irritable bowel syndrome for roughly a year and was hospitalized and put on IV fluids multiple times for impactions and diarrhea.

Currently, Bud receives routine back and fetlock injections, and daily medication to reduce inflammation and pain. Since Bud had lost all his teeth after improper dental care, he cannot chew hay or hard feed, so he is fed a soaked mash twice daily.

Loving care has restored this old work horse.

Hays says Bud has gained over 200 pounds since rescue and now experiences little to no lameness, allowing him to gallop pain free in the paddocks. Although Bud is probably overweight, Hays thinks that the old horse deserves it, given the past that he has come from. Now, hes making up for lost time.

To this day, he neighs and neighs at mealtime. He is always so excited! Hays said.

Nearly 30 years old and thriving, Buds character shows clearly. Hays describes him as confident, independent and easy going, and able to roam alone or with other horses. Most of his focus is on food, and he spends much of his time alone grazing.

He is the one you can trust to take care of any rider no matter how small or inexperienced, Hays said. And then laughing, she added, Sometimes, he will gently ignore a kid directing him on his back and walk them back to the barn if he thinks its dinner time.

Hays has no plans to let Bud go. She plans to see him through, caring for him for the rest of his life. Bud has found his forever home, and Hays has found her forever horse.

Due to his age and GI (gastrointestinal) issues, we felt it was best for him to live out his last days with us, she said.

Bud now spends his bright days roaming 15 acres of lush green grass with 10 other rescue horses, and his nights are spent in a large padded stall. He loves his stall, and if he is left out past dark, he stands at the barn gate pushing on it to come in, Hays said.

Buds story is a trotting example of what Hays started her nonprofit to do. She started Freedom Forever Reins when she was a student at Texas A&M University, after stumbling upon two horses that needed rescue: Mystery, a mare abandoned and tied to a tree in Houston, and Boomer, a lame ranch horse being sent to slaughter.

Both horses opened my eyes to cruelty, neglect, and the brutality of horse slaughter that happens every day yet is so hidden from the public and equestrian world, she said.

Since then, it has been my mission to educate and spread awareness on the issues of horse slaughter and cruelty, the responsibilities and commitment of horse ownership, the over-population and over-breeding of horses, and how it contributes to horse slaughter. All while saving as many horses as we can along the way.

With donations, Forever Freedom Reins saves, rehabilitates, and adopts horses that would not have had a chance otherwise. They specialize in major medical and hospice cases that would otherwise be euthanized or sent to slaughter. We strive to give these animals the best care available and have saved over 60 horses and counting! she said.

Horses such as Bud.

These equine souls are the recipients of Hayss mission and her decision to love, love, and keep on lovinga love that is breathing life back into the almost dead.

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: https://www.theepochtimes.com/newsletter
A Long March-5B Y3 rocket, carrying the Wentian lab module for China's space station under construction, takes off from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province, China, on July 24, 2022. (China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo)

Another Chinese Rocket Falls Uncontrolled to Earth

NASA says Beijing did not share information

WASHINGTONA Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean but NASA said Beijing had not shared the specific trajectory information needed to know where possible debris might fall.

U.S. Space Command said the Long March 5B-Y3 re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approximately 12:45 p.m. EDT Saturday (1645 GMT), but referred questions about reentrys technical aspects such as potential debris dispersal impact location to China.

All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth.

Social media users in Malaysia posted video of what appeared to be rocket debris.

Aerospace Corp, a government funded nonprofit research center near Los Angeles, said it was reckless to allow the Long Marchs entire main-core stage to return to Earth in an uncontrolled reentry. The rocket is Chinas most powerful and of significant size, weighing 23-tons.

Chinas space program is run by the ruling Communist Partys military wing, the Peoples Liberation Army. The U.S. excluded China from the International Space Station because of its military ties.

Earlier this week, analysts said the rocket body would disintegrate as it plunged through the atmosphere but is large enough that numerous chunks will likely survive a fiery re-entry to rain debris over an area some 2,000 km (1,240 miles) long by about 70 km (44 miles) wide.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. China said earlier this week it would closely track the debris but said it posed little risk to anyone on the ground.

The Long March 5B blasted off July 24 to deliver a laboratory module to the new Chinese space station under construction in orbit, marking the third flight of Chinas most powerful rocket since its maiden launch in 2020.

Fragments of another Chinese Long March 5B landed on the Ivory Coast in 2020, damaging several buildings in that West African nation, though no injuries were reported.

By contrast, he said, the United States and most other space-faring nations generally go to the added expense of designing their rockets to avoid large, uncontrolled re-entriesan imperative largely observed since large chunks of the NASA space station Skylab fell from orbit in 1979 and landed in Australia.

Last year, NASA and others accused China of being opaque after the Beijing government kept silent about the estimated debris trajectory or the reentry window of its last Long March rocket flight in May 2021.

Debris from that flight ended up landing in the Indian Ocean.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Top scientists making quiet exits out of embarrassment about 'bad science' driving policy have left these agencies without leadership

Dr. Tracy Beth Heg describes herself as pro-evidence. Having practiced rehabilitation medicine and holding a PhD in epidemiology and public health, she was conscious of statistics and closely following the public health messaging around COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Heg was not against vaccination for high-risk groups and recommended vaccines when they first rolled out for adults. But she questioned vaccination mandates, especially for children who had already been infected. She questioned lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, and testing of students. She examined studies that measured safety and efficacy data for childrenwho are at low risk for COVIDand found that they contradicted public health policies.

Post-vax myocarditis was clearly above baseline at the end of May. We are standing on shaky ground if we say the risk to otherwise healthy kids from COVID-19 is higher than it is from the vaccine, she posted to Twitter on June 10, 2021.

Within seconds, Twitter flagged her tweet as misleading, to which Heg wrote Im quoting the CDCs [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] own slides.

Post-vax myocarditis was clearly above baseline at the end of May. As previously discussed, we are standing on shaky ground if we say the risk to otherwise healthy kids from Covid-19 is higher than it is from the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/fSDrlLm61f  Tracy Heg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) June 11, 2021

Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has been carefully tracking the health decisions, keen to draw attention to discrepancies.

In terms of the decisions that [health authorities] were makingI was just so angry, and I felt like I couldnt do anything, Heg said. Thats why I started doing the research that I did, because someone has to do something.

Heg was far from alone. On July 14, she and co-author Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins professor and public policy researcher, published an article about the exodus of top scientists at the CDC, Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Its rife with anonymous interviews with despairing doctors and silenced scientists.

The reader is left with the impression motivation is all political: its like a horror movie Im being forced to watch and I cant close my eyes, one senior FDA official lamented. People are getting bad advice and we cant say anything.

Another CDC scientist told Heg and Makary: I used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now, Im embarrassed.

In 126 pages of FDA emails obtained by the Judicial Watch, it was revealed that the top FDA officials felt pressured by the White House and vaccine companies to authorize boosters.

According to the widely read piece by Heg and Makary, the scientists are embarrassed because of all the bad science. But theyre silent because of the swift repercussions that come with speaking out.

I almost canceled the interview, Heg told The Epoch Times on the phone call, an anonymous personcalled my work and was threatening me over voicemailabout my moral transgressions.

Everyone in our office has been warned about their associations with me and it makes it very hard for doctors to speak out.

Makary and Hegs study painted a despairing image of scientists choosing to not verbalize arguments that contradicted the main public health agenda, trying to not catch attention so that they could survive to retirement.

[The health authorities] basically either silence people or push them out until they quit, Heg said. Its a very select group of people that are working there.

Threats, Attacks, and Censorship

There are many doctors who are in positions that make it hard for them to question health policies, said Heg. These doctors may be funded by the NIH or hold positions in universities, and risk losing their jobs from speaking out.

Speaking from her experience, Heg believes that the shaming culture on social media is discouraging doctors from speaking out.

Theres no room for nuanceas soon as you say something that is slightly nuanced and not 100 percent vaccinate everyone with multiple boosters, youre labeled as a [COVID] minimizer.

Doctors also have concerns about being labeled political and losing respect, labeled right wing or pro-Trump for speaking against the public health agenda.

I think there should have been more open discussions, Heg said, and not this sort of attack via social media.

Heg primarily posts on Twitter, and no longer posts to Facebook.

Ive been continuously censored by Facebook, to the point where I left because I would just write something and then it would just be erased. I could tell that I was on some sort of list, she said. There were physicians who were against what I was writing, [they] would come write things on my timeline, and I didnt want family friends to see what I was dealing with.

Despite the difficulties she is facing, Heg is adamant about continuing to inform the public of more nuanced discussions on COVID-19.

However, her online label of COVID-19 minimizer has also followed her into real life.

COVID Minimizer

Heg was testifying against California SB 1479 senate bill on June 12, 2022. The bill was sponsored by seven democrat senators, of whom, Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician, is the author of the bill. If passed, the bill would require schools to run daily COVID-19 tests for students.

I spoke a lot to the data, Heg said.

At the panel, Heg cited a study that found rapid antigen testing would miss COVID-19 positive students in their first three days of transmission. Therefore, when students are tested positive, they may have already transmitted the infection to everyone around them.

Most rapid antigen tests are also inaccurate, and Hoeg argued that over 70 percent of asymptomatic students that test positive may not have the disease.

Spending over a billion dollars per year on COVID-19 school testing program would be a net harm, and it would not achieve its intended goals. This is due to the simple fact that COVID-19 is about 20 times more likely to be spread outside of schools than inside and because rapid testsare highly inaccurate, Heg said at the panel.

We have never tested for seasonal respiratory viruses in schools beforeCOVID now has a lower infection hospitalization risk than influenza for children, and for adults its now similar to influenza, so we are at a different stage in the pandemic now.

Pan responded to Hegs arguments by calling her COVID minimizer.

So I know that one of the witnesses is a well-known COVID minimizer, he said, but COVID is a serious disease in children.

Heg said that she wasnt allowed to talk after that.

I'd been looking forward to meeting Senator Pan. I think we both want the best for kids

Not sure "minimizer" applies to someone dedicated to learning the data & considering tradeoffs of continued testing. My take: we should follow Scandinavia's lead & drop school covid testing https://t.co/MXsJNjt9jQ  Tracy Heg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) June 22, 2022

This is not the way that science should happen. Im not saying that Im right about everything, she said. Rather than people having discussions, ideas are being silenced, and the discussions are not being had, and so were just not making progress.

The people who are saying we need to do the maximumfor Covid all the time, every year, for the rest of our lives, [if] theyre the only ones who are allowed to speak, then thats really problematic.

The bill has since passed the Senate at 11 to 3 with one abstention, though it is currently suspended in the state assembly.

Medical Associations Join the Narrative

Governmental bodies were not the only major organizations to play politics with pandemic measures. Organizations providing medical certifications have been vocal participants as well.

For Dr. James A. Thorp, a certified obstetrician-gynecologist of over 40 years, his biggest concern was rolling out an experimental mRNA vaccination without a legitimate randomized controlled prospective trial. As an accredited member of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), Thorp has been threatened twice for speaking against COVID-19 vaccinations.

The ABOG released a statement in July 2022, stating that misinformation and disinformation on COVID-19 may cause a loss of eligibility to gain or maintain ABOG certification.

This was classic gaslighting, Thorp wrote to The Epoch Times in a text, punishing anyone that questioned their fake science.

Early Treatment

Thorp condemned the decision to abandon early treatment despite ample evidence in every prior disease throughout the history of medicine that early treatment equates to improved outcomes.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration condemned generic drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for use in treating COVID-19, despite overwhelming data favoring their uses.

Physicians were also warned against prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19 and many media outlets were quick to condemn the misinformation of ivermectin ($4.70 per pill) and hydroxychloroquine ($1.20 per pill) as COVID-19 treatments.

The attack on generic drugs left no drugs for early treatment.

This created an image that there was no treatment for COVID-19apart from vaccinationonce people were infected, the general advice was to rest and hydrate, and treat their symptoms with analgesics. Hospitalized patients were treated with remdesivir ($390 per vial) if their conditions were serious.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) observed that the treatments that were discouraged by the health authorities were cheap and cost in the $10s and $30s, whereas the drugs that were approved cost in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, implying that financial reasons may be at play.

The lack of immune protection and treatment at the start of the pandemic, led to high death tolls in many high risk demographics. Currently, around 6.4 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide.

Paxlovid ($530 per person) was rolled out in December 2021 as a treatment option during the course of COVID-19, but was soon linked with rebounding COVID-19 cases.

Despite multiple attempts at discrediting the safety of ivermectin and other controversial drugs, Dr. Ben Marble, a Floridian family doctor for over 20 years, started a website (myfreedoctor.com) that would connect COVID-19 patients with a doctor who would prescribe these medications.

The early treatment regimen included ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, monoclonal antibodies, prednisone, budesonide, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and placidin.

At Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)s panel discussion on Jan. 25, 2022, Marble said that the 150,000 COVID-19 patients they treated had an overall survival rate of 99.99 percent.

The science is conclusive and irrefutable: early treatment of COVID-19 with nutraceuticals, vitamins, and safe repurposed drugs are at least 90 percent (if not 99 percent) successful in treating COVID-19, Thorp wrote.

I believe that myfreedoctor.com; the free volunteer doctor team, we have settled the science on this. Early treatment works, period, said Marble.

Eroded Public Trust

Heg lamented that health authorities such as the CDC would not take accountability for their mistakes and apologize.

Denmark has said it was a mistake to vaccinate children under 16. I dont see that happening here. I think that apologizing or simply admitting uncertainty would do a lot to improve trust in public health authorities.

I thinkpeople feel like the CDC is talking down to them, [as] if they dont get the data or that theyre just not smart enough to understand whats going onand I think people very quickly see through that.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

She said that the messages in Europe have been much more nuanced, showing uncertainty and discussion in their statements rather than pretending like they know things with great certainty when they dont.

The public health agencies in the US have really become politicized andthere is a lot of influence from the pharmaceutical industry. Theyre notindependent organizations that stick to the data anymore, theyre politically influenced and theyre saying things to get people to basically do what they want them to do rather than focusing on what the data actually show, Heg said.

Heg was the senior author in a CDC study on school reopenings in Wisconsin.

The study found that a vast majority of infections in students and teachers actually came from community transmissions rather than in school, with less than 4 percent of infections tracing back to the school.

Hegs study was one of the most cited CDC studies, but after publishing her findings, the CDC actually made it more difficult to open schoolsit didnt make sense.

In the February 2021 guidance on school reopenings, the CDC asked for six-feet between students rather than three feet apart.

They could have asked us, the scientists who did the study; how far apart were the children sitting in the schools where you did your study, but they didnt have, so we had to publish a pre-print in the hopes they would eventually do away with the arbitrary and unnecessary requirement of 6 feet of distance, that was keeping millions of children either completely out of school or with limited in person hours.

Later reports by the New York Post implied teacher unions were involved in the decisions rather than the scientists, with the unions possibly even framing the wording of the announcement.

Recently, Heg also had difficulty publishing expanded analysis data on masks in the CDCs journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

She and her co-author, Ambarish Chandra, a professor of Economics at the University of Toronto, failed to find a relationship between school mask mandates and pediatric case rates; her study expanded on a study previously published by the CDC which found opposing results with a much smaller dataset. Her larger analysis failed to find a significant relationship between school mask mandates and pediatric cases.

The CDC didnt say their rejection had anything to do with our methodology, but they said thatthey thought we could just use more space to expand upon what we did, which didnt really make sense. I suspect the results we found simply didnt fit with the message they are trying to convey and that is now how science should be done.

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.
The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, home of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, on Aug. 11, 2017. Photo by Beyond My Ken, GNU Free Documentation License.

Biden Nominates Pro-Abortion Lawyer to Appeals Court

Rikelman lost Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade

President Joe Biden nominated pro-abortion lawyer Julie Rikelman to the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, the White House announced July 29.

Rikelmans nomination is likely to encounter opposition in the evenly split U.S. Senate. Left-wing activists are applying pressure to Democratic senators, urging them to accelerate the pace of judicial confirmations out of fear that Republicans will retake control of the chamber after the November elections.

Rikelman currently serves as senior director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, an international abortion defense organization with offices in New York, Washington, Switzerland, Colombia, and Kenya. The groups mission, according to its website, is to use the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world.

She represented Mississippis only state-licensed abortion clinic in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which the Supreme Court decided on June 24. The court upheld a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and overturned the 1973 abortion precedent Roe v. Wade, returning the regulation of abortion to the states.

During oral arguments on Dec. 1, 2021, Rikelman said, Mississippis ban on abortion two months before viability is flatly unconstitutional, adding the state wanted the court to dismantle Roe and allow states to force women to remain pregnant and give birth against their will.

Erasing or weakening abortion will propel women backward and do profound damage to womens liberty, equality, and the rule of law, she said. Two generations have now relied on this right, and 1 out of every 4 women makes the decision to end a pregnancy.

Although Rikelman lost in Dobbs, she was successful in another abortion case she argued before the Supreme Court. On June 29, 2020, in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, the court struck down Louisianas Act 620 that required an abortion-providing medical doctor to have active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where an abortion is provided.

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Rikelman immigrated to the United States with her family in 1979, the White House said in a statement. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1997, and previously worked at NBC Universal Inc. as vice president of litigation.

Christopher Kang, chief counsel for the left-wing advocacy group Demand Justice, hailed Rikelmans nomination.

In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Julie Rikelman brings exactly the kind of experience with reproductive rights we desperately need on the courts, Kang said in a statement.

Mike Davis of the conservative judicial advocacy organization, Article III Project, told Reuters that Rikelman is a bad choice for the federal bench.

This nominee is a radical, left-wing abortion activist who has no business being on any court, let alone a federal appellate court, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sept. 30, 2014. (Tami Chappell/Reuters)

CDC Collaboration With Big Tech on COVID-19 Misinformation a Threat to 1st Amendment Rights: Legal Advocacy Group

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was sued by America First Legal (AFL) to compel the release of records regarding correspondence between the federal public health agency and social media companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. AFL, a legal nonprofit run by former Trump administration officials, recently obtained documents showing that the CDC worked with big tech companies to flag and censor posts deemed as COVID-19 misinformation.

Gene Hamilton, vice president and general counsel of AFL, told The Epoch Times that seeing [then-press secretary] Jen Psaki at the White House podium last year, admitting that they were actively collaborating with social media companies to combat what the administration deemed as misinformation was great cause for alarm.

During a July 2021 press conference, Psaki said: Were regularly making sure social media platforms are aware of the latest narratives, dangerous to public health that we and many other Americans are seeing across all of social and traditional media. And we work to engage with them to better understand the enforcement of social media platform policies.

AFL immediately submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for all records related to the collaboration, according to Hamilton. He wasnt surprised to have received no records from the goodwill of the Biden administration, despite the legal obligation to do so.

So, we sued them, he said.

More than a year later, Hamilton said that we finally have some of the very first records that establish precisely what Jen Psaki was talking about at the White House podium. He described the records received thus far to be incredibly illuminating because they actually show what the White House said was happening. Prior to this, no one had direct evidence of the collaboration, he said.

For example, Facebook provided the CDC with $15 million dollars worth of ad credits to be used to support the agencys COVID-19 messaging on the social media platform. According to AFL, the non-monetary gift could be in violation of the Antideficiency Acts limitation on voluntary services (31 U.S.C. Section 1342).

AFL suspects many, many more records to come, according to Hamilton.

And as time goes on, we are anticipating massive implications for the federal government and for the social media companies, he said.

1st Amendment Concerns

According to Hamilton, there are many examples in the 286-page production of the CDC flagging explicit posts on Twitter and Facebook that they viewed as being misinformation.

There are also examples of the federal government engaging in regular BOLO [Be on the Lookout] calls where they would coordinate, collaborate, and talk about things that they deemed as misinformation, he said.

Following a May 28 BOLO meeting, an email from CDC Digital Media Branch Chief Carol Crawford requested that those in attendance of the meeting please do not share outside your trust and safety teams.

The documents also show that the CDC was working with the Census Bureau in this effort, Hamilton noted. The CDC was collaborating with the bureau to leverage their infrastructure to identify and monitor social media for vaccine misinformation, according to one email.

Hamilton said that its absolutely shocking that federal government agencies engaged in this kind of conduct.

We have a First Amendment for a reasonthe federal government cannot get around requirements of the First Amendment by merely directing a private entity to violate it, he said.

Warning to the Republic

Hamilton issued a warning to the U.S. public: We are at a point in our society where we have evidence of the federal government dictating what is truth and what is not truth to private companies.

The Biden administration fully expected the private companies involved to enforce the governments standard of truth upon the American society, he said.

And this is a level of power thats inconsistent with the Constitution and our founders vision for the limited role of the federal government in the United States, Hamilton said. Not only is it appalling, but its anti-American.

The general counsel said, The average American sitting at home needs to understand that this is just one example of this happening.

Hamilton said it has been made clear that the governments ability to deem what constitutes misinformation and disinformation is a substantial threat to the American people. And as a result, Americans should have every reason to suspect that this is occurring in other areas, too.

The federal government and these social media companies are acting complicit with one another in determining what is and is not truth; its the kind of thing that you would see in a totalitarian society.

CDC and White House officials didnt respond to requests for comment by press time.
A CM-11 Brave Tiger tank fires during the live fire Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) invading the island, in Pingtung, Taiwan, on May 30, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

China Conducts Live-Fire Exercises Ahead of Pelosis Potential Taiwan Visit

China conducted live-fire exercises off its coast opposite Taiwan on July 30 after warning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) not to visit the self-governed island that the communist regime sees as its territory.

The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) held the military drills in the waters off Pingtan Island, in the narrowest parts of the Strait less than 80 miles from mainland Taiwan.

Pelosi confirmed on July 31 she will visit four Asian countries this week, but made no mention of a possible stop in Taiwan that has fueled tension with the regime in Beijing.

Coordinates for Chinas planned military exercise near the Taiwan Strait on July 30, 2022. Coordinates approximate locations are marked by green flags and include: 252527N 1194815E, 252155N 1194435E, 251445N 1194817E, 252210N 1195327E (Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

The exercises are the latest in a series of escalating military actions aimed at intimidating the democratic island, which has frequently seen Chinese aircraft incursions in its air defense identification zone for nearly two years.

Pelosi would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997.

The speakers office declined to comment on Pelosis travel itinerary because of security considerations.

Threats

After reports of Pelosis potential stop in Taiwan emerged, the Chinese regime threatened forceful measures against the United States and Taiwan. Following those threats, President Joe Biden publicly said that Pelosis trip was a bad idea and that the military was against it.

Pelosi subsequently said that she hadnt spoken to Biden about the trip but that the military may have been concerned that China might try to shoot down her plane.

Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the communist regimes mouthpiece media, the Global Times, stated on July 29 that the Chinese military has the right to deploy tactical obstructions and fire warning shots at Pelosis plane if its accompanied by U.S. fighter jets, should the House speaker visit.

If ineffective, then shoot them down, Hu said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued a veiled threat to Biden during a phone call last week, warning that the United States is playing with fire on the Taiwan issue.

US Reactions

U.S. lawmakers have been rallying behind Pelosi over her possible visit.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NBC News on July 27 that he and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) were both invited by the speakers office to take part in her trip.

Any member that wants to go, should. It shows political deterrence to President Xi, McCaul told the news outlet. But she should also pay attention to the military if its going to cause a blowback and escalate things.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told NBC, Nobody should not go someplace because the Chinese governmentwhich is guilty of genocideis speaking in threatening terms.

The United States doesnt have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a robust informal relationship with the island under the Taiwan Relations Act, which provides it with weapons necessary for its self-defense. Washington also maintains a doctrine of strategic ambiguity, in which it will neither confirm nor deny whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinas leader Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Military Response?

Chieh Chung, a military expert and a research fellow at Taiwans Association of Strategic Foresight, told The Epoch Times on July 25 that he doesnt believe the Chinese regime would take military action against Pelosi should she visit.

Once [Chinas air force] warplanes approach our airspace, [Taiwans] air force will take action immediately. We even will fire missiles to stop the warplanes. This will cause a military conflict, Chieh said. I dont think mainland China will do this.

Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen waves to the media aboard the PFG-1112 Ming Chuan, a Perry-class guided missile frigate, after a commissioning ceremony at Kaohsiungs Zuoying naval base in Taiwan on Nov. 8, 2018. (Reuters/ Tyrone Siu)

Military analysts have also speculated about whether China would invade Taiwan this year.

Russias invasion of Ukraine likely put the West on high alerta fact that should deter the CCP from invading, Eric Chan, a senior strategist at the U.S. Air Force, said during a March panel hosted by the Global Taiwan Institute.

[The CCP knows] the U.S. and Europe [are] now certainly more on edge, and they are going to be watching for things like a repeat of 2014, Chan said at the virtual event, referring to Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Therefore, the CCP is unlikely to perceive an invasion of Taiwanor what he foresaw in 2021 as a limited invasion of Kinmen, a cluster of Taiwanese islands close to Chinas southeast coastas viable now, he added.

China is unlikely to invade Taiwan in the fall of 2022, according to a March 24 legislative briefing by Taiwans National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chen Ming-tong. He cited several reasons for his assessment, including the upcoming 20th Congress, the Ukraine war, Chinas COVID-19 resurgence, and Chinas economic challenges.

The CCP has never ruled out taking over Taiwan by force, but its the political timing thats in question, Chen said, adding that there are no concerns that China would invade within President Tsai Ing-wens term of office.

Nonetheless, the director warned that Beijing is thinking more about the legitimacy of launching a war, and how it should prepare to launch a war.

Therefore, if Beijing makes a move, the move will be comprehensive, Chen said.

Nicole Hao and Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.
Last week I was up very early, almost at sunrise. There is a large lilac bush just outside our kitchen window. As the first rays of the sun hit it, I noticed a large grayish leaf. Then the leaf moved  it was a sparrow who then hopped down to the feeding tray, pecked at a couple of seeds and hopped back up to nuzzle and ruffle the feathers of a sleeping partner. It then hopped down to the feeding tray again, brought back a seed and fed the awakening bird. What a glorious way to start the day! We have two feeding stations and a suet dispenser in this bush, so it has much activity throughout the day, but what a holy moment to share this avian breakfast-in-bed occasion.

I have written often of the importance of grandparents in my life. I was blest. Unusually, I had six great-grandparents when I was born. My mothers maternal grandparents, Chauncy and Minnie (Lang) Calkins, lived downstairs from us at 56 Owego St. in Cortland. My mothers paternal grandparents also lived in Cortland, a few blocks away. George Johann Vormwald died when I was just shy of a year old. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, and immigrated when he was 13 years old. The family lived in Trenton, New Jersey, for many years, and moved to Cortland when my grandfather Andrew John Vormwald was about 13.

My fathers paternal grandparents lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Nanny (Henrietta Mallagh Pilgrim) sent me a blanket when I was born. She was born in Ireland, moved to England and immigrated to Canada as a young girl. She married the widowed Thomas Minden Pilgrim, and my grandfather William Charles Pilgrim was their son. Thomas died in January 1946 and Henrietta in 1955. My fathers maternal grandmother, Margaret McLeod Halcrow, lived in The Pas, Manitoba, Canada  she had dozens of grandchildren and many more great-grandchildren. Through her, I proudly have several drops of Cree heritage. She also died when I was not quite 1 year old.

I may have met George Vormwald, I'm very sure I did not meet Thomas Pilgrim, and I did not meet Margaret Halcrow. I'm almost positive I met Henrietta Pilgrim in Canada, although I cannot find any photos of such. I have very clear memories of Chauncy and Minnie Calkins. (The photo with this column shows Chauncy and Minnie and I in the backyard of 56 Owego St. In the background is Owego Street School  we lived right next door.) Chauncy became disabled around 1947 and was bedridden for most of the rest of his life. As a 3-year-old, I would come downstairs every morning and have a bowl of oatmeal while sitting in the middle of his bed. My great-grandmother would make old-fashioned oatmeal, soaking the oats overnight and cooking them up in the morning  that is one of the smells that can take me back to those happy days. Both Grandpa Calkins and I loved brown sugar, and we were allowed to have lots of it as we ate our cereal!

Occasionally, Grandpa would come out to the sitting room and sat in the big chair with a blanket over his lap. My grandma, when coaxed, would often play the piano  "O Them Golden Slippers" and "Money Musk" were two of our favorites. I would dance around and Grandpa would give one of his rare smiles. I remember vividly the day he died. I stood with my grandmother as they carried him out of the front door  she was gently weeping and wearing her apron. When our family moved to Port Byron in 1950 she came with us and lived with us for most of the rest of her life. She taught me to knit (mostly garter stitch and always cast on for me) and play solitaire, and shared stories of growing up. She loved her radio programs, "Stella Dallas" and "One Life to Live," but shared her radio so we could listen to our top 40 when we came home from school. One of her favorite treats was scalloped oysters, which my mom would lovingly prepare. What a gift to have a great-grandmother close by! I did appreciate but could have listened more, could have asked more questions.

I am writing a book about my paternal grandmother, Lillian Viola Halcrow Pilgrim. She was a guide, friend, mentor and loving presence. She was a strong woman, a loving wife, a supportive mother and a doting grandmother. It was an honor to know her. I celebrate all the grands in my life, but am starting with the story of Kukum  the Cree word for grandmother.

Enjoy summer, dear friends. Blow bubbles. Run in the sprinkler. Dive. Boat. Swim. Lay in your hammock and, most of all, participate in the every weekend activities in our towns and villages!
Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates (LR) Pierre Poilievre, Patrick Brown, Scott Aitchison, Leslyn Lewis, Jean Charest, and Roman Baber take part in the party's French-language leadership debate in Laval, Quebec, on May 25, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

Conservative Party Sees Explosive Growth in Membership Ahead of Leadership Vote

The Conservative Party of Canada is reporting 678,708 members ahead of the Sept. 10 party leadership vote, a 300 percent increase compared to the 169,705 figure at year-end last year.

The party has the highest representation in Ontario, with 295,815 members, marking a 283 percent increase compared to last year.

But the biggest rate of increase was in Quebec, where party membership has ballooned from 7,648 by the end of 2021 to 58,437 this year, a 664 percent increase. The province has similarly seen increased support for the nascent Conservative Party of Quebec.

Almost 680,000 members strong at @CPC_HQ! Incredible and historic! Theres a shift happening in Canada, Interim Conservative Party Leader Candice Bergen said in a Twitter post on July 29.

Rob Batherson, president of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), noted on Twitter: Never before in Canadian history have more Canadians been members of any political party than [CPC].

Almost 680,000 members strong at @CPC_HQ! Incredible and historic! Theres a shift happening in Canada. Canadians are fed up with the divisiveness of Trudeau. Theres a sense of hope and optimism in our great party. Congratulations to all the campaigns for what you have done! pic.twitter.com/2XF4z2pAld  Candice Bergen (@CandiceBergenMP) July 29, 2022

After Ontario, Alberta has the highest number of CPC members, with 131,860 members, a 272 percent increase compared to last year. Third spot goes to BC, with 99,963 members, an increase of 321 percent compared to last year.

The confirmed party members will be able to cast their ballots in the CPCs upcoming leadership vote on Sept. 10. Party members will be sending in their ballots by mail and ranking candidates by preference.

As candidates drop off the ballot, their second-choices are redistributed to remaining candidates until one candidate surpasses 50% + 1 points. Points are allocated according to electoral district, with each electoral district representing 100 points. Points from each riding represent the proportional support for candidates in that electoral district at each tabulation, the CPC said in a statement on July 29.

The Conservative Party of Canada has released the final voters list to leadership campaigns, with 678,708 eligible party members who will be selecting the next party leader. This makes the Conservative Party the largest party in Canadian history by membership. pic.twitter.com/N8DDvWR9Gc  Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) July 29, 2022

CPC has organized a third official leadership debate on Aug. 3 after holding an English debate in Edmonton on May 11 and a French debate in Laval, Quebec, on May 25.

Conservative MPs and leadership candidates Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis have both said they wont be taking part in the third debate.

Poilievres team said hes too busy campaigning while criticizing the earlier English debates choice of moderator and format, saying it has been widely recognized as an embarrassment.

Lewis wrote to the Tory leadership committee saying the debates have been focused on usual questions like carbon taxes and budgets instead of addressing issues she hears about from party members every day, such as concerns about the World Economic Forum and WHO Pandemic Treaty and calls for an inquiry into the pandemic response.

The third debate will be held in Ottawa with Conservative MP Scott Aitchison, former Ontario Independent MPP Roman Baber, and former Quebec premier Jean Charest.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who had also ran as a candidate, was disqualified from the race over serious allegations of wrongdoing relating to campaign financing, a charge he denies.
Eric Greitens, Vicky Hartzler Speak With The Epoch Times as Missouri Senate Primary Approaches

Two of the top three contenders for the Republican nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in the Aug. 2 Missouri primary, former Gov. Eric Greitens and Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), discussed their records in interviews with The Epoch Times as Republican voters decide who will have their support.

Another leading candidate, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, didnt speak to The Epoch Times by press time.

Greitens: Im the MAGA Candidate

In a July 22 interview with The Epoch Times, Greitens explained why he thinks Missouri voters should choose him.

Im the MAGA candidate in this racethe America First candidate in this race, the former Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar said.

Greitens served as governor of Missouri before resigning in 2018.

While many Republican candidates seek the mantle of MAGA, he has a particularly strong case.

His team includes Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former adviser to President Donald Trump and fiancee of Donald Trump Jr. In April, Greitenss campaign released footage of Trump Jr. and Greitens shooting targets together.

His backers also include Rudy Giuliani, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Sebastian Gorka, Steve Cortes, Dennis Prager, and Ryan Zinke.

So far, however, Trump hasnt formally endorsed Greitens or any other candidate in the race, although he did announce on July 11 that he doesnt back Hartzler.

As weve said from the beginning, all the conversations that our team has with President Trump and his team, we obviously keep confidential, because this is a decision for President Trump and his team to make in the time and manner that he choosesbut were honored to have so much support from President Trumps true fighters, Greitens said in answer to a question about a prospective Trump endorsement.

Greitenss campaign has been plagued by accusations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, former First Lady of Missouri Sheena Chestnut Greitens, as well as other scandals. In a March affidavit, she said Greitens abused her and their children in 2018.

She divorced him in 2020, after the allegations of sexual and ethical misconduct led him to resign as governor in 2018.

Greitenss hairdresser and mistress, Katrina Sneed, testified to a Missouri House of Representatives committee that he assaulted her during sexual encounters and took a compromising photograph of her that he threatened to use as blackmail.

Greitens never testified before that committee, although he did tell the Associated Press that the relationship was consensual, nonviolent, and didnt involve any photographs taken as blackmail.

In 2018, according to footage released by The Gateway Pundit in 2022, Sneed admitted that she hadnt seen the photograph that Greitens was accused of taking. She also said she might have recollected some details through a dream.

Former FBI agent William Tisaby, who investigated Greitens on behalf of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of evidence tampering related to the case. The Missouri Office of Disciplinary Counsel reprimanded Gardner in May 2022 for her conduct during the Greitens investigation.

The former governor and his ex-wife both testified in a closed child custody hearing on July 20.

The judge has asked us not to comment on the deposition, Greitens told The Epoch Times. Whats very clear is that this was a false allegation.

A 2020 affidavit from Sheena Greitens regarding child custody recommended joint custody. It doesnt mention any physical abuse.

A top Republican Party donor reportedly told Breitbart News that political operative Karl Rove knew about Sheena Greitenss affidavit before it was filed.

Im the only candidate who represents a threat to the political establishment. Thats why theyre lying about me, Greitens said.

Other controversies emphasized by the mainstream media include an advertisement depicting Greitens hunting RINOSthat is, Republicans in Name Onlyby bursting through a door, firearm in hand.

He was unapologetic in his interview with The Epoch Times.

We love the ad. The people of Missouri love the ad. Also, the people of Missouri understood the metaphor, Greitens said. The only people who have attacked us over the ad are RINOs and leftists.

The former governors campaign was also ultimately fined $178,000 by the Missouri Ethics Commission over accusations of breaking campaign finance law, although Greitens was found not guilty of wrongdoing as an individual.

Like many in solidly red but formerly purple Missouri, the former governor used to be a Democrat.

Greitens described his conversion in a 2015 opinion article for Fox, while he was already considering a run for governor of Missouri.

I had concluded that liberals arent just wrong. All too often, they are world-class hypocrites. They talk a great game about helping the most vulnerable, with ideas that feel good and fashionable. The problem is their ideas dont work and often hurt the exact people they claim to help, he wrote at the time.

Greitens told The Epoch Times that his top priorities include a return to energy independence, funding for the border wall, and renewed support for law enforcement in the wake of the defund the police movement.

Last but not least, he would advocate a Peace through strength foreign policy, which puts an end to endless wars and stands up for the United States of America.

Hartzler: Missourians Not Going to Listen to Out-of-Staters

In a July 20 interview with The Epoch Times, Hartzler addressed Trumps definitive non-endorsement of her.

We have a good working relationship, and I appreciate his America First policies, she said. I think he just listened to some of my opponents, which is unfortunate, but I look forward to continuing to work with him to get America back on the right track.

While Greitens enjoys support from Trump insiders, if not Trump, Hartzler may have a regional advantage.

The self-described farm girl from Archie has been endorsed by Missouris junior senator, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), as well as Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.)

Earlier this year, the two Missourians, Hawley and Hartzler, penned a joint op-ed advocating a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. Hartzler says her track record earned her Hawleys support.

I have the broadest level of understanding of policy because Ive been thereIve been in the trenches fighting to reduce our taxes and to secure the border and to rebuild our military and to support agriculture, she said.

Like Hawley, Hartzler has positioned herself as a hawk when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She stresses that she was one of the U.S. lawmakers who China sanctioned in July 2020, alongside other members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

She has argued that her rivals are weak on the threat posed by the CCP.

We know that China is our No. 1 adversary, and Im the one with the track record of being tough on them. That is needed at this very serious time in our national security, Hartzler said.

Money and Votes

Hartzler and her opponents have often been close in polling, although some recent surveys have shown Schmitt pulling ahead of Greitens.

That change, if genuine, may be the result of more spending entering the race.

Greitens has been met with more than $8 million in opposition outside spending, according to Open Secrets.

Much of that comes from the Show Me Values SuperPAC, which has received donations from Nebraskas Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, Rex Sinquefield, and August A. Busch III, who is the half-brother of Democratic primary candidate Trudy Busch Valentine.

Pro-Greitens spending has come from Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, Uline founder Richard Uihlein, and Jimmy Johns founder James Liautaud.

Uihleins Team PAC has opposed both Schmitt and Hartzler.

Hartzler has also garnered large donations but significantly less outside spending than her two chief opponents.

She told The Epoch Times that she thinks Missourians are not going to listen to these out-of-state billionaires who are trying to buy our election.

Hartzler said she sees the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision that overturned the federal sanctioning of abortion as a victory for life.

Every child has a God-given purpose, and Im thrilled that more lives will be saved and will be enabled to live out their God-given purpose.

Gay marriage has reentered the media spotlight thanks in part to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomass concurrence in Dobbs. He questioned the Obergefell precedent that legalized gay marriage nationwide.

Hartzler didnt join 157 other Republicans in Congress to vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, which would have codified same-sex marriage and repealed the Defense of Marriage Act. More specifically, she didnt vote on the legislation at all.

I believe in the natural marriage, that every child deserves a mom and a dad, and that marriage is between the man and a woman. Thats what Missouri supported and voted for, worth over 71 percent, she said, alluding to the percentage of voters who supported a ban on same-sex marriages in a 2004 referendum.

Although Hartzler and Greitens are still at odds this election season, they share a similar perspective on why Missouri has trended Republican in recent years.

Most of the Democrats that support me that I talked to say that they didnt change partiesthe party left them. I think a lot of that has to do with the gun issue and with life, Hartzler said.

Other contenders in the race, which kicked off in 2021 after incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) announced that he wouldnt seek reelection, include lawyer Mark McCloskey.

McCloskey ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for brandishing a firearm at demonstrators outside his house during the George Floyd protests and riots of June 2020.
A sign for BlackRock on its building in New York on July 16, 2018. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Ethan Peck on Managerial Class Behind Woke Takeover of Corporate America

In April 2021, large corporations such as Coca-Cola, Delta Airline, and Home Depot rallied against Georgias election reform, parroting a leftist narrative that the measure was racist. It was seen by many as a manifestation of the woke takeover of corporate America, in which a companys capital is diverted to left-wing causes that shareholders never intended to support.

The driving forces behind this trend, however, were not left-wing activists, but powerful mega-funds seeking to entrench their regime under the guise of wokeness, according to Ethan Peck, an associate at the National Centers Free Enterprise Project.

I think its a scam, said Peck in a recent interview with NTD.

Peck, a free enterprise advocate who constantly engages corporate CEOs and board members at shareholder meetings, said many board members dont genuinely believe in woke ideology, but use it as a tool to advance so-called stakeholder capitalism.

Stakeholder capitalism, as opposed to traditional shareholder capitalism, holds that a company is responsible for the collective interest of every member of society, rather than those who own the companys shares. The concept, first introduced by World Economic Forums Claus Schwab in 1979, has since remained a fringe concept until recently, in the wake of the global CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Peck compared stakeholder capitalism to communism, where the state controls and redistributes resources in the name of a greater good. Its kind of the corporate version of communism, he explained, adding that its a trick. It just empowers the boards to basically take voting powers and rights from the shareholders.

The Big Influence

When asked about the force pushing American corporate boardrooms to embrace stakeholder capitalism, Peck pointed to the worlds largest money managers: exchange-traded fund (ETF) giants BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors.

I think that the big influences are coming from big ETF managers. Theyre the ones that basically have the voting power to put board members onto boards, Peck said.

According to a 2019 analysis by researchers at Boston University, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street cast about a quarter of votes at the shareholder meetings of S&P 500 companies, and could control 40 percent of those votes within 20 years. This means all major corporate matters, including shareholder resolutions and board member elections, depend on how the Big Three vote.

[The Big Three] are voting on behalf of their clients who invest in them, Peck said. Theyre not really the shareholders, but theyre the ones that dominate the election so much that the board members are essentially just minions.

According to Peck, the Free Enterprise Project, which has attended 58 shareholder meetings so far this year, didnt see any Big Three-favored board member receiving below 90 percent of the vote. So you know these elections are charades, he said.

As a result of what Peck called an overthrow of the boards of every corporation in America, a managerial class has emerged. It doesnt represent the interests of the shareholders, but has no trouble using shareholders money to advocate against voter ID requirements, support radical sex and gender ideologies in K-3 classrooms, and lobby to water down sanctions on Chinese goods made with slave labor.

An Incestuous Network

The managerial class enhances its power through a network of professional board members who sit on multiple corporate boards, according to Peck. He called such practice incestuous.

The CEO of Coca-Cola is on the board of Pfizer. The CEO of BlackRock is on the board of the World Economic Forum. Its very incestuous, he said.

To illustrate how it works, Peck pointed to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was adopted by Congress in December 2021 with overwhelming bipartisan support. In a bizarre move, Coca-Cola lobbied against the measure on behalf of Apple and Nike, which were facing allegations of using forced labor in Chinas Xinjiang region.

Coca-Cola was hiring these lobbyists, but they dont even use any Uyghur forced labor, Peck said. What was Coca-Colas interest? Why were they defending Apple and Nike, even when there was bipartisan support for the Act? Because you have the board members support each other.

Then theres this revolving door between the boards and the bureaucracies, he added. They go to the boards, and then they come back to government, and then go to the boards, and then go between companies. So you have this managerial class of this giant board. Its basically just like one big board over all of America.

Peck said this could explain the consistency among woke companies. In other words, the companies react to social and political issues the same way at the same time because Big Three proxies dictate their boardrooms.

Corporate Board vs School Board

While the managerial class remains powerful, Peck said he sees hope in the parental rights movement in Virginia, in which parents are calling out at local school board meetings attempts to inject critical race theory into schools, on the basis that they as taxpayers deserve more say in what should be taught to their children.

It might not be today or tomorrow, but Im hopeful that shareholders will wake up just like the taxpaying parent and do the same thing at the corporate level, Peck told NTD.

I think its time we own up to it. I think its time that shareholders show up to shareholder meetings and say, Hey, you cant do this with our money!'
Peter Meijer introduces then-vice president Mike Pence at a campaign event at Lacks Enterprises, in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 14, 2020. (Jeff KowalskiY/AFP via Getty Images)

Incumbent Who Voted to Impeach Trump Facing Tough Michigan Primary

One of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, Rep. Peter Meijer is fighting to remain in Congress beyond his freshman term.

Meijer, whose surname is familiar because of his familys national supercenter chain that is based in Michigan, will face John Gibbs in the states 3rd Congressional District primary on August 2.

Endorsed by Trump, Gibbs was a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official during the Trump administration. He was appointed by Trump to lead the Office of Personnel Management but was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

That alone would make it a compelling race. The added element of redistricting elevates this to one of the most closely watched elections nationwide as Republicans strive to regain control of the U.S. House and Democrats try to flip the seat.

John Gibbs (R) is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Peter Meijer in Michigans 3rd Congressional District Republican primary on August 2. (Courtesy of John Gibbs for MI-3)

Meijer or Gibbs will meet Democrat Hillary Scholten in Novembers general election in a newly drawn 3rd District that once favored Republicans but is now friendlier to Democrats.

Michigans political districts saw little change for several decades when they were handled by state legislators.

In 2018, a constitutional amendment transferred authority to the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, which includes four Republicans, four Democrats, and five individuals not affiliated with a major party.

The district has not seen a Democratic congressional member since 1993, but with the new map, organizations like the Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, and Sabatos Crystal Ball rate the general election as a toss-up.

Meijer defeated Scholten by six percentage points in 2020.

Gibbs grew up in the Lansing area, but he did not live in west Michigan until last year.

He earned a bachelors degree in computer science from Stanford University and a masters degree in public administration from Harvard University, served as a missionary in Japan, and worked in Silicon Valley as a software engineer before his role with the housing department.

First elected in 2020, Meijer is a Columbia University graduate and the son of Meijer executive chairman Hank Meijer. He served in the Army Reserves from 2008 to 2016, including a one-year deployment to Iraq.

Gibbs and Meijer applaud the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and they support gun ownership rights and do not approve of Bidens policies, but they drastically differ about Trump and the 2020 presidential election.

Three days after Meijer was sworn into the 117th Congress as a freshman legislator, he cast his vote to impeach Trump after the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021

It was a vote of conscience, Meijer said.

Ill be honest, this is something I agonized over, Meijer told NPR about the decision. You know, I read the articles and they were appropriate. They were what we experienced and what happened. I had to vote yes and support that impeachment.

Gibbs, who has called for a complete forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election, says that Meijers vote to impeach Trump is a big issue. It is the elephant in the room that looms large over everything else.

Im sure hes a very good person, but I think politically when he made that decision, he had to accept the consequences that came with it. And I think this is one of those consequences of voters in his district, are very, very upset about it, Gibbs told Fox 17 West Michigan.

Meijer remains adamant that he made the right decision, and he also believes that President Joe Biden was duly elected.

Rep. Tom Rice (R  S.C.) also voted to impeach Trump, and he remained outspoken against the former president leading to South Carolinas Republican primary in May when he was trounced by challenger Russell Fry by almost 27 percentage points.

For months, Meijer embraced his role as a Trump antagonist through media interviews and social media posts, but he has mostly remained quiet about the impeachment decision in recent weeks.

Meijers predecessor in the House was Justin Amash, who served as a Republican for eight years before becoming an independent and eventually switching to the Libertarian party in his fifth and final term. Amash cited the GOPs allegiance to Trump as the reason he made the decision. He was the first GOP lawmaker to call for Trumps impeachment in 2019, and he voted to impeach the president that year.

Initially, Meijer ran against Amash before Amash announced in July 2020 that he would retire and not seek another term.

When he was nominated by Trump to direct the Office of Personnel Management in 2020, Gibbs was confronted with tweets he posted when he was a political commentator, including a 2016 tweet when he called the Democratic party Islam, gender-bending, anti-police, u racist!

During his confirmation hearing, Gibbs said the comments were in his past and that he is the grandson of black sharecroppers and does not tolerate racism.

Meijer is funded by organizations like the Super PAC called Principled Leadership for Michigan, which has provided $757,000 to his campaign, according to disclosures.

Meijer has also received $10,000 each from Majority Committee PAC, which is led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy; and the leadership PACs of Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Kinzinger; and $5,000 from the leadership PAC of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming).

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has waded into the 3rd District primary by placing a $425,000 ad buy in the Grand Rapids media market reminding voters of Gibbs ties to Trump.

Hand-picked by Trump to run for Congress, Gibbs called Trump the greatest president and worked in Trumps administration with [former HUD secretary] Ben Carson, the ad says.

Gibbs has promised to push that same conservative agenda in Congressa hard line against immigrants at the borderand so-called patriotic education in our schools.

Meijer has raised 10 times more money than Gibbs, and he has spent $2.1 million on the campaign compared to Gibbs $340,000 as of mid-July.

At first glance, the spot appears to attack Gibbs, but it also provides airtime for a campaign that has not had the money to elevate its name recognition on television.

The DCCC boosting John Gibbs is clear evidence of who [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi prefers in this race, Meijer Spokesperson Emily Taylor said in a statement. We are confident that voters will see through Democrats political games while Peter remains focused on the issues that matter most to the people he represents.

Gibbs believes that his background and his grassroots following will propel him to victory on Aug. 2.

Money does matteryes, Gibbs told an audience during a campaign stop at a Baptist church earlier this month.

You need enough money to get your name out there and pay your staff. But it doesnt quite mean what it used to. People are getting sick of money being able to buy elections.

Polling on the race has been minimal so far. A February survey conducted by Impact Research showed that Gibbs had 37 percent support compared to 19 percent for Meijer while 38 percent were undecided. At the time, other contenders were in the field and gained 6 percent.

On June 1, Scholtens campaign released a Public Policy Polling survey placing Scholten at 39 percent and Meijer at 37 percent in a head-to-head matchup in November.

The report indicated that Scholten had a 44 percent to 35 percent advantage over Gibbs.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photograph of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Justice Clarence Thomas Wont Teach at George Washington University This Fall

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will not be teaching this fall at George Washington Universitys law school.

According to the university, Thomas was going to teach constitutional law seminar aimed at helping students get a more complete story of famous Supreme Court cases by exploring additional facts about the social and political context surrounding the courts decisions. The course has been co-taught since 2011 with Greg Maggs, a professor who clerked for Thomas and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

In a message obtained by student newspaper The GW Hatchet, Maggs reportedly told the class that Thomas would be unavailable to teach in the upcoming fall semester.

Unfortunately, I am writing with some sad news: Justice Thomas has informed me that he is unavailable to co-teach the seminar this fall, the professor reportedly wrote. I know that this is disappointing. I am very sorry.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, GW spokesperson Josh Grossman confirmed that Thomas informed the law school that he wont be teaching this fall, but didnt provide any further details on the decision, such as who made the decision, or whether the justice would return to teaching in future semesters.

The U.S. Supreme Court didnt respond to a request for comment. Maggs couldnt be immediately reached for comment.

A Strong Conservative Voice

Meanwhile, the GW Laws list of instructors no longer includes Thomas. Law school administrators previously resisted the call to remove the justice from the teaching position because of his opinion on abortion.

On June 24, Thomas joined in a 6-3 conservative majority to overrule the Supreme Courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion at a national level. The new decision doesnt outlaw abortion, but instead hands the question of abortion access back to individual states.

In his concurring opinion, Thomas suggested that the high court should reconsider cases that were decided by the same logic that Roe was originally decided, including Lawrence v. Texas of 2003, which decriminalized consensual gay sex; and Obergefell v. Hodges of 2015, which established a constitutional right to gay marriage.

The mere suggestion that the high court should revisit these decisions motivated progressive students at GW to circulate an online petition calling for Thomass removal from the law faculty.

With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable, read the petition.

Make your voice heard and help us kick Clarence Thomas out of Foggy Bottom, the petition reads. The effort has garnered over 11,000 supporting signatures, still short of its 15,000 goal.

While the departure of Thomas certainly satisfies the progressive-minded students, the GW chapter of College Republicans said they were extremely disappointed and worried by the loss of a prominent conservative voice on campus.

The university has lost a key figure who provides an invaluable contribution to the wide ideological spectrum that the university strives to promote, the GW Republicans said, adding that they believe Thomas made this decision based on his availability.

The uproar from the student body regarding his presence as faculty and the incessant hostility shown towards conservative students and beliefs on campus in general is great cause for alarm and must be addressed by the university. We hope that the university will continue to pursue its mission of academic freedom and ideological diversity with even more fervor in the future.
Maribel Duarte (left) is suing the Los Angeles Unified School District. She held a press conference on July 27 with her attorney Nicole Pearson (right). Duarte complained that her son was bribed by the school to take COVID-19 vaccination without her consent, and is now suffering side effects. (NTD TV)

LA School District Faces Lawsuit After Son Bribed Into Getting COVID-19 Vaccination: Mother

LOS ANGELES, Calif.Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest school district in the United States, is facing a lawsuit from a family. A mother says her 13-year-old son was bribed to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at school without her consent.

Maribel Duarte, who is suing the Los Angeles Unified School District, held a press conference on July 27 with her attorney to complain about the side effects her son is currently suffering from the vaccine.

This is painful for me, because my sons health  its not good, Duarte said. Hes lacking the rest. He doesnt sleep well. He doesnt exercise the way he did. Hes not normal to me.

Duarte added that her son has had bleeding disorders and asthma since he was a child, so doctors recommended against him receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. She said her sons condition worsened after getting a vaccine, with breathing difficulties and other symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

All of this happened without the schools initial consent, according to Duarte.

California state law prohibits minors between the ages of 12 and 17 from receiving vaccinations other than those required by law without the consent of a parent or guardian.

The 13-year-old boy attends Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy, which is under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Bribed With Pizza

Duarte said someone bribed her son with pizza to get a vaccine at a school vaccination event and had her son forge her signature to sign the consent form.

He came home, and I remember asking him, how was your day? He said, Mom, I got a shot today, COVID shot. And I was like, What do you mean? He said, Yeah. They offered me pizza, Duarte recollected.

And they also had him sign a consent in front of them, which one of the ladies told him to sign my name and sign his name.

Nicole Pearson, Duartes attorney, said at the press conference: This is not a conspiracy theory. This is not an anti-vax case.

Parental Rights

This is about parental rights, having the ability to protect your children and to make the best decisions for your children based on information only you as a parent know.

Pearson said she has spoken with the Los Angeles Unified School District and Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy on behalf of her client but has not received any response.

When you dont respond, we are allowed to interpret that under the law under the government code section as a rejection of our claim, she said.

Now we are preparing our lawsuit. Well be filing it next week because these injuries and these damages need to be redressed.

Pearson also said they will continue to investigate the matter and update the details of the complaint and the allegations against the School District, which may include: absence of consent, violation of informed consent, treatment contrary to patients will, fraud, misrepresentation, negligence, negligent hiring and supervision, intentional infliction of emotional distress, coercion, violation of the California constitution, violation of the prohibitions of human experimentation, child endangerment, child abuse, and any other causes of action that are reasonable and reasonably inferable.

The Los Angeles Unified School District declined to comment on the matter.

Los Angeles Unified does not typically comment on threatened, pending, or on-going litigation matters, the spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
Dark storm clouds were brewing in downtown Las Vegas the night of July 29, 2022, a day after powerful monsoon rains flooded the iconic downtown Strip. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Las Vegas Strip Flooded as Powerful Storm Rips Across Southern Nevada

LAS VEGASA powerful thunderstorm swept drought-stricken Clark County in southeastern Nevada on July 28, flooding the streets of downtown Las Vegas and leaving thousands across the city without power.

It was unreal, said Kim B., who lives in a single-family home on Sixth Street about three miles from the famous hotel and casino district along the Vegas Strip.

My roof is flat[the rain] was coming off like a waterfall.

The floodwaters nearly made it to her front door, she added.

Unlike her experiences with torrential rains during monsoon season, This time, it made it to my garage.

On July 29, another powerful storm blew across the region, darkening the skies above iconic Caesars Palace in downtown Las Vegas, one of three large casinos affected by the previous nights deluge.

Vickie Kelesis, owner of Vickies Diner in Las Vegas, said her location didnt experience major flooding during a powerful storm on July 28, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Thank God, we didnt have a problem [with flooding], Vickie Kelesis, owner of Vickies Diner in Las Vegas, told The Epoch Times.

It was a hard rain, but we had no problems here.

Even so, the storm seemed to be on her customers minds during the breakfast rush on July 30the terrifying thunder and lightning, and rain that came down in sheetsamid the constant weather alerts.

I wasnt nervous, and I didnt lose power, but it was something, a waitress, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times.

Seated at the counter, Byron Burgess of Las Vegas said he was out of town on July 28 and was catching up on the news of the storm on his cell phone.

It does happen here in Vegas. It flash-floods all the time, Burgess said.

A tarp was set up in the shopping mall near Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino suffered flooding on July 28, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

When it does happen, it goes crazy. Then all of a sudden, its over. Its the monsoon season.

Video posts on social media showed flooding inside three major casinos and parking garages on the Strip. At the same time, water cascaded from a ceiling at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino.

Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino was flooded after a hole opened in the iconic casinos roof during a torrential rainstorm on July 28, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Ive been here 24 years, and Thursdays storm is probably in the top five, said an employee, who didnt want his name used.

Local media reported that the storm knocked out power to more than 7,000 homes due to the rain and wind gusts as high as 71 miles per hour.

Las Vegas Fire and Rescue responded to 330 calls for service, many related to the storm, and rescued seven residents from swift floodwaters, the agency said in a statement. First-responders also tended to a house fire, 22 vehicle crashes, and 15 outside fires before the storm finally ended.

Officials said no injuries or widespread damage was reported.

More Rain Predicted

The National Weather Service in Las Vegas is predicting more rain.

According to the Clark County Regional Flood Control District (CCRFCD), flash floods are common even in parched southern Nevada.

Yes, its a desert out there. Sure, it hardly rains. But when it does, it pours. July through September, the summer monsoon months, expect sudden downpours and rapid flash flooding, the organization said on its website.

While most rainstorms only last a couple of hours, its a good idea to stay inside if its rainingespecially when its flooding, the agency added.

The CCRFCD recommended avoiding driving during thunderstorms and turning around rather than risk a flooded street crossing.

Turn around, dont drown, it wrote. Six inches of water is enough to cause you to lose control of your vehicle. One foot of water can float most cars. Nearly half of flood deaths happen in cars, trucks, or SUVs.

A gusting rainstorm greets motorists on their way to Las Vegas on July 29. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman praised the regional flood control agency and city first responders for keeping residents safe during the potentially dangerous storm.

Las Vegas has beautiful weather, but we do have large storms in monsoon season. Knowing this, we have flood control infrastructure to quickly move water out of the city to Lake Mead, Goodman posted on Twitter.

For Sixth Street resident Kim B., her problem is that drain in front of her house.

Its got smaller [drainage] slits. If its a windy rainand its a flash floodall these neighborhood trees that have olives get taken out and [the olives] stick in those holesand they block it, she said.

She said that city highway crews were too busy dealing with massive downtown flooding to get to her street in time to alleviate the gathering floodwaters.

At one point, she estimated the waters depth at about eight inches near her front door.

The reason it comes to the door is that cars are stupid and push the water all out, she said.

It was bad. I didnt even come out in it. I havent been driving in it. I stayed home. I grew up here. I know better.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss cheers prior to the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 final football match between England and Germany at the Wembley stadium, in London, on July 31, 2022. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Liz Truss Rules Out 2nd Scottish Independent Referendum If She Becomes UK Prime Minister

Liz Truss has pledged that there will be no second referendum on Scottish independence if she becomes Conservative Party leader and UK prime minister.

In the first independence referendum held in 2014, the Scottish electorate voted 5545 percent to reject independence and remain part of the UK.

But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who is also leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), announced last month she is planning to hold another independence referendum on Oct. 19, 2023.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks at a press conference to launch a second independence paper at Bute House in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 14, 2022. (Andrew Milligan  Pool/Getty Images)

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson formally rejected Sturgeons call for Scotland to be given the power to hold a second vote.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Truss said that she will work to strengthen and defend the union.

If she succeeds Johnson as prime minister, she said, there will be no second Scottish independence referendum on my watch.

Deception

Truss accused the SNP of trying to break up the union by deception and pushing an illegal referendum bill through the Scottish Parliament.

Scottish nationalists accepted that their referendum was a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and I will hold them to that, she said.

She added: The SNP lost the 2014 referendum and Nicola Sturgeon is now leading a campaign of deception to steamroller the UK and break up the Union.

The Scottish Independence Referendum Bill isnt legal and it will be invalidated if passed by the Scottish Parliament. When Westminster devolved power to Scotland, it did not include the ability to hold valid referenda to break up the Union.

Any Scotland independence referendum would need to be authorised by the Westminster Parliament. If I become prime minister, I would not grant that authority.

Cast-Iron Mandate

SNP depute leader Keith Brown slammed both Tory leadership contenders for denying the cast-iron mandate to hold an independence referendum.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is competing against Truss for support from the Conservative Party membership, has called a second Scottish independence referendum the wrong priority at the worst possible moment.

In a column for the Scottish Daily Mail on July 26, Sunak said: The SNP are wrong to try and tear the country apart when we should be pulling together. Why arent they talking about the drugs crisis in Scotland or how we can get more money into Scottish workers pockets?

Brown called both Tory candidates out of touch with the people of Scotland, who he said want to choose a better future as a wealthier, fairer, and more equal independent country.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Actor Nichelle Nichols, who played the character Uhura in the original "Star Trek" TV series, poses at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2012. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)

Longtime Actress Best Known for Star Trek Role Dies at 89: Family

Actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for playing Star Treks Lieutenant Uhura in the original series, died at age 89, according to her family in a Sunday announcement.

A letter posted to her Instagram and Facebook pages said:

I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years. Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all. I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected.

It was signed by her son, Kyle Johnson. He asked for privacy while the family grieves.

Nichols was cast as the USS Enterprises chief communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series in 1966.

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and frequented Star Trek fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

More recently, she had a recurring role on televisions Heroes, playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.

A spokesman for Nichols family told The Hollywood Reporter that she passed away in Silver City, New Mexico. Nichols was living with her son and was recently hospitalized with an unknown ailment, the spokesman added.

In the three recent Star Trek movies, the Uhura is characterized by portrayed by actress Zoe Saldana. Other than Star Trek, she appeared in 1959s Porgy and Bess, 1966s Mister Buddwing, and 1974s Truck Turner, according to her IMDB page.

Nicholls also appeared in two episodes of the Tarzan TV series in the mid-1960s. Later, she did voice acting for Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which all aired in the 1990s, according to her IMDB.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Medical Board Letters Threatening to Revoke Certifications Over Misinformation Contain No Evidence of Any Falsehood: Lawyer

The letters sent by medical boards to physicians threatening to revoke their certifications contain vague language and dont allege any specific falsehoods, a lawyer who sued the boards says.

The letters generally allege misinformation  but theyre not specific. They dont specifically identify anything thats false that anyone has been saying. Theres no evidence of any falsehood, Andy Schlafly, who is representing the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons in the legal case, said on NTDs The Nation Speaks.

Its sort of general allegations, he added, and then its a demand that the physicians prove that theyre innocent.

Both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Family Medicine have sent the letters, according to the suit, which was filed in federal court in Texas this month.

Related Coverage Devastated Father Seeks Truth About Vaccines; Medical Boards Sued for Threatening Doctors

Another board, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has warned providers against disseminating misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, reproductive health care, contraception, abortion, and other OB GYN practices that may harm the patients we serve or public health.

The boards did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached.

Retaliation

The moves to revoke certifications are retaliation for speaking out on issues related to COVID-19, including criticism of the COVID-19 vaccines, plaintiffs say.

In missives sent in May, the internal medicine board sent threatening letters to doctors for making public statements that disagree with the approach taken by Dr. Fauci and the Biden Administration to Covid-19, according to the suit. Dr. Anthony Fauci is the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser.

The family medicine board distributed similar missives, the suit says.

The letters have threatened to revoke the certifications that the boards bestow. They contain similar wording, according to Schlafly, and were sent out around the same time, raising concerns of collusion.

Theyre not letters that are individual, that were written from scratch for each position. Rather, theres some sort of template that was copied and pasted from and then a dozen or two dozen letters went out almost on the same day to these physicians, he said.

The letters are an attempt at intimidation and are having a chilling effect, the lawyer said, adding that they are outside of the boards normal practices.

The suit asks the court to declare the defendants have violated the First Amendment and to order the boards to stop threatening to revoke certifications.

Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.
The Zonta Club of Skaneateles will host a brunch fundraiser for Sudan relief at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, at the Sinclair of Skaneateles, 4357 Jordan Road, Skaneateles.

The featured guest speaker will be John Dau, human rights advocate and one of the Lost Boys of Sudan featured in "God Grew Tired of Us," a 2006 documentary about the young men who have fled the wars in the northeast African country since the 1980s. His John Dau Foundation, which the brunch will support, works to transform the health system in south Sudan.

"Our members 'think globally and act locally' to uplift the status of women and girls here at home and around the world," club Co-presidents Gil Epstein and Deb Yeziniak said in a news release.

Tickets to the brunch are $100 by check or $105 by Paypal. Specifically, proceeds will support the building of a well for fresh water in south Sudan.

For more information, email zontaofskan@gmail.com or call (315) 247-0141.
Michigan Citizens Initiative to Outlaw Private Funding of Elections, Require Voter ID Gains Momentum

A citizen-initiated proposal in Michigan to ban private funding of elections, prohibit the secretary of state from sending out unsolicited applications for absentee ballots, and require state-issued photo ID to vote is one step closer to taking effect.

On July 29, volunteers from the Secure MI Vote campaign filed petitions bearing more than 500,000 signatures, seeking to advance the measure to the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature for a vote, where it is expected to be approved.

Michigan law requires 340,000 valid signatures to move the citizen proposal forward.

Democrats have fought hard to block election integrity measures sponsored by GOP legislators, calling the measures voter suppression.

If the state legislature approves the citizen-initiated proposition, the state Constitution says it wouldnt be subject to a ballot referendum. Another constitutional provision makes the law veto-proof.

Michigans Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has vetoed dozens of election-related measures sent to her desk by the Legislature.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks with members of the National Guard in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington on March 5, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson speaks in Detroit, on Aug. 18, 2020. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

Over the coming weeks, we trust the Bureau of Elections and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (a Democrat) will swiftly review and confirm the validity of the signatures of our fellow citizens so they can be presented to the Board of State Canvassers to provide their consent, Secure MI Vote spokesperson Jamie Roe said in a statement.

Then, the (state) Constitution requires our legislative initiative be presented to the Michigan Legislature for their consideration.
All the related engineering and installation companies say they are not responsible for the installation of the big screen and its related structure. (By The Epoch Times)

MIRROR Concert Horror (Part 3): Stage Companies Denied Responsibility for Installing 200kg TV Screen

After the dancers released their statement, in response to MIRROR We Are Live Concert Incident , contracted stage engineering companies started to make public statements to clarify what they were responsible for in the project.

The companies in question are ArtDesign, Hip Hing Hong Stage Engineering, In Technical Production, and Engineering Impact. Famed Concert Executive Director Fran9 had yet to respond to the accident. His Instagram account also disappeared.

1. Art Design Ltd.

Art Design Ltd. took the lead in issuing a statement in the early morning of July 29, saying they did not participate in any mechanical engineering and/or any production and stage operations that led to accident-related projects and was only responsible for the stage designing engineering part.

2. Hip Hing Loong Stage Engineering Co., Ltd.

The construction contractor-Hip Hing Loong Stage Engineering Co., Ltd., issued a statement on the evening of July 29, saying that the company was responsible for the manufacturing and installation of part of the stage projects for this concert.

The rest of the mechanical stage parts have been manufactured and supplied by Art Design Ltd., including the sky screen lift and steel cables.

Both companies draw the boundary indicating the accident was unrelated to their engineering responsibility scope.

3. In Technical Production

In Technical Production Co. also stated on the evening of July 29, saying that they provide qualified video equipment and designated structures for installation. They didnt participate in any structure related to placing giant suspended screens, any production of suspended steel cables, or the operation of mechanical engineering.

4. Engineering Impact Ltd.

In the evening of July 30, the prime contractor, Engineering Impact Ltd., stated they will not issue any information during the ongoing investigation to avoid any public misunderstanding or speculation. They will provide a detailed explanation after the investigation by relevant departments.

Complaints from the Public

As various contractors seemed to be disowning responsibility. Hongkongers, especially the Mirror fans, were furious. They were dissatisfied with the companies attempts to shed the burden.

More To Follow: What We Know So Far About the Injured Dancers?
A health care worker prepares to administer a vaccine to a person for the prevention of monkeypox the Pride Center in Wilton Manors, Florida, on July 12, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Monkeypox Declared Public Health Emergency in New York City

The New York City Department of Health has declared monkeypox a public health emergency as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly issued a state of disaster declaration about the virus.

With the declaration on July 30, New York City is now the second U.S. city after San Francisco to issue such an order for the virus, which officials have said is mostly spreading among gay and bisexual males.

We estimate that approximately 150,000 New Yorkers may currently be at risk for monkeypox exposure, Mayor Eric Adams and Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the head of the citys health and mental hygiene department, said in a joint statement. This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.

The declaration will take effect immediately, and was essentially issued to free up more funds and resources to address the virus.

A day earlier, Hochul, a Democrat, issued a statewide executive order to declare a disaster, noting that more than one in four monkeypox cases are in New York state. Among other issues, the order provides more leeway on which individuals can administer the monkeypox vaccine, including pharmacists, EMS workers, and midwives.

We need to utilize every tool in our arsenal as we respond. Its especially important to recognize the ways in which this outbreak is currently having a disproportionate impact on certain at-risk groups, she said. Thats why my team and I are working around the clock to secure more vaccines, expand testing capacity and responsibly educate the public on how to stay safe during this outbreak.

On July 28, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to declare a monkeypox-related emergency to deal with rising cases and high demand for the vaccine. The declaration is set to go into effect on Aug. 1.

Authorities in San Francisco appeared to suggest that the virus is spreading primarily in the LGBTQ community, saying such individuals are at greater risk right now. Their statement added that the local emergency will allow us to continue to support our most at-risk, while also better preparing for whats to come.

On July 23, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Days later, he again noted that gay and bisexual males are the primary spreaders of the virus.

That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men, Tedros said on July 27. This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.
Oregonians to Vote on Gun Control Measure Opponent Calls Strictest in the Nation

Oregonians will soon vote on a ballot measure that opponents say could virtually end the legal sale of firearms in the state, making it one of the strictest gun-control measures ever proposed in the nation, according to Leonard Williamson, an explanatory committee member who opposes the measure.

If voters approve Measure 114, the Changes to Gun Ownership and Purchase Requirements Initiative, a permit would be required to obtain any firearm, magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds would be outlawed, some commonly used pump shotguns would be banned because they can exceed the 10 round limit, and State Police would be required to maintain a searchable public database of all permit applications.

Arguments on both sides of the issue began in earnest on July 26 as a five-person committee comprising two members who helped to draft and promote the citizen-driven ballot measure, another who supports it, and two who oppose itmet to write the 500-word Explanatory Statement that will appear in the voters guide this fall.

The committee got off to a contentious start as the only statement considered had been provided by proponents. Those opposing the measure called their language misleading.

The Explanatory Committee is charged with preparing an impartial, simple, and understandable statement explaining the ballot measure, committee member Williamson wrote in a memo to the committee. By omitting certain key components of the summary, voters are misled as to what the ballot measure will do or not do.

The measure would enact a law requiring a permit issued by a local law enforcement agency to purchase any firearm. Applicants would have to pay a fee, be fingerprinted, complete safety training, and pass a criminal background check.

In addition, the applicant must complete a hands-on demonstration of basic firearms handling to qualify.

In order to obtain the permit, an applicant would have to show up with a firearm to demonstrate the ability to load, fire, unload, and store the firearm, Williamson, an Oregon trial attorney specializing in firearms law, told The Epoch Times. But you cant get a firearm without the permit. And under Oregons highly restrictive gun storage laws, no one can legally loan a firearm to another. That creates an impassable barrier.

Opponents claim that the permit and training programs also create an unfunded mandate with no enforcement measures.

The measure calls upon the Oregon State Police to come up with these [permitting and training] programs, but theres no consequence if they dont, and theres no timeframe for coming up with them, argued committee member HK Kahng, an engineer and NRA firearms instructor, during the committee meeting.

The measure does not estimate the cost or analyze its impact on small local police departments.

The Oregon State Sheriffs Association has estimated that even if a person could somehow complete the required training, the permitting process could cost sheriffs almost $40 million annually. But nothing in the measure provides any funding, and the fees included would not come close to covering the costs.

Numerous police departments and sheriffs offices have agreed that complying with this measure will either be exorbitantly expensive or impossible, Kevin Starrett of the Oregon Firearms Foundation told The Epoch Times. None have said they will be offering the training required to apply for the permit to purchase, which sheriffs and local police will be tasked with administering.

Williamson also expressed concerns that the permit system grants the Oregon State Police unfettered authority to inquire into all manner of personal information of the applicant and to deny the applicant the permit for any reason or for simply failing to cooperate.

No information is off limits, he claims. The introduction of highly subjective criteria in [the measure] allows the government significant authority to intrude into the private lives of law-abiding citizens wishing to exercise their protected rights under the Second Amendment.

The opponents also argue that language describing the magazine ban creates confusion.

The measure allows registered owners of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds to retain them so long as they were purchased before the ban.

But how do you prove when you purchased a magazine? Williamson asked. There is no magazine registration. They dont have serial numbers. Theres no way for the average person to prove they had it before the law was passed. That means citizens must prove their innocence.

Lawfully owned magazines that exceed 10 rounds may not be used for self-defense outside the home. Under the measure, possession would be restricted to the owners property, at a gunsmith, on a private shooting range, or during a firearms competition.

The minute you leave the house, that 15-round magazine is now illegal, and you could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for each magazine in your possession because youre not in your home or at a gun range, Williamson explained. And you could be charged multiple times for the same magazines since magazines do not contain identifying markings.

So that could make an otherwise legal gun-owner a criminal overnight, commented Kahng.

But they would have time to turn those magazines in, responded committee member Margaret Onley, an Oregon labor and employment attorney who supports the measure.

In the end, the committee voted 3-2 to adopt the explanatory language with minor changes and submitted it to the Oregon Secretary of State for final approval, leaving opponents frustrated.

I dont think youll find any precedent in U.S. history in which a citizen has to go through so many hoops to exercise Constitutional rights, Williamson said. This is the first of its kind, and if it passes, it will wind up in court.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference in New York City on Aug. 26, 2021. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Oversight Committee Investigating Unnecessary COVID-19 Deaths in New York Nursing Homes

Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform have opened an inquiry into thousands of deaths at New York nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (pdf), the ranking members from the two committees point to guidance issued by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo on March 25, 2020, which stated that no resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19, and that [nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident  be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or re-admission.

This order contradicted guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and likely led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands, the July 26 letter says.

The letter reminds Hochul that her administration had promised to be fully transparent with regard to the data related to nursing home readmissions and COVID-19 deaths.

This investigation is even more important considering troubling reports from the New York Assembly Minority Leader that you are in no rush to provide answers to the families that lost loved ones in New York nursing homes, the letter reads.

The letter asks Hochul to produce critical material regarding the issue no later than Aug. 9, including, in part, the total number of COVID-19-related nursing home deaths, and all state-issued guidance, executive orders, and directives regarding hospital discharges to nursing homes.

In an interview last year, former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx admitted that Cuomos March 25, 2020, guidance had violated CMS guidance. She also said that readmitting potentially positive COVID-19 residents back into nursing homes had negative consequences.

Wrong Data

In January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James published a report stating that the states health department underreported COVID-19-related nursing home deaths by up to 50 percent.

In March this year, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report (pdf) stating that during the 10-month period between April 2020 and February 2021, the New York Health Department had failed to account for about 4,100 lives lost in nursing homes due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the state administration is reportedly planning to hire a third-party auditor who will be given until late 2023 to deliver a final report on the states response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An initial report on the findings is expected by May 2023.

New York State Assemblymember Ron Kim, a Democrat, has blamed Hochul for waiting too long to begin an investigation to scrutinize the Cuomo administrations efforts to allegedly falsify the COVID-19 death toll.

What was the intent behind hiding the accurate death toll numbers, which precluded the legislators from intervening sooner on behalf of their panicked constituents? Kim said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. Kims uncle died in a New York nursing home from a suspected COVID-19 infection.
House Speaker (D-Calif.) holds her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Pelosi Confirms Trip to Asia, Makes No Mention of Taiwan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) confirmed on July 31 that shes heading to Asia this week to visit four countries but made no mention of Taiwan.

The speaker said shell visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan with a congressional delegation to hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights, and democratic governance, according to a July 31 statement.

Her comments didnt address a potential stop in Taiwan amid threats issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and an apparent mobilization of the regimes military in the South China Sea. The CCP has long claimed that Taiwan, which has been self-governed since 1949 and never controlled by the regime, is part of its territory.

Today, our congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm Americas strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region, Pelosi said.

Earlier this month, amid reports that she would visit the island nation, President Joe Biden briefly told reporters that the U.S. military thinks its not a good idea right now.

A Chinese regime propagandist with the state-run Global Times deleted a July 30 Twitter post stating that Beijing could shoot down Pelosis plane if its escorted by the military to Taiwan.

If US fighter jets escort Pelosis plane into Taiwan, it is [an] invasion, Hu Xijin, a columnist and former editor-in-chief for the CCP-controlled Global Times, wrote on the platform. The [Peoples Liberation Army] has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosis plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction.

If ineffective, then shoot them down.

A comment by a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army unit on Weibo, a heavily censored Twitter-like social media site used by mainland Chinese people, wrote to prepare for war! The July 29 comment received millions of likes.

More Details

After landing in Hawaii on July 31, Pelosi visited Pearl Harbor, the site of the famed Japanese attack that sparked U.S. involvement in World War II, according to the statement. Her delegation received a briefing from U.S. IndoPacific Command.

A Ching Chiang class patrol ship fires off depth charges underwater as part of a navy demonstration in Taiwans annual Han Kuang Exercises off the islands eastern coast near the city of Yilan, Taiwan, on July 26, 2022. (Huizhong Wu, File/AP Photo)

Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) are joining Pelosi on the trip, according to her office.

A visit by Pelosi would be a dramatic, although not unprecedented, show of U.S. support for Taiwan. She would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Biden in a lengthy July 28 phone call that Washington should stay away from Taiwan, saying that those who play with fire will perish by it, according to a transcript.

Taiwans Foreign Ministry said on July 29, after the call between Xi and Biden, that Taiwan would continue to deepen its close security partnership with the United States.

Last week, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group are now in the South China Sea.

I can confirm USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are now underway, operating in the South China Sea following a successful port visit to Singapore, Navy spokesman Lt. Mark Langford told media outlets on July 28. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss future ship movements; however, I will add that Reagan is continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Reuters contributed to this report.
A portrait of hesitancy and heroism in war

Passed | 1h 9min | Drama, War | 1951

Compared to World War II and the Vietnam War, equally important conflicts such as the American Civil War (186165) arent covered as muchat least in the realm of cinema. But back in 1951, visionary director John Huston made a film about a detachment of young Civil War soldiers: The Red Badge of Courage.

Its a raw, unflinching film that is gorgeously shot by cinematographer Harold Rosson, and features some excellent performances by both its main and supporting cast. The film is based on author Stephen Cranes 1895 novel of the same name.

The film opens during the spring of 1862 as a regiment of the Union Army is performing drills in an encampment near the Rappahannock River in Virginia. A young soldier named Tom Wilson (Bill Mauldin) discovers that the entire regiment might be planning to move out the next day in order to ambush some Rebs.

Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy) is writing a letter to his parents when Wilson excitedly enters his tent to share the news of the purported battle. Immediately, it becomes clear by Flemings expression that he isnt exactly thrilled about going into battle.

Fleming even asks another older soldier, Jim Conklin (John Dierkes), if he thinks any men from their regiment will turn and run as deserters when the fighting starts. Conklin ultimately tells Fleming that hell stay and fight just as long as most of their fellow soldiers stand and fight.

Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy, L) talks to friend Jim Conklin (John Dierkes) about their upcoming battle, in The Red Badge of Courage. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

That night while patrolling the fringes of his regiments encampment, Fleming comes to a beautiful swirling river sparkling in the moonlight. A Confederate soldier on the other side of the river warns Fleming that hes an easy target standing in the moonlight and to turn back to his encampment, lest he gets a red badge (bloody wound) before the expected battle has even started. Fleming quickly obliges and backs away.

The next morning, after the regiment has finished performing some drills, Fleming expresses his growing contempt for the seemingly endless drills, as he walks with Conklin. Fleming tells Conklin that he wants to rush into battle and smell gun smoke. But when news arrives that the regiment is indeed going into battle a little later, Fleming again looks less than enthused.

When the regiment finally enters their first major battle with the Confederate regiment that they planned to attack, Fleming loses his nerve and flees. But as his friend Wilson later tells him, since the battle was so chaotic, nobody noticed Flemings desertion.

Tom Wilson (Bill Mauldin, L) with Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy), in The Red Badge of Courage. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

However, Fleming now believes himself to be somewhat of a coward, and much of the rest of the film is about him redeeming himself and becoming a man.

Two Who Served Our Country

Ironically, real-life World War II combat hero Audie Murphy plays Fleming, a man struggling to conquer his cowardice. Murphy does an outstanding job conveying the conflicting emotions of his character, which oscillate between fear and courage. It was also a pleasure to watch Bill Mauldin as Tom Wilson, Flemings steadfast friend.

Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War II. (Public Domain)

Interestingly, Mauldin also served in World War II. But instead of fighting in combat, he supported overall American troop morale as a top editorial cartoonist and creator of the wildly popular Willie and Joe comic strip.

Unfortunately, due to an internal power struggle at MGM, The Red Badge of Courage was cut down from its original two hours to a mere 69 minutes. But that doesnt seem to have impacted this fascinating film about hesitancy and eventual heroism in the face of war. Perhaps its brevity has helped it become distilled into a more visceral cinematic experience.

A scene from The Red Badge of Courage. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

The Red Badge of Courage

Director: John Huston

Starring: Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Douglas Dick

Not Rated

Running Time: 1 hour, 9 minutes

Release Date: Oct. 11, 1951

Rated: 4 stars out of 5
Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles Gene Seroka speaks in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Port of LA Fends Off 40 Million Cyberattacks Each Month: Director

The number of cyber intrusions directed at the Port of Los Angeles has doubled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 40 million each month, according to Executive Director Gene Seroka.

Intelligence shows the threats are coming from Russia and parts of Europe, Seroka told BBC on July 22.

We have to stay steps ahead of those who want to hurt international commerce, he said.

A view of The Port of Los Angeles from San Pedro, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The cyber intrusions include phishing, malware, and other attempts to breach the ports systems.

The past two years have proven the vital role that ports hold to our nations critical infrastructure, supply chains and economy. Its paramount we keep the systems as secure as possible, Seroka said.

In response to the increase in cyberthreats, the port launched a first-of-its-kind Cyber Resilience Center in January to improve readiness. The system is operated by International Business Machines (IBM) to allow the port and outside companies involved in the supply chain to collect and share signs of threats with each other automatically.

Weve gone from the cybersecurity Operations Center to a Cyber Resilience Center, which for the first time brings the private sector in under the FBIs [cyber watch] program, Seroka told Bloomberg in March. If someone gets impacted, they can share that data and we can synthesize it across the port community. Weve got to now scale that nationwide.

Shipping containers wait to be transferred from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Oct. 14, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

None of the cyberattacks have succeeded, Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield told The Epoch Times.

The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to sort through container backups following a deluge of imports during the pandemic. The ports remain the busiest seaports in the Western Hemisphere, processing about 40 percent of seaborne imports and 22 percent of seaborne exports nationwide each year.

At its peak, a record 109 ships waited to offload cargo at the port complex in January. That number had dropped sharply to only 21 ships on July 29, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

Cargo awaits unloading from ships off the Port of Long Beach, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The port expects imports to remain strong as deliveries of back-to-school items, fall fashions, and holiday goods start to arrive during the second half of this year, according to Seroka.

Even though some retailers have high inventories and may look to discount goods, I expect imports to remain strong though tapered, versus last year, Seroka said on July 13.
A destroyed building following shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, in this handout picture released on July 31, 2022. (Press service of the Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office/Handout via Reuters)

Russia Hits Southern Ukraine City, Killing Grain Export Tycoon, Governor Says

KYIVHeavy Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early on Sunday, killing the owner of one of the countrys largest grain exporters, while Russia said a Ukrainian drone struck its Black Sea fleet headquarters in Sevastopol.

Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon, and his wife were killed in their home, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.

Headquartered in Mykolaiv, a strategically important city that borders the mostly Russia-occupied Kherson region, Nibulon specializes in the production and export of wheat, barley, and corn, and has its own fleet and shipyard.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Vadaturskys death as a great loss for all of Ukraine, saying the businessman had been building a modern grain market involving a network of transhipment terminals and elevators.

It is these people, these companies, precisely the south of Ukraine, which has guaranteed the worlds food security, Zelenskyy said later in his nightly address. This was always so. And it will be so once again.

He added that Ukraines social and industrial potential, our people, our capabilities, are surely more powerful than any Russian missiles or shells.

Three people were also wounded in the attacks on Mikolaiv, the citys Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Ukrainian television, adding 12 missiles hit homes and educational facilities. He earlier described the strikes as probably the most powerful on the city of the entire five-month-old war.

A firefighter works to douse a fire in a building in Mykolaiv, in this handout picture released on July 31, 2022. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Mykolaiv Region/Handout via Reuters)

Up to 50 Grad rockets hit residential areas in the southern city of Nikopol on Sunday morning, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. One person was wounded.

Navy Day Strike

Ukrainian forces hit Russias Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Russian-held Sevastopol early on Sunday, the Crimean port citys governor Mikhail Razvozhayev told Russian media.

Five staff members were wounded in the attack when what was presumed to be a drone flew into the courtyard at the headquarters, he said, adding that Ukraine had decided to spoil Navy Day for us.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Law enforcement officers block a street following a reported combat drone attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleets headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, on July 31, 2022. (Stringer/Reuters)

The Sevastopol attack coincided with Russias Navy Day, which President Vladimir Putin marked by announcing that the navy would receive what he called formidable hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in coming months. Those missiles can travel at nine times the speed of sound.

He did not mention the conflict in Ukraine during a speech after signing a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russias main rival and set out Russias global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and head of the Russian navy Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov attend a parade marking Navy Day in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 31, 2022. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border on Feb. 24, setting off a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and deeply strained relations between Russia and the West.

The biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two has also stoked an energy and food crisis that is shaking the global economy. Both Ukraine and Russia are leading suppliers of grain.

Harvest Could Be Halved

Zelenskyy said on Sunday the country may harvest only half its usual amount this year due to the invasion.

Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less, suggesting half as much as usual, Zelenskiy wrote in English on Twitter. Our main goalto prevent global food crisis caused by Russian invasion. Still grains find a way to be delivered alternatively, he added.

Ukraine has struggled to get its product to buyers via its Black Sea ports because of the war.

But an agreement signed under the stewardship of the United Nations and Turkey on July 22 provides for safe passage for ships carrying grain out of three southern Ukrainian ports.

There is a high possibility that the first grain-exporting ship will leave Ukraines ports on Monday, a spokesperson for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

Eastern Danger

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia has been transferring some forces from the eastern Donbas region to the southern Kherson and Zaporizhizhya regions.

But that wont help them there. None of the Russian strikes will go unanswered by our military and intelligence officers, he added.

But Zelenskiy said on Saturday that hundreds of thousands of people were still exposed to fierce fighting in the Donbas region, which contains Donetsk and Luhansk provinces and which Russia seeks to control completely. Swathes of the Donbas were held before the invasion by Russian-backed separatists.

Russia said on Sunday it had invited U.N. and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists.

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile strike or explosion early on Friday that appeared to have killed the Ukrainian prisoners of war in the front-line town of Olenivka in eastern Donetsk.

The Russian defense ministry had published a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with U.S.-made artillery.

Ukraines armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had attacked the prison to hide mistreatment there.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday condemned the attack and said it had not yet received permission to visit the site, while adding it was not its mandate to publicly investigate alleged war crimes.

By Natalia Zinets
A flag flies outside the consular section of Russia's Embassy in London, on March 20, 2018. (Toby Melville/Reuters)

Russian National Charged With Spreading Propaganda Via American Political Groups

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, with allegedly orchestrating a foreign malign influence campaign in the United States.

Ionov, who was working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), pushed the influence campaign for several years through various political groups in America, a July 29 DOJ press release states. Through the campaign, the Russian national attempted to spread pro-Russian propaganda, sow discord, and interfere in the U.S. elections. The indictment alleges the influence campaign to have been carried out between December 2014 and March 2022.

Ionovs campaign against the United States was assisted by at least three Russian officials. He is the founder of Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), a Russian government-funded organization with headquarters in Moscow. Ionov utilized funds from AGMR for the influence campaign.

Working under the supervision of the FSB, Ionov is accused of recruiting U.S. political groups in states like California, Florida, Georgia, and so on.

In January 2016, Ionov funded a protest by the Florida U.S. political group in support of a Petition on Crime of Genocide against African People in the United States in four cities. The political group had earlier submitted the petition to the U.N. at Ionovs direction.

Following Russias invasion of Ukraine, Ionov participated in a video conference hosted by the Florida political group. During the conference, he falsely claimed that people supporting Ukraine were also supporting white supremacy and Nazism, according to the DOJ report.

Charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government, Ionov faces a maximum prison term of five years if convicted.

Treasury Sanctions

On July 29, the U.S. Treasury also announced sanctions against Ionov together with another individual and four entities accused of supporting the Kremlins global malign influence operations and election interference activities.

In 2022, Ionov collaborated with Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhins Foundation for Battling Injustice (FBR) about potentially directly supporting a candidate in the 2022 U.S. gubernatorial election, the department said in a press release.

AGMR is found to have received funds from the National Charity Fund which was created by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The fund collects money from Russian oligarchs and state-owned companies.

Due to the Treasury sanctions, Ionovs properties and interests in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons will be blocked. Individuals or entities engaging in transactions with Ionov may also expose themselves to sanctions, the department warned.

The Kremlin has repeatedly sought to threaten and undermine our democratic processes and institutions. The United States will continue our extensive work to counter these efforts and safeguard our democracy from Russias interference, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson in the release.
The Cayuga County Health Department will be hosting three walk-in COVID-19 vaccination clinics in August.

Clinics at the Fingerlakes Mall, 1579 Clark St. Road, Aurelius, will be in the Event Center at the former Spirit Halloween store located on the backside of the mall near the movie theaters.

Upcoming clinics are set for 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4; Thursday, Aug. 11; and Tuesday, Aug. 23.

The following vaccines will be offered:

 Pfizer pediatric first, second, and booster dose for individuals 5 to 11 years of age.

 Pfizer first, second, and booster doses for people 12 and older.

 Pfizer second/additional booster doses for those 50 and older or 12 and older who are immunocompromised.

 Moderna first, second, and booster doses for people 18 years and older.

 Moderna second/additional booster doses for individuals 50 and older or those 18 and older who are immunocompromised

Visitors are asked bring their insurance card and vaccine card if they have one.

The health department reminds the public that the availability of the vaccine is not limited to just the health department. Individuals are encouraged to work with local pharmacies, federally qualified health centers, and healthcare providers to get an appointment. Parents looking for the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 years of age should contact their childs pediatrician or local pharmacy.

Additionally, city, town, and village clerks and the Cayuga Community Health Network (315) 252-4212 are available to assist with finding clinics and making appointments.

For testing, the Cayuga County Health Department recently distributed rapid COVID-19 antigen tests to several community partners. The tests that were distributed are the iHealth Rapid Antigen brand; they are packaged in a box of two tests per box and expire in the fall of 2022. The Federal Drug Administration has extended the expiration dates of these at-home test kits, which has been updated on each box. For more information on the expiration date extension, go to the FDAs website.

Free test kits available at:

 Seymour Library  Auburn

 Aurora Free Library

 Lang Memorial Library  Cato

 Fair Haven Public Library

 Hannibal Library

 Jordan Bramley Library

 Powers Library  Moravia

 Port Byron Library

 Skaneateles Library

 Hazard Library  Poplar Ridge

 Springport Free Library  Union Springs

 Weedsport Free Library

 Village of Aurora

 Village of Cato

 Village of Fair Haven

 Town of Genoa

 Village of Moravia

 Village of Port Byron

 Town of Sterling

 Village of Union Springs

 Village of Weedsport

 Harriet Tubman Memorial Church  Auburn

People can submit at-home test results to the health department by emailing a picture of the test to covidtest@cayugacounty.us. Please include the persons full legal name, date of birth, date the test was taken, and a phone number. For more information, visit cayugacounty.us/health.
An American flag waves outside the Department of Justice Building in Washington on Dec. 15, 2020. (Al Drago/Reuters)

Saudi-Born Canadian Gets Life Sentence in US for ISIS Propaganda Support, Terrorism

The U.S. Department of Justice says a Saudi-born Canadian citizen was sentenced to life in prison Friday for conspiring to provide support resulting in death to the terrorist organization ISIS.

The Department of Justice statement says Mohammed Khalifa, 39, pleaded guilty last December in District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to a charge of conspiring to provide material or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death.

The statement says Khalifa was a lead Islamic State propaganda official who served as the English-speaking narrator on more than a dozen violent ISIS videos.

It also says Khalifa, who was captured in Syria in 2019, served as an ISIS fighter and executed two Syrian soldiers on behalf of the terrorist organization.

The Department of Justice Statement says Khalifa narrated two of the most violent ISIS videos: Flames of War: Fighting Has Just Begun and Flames of War II: Until The Final Hour, both depicting executions of prisoners and terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Global Affairs Canada was not immediately available to comment on the sentencing.

During the time Khalifa was a prominent member of ISIS, the terrorist organization was conducting a brutal hostage taking and ransom demand campaign involving journalists and humanitarian aid workers who came to Syria from across the globe, says the statement.

Between Aug. 19, 2014 and Feb. 6, 2015, ISIS killed eight American, British and Japanese citizens in Syria as part of the hostage scheme.
Scientists Question Pfizer Paxlovid Rebound Case Numbers as Biden Tests Positive for COVID-19 Again

President Joe Biden posted a video after he tested positive for COVID-19 again saying that hes feeling fine, as some scientists have begun to speculate that rebound cases tied to the use of the antiviral drug Paxlovid are more common than initially suspected.

Hey, folks, Joe Biden here. Tested positive this morning. Going to be working from home for the next couple of days. And Im feeling fine, everythings good. But Commander and I got a little work to do, Biden, 79, said in the video posted to Twitter late on July 30. He was referring to his dog, Commander.

White House physician Dr. Kevin OConnor said in a letter on July 30, in confirming Bidens diagnosis, that people who take Paxlovid can test positive for the virus after testing negative.

As described last week, acknowledging the potential for so-called rebound COVID positivity observed in a small percentage of patients treated with Paxlovid, the President increased his testing cadence, both to protect people around him and to assure early detection of any return of viral replication, OConnor said. Now, Biden will engage in strict isolation procedures, OConnor said.

Biden tested positive again for COVID-19 on July 30 after using an antigen test, the letter said. It comes days after he tested negative and delivered a speech at the White House.

Questions

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a prominent cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University Hospital, wrote that he believes that COVID rebound cases sparked by taking Paxlovid are quite common.

The prior data suggesting rebound Paxlovid positivity in the low single digits is outdate[d] and with BA.5 is likely 20-40 percent or even higher, Reiner wrote on Twitter in response to Bidens second positive test. He didnt provide a study or data to back up his comment.

President Joe Biden gives remarks during a meeting on the economy with CEOs and members of his Cabinet in the South Court Auditorium of the White House on July 28, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Eric Topol, a physician and scientist, wrote on Twitter that Paxlovid rebound is quite common  a retrospective study using [electronic health records] of 11,270 people before BA.5 that suggests its 5 percent is way off the mark. Topol was citing a National Institutes of Health-published study from last month.

The actual incidence can only be meaningfully assessed through a prospective study conducted directly with participants with frequent testing. This is in progress. Whether longer than 5 days treatment will reduce the rate also needs to be determined by a RCT (5 vs 10d), Topol wrote on July 31.

Pfizers clinical trial suggested there is a 1 to 2 percent chance of a COVID-19 rebound case linked to Paxlovid. Last month, White House COVID-19 czar Ashish Jha said theres a 5 percent chance while stressing that when people have rebound, they dont end up in the hospital and dont end up particularly sick.

One study in June found that less than 1 percent of COVID-19 patients taking Paxlovid had their symptoms come back in nine days. A separate, non-peer-reviewed study of 13,600 patients found that 6 percent had their symptoms come back as they took the drug.

Jha previously rejected the claim that Paxlovoid rebound numbers are far higher than what the studies say. The actual percentage, he claimed, is in the single digits.

If you look at Twitter, it feels like everybody has rebound, but it turns out theres actually clinical data, Jha said in a briefing last week. If you look at major health systems that have given out Paxlovid to tens of thousands of people, rebound rates are around 5 percent. There are some studies that say its maybe 7, 8 percent, some that say its 2 percent, but its in the single digits. So it happens; its not that frequent.

He continued to say that when people have rebound, they dont end up in the hospital. They dont end up particularly sick, adding, Paxlovid is working really well at preventing serious illness, rebound or no rebound, and thats why he was offered it. And thats why the president took it.

Earlier this year, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci also took Paxlovid for a COVID-19 case. After four days of negative tests, Fauci, 81, said he tested positive for the virus.

Weeks before that, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert to health providers about rebound cases associated with Paxlovid, which is made by Pfizer.

Paxlovid continues to be recommended for early-stage treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 among persons at high risk for progression to severe disease, said the agency in a notice posted in June. Paxlovid treatment helps prevent hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. COVID-19 rebound has been reported to occur between 2 and 8 days after initial recovery and is characterized by a recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms or a new positive viral test after having tested negative.

Pfizer has not responded to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, attends the ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, during a ceremony honoring 17 recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on July 7, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Sen. Johnson Expects Deal to Conceal Indictment of Hunter Biden

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on July 31 that he expects there to be an agreement to conceal an indictment of Hunter Biden.

Johnson predicted in a Fox News interview that law enforcement may indict Hunter Biden, but theyll probably sealtheyll do a dealtheyll seal all the information.

The American public will never get the full truth, he said.

Both Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have been involved in a yearslong investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Bidens son in places such as China, Ukraine, and elsewhere. The pair released a report in September 2020 that detailed extensive financial connections between Chinese Communist Party-linked entities and individuals and Hunter Biden.

Weve known that the Bidens are a corrupt family for years, Johnson told Fox News Dan Bongino, noting that the corrupt mainstream media has been covering it all up and even the FBI.

Johnson also predicted that legacy news media outlets will now turn on Biden amid increasingly low poll numbers.

In March, both Republican senators presented bank records on the Senate floor showing CEFC China Energy, a now-defunct firm, made payments to Hunter Biden. That included a $100,000 wire payment to one of the younger Bidens companies, Owasco, from CEFC.

Other payments include a wire transfer of $5 million to Hudson West, a company Hunter Biden invested in and managed, from Northern International Capital, a business that partnered with CEFC. A contract also made public by the senators shows that $500,000 went to Hunter Biden as a one-time retainer fee.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) speaks during a hearing in Washington on Jan. 24, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Two others show a $1 million payment made to Hudson West by CEFC and a transfer of $1 million from Hudson West to Owasco, with the money appearing to go to Hunter Biden for the purposes of representing Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman who has helped CEFC gain advantages through bribery.

FBI Interference

In a recent letter, Johnson further claimed that the FBI attempted to undermine their congressional investigation in mid-2020.

Amid recent whistleblower revelations, they would strongly suggest that the FBIs August 6, 2020 briefing was indeed a targeted effort to intentionally undermine a Congressional investigation, he wrote in a letter (pdf) to top Department of Justice officials and members of other intelligence agencies.

If these whistleblower allegations are accurate, how can your agency, Director Wray, be capable of investigating the presidents son? Johnson wrote in his letter. Unfortunately, the FBI can no longer be trusted to investigate Hunter Biden with integrity and the equal application of law.

He was referring to whistleblower complaints issued by unnamed FBI officials, as detailed by Grassley in a July 25 letter (pdf).

The allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation, wrote Grassley, who has long been involved in crafting legislation to support federal government whistleblowers.

If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI areand have beeninstitutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law.

Department of Justice officials didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
The U.S. Pentagon building in Washington is seen in an aerial view in an undated file photo. (Ivan Cholakov/Shutterstock)

The Pentagon Owns Its Recruiting Crisis

Commentary

Replenishing the military ranks with qualified personnel is a perennial challenge. Its no secret, though, that this year, our armed forces are fighting uphill to recruit and retain talent.

Most of the services are well behind their quotas. But the Army, our largest service, is having the hardest time enticing young Americans. That service will fall short, nearly 20,000 troops from its original target end strength of 485,000 for fiscal year 2022, and next year could be worse.

To manage, Army officials have slashed end strength and enlistment goals, while recruiters are offering fat stacks of cash and generous service terms as inducements.

So far, nothing is working.

The Armys chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, blames the shortfall on competition with the private sector. Others blame upwardly mobile families who would rather have their children attend college than wear a uniform.

Both are old saws. And this year, they ring hollow.

Some civilian jobs do pay more. But for an 18-year-old with only a high school diploma, military compensation is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, recruits most often cite generous pay and benefits as the reason for signing papers.

Meanwhile, undergraduate enrollments are down more than 600,000 from last year. So it appears our missing recruits arent trading rifles for books, either.

Instead of blaming their competition, the Pentagon brass might dwell on their tarnished image as the reason fewer young Americans want to join up.

Public trust in the military institution has plunged steeply since 2018, according to one poll. Respondents cite politicized leaders, scandals, and the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan for their loss in confidence.

We might add to that list suicides, sexual assaults, social justice indoctrination, and COVID-19 vaccination policies as dulling the shine of military service.

Of the lot, the Pentagons vaccine mandate may prove its deepest self-inflicted wound.

While the service chiefs are begging Congress to fund more generous recruiting incentives, they have forcibly discharged thousands of vaccine dissentersincluding most of those objecting on religious grounds. A similar fate awaits tens of thousands more of the unjabbed in the National Guard and Reserve. Never mind that our military increasingly relies on these part-time troops for routine mission support.

And the Pentagon has doubled down. Submission to the vaccine is now a condition of enlistment, despite evidence the therapy is at best ineffective, and at worst dangerous for younger, healthier people.

Its a policy gravely alienating to the families of Middle America whose children disproportionately serve in our all-volunteer forces.

Before going further, consider that fewer than one-quarter of Americans in the prime recruitment ages of 17 to 24 years can meet our militarys physical, moral, or educational entry requirements, and that figure continues to decline.

Of those, only about 9 percent of young Americans have any desire to serve. Perhaps only 1 percent ever do.

High standards have produced something of an embarrassment of riches. Our service members are amongst the healthiest, most disciplined, and best educated of their cohort nationally. But to maintain this quality, recruiters have come to count on solidly middle-class families inhabiting our mid-American towns, suburbs, and rural counties to fill their quotas.

Recruiters bank on small-town America because for a variety of reasons, our populous cities produce few qualified volunteers. Even the New Yorkers and Californians in the ranks are more likely to hail from upstate or inland counties. In fact, a once-reliable third of all new recruits enter from just five southern states: Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

The prepossessed term for these rich recruiting grounds is flyover country.

Instead, we might think of them as communities celebrating life on a smaller and more intimate scale, and where patriotism, faith, family, and public service remain in fashion.

And yet their young people arent signing up like they used to.

The belief by some that vaccine mandates are meant to purge conservative Christians from the armed forces may be one reason recruiting offices are empty. After all, young people living in these prime recruitment areas are somewhat more religious and tend to be more conservative in outlook than many Americans.

They also are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID.

A more charitable account, though, is that the brass authored their own Catch-22 in the rush to prove their obedience to President Joe Biden. As such, they have taken a position purported to improve readiness that has done quite the opposite. And now that theyve become so thoroughly entrenched, they cannot easily retreat.

No matter. It should trouble the Pentagon more that their reluctant recruits are most likely military legacies.

Like many professions, the military is a family business. Roughly 80 percent of recruits either grew up in a military family or have a close relative who served. McConvilles own clan is actually something of a poster family in career following, with three children and a son-in-law in uniform. Even the generals wife once served.

Career following in military families is nothing new. Its been going on since our countrys founding. The children of veterans, like those of bankers or physicians, often emulate their parents professional ethos early on. For soldiers, this includes a respect for duty and honorable, selfless service. The generational transmission of such virtues has played a critical role not only in reproducing our service cultures, but by extension our national values.

But its also a fragile chain.

While research indicates that military children are five times more likely to follow a parent into the service, only 1 in 4 do. And their desire to serve drops sharply every year over the age of 18.

In short, the Pentagons stubborn adherence to its COVID protocol is breaking faith with its once-loyal base. And the longer they dig in, the smaller that base will become.

Its a high price our nation may pay for unimaginative leadership.

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.
Small figurines are seen in front of the World Health Organization logo in this illustration taken on Febr. 11, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

The WHOs Reckless Disregard for Truth

Commentary

Public health relies on trust. Advertising relies on twisting the truth, even deceiving people to persuade them to buy a product they may not need. Trust is maintained by telling the truth, and giving others accurate information and sound advice. If inclined, you can change direction, trading on trust that you have built in order to deceive more effectively.

This works until the audience starts to understand that you have started lying. Its the worst sort of deceit. The World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted this latter course, using its former status to deceive the public in order to increase global uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.

On July 22, the WHOs media office issued a statement summarizing an update to its global COVID-19 vaccination strategy. This strategy requires the highest annual budget of any single program in the WHOs history; $10.1 billion was budgeted for 2021, about three times the previous total annual expenditure of the entire organization.

With $3 billion accrued, the WHO is seeking the shortfall and wants to expand this through 2022. This bill is mainly footed by taxpayers in the ailing economies of the West.

COVID-19 remains a minor health burden in the countries on the receiving end, while malnutrition and other infectious diseases are rising. The strategy is therefore important to both sides, as it will harm both.

The Fallacy of Need

The strategy outlined in the statement calls for vaccination of 70 percent of people in low- and middle-income countries, to achieve durable, broadly protective immunity. This only makes sense if the populations on the receiving end arent already immune. To claim this, WHO must ignore its own work showing high rates of post-infection immunity in low-income countries.

A study by WHO personnel estimated a large majority of Africans had antibodies against COVID-19 by September 2021, which means actual immunity, mediated mainly by T-cells, will be much higher. This study was performed prior to the highly transmissible Omicron variant added to this number. India data are similar.

Post-infection (natural) immunity produces clinical protection to COVID-19 at least as broad and more sustained than that produced through vaccination (Ref, Ref, Ref, Ref, Ref). The WHO also is aware that vaccination added to natural immunity adds minimal clinical benefit (well demonstrated in the chart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention below).

When the WHO states that only 28 percent of old people and 37 percent of health workers in low-income countries have received COVID-19 vaccines, and fewer in the general population, they know that nearly all the unvaccinated also have effective immunity.

The WHO wishes to spend this unprecedented budget on mass vaccination of an immune population.

False Claims on Impact

The statement claims that in the first year of rollouts, COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have saved 19.8 million lives. This number makes no sense.

The WHO previously published that only 14.9 million excess deaths occurred across two years of the COVID-19 outbreak of 20202021. These include deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and those due to lockdowns and other response measures. COVID-19 was endemic across all continents by the end of 2020, in the absence of vaccination.

Ignoring its own data, the WHO derives its 19.8 million saved from flawed Imperial College London modeling.

Lockdowns killed hundreds of thousands, probably millions of people. UNICEF estimated nearly a quarter million excess child deaths due to lockdowns (not COVID-19) across just six South Asian countries in 2020 alone.

To start to understand how many people COVID-19 really killed pre-vaccination, these excess non-COVID-19 deaths within the 14.9 million must be extrapolated to Africa and include rising deaths from diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and malnutrition.

Many pre-vaccination deaths were, therefore, likely related to the response, not the disease. The WHO wants us to believe that the vaccine saved several-fold more lives in 2021 than could possibly have died from COVID-19 when immunity was at its lowest throughout 2020.

We must believe this, despite most Asian and African countries only establishing significant vaccination rates in mid- to late-2021, by which time most people had already been infected.

People receiving any vaccine dose. (Source: OurWorldInData.org)

Stating implausible modeling outputs as fact when theyre contradicted by the WHOs own data isnt a nuance. It constitutes deliberate misrepresentation of the programs potential impact. Its an attempt to mislead public health authorities, the public, and the media.

The WHO should explain why.

A Baseless Strategy

Vaccinating all those most at risk is the single best way to save lives, protect health systems and keep societies and economies open, the WHO media department states as the basis for mass vaccination, while admitting that COVID-19 vaccines have not substantially reduced transmission.

Indeed, countries with the current highest transmission rates, such as New Zealand, are among the most vaccinated. If a vaccine doesnt reduce transmission, and severe COVID-19 is concentrated in a small segment of the sick and elderly (it is), then mass vaccination of already-immune people cant have an influence on keeping society open. This is achieved by not closing it.

In its strategy update, the WHO justifies its entire mass vaccination program through its ability  to achieve durable, broadly protective immunity, and reduce transmission. By its own data, lasting durable protective immunity is already present, and the product its pushing doesnt stop transmission.

This resembles false advertising of a commodity that an advertising agency is paid to promote, rather than a reasoned explanation of a public health strategy.

Honesty Matters in Public Health

Significant WHO funders will be enriched by this program through the procurement of billions of vaccine doses, so not everyone loses. The targeted under-vaccinated populations in Africa and Asia record less, not more, deaths from COVID-19. They are younger, less obese, and therefore less susceptible. They die of other diseases, and currently face collapsing food supplies and growing poverty due in large part to the lockdown policies that the WHO continues to support.

The WHO needs to explain why health equity has become less important than achieving equal injection rates of the pharmaceuticals that the major WHO sponsors have invested in.

The data in the WHOs possession show this unprecedentedly expensive program can have little positive impact on health. By diverting attention and resources from areas of true health need, the WHO will further increase mortality. Doing this by deceiving the public and ignoring its own data is a poor strategy.

Its time the WHO explained what its doing. While seeking greater powers to declare and manage future disease outbreaks, its demonstrating that the organization is unfit for that purpose. This unfitness wont be remedied by more funding or expertise, because it stems from the WHOs abandonment of its core constituency and its reckless disregard for the truth.

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.
statements

"Because we're in a revolutionary cycle, or the left has now said, under the pretext that Donald Trump is so extraordinarily threatening to the Republic, that it requires any means necessary to end him." Victor Davis Hanson Classicist and Military Historian

"Half the country believes that when it comes to President Trump there are no rules. They have lost faith in the system." Lindsey Graham Chairman, US. Senate Judiciary Committee

"DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid ... or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation." Andrew Cuomo Former New York Governor

"These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents." Donald Trump Former President

"[Russia hoaxers] have now been promoted into the Biden administration. ... Theyre definitely targeting [former] president Trump because they dont want him to run for president." Devin Nunes Former U.S. Representative

"Theyre using the full powerillegally, I think, unconstitutionallyof the law to harass, intimidate, and try to push Trump out of the picture." Louie Gohmert U.S. Representative

"[The raid] was the latest link a long series of operations starting six years ago with absurd claims that Donald Trump was the asset of a foreign country. That operation was called Russia gate." Lee Smith Author, The Plot Against the President

"Beginning in 2016, Americans began to have doubts when we began to unravel the Russia collusion reporting. ... Those doubts kept growing and you started to hear people say we have a dual justice system in America." John Solomon Editor-in-Chief, Just the News

"This is the modern day version of Watergate. Except the only difference is it wasn't political operatives breaking in to their opponents headquarters. It was the FBI and DOJ." Kash Patel Former Chief of Staff to the Acting Secretary of Defense

"It seems like this was ... without buy-in or notification of higher levels of government. But literally no one will believe that." Andrew Yang Former Democratic presidential candidate

"When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of [the DOJ]." Kevin McCarthy U.S. House Minority Leader

"Lets be clear: This is a brazen weaponization of the FBI by Bidens DOJ against his political opponentwhile giving their political allies free passes." Steve Scalise U.S. House Minority Whip

"Its all a coordinated attack with the FBI. Do you think that the FBI director is going to raid the former presidents house  without getting the approval of President [Biden]?" Eric Trump Son of former President Donald Trump

"AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended with this raid." Mike Pompeo Former Secretary of State

"[The raid represents] another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regimes political opponent." Ron DeSantis Florida Governor

"No person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States." Nancy Pelosi U.S. House Speaker

"[The] raid on the home of a former U.S. president without explanation will only further erode confidence in the FBI and the Justice Department." Chuck Grassley Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

"The country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation of what led to the events." Mitch McConnell U.S. Senate Minority Leader

"Three FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. Im outraged ... [that the FBI] would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress." Scott Perry U.S. Representative

"I didnt actually get to oversee the search, they wouldnt let anybody see what they were doing." Christina Bobb Attorney to Trump

"If theres anything negative about Trump or his allies, that gets accelerated, leaked, and used for political purposes." Matt Gaetz Member, U.S. House Judiciary Committee

"They see the support that he has all over the country. His rallies terrify them." Marjorie Taylor Greene U.S. Representative

"[Democrat Party attorney] Marc Elias is saying that the criminal statute could result in President Trump being barred from future office. And I think its clearly part of his plan." Jeff Clark Former lawyer, Justice Department

"I think for anyone who doubted that there was a swamp when Donald Trump was saying drain the swamp now I think theres true believers." Warren Davidson U.S. Representative

"The security state complex and the complexity of the security state ... is now overtaking our system of government and our rule of law." Michael Flynn Retired lieutenant general
Chinese paramilitary policemen watch as people visit a promenade on the Bund along the Huangpu River in Shanghai on May 1, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Thousands of UK Firms Cut Ties With China Amid Rising Tensions: Industry Group

Thousands of UK businesses are cutting their economic ties with China as they anticipate faster decoupling between China and the West, according to a major UK business group.

Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Director-General Tony Danker said thousands of companies in the UK are currently rethinking their supply chains in anticipation of hardening anti-China political sentiment.

Every company that I speak to at the moment is engaged in rethinking their supply chains, he told FT Weekend. Because they anticipate that our politicians will inevitably accelerate toward a decoupled world from China.

Danker said the UK needs new strategic alliances in the world as tensions rise with China. In Washington, the need for companies to build resilience in preparation of a divorce from China was all they are talking about, he noted.

As the UKs relations with China turn sour, the country will need to find new trade partners and rekindle old ones, such as the European Union, according to Danker.

If the political experts and security experts are right, we are all going to need to be good friends again, he told the newspaper.

Toughening Stance

China has emerged as a key foreign policy battleground between the two final contenders in the race to become Conservative Party leader and UK prime minister.

Both Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak have pledged to curb the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime to the UKs national security and economic security.

Trusss campaign stated that shell continue to toughen the UKs position on China and help lead the international response to increased Chinese aggression.

Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak (L) and Liz Truss during Britains Next Prime Minister: The ITV Debate at Riverside Studios in London on July 17, 2022. (Jonathan Hordle/ITV/PA Media)

Sunak, who previously received praise from CCP mouthpiece Global Times for his pragmatic view on China, has sought to boost his national security credentials by calling China the largest threat to Britain and the worlds security and prosperity and promising to close all 30 Confucius InstitutesBeijing-backed language and culture centresin the UK.

UK officials and politicians are becoming increasingly wary of Chinas growing economic influence in the UK.

On July 20, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced that he had blocked a Chinese company from acquiring smart camera technology from the University of Manchester, in the first use of the governments new powers under the National Security and Investment Act, which came into force on Jan. 4.

Under the law, Kwarteng is also presiding over an investigation into the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab by Nexperia, a Netherlands-based subsidiary of the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Wingtech Technology.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the America First Policy Institute Agenda Summit in Washington, on July 26, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Criticizes DC Mayor Over Requesting the Deployment of National Guard

Former President Donald Trump chided Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser after she requested that the National Guard be mobilized to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants being transported from southern states.

The Mayor of Washington, D.C., wants the National Guard to help with the thousands of Illegal Immigrants, coming from the insane Open Border, that are flooding the City, but refused National Guard help when it came to providing Security at the Capitol Building for a far larger crowd on January 6th, Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on July 29.

Figure that one out? Trump asked.

Bowsers government has sent two separate letters to the White House and the Pentagon seeking federal help, describing the situation at the nations capital as a humanitarian crisis. In one of the letters, Bowser added that the arriving immigrants had brought her city to a tipping point.

Bowser, a Democrat, blamed Arizona and Texas in the other letter, saying the migrant crisis is cruel political gamesmanship from the Governors of Texas and Arizona.

The D.C. mayor has also claimed that immigrants are being tricked into opting to take buses to the nations capital.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser attends March for Our Lives 2022 in Washington on June 11, 2022. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for March For Our Lives)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, both Republicans, announced transportation programs to send illegal immigrants on free rides to Washington, D.C., following President Joe Bidens decision to lift a pandemic-era immigration policy to expel illegal aliens. The first bus carrying immigrants from Texas arrived in D.C. in April, with Arizona sending its first bus in May.

Since then, Washington has received some 6,100 immigrants on 155 buses, Stars and Stripes reported on July 28, citing data from Abbotts office.

Responding to Bowsers request for the National Guard, Abbott wrote on Twitter that the problem that D.C. is experiencing is small compared to what Texas has been dealing with.

D.C. is experiencing a fraction of the disastrous impact the border crisis has caused Texas, Abbot stated. Mayor Bowser should stop attacking Texas for securing the border & demand Joe Biden do his job.

Two GOP lawmakers also suggested that Bowser should take up her troubles with Biden.

Mayor Bowser now understands what it feels like to be a border state. How do you think folks in Texas feel? Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) wrote in a post.

Weber added, She should knock on Bidens door and tell him that there is a crisis at our southern border and every state is a border state.

Mayor Bowser should call the White House instead and tell them to secure the southern border, Rep. Fred Keller (R-Pa.) wrote on Twitter.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, flanked by state and local law enforcement officials, speaks to media in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 29, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

On July 29, Abbotts office released a press release detailing what it had accomplished with the states Operation Lone Star, a program launched in March 2021 to prevent criminal activity along the border, including drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to more than 287,000 migrant apprehensions and more than 17,700 criminal arrests, with more than 15,100 felony charges reported, the press release stated.

In the fight against fentanyl, DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] has seized over 325 million lethal doses throughout the state, it added.

Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administrations refusal to secure the border, it stated. Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Bidens open border policies.
Tudor Dixon, CEO of Lumen Student News, attends the Women for America First Summit, at Trump International Hotel in Washington on Oct. 5, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Trumps Endorsement May Boost Dixons Narrow Lead in Michigan GOP Primary

Tudor Dixon, the front-runner to win the Republican nomination for governor of Michigan, may have just gotten a winning boost with a coveted endorsement by former President Donald Trump on July 29just days before the Aug. 2 primary.

Trump raised political eyebrows at an April rally in Macomb County when, of the then-10 GOP gubernatorial hopefuls, he mentioned Dixon by name and spoke favorably about her but stopped short of an endorsement. Trump was silent about Dixon until recently, after months of heightened suspense among the five remaining candidates, who all competed fiercely for Trumps endorsement.

To underscore the importance of Trumps endorsement, a recent Detroit News-WDIV TV poll taken about two weeks ago found that 38 percent of likely GOP primary voters remained undecided. Thats significant because according to the poll, 63 percent of undecided voters said Trumps endorsement is either very important or somewhat important to them in making up their minds.

Dixon

According to her website, Dixon has a background in the steel industry. She is a mother of four daughters, and it was her concern over the indoctrination of school children that led her into public life.

She founded Lumen Student News, an organization that provides patriotic and constitutional news programs to school children. Dixon also works as a news anchor on Real Americas Voice.

She is dedicated to expanding school choice and empowering parents in the education of their children.

Dixon also has been endorsed by the influential family of former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Michigan Right to Life, the American Conservative Union, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and the Police Officers Association of Michiganwhich, according to political observers, all pale in value compared to her endorsement by the former president.

She has raised $1.2 million and, between her campaign and several independent political action groups supporting her, has spent $2.3 million, mostly on advertising.

A Real Clear Politics analysis of recent polls shows Dixon with a lead ranging from four to eight points over Kevin Rinke, who is currently polling in second place. Dixons average lead is about five points, very close to the polls margin of error.

Candidates Ryan Kelley and Garrett Soldano are both within striking distance, trailing Dixon by about 10 points.

Soldano

Soldanocurrently fourth in pollinghad recently publicly advised Trump to stay out of the tight governors race to avoid angering the partys grassroots voters who may be supporting candidates other than Trumps pick.

Following Trumps endorsement of Dixon, Soldano said in a statement: From what I know about President Trump, he likes winners. I look forward to his support on Aug. 3.

He told The Epoch Times that his campaign will succeed because of strong grassroots support.

Ive personally knocked on well over 10,000 doors, he said.

Garrett Soldano, candidate for governor of Michigan, discusses the issues with a voter in Croswell, Mich. on May 21, 2022. (Steven Kovac/Epoch Times)

A Detroit News-WDIV poll said that 12 percent of likely Republican primary voters declined to answer pollsters questions, adding another element of uncertainty. When that cohort of GOP voters is added to the 38 percent who claimed to be undecided, that means the preferences of 50 percent of party primary voters are unknown to pollsters just days before Election Day.

Also, early voting has been underway in Michigan since June 23, and no one can be certain what factors may have influenced voters.

During a campaign event at a restaurant in the small farming town of Croswell, Soldano warned supporters that the nation is headed into a serious recession and stressed the need to craft state policies designed to encourage the return of businesses and families who have fled the state.

Soldano helped spearhead the successful effort to curtail the emergency executive powers of the governor during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 20202021.

Rebandt

GOP candidate for governor of Michigan Ralph Rebandt (L) talks to voters at the Saving Michigan for God and Country Rally in Swartz Creek, Mich., on July 22, 2022. (Steven Kovac/Epoch Times)

A wildcard in the race is longtime Oakland County pastor Ralph Rebandt. While Rebandt trails Dixon by 20 points in polls, his actual support may be very hard to gauge.

Rebandtwho is dedicated to bringing a spiritual element to politics and governmenthas been quietly visiting scores of churches, presenting himself as the candidate of JudeoChristian morality, constitutionalism, and positive change.

In a recent campaign appearance, billed as a Saving Michigan for God and Country Rally, he addressed a capacity crowd at a church near Flint.

During his presentation, he poked fun at Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmers 2018 campaign mantra Fix the damn roads.

Dont bother fixing the roads, Gretch. We cant afford to drive anymore, he said, as he displayed a screenshot of one of his billboards displaying that message.

After the rally, audience member Dave Griffin of Flint Township told The Epoch Times that he had come to the meeting undecided.

But now I know, 100 percent, Ralph Rebandt has got my vote, Griffin said. He cares for the American people.

Kelley

Businessman Ryan Kelley is polling third behind Dixon. He hosted a meet and greet at a riverfront restaurant in St. Clair on July 26.

At the event, Kelley told The Epoch Times that, unlike his four Republican rivals, he is not afraid to stand on principle.

Kelley said Whitmer is a master at lying and manipulating voters and has abused the publics trust.

He also criticized the governor for the unnecessary deaths of thousands of elderly Michiganders in nursing homes during the pandemic.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley (L) talks with a 19-year-old precinct delegate and an angry mom whos running for school board in St. Clair, Mich. on July 26, 2022. (Steven Kovac/Epoch Times)

I could easily vote for any of the five Republican candidates, Charlie Cook of Port Huron told The Epoch Times, after meeting Kelley. Im still persuadable.

Cook said Whitmers national ambitions and her disastrous COVID-19 policies have made it impossible for him to vote for her.

Rinke

Metro Detroit businessman Kevin Rinkes campaign war chest and advertising budget in the last days before the Aug. 2 primary may be the factor that pushes him to victory, despite Trumps endorsement of Dixon.

Rinke has contributed $10 million of his own money to his campaign. He spent more than $4 million on media advertising.

My business experience makes me the most qualified candidate to be the chief executive of the State of Michigan, he said. We know business leaders solve problems differently than career politicians.

Gretchen Whitmer and the Lansing establishment are drunk on spending and dedicated to growing the size of government.

Rinke said Whitmer has diminished parents rights and that her policies during the pandemic caused Michigan to suffer greatly.

According to campaign finance reports, Whitmer, a Democrat, has raised $29.6 million in the election cycle since her 2018 victory over Republican Bill Schuette.
An election worker opens envelopes containing vote-by-mail ballots for the Aug. 4 Washington state primary at King County Elections in Renton, Washington, on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

US Postal Service Makes Announcement on Mail-In Ballots Ahead of Midterm Elections

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has created a permanent division that will oversee mail-in ballots beginning with this years midterm election.

The Election and Government Mail Services unit will oversee election mail strike teams in local communities to deal with possible problems, according to Adrienne Marshall, executive director of the newly created division.

We are fully committed to the secure and timely delivery of the nations election mail, she told media outlets on July 27.

Several months ago, the Biden administration requested $5 billion to support the USPSs mail-in voting operations over the next 10 years.

This proposal expands on the essential public services that the Postal Service provides to the American people and will also help to relieve budget strain on local election offices across the country, the administration wrote in March.

It also includes policies making official ballot materials free to mail and reducing the cost of other election-related mail for jurisdictions and voters while enhancing the Postal Services ability to securely and expeditiously deliver and receive mail in underserved areas, the White House said at the time.

The USPS claimed it delivered 97.9 percent of ballots from voters to election officials within three days, and 99.89 percent of ballots were delivered within seven days, during the 2020 election.

The Postal Service is sending guidance letters to election officials in each state and territory this week. So far, nearly 40 million ballots have been mailed to and from voters during primary elections.

Reliability and Fraud

Former President Donald Trump and some Republicans have said that mail-in ballots invite fraud and are unreliable. Numerous lawsuits were filed in the wake of the 2020 election over the ballots, drop boxes, and related policies, while some GOP-controlled legislatures have tightened rules around absentee voting since then.

In 2005, former Democratic President Jimmy Carter and former White House chief of staff James Baker released a report (pdf) that found mail-in and absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud while adding that vote-buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail.

But years later, Carter in May 2020months before the electionreleased a statement that called on states to expand mail-in voting due to COVID-19.

To address this threat, the statement said, The Carter Center urges federal and state governments to expand access to vote-by-mail options and to provide adequate funding as quickly as possible to allow for the additional planning, preparation, equipment, and public messaging that will be required.

Earlier this year, USPS officials confirmed they were investigating two separate incidents in which mail-in ballots were found in Southern California. A woman allegedly found a box of ballots on a sidewalk in Hollywood in May, while a man in San Diego found ballots discarded near an interstate.

The USPS hasnt responded to a request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A helicopter transported one person for treatment after a crash at the intersection of Routes 38 and 104 in the Town of Sterling Saturday.

The 5 p.m. crash reportedly involved a tractor trailer and an SUV, and first responders indicated that two people had been injured, one of whom would require transport by air.

The accident shut down traffic through the heavily traveled area, with Route 104 being a main east/west route across the northern part of Cayuga County, and Route 38 a main connection between the Sterling and Fair Haven areas and points south such as Port Byron and Auburn.

A Life Flight helicopter crew reportedly landed in a parking lot near the scene at about 5:37 p.m. At about the same time, an ambulance was reported to be en route to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse.

The helicopter departed at about 6:10 p.m.

Routes 38 and 104 were opened back up to traffic just before 7 p.m.
Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Price makes her maiden speech in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on July 27, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Virtue Signaling Wont Solve Problems Faced by Indigenous Community: NT Senator

An Indigenous senator has called for an end to the pointless virtue signaling that she says does nothing to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.

In her maiden speech on July 28, newly-elected Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price of the Country Liberal Party described Labors vow to enshrine a Voice to Parliament as a virtuous act of symbolic gesture, questioning whether it will deliver practical outcomes and unite, or drive a wedge further between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

It would be far more dignifying if we were recognised and respected as individuals in our own right who are not simply defined by our racial heritage but by the content of our character, she said.

The former Alice Spring mayor also noted that, contrary to the popular belief that systemic racism is causing Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody found this was not the case, nor did it find Indigenous Australians more likely than other races to be incarcerated.

The greatest problem, she said, lies with the fact that in the same 30 years, over 750 Indigenous Australians were murdered at the hands of other Indigenous Australiansyet there is little concern or acknowledgment that this is why Indigenous Australians are incarcerated at such high rates.

We cannot support legislation that fails to acknowledge the true causes of why Indigenous Australians are marginalised or false narratives that suggest racism is the cause when it has been proven over and again that this is not the case, she said.

Like many countries around the world, when cultures collide and are forced to find ways through socialisation, everyone is affected.

Often, those that are left behind become even more marginalised and are preyed upon by many opportunists for monetary gain, power, and control. This is no different to what we are experiencing in the Northern Territoryby Labor design.

Albaneses Indigenous Voice

The speech came only days before Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday unveiled the wording of a draft referendum question as part of a push to enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament. This proposal includes:

There shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
In this special episode, we sat down with Alex Gray, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former director for Oceania and Indo-Pacific security at the U.S. National Security Council during the Trump administration; and Grant Newsham, retired Marine colonel and director of the One Korea Network. They discuss the importance of the Pacific islands, what it would mean if the United States loses its standing as the preeminent Pacific power, and the consequences if the Chinese regime gains the upper hand.

Newsham said if the Chinese regime were to get the upper hand in the Pacific, it would impact the simple physical ability to operate in the region. We would find ourselves actually defending America, from Hawaii. And if you play that out a little more, youre actually defending America, from a lot closer to the U.S. West Coast. As hard as that is to believe, particularly for somebody whos sort of growing up after World War IIwhere weve had the upper hand, where really Asia, the Pacific has been ourswe would finally face an enemy, face a situation where we would be on the defensive, and from much closer to American territory.

And this would have a way of playing out in other parts of the world as well. So you really cant overstate what is at stake here, in my opinion, he added.

Gray said: If weve learned anything from the post-COVID supply chain disruptions, its just how critical U.S. economic and commercial traffic from Asia to the West Coast, and from the West Coast distributed throughout the United States really is. We continue to be reliant in so many ways on trade and commerce coming from not just China, but from Southeast Asia and from India. And so much of that is going to traverse through the Pacific and end up in West Coast ports. And as long as that is our economic model, as long as we continue to have an economy that requires cheap imports to fuel our consumer spending habits, thats going to require a Navy and projection forces that can traverse the Pacific, keep the sea lanes open, and allow the engine of our economy to keep churning.

He added, and whoever controls access to those islands, whether its the Solomons in the south, whether its Micronesia and the Marshalls and Palau in the north, whether its Kiribati near Hawaii, whoever has the ability to deny access, or keep open access, is going to play a major role in determining the commercial future of the wider Pacific. And thats what the Chinese partially want. They want to be a global power.

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), delivers his speech after his reelection, during the 75th World Health Assembly at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 24, 2022. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

WHO Chief Advises Reducing Sex Partners to Avoid Monkeypox

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) advised men at risk of catching monkeypox to consider reducing their sexual partners.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 98 percent of the monkeypox cases detected since the outbreaks emerged in May have been among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. He called for those at risk to take steps to protect themselves.

That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men, Tedros said at a news conference on Wednesday. This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.

Infectious individuals should isolate and avoid gatherings involving close, physical contact, while people should get contact details for any new sexual partners in case they need to follow up later, the WHO chief said.

To date, more than 22,000 cases have been reported in more than 79 countries; deaths have been reported in Africa, Europe, and South America.
Three smoke plumes from the McKinney Fire are seen early on July 30, 2022, from a Cal Fire outdoor camera called Antelope Mt./Yreka. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Cal Fire via AP)

Wildfires in West Explode in Size, California Governor Declares State of Emergency

SAN DIEGOWildfires in California and Montana exploded in size overnight amid windy, hot conditions and were quickly encroaching on neighborhoods, forcing evacuation orders for over 100 homes Saturday, while an Idaho blaze was spreading.

In Californias Klamath National Forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 square mile to scorching as much as 62 square miles by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials. The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames.

Its continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and were in triple digit temperatures, said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday as the fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid.

It also allows firefighting resources from other states to assist California crews in battling the fires, according to a statement from the governors office.

A pickup truck and a trailer that burned overnight in the middle of state Highway 96 are seen destroyed by the McKinney Fire in the community of Klamath River, Calif., on July 30, 2022. (Scott Stoddard/Grants Pass Daily Courier via AP)

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 square miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. Roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest charred more than 67.5 square miles in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 17 percent contained.

A significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the U.S. Forest Service for the region.

Its a very dangerous firethe geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasnt burned in a while, he said.

A small fire was also burning nearby, outside the town of Seiad, Stokesberry said. With lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the regions fires, he said.

McKinneys explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines, and assist in evacuations in Californias northernmost county of Siskiyou.

The McKinney Fire burns in Siskiyou County, Calif., as seen from the Antelope Mountain Yreka 1 observation camera, early on July 30, 2022. (Cal Fire via AP)

Deputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service.

Over 100 homes were ordered evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96.

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 110-mile section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

Oregon state Rep. Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight.

The sky was glowing with strikes of lightening in the clouds, while ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon, about 10 miles away. Intense heat from the fire had sent up a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which can produce its own weather system including winds and thunderstorms, Grayber said.

These were some of the worst winds Ive ever been in and were used to big fires, she said. I thought it was going to rip the roof top tent off of our truck. We got the heck out of there.

On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety.

The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity, she said. It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds. Usually that happens with a fire during the day but not at night. I hope for everyones sake this dies down but its looking like its going to get worse.

In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze.

Smoke shut down a portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

Crews from several different agencies were fighting the fire on Saturday, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground.

In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire Saturday and protecting homes, energy infrastructure and the Highway 93 corridor, a major north-south route.

A red flag warning indicated that the weather could make things worse with the forecast calling for dry thunderstorms, with lightning, wind and no rain.

Meanwhile, crews made significant progress in battling another major blaze in California that forced evacuations of thousands of people near Yosemite National Park earlier this month. The Oak fire was 52 percent contained by Saturday, according to a Cal Fire incident update.
A man walks past tanks of German chemicals giant BASF at the company's headquarters in Ludwigshafen, western Germany, on Feb. 26, 2019. (Uwe Anspach/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)

Worlds Largest Chemical Company to Produce Less Ammonia, a Key Fertilizer Ingredient

Production reduced amid soaring gas prices

The worlds largest chemical company, Germanys BASF, is set to further cut its production of ammoniaa key ingredient of fertilizeramid soaring natural gas prices.

We are reducing production at facilities that require large volumes of natural gas, such as ammonia plants, BASF CEO Martin Brudermueller said in a July 27 media call after the release of the companys second-quarter results.

In September 2021, BASF cut ammonia production at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, as well as at its large chemical complex in Antwerp, Belgium.

To fill gaps in supply, BASF will purchase some ammonia from external suppliers, Brudermueller said.

Ammonia is a key ingredient in fertilizer production. It also plays a key role in the manufacturing of plastics and diesel exhaust fluid. Its production also yields high-purity carbon dioxide as a byproduct, which is needed by the meat and fizzy drinks industries.

Chemical companies are the biggest industrial natural gas users in Germany and ammonia is the single most gas-intensive product within that industry. The production of ammonia usually accounts for about 4.5 percent of the natural gas used by German industries.

Germanys largest ammonia maker, SKW Piesteritz, and No. 4, Ineos, have separately stated that they cant rule out production cuts amid disruption to Russian gas supplies.

Unlike many European countries, Germany has no liquefied natural gas port terminals to replace Russian pipeline gas. That means companies are under pressure to reduce gas-intensive activities if gas deliveries are cut further.

Russian gas producer Gazprom began reducing on July 27 its gas supply to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the major delivery route to Europe for Russian gas. Supplies were cut to a mere fifth, or 20 percent, of the pipelines total capacity. The drop comes after the pipeline restarted on July 21, following a scheduled 10-day maintenance outage.

In an effort to boost the regions energy security, the European Union announced on July 26 a voluntary reduction of natural gas demand by 15 percent for the winter.

Brudermueller said that come 2023, farmers would see high fertilizer costs and fertilizer availability might be worse.

The main application for ammonia is for fertilizers, and thats for producing food. For this year, thats not going to be a problem because all the farmers have already bought their fertilizers and have already used it on their field. The harvest is already taking place, he said. Next availability will be worse because the capacity is not going to be there and the next is price. Fertilizer prices are skyrocketing.

And then farmers will be forced to save money and will only use the minimum of fertilizers on their field. Might also mean that harvest is going to be minor. If there are weather problems, [it would result in] a shortage situation for important crops.

He also noted that poorer countries at the end of the food supply chain would face significant challenges.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Would the Indictment of Donald Trump Lead to Civil War?

Commentary

Midway through viewing The Epoch Times excellent documentary about the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach, I started wonderingand not for the first timewhether were on the brink of civil war and if an indictment of Donald Trump by Attorney General Merrick Garland would take us over that brink.

Consciously or unconsciously, that appears to be the ultimate goal of the committee, especially now that its being reported that few are paying close attention to it. Such an act would clearly garner that attention, to say the least, in a divided land where the former president has in the vicinity of 100 million supporters, many of them adamant.

It also would pretty much erase the word unconsciously from the previous paragraph, barely there in the first place.

Michael Anton, of The Flight 93 Election fame, wrote just a few days ago in another epochal essay, They Cant Let Him Back, that begins, The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they cant, and wont, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.

He also wrote, Anti-Trump hysteria, in the final analysis, is not about Trump.

Indeed. This hysteria is about the preservation of a system thats almost as far from our envisioned original democratic republic as you could go and is heading further off, a kind of bureaucratic oligarchy commonly called the administrative state. Its ultimately about preserving thousands, probably hundreds of thousands and possibly millions, of lifetime ruling-class jobs, high and low, or jobs related to them or depending on them.

The vast majority of these jobs, as many already and an increasing number know, shouldnt exist. They do nothing to enhance the life of the average citizen and in many, if not most, cases make it worse.

You might even call it Rule-by-Kafka, especially since the advent of COVID-19, the Czech genius having given us the best descriptions of our current existence in works such as The Trial and, more specifically, The Metamorphosis, when a man awakens to find he has become a cockroach.

Trump was rather naive at the outset of his administration, unwittingly employing and therefore enabling a surprising number of these tribunes of the Deep State. No longer, if his recent statements are any indication. He seems bent on the destruction of the administrative state and a positive return to the republic for which it stands. Its also likely that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, having observed the situation well, would behave similarly.

What we could be seeing in the next months is an indictment of Trump, based on the findings of the Jan. 6 House select committee, accompanied by, within weeks either way as a palliative, some kind of indictment of Hunter Biden that would almost certainly come in the form of a settlement. That settlement, givenas Kafka well knewthe behavior of those who control your lives, would include the agreed-upon permanent sealing of documents, including laptop contents, possibly their destruction as well, by all sides, flushing concrete evidence of Biden Family legal and arguably traitorous doings, presidential and otherwise, in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and wherever else down the proverbial memory hole.

Would that palliative be enough to avoid civil war and get the masses to acquiesce?

If theres a civil war, we can blame, in part, Liz Cheney (somewhat of a comedown from Archduke Franz Ferdinand) whose obvious overwhelming motivationunremitting vengeance for a slight to her fatherwould get an understanding nod from Sophocles and Euripides, both of whom wrote magnificent Electra plays.

Watching the documentary also sent my mind back more than a decade to when, for PJTV, I went to Stanford University to video a lecture by the historian/classicist Victor Davis Hanson, well known to almost all readers here. I recall Victor saying something obviously true that I had never thought of before and that made me feel a little dumbthat war was the basic human condition, and we were living through an exceptionally rare moment of peace or semi-peace.

That the current Ukraine war is relatively contained comports with Hansons observation.

But will it last?

So to channel Herman Kahn of thermonuclear war fame, it may be time to think about the unthinkable. Thomas Jefferson certainly did when he wrote in a letter to James Madison, I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

He also wrote in a letter to William Smith, God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion 

Of course, those were the days when weaponry was but bows and arrows compared to what we have today.

War has a way of sneaking up on you. As Leon Trotsky is reputed to have put it, You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

This quote from the famous communist is oft-repeated because, unlike much of his propaganda, it has the ring of truth.

Events spin out of control. Think what an insane-sounding moment in history it would appear if Liz Cheneys fury at Trumps insulting her father about the Iraq War turned out to be the igniting point of a second U.S. civil war (insane-sounding, yet straight out of Greek tragedy). And yet where would the Jan. 6 committee be without the cover of Liz, the putative Republican? Would it even exist?

The second U.S. civil war may already have begun with the arrests of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon because of their refusal to speak with the committee. These are initial shots across the bow. Bannons relationship with Trump has sometimes been equivocal, but Navarro was his virtual right-hand man, indispensable in how he dealt with China.

Moreover, the two most recent Democratic administrations appear to have been making preparations for such an internal fight by appointing the so-called woke to the highest ranks of the military. This makes no sense if you think about our well-armed adversaries in China and Russia, who must have rolled their eyes in untold delight at such a strategy, even more so after the Afghanistan debacle. What a gift from what was once the strongest military in the world.

But if you think about it in terms of civil war, if you think that the real concern of our present government is internal, it starts to compute, as do the recent activities of our Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and so forth.

Which side the military would be on is definitely a Kahn-style unthinkable question. Its also a hard one to answer. Traditionally, the military would be on the side of the people, especially since its ranks generally consist of the working class young. But considering much of its leadership, it would likely be split, although its unclear in what percentages. A war within the military is a distinct possibility. Similarly, there would be wars among the police.

Whatever the case, given that this wouldnt be nearly as much a NorthSouth war as the first onesince many red enclaves exist in blue states and many blue enclaves, particularly in the cities, exist in red statesand given that more families themselves are riven, everything is unpredictable.

Perhaps its time to give a U.S. separationseceding intelligentlymore serious thought, heartbreaking as it is to contemplate. Maybe if we separate, we can learn to live togetherafter a time, anyway. The Israelis and the Arab world are edging closer together. (Yes, they have a common enemy in Iran, but still )

In any case, Civil War II is horrifying to contemplate, with potentially more corpses than the first time around, when an estimated 620,000 men died. That was out of a paltry 19.2 million population. Were currently at more than 300 million people. Do the mathand add women, who would now more likely be participantsand the numbers are pretty mortifying to calculate.

Continuing to think the unthinkabledoing that Kahn thingunfortunately also encompasses considering the final result, if were to be in any way complete.

Pondering this while driving across Middle Tennessee the other day to visit a friend who lives in a rural area, gazing out at the endless farms with the strong men and women working the landwe can call them unabashedly The PatriotsI knew they would win in the end, bitter as it would be. Theyre godly, theyre brave, they would persevere, and theyre already armed and know well how to use those weapons.

After all, if were but Kafkas cockroach, its worth remembering that cockroaches have been around for at least 300 million years and are showing no signs of extinction.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Former Philippine President Fidel Valdez Ramos, a U.S.-trained ex-general who saw action in the Korean and Vietnam wars and played a key role in a 1986 pro-democracy uprising that ousted a dictator, has died. He was 94.

Ramoss family announced his death with profound sadness but did not provide other details in a brief statement that asked for privacy.

One of his longtime aides, Norman Legaspi, told The Associated Press that Ramos had been in and out of the hospital in recent years due to a heart condition and had suffered from dementia.

Some of Ramoss relatives were with him when he died on Sunday at the Makati Medical Center in metropolitan Manila, Legaspi said.

He was an icon. We lost a hero and I lost a father, said Legaspi, a retired Philippine air force official, who served as a close staff to Ramos in and out of government for about 15 years.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condoled with the family of Ramos in a Facebook post. We did not only lose a good leader but also a member of the family, he said.

The newly elected president is the namesake son of the former Philippine dictator, whose 1986 ouster came after Ramos, then a top official of the Philippine Constabulary, and defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile withdrew their support in defections that sparked massive army-backed protests.

Ramos was the late dictator's second cousin, and in 1972 had helped him implement martial law during which thousands of people were incarcerated, tortured and became victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances.

The Department of National Defense, which was once led by him, said Ramos was a decorated soldier who spearheaded the modernization of the military, one of Asia's most underfunded. He organized the elite special forces of the army and the national police.

The United States, the European Union and other foreign governments expressed their condolences. His contributions to the U.S.-Philippines bilateral relationship and advancing our shared goals of peace and democracy will always be remembered, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said.

The cigar-chomping Ramos, known for his we can do this rallying call, thumbs-up sign, attention to detail and firm handshakes, served as president from 1992 to 1998, succeeding the democracy icon, Corazon Aquino.

She was swept into the presidency in 1986 after the largely peaceful People Power revolt that toppled the elder Marcos and became a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes worldwide.

In a memorable moment of the revolt, as the tide turned against Marcos, Ramos jumped in triumph with his hands high up while Enrile was rallying a crowd under a Philippine flagpole, drawing applause and cheers from rebel forces. The scene was captured by an AP and a few other photojournalists and had been reenacted by Ramos each year during the anniversary of the revolt, until age and his failing health prevented him from showing up.

Marcos, his family and cronies were driven into U.S. exile, where he died in 1989.

After Aquino rose to the presidency, Ramos became the military chief of staff and later defense secretary, successfully defending her from several violent coup attempts.

In 1992, Ramos won the presidential elections and became the largely Roman Catholic nations first Protestant president. His term was marked by major reforms and attempts to dismantle telecommunications and other business monopolies that triggered a rare economic boom, bolstered the image of the impoverished Southeast Asian country and drew praise from business leaders and the international community.

One of his legacies was the 1996 signing of a peace pact between his government and the Moro National Liberation Front, the largest Muslim separatist group at the time in the volatile southern Philippines, homeland of minority Muslims.

Ramoss calm bearing in times of crises earned him the moniker Steady Eddie.

A son of a longtime legislator and foreign secretary, Ramos graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1950. He was a part of the Philippine combat contingent that fought in the Korean War and was also involved in the Vietnam War as a non-combat civil military engineer.

Ramos is survived by his wife, Amelita Ramos, a school official, pianist, sportswoman and an environmental advocate, and their four daughters. Their second child, Josephine Ramos-Samartino, died in 2011.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
Hundreds gathered Saturday for what organizers called a day of hope and healing in East Buffalo, just a few blocks from where a self-avowed white supremacist on May 14 shot and killed 10 Black community members at the neighborhood's only full-service grocery store.

Resources were provided, with more than 3,000 backpacks distributed to children, nonperishable food items doled out to hundreds of families and free health services offered such as COVID-19 testing, vaccinations and blood pressure screening. The event, hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Partnership Center and Buffalo Public Schools, was meant to signal ongoing support for the community long after the national spotlight has shifted elsewhere.

"You are not alone," said the Rev. Dr. Que English, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at HHS. "We are not here for a start-and-stop project. We're here for the long haul."

That's the kind of commitment residents and local officials hope continues, as the community heals from one of the country's worst racist mass shootings in years and attempts to build back stronger. Much work remains, however, as officials reckon with a historical lack of investment in East Buffalo, which has led to substandard housing, limited food access and health care inequities.

The need for ongoing support was a theme of the more than hour of speeches Saturday at the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center from dignitaries that included local faith leaders, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Byron Brown.

City Council President Darius G. Pridgen, who started his speech by leading the crowd in a chant of "Hate won't win," referenced President Joe Biden's trip to Buffalo three days after the shooting. Pridgen said he had a simple message for Biden when he arrived: Don't disappear. So far, Pridgen said, Biden's administration is paying attention to the types of communities that historically have been ignored.

"I just say, 'Don't drop us now. Don't drop us,' " Pridgen said. "You picked us up, now carry us in the healing. Buffalo, we are strong. We are together and no white supremacist will tear us apart."

In addition to her pushing to strengthen the state's gun laws, Hochul referenced the state's upcoming $50 million of targeted investments to address the needs of East Buffalo. Of that, $34.5 million is geared toward housing, helping up to 4,000 East Buffalo homeowners pay off delinquent bills, providing home repair grants to about 1,000 homeowners and earmarking down payments for 150 first-time homeowners.

Hochul said applications for the homeowner programs will open Aug. 9. Starting Wednesday, residents can call 211 to learn more about the programs and how to apply.

"We're just getting started," Hochul said. "We were already making investments long before that tragic day in May."

After Hochul spoke, officials gathered to read the names of the 10 victims before releasing white balloons into the air. One of those killed was an Auburn resident, Andre Mackniel, who was visiting family and purchasing a birthday cake for his 3-year-old son at the time of the shooting.

The governor then walked over to the backpack distribution line and handed out the first items to some residents who had patiently waited in line for an hour for the speeches to wrap up and the giveaways to begin.

Leeann Roland, who has lived in East Buffalo her whole life, and her three daughters, Arielle, Gabrielle and Ava, didn't mind the wait on the bright summer day. Her daughters went home with matching pink backpacks.

"I like seeing everybody," she said. "I hope more community activities happen."

The community came together, but many residents are in different stages of the healing process.

Alissa Marshall said she hasn't been back to the Tops on Jefferson Avenue since it reopened July 15. She said she's not ready yet, having known several of the victims, including Ruth Whitfield, Roberta Drury and Aaron Salter Jr.

At Tops, where she had shopped the Monday before the shooting, Marshall often saw the same faces there all the time  the reality of having just one full-service supermarket nearby that, in turn, becomes a community gathering spot.

To fight racist hate, Tops survivor and his mom collect a mountain of children's books After the racist mass shooting at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14, Zeneta Everhart and her son, Zaire Goodman, who was wounded in the attack, started a book drive. Their goal was to collect children's books that address racism, as well as Black history and culture. They started a wish list on Amazon and have collected about 10,000 books.

As she started pushing her cart forward in the food line that led inside the school, where residents were offered pasta, mixed vegetables, bottled water and snacks, Marshall said she believes East Buffalo needs better food access.

"When you go to the suburbs and you see they have the plazas with everything," she said, pausing for a moment. "Why can't we have the same thing here?"

Like the community, Zeneta Everhart and her son, Zaire Goodman, continue to heal. Everhart attended Saturday and said her son, a Tops employee who was wounded but survived the shooting, is doing well and is going through therapy.

Everhart was happy with the community turnout Saturday, noting that Jefferson and Fillmore avenues were the place to be when she was growing up. She said Jefferson Avenue should be full of life, hope and healing as the community looks toward its future.

"A terrorist came into our community and tried to destroy us, but we're here," Everhart said. "We're not going to be scared. We're not going anywhere. We're going to make sure that the East Side of Buffalo gets the resources that it needs to thrive."
We know they are lying,

They know they are lying,

They know we know they are lying,

We know they know we know they are lying,

But they are still lying.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

Complicit

1. involved with others in an activity that is unlawful or morally wrong.

Complaisant

1. willing to please others or to accept what they do or say without protest.

Complacent

1. showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements.

Once upon a time, there was a village of people who lived in handcrafted wood houses. And like other villages in this era, fires were a very real and present danger at all times. One small flame could burn the whole village into ashes within a few short hours. So, the villagers developed a clever firefighting system.

A rotating group of volunteers kept watch over the village from a lookout tower at all times, day and night. At the first sight of smoke, a volunteer would turn on a loud siren that was only ever sounded when warning the villagers about a fire. The moment the siren sounded, all villagers would drop everything and run to a pre-assigned location for firefighting.

Young, strong women and men would pump water as fast as possible from the village wells, teenage boys and girls would fill big buckets with water as it was pumped up from the well, and all the rest of the villagers would occupy designated locations and ultimately form human chains leading from the wells to the fire. The bravest women and men would stand next to the fire and heave buckets of water until the fire was extinguished.

One day a traveller from a distant village heard the siren and asked someone on the street about it. The woman  who was rushing toward her designated location  quickly explained, Whenever theres a fire, the siren is sounded and the fire is extinguished!

The traveller was amazed, and decided to bring this remarkable siren technology back to his own village, which also had dreadful problems with fires. Days later, he returned to his village with a siren that perfectly matched the one he witness in action on the lookout tower. He gathered all his villagers together, and he said, You dont need to fear fire anymore, my friends. I have found a new way to extinguish it. Watch closely, and I shall demonstrate.

The traveller lit a large bale of hay on fire that was sitting next to his own cottage. The flames quickly began to spread closer and closer to his home. Then he took out the siren hed acquired and sounded it. The fire only grew in its intensity, so he sounded it again. The fire continued to grow rapidly.

Just be patient, everyone! It should happen any moment now

In a panic he sounded the siren again and again, but still the fire grew and blazed with even more intensity. Within hours the entire village burned down to the ground because, of course, the traveller had misunderstood the purpose of the siren. It wasnt used to put out fires. It was simply a signal that directed the villagers to take positive action.

The government of the day is neither proactive nor reactive, so in one day we are saddled with headlines likeTerrorist in new video claims to be Boko Haram member who escaped from Kuje Prison Presidency: Military action will hurt hostages U.S. agency: Nigeria recorded 5,222 violent killings in six months Youve two options, free the victims or negotiate their release, Shehu Sani tells Buhari Northern groups fault FG over failure to tackle insecurity Your govt has failed Nigerians, APC chieftain blasts Buhari Nigerias collapse imminent if we fail to act, Gani Adams warns



Just imagine

Irked by Federal Governments inability to meet their demands, terrorists who kidnapped the Kaduna-Abuja train passengers on March 28, 2022, have vowed to abduct President Muhammadu Buhari and governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai if their requests are not met.

Days later, my friend Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai, told us that the president was not even aware of the threat, until he told him!

What will one say, write or rant about that has not been said before. Is it the Kuje Prisons, or the Jos Prisons attack, is it the fact that no one has sincerely been held liable or accountable for all these security breaches. Do we lament over the death of security service personnel, numbers that we are beginning to lose count of, or the fact that some of them are complicit and complaisant in the whole matter?

Do we engage the government and its spokespersons on how they have arrived at the conclusion that Nigeria is safer now than it was some 9 years ago, or that indeed we are much closer to Afghanistan in the way and manner, as non-state actors have literally taken over. How do we explain that as pedestrian as it sounds, we have spent billions in all currencies, and yet motorcycle marauding bandits have torn our security architecture apart.

That the government of the day has resorted to one week, one shock, one excuse. For the past seven years we have been deceived by the so-called-we-would-release-the-list-of-sponsors and technical-defeat of the terrorists. Meanwhile, wanted bandits are turbaned and the state government is asked to approve millions to investigate an event that was a public show.

We pretend like it was not a while ago that the Nigerian Defence Academy was attacked or that there was an attempted robbery at the villa, did we suddenly forget all that drama of the vegetation is not similar to the vegetation in the North East when they (boko haram) shot down a fighter jet, and till date the bodies of the fighter pilots not yet found.

Terrorists ambush Brigade Guard in nation's capital Abuja, forces closure of schools, not for the first time, this is weeks after the presidents advance team was ambushed. Kidnap victims now spend from an average of three to 200 days and more depending on the ransom demanded which range from half a million to as much as 100million or more depending. And no one is taking responsibilities, no one is held accountable.

One thing that is not debatable nor contestable is the fact that the Government is benefiting from the insecurity.

I write because I love my nation Nigeria, my essays, admonition, investigative work, and articles are a lookout tower. In the Nigerian lookout tower, the siren has sounded. If we continue to do nothing as the siren blows, in many ways, Nigeria will ultimately burn to the ground (dramatic, yet true).

For a siren extinguishes no fires on its own. But if we listen to the siren and let it motivate us to take positive action, we can save our own lifeand create a sense of purpose, peace and resolve for ourselves and those who depend on us.

The steps Nigeria needs to take next wont be easy, but they will be worthy. We must take deliberate steps and strong ones that have what it takes to fight and extinguish even the hottest fires that burn from within. Nigeria has seen six, and should not be scared of half a dozen, leadership and followership at all levels are complicit and complaisant. There is a need for a-now-now-action or the fire will consume many of us, whether we take the decision now or take it wrongly like the traveller in our storyOnly time will tell.
The third batch of Two-hundred and thirty-eight (238) Oyo pilgrims who partook in this year's Hajj exercise in Saudi Arabia have safely arrived in Lagos.

The pilgrims, who left Nigeria on Saturday, July 2, 2022 arrived at exactly ? pm today, July 31, 2022 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

The visibly excited pilgrims were welcomed back to the country by some members of the State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Muslim Wing and were ushered into waiting buses back to the Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board (Muslim) to meet their friends and families.

Addressing the media, the Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun as well as his colleague in Budget and Economic Planning, Prof. Musibau Babatunde thanked the Oyo State government for its unflinching support in making this year's Hajj a success.

On behalf of the pilgrims, they thanked Almighty Allah for His mercy throughout the spiritual exercise.

"We enjoyed immeasurable support from the State Government and we are grateful to our Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde for this," they said.

Olatubosun also commended efforts of the leader of Oyo state delegation, Senator Monsurat Sumonu for the success recorded, while state pilgrims were appreciated for making the state proud by adhering strictly to every protocol in Saudi Arabia.

"This largely contributed to the success of the pilgrimage, as no crime or any casualty was recorded", he added.

Recall that a total number of Six hundred and Fifty-five Pilgrims, including officials were airlifted by Oyo State Government for the spiritual exercise in four batches.

Among the state delegation for this year's Hajj exercise who were on this batch include: Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun; Prof Musibau Babatunde, the special assistant to the governor on Islamic Matters, Imam Abdul Rasheed Abdul Azeez and state pilgrims welfare board, Muslim wing officials.

With the third batch, the total number of pilgrims who have returned from the holy land is Five hundred and Eighty-six, while others are expected to be back later this week.

E-Signed:

Hon. Wasiu Olatubosun, Ph.D.,

Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism,

Oyo State.

July 31, 2022.


The European Union and the British Council in conjunction with the Nigerian regulatory agencies have trained Edo-based Civil Society Organizations on tax compliance and the roles of regulatory agencies.

The two days Agencies Citizenship Driven Transformation (ACT) programme drew facilitators from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission(EFCC), Federal Inland Revenue Services( FIRS) and Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC) who engaged civil society and non-governmental organizations in capacity-building, roles of regulatory agencies and tax compliance.

Speaking, the former Director General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and a facilitator at the weekend, Prof. Adedeji Adekunle said the programme which involves sector regulators focused on the area of compliance with taxation and anti-money laundering. He said the reason is to enhance knowledge of civil society organizations on the rules in the sector.

"What prompted this programme was that about two years ago. It was noticed by the European Union and other partners that the level of awareness by civil society and other non-governmental organizations was very low, and probably because in the past, even regulatory agencies did not pay much attention to NGOs and Civil Society Organizations, but now the activities of Civil Society Organizations have increased and the role and impact of their activities can no longer be ignored.

" So, there is a need for them to be properly enlightened on the rules and the regulatory framework."

Also, Mr Newton Otsemaye, the state focal person of the Agencies and Citizenship Driven Transformation (ACT) programme said the four years programme by the EU, which is supported by the British Council seeks to strengthen CSO and NGOs in the area of the internal relationship between themselves and relationship with regulatory agencies across ten states in Nigeria.

"What we are doing today is to look at the regulatory framework, eg. the CAMA, FIRS, EFCC and a host of others and see how these regulators can be friendly with CSOs and NGOs, but you must understand that most of these CSOs don't understand how these agencies work in Nigeria, so there is capacity deficiency In this regard.

"This is what this training seeks to bridge, mostly in terms of information and knowledge. We are here to enlighten the CSO and NGO on how the environment is regulated in Edo State."

One of the participants, Onome Otueroro, the Executive Director of Christabel Otueroro Foundation, said the training has given him enough enlightenment on the regulatory framework in the NGO space, which was a challenge his organization have been having with the regulators, but that now he has been equipped to deal with the challenges.

Another participant, Beatrice Arheghaw of Behshaw Youth Organization said the training has given her a better understanding of the working of these regulatory agencies,

" Before now, I noticed that we were being faulted for many things, but now the regulatory agencies have given us better information on what we needed to do and how to go about it." She said.
Suspected informants who leaked and guided the terrorists on critical information relating to troops locations and movements around the outskirts of Abuja have been arrested. It was reliably gathered that four suspects have been taken into custody and are being grilled.

An intelligence operative told PRNigeria that the suspects were arrested with sophisticated equipment including Walkie-Talkies, revolver, knives, amulets, and old Chinese made phones, that do not use data.

The source, who was part of the raid that led to the arrest of the informants, said discreet investigations are ongoing to confirm their leaders and financiers.

Activities of the terrorist-collaborators were responsible for the recent attacks around the vicinity of the Federal Capital Territory , FCT, the source added.

The suspects are currently being interrogated to determine if they are working for terrorist groups or armed bandits or other elements with ulterior motives.

I can authoritatively inform you that, while the military has deliberately refused to provide updates since the attack on Kuje Prison, to last attacks on troops at the Bwari and Zuma Rock axis, the joint security task force has so far killed more than 70 armed criminals, including dangerous Kuje prison escapees and terrorists, the source added

Meanwhile, PRNigeria gathered that the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) is coordinating a discreet intelligence operation that is providing new clues and traces of groups behind recent attacks on security personnel and formations.
Chinese-Australian man accused of killing mother in condo

BANGKOK: Police have arrested a Chinese-Australian businessman suspected of fatally shooting his mother and threatening to kill his wife and children in a Sukhumvit condominium in Bangkok on Friday night (July 29).

crimedeathpolice

By Bangkok Post

Sunday 31 July 2022, 09:50AM

The 41-year-old suspect sits in a police van on his way to the South Bangkok Criminal Court, where police on Saturday (July 30) sought approval for his detention. Photo: Wassayos Ngamkham / Bangkok Post

Officers yesterday took the 41-year-old to the Bangkok South Criminal Court to seek detention approval. Investigators opposed granting the suspect bail, rep[orts the Bangkok Post.

He has been charged with homicide and illegal possession of a gun and ammunition.

Kelvin Shuo Gao is accused of fatally shooting his mother Xing Liu, 61, in a 9th-floor Supalai Place condo family unit on Sukhumvit Soi 39, police said. Police were called to the scene about 7:30pm.

The suspect made no attempt to flee the scene when police arrived, according to Pol Col Duangchot Suwancharas, chief of Thong Lor police.

He allegedly threatened to kill his wife and their children  aged seven and two  as well as himself before police intervened, Col Duangchot said.

The suspect has been living in Thailand for 12 years and runs an LED business, he added.

During questioning, the suspect said he was under pressure from his mother, owner of a plastic factory in Pathum Thanis Sam Khok district, he said.

He told police his mother controlled everything related to the business, saying further that pressure and alcohol consumption drove him to violence, Col Duangchot said.

He shot his mother on the right side of her stomach, police said. The victims body was sent to the Police General Hospital for post-mortem.

Police seized a Colt Commander 9mm gun and four BB guns as evidence.
Thai Airways to relaunch Jeddah flights

BANGKOK: Thai Airways International (THAI) has announced that it will launch four weekly flights between Bangkok and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, beginning on Aug 19.



By National News Bureau of Thailand

Sunday 31 July 2022, 10:12AM

Photo: NNT

Suwatana Sibunruang, the interim CEO of THAI, stated that the resumption of commercial flights after 32 years of hiatus provides an opportunity to strengthen economic, trade, and tourism connections between the two nations, reports state news agency NNT.

Suwatana noted that the newly formed services encourage Thai Muslims to travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj, adding that the airline has arranged flights for Thais to travel to the Middle Eastern nation since 2005.

Nond Kalinta, the airlines chief commercial officer, stated that the new flights will facilitate travel between Thais and those from Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

According to Nond, from Aug 19 to Dec 31, THAI will also increase luggage allowances for economy class travelers to 35kg and business class passengers to 40kg.

The weekly flights, which operate every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday are as follows:

-TG 503 leaves Bangkok at 6:45pm (local time) and arrives in Jeddah at 10:40pm (local time)

-TG 504 leaves Jeddah at 12:40am (local time) and arrives in Bangkok at 1:10pm (local time).
The Road Less Travelled

Long-term Phuket expat Jim Mielke has just released the second installment of his trilogy subtitled Adventures in International Living, Self-Discovery, and a Life of Meaning, with the hope of inspiring people to travel off the beaten track and help local communities while theyre there.

TravelCommunity

By The Phuket News

Sunday 31 July 2022, 11:00AM

Such journeys force people to face experiences through which they ultimately learn much more about themselves, says Jim. Following on from his first book, Have Bag - Will Travel, the second book is titled The Warlords Hospital and Other Stories.

Drawing on over 45 years of personal journal entries, the series chronicles some of his experiences living and working in developing countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, as well as low-cost adventure travel to exotic destinations on every continent except Antarctica.

Ten percent of proceeds from book purchases are donated to charitable organisations in the developing world.

Originally from Buffalo, New York, Jim grew up as a pastors son. Following years of pain, depression and suffering with Crohns disease, Jim at age 19 was fitted with an external pouch. Almost immediately after receiving the bag, which alleviated the pain and misery, he felt strong and exhilarated and was catapulted into a whole new energised life. For the first time in years, he was free to enjoy all that life offers and that freedom continues now, 45 years later.

Over the years, Jim has spoken to college students, members of voluntary organisations and other interested groups about world service work and other options for international experiences  just as someone spoke to him 45 years ago, when he was a summer employee at the YMCA.

Jim has lived and worked in over 20 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. In that time, he completed his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Public Health at the University of Hawaii. This was funded by a State of Hawaii academic award and a US Government grant administered by the East-West Center research institute in Honolulu, whose mission is to promote better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.

Jim first learned about YMCA overseas volunteer opportunities when he was a college student working a summer job at Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George, New York. After graduating in 1982, he was soon off to Sri Lanka for a six-week internship with the Colombo YMCA, where he led outdoor recreation and life skills programs for disadvantaged youth. He ended up staying for six months.

After Sri Lanka, and his subsequent postings with the YMCAs in Western Samoa and Fiji Islands, Jim was hooked on the thrill of international living. For the next eight years, he worked with voluntary organisations in developing countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

An experienced expat, Jim has been to more than 60 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America and the Pacific. He currently works as an international health and development consultant for various humanitarian aid agencies, and he is also an internationally certified classical yoga and meditation teacher and teaches both as a seasonal volunteer at YMCAs in the US and abroad.

Having survived these adventures, Jim still travels, and lives in a peaceful seaside setting in Ao Por. Jim first made his way to Phuket on a fishing boat from the South in the early 1980s, after staying at a bungalow owned by a local family on the back side of Phi Phi Island. Like so many other people, he joined the aid efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004, after which he made the permanent move to Phuket.

For Jim, joining aid efforts abroad is the key way to gain genuine life-impacting experiences through travel, the types of experiences that go beyond the popular tourist destinations and give real meaning and purpose to ones travels. During his seasonal returns as a volunteer at the YMCA, he meets many young people who are happy to travel across the United States, but stop there.

They are too apprehensive about travelling abroad, which is the one thing that will truly deliver what they are looking for: genuine life experiences that will broaden their understanding of the world, he says.

Money is not the issue. Jims first trip abroad to Sri Lanka was paid for with money from his paper route.

For Jim, his latest book offers inspiration to any people looking to finally take the plunge to travel abroad. Many young people are eager for an overseas experience, and are searching for direction, but for various reasons, never get there. In a world of increasing global interdependence, the lasting benefits of international travel and cross-cultural service experiences are truly priceless, he says.

The books will resonate with anyone who has desired to travel and live overseas. The stories demonstrate how anyone can experience genuine fulfilment and self-discovery through different, freer ways of living, no matter what your budget, he adds.

It will stoke the fires of adventure, especially among young people. It will inspire and encourage those seeking something beyond their national borders, beyond the mainstream tourist destinations, superficial material lifestyles and empty career paths. The discovery early in life of the deeper meaning and potential derived from international and cross-cultural perspectives might even save 30 years of meaningless work later.

It [such travel] reveals that you grow when you give back. Giving back to the world in return for all that has been given, and expanding ones horizons through travel, leads to immense personal growth, he adds.

The book demonstrates perseverance with a positive mindset. After years of suffering, it gave me back my health, my freedom  and 45 years on, life keeps getting better all the time, Jim says.

This story encourages readers to be accepting, flexible and to learn to roll with the flow. If youve been bumped off the track, the next adventure is about to begin! Find the silver lining that transforms negatives into positives, and new doors open.

Both Jims books are available on Amazon. The Kindle version of each costs just US$3.99. Jim is currently in the final stages of writing the third instalment.

Have Bag - Will Travel: Adventures in International Living, Self-Discovery, and a Life of Meaning

The Warlords Hospital and Other Stories

(Adventures in International Living, Self-Discovery, and a Life of Meaning Book 2)
Vietnamese mother, daughter drown at Phuket beach

PHUKET: A Vietnamese mother and daughter on holiday in Phuket drowned in strong surf at Nai Thong Beach this morning (July 31).

tourismmarineSafety

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 31 July 2022, 03:44PM

Photo: Sakhu Police

Police reported they were called to the beach at 8:50am after the mother and daughter* had already been rushed to Thalang Hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Staff at a nearby hotel on the beachfront reported that the mother and daughter, along with one other person described by police in their report as a friend, went swimming in the strong waves at about 7:30am.

Staff said they waved at the tourists and tried to warn them to get out of the water, but their pleas were ignored.

According to the police report, lifeguards at the beach said they patrolled the beach only from 8am to 6pm, inferring that the incident happened before they arrived. Lifeguards added that they have two lifeguard stations on the beach.

However, the police report also noted that CPR was performed on the beach and while the mother and daughter were rushed to Thalang Hospital.

The lifeguards also pointed out that the mother and daughter were swimming where red no swimming flags were posted, although according to the police report the incident appeared to have happened before lifeguards arrived.

Thalang Police said that the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok had been notified of the incident, and that police were awaiting instructions from the family as to what it is be done with the bodies of the mother and daughter.

The police concluded with the note: Nai Thon Beach has strong waves and red flags are placed along the beach. There is a sign saying Dangerous. Do not swim more than 20 meters from the shore.

When tourists swim [in dangerous areas], lifeguards will blow the whistle to prompt tourists to get out of the water immediately.

* Later identified as Hoang Hai Van, 52, and her daughter Nguyen Chuc An, 16.
Zelensky urges evacuation of Ukraines frontline Donetsk

KYIV: Ukraines president urged civilians yesterday to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military, as Kyiv called on the Red Cross and UN to gain access to its soldiers being held by Moscows forces.

RussianUkraineviolencedeathmilitarypolitics

By AFP

Sunday 31 July 2022, 10:43AM

Smoke fills the skies from burning fields at the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, yesterday (July 30), as the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 156th day. Photo: Bulent Kilic / AFP

The eastern Donetsk region has faced the brunt of Russias offensive since its assault on Kyiv failed weeks into the invasion launched on Feb 24.

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his daily address that thousands of people, including children, were still in the regions battleground areas, with six civilians killed and 15 wounded on Friday, according to the Donetsk governor.

Theres already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk, Zelensky said, underscoring authorities calls to leave the besieged region in recent weeks.

Leave, we will help, Zelensky said. At this stage of the war, terror is the main weapon of Russia.

Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the unoccupied area of Donetsk at between 200,000 and 220,000.

A mandatory evacuation notice posted yesterday evening said the coming winter made it a matter of urgency, particularly for the more than 50,000 children still in the region.

They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm, Kyivs Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said in a statement.

Zelensky, in his address, also once more pressed the international community, especially the United States, to have Russia officially declared a state sponsor of terrorism.

He reiterated the call a day after a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka was bombed, leaving scores dead, with Kyiv and Moscow trading blame.

Yesterday, Ukrainian human rights official Dmytro Lubinets said on national television he had asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to go to Olenivka.

The ICRC has made a request but has not yet obtained authorisation from the Russians, he said.

Egregious provocation

Russias defence ministry accused Kyiv of striking the Olenivka prison with US-supplied long-range missiles, in an egregious provocation designed to stop captured soldiers from surrendering.

It said yesterday that the dead included Ukrainian forces who had surrendered after weeks of fighting off Russias brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.

The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed and 73 were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

All political, legal and moral responsibility for this bloody massacre of Ukrainians lies with Zelensky personally, his criminal regime and Washington, which backs them, it said.

Zelensky laid the blame squarely on Russia.

This was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war, he said.

Members of the Azov regiment were among those who surrendered at Azovstal.

Azov regiment commander Mykyta Nadtochiy said he considered the attack on the jail to have been an act of public execution.

Gazprom cuts off Latvia

Also yesterday, Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Latvia, in the latest tightening of gas provision to European Union states, which have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed over Moscows invasion of Ukraine.

Conexus Baltic Grid confirmed to Latvias LETA news agency that Gazprom had informed it of the suspension of deliveries, but said other suppliers were continuing them.

Today, Gazprom suspended its gas supplies to Latvia... due to violations of the conditions of purchase, the company said on Telegram.

Latvias Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone told LETA that his country was not counting on natural gas flows from Russia.

Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline on Wednesday to about 20 percent of its capacity. It had reduced gas flows to Europe twice in June.

The Russian state-run company had earlier announced it would choke supply to 33 million cubic metres a day - half the amount it has been delivering since service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.

Gazprom cited the halted operation of one of the last two working turbines for the pipeline due to the technical condition of the engine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has blamed EU sanctions for the limited supply.

The EU this week agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption in solidarity with Germany, where the Nord Stream pipeline runs to, warning of Russian blackmail.

Grain fields set alight

Russian strikes continued to rain down on Ukrainian towns and cities yesterday.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian bombardments targeting the south and east of the country had left one dead in southern Mykolaiv and one dead in eastern Bakhmut.

The death toll from a strike on a Mykolaiv bus stop on Friday climbed to seven after two men died in hospital, he added.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, three Russian S-300 missiles struck a school, mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, adding that the main building was destroyed.

A Ukrainian spokesman said his countrys forces had set fire to grain fields around Mariupol so they could not be used by the Russians.

The Mariupol resistance forces set fire to the fields with grain so that it would not be stolen by the occupiers, Sergiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration said.
In the race for the 22nd Congressional District's Democratic nomination, one person is emerging with the biggest influence over who might prevail: a cryptocurrency billionaire who lives in the Bahamas.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has contributed $23 million of the $28.1 million raised by a super PAC since January that's supporting candidates for congress with expensive TV advertising buys.

The PAC, Protect Our Future, has spent $396,402 in support of Francis Conole's campaign for the Democratic line in the 22nd Congressional District, which includes Syracuse and much of Onondaga County. That spending is more than triple that of Conole's three primary foes combined, who recently reported expenses of $124,624.

Protect Our Future's mission is to support candidates "who will be champions for pandemic prevention," according to its website. But given the crypto billionaire's outsized influence on the PAC, it's hard to imagine that it would be supporting candidates who are vocal critics of the industry calling for increased regulations.

Crypto billionaire's PAC spending big bucks to support Francis Conole for Congress Francis Conole has some competition for the title of biggest spender in the Democratic congressional primary, but it's not from any of his thr

Conole and his opponents should debate their crypto positions, and it's important that Conole be candid about his stances related to the industry. But our concern with this situation involving the PAC spending in this race has nothing to do with pandemic or crypto policies. It's about the underlying reality that our political campaign finance system, especially at the federal level, has become hijacked by the wealthiest citizens.

It's a direct result of the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that said there can be no limits on indirect political spending in support of candidates because of the First Amendment. This has led to Super PACs like Protect Our Future that can spend as much as they want as long as it's not a direct contribution to the candidate.

What that means is that the loudest voices in races, such as this central New York primary, can easily come from people with absolutely no connection to the districts. Instead, they can be buy a bunch of representatives from around the country from the comfort of their mansions or yachts.

Because of the Supreme Court's precedent, this problem can't be fixed by slapping restrictions on PACs because they likely wouldn't hold up to legal challenges. What can be influenced, though, is the power of small donors via a public campaign finance system.

Government watchdog groups concerned about the out-of-control spending and influence of super PACs have called for systems in which public funds would be set aside that could match small dollar donations.

Under such a system, the money raised by Conole's opponents, largely from CNY residents, could be amplified and make the playing field more level. It seems like an idea that's worth a try, because the super PAC machine is only going to get bigger.

The Citizen Editorial board includes president and director of local sales and marketing Michelle Bowers, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  British musician Sting interrupted a concert in Warsaw on Saturday evening to warn his audience that democracy is under attack worldwide and to denounce the war in Ukraine as an absurdity based upon a lie.

He asked a popular Polish actor, Maciej Stuhr, to come onstage to translate his warning that democracy is in grave danger of being lost unless we defend it.

The alternative to democracy is a prison, a prison of the mind. The alternative to democracy is violence, oppression, imprisonment and silence, Sting said and then ran his hand across his neck in a throat-cutting gesture.

The 70-year-old delivered his message in a country that borders Ukraine, where Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Poland has become the place of refuge for more Ukrainians than any other country.

The war in the Ukraine is an absurdity based upon a lie. If we swallow that lie, the lie will eat us, Sting said. He appeared to be referring to justifications Russia has tried to give for its invasion, including a Russian claim that it seeks to de-Nazify Ukraine, a democracy led by a Jewish president.

Those in the audience at Warsaw's National Stadium would have also understand a reference to their own country.

Sting drew strong applause in particular when he said that democracy is something messy and frustrating but it is still worth fighting for.

Poland's populist government is often accused by the European Union and human rights organizations of eroding democratic norms with its efforts to tighten control over the courts and media, reduce the reproductive rights of women and engage in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

After his speech he performed Fragile, whose lyrics include the words that "nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could."
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  A day after Connor Harney received anonymous text messages asking him to retract his signature from a petition to qualify Green Party candidates for the November ballot in North Carolina, he said unidentified canvassers brought their attempts to interfere with democracy to his doorstep.

A woman claiming to represent the state Board of Elections appeared at his home in Fuquay-Varina in late June, a checklist of street addresses in hand, and repeated the request, he said.

When Harney  a 31-year-old historian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro  refused and questioned the womans affiliation, she left with a warning: If Green Party candidates gain ballot access, they could take away votes from Democrats and hand the GOP victories in tight races, namely the Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Trump-backed Republican Rep. Ted Budd.

I told her, What youre doing now makes Democrats look very desperate, said Harney, a registered independent. But, more importantly, it goes against the democratic process because youre actively trying to ensure another party doesnt make it onto the ballot.

A dispute over the Green Party's stalled effort to field a Senate candidate has exposed the Democratic Party's bareknuckle efforts to prevent the progressive group from siphoning away crucial votes come November.

The state Board of Elections' Democratic majority rejected the Green Party petition in a 3-2 vote on June 30, citing petition sheets with nearly identical handwriting, incomplete personal information, duplicate names and deceased signatories.

The Green Party then sued as the board investigates the validity of its signatures, alleging Democratic interference in the petitioning process and asking the court to reverse the boards decision.

Harney is one of more than a dozen signers mentioned in the lawsuit who reported receiving intimidating messages, calls or home visits.

These signers said some canvassers declined to identify themselves or falsely claimed to represent the Green Party or the elections board. Others said they were sent by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee  the driving force working to elect Beasley and other Democratic Senate candidates nationwide.

With the Senate in a 50-50 deadlock, North Carolina is one of the few states where Democrats have strong potential to pick up a seat, said Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper. Despite the stakes, he found the Democrats' tactics jaw dropping.

This is not politics as usual, Cooper said. We expect political parties to want to win  thats not the problem. It crosses the line when they appear to be resorting to intimidation and, in a few cases, lies.

The Democrats acknowledge asking signers to remove their names, but claim they were merely trying to make sure potential supporters weren't being tricked.

"We reached out to voters to ensure they had not been deceived, DSCC spokesperson Amanda Sherman said.

Sherman said the DSCC is funneling $30 million into North Carolina and eight other Senate battleground states through its Defend the Majority campaign, the largest investment in field organizing the committee has ever made this early in the campaign cycle.

Though Democrats had little success dissuading progressive voters from backing the Green Party ballot bid, their lawyers, including Elias Law Group, general counsel for the DSCC, lobbied the board to scrutinize irregularities among the signatures.

With its petition rejected, the Green Party missed the July 1 deadline to nominate its candidates for the November ballot. Now the party's choice for Senate, Matthew Hoh, could appear only by court order or legislative action from the General Assembly, which concluded its work session on July 1, elections board spokesperson Patrick Gannon said.

The board will present the findings of its fraud investigation on Monday, one week before the Green Party lawsuit gets its first hearing on Aug. 8.

Hohs campaign manager Rose Ruby said their uphill battle to reach the ballot illuminates the many barriers third-party candidates face nationwide. But she embraces Hoh's role as a disruptor of the status quo and says Democrats have only themselves to blame if the Greens spoil their election.

The spoiler label is an antidemocratic characterization of what it means to have a healthy democracy, Ruby said. If Democrats dont want to fear that theres a split in their vote, then its their job to earn those votes and to put out the kind of policies that the Green Party is getting out.

___

Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her at twitter.com/H_Schoenbaum.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Granite City man indicted for armed violence along with drug and weapons charges was one of several issued last week by a Madison County grand jury.

George H. Narup, 26 of Granite City, was indicted July 28 on July 5 with armed violence, unlawful possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and being an armed habitual criminal, all Class X felonies, and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony.

The case was originally presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department and charges filed July 5.

According to court documents, on July 1, Narup allegedly had 15-100 grams of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver as well as a Taurus 9 mm handgun.

The armed violence count stems from possession of a weapon during the drug-related offense. The armed habitual criminal charge stems from his possession of a weapon after multiple felony convictions, including burglary and offenses relating to motor vehicles in 2013, aggravated battery in 2016, and possession of weapons by a felon in 2018, all out of Madison County.

Other indictments issued July 28 include:

 Derek D. Brooks, 52, of Pontoon Beach, was indicted for aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony, and two counts of domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor. The domestic battery charges were added after the original charge was filed. The case was originally presented by the Pontoon Beach Police Department. According to court documents, on July 4, Brooks allegedly discharged a firearm in the direction of two people, one being a 15-year-old boy. Both were household or family members who were also pushed to the ground by Brooks.

 Reginald D. Curry, 32, of Granite City, was indicted for aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony; electronic harassment, a Class 4 felony, and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was originally presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on July 5, Curry allegedly struck an officer of the Granite City Police Department in the chest and scratched their face. Curry also allegedly threatened injury to another through electronic communications.

 Colyn K. Cantrell, 25, of Quincy, was indicted for domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was originally presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 14 Cantrell allegedly hit a household or family member in the face with his hand. It was noted he has a prior conviction for domestic battery out of Adams County, Illinois.
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BAGHDAD (AP)  With mattresses strewn about, food trucked in and protesters playacting as lawmakers, hundreds of followers of an influential Shiite cleric were camped out Sunday inside the Iraqi parliament after toppling security walls around the building and storming in the previous day.

The protesters  followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr  pledged to hold an open-ended sit-in to derail efforts by their rivals from Iran-backed political groups to form the country's next government. Their demands are lofty: early elections, constitutional amendments and the ouster of al-Sadr's opponents.

The developments have catapulted Iraq's politics to center stage, plunging the country deeper into a political crisis as a power struggle unfolds between the two major Shiite groups.

Al-Sadr has not visited the scene but egged his loyalists on, tweeting on Sunday that the sit-in was a great opportunity to radically challenge the political system, the constitution, and the elections. He called on all Iraqis to join the revolution," an indication the sit-in will likely become a drawn-out event.

On Sunday, the sit-in appeared more of a joyous celebration than a political protest  al-Sadr's followers were dancing, praying and chanting slogans inside the parliament, in praise of their leader. In between, they took naps on mattresses lining the grand halls.

It was a scene starkly different from the one on Saturday, when protesters used ropes and chains to topple concrete walls around the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, then flooded into the assembly building. It was the second such breach last week, but this time they did not disperse peacefully.

Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at first, to try to repel the demonstrators. The Ministry of Health said about 125 people were injured in the violence  100 protesters and 25 members of the security forces. Within a few hours, the police backed off, leaving the parliament to the protesters.

The takeover of the parliament showed al-Sadr was using his large grassroots following as a pressure tactic against his rivals in the Coordination Framework  an alliance of Shiite parties backed by Iran and lead by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki  after his party was not able to form a government despite having won the largest number of seats in the federal elections held last October.

Neither side appears willing to concede and al-Sadr seems intent on derailing government formation efforts by the Iran-backed groups.

But there were red-lines  the road to the judicial council building nearby was closed, with heavy security presence around it. Breaching the building would amount to a coup, and al-Sadr had ordered his followers to steer clear of it.

The protesters appeared prepared for the long-haul  or at least an extended sit-in.

Tuk-tuks, a mainstay of transportation in the impoverished Baghdad suburb of Sadr City from where the cleric derives much of his following, shuttled demonstrators to and from the parliament for a fee of 1,000 Iraqi dinars, or 60 cents.

Coolers were set up and water bottles were passed around. A child handed out sweets while teenagers sold juice from sacks. A few women  a minority in the male-dominated demonstration  swept the floors.

Outside, garbage from food packages and other trash littered the street leading up to the parliament gate while trucks brought in giant cauldrons of steaming rice and beans to feed the protesters. Signs nearby read: Revolution Restaurant

Al-Sadrs portraits hung everywhere. Many protesters smoked, tossing cigarette butts on the floor, and cigarette smoke filled the assembly.

A young man, Samir Aziz Abbas sold popsicles. I am here to make a living, he said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

One protester, Haidar Jameel assumed the seat of Parliament Speaker Mohammed Halbousi  among the most powerful political figures in Iraq  and from it, looked on at his rowdy fellow demonstrators. After al-Sadr's followers took over the parliament, Halbousi had suspended future sessions until further notice.

We will not back down until our demands are met, Jameel declared.

Al-Sadr's support base consists largely of impoverished Iraqis living in the slums of Baghdad, attracted by calls against corruption. But al-Sadr is also an establishment figure, with many civil servants appointed by his party throughout the state apparatus.

By choosing to stage his protest ahead of the Shiite Islam's holy day of Ashura, al-Sadr capitalized on a moment when religious fervor runs high  protesters performed religious rituals inside the parliament. At midday, an imam led a prayer in the central lobby.

Ashura commemorates the killing of the Prophet Muhammeds grandson, Imam Hussein. Iraqis typically march in the thousands to commemorate the day in the holy city of Karbala and emotions run high in the days leading up to it.

According to Shiite religious belief, one way of showing love toward Imam Hussein is to rise against oppression.

Al-Sadr's messaging to his followers is imbued with references to the pilgrimage, said Marsin Alshamary, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution.

For the protesters, most of them young men, the sit-in offers a chance to come close to the seat of power in a system that has long neglected them. Before, they would not have been able to enter the heavily fortified zone without permission.

When Meethak Muhi took his turn to sit in the seat of the deputy speaker of parliament, he tied himself to the chair with a scarf.

The parliament, it's finished," he shouted.
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SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has offered North Macedonia his countrys full support for integration into the 27-nation European Union.

Sanchez held talks Sunday with North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski in the capital of Skopje, ahead of the last stop on his Western Balkan tour, visiting Albania on Monday. He has also visited Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The Balkan nations are all in different stages of the EU accession process. EU officials have recently sought to encourage governments in the region to move on with reforms amid concerns over Russias efforts to boost its influence in the Balkans.

Sanchez said the war in Ukraine has prompted the EU to rethink its enlargement policies and open its doors to countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

We are more united now than ever before. You can count on me on your European perspective, Sanchez said at a joint press conference with Kovachevski.

The EU started membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia two weeks ago, a long-delayed step in the Balkan nations paths toward EU membership that gained momentum amid the war in Ukraine.

The decision came after North Macedonias parliament approved an agreement overcoming Bulgarias objections and cleared the way for the negotiations to start. Bulgaria had held up progress on North Macedonia's accession talks, accusing that government of disrespecting shared cultural, linguistic and historic ties.

Any expansion beyond the 27 current EU members is likely to still be years off. Despite the delay, the Western Balkan nations have maintained their ambition to become part of the worlds most important trading bloc.

For North Macedonia, the past years have been challenging. Disputes with EU members Greece and then Bulgaria prevented the countrys bid from moving forward because any move by the EU to add new members requires unanimous agreement.
Electric two-wheelers are going mainstream, and the fire incidents will only help the EV manufacturers to focus on quality, believes Ather Energy CEO and cofounder Tarun Mehta. He believes that the measures taken by the EV manufacturers in the wake of the recent fire incidents will help the industry to be matured. Ather CEO also believes that up to 30 million electric two-wheelers will be sold across the country by the end of this decade.

(Also Read: India needs 46,000 EV charging stations to match China, US in EV infrastructure)

Speaking about the Hero MotoCorp-backed firm's own strategy, Mehta said that it would invest a lot more fr capacity expansion over the next few years. "What has happened recently, I think, has ended up maturing the industry. This will push more and more manufacturers to focus more on quality and reliability," Mehta told PTI while talking about the recent V fire incidents.

In the last few months, since April, several electric two-wheeler manufacturers such as Ola Electric, Okinawa, and PureEV have witnessed multiple fire incidents. Even Ather too witnessed a fire incident. Mehta said that these incidents are pushing more and more players to focus on quality as the number one parameter. EVs are going mainstream irrespective, but with better quality products, this will become a no-brainer," he further added.

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After the fire incidents, union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari warned EV companies of penalties if they were found to be negligent. He also warned that the concerned EV companies would be ordered to recall the defective vehicles.

Subsequently, Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers. Okinawa also announced its recall of 3,215 units of its Praise Pro electric scooter to fix any issue related to batteries. Similarly, Pure EV recalled 2,000 units of its ETrance and EPluto 7G models.

First Published Date:
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Cloudy. Periods of light rain this morning. High 74F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 60F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
The top brass at HSBC, which reports its results today, are resistant to calls to break up the bank. But can they hold that line?

Chairman Mark Tucker and chief executive Noel Quinn have set their faces against pressure from major shareholder Ping An, a big Chinese insurer, to split the international lender into two with a separate Eastern and Western business.

They will put their case to Hong Kong shareholders in a meeting tomorrow. Ping An has been disgruntled since the Bank of England forced HSBC to suspend its dividend in the pandemic. The resumption of payouts has failed to allay its discontent.

Making a case: Arguments that a split would release billions of pounds of value and lift the share price are tenuous

In commercial terms, dismembering HSBC looks off-kilter. Arguments that a split would release billions of pounds of value and lift the share price are tenuous.

The idea seems to be that an independent Asian division would not be weighed down with onerous Western regulation. Two smaller banks, the argument goes, would pose less of a threat to the global financial system, therefore the regulators would not force them to hold so much capital as a safety net. That in turn would take a brake off growth.

Of course, there is no guarantee regulators would do any such thing. Inside the HSBC boardroom, Ping An's activist behaviour is being taken very seriously.

Advisers from Goldman Sachs and investment bank Robey Warshaw have been hired to make a case against break-up. There is a feeling that if HSBC's share price were to rise, some of the annoyance at Ping An would dissipate. At the results today, executives will make great play of the growth potential, including in the UK where there is scope for expansion in wealth management, mortgages and personal loans.

From the bank's point of view, its whole raison d'etre is its international trade networks. Then there is the practical difficulty. Splitting in half makes it sound as though it would be a clean break, when in reality it would be untangling a cats' cradle  a costly, long-winded and complicated exercise.

The suspicion, however, is that Ping An's agitation is not solely driven by investment motives, but is a fig leaf for the political agenda in Beijing.

The authorities there no doubt want to tame bankers in Hong Kong who will focus on China's priorities and interests. The fact HSBC has allowed a communist party committee to set up shop in its Chinese investment arm is a sign of the times.

The backdrop to the Ping An bombshell is one of mounting geopolitical tension. HSBC has in recent years been caught between Scylla and Charybdis, at risk of upsetting either China or the US  where it also has substantial operations  or both.

Senior MPs are demanding HSBC should be sanctioned if it does not break connections with a firm linked to the ethnic cleansing of Uighur Muslims. Some executives are also keen to do more business in Saudi Arabia, despite human rights concerns.

But the bank's stance of political neutrality is becoming harder to maintain when companies are being called upon to take a principled stance over Ukraine, and giants such as BP and Shell have pulled out of Russia. Many now fear a Chinese invasion of Taiwan will be the next catastrophe.
One of Britain's biggest shopkeepers has joined the call for Tory leadership candidates to prioritise a shake-up of 'outdated' business rates.

Iceland boss Richard Walker urged the next prime minister to promise a 'root and branch' reform of the tax.

He said the levy is penalising bricks and mortar retailers and, without a fundamental change, the High Street will 'continue to decline'.

Plea: Iceland boss Richard Walker urged the next prime minister to promise a 'root and branch' reform of the tax

His intervention follows similar calls from a consortium of retailers  the Retail Jobs Alliance (RJI)  which includes Tesco, Sainsbury's and B&Q owner Kingfisher.

RJI members employ more than a million people  a third of all jobs in the sector. And last week it accused Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss of 'failing to prioritise the High Street'.

Business rates are based on rental value not profit. Walker said reform is especially important as hard-pressed shoppers turn to discount retailers such as Iceland, which has close to 1,000 stores around the UK.

Iceland has locked the price of its 1 value range until 2023  meaning it now sells the products at a loss.

Walker said: 'Our business rates bill is well over 40m a year. It's just unfair. You have massive online businesses who are getting a piggyback for free.'

He pointed out that online giants benefit from the same infrastructure as brick and mortar retailers but do not pay a fair share of the tax that funds it.

Walker said business rates reform would also encourage more retailers to open businesses. This would revitalise town and city centres. Front-runner Truss, the Foreign Secretary, has promised to 'cut taxes from day one' if she becomes PM, while former chancellor Sunak would scrap VAT on fuel.

He has otherwise avoided promising tax cuts but at the weekend unveiled a plan to revitalise high streets and reduce shuttered shops.

Walker said candidates should focus on business rates as they will have a bigger impact on jobs, productivity and levelling up.

He added that businesses were happy paying back the Government's generosity, having been helped through the pandemic.

Walker said: 'I think it's right we call out that a few percentage points increase in corporation tax is not a big deal.

'In return it's absolutely about jobs, productivity, levelling up and high streets which need business rates reform.'


The Miles Archer Correspondence School of Private Investigation hereby announces a recall of page 37 of the final written examination for the Shamus Certificate in Private Investigation.

If you are taking or have taken said examination during the period beginning May 31, 2021, and ending July 31, 2022, your score may be affected by a series of errors. The Miles Archer Correspondence School (hereinafter referred to as The School) admits no wrongdoing or malfeasance. However, you may replace the questions found on page 37 of the test booklet with the questions listed below.

NOTE: The legal department of The School insists that the following terms should be deleted from all questions where they appear in the test booklet: ankle, babe, broad, canary, chick, chippy, dame, dish, doll (or dolly), gams (when used in reference to female legs) jane, kitten, looker, pins (see gams), skirt, tomato, twist. In each instance, replace with person, or in the case of gams and pins, well-nourished lower extremities.

Remember, the hallmark of The School is the honor system. This is a timed examination. Based upon our statistical data, the average correspondence student should be able to answer the questions on page 37 in 6.3 minutes. Please adhere to the instructions published in the examination booklet. Upon completion of this portion of the exam, cut the questions from this newspaper and mail them, along with the examination booklet, to the address found on page 82 of your examination booklet.

Where indicated circle the correct answer. You may begin.

56. Which is an acceptable term for liquor?

a. Jorum of skee

b. hooch

c. eel juice

d. All of the above

57. Mazuma is another term for

a. Penitentiary

b. Money

c. Cabbage

d. Mrs. Raymond Chandler

58. If a shamus is wearing a wooden kimono, what does it look like?

a. Fedora

b. Chicago overcoat

c. Skirt

d. Coffin

59. Deconstruct the following sentence:

The sucker with the schnozzle poured a slug, but before he could cram out, two shamuses showed him the shiv and said they could send him over.

60. Gat is to fog as __________ is to drill.

a. Gink

b. Fin

c. Roscoe

d. Lug

61. Palooka is to patsy as map is to __________.

a. Oyster fruit

b. Noodle

c. Schnozzle

d. Vig

You MAY NOW TURN TO THE NEXT PAGE.
Russia has invited experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners in a jail held by Moscow-backed separatists, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

In a statement, the ministry said it was acting in the interests of conducting an objective investigation into what it called an attack on the jail earlier in the week.

The separatists put the death toll at 53 and accused Kyiv of hitting the prison with rockets. Ukraines armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of those held there.

SOURCE: REUTERS
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GREEN ISLAND  Bacon is being made here, but this place is no pig pen.

In fact, MyForest Foods mushroom-bacon plant looks more like a computer clean room or data center than a traditional farm.

There are rows of 16-foot-tall steel racks and near-sterile conditions that will hold large mats of mycelium which will, after harvesting and processing, have the look, texture and flavor of bacon, even though they are made from mushroom roots.

A spinoff and affiliate of Ecovative, which has pioneered the development of mycelium packaging and textiles, MyForest has been developing a meat-like product since 2020.

Now, equipped with a new 80,000-square foot growing area and two massive silos, the company is poised to push production to the next level, with new farms in the offing which will increase capacity and, they hope, expand their market for this non-meat bacon alternative.

Its the latest entry in a fast-growing field of meat alternatives that aims to serve vegetarians as well as those who worry about the environmental effects of factory livestock farming.

Earlier this month, MyForest executives and employees christened their new indoor farm expansion by giving visitors a glimpse of how mushrooms are turned into a vegetarian bacon-like product. When most people think of mushrooms, which are actually a fungus, they picture the round, bulbous fruit or tip of the plant structure.

But supporting that fruit is a large mycelium root structure, usually underground or inside the wood of a tree.

Nutritious and edible, mycelium can grow with minimal water and input.

Scientists and engineers at Ecovative have developed methods to efficiently grow mycelium which is then processed into fiber and they have licensed the process with partners around the globe. Now they are looking to harness mycelium for food that avoids the water pollution, high energy use and some would say, cruel, methods used in hog farming.

Ecovative was started in 2007 by Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, who were students together at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

They were in an Inventors Studio course taught by the late Burt Swersey, an entrepreneur who invented medical devices and became an RPI professor.

Eben, who is CEO of MyForest, credited Swersey with inspiring them to push ahead with a plan to harness mycelium and he was one of the early investors.

When expanding from packaging to food, creating a mycelium bacon was an easy choice, said Bayer.

Bacon is the one food that meat eaters say they cant give up, he said.

The growing rooms or foundries as they call them, are a far cry from what most people think of when they talk about farms. Part of the difference is owed to the apparent simplicity of they way they develop their mycelium.

It starts with piles of waste product, which are basically wood chips and mulch mixed together. That is the substrate or foundation upon which the mycelium feeds and grows.

The substrate actually looks like large piles of brownies from a distance.

Mycelium can actually eat almost anything, said Hannah Johnson, an engineer at the facility.

The mycelium are then added to the substrate and placed on the aforementioned shelves. The shelves look like the racks of computers that data centers or crypto miners use to hold their servers.

This is where the magic happens, said another engineer, Asa Snyder. Its just a pure mat of mushroom material.

Once the mats are laid out, the rooms are kept in a moderate, humid environment where the mycelium bacon product develops from the mulch and wood chips. It sounds simple, but some of the processes are patented and the company restricted photos on the tour, for fear of giving up secrets.

And under a microscope, one would see complex intertwining hyphae, analogous to cells, that comprise the structure of mushrooms.

Mycelium is a biological marvel, said Peter Mueller, Ecovatives chief technology officer. They will self-assemble into a predictable complex product.

Once developed, the farmers add liquid smoke (for that bacon smell), flavoring such as salt, beet juice and coconut oil. What results are massive slabs of MyBacon, which is the product name of the food.

MyBacon requires far less water, land and other resources than what a traditional hog farm needs, noted Adam Heinze, director of operations.

The slabs are sliced and dried at what was Chesters Smokehouse in Albany but will next year be processed in a new facility in Saratoga County.

The new facilities should produce about 1 million pounds of MyBacon annually, from 3 million pounds of raw mycelium.

MyBacon costs about $7.99 for a 6 ounce package, which is pricey but not outlandish, with some premium bacons going for almost $10 a pound (16 ounces).

For now, MyBacon is sold in specialty stores like the Honest Weight food co-op in Albany and they have expanded to the Berkshire Food Co-op and Cornucopia Natural Wellness stores in Great Barrington and Northampton, Mass. respectively.

Eventually, they want to expand with a food truck and start distributing toward the New York City market.

To be sure, mycelium and other non-meat bacon products remain a small part of the overall pork market.

According to the National Pork Producers Council, an industry trade group, $28 billion worth of hogs were sold by farmers in 2021. Bacon sales are a $35 billion industry.

And the scale of industrial hog farming appears to be borne out by statistics: 73 percent of U.S. hog farms have 5,000 or more animals.

The market for bacon is equally large. Census data shows that 268 million Americans consumed at least some bacon in 2020, with over 16 million consuming five pounds or more.

MyForest Foods is projected to serve MyBacon to more than one million consumers by 2024.

Bayer, who grew up on a Vermont Farm, said he believes the issues of climate change and the resources required by traditional animal farming, will only increase demand for products like MyBacon,

This isnt a one-off, said Heinze.

From the perspective of our scientists, we are still at the beginning of this journey, added Mueller.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  A crypto mining company plans to redevelop a northeastern North Dakota anti-ballistic missile site abandoned in the 1970s into data center that may be used for the mining of bitcoin and other digital currencies, Gov. Doug Burgum announced Monday.

Bitzero Blockchain Inc., which is backed by strategic investor and Shark Tank star Kevin OLeary, announced last month that it planned to make North Dakota its headquarters for North American operations. The company said within three years it intends to build 200 megawatts of data centers in the state and is involved in a joint venture to become an assembly and distribution hub for graphene battery technology.

Long considered a white elephant and waste of taxpayers money, the site at Nekoma grew out of a 1972 treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The $6 billion Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex once housed a radar system within a concrete pyramid, with 7-foot-thick, steel-reinforced walls. It was deactivated in 1976 after only a few months of operation. Nekomas population reached several hundred, compared with about 30 today, and surrounding towns benefited from an influx of highly paid missile experts and support personnel.

The Cavalier County Job Development Authority has owned the site since 2017. Spokeswoman Carol Goodman said the facility would be sold to the company for $250,000.

Burgum said waste heat captured from the data centers servers will be used to heat an on-site greenhouse, and the company also is planning an interpretive center, representing a total investment estimated by Bitzero at $500 million.

This important piece of history will be restored and become a beacon for North Dakota innovation to the rest of the world, Burgum said.

Bitzero has signed leases in both Bismarck and Fargo for administrative operations. The Nekoma site will be their primary data center site in North Dakota, Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said.

Separately, Burgum in January announced construction of a $1.9 billion data center located near the biggest city in the states oil-production region in northwest North Dakota.

The second-term Republican governor hailed the Atlas Power Data Center to be built by Missoula, Montana-based FX Solutions Inc. as one of the biggest such centers in the world, and one that will help diversify the economy in Williston-area that has suffered oil boom-bust cycles for decades.

Burgum, a wealthy former Microsoft executive, called data centers an incredible forward- looking industry not dependent on the price of oil.

Uses for data centers include the mining of bitcoin and other digital currencies. Cryptocurrency mining involves supercomputers to solve complex calculations needed to provide security for transactions in the digital currency.

The process requires vast amounts of power and generates much heat. Burgum has said North Dakota is an ideal place for data centers because it has a reliable and affordable power supply, and a climate that lowers cooling costs.

Burgum spokesman Nowatzki said no public money has been earmarked for any of the projects, though they are expected to qualify for tax credits already given to agriculture, energy and other industries.
The stories of Black artists are about hopes and inspirations, says pianist Lara Downes, who performs as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra on Thursday, August 4 at SPAC.

Downes gave that insight while discussing the two 20th century composers whose music shell be playing on the concerts first half. It starts with a new three-movement suite to songs of Billy Stayhorn followed by the Piano Concerto of Florence Price. William Eddins conducts the program, which concludes with the Brahms Second Symphony.

Though shes a wide-ranging and ambitious musician, one of Downes specialties is lesser-known American repertoire, especially pieces by composers who were overlooked or pigeonholed during their own times. Coming out of the pandemic the classical industry had a sudden interest in diversity that appears to be continuing and its created a demand for Downes and her insightful programming. Her most recent recording, Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered, was released early this year and SPAC presented her in a solo recital at Skidmore Colleges Zankel Music Center in April.

American music has been a focus for some years now and the deeper you go the more you find. Im committed to telling this story, says Downes. The stories were told are often very superficial which makes a big difference in how we experience music and know our history. Though Strayhorn died in 1967 at age 51 and Price in 1954 at age 66, perhaps their stories continue through artists like Downes as she brings their music to prestigious venues and modern platforms.

Billy Stayhorn is best known as the quiet sidekick and often uncredited collaborator to the larger-than-life Duke Ellington. Some of the details are still foggy as to who wrote what, and how much of this or that piece is Ellington or Strayhorn. Whats clear is that Strayhorn made a crucial contribution to Ellingtons legacy while sometimes neglecting his own broader ambitions.

Strayhorn brought something new and expansive to Ellington by virtue of his classical roots, says Downes. Strayhorn himself was pushed by circumstances and at other points by realism but he did have aspirations in classical.

A few years ago, Downes got in touch with the Billy Strayhorn Foundation to inquire if there were any concert works in the archives. Strayhorns niece replied that there were some pieces from his early years but the manuscripts were lost. Downes was undeterred and proceeded to engage composer Chris Walden to take some Strayhorn songs and fashion them into a piece with orchestra.

The result is A Lovesome Thing: Billy Strayhorn Suite for piano and orchestra, commissioned by SPAC. It is built on three of the composers most expressive and popular songs: A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Strange Feeling, and Something to Live For. Downes premiered it with conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops last month at Symphony Hall in Boston. According to the pianist, after the SPAC performance several other American orchestras will also pick up the piece.

Strayhorn was out of place in so many ways -- intellectual, sexual, and cultural. But he found a way to make it work and have a life of inner peace. The final chapters of his life were not the happiest, but I dont think he perceived life through obstacles. Day to day he was joyful and triumphant and he created a music of pride, says Downes. Her observations reference the fact Strayhorn was gay and, for the most part, out.

Downes finds commonalities in the careers of Strayhorn and Florence Price, namely the confident musical voice and the aspirations for a wider exposure and embrace of their music.

Price was the first Black female composer to be performed by a major American orchestra, when the Chicago Symphony played her First Symphony in 1933. But that concert was a special event presented as part of the Worlds Fair and was dedicated to the phenomenon of Blacks in music. Though she wrote three more symphonies, which were taken up by orchestras during her lifetime, and Marion Anderson sang her songs widely, Price never again appeared on a standard program of a major league orchestra during her lifetime.

Price set her sights on the Boston Symphony and other major institutions and it was not an easy path in a world of post-romantic white male music. And yet she stayed true to her background and heritage. Theres always a spiritual and a juba dance in her music, says Downes, who started playing Price a good decade before the the composer's renaissance began about five years ago.

Downes has been widely hailed as a visionary, a savior and a leader for her advocacy of BIPOC artists and also for just freshening things up. Her projects often include CD and digital releases plus sheet music, all under her own imprint Rising Sun. Shes also known to bring a touch of glamor to her live performances.

Downes is a native of San Francisco and was home schooled. Following the death of her father and while still in her early teens, Downes and her two sisters were taken to Europe by their mother. We were on the move, three sisters all studying music and having encounters in Paris, Vienna, and various places in Italy, she recalls. It was an adventure that started off as one year abroad to learn French. It morphed into a long period of time and gave me the ability to see the world as flexible living space.

Downes also seems to view time as a something flexible and spacious. How else to explain how she gets so much done  touring, running a record and publishing house and always practicing, researching and looking ahead for future endeavors?

If you go Lara Downes performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday Aug. 4 Where: Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs

Tickets: $35-$95. Info: 518-583-9330. www.spac.org

The Philadelphia Orchestra's season continues through August 13. See More Collapse

I find time and I believe that time is fluid. I guess I dont have a lot of patience. When somethings important and worth doing, I find a way, says Downes. I love working with young musicians, opening their minds to the possibility of self-guidance, and being present in your time and doing what feels right given the world youre living in.

Downes has ventured to obscure and remote corners of the repertoire, but it was Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein who served as the doorways through which she entered the world of American music. As I began asking questions about American music, I found that the music looks like America itself. I look for mavericks and innovators in our music, and try to keep it beautiful, vibrant and interesting, she says. Its a privilege to play this music and to welcome new audiences into its existence.

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy.
TROY  Information about nearly $400 million for the Capital Regions roads, bridges and buses was being served Saturday at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market among the usual offering of farm fresh produce and takeout food from local restaurants.

Capital District Transportation Committee staff and Capital District Transportation Authority representatives were enticing strolling market goers to stop and hear whats planned for the next five years will be at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, seeking public comment on spending about $400 million in federal transportation funds over the next five years.

The booth at the farmers market was part of the two transportation agencies public outreach to get comments about the five-year, 2022-2027, Transportation Improvement Plan.

Its a lot to take in, said Ben Gradess of Troy, who stopped to learn more about the programs and the spending to do the work proposed.

Gradess explained that as a taxpayer he wants to know where tax dollars at all levels  federal, state and local  are going. When he heard that there would be information available at the market, he made time to hear what the transportation planners had to say.

Stephen Maples, a CDTC transportation planner, said people are interested to hear what impacts the plans will have on pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicle transportation. Maples and Andrew Tracy, a CDTC senior transportation engineer, handed out information broken down by the CDTCs four county area, Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga (except for the town of Moreau and village of South Glens Falls), and Schenectady counties. They also urge people to visits the CDTCs TIP Feedback Portal to learn more and to comment.

This represents many months of hard work, said Sandra Misiewicz, the CDTC executive director.

The federal bipartisan infrastructure bill, Misiewicz said, is helping fund 50 new projects in the Capital Region. The CDTC TIP has $393 million allocation including $192 million for new projects, $86 million for old projects, $18 million for CDTA projects and $97 million for regional work.

Andris Blumbergs and Jaco Landis, planners for M.J. Engineering and Land Surveying of Clifton Park, were explaining CDTAs Bus Lane Feasibility Study and soliciting comments, which can be made online at www.buslanestudy.com/survey.

Projects include work at the Congress Street Bridge development, work on Route 7 in Brunswick, bridge replacements in Saratoga County, work on I-890 in Schenectady and redoing Central Avenue in Albany.

There will be additional public information sessions from:
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BEIJNG (AP)  The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, confirmed Sunday she will visit four Asian countries this week but made no mention of a possible stop in Taiwan that has fueled tension with Beijing, which claims the island democracy as its own territory.

Pelosi said in a statement she is leading a congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to discuss trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, security and democratic governance.

Pelosi has yet to confirm news reports that she might visit Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in Beijing's dealings with the island in a phone call Thursday with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

The Biden administration didn't explicitly urge Pelosi to avoid Taiwan but tried to assure Beijing there was no reason to come to blows and that if such a visit occurred, it would signal no change in U.S. policy.

Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe, Pelosis statement said.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the communists won a civil war on the mainland. Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains informal relations with the island. Washington is obligated by federal law to see that Taiwan has the means to defend itself.

Washington's One China policy says it takes no position on the status of the two sides but wants their dispute resolved peacefully. Beijing promotes an alternative One China principle that says they are one country and the Communist Party is its leader.

Members of Congress publicly backed Pelosis interest in visiting Taiwan despite Chinese opposition. They want to avoid being seen as yielding to Beijing.

Beijing has given no details of how it might react if Pelosi goes to Taiwan, but the Ministry of Defense warned last week the military would take strong measures to thwart any external interference. The foreign ministry said, "those who play with fire will perish by it.

The ruling party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army, has flown growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers around Taiwan to intimidate the island.

The Air Forces multi-type fighter jets fly around the treasured island of the motherland, tempering and enhancing the ability to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity, military spokesman Col. Shen Jinke said on Sunday, referring to Taiwan.

Pelosi said her delegation includes U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Takano, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs; Suzan DelBene, vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Andy Kim, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

A visit to Taiwan would be a career capstone for Pelosi, who increasingly uses her position in Congress as a U.S. emissary on the global stage. She has long challenged China on human rights and wanted to visit Taiwan earlier this year.

In 1991, as a new member of Congress, Pelosi irked Chinese authorities by unfurling a banner on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing commemorating those killed when the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests two years earlier.

Its important for us to show support for Taiwan, Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told reporters this month.

But she had made clear she was not advocating U.S. policy changes.

"None of us has ever said were for independence, when it comes to Taiwan, she said. Thats up to Taiwan to decide.

On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tried to tamp down concerns.

Theres no reason for it to come to that, to come to blows, Kirby said at the White House. Theres no reason for that because theres been no change in American policy with respect to One China.

___

Mascaro reported from Washington.
Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger met on the steps of Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake on Sunday with a 47-year-old man who was allegedly sexually abused as a child by a former priest.

The unprecedented encounter  which was scheduled to take place before Scharfenberger presided over an 11 a.m. Mass at the church  was arranged after the alleged victim, Stephen Mittler, wrote a letter inviting the Albany bishop and other officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to follow through on their pledge to "walk with the survivors."

"This is a start moving forward," Scharfenberger said. "This is a conversation. I want nobody to be afraid. I want nobody to feel they have to hide."

The bishop said his unprecedented meeting with Mittler is part of an ongoing effort to "walk with" victims of sexual abuse.

Mittler said he and the bishop had a "really productive conversation" prior to walking to the front of the church to greet his family, supporters and news organizations.

"I'm the face of an abused," Mittler said, pointing to the nearby steps where he said met his alleged abuser, 73-year-old Mark A. Haight, a former priest who has been accused of sexually abusing multiple boys.

"Bishop Scharfenberger represents the organization that allowed this to happen, he's (also) the face of abuse," Mittler said. "It was a very, very productive conversation. ... Certainly we're not in an environment of being fully on the same side of things but we do want to have an ongoing relationship and talk about this to see what we could do to help other victims. For me, it's an awareness campaign and a transparency campaign."

Mittler encouraged other victims of sexual abuse to contact Scharfenberger, whom he said had "inherited" the fallout of decades of diocese concealing sexual abuse allegations against priests and others. He cited the mishandling of the crisis by Bishop Emeritus Howard J. Hubbard, who had returned Haight to ministry after he was sent to a Catholic-affiliated counseling center in California.

Haight allegedly preyed on Mittler after being returned to ministry. When he was sent for treatment of his alleged pedophilia a second time  in New Mexico  Mittler said the priest sent him post cards from that facility, including photos of himself flying a plane. Haight, a pilot, had taken many of his alleged victims on flights aboard his small plane.

Mittler said that Hubbard should have reported Haight's conduct to police decades ago so that he could be arrested and prosecuted. He noted that would have likely prevented him from being victimized as a child.

In June, the diocese agreed to pay $750,000 to Mittler to settle a lawsuit he had filed under New York's Child Victims Act. It had been the first case against the diocese scheduled for trial under the law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations to give alleged victims of sexual abuse a two-year window to file claims against their abusers or the institutions that harbored them.

Mittler's lawsuit was filed against the diocese and Haight, of Schenectady, who was ordained in 1976 and stands accused of sexually abusing multiple boys for more than a decade. Haight, who will pay an additional $2,000 to Mittler under the settlement, was shuffled through parishes and schools before his final post at Glens Falls Hospital.

In an interview earlier this week, Mittler said that diocesan officials had recently acknowledged that although the bishop had pledged to "walk with survivors" that had not yet occurred.

"I think its an opportunity for the bishop to really have a moment with a survivor and do it publicly," Mittler said, adding that Corpus Christi is the church where he and his family were introduced to Haight  on the same steps where Mittler plans to meet with Scharfenberger.
In 1921 when my mother was 4, her mother died of a self-induced abortion. I never learned exactly what she did that ended her pregnancy and her life. Perhaps my mother never knew. For days, mother said when she told me about this, she and her little sister could hear their mother screaming, but they were not allowed to go into her bedroom. And then she was dead.

When the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization came down, ending a womans right to an abortion at the federal level, I had a very personal, visceral response. Many of us did. There was a collective gasp from women in the U.S. and other countries and a stream of questions. What did it mean? What were we going to do about it?



Why do women have abortions? Why did my grandmother, a solidly middle-class married woman, feel so strongly about her third pregnancy that she destroyed herself to end it? There are, of course, as many reasons as there are women who seek abortions, whether they ultimately have the abortion or not.



The commentary I read after the Dobbs decision centered around legal issues: What could be appealed? What were the chances of a successful appeal? What were the flaws and historical inaccuracies in Justice Samuel Alitos opinion?

And there were demonstrations. And demonstrations.



We must do more.



How? What can we do that will interrupt the business as usual attitude of the Republican legislatures that have captured so many states and have legislated away womens rights to our own bodies? How can we challenge the authority of the Supreme Courts sweeping decision?

We must disobey.



Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from the Birmingham jail in 1963 that an unjust law is no law at all and need not be obeyed. In fact, it must be disobeyed. An unjust law, he explained, was one that did not apply to everyone in the country equally, like the Jim Crow laws meant only to control African Americans and keep them out of spaces that white people claimed.

While a Supreme Court decision cannot accurately be described as a law, this ruling allows states to create their own laws, laws that certainly fall into the unjust law category for several reasons.

These laws target women who do not accept a fundamentalist Christian perspective on abortion. In fact, a synagogue in Florida is suing to overturn the states ban on abortion after 15 weeks, saying that not only does it favor one religion over another, but that this law imposes Christian views upon all others who they consider morally inferior.

These laws privilege women who have the means to seek an abortion in a state where it is legal, leaving poor women to suffer under the laws.

These laws punish the most vulnerable women when they allow no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or for girls who are too young to safely carry a pregnancy to term.

Clearly the state laws that are now allowed by the Supreme Court in its Dobbs decision do not meet the conditions of a just law. None of these laws outlawing abortion in various configurations apply to everyone equally.

Imagine, in comparison, if after the Civil Rights Act was passed, the Supreme Court had said that this law was federal government overreach and instead returned the determination of civil rights to the individual states. Do we believe for a moment that the rights of African Americans would be protected?



How can we disobey?



If we conclude that the Supreme Court decision invalidating a womans right to abortion codifies injustice, what are we going to do about it? What actions can we take that will make a difference after this appalling decision?

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Disruptive power is what Civil Rights nonviolent activists claimed for that movement. Disruptive power is different from a march or a demonstration that expresses an opinion without a following withdrawal of cooperation. It is also different from a demonstration that results in violence and the destruction of lives and property. Both of these give the protestors voice, but merely voicing a grievance does not confer power.

Disruptive actions are intended to stop business as usual. Marches and demonstrations will give protestors voice, but only disruptive action will leverage the power of change.



Consider some disruptive actions from our foremothers (and fathers):

Suffragists chained themselves to the White House fence. How about the Supreme Court pillars? Or the entrance to the Court where justices and clerks enter?

ACT UP protestors chained themselves to the desks of pharmacy executives. Who is impeding our access to abortion? What about the desks of every politician who has voted to end or curtail abortion in our states?

African American students in the South sat at lunch counters until they were pulled off their chairs by white mobs  but the lunch counters were desegregated because the businesses were losing money. Any pharmacy that refuses to sell the morning-after pill or medical abortion pills deserves the same treatment. Shut them down until they comply with what women need, not what politicians want.

What else? I know there are women in abortion-safe states setting up websites for women who need, but cannot access, pills or other services. There are websites offering to drive women across state lines to access the health care they need. But these are private actions that will help individual women. We need more.



We need to be loud and confrontational and disruptive. We need to be willing to take the consequences of our disruptions. Suffragists went to prison and were force-fed. Gay men were arrested and jailed. African American students were beaten and jailed.



And they created the changes they were seeking.



Judith McDaniel, a former professor at Skidmore College, is now a professor at the University of Arizona where she teaches courses on women, the law, and social change.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  Epicenter, the runner-up in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness this spring, earned himself a start in Saratogas $1.25 million, Grade I Runhappy Travers Stakes on Aug. 27 when he cruised to victory in the $600,000, Grade II Jim Dandy Stakes, the tracks Saturday feature.

A paid crowd of 37,476 saw trainer Steve Asmussen and jockey Joel Rosario team up to win the Spas traditional Travers prep race for their second major triumph of the day. One race earlier, they took the Grade I Alfred G. Vanderbilt with Jackies Warrior.

Epicenter was away last from the starting gate in the field of four 3-year-old thoroughbreds. Rosario, who was on his way to his fourth win of the racing day, was in no hurry to go after the pace-setting Early Voting, who was fresh from defeating Epicenter in the Preakness by a length and a half.

Early Voting, with Jose Ortiz aboard, was getting all the attention he wanted from Tawny Port, the Ohio Derby winner, with Ortizs older brother, Irad, at the controls and Zandon, the Kentucky Derbys third-place finisher.

Once he decided it was time to challenge for the lead going up the backstretch, Rosario sent Epicenter five racing paths wide. They stayed that far out around the Union Avenue turn.

Epicenter got his nose in front and started his run to the wire while still out near the middle of the track. Rosario went to what the jockeys call a hands and heels ride before he felt confident to ease up in the shadow of the finish line. From front to back, the complete order of finish was Epicenter, Zandon, Tawny Port and Early Voting.

Western River, an allowance winner trying to move up to graded stakes company, was scratched earlier in the day.

Asmussens entry of Winchell Thoroughbreds Epicenter was a tactic followed by many successful horsemen of getting a horse a race over the track prior to running in a major stake race. The fact is that this was his first run over Saratoga. I didnt expect it to offer him any problems. But, its a great relief to run his race over this track. (The Travers) is definitely a goal and we think Epicenter has a wonderful opportunity to do it, he said.

The Kentucky-based Asmussen, who leads all trainers with more than 9,800 career wins, said Epicenters Jim Dandy win at a mile and furlong in 1 minute, 48.99 seconds was a good setup for the Travers, that will require the colts to go another eighth of a mile. We know whats on the menu next and we want to be ready for it, he said.

Rosario also liked the Jim Dandy as a prep. He looked relaxed and did everything when I asked, so we look forward (to the Travers), he said.

While the Jim Dandy was an exciting race to watch, the fact that only four horses went to the post curtailed the betting opportunities. Show and trifecta wagers were not offered. Epicenter was the 11-10 favorite and he paid $4.20 to win and $2.60 to show. Zandon, who was the third choice at 5-2 in the win pool, paid $3.20 to place.

Tawny Port was the longest price in the race at 8-1. Early Voting, who according to trainer Chad Brown did not handle the track, was the 9-5 second choice.

When Epicenter goes to the post in the Travers, he will have a record of five wins in nine starts. Winchell Thoroughbreds, his owners, will be rooting for him to make another deposit in his racing bankroll that now stands at just more than $2.2 million.
Eat, drink and be merry, right? Maybe. Go a little heavy on the eat and drink, and the merry gets ghosted. A remedy for overdrinking has yet to be found, so moderation still reigns. Fortunately, just about every culture has created a liqueur to aid with digesting a meal (a digestif), and we need but turn to the food-centric cultures of France and Italy to find the popular and beloved.

Elixir of Long Life

In the 1600s, as the story goes, one of King Henry IVs marshals entrusted Carthusian monks with a manuscript containing a recipe to make the Elixir of Long Life. It took a century for the monks to develop the alchemic recipe into a formula using 130 different plants (barks, roots, flowers and spices) that they called Elixir Vegetal de la Grande-Chartreuse. They packed the elixir in wooden cases on the back of donkeys and sold the medicine in the surrounding villages to support their monastery located just outside of Paris. Still unchanged and in production today, 130-proof Elixir Vegetal is described as a cordial, a liqueur and a very effective tonic.

Chartreuse liqueur, a milder 110-proof spin-off of the original tonic, came on board in 1840. The U.S. is Chartreuses top market, and it has shown up in the chicest spots from Daniel Boulouds dinner table to a ZZ Top song (Chartreuse/La Futura) to Quentin Tarantinos movie Death Proof.

Theyre very tied to their tradition, said Tim Master, senior director of spirits for Frederick Wildman and Sons, said about the way the monks craft Chartreuse. It starts with picking herbs by moonlight until dawn and macerating them in the morning dew.

The herbs? Only two monks, Dom Beinot and Brother Jean-Jacques, know the super-secret recipe. Lemon balm, angelica, juniper, rosemary, saffron and fennel are oft guessed. Each has a strong association with relaxing and toning the digestive apparatus, and once thats humming life can be good.

But the monks use Chartreuse as the tonic its precursor was created to be. Master observed its use for digestive afflictions, bee stings and more.

During a visit to the monastery I got a splinter in my hand when I picked up a picnic bench, Master recalled. Dom Beinot reached into his robe, pulled out a spray bottle containing Chartreuse and spritzed my finger. In essence when you have a recipe of 130 different herbs, youve got gold.

A Most Bitter Bitters

Italy has its own charismatic digestif comprised of unknown ingredients. Fernet Branca, made with a mystery list of a few dozen botanicals to settle the stomach, the website states, has reached cult status in San Francisco and  ready for this?  Argentina. About a third of the liqueur sold in the U.S. is sipped in San Francisco, where it initially sold in Italian pharmacies to aid digestion, and over 75% of global production gets consumed in Argentina.

The family that has produced Fernet Branca for the past 175 years only admits to using mint, ginger, rhubarb and saffron. All of these herbs can settle the stomach, slay microbes and make you feel genuinely good. But the liqueurs trademark bitterness hints of gentian. The herb belongs to the Gentianeae tribe, a few of which reside in Arizonas highest country.

Gentian is a traditional herb of choice used to get the digestion in gear. As the bitter herb hits the tongue, the salivary glands, which shake hands with the pancreas, react by making the mouth water. The salivary gush contains enzymes to which the pancreas reacts in kind. As the digestive juices and gastric acids start to flow, the liver springs into action. This begins the flow of bile, which digests fats, and readies the gallbladder to release it.

A Folksy Favorite

Italy produces another captivating digestif that isnt made of secret substances and doesnt take the illuminati to concoct. Rather, its a folksy spirit anyone can make and its called nocino. Its main ingredient, green walnuts, is found all over the world, including deciduous canyons in northern Arizona. Right now theyd be ready for the harvest, when the nuts are soft enough to slice.

Italians traditionally break open their homebrewed bottles of nocino in late fall, which has given the liqueur an association with holiday feasts. Rather befitting when you look at the medicinal properties of the green walnut, which center smack-dab in the intestines.

Green walnuts contain hydrojuglone that when oxidized becomes juglone, a weapon of microbial mass destruction. Juglone provides natural protection for the tree from predator insects and microbes. It also waylays several species of plants that might try to encroach under a trees canopy by messing with the plants respiration and photosynthesis.

For us humans, the unripe walnut is an evidence-based antioxidant and antimicrobial with a strong tradition of soothing spasms. Research has discovered juglone inhibits three key enzymes from Helicobacter pylori, which can cause gastritis, ulcers and cancer. Green walnut hulls also contain phenolic acids, which can have a beneficial effect on glucose regulation, the heart and bone density. The American Cancer Society has concluded one of green walnuts antioxidants, ellagic acid, prevents the binding of carcinogens to DNA and strengthens connective tissue.

DIY Nocino

If you plan to make nocino, the internet is full of recipes. But wear gloves. When cut, the juglone in the green walnut hulls leaves a brown stain that does not readily wash off with soap and water.

Nocino takes two to six months to make. The longer the mixture rests, the more rounded out the flavor. And maybe take a tip from the monks who make Chartreuse: Pick those walnuts during the night and process them in the morning dew. You might end up with one heavenly digestif.
ALBANY  The state Department of Health is awarding management of a multi-billion-dollar program to a company owned by a significant campaign donor to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was also the beneficiary of a campaign fundraiser the bidder hosted for the governor as the procurement process was nearing its conclusion.

Russ Maxwell, president and owner of the Syracuse-based company Medical Answering Services, confirmed in an interview that hed won the bid and he estimated that under the terms of the deal the state will pay about $1 billion annually to fund the program that he will manage during the five-year contract. The amount of money Maxwell's firm will receive under the contract is unclear.

Maxwells company will serve as the "broker" arranging rides to medical appointments for Medicaid patients; the more than $1 billion annually includes the significant cost of paying transportation providers, including taxi, livery and ambulette companies. Still, winning the contract should be lucrative for his Medical Answering Services, which will be paid a monthly fee for providing the non-emergency medical transportation brokerage management statewide.

The contract has not been formally executed by the Department of Health, so details of the exact amount are not available on the public database maintained by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

On April 24, campaign finance records show, Maxwell spent $4,500 to pay for food, catering and flowers for a Hochul fundraiser. In addition, Maxwell gave Hochul an additional $10,000 that day, and his husband Morgan McDole, gave $20,000. Three days later, Maxwell gave $10,000 and McDole $20,000 to the state Democratic Party, which is closely aligned with Hochuls campaign and has heavily supported her.

The health department's request for proposals was issued last August. Several companies including Medical Answering competed in two separate bidding process  one to serve as a medical transportation broker in upstate New York, the other downstate  but in June, the Department of Health decided to award the business solely to Medical Answering Services for both regions.

Cort Ruddy, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said the governor's office was not involved in awarding the contract and that the process adhered to state Finance Law.

"The Department of Health has contracted with this vendor for more than a decade to provide critical transportation services to Medicaid patients and, after a competitive bidding process, awarded this vendor a procurement authorized under the state fiscal year 2020-21 budget to provide non-emergency medical transportation brokerage management services for New Yorkers enrolled in the Medicaid program," Ruddy said. "The Executive Chamber does not provide input on procurements managed by the department and had no involvement in the selection of the awards.

Maxwell said that he had never spoken to Hochul about the Department of Health bidding. He said hed been a fan of Hochuls since the 1990s, when she was a member of the Hamburg Town Board in western New York and she had worked with Maxwell on an issue related to providing ambulance services  an experience that left Maxwell "very impressed" with her listening skills and "clarity of thought."

"Im very proud of her that she's done so well," Maxwell said.

Indeed, while Hochul was lieutenant governor, Maxwell and McDole donated nearly $54,000 to her campaign. Since Hochul became governor in August, the couple has donated more than $81,000 to Hochuls campaign, plus the $30,000 to the state Democratic Party.

The health departments request for proposals grew out of a panel formed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2020, which was meant to dramatically cut Medicaid costs at a time when the state faced a significant budget deficit. The 2020 state budget agreement granted the agency the authority to retain brokers to manage non-emergency medical transportation on a statewide or regional basis. Under the new plan, the broker would now arrange patient rides "at risk," meaning that the broker  which ended up being Medical Answering Services  would be responsible for the cost of rides, rather than the state.

Hochuls campaign has raised campaign funds at a record-setting pace  more than $34 million since she was sworn in as governor nearly a year ago  much of it from people with business interests before her administration.

"Consistent with Gov. Hochul's commitment to maintain high ethical standards, campaign contributions have no influence on government decisions," said Jerrel Harvey, Hochuls campaign spokesman.

The Times Union recently reported that the Department of Health had paid $637 million since December to a New Jersey-based company, Digital Gadgets, owned by a family that has donated nearly $300,000 to Hochuls campaign. Hochuls office said the government payments  made without a competitive bidding process  were necessary to quickly acquire a substantial number of at home COVID-19 test kits before school resumed in early January 2022, at a time when infection from the highly contagious omicron variant was spiking.

A recent analysis by the Empire Center for Public Policy, however, raised questions about that explanation, finding that a significant chunk of the health department's payments were made to Digital Gadgets after the virus' spike had subsided in February.

Maxwell and McDole also donated heavily to the campaign of Cuomo  $236,000  after Cuomo had successfully pushed through landmark legislation in 2011 allowing same-sex marriage in New York, which allowed the couple to be married.

In 2020, the Syracuse Post Standard reported that McDole, a firefighter, had donated a significant portion of his salary to Cuomo, at the same time McDole was pushing the state to fix a paperwork problem that would boost his pension. Cuomo ended up signing that bill into law, but McDole told the newspaper that Cuomos same-sex marriage push, not the pension issue, had animated his campaign contributions.

In addition to contributing to the campaigns of Hochul and Cuomo, Maxwell has donated heavily to candidates of both parties around the state. Since September, Maxwell has given two donations worth $2,000 to U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island, the Republican running against Hochul in Novembers general election.

Correction: The Department of Health's non-emergency Medicaid transportation program is estimated to cost more than $1 billion a year over the next five years. That fact was misstated in an earlier version of this story.
Irelands president has been urged to make a statement on the war in the Ukraine after his wife penned a controversial letter on the conflict.

Michael D Higgins has faced calls to state support for the Ukrainian cause and voice opposition to Russian aggression.

It comes after Sabina Higgins wrote a letter to the Irish Times during the week about the war.

Mrs Higgins letter, the purpose of which was to criticise a previous editorial on the conflict, said the fighting would go on until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations.

Critics of the letter have suggested Mrs Higgins was drawing an equivalence in the actions of Ukraine and Russia.

Senators from parties in Irelands coalition government have voiced concern.

Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne said the letter was subsequently published on the President of Irelands official website  a move he described as appalling.

The letter appears to have been since removed from the website..

Mrs Higgins is entitled to her personal opinion and to express it, although I believe that she is totally wrong to try to see an equivalence in the positions of Ukraine and Russia, said Mr Byrne.

However, the decision to publish the letter on the Presidents website raises serious questions.

It is incumbent on the President of Ireland to now express clearly the strong support of the people of Ireland for the people of Ukraine and that we hold Russia responsible for the war and ongoing barbarism.

Ireland should rightly be proud of our response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Ireland strongly supports the people of #Ukraine . We must continue to call out Russian aggression. While Sabina Higgins is entitled to her personal view, as expressed to @IrishTimes , I completely disagree with it. To publish it on @PresidentIRL website is appalling. https://t.co/PxLpfwfC8G  Malcolm Byrne    (@malcolmbyrne) July 29, 2022

Fine Gael senator John McGahon heavily criticised the letter.

Sabina Higginss letter was inappropriate, unhelpful and distasteful, he tweeted.

Her views are entirely out of touch with those of the Irish people and interventions like this are seen as a tacit endorsement of the Russian regime.

The office of the President has been contacted for comment.
Ahead of the start of World Breastfeeding Week (August 1  7), Irish experts are calling for increased supports for working parents.

According to Katie Mugan, founder of NursingMama.ie, Breastfeeding & returning to work can be one of the most stressful times in a parents breastfeeding journey and can prove challenging for many parents in the early days as breastfeeding is a learned experience for both the parents and baby.

Katie Mugan said:

Often parents are just getting into their groove when maternity leave finishes and they must return to work. For many exclusively breastfed infants, they may not take a bottle which can heighten a parents anxiety when they return to work.

In the smaller infant, bottles are often an easier way to feed the baby for other caregivers yet establishing a baby on a bottle, if they are refusing, can take up the last few weeks of a parents maternity leave.

The older infant or child may be able to get through the day simply using a sippy or open cup until a mother returns home to feed.

The breastfeeding parent is a key figure here and must be supported. Depending on a the milk supply & age of child, they may need to pump while at work. Having a private room to do so is necessary and a somewhere to store this milk.

Katie Mugan continued:

Companies need to prioritise work and family life balance as this can benefit them greatly. Breastfeeding not only leads to better health for children in the short and long term but also the family unit too. Supporting parents and reducing a stressful return to work can lead to better performance in the work place.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill is being introduced as part of an EU directive which has a deadline of August 2022.

It has been proposed that the Bill brought to cabinet, will provide rights for workers to take breaks to breastfeed or express for up to two years after the date of confinement of their child. The current law only provides for 26 weeks.

Employees will be entitled to take those breaks in one block of sixty minutes, two blocks of thirty minutes or three blocks of twenty minutes in an eight hour working day. They can also take one hour at end of their working day.

CEO and Co-Founder of HR Buddy, Damien McCarthy worries that too much legislation is being introduced as part of a box ticking exercise by Government with little or no supports to help the employer to implement such legislation.

This, he says may lead to employment relations difficulties between employers and employees in some circumstances.

Mr McCarthy said:

Theres a whole host of employers who have never dealt with breastfeeding in the workplace before, therefore guidance and supports are required in order to make it work.

Appropriate facilities that are logistical and allow for privacy must be available. Facilities in the workplace need to be reviewed to ensure workers are encouraged to take their breaks. This means financial assistance is needed for SMEs.
34992 


Something better than luck likely saved this local motorist from gunfire that's random but not altogether uncommon in this urban Kansas enclave.



Here's the story . . .



The KCK Police Department told Eddie Johnson if he was going five miles slower, he could be in the hospital or dead.



Johnson was just driving in like he would on a regular day . . . When the bullet flew through his back drivers seat.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Let's star with the basics . . .

Who is Crissy Dastrup???

Whilst she might serve as the worst nightmare of Kansas City 4th District incumbent councilman Eric Bunch . . . Most people don't know her work.

She was formerly the councilman's assistant and now she's running to replace him.

Behind the scenes . . . Staffers for the council dude launched a series of really nasty social media attacks on her until cooler heads at 12th & Oak whispered to the politico that this wasn't a good look.

Ms. Dastrup has served as a volunteer in several campaigns and insiders have probably seen her and local activist Justice Horn jetting back and forth betwixt protests and community meetings over the past year.



Just this week Ms. Dastrup garnered criticism for a loan from her campaign to Justice Horn's funds - A HUGE no-no and something that she quickly had to take back, amend and explain.

Now . . . Once again, insiders are raising eyebrows at her recent endorsement . . .

The main question . . .

WHY SHOULD ANYBODY CARE WHO CRISSY DASTRUP RECOMMENDS?!?!

That's a good question.

Here's the premise . . .



In this election we're witnessing a slate of younger contenders (i.e. under 45) who are unaffiliated with established networks that typically power local politics.

Some of our progressive friends have called it a Gen Z movement . . .

Of course we should let Ms. Dastrup clarify her support for a slate of candidates . . .

"ENDORSEMENTS

August 2 is our opportunity to elect local leaders we trust to steward millions in tax dollars and advocate for our communities.

These are the candidates I believe will listen to the people and SHOW UP to build a better Jackson County. 

Here's what we like . . .

There is a lot of info here and a basic idea of what these upstart politicos are about . . .

What remains to be seen . . .

Outsider candidates typically don't do well in Kansas City elections. A couple of Ms. Dastrup picks have great connections and their own solid credentials . . . However . . .

KC politics and election contests have a long history of discouraging newcomers & first timers.

We'll see if this heartfelt NEXTGEN advocacy makes the difference.

Check the starting point . . .



UPDATE: THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS POST MIGHT HAVE BEEN TO NOTE THAT ABSENCE OF A "PAID FOR" LINE . . . WHICH IS ALSO A CAMPAIGN NO-NO!!!

Sorry for not nothing that earlier . . . And now back to the post . . .



Stacy Lake is a long-shot to replace Exec Frank White but it's not for lack of trying or running an honest campaign and seeking a face-to-face discussion about the future of the county.



Zac Sweets is an insider with the best name in KC politics but, unfortunately, he hasn't garnered much "face time" or recognition outside of the civic set.



Former Marine Megan Marshall is the strongest contender of the bunch . . . By all accounts she has run an excellent campaign against incumbent Tony Miller and this is the most competitive contest on Jackson County primary night.

The winner will have a great deal to say about the future of the Courthouse. Insiders will be WATCHING VERY CLOSELY.



We all know Justice . . . The world has seen the outset of his career as an activist. Here's a bit more about his campaign platform . . .



Now if you've made it this far . . .

HERE'S WHAT WE REALLY LIKE ABOUT CRISSY DASTRUP'S CAMPAIGN ENDORSEMENT BLAST . . . THERE'S GREAT INFO ABOUT JACKSON COUNTY AND WHY VOTERS SHOULD TAKE INTEREST!!!

If you don't read any of the other panels . . . This is the one to check out . . .



Now . . .

In less than 72 hours we'll find out if these Kansas City metro political newbies have a future or if they'll have to try again to convince a town that loves to talk about reform but never really votes for it.

Developing . . .


Margaret Carney asks, How does a bird not four inches long store all that knowledge in its DNA?
"Don't say we didn't warn you!" - a phrase that was used by the People's Daily in 1962 before China was forced to fight the border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War, was frequently mentioned during a forum held Friday by a high-level Chinese think tank, as analysts warned that open military options and comprehensive countermeasures ranging from the economy to diplomacy from China await if US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gambles with a visit to the Taiwan island during her Asia tour.

On Thursday night, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone conversation with US President Joe Biden, during which he once again warned the US about the seriousness and significance of the Taiwan question and said, "Public opinion cannot be defied. Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this."

In the recent week, in response to Pelosi's potential visit to the island of Taiwan, a string of warnings have also been made by different ministries and departments of China. On Friday, the Institute of Taiwan Studies in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - the highest-level think tank - held a forum with analysts and discussed the damage of Pelosi's possible Taiwan island visit to the China-US relations, cross-Straits stability and regional and global peace, and China's countermeasures.

Sending fighter jets to intercept Pelosi's plane, declaring air and maritime zones around the island of Taiwan as restriction zones for military exercises  China's responses will be systematical and not limited to small scale given the severity of Pelosi's move and the damage to the political trust of China-US relations, Yang Mingjie, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Pelosi is leading an official congressional delegation to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore in Asia starting Friday and it is unclear whether the trip will include a stop in the island of Taiwan, US media reported.

The US military had reportedly expressed safety concerns to Pelosi but later played down worries that China may shoot down Pelosi's plane in case she visits the island of Taiwan, and said the US military will increase movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region.

Yang noted that China has reiterated its opposition to Pelosi's possible visit and used the phrase "yanzhen yidai" - literally meaning "streamlining army formation to wait for the enemy" - to show that we have made all preparations for combats or any challenges.

There are multiple measures the PLA can take once Pelosi flies to the island of Taiwan. For example, Chinese fighter jets can fly along with and monitor the plane that Pelosi takes and fly over the airport where her plane lands in Taiwan, Wang Yunfei, a naval expert, told the Global Times.

The PLA can also declare air and maritime zones around the island of Taiwan as restricted zones to resist Pelosi's plane. Chinese fighter jets can also fly across the island to start a new model to fight against the military actions of secessionists on the island, Wang said, noting that sending missiles surrounding the island of Taiwan and conducting military drills are also options.

Analysts on the military also noted that the PLA can conduct large-scale military drills around the island of Taiwan, including on the waters between Taiwan island and Japan as well as between Taiwan island and Guam. The PLA drills would also include joint efforts of all PLA service branches, with all combat elements including electronic warfare, missile and long-range rocket strikes, seizing of air superiority and control of the sea, amphibious landing, as well as anti-access and area denial against external military interference.

Live-fire drills will be held and waters near Pingtan in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian will be sealed from 8am to 9pm on Saturday, the local authorities announced on Friday. Pingtan is 125 kilometers away from the island of Taiwan.

During the forum, many analysts noted that the military response from the Chinese mainland will be larger in scale and upgraded from the ones during the 1995-96 crisis of the Taiwan Straits.

In responding to key initiator of "Taiwan separatism" Lee Teng-hui's visit to the US, the PLA took a series of military drills from July 1995 to March 1996 in the waters surrounding the island of Taiwan.

"China was not strong enough during the Taiwan Straits crisis in 1995-96, but didn't hesitate to take a military response. The answer for the current situation is clear considering its current political and economic strength  If this can be tolerated, what cannot?" said Leng Bo, an expert from the Institute of Taiwan Studies in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noting this time the military response will be larger than any other time.

The backdrop of Pelosi's visit is different from that of the 1995-96 crisis - China-US relations have changed, the comparison of strength between China and the US has changed, and the island of Taiwan itself has changed - and the way the mainland will cope with Pelosi's visit will be different and may bring wider consequences and impact, Wu Yongping, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

Wu noted that the Chinese mainland's countermeasures will be comprehensive in military, diplomacy, economy and public opinions. If Pelosi insists on making the visit, China can turn the incident into an opportunity to take control of the Taiwan Straits situation and push the reunification process, and such consequence should be borne by the island and the US as the international community will also clearly see the provocation from the US and that any actions China will take are out of determination to defend its sovereignty.

"If so, will Pelosi regret catalyzing China's reunification process?" Wu asked.

The phrase "Don't say we didn't warn you" had also been frequently mentioned by analysts when talking about the disastrous consequences that may be brought about by Pelosi during the Friday forum.

"Don't say we didn't warn you" has become a key phrase used by Chinese official media as the most severe warning previously issued before shots were fired in military operations. The phrase has been used several times before, such as in 1962 and 1978, not long before China's military operations against provocations by Indian and Vietnamese troops, respectively.

"The US should not underestimate the Chinese people's determination to defend core interests on sovereignty, integrity and security at any time. It should also not repeat the miscalculation it made in the 1950s in the Korean War. Despite not being strong at that time, China still had the courage to fight a war when it was pushed to the corner, it will surely not sit idly by this time," said Yang.

The countermeasures in China's toolbox include concrete and strategic ones and rapid and long-term ones and it will take different measures in accordance with Pelosi's interactions with secessionists from the island of Taiwan. If she makes the visit, the possibility for China to recall the ambassador from the US cannot be ruled out, analysts said, also referring to imposing sanctions on individuals related to the visit.

Many analysts also stressed that once Pelosi visits the island of Taiwan, it will escalate the cross-Straits tensions, greatly damage the political trust of China-US relations, and bring disastrous effects to regional peace and economy.

Pelosi, out of her paranoid anti-China ideas and selfish political interests, has provoked the Taiwan question and sent a seriously wrong signal to the secessionist forces in Taiwan. If it leads to the intensification and loss of control of secessionist activities, it is detrimental to US national interests and it is the US that has to foot the bill, said Zhu Weidong, deputy director from the Institute of Taiwan Studies in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

While the Chinese and US leaders are improving communications to control disputes, Pelosi is intent on such political stunt to break the consensus reached by the top leaders, which displays the domestic political mess in the US, analysts said, urging the Biden administration to play its role in fulfilling promises to China.

Historical experiences show that for decades, as long as the relationship between China and the US develops well, the Taiwan question is handled properly. If the US challenges China's core interests, not only will China-US relations be turbulent, it will have a negative impact on the entire Asia-Pacific and even slow the recovery of global economy, Zhu said.

Bilateral cooperation between China and the US, especially on the economy, global supply chain, energy and food security are important to help solve global challenges and some urgent problems the US is facing with. However, what Pelosi has done and may do will have negative influence in these fields, said analysts.


Published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Science, the study could help researchers examine the corrosion that these salts can cause in metal containers like those found in the next generation of nuclear reactors.

The study provides a reliable approach to study the conversion of dissolved gas to vapor in molten salts, helping engineers understand the effect of different impurities and solutes (the substance dissolved in a solution) on corrosion. Shi said it also will help researchers study the release of potentially toxic gas into the atmosphere, which will be extremely useful for fourth-generation molten salt nuclear reactors.

We used our quasi-chemical theory and our deep neural network, which we trained using data generated by quantum simulations, to model the solvation thermodynamics of molten salt with chemical accuracy, Shi said.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
From February 24 to July 31, the Armed Forces of Ukraine eliminated about 40,830 Russian invaders.

Moreover, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 1,763 (+4 over the past day) tanks, 4,004 (+9) armored personnel vehicles, 916 (+10) artillery systems, 259 (+1) MLRS, 117 anti-aircraft systems, 223 (+1) aircraft, 190 helicopters, 735 (+2) UAVs of operational-tactical level, 174 cruise missiles, 15 ships / boats, 2,902 (+13) vehicles and fuel tanks, 80 (+2) special equipment units, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

The enemy suffered the biggest losses in Donetsk direction.

On February 24, the Russian Federation began a new stage of the war against Ukraine  a full-scale invasion. Russian invaders shell and bomb peaceful Ukrainian cities and villages, killing the civilian population. Defense forces of Ukraine resist Russian troops.

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Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has thanked Italy for the new package of military aid for the Ukrainian army.

Reznikov wrote this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

"When we stand united, we can't be defeated! I would like to thank the Italian government and personally my friend [Italian Defense Minister] Guerini Lorenzo for the new military aid package. The Ukrainian people will always remember the unwavering support of Italy. Grazie mille!," Reznikov wrote.

Earlier reports said that Italy is considering participating in the restoration of war-torn settlements in the Kyiv, Odesa and Zhytomyr regions.

Russia has been carrying out an all-out armed aggression against Ukraine since February 24.
The Montana District Office of the Small Business Administration (SBA) is honoring Capital Matrix of Boise, Idaho, for approving the greatest number of 504 projects in Montana.

During FY21, Montana small businesses received 323 SBA guaranteed loans totaling over $186 million. Of these loans, 277 for $158,922,700 were made through SBAs 7(a) Loan Guaranty Program which provides short- or long-term financing for small business start-up or expansion needs. Forty-six loans were made under SBAs 504 Loan Program which provides small businesses with long-term, fixed-rate real estate and equipment financing. Capital Matrix is one of four Certified Development Companies approved to make 504 loans in Montana.
A Syrian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain was seized in Lebanon.

The Public Prosecution seized the ship Laodicea docked in Tripoli port, LBCI media outlet informs.

It is known that the ship was seized for 72 hours. The Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon received relevant permission. The Embassy explains that the Russians loaded the ship with grain in the temporarily occupied Crimea on July 27. The ship carries barley taken from the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

Instead, the Russian embassy in Lebanon insists that it allegedly has no information about the ship and calls Ukraine's accusations "false and groundless".

As reported, Taras Vysotsky, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine said that the Russian invaders had already taken several hundred thousand tonnes of grain from the temporarily occupied territories in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

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The first caravan consisting of 16 vessels will depart from the Ukrainian ports in the near future. The first ship is expected to enter Turkeys territorial waters as early as August 3 before moving on to Africa.

This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to CNN Turk.

"Sixteen ships will form the convoy. The first route of the grain corridor has been designated. Istanbul will be the first stop. The ships will be tracked with UAVs and satellites from the moment they depart. It is expected that the first vessel that will arrive from Ukrainian ports will enter the territorial waters of Turkey on August 3," the agency reports.

It also states that vessels that turn off GPS signal and fail to provide transparent information about their destination will not be allowed to enter Turkish territorial waters.

Read also: Lebanon seizes Syrian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain

"On Ankaras initiative, the first ships carrying grain will head for African countries that are threatened by famine. In this context, it is expected that the ship, which will leave the Odesa port, will arrive in Somalia," the report said.

UN officials said the ship's journey to Somalia could take up to a month and a half.

As reported earlier, on July 22, as a result of the quadrilateral meeting of Ukraine, Turkey, the UN and Russia, held in Istanbul, an agreement was signed, according to which Ukraine would proceed with the exports of grain and other food products from its ports.
Egypt will conclude a new contract with Ukraine for the supply of grain as the Ukrainian side was unable to fulfill its contractual obligations in March-April due to Russias blockade of ports.

"The media disseminated reports claiming that Egypt refused Ukrainian grain, but this is not true," Mykhailo Nepran, First Vice-President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Hromadske TV channel.

As he explained, the Egyptian side officially assured Ambassador of Ukraine to Egypt Mykola Nahorny that it does not refuse to cooperate with Ukraine, understands the situation with the blocking of ports, and Egypt is ready to work with Ukraine and purchase grain in the future.

Nepran called the decision to terminate the previous contract a civilized one.

"Indeed, the contract was concluded. But the Ukrainian side could not fulfill it in a timely manner due to the blockade of the ports. It turned out that the agreement did not include a force majeure clause. Therefore, a completely civilized decision was made at the legislative level: to close the contract that cannot be fulfilled and open a new one, according to which the purchase will be made," the First Vice-President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry summed up.

As Ukrinform reported with reference to Reuters, Egypt's General Authority For Supply Commodities (GASC) cancelled contracts for a total of 240,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat that were booked before the onset of Russias full-scale invasion.

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Days after Moscow launched its bloody war on Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane stood on a Khartoum runway, a strip of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand. The aircraft's manifest stated it was loaded with cookies. Sudan rarely, if ever, exports cookies.

Thats according to CNN, Ukrinform reports.

A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country's increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.

Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan's most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.

This incident in February -- recounted by multiple official Sudanese sources to CNN -- is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa's third largest producer of the precious metal, over the last year and a half.

Read also: US Congress to define criteria for designating Russia as state sponsor of terrorism

Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan's riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan's beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue.

In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan's increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country's pro-democracy movement.

"We've long known Russia is exploiting Sudan's natural resources," one former US official familiar with the matter told CNN. "In order to maintain access to those resources Russia encouraged the military coup."

At the heart of this quid pro quo between Moscow and Sudan's military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and key ally of President Vladimir Putin.

The heavily sanctioned 61-year-old controls a shadowy network of companies that includes Wagner, a paramilitary group linked to alleged torture, mass killings and looting in several war-torn countries including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR).

In Sudan, Prigozhin's main vehicle is a US-sanctioned company called Meroe Gold -- a subsidiary of Prigozhin owned M-invest -- which extracts gold while providing weapons and training to the country's army and paramilitaries, according to invoices seen by CNN.

"Through Meroe Gold, or other companies associated with Prigozhin employees, he has developed a strategy to loot the economic resources of the African countries where he intervenes, as a counterpart to his support to the governments in place," said Denis Korotkov, investigator at the London-based Dossier Center.

Responding to the findings of CNN's investigation, a US State Department spokesperson said: "We are monitoring this issue closely, including the reported activities of Meroe Gold, the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, and other sanctioned actors in Sudan, the region, and throughout the gold trade.

"We support the Sudanese people in their pursuit of a democratic and prosperous Sudan that respects human rights," the spokesperson added. "We will continue to make clear our concerns to Sudanese military officials about the malign impact of Wagner, Meroe Gold, and other actors."
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has proposed to confiscate Russian assets from sanctioned individuals, and use them for the restoration of Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid and security assistance, while French Senator Melanie Vogel (the Greens) said this would be the fairest decision.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a U.S. Senator (D-RI), who introduced the relevant bill to U.S. Congress, spoke with Guildhall, as seen by Ukrinform.

Congress recently passed an annual appropriations measure, which I supported, that will provide nearly $14 billion in additional humanitarian and defense assistance to Ukraine, including $4 billion to help refugees and internally-displaced Ukrainians, Senator Whitehouse said.

Additionally, I recently introduced Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act (S. 3838), which would authorize the confiscation of property of sanctioned Russian persons to be used to assist the people of Ukraine with reconstruction, humanitarian aid, security assistance, or refugee resettlement, among other purposes, the U.S. senator added.

Read also: COREPER approves new sanctions against Russia

Melanie Vogel, a member of the French Senate representing the Greens, said in a comment to Guildhall that it is Russia that must pay for the restoration of Ukraine and pay reparations. The use of frozen Russian assets is the fairest and legally viable solution.

Russia being responsible for this war and the massive destruction that followed, financing Ukraine's reconstruction with frozen Russian assets in European countries does appear to be the fairest and most legitimate solution, the French senator noted.

For the moment, there are still legal obstacles which do not allow France, for instance, to go beyond freezing the assets and actually seize them. But there is a political will to move in that direction and I am confident we will succeed in implementing such reparations, Vogel said.

Earlier, Lithuanian Member of the European Parliament Petras Austravicius said seized Russian assets should be auctioned off to send the proceeds to Ukraine

Read also: US Congress to define criteria for designating Russia as state sponsor of terrorism

Another MEP, Michael Gahler (Germany), said Russian state assets seized in the European Union must be transferred to Ukraine as part of compensation and financing of reconstruction.

Assets of illegal origin, owned by Russian oligarchs, should also be handed to Ukraine, as they are essentially state assets of the Russian Federation.
The United States will continue to pursue accountability for the attack on the detention facility in Olenivka and will help Ukraine defend itself against Moscow's aggression.

The attack on the detention facility in Olenivka is unconscionable, as are reports of barbaric treatment of Ukrainian POWs by Russias forces. We will continue to pursue accountability and give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself against Moscow's horrific aggression, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink posted on Twitter.

As reported, on the night of July 29, an explosion rang out in the territory of former penal colony No. 210 in Olenivka village in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region, destroying the building in which Ukrainian prisoners of war were held.

Read also: Russians ban ICRC from visiting place of death of Ukrainian POWs in Olenivka

According to Ukrainian intelligence data, the Ukrainian POWs  about 50 people  were killed by mercenaries from the Russian private military company, the Wagner Group.

As the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine informed, the Russian military deliberately fired at the colony in Olenivka.

The occupying forces in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region denied the request of the Ukrainian branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross for access to Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka, thereby violating the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

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Over the past day, a total of 40,000 people crossed into Ukraine, including 36,000 Ukrainian nationals.

Thats according to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

"Throughout the day, on July 29, some 80,000 persons and 17,000 vehicles crossed Ukraine's western borders with the EU and Moldova. 40,000 people left Ukraine last day. More than 24,000 of them crossed out to Poland, while the rest headed to other EU countries and Moldova," the statement reads.

Almost 70 incoming trucks carrying humanitarian aid have also been cleared at checkpoints.

As Ukrinform reported, since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 45,000 vehicles brought humanitarian aid into Ukraine.
Its arguably most people's dream to age at home, surrounded by friends and family with the occasional support from a neighbor or friend. But in reality, the future will be much less comfortable for most.

Lilia Jean Cardin has been a resident at Big Horn Senior Living for about seven years, but just two weeks ago leadership at the facility announced it would close its doors over the next two to three months. All the residents will have to find new living arrangements, whether thats moving in with family, opting for expensive assisted living or moving hundreds of miles away to a skilled nursing facility that has so far survived the industrys financial crisis.

Cardin could face an out-of-county move that would make it nearly impossible for her most trusted friend, Donna Wald, to visit.

When ever I come in I bring her her chocolates. Shes diabetic, but she eats them and she says I dont eat a whole lot. Yeah I know she does, Wald said, laughing.

Cardin is 96 years old, wheelchair bound and has issues with short-term memory. She often doesnt recognize Wald when she comes to visit.

Without close family, Cardin relies heavily on Wald who acts as her power of attorney and is her emergency contact at the nursing home.

When memory issues started to settle in, Cardin donated about $8,000 to a local church. When Wald realized that the organization was taking advantage of Cardins condition, she started managing Cardins finances for her.

Come December, Cardin will run out of money to pay the $7,000 monthly rate shes been paying since residing in the nursing home. She is in need of care 24 hours a day from trained providers, and soon she will become completely reliant on Medicaid to cover the costs of living in a skilled nursing facility.

The Big Horn Senior Living complex is only one of the seven facilities that have closed in 2022, displacing dozens of elderly residents who need the most care and support.

As more facilities close, accessing a nursing home bed covered by Medicaid is becoming more and more difficult. While occupancy may be low at facilities throughout the state, the Medicaid beds in Montana are nearly full.

Most nursing homes limit the number of Medicaid patients theyre willing to take because of the deficit in Medicaid reimbursement. Taking in more Medicaid patients could spell disaster for surviving facilities.

As a result, elderly residents are being shuffled around the state and region, ending up wherever there is a Medicaid bed available.

When Wald heard that Cardin may have to be moved as far away as Missoula, she knew visiting would be nearly impossible. Round trip, Wald would have to travel 848 miles to visit her elderly friend.

Isolation and depression among the elderly is a common issue, particularly when skilled nursing is needed. Poor mental health can have a devastating impact on overall health, and without the means for travel, its possible residents will die alone in an unfamiliar place. Its a heart wrenching circumstance that administrators across rural Montana have witnessed more than once.

Assisted living

DPHHS Director Adam Meier told The Gazette in a July interview that some nursing home residents are fit to move into assisted living facilities, which are primarily private pay.

Federal Medicaid does not cover assisted living or home health services. Instead, these services fall under the Medicaid waiver program, which is made up of state funds that are carefully divided up.

There are a limited number of Medicaid waiver slots available, and while a Medicaid waiver can transfer to another facility with the resident, most assisted living facilities in Billings have met their self-determined Medicaid occupancy.

The Hi-Line Retirement Center in Malta narrowly avoided closure by transitioning from a nursing home to an assisted living facility.

The rules for assisted living are more relaxed and it's less expensive to operate, said Duane Murray, administrator at the facility. Murray has had to limit his clientele to people with lower acuity needs and is only taking in locals.

While the transition should help him keep the doors open, the decision does come with some risks.

Success depends on waiver money, and thats not reliable, Murray said. You have to gamble on (waiver money) because the alternative is to close the doors.

Meier suggests in-home care

While Wald would happily take Cardin in, Walds ranch home in Lodge Grass is multiple levels. It would be impossible for wheelchair-bound Cardin to live safely. Cardins fragility also makes her prone to falling.

Wald does have a long nursing career behind her and has the skills to care for Cardin, but Wald herself is 80 years old. In Cardins old age, stairs, stoves, cars, even household obstacles present new dangers.

Some displaced residents could move in with family and utilize in-home health services, Meier said. But in-home health also falls under the Medicaid waiver program and each patient must meet specific criteria for reimbursement.

In instances when Medicaid coverage would not apply, in-home health care is incredibly expensive.

Not to mention, there is a complete lack of infrastructure in rural Montana to support an increased demand for home health.

The state is short hundreds of caregivers while simultaneously leading the West in the silver wave. As baby boomers age, the demand for long-term, skilled nursing care will skyrocket.

COVID and greater occupancy

Ultimately, transferring patients to new facilities will increase occupancy at others hundreds of miles away.

Not only will moving residents away from their communities and families keep them confined and isolated, but lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic about infectious disease in congregate settings will be ignored.

Large facilities and facilities in urban locations are more likely to experience COVID-19 outbreaks, according to a study by David Grabowski, a health care policy professor at Harvard University.

The larger and more compact the facility, the more chances there are for deadly germs to be swapped among residents. Urban cities also tend to experience more intense COVID surges, leaving workers to bring in germs from their lives beyond the walls of the facility.

In general, nursing homes are set up with multiple residents in one room, separated only by a thin curtain, not ideal for infection control. There is an even more severe ratio of residents to bathrooms in nursing homes.

And Medicaid does not pay for private rooms. Yet modern, state of the art nursing home models that could draw more paying customers, tout fewer residents in a more intimate setting.

The state wants us to change and keep up with the times, but (what theyre doing) isnt whats right for the future, said Rose Hughes, executive director of Montana Health Care Association, which lobbies for nursing homes in the state. There is no future where skilled nursing isnt necessary. We are losing infrastructure just like we did a few years ago with mental health  and we all can see where that landed us.

Hospital Swing Beds

As Bridger Rehab and Care Center is set to close in Bozeman and the Gallatin Rest Home has struggled to reopen its rehabilitation services due to staffing challenges, hospitals are bracing to have swing bed occupancy increase.

Swing beds in hospitals are utilized when a patient needs post-hospital care, but there are no beds available at a skilled nursing facility.

Between the dwindling beds in the community and the continued challenges with COVID outbreaks, Bozeman Hospital is seeing an uptick in their long-term care patients, said Michelle Kirsch, registered nurse and case manager at the hospital.

While hospitals are well equipped to care for patients in need of long term care, issues arise when high acuity patients are coming in.

Challenges are alluded to making sure hospitals are able to take high-acuity patients. We want to make sure we can provide stabilizing care (for those coming in), Kirsch said.

Family engagement also makes a huge difference in a patient's recovery, but if going home isnt an option, staying in the community is the next best choice.

When a patient can go home it's best for their mental health and best for recovery, Kirsch said. It's hard if people cant be placed in their community. People really need to respect patients and make sure were getting the best place for each person.

Kirsch pointed to a devastatingly low Medicaid rate and its impacts on patients across the state. Montana hospitals serve a large number of Medicaid patients who dont receive the same level of care as those with private insurance.

The nursing home crisis is a perfect example of Medicaid patients not being able to access quality care that is comparable to private pay facilities. When patients arent too sick, too old or too poor, life is golden.

These residents dont have a choice. Its never anyones dream to be in this situation, said Wendy Soulek, COO of Latis Enterprises that operates recently closed Bridger Rehab and Care Center. There have been tears on every front.
The Montana Farm Bureau Foundation and the MFB Womens Leadership Committee have awarded $7,000 in scholarship money for the 2022-2023 school year to deserving students.

The MFB Womens Leadership Committee awarded two $1,500 scholarships; one to Asa Gray Jassen, of Belt, and one to Colton Noyes, of Toston. Jassen plans to attend Gonzaga University, majoring in biology/pre-med. Noyes will attend Montana State University, Bozeman, majoring in crop science.

Knute Hereim, of White Sulphur Springs, was awarded the 2022 $1,500 Bernard Greufe Honor Scholarship. The purpose of this scholarship is to assist a Montana Farm Bureau members and children of members with higher education. Hereim will be a freshman at MSU in Fall 2022 majoring in agricultural business management.

Andee Baker, of Park City, was the recipient of the 2022 $1,000 Collegiate YF&R Scholarship and the $1,500 Future of Ag Honor Scholarship. Baker is attending Montana State University to work towards a Master's of Public Health which will prepare her for a career in creating resources and training therapists to work with agricultural communities.

The Future of Agriculture Honor Scholarship is administered by the Montana Farm Bureau Foundation and made available through generous donations from Seed Source, Inc. of Toston.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Jul, 2022 ) :Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday expressed deep grief and sorrow over the death of senior journalist Akhtar Baloch.

In a statement, the minister said she was saddened to hear the news of Akhtar Baloch's death.

Akhtar Baloch's services in the field of journalism would always be remembered, she remarked.

She prayed to Allah Almighty to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss with fortitude.
Catholic Bishops of Africa meeting in Accra, Ghana, for their 19th Plenary Assembly Saturday, elected Ghanaian Cardinal-designate Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr as the new President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

Vatican News.

The Cardinal-designate is the current Bishop of Wa in Ghana. He takes over as SECAM President from Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso, who has been at the organisation's helm since July 2019.

Also elected with Bishop Baawobr are two vice presidents, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of the Diocese of Xai-Xai, Mozambique. The three SECAM officials represent a careful balance of Africa's anglophone, francophone and lusophone countries.

Security and migration -good starting points

Following his election, the new SECAM president gave an interview to Vatican News. He said his election as SECAM President came as a total surprise.

"I was surprised that they elected me because this is my first time participating at a SECAM meeting. At the same time, I am grateful that they have elected me. I see it as trust that they are showing in me  for now, I cannot say these are my priorities. It is important that we first listen to the regional Episcopal Conferences, and it is good that our SECAM standing committee is comprised of regional conferences. I also find that the theme we discussed at this Plenary, Ownership of SECAM; Security and Migration in Africa and the Islands, is a good starting point.

Called to serve and to listen

On 29 May 2022, Pope Francis announced that at a consistory scheduled for 27 August, he would create new cardinals for the Church. Among those will be the Cardinal-designate, Bishop Baawobr. Asked by Vatican News what all these new appointments mean to him personally, Bishop Baawobr said the bottom line was that they are all a call to serve.

"What all this means for me as Cardinal-elect and President of SECAM, I think, is that both are a call to serve God through my brothers and sisters and by listening to them," said the Ghanaian prelate.
Pope Francis thanks all those who made his visit to Canada possible, and says that while there, his thoughts were also with the people of Ukraine.

By Vatican News staff reporter

Pope Francis recalled his six-day Apostolic Visit to Canada following his return on Saturday to Rome.

Speaking on Sunday after the recitation of the Marian prayer, the Pope thanked all those who had made his penitential pilgrimage possible, including civil authorities, heads of the indigenous peoples and the Canadian Bishops. He also thanked everyone who had accompanied him with their prayers, and said he would speak at length about his visit during Wednesdays General Audience.

Read also 31/07/2022 Pope at Angelus: Avoid idolatry of wealth and seek life's true goods Back at the Vatican just a day after his penitential pilgrimage to Canada, Pope Francis leads the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter's Square offering thoughts on the day's Gospel that ...

Prayers for the people of Ukraine

Despite being in Canada, Pope Francis noted that even during the trip, he never stopped praying for the Ukrainian people, attacked and tormented, asking God to deliver them from the scourge of war.

The Pope went on to say that if one looked at reality objectively, considering the damage that each day of war brings to that population but also to the entire world, the only reasonable thing to do would be to stop and negotiate. May wisdom inspire concrete steps of peace, he said.

On this, the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, which also marks the conclusion of the Ignatian year, Pope Francis extended an affectionate greeting to his Jesuit brothers, inviting them to continue to walk with zeal, with joy in the service of the Lord.
The bedsheets are big. Some are light pink, others hot pink or purple, connected and stretched taut by people holding wooden poles. Together, the sheets form a barrier across the parking lot. The activists, who are supporting a womans right to an abortion, wear bright pink vests with PRO-CHOICE in black emblazoned on the front.

This is the front line of protection for pregnant women who drive to this womens center for an abortion. The sheeting forms a tunnel for them to leave their cars and enter the center, unseen by anti-abortion protesters trying to stop them.

Theres very little conversation

This is the daily scene at the Bristol Regional Womens Center. The abortion-rights activists stay inside the center parking lot; the anti-abortion protesters stand on the sidewalk. They walk next to a busy street with posters reading Love Your Baby and Yourself or Babies are Murdered Here next to competing pink signs that read, Honk Twice for Choice.

A local church organizes the anti-abortion protesters. Natalie, who asked to use only her first name for safety reasons, is 24. She has been coming here weekly for seven years, saying, This is what the Lord has called us to do. She says no patient has ever approached her for help.

Another young protester, Haven, says hes handed out a few pamphlets but it is difficult to approach the women because of the sheeting. He has not spoken to the doctors or the abortion-rights protesters, adding, Theres very little conversation that can happen.

The abortion-rights protesters chose not to speak to VOA about their views and asked us to leave. One shone a flashlight into the lens of our video camera.

Inside the clinic, women are given an ultrasound on the first visit. If no fetal heartbeat is detected, they return for a second ultrasound in 48 hours. Again, if no cardiac activity is heard, they are given counseling before a medical abortion.

That is not the case in the adjacent state.

Legal and illegal separated by a street

Bristol, Tennessee, is a border town.

The state line is marked by numerous 20-centimeter-long brass plaques that run down the center of State Street, separating Tennessee from Virginia and its different laws.

As soon as the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down abortion as a constitutional right, some states instituted trigger laws outlawing some or all abortions.

Tennessees trigger law outlawed surgical abortions and allowed medical abortions, which use medication to end a pregnancy, during the first six weeks of a pregnancy or until a heartbeat can be recognized, which typically occurs near that time limit.

That means abortions remain legal in Virginia but across State Street, they are restricted in Tennessee.

Olivia, who prefers to use only her first name for safety reasons, is a medical assistant at a womens clinic in Bristol, Tennessee. She says in the past month, her clinic has had to turn away women in tears, some who had driven many hours to reach the clinic, because an ultrasound found fetal heart activity. The office refers them to Virginia offices if they live nearby. But some drive from eastern Tennessee, and a delay of an extra day to reach another state thats closer than Virginia can affect the legality of an abortion.

It becomes a bigger issue, Olivia says, giving as an example, North Carolina, [where] you have two separate visits with a 72-hour waiting period.

Star Eans is a makeup artist on TikTok. The U.S. Supreme Court decision motivated her to become a abortion-rights activist. Eans had a medical abortion less than a year ago when she lived in Tennessee, and complications required a surgical abortion.

It just makes me angry thinking that, like, if that had happened this year, I would have just died, Eans says. If I was still living in Tennessee, and I had to have this baby that I didn't want, I was very much on the verge of ending myself.

Doctor looks to move across the border

On Aug. 25, another Tennessee law will prohibit all abortions, surgical and medical.

Because of that, the doctor who runs the Bristol womens center is considering a satellite office less than a mile away where abortions are legal in Bristol, Virginia. A GoFundMe page has raised more than $100,000 for the new clinic, and an update on July 29 said it had opened.

But anti-abortion protesters held a rally earlier in July at the Virginia clinic and alerted residents, including Emmitt Russell, whose house is next door. He objects to the anti-abortion protesters and the clinic and says a Virginia ban would motivate him to the polls.

I didnt vote in the last two presidential elections  but I would vote against abortions in Virginia, yes, he said.

No trigger laws exist in Virginia. But Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is supporting making abortions illegal after 15 weeks. Republicans hold a majority in the state House and could support a ban, but experts think it would be defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Somali-based militant group al-Shabab has executed seven men in Somalias southwestern region of Bay.

The execution that was conducted publicly took place in the vicinity of Buula-Fulay in Somalias Bay region late Saturday.

Six of the executed men were accused of spying for the Somali government and the U.S.

Three of them were also accused of providing intelligence that led to the killing of senior al-Shabab leaders, Yusuf Jiis and Abdulkadir Commandos, who were targeted in U.S. airstrikes in 2020.

An al-Shabab judge told local spectators that the six men have confessed, without providing evidence. Al-Shabab courts dont allow lawyers who can defend the accused.

Meanwhile, Ethiopias Somali state president Mustafe Omar said that the regions special forces operations against al-Shabab militants inflicted the group heavy casualties.

He said they believe that the troops killed 600 al-Shabab fighters during their operations against the militant group who a week ago infiltrated Ethiopia, sparking new confrontations near the Ethiopian border with Somalia.
Opposition Peoples Defense Forces in Myanmar are battling the ruling juntas military with locally produced weapons, members of the PDF told VOA in recent weeks.

The PDF members, mostly students and farmers with no previous weapons manufacturing experience, said they figured out how to make the weapons from YouTube and from each other.

Most opposition troops are said to rely on these improvised weapons.

Some opposition armed groups in central Myanmar and in Kayah state, along the countrys eastern border with Thailand, have been producing and using handmade weapons, including rocket launchers, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces.

The Tiger Peoples Defense Force in Sagaing regions Pale township has produced 15 rockets with a range of around three miles. Initially the group produced rudimentary rifles, bombs and mines, then moved to producing rocket launchers and ammunition within six months.

We made 100 single-shot rifles and shared them with other groups in Sagaing region and produced 300 rounds for rocket launchers. All of those weapons are being used in battle, said Bo Than Chaung, head of the Tiger Peoples Defense Force information and weapons production team.

Another resistance unit, the Karenni Generation Z, active in Kayah and southern Shan state, has been producing 130 mm, 70 mm and 55 mm mortars since March. Kalay Bo, the units spokesperson said it costs between $50 and $80 to make a mortar.

Karenni Generation Z can produce 20 rounds for 130 mm mortars per day. However, it must change locations whenever the junta finds out where it is operating, and it faces raw material and, most importantly, financial issues.

At first, we were able to produce homemade hunting rifles to fight the military. However, we could not resist with these guns when the junta forces used automatic weapons, long-range artillery, jets and helicopters. Thats why we developed more advanced weapons to fight the military, Kalay Bo said.

Armed resistance movements erupted across Myanmar shortly after the military cracked down on peaceful protests of last years military coup. Since then, the armed Peoples Defense Forces have emerged. However, not all the groups are working together under a single command. The opposition National Unity Government has said 257 battalions have been established under the command of the NUG defense ministry and more than 500 PDFs are affiliated with the ministry.

Some PDFs are based in areas in Kachin, Kayah and Karen states in the east and Chin state in the west that are under the control of armed ethnic organizations that have been fighting for autonomy for years. Those units are receiving arms support from the Karen National Union, Kachin Independence Organization, and the Arakan Army  themselves ethnic organizations  as well as the NUG.

However, obtaining weapons for fighters in central Myanmar is difficult because of transportation difficulties and lack of funding. According to the resistance chapters, it costs at least $3,000 for an automatic machine gun on the black market. Because of the lack of weapons and insufficient funds, opposition groups have turned to producing weapons themselves.

One group, the Anti-Dictatorship Peoples Revolutionary Army, or DPRA, with nearly 1,000 fighters, which operates mainly in Sagaing but also has launched guerilla attacks in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, learned the technique for producing rockets from its ally, the Kani Guerrilla Force in Sagaing. Depending on the availability of raw materials, the DPRA said it manufactures 20 rocket launchers, 30 60 mm mortars, 20 roadside bombs and 30 8 mm rifles a month.

We receive 10 million kyats [$5,000] a month from public donations and most of it is used for weapons production, Linn Nway, a senior member of the organization, told VOA.

The DPRA estimates production costs at $175 for a roadside bomb, $35 for each 60 mm mortar and 8 mm rifle round, $75 for a rocket with a range of between three and five miles. It takes three months to produce a rocket, Linn Nway said.

Some small opposition groups made up of around 50 members are incapable of combat with the junta forces because of a shortage of weapons and manpower. The groups depend heavily on their production of mines for guerrilla warfare against military convoys, bases, banks and buildings.

Although we cannot fight with the junta forces, they are afraid of entering into the villages. They were ambushed by our group, which inflicted heavy causalities because of landmines we planted, said Bi Lone, a leader of the Black Wolf Defense Force in Sagaings Monywa township.

Most of the PDF-produced weapons are rudimentary and insufficient to defeat the well-armed junta forces.

Many groups can only produce single-shot guns that can only be loaded with one bullet.

Each time we shoot, we have to insert another bullet to shoot again, Bo Than Chaung said.

Opposition groups say the lack of military-grade raw materials and of arms-making experience has cost lives and caused injuries and loss of materials when manufacturing weapons. In October, some members of Black Wolf Defense Force were seriously injured and a large quantity of raw materials, plus fighters property, including uniforms were destroyed in an explosion while making explosive devices, Bi Lone said.

Another issue facing the opposition groups is obtaining raw materials, such as iron pipes, lead, and gunpowder, as the military regime has restricted the transportation of metal, including iron and steel, into Sagaing. Goods coming into Sagaing are subject to strict inspections.

We can manage to get iron, mostly we face shortage of gunpowder imported from India and the Thai border. We cannot make homemade bombs without it, said Lin Nway. Under these circumstances, the price of raw materials has tripled, and it costs more than $150 for 35 grams of gunpowder.

Opposition groups say only 10% of their troops can be armed with commercially produced weapons, and the rest rely heavily on locally produced weapons. The groups are heavily dependent on public donations and selling their belongings to raise funds for weapons production, however, production can fulfill less than 50% of requirements. Under these circumstances, the opposition forces all say a lack of financial support is the biggest problem.

We need at least 10 million kyats [$5,000] per month, however, the donation we normally receive is around 5 million kyats [$2,500], said Bo Than Chaung. The group is working under the NUG but has not received any support so far.

I hope, one day we will get weapons from NUG, he added.

On July 9, the NUGs defense ministry publicly shared its spending for military affairs. As of May, of the $44 million in military spending, about 63% went for weapons, ammunition and military operations and 22% went for weapons production. The NUG has said it needs at least $10 million a month to support the fighting forces.
Crews battling the largest wildfire so far this year in California braced for thunderstorms and hot, windy conditions that created the potential for more fire growth Sunday as they sought to protect remote communities.

The McKinney Fire was burning out of control in Northern California's Klamath National Forest, with expected thunderstorms a big concern Sunday just south of the Oregon state line, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman.

"The fuel beds are so dry, and they can just erupt from that lightning," Freeman said. "These thunder cells come with gusty erratic winds that can blow fire in every direction."

The blaze exploded in size to more than 207 square kilometers just two days after erupting in a largely unpopulated area of Siskiyou County, according to a Sunday incident report. The cause was under investigation.

The blaze torched trees along California Highway 96, and the scorched remains of a pickup truck sat in a lane of the highway. Thick smoke covered the area and flames burned through hillsides in sight of homes.

A second, smaller fire just to the west that was sparked by dry lightning on Saturday threatened the tiny town of Seiad, Freeman said. About 400 structures were under threat from the two California fires. Authorities have not confirmed the extent of the damage yet, saying assessments would begin when it was safe to reach the area.

A third fire, which was on the southwest end of the McKinney blaze, prompted evacuation orders for around 500 homes Sunday, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office. The office said crews had been on the scene of the fire since late Saturday but that the fire Sunday morning "escaped its containment line."

Several people in the sheriff's office have been affected by the evacuation orders "and they're still showing up to work so, (a) very dedicated crew," she said. A deputy lost his childhood home to fire on Friday, she said.

As the McKinney fire threatened, some residents chose to stay behind while others heeded orders to leave.

Larry Castle and his wife, Nancy, were among about 2,000 residents of the Yreka area under evacuation orders. They left Saturday with some of their prized possessions, including Larry's motorcycle, and took their dogs to stay with their daughter near Mount Shasta.

Larry Castle said he wasn't taking any chances after seeing the explosive growth of major fires in recent years.

"You look back at the Paradise fire and the Santa Rosa fire and you realize this stuff is very, very serious," he told the Sacramento Bee.

Montana and Idaho

In northwest Montana, a fire sparked in grasslands near the town of Elmo had grown to about 44 square km after advancing into forest. Crews were working along the edges of the fire Sunday, and aircraft were expected to continue to make water and retardant drops to help slow the fire's advance, said Sara Rouse, a spokesperson with the interagency team assigned to the fire. High temperatures and erratic winds were expected, she said.

A section of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo that had been closed was reopened with drivers asked to watch for fire and emergency personnel. Visibility in the area was poor, Rouse said.

In Idaho, the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest has burned on more than 196 square km in timber land near the town of Salmon. It was 21% contained by Sunday morning. Pila Malolo, planning operations section chief on the fire, said in a Facebook video update that hot, dry conditions were expected to persist Sunday. Officials said they expected fire to grow in the steep, rugged country on the fire's south side.

Elsewhere in the West

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 177 km section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

In Hawaii, the Maui County Emergency Management Agency said a brush fire was 90% contained but a red flag warning was in effect for much of Sunday.

And in north Texas, firefighters continued to work to contain the 2-week-old, 27-square-kilometer Chalk Mountain Fire. The crews now report 83% containment of the fire that has destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others about 80 kilometers southwest of Fort Worth. No injuries have been reported.
Bozeman Trail devotees have taken the first official step to see the route formally recognized.

Representatives of Our Montana and the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association have asked the congressional delegations in Montana and Wyoming to support a feasibility study to have the Bozeman Trail designated a National Historic Trail.

The study would include public meetings, along with an analysis of the public lands management costs, visitation and community support.

Its probably a three-year project for the feasibility study, if Congress approves it, said Mike Penfold, field program director for Our Montana. Then we have to go back to Congress to designate it.

Penfold has been working to map, mark and honor the route for more than 20 years, partnering with the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association in Wyoming and his friend Howard Boggess.

Bozeman?

The trail is named for entrepreneur John Bozeman, who at the age of 25 along with John Jacobs pioneered the route to Montana Territory gold fields in 1863. Giving Bozeman top billing when he seems like somewhat of a bit player is odd, a twist of fate. He and Jacobs were simply connecting a series of already existing American Indian trails.

Before Bozeman, the Raynolds survey expedition of 1859-1860 reportedly used cairns and deeply rutted Native trails to navigate their way back from what would become Yellowstone National Park.

The first iteration of the Bozeman's trail took pioneers and gold seekers north from the Platte Road east of Casper, Wyoming, north along the eastern base of the Bighorn Mountains, across the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers, the headwaters of the Missouri River and on to the gold mines of Bannack and Virginia City.

Before that, the route to Montana gold fields came past Salt Lake City on the Oregon Trail and then went north through Idaho. Bozeman and Jacobs new path cut about 450 miles off the distance. To do that, however, meant traveling through Crow, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet and Northern Arapaho lands.

An attempt by the U.S. government to militarize the route with forts and soldiers backfired, leading to whats now called Red Clouds War in honor of the Ogalala Lakota chiefs leading role in three decisive battles, including the Fetterman fight in which 80 soldiers were killed. It was one of the worst U.S. Army defeats prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. As a result, the military abandoned its three forts and the trail in 1868.

It kicked off the Powder River War, Penfold said. It kicked off the last significant struggle for the Indians to maintain their hunting grounds.

The route was also made famous when Bozeman founding father Nelson Story drove cattle north from Texas along the trail.

Dave McKee, of the Fort Phil Kearney/Bozeman Trail Association, said the trail encapsulates a lot of history because of who used it and when. He referred to it as a defining chapter in the settlement of the West, encompassing the gold rush, Euro-American settlement, the livestock industry and a brutal transition period for Native Americans on the high plains.

Prehistoric

The trail is also a unique route to memorialize its Native American history  long before Bozeman  as well, Penfold noted.

Parts of the trail were used by American Indians for thousands of years, tying them to a much longer history of use than the brief emigrant trail. Stone cairns marked portions of the route. Historian Howard Boggess said many of the piled rocks he found researching the route were on top of hills. The first marker he discovered was just southwest of the community of Pryor. Between the cairns he found evidence of the old trails and walked in the ancient trackways.

This trail was heavily used at the end of the Pleistocene, Penfold said. That adds another interesting piece to that corridor.

In a 2020 interview, Mardell Plainfeather told the Billings Gazette that many of the main trails and then highways in America were once Native routes used to visit other tribes, rendezvous, hunt and trade.

So these trails were actually established by them, she said.

Giving the Bozeman Trail a national designation would help future generations learn about the history behind the long-traveled route, Plainfeather added.

Many routes

The Bozeman Trail travels through eight Montana counties and four in Wyoming. In those counties the trail advocates have contacted local governments, museums, historical site managers and legislators to inform them of their intent to seek federal recognition of the route. There are 200 museums, historic sites and battle sites along the route that are already publicly accessible.

The designation does not carry with it any burden for private landowners. Private property remains private, Penfold emphasized.

One reason the Bozeman Trail travels through so many counties is that it was reconfigured several times.

"During the trail's few years in use there would be a number of different starting and ending locations, as well as many diversionary routes, the applicants noted in proposing the route.

Bozemans first trip was turned back by Native warriors. The second got stuck at the Yellowstone River, just across from what is now Billings, and had to pull up and brake down over the rugged South Hills to reach a suitable river crossing.

Later wagon trains avoided that area by turning west and going through Pryor and on to the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River.

Mountain man Jim Bridger blazed a new path along the west side of the Bighorn Mountains in 1865. His goal was to avoid what became known as the The Bloody Bozeman, the title of Dorothy Johnsons 1971 book based on emigrant diary excerpts. More recently, Michael Punkes book Ridgeline fictionalized the history of Army Col. Henry Carringtons arrival to construct forts and militarize the trail.

There were more than 150 skirmishes between Natives, civilians and the military along the Bozeman Trail. A 2002 National Park Service preliminary assessment of the Bozeman Trail identified it as significant for the military campaigns alone.

In 1866, the new route was opened by a cutoff from near Fort Phil Kearny and traveling closer to the mountains, the applicants wrote. It re-joined the emigrant route north of Sheridan. This latest, military variant of the trail has become popularly known as the major route of the Bozeman Trail.

Emphasizing the trails contentiousness, Bozeman was killed along the route  under conditions some historians have found suspect  dying at the age of 32 in 1867.

Others

There are 19 National Historic Trails designated in the United States that include historic sites, points of interests, trail segments and waterways.

These include the 4,900-mile Lewis and Clark Trail that travels through 11 states and the 54 mile Selma to Montgomery Trail in Alabama, the shortest nationally recognized route.

Trails are managed by different federal agencies, designated by the Department of Interior. For example, the Lewis and Clark Trail is administered by the National Park Service. According to the Park Services website, most trails have ongoing cooperative agreements with states for the provision of motor tour route signs, law enforcement services, land protection, and other areas of common interest. Some States have dedicated revenue sources for trails and others subsidize trail maintenance because of the proven economic benefits these trails bring the state. Every state along the Lewis and Clark NHT organized a state council to help commemorate the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in the years 2003-6.

Penfold has heard from other regional officials in small communities extolling the potential tourism benefits designation of the Bozeman Trail may provide.

It really goes along some of the most beautiful lands in Montana and Wyoming, he said, including along the Beartooth Face, Pictograph Cave and Chief Plenty Coups state parks in south-central Montana.

Penfold said the groups havent heard from their congressional leaders yet.

But we at least have our marker down, he said.
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, this week reported that global crises have combined to raise levels of acute malnutrition in dozens of refugee sites surveyed, most of them in Africa. UNHCRs 2021 Annual Public Health Global Review was released Friday.

UNHCR officials say they are concerned by their findings, which show a significant deterioration in the nutritional condition of refugees. Monitoring refugees' nutritional status resumed last year after stopping in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The officials say a third of the 93 sites surveyed in 12 African countries and in Bangladesh showed serious levels of global acute malnutrition, a measurement of a populations nutritional status, and 14% of locations recorded life-threatening levels of malnutrition.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo tells VOA the rates of malnutrition are particularly troubling as they were recorded before the war in Ukraine sent food and commodity prices rising.

This is a key concern because nutritional intake is really key to building healthy and resilient communities," she said. "The leading causes of illness for refugees remain upper respiratory tract infections and malaria and lower respiratory tract infections. And we had noncommunicable diseases also accounting for about 5% of consultations as well as mental health services.

These concerns are playing out at a particularly difficult time marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and record levels of people being forcibly displaced by conflict, violence, and natural disasters.

Despite these problems, the UNHCR says gains were made in the inclusion of refugees into national health policies. A survey of 46 countries found 76% included refugees in their national health plans and practically all refugees were able to use primary health facilities.

In another promising result, by the end of last year, the report says 162 countries had included refugees and asylum-seekers in national COVID-19 vaccination plans.
Iranian border guards clashed Sunday with the Afghan Taliban, Iranian media reported, the latest cross-border exchange since the former insurgents seized power in neighboring Afghanistan a year ago.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Meisam Barazandeh, governor of the border country of Hirmand in eastern Iran, as saying that the incident is under investigation. He did not provide details about the clash or report any casualties.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, said the Taliban opened fire on houses on the eastern edge of the county, in the area of Shoqalak, across the border from Afghanistan's Nimruz province.

The report said also that Taliban forces tried to raise the Taliban flag in an area that is not part of the territory of Afghanistan and that after the exchange, calm returned.

Tasnim later quoted Majid Mirahmadi, the country's deputy interior minister, as saying the Taliban first opened fire on Iranian guards, forcing them to return fire until the exchange subsided when the Iranian guards brought the situation under control.

The exchange lasted for an hour and a half and ended early on Sunday afternoon.

Mirahmadi also said a similar clash took place on Saturday because the Taliban do not respect the "geographical and official border" between the two countries.

Clashes have repeatedly erupted between Iranian security forces and Afghan Taliban forces in various spots along the border since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last August. The exchanges of fire are often over local issues such as disputes over farmland, water or smuggling, and usually end quickly.

In some of the worst clashes, last December, the Afghan Taliban seized several checkpoints on the Iranian side but soon withdrew, and both sides called the incident a "misunderstanding."
Rescuers in Kentucky are taking the search effort door to door in worsening weather as they brace for a long, grueling effort to locate victims of flooding that devastated the state's east, the governor said Sunday.

Some areas in the mountainous region are still inaccessible following flooding that turned roads into rivers, washed out bridges, swept away houses and killed at least 28 people, according to state officials. Poor cell phone service is also complicating rescue efforts.

"This is one of the most devastating, deadly floods that we have seen in our history.  And at a time that we're trying to dig out, it's raining," Governor Andy Beshear told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"We're going to work to go door to door, work to find, again, as many people as we can. We're even going to work through the rain. But the weather is complicating it," Beshear said.

The number of dead in the flooding, caused by torrential rain that began on Wednesday, is expected to rise further.

"We're going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of yards, maybe a quarter mile-plus from where they were lost," Beshear said.

The governor toured flooded areas in three counties on Sunday. Across the rain-battered areas of the state, more than 350 people are living temporarily in shelters, he said.

In the town of Jackson, seat of hard-hit Breathitt County, state, local and federal rescue teams along with aid workers were gathering Sunday morning in a Walmart parking lot as they prepared to fan out.

Some were distributing bottles of water to those in need. A boat marked "FEMA Rescue 4" sat on a trailer, indicating the presence of federal emergency crews.

Receding floodwaters had left a thick coating of dust on the streets as an ominously dark cloud cover presaged more rain ahead.

The floods hit a region of Kentucky that was suffering from grinding poverty  driven by the decline of the coal industry that was the heart of its economy  taking everything from people who could least afford it.

"It wiped out areas where people didn't have that much to begin with," Beshear said.

Some areas in eastern Kentucky had reported receiving more than 20 centimeters of rain in a 24-hour period.

The water level of the North Fork of the Kentucky River at Whitesburg rose to a staggering 6 meters within hours, well above its previous record of 4.5 meters.

The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center warned of the potential for flooding across a swath of the United States, including central and eastern Kentucky, into Monday.

"The threat of flash flooding will continue through the afternoon and early evening hours from showers and thunderstorms with very heavy rainfall rates," it said in a forecast.

President Joe Biden has issued a disaster declaration for the Kentucky flooding, allowing federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

The eastern Kentucky flooding is the latest in a series of extreme weather events that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of climate change.

Nearly 60 people were killed in western Kentucky by a tornado in December 2021, a disaster that Beshear said informed the current efforts on the other end of the state.

"We learned a lot of lessons in western Kentucky on those devastating tornados about seven months ago, so we are providing as much support as we can and we are moving fast from all over the state to help out," he told CNN on Saturday.
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

9:15 p.m.: The Ukrainian Mission to the European Union estimates Russian losses since the invasion.

8 p.m.: OPEC's new secretary general said that Russia's membership in OPEC+ is vital for the success of the agreement, Kuwait's Alrai newspaper reported on Sunday, quoting an exclusive interview with Haitham al-Ghais, Reuters reported.

OPEC+ is an alliance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia.

Al-Ghais, Kuwait's former OPEC governor, will head his first OPEC+ meeting on August 3, in which the group will consider keeping oil output unchanged for September, despite calls from the United States for more supply.

7:10 p.m.: Oleksiy Vadaturskyi was an agriculture tycoon, yes, but also one of his most celebrated ideas was to bring watermelons by boat from Kherson to Kyiv in summer.

The shipment became a symbol of summer among Ukrainians.

6:12 p.m.: Well-known post-Soviet reformer Anatoly Chubais, who left Russia following the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine, is reported to be in intensive care in a European hospital, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Russian TV personality Ksenia Sobchak, a friend of Chubais, wrote on Telegram on July 31 that she had spoken with Chubais's wife, Avdotya, and that he was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome. She did not say where he was being treated.

Chubais's state of health or whereabouts could not immediately be confirmed by news agencies.

Before leaving Russia in March, Chubais resigned his position as Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy for stable development, without giving a reason for doing so.

Many observers speculated that it could signal the highest-profile protest inside the Kremlin against Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

5:13 p.m.: Ukraine's defense elicits words of admiration at the Pentagon.

4:21 p.m.: The city of Berlin started switching off spotlights illuminating its historic monuments as part of a national effort to save energy in the face of Russian gas shortages, Agence France-Presse reported.

Some 200 buildings and landmarks including Berlin's red-brick city hall, State Opera House and Charlottenburg Palace will fall dark at night, officials in the German capital said this week.

"Given the war against Ukraine and the energy policy threats by Russia, it's important that we be as careful as possible with our energy," the city's chief official for the environment, Bettina Jarasch, said on Wednesday.

The policy affected six monuments from Wednesday night and will eventually encompass 200 buildings and landmarks along with their 1,400 spotlights over the next four weeks, Jarasch's office said.

3:40 p.m.: Many Ukrainians are defying Russia by striving to go back to normal despite being close to the front lines of the war. As CNN reports, simply continuing to live as normal a life as possible is the biggest victory there is against uncertainty.

2:13 p.m.: Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war at Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine say they are determined to make sure the government and the international community do not forget about them. On July 29, dozens of Ukrainian POWs were killed in a blast at the prison that Russia and Ukraine have each blamed on the other. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the story.

1:52 p.m.:

1:01 p.m.: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had not yet received permission to visit the Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine, according to a statement issued on July 31.

The ICRC has condemned the July 29 prison attack which killed at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war in an area controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

Both the ICRC and the United Nations are seeking access to the site and the opportunity to evacuate the wounded.

Families must receive urgent news of and answers on what happened to their loved ones, the ICRC said.

Russia's Defense Ministry has invited the ICRC and UN to conduct an investigation at the prison.

While demanding an impartial probe be conducted, the ICRC said it is not the role or mandate of the ICRC to carry out public investigations into alleged war crimes."

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over who is to blame for the attack.

12:14 p.m.: Polish border authorities have said that 5.15 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland since Russia's invasion began on February 24, reported

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

During the same period, 3.25 million Ukrainians have returned to their home country, officials said on July 31.

On July 30, the number crossing the border into Poland was 25,400, while 29,900 made the trip from Poland back to Ukraine, officials added.

Poland has taken the bulk of refugees fleeing Ukraine, but other nearby countries have also accepted large numbers of people.

According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 6 million people have been recorded as refugees across Europe since the start of the war.

Poland currently hosts more than 1.2 million. Germany has taken in 670,000, while the Czech Republic is sheltering more than 400,000, according to the latest U.N. data.

11:09 a.m.: Ukraine's president said on Sunday that the country's harvest could be half its usual amount this year due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less," suggesting half as much as usual, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in English on Twitter.

"Our main goal  to prevent global food crisis caused by Russian invasion. Still grains find a way to be delivered alternatively," he added.

Ukraine, a key global supplier of grains, has struggled to get its product to buyers due to a Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

An agreement signed under the stewardship of the U.N. and Turkey on July 22 provides for safe passage for ships carrying grain out of three southern Ukrainian ports.

10:38 a.m.: The possibility of the first grain exporting ship to leave Ukraine's southern ports on Monday is high, a spokesperson for Turkeys president said on Sunday.

"If all [details] are completed by tomorrow, it seems there is a high possibility that the first ship will leave the ports tomorrow, said Ibrahim Kalin during an interview. We will see ships leaving the ports the next day at the latest.

He said the joint coordination center in Istanbul will probably complete the final work on the exporting routes very soon.

Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers. The U.N.-brokered agreement they signed in Istanbul last week aims to allow safe passage for grain shipments. The agreement aims to ease the worlds food crisis and reduce grain prices that have risen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

10:00 a.m.: An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Sunday on Twitter that images of a prison in Olenivka in eastern Ukraine indicated the blast came from inside the building, which is under Russian control. At least 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed during the explosion on Friday.

Mykhailo Podolyak said satellite photos and the lack of damage to adjacent structures showed the building was not attacked from the air or by artillery. He contended the evidence was consistent with a hyperbaric bomb set off inside.

The images, taken before and after the attack, show that a small, squarish building in the middle of the Olenivka prison complex was demolished with its roof in splinters.

Russian officials have claimed the building was attacked by Ukraine with the aim of silencing POWs who might be giving information about Ukrainian military operations. Ukraine has vehemently denied the allegations.

9:05 a.m.: President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which outlined Russia's global maritime ambitions, Reuters reported.

Putin signed the 55-page doctrine on Russias Navy Day. It sets out the broad strategic aims of Russia's navy, including its ambitions as a "great maritime power" which extend over the entire world. The main threat to Russia, the doctrine says, is "the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans" and the movement of the NATO military alliance closer towards Russia's borders.

Although Putin did not mention the conflict in Ukraine during a speech on Navy Day, the military doctrine looks at a "comprehensive strengthening of Russia's geopolitical position" in the Black and Azov seas.

8:26 a.m.: Heavy Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv overnight and early on Sunday, killing the owner of one of the country's largest grain producing and exporting companies, the local governor said, and Reuters reported.

Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon and his wife, were killed in their home, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.

Headquartered in Mykolaiv, a strategically important city that borders the Russia-occupied Kherson region, Nibulon specializes in the production and export of wheat, barley and corn, and it has its own fleet and shipyard.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Vadatursky's death as "a great loss for all of Ukraine", saying in a statement the businessman had been in the process of building a modern grain market involving a network of transhipment terminals and elevators.

Three people were also wounded in the attacks on Mikolaiv, the city's Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Ukrainian television, adding 12 missiles had hit homes and educational facilities. He earlier described the strikes as "probably the most powerful" on the city of the entire five-month-old war.

7:45 a.m.: A drone-borne explosive device detonated Sunday at the headquarters of Russias Black Sea Fleet, according to The Associated Press.

The explosion at the headquarters in the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 caused cancellation of observances of Russias Navy Day holiday.

The Black Sea Fleets press service said the drone appeared to be homemade. It described the explosive device as low-power but Sevastopol mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev said six people were injured in the blast.

There was no immediate information on where the drone began its flight. Sevastopol is about 170 kilometers south of the Ukrainian mainland and Russian forces control much of the mainland area along the Black Sea.

5:29 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the British defense ministry focused on Belarus. It said Russia fired at least 20 missiles into northern Ukraine from Belarusian territory on July 28. In addition, it said, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko continues to follow Moscows line on the Ukraine conflict. On July 21 he said Ukraine must accept Russias demands for the war to stop.

"His regime has become ever more authoritarian, with the expansion of the death penalty for preparing terrorist acts," the update concluded. "His increasing and baseless accusations of Western designs on Belarus and Ukraine likely indicate that he has become almost wholly dependent on Russia."

4:47 a.m.: Russia's foreign ministry Saturday denounced the "outrageous" behavior of a Norwegian consul in Russia, after security footage of her insulting Russians at a hotel reception was shared on social media, Agence France-Presse reported.

In the video, posted on a Telegram channel reputed to be close to the Russian security services on Saturday, a woman introduced as Elisabeth Ellingsen, Norwegian consul in the Arctic city of Murmansk, appears exasperated as she waits for a clean room.

"I hate Russians. ... Just give me a room. ... I'm used to clean rooms, I'm from Scandinavia," she says in the edited version of the footage on the Mash channel.

The Norwegian foreign ministry said it "deeply regretted" the incident.

3:41 a.m.: A fan of the Everton Football Club who has been helping Ukrainian refugees was brought on the field to take a penalty kick during the Premier League team's preseason match against Dynamo Kyiv.

Paul Stratton, a 44-year-old Liverpool municipal worker, has traveled to Poland to deliver supplies to refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Stratton, in full Toffees uniform, came on as a substitute toward the end of Everton and Dynamo's match for peace at Goodison Park on Friday night.

Everton manager Frank Lampard gave him instructions before Stratton tucked away his penalty kick. He then ran toward the stands to celebrate and was congratulated by Everton players.

The goal didn't count, and the game finished 3-0. The match was broadcast live nationally in Ukraine, the club said.

Proceeds will go to humanitarian charities supporting the people of Ukraine.

2:31 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest assessment of the conflict in Ukraine that Russian forces conducted ground assaults around Bakhmut and Donetsk City, as well as southwest of Izyum. One assault east of Bakhmut made limited gains, the update noted.

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, disrupted a Russian ground assault in Kherson Oblast with preemptive artillery strikes, the update said.

1:22 a.m.: Our moral duty is to support Ukraine with military equipment and train Ukrainian troops, said Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas. We must clearly understand that if we do not stop the aggressor in Ukraine, we will have a war in our countries.

12:02 a.m.: John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, commenting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys call for civilians to evacuate, says it is not the first time authorities there have issued that call. Herbst told Reuters it could be because of expectations of heavier fighting rather than fuel shortages.

"I dont know why Zelenskiy issued the call," he said. "What I do know is that there has been fierce fighting in Donetsk. The Russians took (neighboring) Luhansk (oblast) several weeks ago. I expect further fierce fighting in Donetsk."

Herbst said he did not expect Russia to capture the rest of Donetsk given the longer logistics lines they would need and the Ukrainian forces use of advanced long-range artillery and rocket systems provided by the United States and others.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.
Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.

Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula, told The Associated Press on Saturday. He was 98.

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.

The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists and is credited with helping the U.S. win the war.

Samuel Sandoval was on Okinawa when he got word from another Navajo Code Talker that the Japanese had surrendered and relayed the message to higher-ups. He had a close call on the island, which brought back painful memories that he kept to himself, Malula Sandoval said.

The Navajo men are celebrated annually on Aug. 14. Samuel Sandoval was looking forward to that date and seeing a museum built near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock to honor the Code Talkers, she said.

"Sam always said, 'I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world,'" she said Saturday. "That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy."

Sandoval was born in Nageezi near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after attending a Methodist school where he was discouraged from speaking Navajo. He helped recruit other Navajos from the school to serve as Code Talkers, expanding on words and an alphabet that an original group of 29 Navajos created.

Sandoval served in five combat tours and was honorably discharged in 1946. The Code Talkers had orders not to discuss their roles  not during the war and not until their mission was declassified in 1968.

The roles later became an immense source of pride for Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, who also was a Code Talker. The two became talented speakers who always hailed their fellow Marines still in action as the heroes, not themselves, said Merrill Sandoval's daughter, Jeannie Sandoval.

"We were kids, all growing up and we started to hear about the stories," she said. "We were so proud of them, and there weren't very many brothers together."

Samuel Sandoval often told his story, chronicled in the documentary Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior at the Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez, Colorado, said executive director Rebecca Levy.

Sandoval's health had been declining in recent years, including a fall in which he fractured a hip, Malula Sandoval said. His last trip was to New Orleans in June where he received the American Spirit Award from the National World War II Museum, she said. MacDonald, Kinsel and Begay also were honored.

Sandoval and his wife met while he was running a substance abuse counseling clinic, and she was a secretary, she said. They were married 33 years. Sandoval has six children from previous marriages.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Sandoval will be remembered as a loving and courageous person who defended his homeland using his sacred language.

"We are saddened by his passing, but his legacy will always live on in our hearts and minds," Nez said in a statement.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon said Sandoval's life was guided by character, courage, honor and integrity, and his impact will forever be remembered.

"May he rest among our most resilient warriors," Damon said in a statement.
Hundreds of people from the Nigerian community of the central Italian city of Civitanova Marche took to the streets Saturday to protest the slaying of a Nigerian street vendor.

The killing was caught in cellphone video, but no one intervened to stop the slaying of the disabled man.

Police say an Italian man, Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, 32, has been arrested in connection with the brutal beating of Alika Ogorchukwu, a 39-year-old husband and father.

The footage of the incident shows Ferlazzo using the vendors crutch to strike him down. Ogorchukwu had lost his job as a laborer after being hit by a car. He needed to use a crutch to walk after the accident.

The street vendor was unable to get up after Ferlazzo attacked him, the video shows, because the Italian man used his weight to keep Ogorchukwu down.

The aggressor went after the victim, first hitting him with a crutch," police investigator Matteo Luconi said at a press conference. "He made him fall to the ground, then he finished, causing the death, striking repeatedly with his bare hands."

An autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of Ogorchukwus death.

My condemnation is not only for the [crime], but it is also for the indifference," Civitanova Marches mayor, Fabrizio Ciarapica, told Sky News.

A father was killed in an atrocious and racist way while passersby took video without stopping the aggressor," said former Premier Matteo Renzi. He urged people to reflect on what we are becoming."

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
Experts see a fiery speech this week by Kim Jong Un as a bid to cast an expected seventh nuclear test as a justifiable response to full-scale joint military drills by the U.S. and South Korea, which are set to resume within weeks.

In the speech Wednesday, marking the 69th anniversary of the armistice that brought the Korean War to an uneasy close, the North Korean leader said his nuclear arsenal was fully ready to demonstrate its power promptly true to its mission.

He blamed the U.S. for instigating South Korea and openly waging large-scale joint war games, which gravely threaten the security of our state. Kim said the military drills are driving North Korea-U.S. relations to a point of fierce collision.

The threat comes as the U.S. and South Korea have assessed that North Korea has completed its preparations for what would be a seventh nuclear test.

Military cooperation between Washington and Seoul, meanwhile, has intensified, with a resumption of joint military drills set for late August. The exercises were canceled or scaled back during the previous Moon Jae-in government to hopes of encouraging inter-Korean dialogue.

Justifying nuclear test on joint drills

Gary Samore, who served as White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction in the Obama administration, said it was not unusual for North Korea to threaten to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. and South Korea.

But Kim is making new threats now because hes preparing for the seventh nuclear test, and he will blame the U.S. and the ROK for holding military exercises that increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula and pose a threat to North Korean security, Samore said, using the acronym for South Koreas official name, the Republic of Korea.

Samore said Kim was portraying Washington-Seoul military cooperation as a threat to justify his decision to carry out a nuclear test.

The South Korean Defense Ministry announced on July 22 that Seoul would resume full-scale exercises with the U.S. involving live field training from August 22 to September 1. The exercises will include combined air carrier strike group training and amphibious operation drills.

VOA's Korean Service asked the North Korea Mission to the U.N. in New York City for a comment on the upcoming Seoul-Washington drills but did not receive a reply.

Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Kim criticized the resumption of joint drills for escalating tensions and bringing the peninsula to the brink of war. North Korea, he said, "again depicts itself as the aggrieved party rather than the violator of U.N. resolutions.

Pyongyang conducted 18 rounds of weapons tests this year, including multiple launches of ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Samore said Pyongyangs portrayal of the nuclear test as a response to hostile acts by Washington and Seoul would also give the Chinese and Russians an argument for not supporting any additional U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

Warning against military expansion

In his speech, Kim also warned that his forces were prepared for any kind of military clashes with the United States. Naming South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the first time but without using his title, Kim blamed Yoon for aggravating military tension.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said Kims direct attacks on Yoon signaled his rejection of Yoons North Korean initiative, including his offer of major assistance in exchange for an end to Kims nuclear programs.

During his inauguration speech in May, Yoon said Seoul would offer an audacious plan to improve North Koreas economy and peoples quality of life if Pyongyang began genuine denuclearization. Yoons office said Monday that the details of the plan were being discussed, according to South Koreas Yonhap News.

Experts said further that Kims threat showed Pyongyangs willingness to stand up to the Yoon governments renewed alliance and military cooperation with the U.S.

Harry Kazianis, president of the Rogue States Project, said Kims threat showed North Korea was willing to confront the U.S.-ROK alliance, which may mean more nuclear and ICBM tests when the timing is right for the regimes benefit.

Revere said, Pyongyang needs to respond to the new ROK governments tougher stance on South-North relations and Seouls reference to the ROKs kill chain strategy. 

That strategy, developed a decade ago to deter North Koreas nuclear development, involves launching preemptive strikes against Pyongyangs missiles, key facilities and senior officials if Seoul ascertains an attack is imminent.

The South Korean Defense Ministry met with Yoon on July 6 and announced it would set up a strategic command by 2024 that directs preemptive strike strategies.

Also, under the Yoon government, the U.S. Army held live-fire drills using Apache helicopters stationed in South Korea from Monday through Friday for the first time since 2019. The training took place at the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the North from the South.

And on July 5, the U.S. Air Force dispatched five F-35 stealth fighters from its Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska to South Korea and joined South Koreas F-35s for a 10-day training, according to U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) spokesperson David Kim. The dispatch was the first publicly announced arrival of F-35s since 2017.
A section of Beirut's massive port grain silos, shredded in the 2020 explosion, collapsed in a huge cloud of dust on Sunday after a weekslong fire, triggered by grains that had fermented and ignited in the summer heat.

The northern block of the silos collapsed after what sounded like an explosion, kicking up thick gray dust that enveloped the iconic structure and the port next to a residential area. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Assaad Haddad the General Director of the Port Silo, told The Associated Press that everything is under control but that the situation has not subsided yet. Minutes later, the dust subsided and calm returned.

However, Youssef Mallah, from the Civil Defense department, said that other parts of the northern block of the silos were at risk and that other sections of the giant ruin could collapse.

The 50-year-old, 48-meter tall giant silos withstood the force of the explosion two years ago, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, wounded more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.

In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for weeks, a nasty smell spreading around. The environment and health ministries last week issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

The fire and the dramatic sight of the smoldering, partially blackened silo revived the memories and in some cases, the trauma for the survivors of the gigantic explosion that tore through the port two years ago.

Many rushed to close windows and return indoors after the collapse Sunday.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told the AP that the northern block of the silo was already been tipping since the day of the 2020 blast, but the latest fire had weakened its frail structure, accelerating a possible collapse.

When the fermenting grains ignited earlier in July, firefighters and Lebanese soldiers tried to put out the fire with water, but withdrew after the moisture made it worse. The Interior Ministry said over a week later that the fire had spread, after reaching some electric cables nearby.

The silos continued smoldering for weeks as the odor of fermented grain seeped into nearby neighborhoods. Residents who had survived the 2020 explosion said the fire and the smell reminded them of their trauma. The environment and health ministries last week instructed residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

The Lebanese Red Cross distributed K-N95 masks to those living nearby, and officials ordered firefighters and port workers to stay away from the immediate area near the silos.

French civil engineer Emmanuel Durand told the AP earlier in July that the northern block of the silo had been slowing tilting over time but that the recent fire accelerated the rate and caused irreversible damage to the already weakened structure.

Durand been monitoring the silos from thousands of miles away using data produced by sensors he installed over a year ago, and updating a team of Lebanese government and security officials on the developments in a WhatsApp group. In several reports, he warned that the northern block could collapse at any moment.

Last April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blasts victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the tragic incident.

The Lebanese probe has revealed that senior government and security officials knew about the dangerous material stored at the port, though no officials have been convicted thus far. The implicated officials subsequently brought legal challenges against the judge leading the probe, which has left the investigation suspended since December.
After a nearly 70-year absence, a passenger train running from Vermonts revitalized Burlington train station to New York City headed south Friday as part of a nationwide renewal of interest in rail travel.

Last November, President Joe Biden, who famously rode Amtrak between Washington and his Delaware home during his 36 years in the Senate, signed legislation that includes $102 billion for passenger and freight rail investment that will help Amtrak improve and expand its services over time.

Among the projects that will be funded with the help of the rail infrastructure money is a a planned $11 billion train tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey and New York.

Vermonts new Burlington rail expansion caps a nearly 30-year-long effort that saw about $117 million spent on rail infrastructure and comes a year after Amtrak, on its 50th anniversary as the nations passenger rail service, announced a $75 billion, 15-year plan to expand passenger rail around the country.

With the price of gas, we just jump on the train, sit back and relax and dont have to worry about it, said Justin Kratz, who was boarding the Vermont train Friday headed home to Philadelphia.

The new service ran into some early hiccups when passengers were forced to get off the train and take a bus for the portion of the trip in upstate New York between Saratoga Springs and Albany, said Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams.

The track in Albany runs by an old warehouse with a wall in danger of collapsing, and Amtrak is avoiding that stretch out of safety concerns. The issue is causing service disruptions on other Amtrak lines. Abrams could not say how long the track in Albany would be closed.

Amtrak, which now serves 46 states, has recently been restoring service that was disrupted by the pandemic and adding service in other parts of the country, including New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Jim Mathews, president of the Rail Passengers Association  an organization working to expand and improve passenger service  said the goal of expanding passenger rail has been around for decades but has seen a boost more recently.

I know in some quarters that might sound a bit corny, but we have advocates in our coalition who have literally spent their entire lives dedicated to advancing these arguments, Mathews said in an email. When the tide began to turn in 2017, it was in part because of this slow buildup of support and evidence that this is good public policy.

Mathews said his organization has conducted studies that show the benefits of passenger rail, including that it produces gains across the board in jobs, incomes, business-to-business transactions and even local and state tax revenues.

We have also been able to show Congress going back to 2017 how important passenger rail is for the disabled and the marginalized, for whom trains in many cases are the only form of public transportation available, he said. We have also been able to show compelling environmental benefits, as an exceptionally green way to travel.

Vermont State Sen. Dick Mazza, the longtime chair of the Senate Transportation Committee who worked for years to help bring passenger rail back to Burlington, said it has been an unexpectedly long process to accomplish the bipartisan vision of bringing passenger rail to the states largest city, which has a population of about 45,000.

We said, Well, you know, its a long road, but someday its going to make a lot of sense for Burlington to New York City, not knowing what 20 years later would bring, he said.

The new Burlington service is an extension of the Ethan Allen Express, which has run between New York City and Rutland since the mid-1990s.

It was around that time, shortly after Amtrak started serving Rutland, that the state  boosted largely by former Gov. Howard Dean, his administration, its successors and the congressional delegation  began applying for a series of federal grants needed to upgrade the rails and other infrastructure, such as rail crossings and stations. The state money that was kicked in over the intervening years enabled the entire stretch to be brought up to passenger rail standards.

Dean was ridiculed by some for his support of rail, and he had to overcome some local opposition. Today, he says hes happy to leave his car at home in Burlington and ride the train to see his grandchildren in Philadelphia, changing trains in New York.

You dont want to use a car in a big city if you can help it, Dean said. There is no garage, no driving, no hassle, no rude people.

The 7 1/2-hour trip between Burlington and New York will be about two hours longer than driving. The top speed between Burlington and Rutland will be 94.95 kph, but that could be increased with future technology upgrades.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Sunday she is leading a congressional delegation to Asia but did not mention whether she will defy China by making a stop in Taiwan.

In a statement, Pelosi said she is leading a group of five other Democratic Party lawmakers to Asia to reaffirm Americas strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region.

The trip will include stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, the statement said. The group already stopped in Hawaii, where it received a briefing from the U.S. militarys Indo-Pacific Command, it added.

Pelosi is expected to arrive in Singapore on Monday for a two-day visit, according to broadcaster CNA, citing the Singapore foreign ministry. On Monday afternoon, the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore is to host a reception, its website said.

U.S. media reports Friday suggested Pelosi was tentatively planning to stop in Taiwan. Pelosi herself has indirectly spoken about such a possibility, even though her office has not confirmed it, citing security protocols.

It would be the highest-level U.S. visit to Taiwan since 1997, when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich led a congressional delegation there.

China had repeatedly warned Pelosis trip would be an unacceptable violation of what it sees as its sovereignty over the self-ruled island.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war, with the defeated nationalist forces fleeing to Taiwan and setting up a government that later grew into a vibrant democracy.

Since then, Chinas Communist Party has vowed to take Taiwan, using force if necessary, even though the island has never been led by the Communist Party.

Chinese leaders strongly object to U.S. shows of support for Taiwans government, which they see as illegitimate.

In a Thursday phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a blunt warning over Taiwan, saying those who play with fire will perish by it, according to a Chinese government readout.

Chinas foreign ministry has also vowed Beijing would act strongly and take countermeasures in response to a Pelosi visit.

White House officials said Friday they saw no evidence Chinas military was preparing major action against Taiwan.

China announced Saturday it was holding live-fire military exercises off its coast facing Taiwan. The drills, which were set to last from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. local time, occurred near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province, according to Chinas official Xinhua news agency. The report did not specify what type of weapons were used in the exercises.

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Chinas air force said Beijing has the firm will and sufficient capability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The spokesperson, who was quoted in state media, also said China had various fighter jets that can circle the precious island of our motherland.

China has flown an increasing number of warplanes through Taiwans self-declared air defense identification zone in recent years, greatly raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. In recent weeks, Chinese state media editorials have warned Chinese fighter jets could follow and intercept Pelosis plane.

Hu Xijin, a fiercely nationalistic commentator for the Communist Partys Global Times, even suggested in a tweet that the Chinese military has the right to forcibly dispel any U.S. aircraft traveling or escorting Pelosi to Taiwan.

If ineffective, then shoot them down, Hu said in the tweet, which was later removed because it violated Twitter guidelines.

Despite Chinas warnings, a large, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers had urged Pelosi to not back down, saying China should not be allowed to dictate where U.S. officials visit.

It would make it look like America can be shoved around, former House Speaker Gingrich told VOAs Mandarin Service earlier this week. Gingrich said he supports Pelosis trip, which will likely only amount to an irritation to U.S.-China ties.

I think this is at one level a lot of noise about nothing, Gingrich said. I think if she holds her ground, and if the Biden administration doesn't act timidly and almost cowardly, I think everything will be fine.

Taiwan is one of the most dangerous points of tension in an increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship.

The United States formally cut official relations with Taiwan in 1979 when it switched diplomatic recognition to China. However, the United States has continued to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons as mandated by the U.S. Congress.

U.S. presidents have long used a policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan  essentially leaving their options open in the case of a Chinese invasion of the island.

However, Bidens recent comments have raised doubts about that approach. Since taking office, Biden on three occasions has said the U.S. is committed to defending Taiwan.

Biden has been cautious, though, on the prospect of a Pelosi visit. Earlier this month, Biden said the U.S. military does not think a visit would be a good idea.

Pelosis possible visit comes at a sensitive moment for Xi, who is expected to use a Communist Party Congress later this year to secure a controversial third term as Chinas top leader.

Observers have said Xi, Chinas most powerful leader in decades, may want to send a tough message on Taiwan ahead of the meeting. But he may also want to preserve stability around a sensitive political moment.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday there is "no reason" for increased tension with China because U.S. policy has not changed.

Kirby reiterated that Pelosi does not need nor do we offer approval or disapproval for travel. He added: The speaker is entitled to travel aboard a military aircraft."
HELENA  A handful of people recently gathered in the shade of a large pine tree for a going-away party of sorts. Their friend, Dani Marietti, was going to have her fallopian tubes removed, a decision she made after a leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion was published in May.

The small group kicked off the sterilization shower for the 25-year-old by laying out chalk-written signs that said See Ya Later Ovulater and I got 99 problems but tubes aint one. And they munched on cookies that had abortion-rights slogans, such as My Body, My Choice, written on them in frosting.

Cheers to Dani and her choice to get sterilized, Kristina McGee-Kompel said.

Marietti is a full-time graduate student in Helena working toward becoming a therapist. She doesnt want kids to get in the way of her career, she said. She had considered permanent sterilization before, but the possibility that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade pushed her to seek out an OB-GYN who would help her with a permanent method of contraception.

I want to do this as soon as possible, she recalled telling the doctor.

I always knew I didnt want children, and of course when you say that as a younger person, everyone is like, Oh, youll change your mind, or, Just wait until you find the one, she said. I always kind of ignored that.

Abortion is still legal in Montana, but whether it will remain so is unclear. State Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, has asked the Montana Supreme Court to overturn its 1999 decision that said the state constitutions right to privacy includes the right to end a pregnancy.

The uncertainty around abortion access in Montana and other states where abortion is now or could become illegal, plus the fear of future legal fights over long-term contraception, has seemingly spurred a rise in the number of people seeking surgical sterilization, according to reports from doctors. That includes Marietti, who is having a salpingectomy, a procedure in which the fallopian tubes are removed instead of tied, as in tubal ligation, which can be reversible.

How many people sought permanent sterilization after the fall of Roe wont become clear until next year, said Megan Kavanaugh, a researcher for the Guttmacher Institute, which gathers data related to reproductive health care across the U.S. and supports abortion rights.

But anecdotal reports indicate that more people have been undergoing permanent birth control procedures since the Supreme Courts June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which struck down Roe. Dr. Kavita Arora, who chairs the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ethics committee, said providers across the country are beginning to see an influx of patients into their operating rooms.

The North Carolina OB-GYN recounted what one of her patients said just before a recent surgery. She wanted to have autonomous control over her body, and this was her way of ensuring she was the person who got to make the decisions, Arora said.

In Montana, Dr. Marilee Simons, an OB-GYN at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital, said more adults in their 20s and 30s without children have come to the hospital for sterilization consultations. Many are women who already practice birth control, she said. They are still worried about an unintended pregnancy and what that might mean in the future, she said.

Most are asking to have their tubes removed to permanently prevent pregnancy. A smaller number of people are asking for hysterectomies, which surgically remove part or all of the uterus. To meet demand, Bozeman Deaconess has dedicated at least one provider to work with these patients multiple days a week.

Planned Parenthood of Montana President and CEO Martha Fuller said clinics statewide have seen an unprecedented increase in patients asking to be sterilized, including requests for vasectomies.

But some people seeking sterilization procedures across the U.S. are being turned away. Arora said some patients who dont have children and are in their childbearing years are reporting difficulties finding providers willing to sterilize them.

Those providers reluctance may stem from studies and data that suggest the risk of regret for patients who are sterilized at age 30 or younger is high. Other studies had mixed results and found that some women feel less regret over time, Arora said.

Arora said she makes sure her patients understand the implications of any sterilization procedure, especially irreversible options. She also asks whether patients are being pressured into asking for the procedure. I honestly believe my job is not to be a gatekeeper, but to empower and uplift those goals and wishes, especially after good, shared decision-making and informed consent, she said.

Some patients who have been denied sterilizations have turned to therapists like Barbara DeBree, who has a private practice in Helena and writes letters to providers attesting that the patients have thought through their decisions. Other mental health care providers say theyre also fielding requests for letters of support, DeBree said.

This is not a quick decision for them, she said, referring to the patients asking for letters.

Providers ethical worries about future regrets arent the only barriers that patients seeking sterilization procedures may face. Cost and insurance coverage can also be issues.

Helena resident Alex Wright, 23, doesnt plan to have children and wants to be sterilized. She plans to schedule a consultation to see whether her provider will perform the procedure. She said that if her regular provider wont do it, she will seek out someone from online lists of providers willing to perform the procedure on younger people.

Thats only helpful if I can get the financial assistance to get it taken care of through those people, she said, referring to her insurance coverage.

Wright said her insurance company estimates shell pay about $4,000 out-of-pocket if she goes with an in-network provider. Using an out-of-network doctor could cost substantially more.

Although some people are seeking permanent procedures in reaction to the Dobbs decision, others are doing so because they believe the Supreme Court will continue upending reproductive health norms. Kavanaugh, the researcher at Guttmacher, said Justice Clarence Thomas opened that door by suggesting in his concurring opinion in Dobbs that other precedents should be revisited, including the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut decision that says banning contraceptives violates a married couples right to privacy.

I think we are anticipating that theres going to be some attacks on contraception, Kavanaugh said.

Thats what worries Shandel Buckalew, of Billings, Montana, who wants a full hysterectomy. The 31-year-old said her doctor thinks she has endometriosis, a painful condition in which tissue that normally grows inside the uterus grows on other parts of the reproductive organs. Buckalew hasnt undergone the full range of testing that can be required for a diagnosis because she doesnt have health insurance and cant afford it.

Even though I have an IUD, the amount of cramps and the pain I go through  oh, I get so sick, she said.

She hopes a hysterectomy would alleviate that pain, in addition to providing permanent birth control because she doesnt want kids. But her lack of health insurance makes the procedure unaffordable.

A hysterectomy is a major medical surgery that can also be done to treat uterine fibroids, uterine prolapse, cancer and other conditions. While it can alleviate symptoms, it can also cause other problems, especially if the ovaries are removed. That, according to the federal Office on Women's Health, can include menopause, problems having sex, and increased risk for health conditions such as bone loss, heart disease and urinary incontinence.

Buckalew is trying to get health insurance before her intrauterine device expires in two years because she fears the reproductive health care landscape could shift dramatically. She described feeling terrified and angry.

It feels like my life doesnt matter, she said

This story is part of a partnership that includes Montana Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio, NPR, and KHN.
Some residents of Appalachia returned to flood-ravaged homes and communities on Saturday to shovel mud and debris and to salvage what they could, while Kentuckys governor said search and rescue operations were ongoing in the region swamped by torrential rains days earlier that led to deadly flash flooding.

Rescue crews were continuing the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in America. Dozens of deaths have been confirmed and the number is expected to grow.

In the tiny community of Wayland, Phillip Michael Caudill was working Saturday to clean up debris and recover what he could from the home he shares with his wife and three children. The waters had receded from the house but left a mess behind along with questions about what he and his family will do next.

Were just hoping we can get some help, said Caudill, who is staying with his family at Jenny Wiley State Park in a free room, for now.

Caudill, a firefighter in the nearby Garrett community, went out on rescues around 1 a.m. Thursday but had to ask to leave around 3 a.m. so he could go home, where waters were rapidly rising.

Thats what made it so tough for me, he said. Here I am, sitting there, watching my house become immersed in water and you got people begging for help. And I couldnt help, because he was tending to his own family.

The water was up to his knees when he arrived home and he had to wade across the yard and carry two of his kids out to the car. He could barely shut the door of his SUV as they were leaving.

In Garrett on Saturday, couches, tables and pillows soaked by flooding were stacked in yards along the foothills of the mountainous region as people worked to clear out debris and shovel mud from driveways and roads under now-blue skies.

Hubert Thomas, 60, and his nephew Harvey, 37, fled to Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonburg after floodwaters destroyed their home in Pine Top late Wednesday night. The two were able to rescue their dog, CJ, but fear the damages to the home are beyond repair. Hubert Thomas, a retired coal miner, said his entire life savings was invested in his home.

Ive got nothing now, he said.

Harvey Thomas, an EMT, said he fell asleep to the sound of light rain, and it wasnt long until his uncle woke him up warning him that water was getting dangerously close to the house.

It was coming inside and it just kept getting worse, he said, like there was, at one point, we looked at the front door and mine and his cars was playing bumper cars, like bumper boats in the middle of our front yard.

As for whats next, Harvey Thomas said he doesnt know, but hes thankful to be alive.

Mountain people are strong, he said. And like I said its not going to be tomorrow, probably not next month, but I think everybodys going to be OK. Its just going to be a long process.

At least 25 have people died  including four children  in the flooding, Kentuckys governor said Saturday.

We continue to pray for the families that have suffered an unfathomable loss, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Some having lost almost everyone in their household.

Beshear said the number would likely rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flash flooding. Crews have made more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats, the governor said.

Im worried that were going to be finding bodies for weeks to come, Beshear said during a midday briefing.

The rain let up early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received between 20-27 centimeters over 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday. About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power Saturday, poweroutage.us reported.

Its the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the U.S. this summer, including St. Louis earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn climate change is making weather disasters more common.

As rainfall hammered Appalachia this week, water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams coursing through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and trashed vehicles. Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes.

President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.

The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.

Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where the flooding downed trees, power outages and blocked roads. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling officials to mobilize resources across the flooded southwest of the state.

The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis dropped more than 31 centimeters and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both instances, the rain flooding far exceeded what forecasters predicted.

Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists. Thats a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and cant keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods and heat waves like those that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and southern Plains.

Its a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States, said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. These are things we expect to happen because of climate change. ... A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and that means you can produce increased heavy rainfall.
A small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone hit the headquarters of Russias Black Sea fleet on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday, wounding six people, local authorities said, while Ukraine said a Russian missile attack killed one of its richest people, a grain merchant.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone attack in the port city of Sevastopol, which forced cancellation of ceremonies on Russias Navy Day holiday. But the seemingly improvised, small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents in the territory seized by Russia in 2014, The Associated Press reported.

The drone appeared to be homemade and the explosive device low-powered, the Black Sea Fleets press service said. Sevastopol is about 170 kilometers from the Ukrainian mainland, but it is unclear where the drone began its flight.

In light of the attack, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked the weakness of Russian air defenses.

"Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans?" Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the mayor of the major port city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said a Russian attack killed one of Ukraine's wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed a grain production and export business.

Another presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted.

It "was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder, Podolyak said. Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike."

Vadatursky's agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad. Ukraine is hoping to resume overseas grain exports after reaching an agreement with Russia that it would not block Black Sea passage of cargo ships.

The first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain is set to sail from the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, perhaps as early as Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the annual Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg with an announcement that the Russian Navy is set to receive what he described as "formidable" hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in the next few months.

Hypersonic weapons fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable and able to change course during flight. They are different from ballistic missiles, which can also travel at hypersonic speeds of at least Mach 5 but have set trajectories and limited maneuverability.

The ability to launch highly maneuverable weapons at hypersonic speeds gives any country a considerable advantage, because such weapons can evade just about any defense system currently in use.

General John Hyten, the former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Washington in January 2020, "It doesn't matter what the threat is. If you can't see it, you can't defend against it."

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called on Saturday for the evacuation of eastern Donetsk province, the region that has seen the fiercest fighting as Russia seeks to fully control it.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including children and the elderly, remain in combat zones of the larger Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. It is also the region where Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile attack last week.

Zelenskyy made the announcement Saturday during his nightly video address to his nation.

"The more people leave [the] Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation, he said according to Reuters.

Zelenskyy promised logistical support to persuade people to leave.

"Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," the president said. "If you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave."

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine demanded that Russia be held accountable for a missile attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war at a Russian-operated detention facility in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government on Saturday called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately investigate Fridays attack. The ICRC said Saturday that it still had not been granted access to the site.

With international outrage building over the missile strike, the United Nations pledged support to help investigate the prison attack.

In relation to the recent tragedy at the prison in Olenivka, we stand ready to send a group of experts able to conduct an investigation, requiring the consent of the parties, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general in a statement released Saturday.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attack. Neither claim could be independently verified. So far, no international aid organizations have been granted access to the bombed-out site.

In a statement Sunday, Russia said it has invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to investigate the deaths at the prison, according to Reuters.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
There was already plenty of trouble to talk about when a major U.N. meeting on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was originally supposed to happen in 2020.

Now the pandemic-postponed conference finally starts Monday as Russia's war in Ukraine has reanimated fears of nuclear confrontation and cranked up the urgency of trying to reinforce the 50-year-old treaty.

"It is a very, very difficult moment," said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Russia's invasion, accompanied by ominous references to its nuclear arsenal, "is so significant for the treaty and really going to put a lot of pressure on this," she said. "How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy."

The four-week meeting aims to generate a consensus on the next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial  if any  agreement.

Still, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, prime ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, and more than a dozen nations' foreign ministers are among attendees expected from at least 116 countries, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly before the conference.

In force since 1970, the Nonproliferation Treaty has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement. Some 191 countries have joined.

Nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them, while nuclear-armed Britain, China, France, Russia (then the Soviet Union) and the United States agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday. All endorsed everyone's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

India and Pakistan, which didn't sign, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it.

Nonetheless, the Nonproliferation Treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (U.S. President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations by 1975) and serving as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.

The total number of nuclear weapons worldwide has shrunk by more than 75% from a mid-1980s peak, largely thanks to the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. But experts estimate roughly 13,000 warheads remain worldwide, the vast majority in the U.S. and Russia.

Meetings to assess how the treaty is working are supposed to happen every five years, but the 2020 conference was repeatedly delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Challenges have only grown in the meantime.

When launching the Ukraine war in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that any attempt to interfere would lead to "consequences you have never seen" and emphasized that his country is "one of the most potent nuclear powers." Days later, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces to be put on higher alert, a move that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called "bone-chilling."

"The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility," he said.

The events in Ukraine create a tricky choice for the upcoming conference, said Patricia Lewis, a former U.N. disarmament research official who is now at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London.

"On the one hand, in order to support the treaty and what it stands for, governments will have to address Russia's behavior and threats," she said. "On the other hand, to do so risks dividing the treaty members."

Another uncomfortable dynamic: The war has heightened some countries' apprehensions about not having nuclear weapons, especially since Ukraine once housed but gave up a trove of Soviet nukes.

Ukraine is hardly the only hot topic.

North Korea appears to have been preparing recently for its first nuclear weapons test since 2017. And talks about reviving the deal meant to keep Iran from developing nukes are in limbo.

The U.S. and Russia have only one remaining treaty curtailing their nuclear weapons and have been developing new technologies. Britain last year raised a self-imposed cap on its stockpile. China says it's modernizing  or, the U.S. claims, expanding  the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.

U.S. Ambassador Adam Scheinman, the presidential special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, said Washington hopes for a "balanced" outcome that "sets realistic goals and advances our national and international security interests."

The Associated Press sent inquiries to Russia's U.N. mission about Moscow's goals for the conference. There was no immediate response.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said his country wants to work toward improving global nuclear governance and upholding the international order and will "firmly safeguard the legitimate security and development interests and rights of China and the developing world."

If the world can't speak with one voice, disarmament advocates say a strong statement from a large group of countries could send a meaningful message.

In recent years, frustration with the Nonproliferation Treaty catalyzed another pact that outright prohibits nuclear weapons. Ratified by more than 60 countries, it took effect last year, though without any nuclear-armed nations on board.

At a recent meeting in Vienna, participating countries condemned "any and all nuclear threats" and inked a lengthy plan that includes considering an international trust fund for people harmed by nuclear weapons.

Fihn, whose Geneva-based group campaigned for the nuclear ban treaty, hopes the vigor in Vienna serves as inspiration  or notice  for countries to make progress at the U.N. conference.

"If you don't do it here," she said, "we're moving on without you elsewhere."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was outraged after two people were killed and several others were injured when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday.

The U.N. force, MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire "for unexplained reasons," adding that arrests had been made.

Guterres was "saddened and dismayed" to learn of the shooting, a U.N. statement said.

"The Secretary-General stresses in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events, it said.

"He welcomes the decision of his special representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to detain the MONUSCO personnel involved in the incident and to immediately open an investigation," it added.

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing toward the U.N. convoy stopped behind a closed barrier in Kasindi.

The town is in eastern DR Congo's Beni territory on the border with Uganda.

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid.

"During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through," the U.N. mission in Kasindi said in a statement earlier Sunday.

"This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries," it said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo "strongly condemns and deplores this unfortunate incident in which two compatriots died and 15 others were injured according to a provisional roll," government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.

The government said it launched an investigation with MONUSCO to establish who was responsible, why the shooting took place and would ensure "severe penalties" are given.

The U.N. envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bintou Keita, said she was "deeply shocked and dismayed by this serious incident," according to the mission's statement.

"In the face of this unspeakable and irresponsible behavior, the perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested pending the conclusions of the investigation, which has already begun in collaboration with the Congolese authorities," MONUSCO said.

The U.N. mission said the troops' home countries had been contacted so legal action could begin promptly, with the involvement of witnesses and survivors, which could lead to exemplary penalties.

Earlier Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor's representative in Kasindi, said that "eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured" in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not say why the U.N. convoy had been prevented from crossing.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC's troubled east. The U.N. first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999.

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO  the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo  with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among the force, according to the U.N.

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC.

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fueled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

U.N. under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to "talk to the Congolese authorities," he said.

"(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives," he said.

"We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support."
The new U.S. envoy for the Horn of Africa called Saturday for progress in holding Ethiopian peace talks and for unrestricted aid deliveries to stricken areas of the country.

Mike Hammer, who arrived in Addis Ababa Friday, held talks with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen, the U.S. embassy said.

They discussed the "need for continued progress on ensuring unfettered humanitarian assistance delivery, human rights accountability & political talks to end the conflict & achieve a lasting peace", the embassy said on Twitter.



Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the rival Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) have both raised the prospect of peace talks to end the brutal conflict that erupted in November 2020.

But major obstacles have emerged, not least over who should mediate any negotiations.

Abiy wants the African Union, which is based in Addis Ababa, to broker any talks, while the TPLF is insisting that the negotiations are led by neighboring Kenya.

Abiy's national security adviser Redwan Hussein said on Twitter this week that the government was ready to talk "anytime anywhere" and that negotiations should begin "without preconditions."

Meanwhile, TPLF-linked Tigrai TV quoted the rebels' leader Debretsion Gebremichael warning that basic services would have to be restored in Tigray before negotiations could begin.

Fighting has eased in northern Ethiopia since a humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March, allowing the resumption of desperately needed aid convoys.

Malnutrition and food insecurity

Untold numbers of people were killed in the war and the UN says more than 13 million people need food aid across Tigray and the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, with high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Tigray itself is lacking in food, fuel and essential services such as electricity, communications and banking, with hundreds of thousands living in dire conditions because of what the United Nations has described as a de facto blockade.

The UN's humanitarian response agency OCHA said that since the resumption of humanitarian convoys on April 1, 4,308 trucks had arrived in Tigray's capital Mekele as of July 19.

In Addis, Hammer also "reviewed" the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the large-scale hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile, the embassy said.

On Friday, Egypt said it had protested to the U.N. Security Council against Ethiopian plans to fill the reservoir of the controversial dam for a third year without agreement from downstream countries.

The multi-billion-dollar GERD is set to be the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa but has been at the center of a dispute with Egypt and Sudan ever since work began in 2011.

"We are actively engaged in supporting a diplomatic way forward under the African Union's auspices that arrives at an agreement that provides for the long-term needs of every citizen along the Nile," Hammer said on a visit to Egypt this week.

Addis Ababa deems the GERD essential for the electrification and development of Africa's second most populous country.

But Cairo and Khartoum fear it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters.
Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size overnight amid windy, hot conditions and were quickly encroaching on neighborhoods, forcing evacuation orders for more than 100 homes Saturday, while an Idaho blaze was spreading.

In California's Klamath National Forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just more than 1 square kilometer to scorching as much as 160 square kilometers by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials.

"It's continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we're in triple digit temperatures," said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokesperson at Klamath National Forest.

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to about 28 square kilometers within a few kilometers of the town of Elmo. Roughly 320 kilometers to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest charred more than 174.8 square kilometers in timbered land near the town of Salmon.

California fires

A significant buildup of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service for the region.

"It's a very dangerous fire  the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn't burned in a while," he said.

A small fire was also burning nearby, outside the town of Seiad, Stokesberry said. With lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from across California were being brought in to help fight the region's fires, he said.

McKinney's explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines and assist in evacuations in California's northernmost county of Siskiyou.

Deputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cellphone service.

More than 100 homes were ordered to be evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96.

"We're asking residents all over the area to be ready," Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Courtney Kreider said. "Last night we were pushing out evacuations about every hour, and there are large portions of the county that are in warning areas."

Meanwhile, crews made significant progress in battling another major blaze in California that forced evacuations of thousands of people near Yosemite National Park earlier this month. The Oak fire was 52% contained by Saturday, according to a Cal Fire incident update.

Southern Oregon

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Forest Service closed a 177-kilometer section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mount Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

Oregon state Rep. Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight.

The sky was glowing with strikes of lightning in the clouds, and ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon about 16 kilometers from the fire, Grayber said.

"These were some of the worst winds I've ever been in, and we're used to big fires," she said. "We got the heck out of there."

On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety, she said.

"The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity," she said. "It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds. Usually that happens with a fire during the day but not at night. I hope for everyone's sake this dies down but it's looking like it's going to get worse."

Montana and Idaho

In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze.

A portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo was closed because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

Crews from several different agencies were fighting the fire on Saturday, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground.

In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire Saturday and protecting homes, energy infrastructure and the Highway 93 corridor, a major north-south route.

A red flag warning indicated that the weather could make things worse with the forecast calling for "dry thunderstorms," with lightning, wind and no rain.

Wildfire legislation

As fires raged across the West, the U.S. House on Friday approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the region cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought  fueled by climate change  that have caused billions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses in recent years.

The legislative measure approved by federal lawmakers Friday combines 49 separate bills and would increase firefighter pay and benefits; boost resiliency and mitigation projects for communities affected by climate change; protect watersheds; and make it easier for wildfire victims to get federal assistance.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has sponsored a similar measure.
Zambia's creditors pledged to negotiate a restructuring of the country's debts on Saturday, a move International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva welcomed as "clearing the way" for a $1.4 billion IMF program.

The creditor committee, co-chaired by China and France, said in a statement released by G-20 chair Indonesia that it supported Zambia's "envisaged IMF upper credit tranche program and its swift adoption by the IMF Executive Board."

In 2020, Zambia became the first African country in the pandemic era to default. The restructuring of its external debt, which amounted to more than $17 billion at the end of 2021, is seen by many analysts as a test case.

"Very pleased the Official Creditor Committee for Zambia has provided its financial assurances clearing the way for a Fund program," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said in a tweet.

"The delivery of these financing assurances will enable the IMF Executive Board to consider approval of a Fund-supported program for Zambia and unlock much needed financing from Zambia's development partners," Georgieva said in a statement released by the IMF after her tweet.

Zambia reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a $1.4 billion, three-year extended credit facility in December, conditional upon its ability to reduce debt to levels the IMF deems sustainable.

Zambia's government welcomed the creditors' pledge and its unlocking of IMF support.

"Zambia remains committed to implementing the much needed economic reforms, being transparent about our debt and ensuring fair and equitable treatment of our creditors," Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said.

On Friday, the finance ministry said it was canceling $2 billion in undisbursed loans.

Zambia's creditor committee said that the restructuring terms would be finalized in a memorandum of understanding, without providing further details.

It also called on private creditors to "commit without delay" to negotiating debt relief on terms at least as favorable.

Kevin Daly, who chairs a committee of holders of Zambia's Eurobonds, welcomed the bilateral creditors' statement, but repeated a call to be given access to the IMF's Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), which forms the basis of negotiations.

"That's where you could have delays with the restructuring, if all of a sudden we get the DSA and ... (it) is just way too conservative, in terms of the forecasts," Daly, of emerging markets investor abrdn, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen, told Reuters by telephone.

The first bilateral creditor meeting was held in June, after Zambia's government complained of delays to the restructuring. Talks are taking place under the Common Framework, a debt relief process launched by the Group of 20 major economies in 2020 that has been criticized by some for being slow to yield results.

"This shows the potential of the #G20CommonFramework for debt treatment to deliver for countries committed to dealing with their debt problems," Georgieva said in the tweet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Saturday for the evacuation of eastern Donetsk province, the region that has seen the fiercest fighting as Russia seeks to fully control it.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including children and the elderly, remain in combat zones of the larger Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. It is also the region where Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile attack earlier this week.

Zelenskyy made the announcement Saturday during his nightly video address to his nation.

"The more people leave [the] Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation, he said according to Reuters.

Zalenskyy promised logistical support to persuade people to leave.

"Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," the president said. "If you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave."

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine demanded that Russia be held accountable for a missile attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war at a Russian-operated detention facility in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government on Saturday called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately investigate Fridays attack.

With international outrage building over the missile strike, the United Nations pledged support to help investigate the prison attack.

In relation to the recent tragedy at the prison in Olenivka, we stand ready to send a group of experts able to conduct an investigation, requiring the consent of the parties, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general in a statement released Saturday.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attack. Neither claim could be independently verified. So far, no international aid organizations have been granted access to the bombed-out site. The Red Cross requested access to help evacuate the wounded.

In a statement Sunday, Russia said it has invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to investigate the deaths at the prison, according to Reuters.

The statement from the defense ministry said it was acting "in the interests of conducting an objective investigation" into what it called an attack on the prison earlier in the week.

Russia's Defense Ministry said 40 prisoners were killed and 75 were wounded at the detention facility located in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region. Russia insisted Ukraine used American-made weapons to hit the prison to prevent its own fighters from surrendering to Russian forces.

Ukraine's armed forces disputed the claim and said Russian artillery targeted the prison camp to hide the mistreatment of the prisoners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a deliberate Russian war crime and a mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The Ukrainian army is trying to get the bodies of those killed returned, but Russia has only released the names of the dead.

Meanwhile, fighting raged on as Ukraine's military claimed its forces killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in the southern area of Kherson. Military officials Saturday said its forces bombed railway and road bridges inside Russian controlled territories.

Russia announced Saturday its forces killed more than 130 elite Ukrainian soldiers aboard a train in the Donbas region last week and were making gains in other locations on the battlefield.

Grain shipments

In other developments, the first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain is set to sail from the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.

Last week Russia and Ukraine agreed to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports, which have been threatened by Russian attacks since the invasion. The blockade of grain in Ukraine, one of the world's biggest exporters, has led to sharp increases in global food prices.

Grain shipments from the country were allowed to resume after a U.N. brokered agreement was signed in Turkey last week.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and mentioned the importance of Russia following through on the agreement.

Blinken also warned of consequences should Moscow move ahead with suspected plans to annex portions of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Ukraine dispatched an explosive mounted on a drone that hit the headquarters of Russias Black Sea Fleet Sunday. Officials say at least five people were injured in the attack in Russian-held Sevastopol.

Sunday is Russias Navy Day. Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the day by attending the annual Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg with an announcement that the Russian Navy is set to receive what he described as "formidable" hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in the next few months.

Hypersonic weapons fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 and are highly maneuverable and able to change course during flight. They are different from ballistic missiles, which can also travel at hypersonic speeds of at least Mach 5 but have set trajectories and limited maneuverability.

The ability to launch highly maneuverable weapons at hypersonic speeds gives any country a considerable advantage, because such weapons can evade just about any defense system currently in use.

"It doesn't matter what the threat is. If you can't see it, you can't defend against it," General John Hyten, the former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Washington in January 2020.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Saturday for the evacuation of eastern Donetsk province, the region that has seen the fiercest fighting as Russia seeks to fully control it.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including children and the elderly, remain in combat zones of the larger Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk. It is also the region where Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile attack earlier this week.

Zelenskyy made the announcement Saturday during his nightly video address to his nation.

"The more people leave [the] Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation, he said according to Reuters.

Zelenskyy promised logistical support to persuade people to leave.

"Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," the president said. "If you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave."

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine demanded that Russia be held accountable for a missile attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war at a Russian-operated detention facility in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government on Saturday called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately investigate Fridays attack. The ICRC said Saturday that it still had not been granted access to the site.

With international outrage building over the missile strike, the United Nations pledged support to help investigate the prison attack.

In relation to the recent tragedy at the prison in Olenivka, we stand ready to send a group of experts able to conduct an investigation, requiring the consent of the parties, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general in a statement released Saturday.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attack. Neither claim could be independently verified. So far, no international aid organizations have been granted access to the bombed-out site.

In a statement Sunday, Russia said it has invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to investigate the deaths at the prison, according to Reuters.

The statement from the Defense Ministry said it was acting "in the interests of conducting an objective investigation" into what it called an attack on the prison earlier in the week.

Russia insisted Ukraine used American-made weapons to hit the prison to prevent its own fighters from surrendering to Russian forces.

Ukraine's armed forces disputed the claim and said Russian artillery targeted the prison camp to hide the mistreatment of the prisoners.

Zelenskyy called the attack a deliberate Russian war crime and a mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The Ukrainian army is trying to get the bodies of those killed returned, but Russia has only released the names of the dead.

Meanwhile, fighting raged on as Ukraine's military claimed its forces killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in the southern area of Kherson. Military officials Saturday said its forces bombed railway and road bridges inside Russian-controlled territories.

Russia announced Saturday its forces killed more than 130 elite Ukrainian soldiers aboard a train in the Donbas region last week and were making gains in other locations on the battlefield.

Grain shipments

In other developments, the first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain is set to sail from the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, perhaps as early as Monday.

Last week Russia and Ukraine agreed to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports, which have been threatened by Russian attacks since the invasion. The blockade of grain in Ukraine, one of the world's biggest exporters, has led to sharp increases in global food prices.

Grain shipments from the country were to resume after a U.N. brokered agreement was signed in Turkey last week.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and mentioned the importance of Russia following through on the agreement.

Blinken also warned of consequences should Moscow move ahead with suspected plans to annex portions of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Earlier this year, a hydrologist watched Into The Wild a movie, based on the eponymous nonfiction book about the life and death of an iconoclast adventurer. A pivotal scene, in both the book and movie, shows Chris McCandless trying to cross a swollen river and failing. Days later he died deep in the Alaskan backcountry.

The true story raises profound questions about belonging, the human-nature relationship, naive arrogance, familial trauma and more. But after seeing that particular scene, David Hill, a professor at Oregon State University, was left with a very specific scientific question: What was going on, hydrologically speaking, with that river?

I did some searching and didnt come up with anything, he said. Then it became a little bit of a detective work, if you will.

Months later that sleuthing culminated in a unique study, which was published in Frontiers In Earth Science earlier this month. The findings? Hill and water resources graduate student Christina Aragon of the OSU College of Engineering concluded that McCandless was thwarted by high flows in the Teklanika River because of an intense, short-lived runoff event.

Mr. McCandless had unfortunate timing, said Hill, a professor of civil engineering in a news release. The specific day of his attempted crossing  July 5, 1992  coincided with a large amount of rainfall-driven runoff. Had his attempt occurred a bit on either side of that day, the conditions might have been more favorable and the outcome may have been different for him.

The project was partly a challenge for Hill who had read the book when it was published in 1996.

To me it was sort of an interesting challenge and an interesting exploration of an unresolved question, he said. Those are the kind of things that I find interesting to work on. You see something and say, Why is that the way it was? There was some personal satisfaction to adding to this story.

But the processes by which Hill examined the hydrological question could help other scientists model other poorly documented rivers. The vast majority of Alaskan Rivers, including the Teklanika River behind which McCandless died, arent monitored by U.S. Geological Survey stream monitors and have little in the way of historical data.

Obviously this particular river holds special interest to a lot of people because of that story, Hill said. But beyond that trying to study rivers in that part of Alaska is scientifically interesting because its a challenge of data scarcity in a way. Its a huge state. Its not very heavily sampled or monitored.

To overcome that challenge, Hill gathered all the information he could involving weather, land cover and elevation. Then Hill and Aragon applied a collection of computer models that have been widely used in snowy, high-latitude locations including Alaska, according to an OSU release. The goal was to compare the 1992 hydrology of the Alaska Range to other years and the July 5, 1992, Teklanika River conditions to the days before and after. They also looked at similar rivers to create the best model they could, although Hill cautions that like all models it isnt 100% accurate.

About halfway through the project, Hill reached out to Jon Krakauer, the author of the original book and the two corresponded via email about Hills findings.

David and Christinas paper is fascinating to me for deeply personal reasons, Krakauer said in an OSU news release. Over the three decades that have passed since Chris McCandless perished in Alaska, Ive been eager to learn as much as possible about his experience from the moment he walked into the wild in April 1992 until his death inside Bus 142 some four months later. This paper sheds a little more light about a key event during that period  his attempt to return to civilization halfway through his Alaska adventure.

McCandless had hiked west along the Stampede Trail near Healy, Alaska, forded the Teklanika on April 28 and lived in Bus 142, an abandoned Fairbanks city transit vehicle, 8.6 miles from the river. Several weeks later when he sought to leave the wilderness, he found the river impassable, returned to the bus and on Aug. 18 died of starvation.

The spring snowmelt in 1992 was delayed, which kept flows in the Teklanika relatively low and made it possible for Mr. McCandless to cross the river and reach Bus 142 at the end of April, Aragon said in the news release. When the snowmelt finally happened, it happened fast. After that, the river got higher or lower on roughly a weekly basis depending on rain in the region. Streamflow in summer 1992 was more variable than usual because of the quick snowmelt followed by periods of heavy rain.

For the 1992 water year  the period of Oct. 1, 1991, through Sept. 30, 1992  the Teklanika watershed received just under 27 inches of precipitation, 20% greater than average. Also in 1992, mean daily temperature was a month slower than usual in rising above freezing, and summer rainfall was more intense than it normally is. USGS maintained a water gauge on the Teklankika River for a decade but that monitoring ended in 1974.

In the years following McCandless death and the Into the Wild book and movie, two hikers died in the river trying to visit Bus 142, which had been hauled into the wilderness in the 1950s so workers could live in it while upgrading a route to an antimony mine.

Many others needed to be rescued on pilgrimages to the bus, finally prompting the state of Alaska to enlist the National Guard to airlift it from the Stampede Trail with a Chinook helicopter on June 18, 2020. The 1946 International Harvester model K-5 is now on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks, according to a news release.

Although the paper cant determine with certainty whether McCandless would have been able to safely exit the wild if hed tried to cross the Teklanika River again at a later date, it raises poignant questions that are worthy of consideration, Krakauer said in a statement. Perhaps even more importantly, the paper conveys valuable information about the dynamics of Alaskas rivers  the fording of which has always struck me as one of the most dangerous aspects of backcountry travel in Alaska, based on close calls I personally had on numerous trips into Brooks Range, the Alaska Range and the Coast Mountains of Southeast Alaska. David and Christinas paper might help other adventurers avoid calamity going forward.
UPDATE, AUG. 14 AT 12:08 PM:

Command of the Elmo Fire has been transitioned from Northern Rockies Incident Management Team 7 to a Type 3 team at 6:00 Sunday.

The fire is reported to be 21,349 acres large and 75% contained.

CSKT Division of Fire, who has been sharing updates to their Facebook on the fire, announced that updates will be given as needed and that anyone looking for new information can contact the fire information line, send an email, or check Inciweb and Facebook.

Many resources are being released from the fire in efforts to right-size the organization.

Crews are continuing to strengthen and monitor fireline in all areas of the Elmo Fire by digging out and extinguishing burning stumps, roots, and other hidden pockets of heat in an effort to increase containment.

A dedicated group is assigned to the initial attack to respond to any new starts.

As of Aug. 10, Camp Tuffit Road/West Shore Road remains under evacuation order and closed to all traffic. Speed limits on Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352) are reduced to 35 mph.

Area closures and Restrictions The Flathead Indian Reservation Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes and Lake County are currently under Stage 1 Fire Restrictions.

UPDATE, AUG 10 AT 1:56 PM:

The Elmo Fire has seen minimal growth and is 21,348 acres large as of Wednesday.

The CSKT Division of Fire reports it is now 61% contained.

All pre-evacuation warnings have been lifted in the fire area and the boat ramp at the Elmo Fishing Access Site and Lake Mary Ronan State Park are open.

Camp Tuffit Rd./West Shore Rd. remains under evacuation order and closed to all traffic.

UPDATE, AUG 7 AT 10:20 AM:

The following is updated evacuation information as of Sunday at 9:30 am:

Evacuation orders have been lifted for residents along Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352) west of Dayton Creek Road. This area will remain under pre-evacuation warning and open to residents and guests only.

Camp Tuffit/West Shore Road remains under evacuation order and is closed to all traffic.

Residents of Chief Cliff Lane, Black Lake Road, Big Meadows Road, and Dayton Creek Road remain under pre-evacuation warning and open to residents only.

Speed limits will be reduced to 35 mph on Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352).

The Proctor dump will be open to Lake County residents with normal operating hours.

Closures remain in effect for the Boat Ramp at the Elmo Fishing Access site and Lake Mary Ronan State Park

UPDATE, AUG. 7 AT 9:04 AM:

Containment on the Elmo Fire has grown to 30% and the fire saw a growth of 129 acres Saturday, for a total of 21,327 acres.

Warmer and drier conditions on Sunday may increase fire activity, the Northern Rockies Incident Management Team reported.

Firefighters will remain engaged in strengthening containment lines as they extinguish areas of heat up to 120 feet into the interior.

Hoses and pumps are being added south of Lake Mary Ronan to make water more available for securing firelines.

Small firing operations may be necessary to address unburned fuels that pose a risk to the fireline.

A public meeting is planned for Monday, Aug. 8 at the Elmo Pow Wow Grounds at 7:00 pm.

UPDATE, AUG. 6 AT 10:19 AM:

The CSKT Division of Fire has given an update on evacuations and closures caused by the Elmo Fire.

The following goes into effect starting at 12:00 pm Saturday:

Pre-evacuation warnings have been lifted for residents east of Hwy 93 between Chief Cliff Lane and Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352).

Evacuation orders have been lifted for residents of Chief Cliff Lane and Black Lake Road. These areas will remain under pre-evacuation warning.

Evacuation orders have been lifted for residents of Big Meadows Road and Dayton Creek Road. These areas will remain under pre-evacuation warning.

Evacuation orders are still in effect for residents west of the intersection of Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352) and Dayton Creek Road.

Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352) is closed at the Dayton Creek Road intersection.

Arterial roads off Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352) are open to residents only. Speed limits will be reduced to 35 mph on Lake Mary Ronan Road (Hwy 352).

The Proctor dump will open to Lake County residents from 12:00 to 7:00 PM on Saturday, August 6, 2022.

Closures remain in effect for the Boat Ramp at the Elmo Fishing Access site and Lake Mary Ronan State Park.

UPDATE, AUG. 6 AT 9:36 AM:

As of Saturday morning, the Elmo fire is 21,198 acres large and is now 18% contained.

So far, eight structures have been lost to the fire.

The fire remains south of Lake Mary Ronan, and the CSKT Division of Fire reports that despite a continuous line around the fire perimeter, significant work is needed to secure the line and ensure areas of heat remain interior.

All power has been restored to the fire area.

Firefighters plan on securing fireline on the western side of the fire by searching out heat about 60 feet interior as well as utilizing hose lays along the line on Saturday.

Aircraft will support crews as they reinforce firelines around the most active sections of the fire, south of Lake Mary Ronan.

Another public meeting is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 8 at 7:00 pm. It will be held at the Elmo Pow Wow Grounds on Highway 93.

UPDATE, AUG. 3 AT 4:41 PM:

Residents who have not heeded the evacuation order for County Road 352 (Lake Mary Ronan Road) and along the perimeter of Lake Mary Ronan are being told to do so as the Elmo Fire has the potential to grow Wednesday evening.

CSKT Division of Fire says the fire has been active on the north end and has a high potential to reach the lake by Wednesday evening.

In addition, potential spotting over County Road 352 may impede egress over the next couple of days.

UPDATE, AUG. 3 AT 2:26 PM:

Containment on the Elmo Fire is at 16% as of Wednesday morning.

According to the CSKT Division of Fire, wind gusts and low humidity combined with continuous timber fuels created increased fire activity to the north, expanding the fire perimeter towards Lake Mary Ronan and Big Meadows.

A public meeting will be held Wednesday at 7:00 pm at the Elmo Pow Wow grounds.

Streaming for the meeting will be unavailable, however, those looking for information can call 406-818-5200 to speak with a Public Information Officer for the most up-to-date information.

Update: Aug. 2 at 1:38 p.m.

The following is a Facebook post from CSKT Division of Fire:

Evacuation orders from Lake County Sheriffs Office include the area south of Lake Mary Ronan Road from the intersections of Camp Tuffit Road to Hwy 93; and west of Hwy 93 from Lake Mary Ronan Road to Chief Cliff Lane.

Pre-evacuation warnings are in effect for residences north of Lake Mary Ronan Road and residences east and south of Hwy 93 between intersections with Hwy 28 and Lake Mary Ronan Road.

Road closures: The intersection of Lake Mary Ronan Road and Hwy 93 is closed to traffic. Residents north of Lake Mary Ronan Road can access their residences.

Power Outages: Mission Valley Power shut off power at Black Lake Road, the Proctor Clubhouse, and Hog Heaven at the request of Lake County Emergency Management and expected to remain off through Tuesday. The situation will be reassessed Wednesday morning.

For information on Red Cross Evacuation Centers at Polson High School and Somers Middle School please call 1-800-272-6888, then select Option 1 for the Duty Officer.

One of four scooper planes taking water out of Elmo Bay to support firefighting efforts on the ground. Photo taken August 1, 2022, by local resident Randy Avery.

Update: Aug. 2 at 7:14 a.m.

The Elmo Fire is now burning 16,226 acres with 10% containment along Highway 28 Tuesday morning.

Sara Rouse, Elmo Fire information officer, told Montana Right Now multiple structures are burned--authorities are working to find the number and type of structures burned.

The weather is forecasted with lower temperatures with a wind event. A red flag warning is still in effect.

Highways 28 and 93 have reopened.

Red Cross has a shelter set up at Polson High School.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in the following areas:

Lake Mary Ronan Corridor: Lake Ronan Road Black Lake Road Surrounding areas



Update: Aug. 1, 2022 11:58 a.m.

The The CSKT Division of Fire is estimating the Elmo Fire at 12,975 acres Monday, a 2,000-acre increase from Sunday.

The fire is still 0% contained at this time.

Pre-evacuation warnings are still in place for people living south of Lake Mary Ronan Road and west of Highway 93.

Highway 28 is now open.

Update July 31, 2022 6:47 P.M.:

The CSKT Division of Fire now estimates the Elmo Fire to be 10,923 acres in size and remains 0% contained.

Pre-evacuation warnings are still in place for people living south of Lake Mary Ronan Road and west of Highway 93.

The boat ramp at the Elmo Fishing Access Site is closed.

Update July 31, 2022 1:35 P.M.:

There is going to be public meeting Monday, August 1 at 7:00 P.M. at the Elmo Pow Wow Grounds for people who are looking to get more information on the fire.

Update July 31, 2022 10:26 A.M.:

Flathead Lake State Park says it has reopened the Big Arm Unit of their park at 10 A.M.

It had been closed and evacuated on July 30th due to the nearby Elmo fire.

All normal services will be open at the park.

Lake Mary Ronan State Park remains closed and under evacuation notice.

Update July 30, 2022 9:19 P.M.:

Montana Highway Patrol announced Montana Highway 28 has reopened to traffic. Drivers still need to be aware of smoke and firefighter vehicles in the area.

The CSKT Division of Fire says the Chief Cliff Estates evacuation has been lifted.

The fire is estimated to be 7,000 acres in size and the cause is still under investigation.

A temporary flight restriction has been issued for air space over the Elmo Fire.

Update July 30, 2022 at 4:40 P.M:

The CSKT Division of Fire says residents along Route 28 have been allowed to return to their homes.

Route 28 is still closed to the public.

A Red Cross station has been set up for evacuees in Polson.

CSKT says the fire continues to grow toward Dayton.

The following is a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Region 1 at 9:06 A.M. on July 30, 2022:

Due to an imminent safety concern, FWP is closing Lake Mary Ronan State Park and Big Arm State Park in Lake County due to wildfire danger.

An evacuation order was issued for the Elmo area on the west side of Flathead Lake around Montana Highway 28 and Lake Mary Ronan Road from mile marker 5 to U.S. Highway 93, as of the morning of July 30. The Elmo 2 Fire is burning in the area.

Campers at both Lake Mary Ronan State Park and Big Arm State Park have been evacuated and the sites are closed until the safety issues are resolved upon further notice.

Montana Red Cross has opened a shelter at Linderman School, 312 4th Ave. E. in Polson, for those displaced by the fire. Residents can also request services by calling 800-272-6668.

For information on restrictions and closures of FWP sites, visit https://fwp.mt.gov/news/current-closures-restrictions.

For current information on wildfires in Montana, visit https://www.mtfireinfo.org.

ELMO, Mont.  A 2,000 acre wildfire has erupted near Elmo that is causing evacuations and road closures.

Near the one year anniversary of the Boulder 2700 Fire, another blaze begins to burn near Flathead Lake. Right now, the fire is burning along Highway 28, about seven miles west.

CSKT Fire Officer C.T. Camel tells us that Highway 28 is now closed, and that this blaze has grown to over 2,000 acres, making it the biggest fire in the station of Montana this wildfire season.

Camel also says that three dozen homes near Elmo are being evacuated.

According to a report from the Montana Department of Transportation, there is zero viability in the area, and the Highway 28 is closed between Hot Springs and Elmo. The Polson Chamber of Commerce posted on their social media account says there are at least seven different agencies responding, with close to 120 fire personnel headed north of the city. Multiple aircraft and helicopters are also responding.

Crews are evacuating livestock and subdivisions in the area. And the Red Cross is establishing an evacuation center at Linderman School.

Level 3 evacuations are called for near Elmo. The area southeast of Elmo is in level 1. The area northwest towards Dayton is in level 2.

This article will be updated with more information as it develops.

Article posted July 30, 2022.
Im not a millionaire and neither are 95% of Montanans.

My campaign isnt funded by millionaires, but instead, our contributions have come from hardworking Montanans who are putting their money on the line to create real change in our state. Im proud to say the majority of our donations are small dollar donations. For example, between July 20th and July 26, 2022, our average individual donation was $64.19.

I believe in campaign finance reform and believe most Montanans and most Americans do also. I believe most people are, like me, tired of elections costing millions of dollars when children and hardworking families are going hungry because theres not enough money to put food on the table.

As Americans, we need to hold campaigns, elected officials, and political parties accountable for the insane amount of money being raised and spent getting individuals elected. We also need to stop glorifying the ridiculous amount of money being raised by campaigns. Campaigns cost money, true, but campaigns should be about earning votes not buying votes.

How do we hold campaigns accountable? Begin by researching where the campaign donations are coming from. This will give you the clearest knowledge of who the candidate is beholden to and most strongly plans to represent.

For example, over the years, Matt Rosendale has collected nearly $10 million in contributions for his various campaigns.

In 2014, in his unsuccessful bid for Congress, Rosendale loaned himself $1.1 million and raised thousands of dollars from donors outside Montana.

In 2018, in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Rosendale loaned his campaign more than $150,000, and approximately 85% of his $5.2 million in receipts came from contributions outside Montana, PACs, and other political committees.

And during his 2020 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, over 70% of his $3.4 million in receipts came from contributions outside Montana, PACs, and other political committees. Again, that year he loaned his campaign nearly $100,000.

Now, for his 2022 campaign, he has banked almost $1.6 million in receipts. Again, almost 70% of those funds come from contributions outside Montana, PACs, and other political committees.

So, who are these Kingmakers from outside Montana supporting Rosendale? They are individuals and extremist political action committees (PACs) who funnel cash into candidates like Rosendale in hopes of securing votes for their extremist agendas.

What did his 2020 donors get in return? They got a vote against supporting Ukraine. They got a vote against honoring the brave Capitol Police. They got a vote against badly needed investment in Montanas infrastructure and broadband. They got a vote against protecting older workers against discrimination. They got a vote against the right to organize in the workplace. They got a vote against conservation and preservation of wildlife. They got a vote against protection for nursing mothers in the workplace. They got a vote against stopping corporate price gouging at the gas pump. They got a vote against funding to end the baby formula shortage. They got a vote against funding to feed hungry children.

What did Montanans get? Nothing.

We should all be asking questions about Matt Rosendales campaign funding and his representation of Montana.

Im angry that hardworking Montanans are represented by someone who is obviously beholden to out-of-state interest groups, and Im angry that millionaires can lend themselves hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to buy a seat in Congress.

In Montana, elections used to be about earning votes, and this is what they need to be about again.

Montanans are desperate for lower prices at the gas pump, access to affordable health care, safe roads and bridges, cheaper costs at the grocery store, affordable housing and education, protection for hunters to access healthy public lands, a fair market price for family farmers and ranchers, and so much more.

What we are willing to tolerate, we will not change. Millionaires are willing to tolerate a lot because they dont feel the financial stress the majority of working Montanans do.

Montanans ended the reign of the Copper Kings before. Its time to do it again.

Its time for change. Its time for hardworking Montanans to be represented by one of their own. Its time for Montanans to be represented by someone who actually reflects the majority of Montanans. Its time for Montanans to be represented by someone beholden to hardworking Montanans and not elitists and out-of-state, extremist PACs. And, its time for Montana to send two women to Congress.
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Fidel Ramos, president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, died on Sunday after a life and career that saw triumphs over suspicion and self-restraint. Ramos was the key man in the popular revolt that brought down his cousin, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in 1986: The once-steadfast general who abandoned the dictator he had served for decades to take the side of rebels. He then became the successor to Corazon Aquino, the devout Catholic he helped bring to power, convincing her that a military man  and a Protestant  could extend the life of the countrys fragile democracy. He won election in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation by the narrowest of margins, but went on to make it a credible case for the Philippines as a tiger economy in a rising Asia. He was the most democratic of generals and, along with Aquinos son Benigno III, the most technocratic of presidents.

Ramoss death removes from the Philippine political scene one of the great players of the election epic of 1986. Two major protagonists remain: Imelda Marcos, 93, the mother of the current president and widow of the man Ramos ousted; and Juan Ponce Enrile, 98, the defense minister who joined Ramos in revolt but who is now reconciled to the resurgent Marcos dynasty. While he lived, Ramos was a reminder of the courage  as well as calculation  required to undo the desperate situation the country faced almost four decades ago.

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Filipinos have now fallen for the counterfactual sentiments of Marcos apologists. Ramos probably empathized with this nationalistic nostalgia for a non-existent era of strength. For years, Ramos stood by his second cousin as Marcos Sr. devolved from the great new democratic hope when elected in 1965 to a tyrant who dismissed all opposition with a withering hauteur. Ramos seemed to be immovable from Marcoss side  to the consternation of the opposition who saw this most uncorrupt of regime loyalists as a possible force for reform and a return to democracy.

I remember the generals balancing act. Our families attended the Cosmopolitan Church in Manila, a Protestant congregation established by American missionaries. There are so few Protestants in the Philippines that my classmates in a Jesuit school were alarmed when I confessed I was one: You mean, youre an atheist?

Ramos would show up less and less at Cosmopolitan as the anti-Marcos outcry from the pulpit got louder and prominent opposition congregants started to exercise their political ambitions. Behind the scenes, however, he kept channels open  especially through my aunt Betty Go-Belmonte, a newspaper publisher who would become a great ally of Corazon Aquino. In the Philippine world of family connections, theirs would be pivotal. His parents had been the godparents at her wedding.

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One of my late aunts favorite metaphors was biblical: the Red Sea did not part for Moses until his faith compelled him to take the first step into the waters. She had been in touch with her god-brother throughout the crisis of the vote-count in 1986, when Marcos suspended the process after it was clear he could not win. When Enrile turned against Marcos, Ramos joined him.

In the hours after that decision, a group of Catholic seminarians paraded a statue of Our Lady of Fatima among the citizens of Manila who had surrounded the military base where Ramos and Enrile were holed up, a human wall protecting them from a counterattack by regime loyalists. The Protestant general allowed the Catholic procession to take place. It helped bring down the dividing lines between between Filipinos and created a united front against Marcos.

The success of the People Power revolt may have given the reluctant rebel confidence to act with a fresh forwardness. Some of it paid off for Ramos: running for the presidency, for example, in 1992 and confidently taking his place as a member of the very male-dominated global power brokers. After his term in office, he also helped pass a landmark reproductive rights law, against deep opposition from hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. He did come to regret a few things: support for Rodrigo Duterte, whom he served briefly in 2016 before quitting the controversial presidents administration.

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The united front against Marcos and his legacy has long collapsed. It is tragic that Ramos lived to see it happen. He was, nonetheless, that rare combination in Philippine history: general, technocrat, democrat. And he imparts at least one great lesson for his country: Caution can give way to courage  and courage can part the waters.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 How Catholicism Lost Political Clout in the Philippines: Daniel Moss

 Marcos Comeback Is Running on Manipulated Nostalgia: Clara Ferreira Marques

 Confessions of an Accidental Monarchist: Howard Chua-Eoan

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Howard Chua-Eoan is the international editor of Bloomberg Opinion.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

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This account, in previously unreported detail, shines new light on the road to war and the military campaign in Ukraine, drawn from in-depth interviews with dozens of senior U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials.

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ABC news boss Justin Stevens will split his time between the national broadcasters inner-city headquarters and its newly formed Parramatta office when about 300 staff relocate at the end of 2023.

The government-funded broadcaster announced last week it would move ABCs Sydney-based radio and news teams to Parramatta Square in an effort to keep 75 per cent of its workers outside Ultimo, and reflect the broader Australian community. The proposal to move, first outlined in 2020, will be reviewed by the parliamentary standing committee on public works.

ABC news director Justin Stevens said he wanted to stamp out racism at the public broadcaster.

Stevens said news of the relocation was well received by staff, but conceded people would have questions and concerns relating to their individual circumstances. He said the move was important for news-gathering.

Im going to work out there, Stevens, who has visited the new site, said. I want to spend a bit of time in both places, but Im really pumped. I love Parramatta, I think its a really important show of intention by the ABC around where we locate our journalists. I think it will be really positive.
The nations largest wildlife rescue organisation has failed to properly deploy the record $100 million in donations it received in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires and has been damaged by poor management and a culture of recrimination and secrecy, says a board member who has resigned in frustration.

Julie Mills, a prominent environmental philanthropist from the NSW South Coast, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that she joined the WIRES board after the fires because she believed she would be able to assist it to use the windfall most effectively.

WIRES carer Julie Mills, seen here in 2020 feeding an orphaned pouch-rescued eastern grey kangaroo joey, has resigned from the organisations board over concerns about its direction. Credit:aap

She has now resigned saying the organisation has failed to embrace the big ideas that became possible with the donations that flowed in from around the world during and after the fires after its call for donations was supported internationally by such figures as Barack Obama and Ellen Degeneres.

Mills believes that the money should have been quickly deployed for projects that could have had both an immediate and long-term impact on Australian wildlife, such as funding the purchase of protected habitats to release rehabilitated animals, supporting dedicated wildlife veterinarian hospitals or identifying and fixing animal strike hot spots along the states highways.
Skilled migrants would be given default union membership as part of their employment conditions under a radical proposal from a key union movement figure that has the backing of a former senior Immigration Department official.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton acknowledged short-term migration was necessary to fill jobs in the immediate future, but will take the demand to the prime ministers jobs summit next month among a list of conditions to safeguard against imported labour being used as an economic crutch.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton wants safeguards for skilled migrants. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Taking the proposals to delegates at the AWU national conference on Monday, Walton also wants the government to create a like-for-like system in which all overseas talent is matched with the creation of a local training position, or an increased contribution to the Skilling Australians Fund, a national pool to train up a permanent workforce.

I know the usual parties will hyperventilate at the idea of default union membership, but if you put down the ideology for a second it makes obvious sense. The weight of global research indicates the strongest counterweight to worker exploitation is trade union membership, Walton said, warning against Australia becoming a Saudi-style guest worker economy.
Elyssa Leininger works on her street art design on North 19th Street on Sunday. The work is part of the $25,000 Bloomberg Asphalt Art Project that will cover streets around North Park. The asphalt art initiative promotes incorporating art into public spaces like roadways, crosswalks, plazas, sidewalks and vertical infrastructure like utility boxes and underpasses. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, funds the asphalt art project. Cities that tap into the power of public art bring new life and energy to city streets, inspiring residents and fostering a shared spirit of neighborhood pride. There can be real civic strength in public art, and this program helps cities capitalize on it, he said. Other cities participating in the project include Denver, Detroit, Tucson, Arizona, Fairbanks, Alaska, Long Beach, California and several others.
Now and into the future, the United States and close partners like Australia and Japan face some constraining realities in their relations with Southeast Asia.

Chinas diplomacy will often be zero-sum in nature, seeking not just to advance Chinas own interests but to diminish or crowd out the influence of others

Chinas natural advantages mean its presence in, and influence with, Southeast Asia almost certainly will continue to grow relative to the regions other major partners. China will continue to give high priority and attention to its periphery diplomacy, which operates within a strong conceptual framework and has clear objectives, as we describe earlier in this report. Chinas ultimate goal is a highly connected regional order centred on Beijing in which countries defer to its interests and authority.

Chinas diplomacy will often be zero-sum in nature, seeking not just to advance Chinas own interests but to diminish or crowd out the influence of others.

Southeast Asia is feeling the pressure of major power competition and is wary of Chinas intentions, but still does not want to choose. Regional governments worry more about major power contestation than they do about Chinas rising influence. Southeast Asias major priorities are domestic security and stability and economic growth. The region wants to be valued in its own right, not as a pawn in a new great game with China.

While the United States and partners like Australia and Japan describe their foreign policy objectives in Southeast Asia in different ways, they are broadly aligned around three objectives:

Not asking Southeast Asia to choose. The unstated objective might loosely be described as keeping Southeast Asia in the middle; Supporting the resilience and autonomy of Southeast Asia nations and encouraging Southeast Asian agency; Providing the region with choices when it comes to trade, investment, defence and security cooperation, development assistance, health security, and clean energy.

Nothing in the case studies suggest these broad objectives are no longer appropriate. The challenge rather, is to give them as much substance as possible.

The Biden Administration has sought to respond to the regions call for more consistent attention through increased visits and a range of new initiatives in health, climate, trade facilitation, and people-to-people connections. Australia and Japan, too, have lifted their diplomatic investment in the region in recent years. All three countries have substantial political, aid, trade, investment (Australia excepted), and defence programs in Southeast Asia. Australias new government has promised ever greater attention to the region, announcing additional development assistance, a special envoy to the region and a new trade strategy1.

The United States and its partners will have to keep working harder in Southeast Asia, and in ways that respond directly to the regions priorities

Obvious gaps in this pattern of engagement are often difficult to fix because of entrenched structural (the reluctance of Australian companies to invest in Southeast Asia) or political (U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal) dynamics. Good ideas are not necessarily in short supply but often confront the hard realities of distance, global distractions, domestic priorities, and budget constraints. And the capacity of regional countries themselves to absorb grand new initiatives is finite.

For all this dose of realism, the findings suggest that the United States and its partners will have to keep working harder in Southeast Asia, and in ways that respond directly to the regions priorities, to sustain their own influence. Swimming against the tide, Washington, Tokyo, and Canberra have to keep increasing their rate of effort just to hold their place in the current.

This concluding chapter does not attempt a full survey of possible policy responses to Chinas growing influence in Southeast Asia. Rather, it draws out a small group of lessons most obvious from the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.

Responsiveness at a time of crisis counts

The United States, Japan, Australia, and other countries like India were there for Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the deadly 2004 tsunami, but were perceived to be absent (indeed, largely were absent with vaccines, until mid-2021) when the pandemic struck. The region remembers.

Do the basics well and keep doing them

Influence building can go a long way when the diplomatic basics are done well and consistently. That means regular engagement at senior levels in Southeast Asia, as China did even through the pandemic. It means face time with the leaders and ministers. This is obvious, often repeated advice, but sticking to it is not easy for busy democracies. The Biden Administration deserves credit for delivering a special summit in Washington with ASEAN leaders in May 2022, but the decision not to meet leaders bilaterally would seem the kind of missed opportunity the United States can no longer afford.

Doing the basics well means focusing on the whole region, not just countries that seem more prospective from an Indo-Pacific strategy perspective, a trap the Biden Administration fell into, at least through 2021. A balance in the Indo-Pacific favorable to the interests of the United States and its close partners will be more difficult to achieve with a strategy of selective engagement in Southeast Asia.

Relative neglect, as Hoang Thi Ha argues, risks leaving the United States less trusted and Southeast Asia even more strategically incoherent and ASEAN more divided. This is especially true if one of those countries feeling neglected is Indonesia, Southeast Asias biggest nation. But RAND analyst Derek Grossman also observes that doing only the minimum with countries leaning close to China, like Cambodia and Laos, keeps the United States on the defensive in Southeast Asia and sows doubts about U.S. engagement even among longstanding allies such as the Philippines and Thailand.

An effective narrative in Southeast Asia must do more than repeat endless homages to ASEAN centrality

Get the narrative right

Doing the basics well means getting the narrative right in Southeast Asia. The Biden Administration says it does not ask Southeast Asian countries to choose, but too often its narrative remains infused with a desire to demonstrate that democratic systems are superior to autocratic ones. Such language comes all the way down from the President and is therefore hard to avoid, but is counter-productive in Southeast Asia. The better approach is to stress shared principles, like sovereignty and non-use of coercion, drawn from the regions own foundational documents (like the ASEAN Charter and Treaty of Amity and Cooperation)2.

An effective narrative in Southeast Asia must do more than repeat endless homages to ASEAN centrality, a line that is necessary but nonetheless must now provoke more than its share of eye-rolling from Southeast Asian governments as they watch cooperation in the Quad and new groups like AUKUS strengthen. An effective narrative must be grounded in the interests and needs of Southeast Asia.

Some guiding principles for speechwriters might be:

Lose the alienating grand narrative as Sebastian Strangio argues3;

Shared principles, not shared values;

Highlight the historical presence and importance of the United States, Japan, and Australia across the region; not only in the security realm, but across trade, investment, and development assistance;

See the world from Southeast Asia. This means recognising and accepting the economic importance of China and the regions concern about the risks of U.S.-China competition;

Underline the value of the region in its own right. This does not mean brushing competition with China under the rhetorical carpet. An honest narrative in Southeast Asia a) recognizes this competition inevitably affects and shapes relations in the region; b) commits to responsible management of U.S.-China competition; c) highlights the shared interests the United States/Australia/Japan have with Southeast Asia independent of competition with China.

Focusing too heavily on traditional infrastructure like roads, railways, and ports risks missing an emerging economic development agenda

Focus on economic recovery and emerging areas of competitive advantage

As it learns to live with COVID, Southeast Asias highest priorities are jobs and economic growth. The economic scars from the pandemic are deep. The United States and its close partners want instinctively to compete with China on infrastructure. But focusing too heavily on traditional infrastructure like roads, railways, and ports risks missing an emerging economic development agenda in Southeast Asia in which the United States, Japan, and Australia have comparative advantages.

Southeast Asia remains dependent on fossil fuels for energy and faces a challenging clean energy transition. The region needs regulatory and policy advice and clean energy technology. It needs financing for clean energy infrastructure. The United States is taking steps in this direction, for example through its new U.S.-ASEAN Climate Solutions Hub and efforts to generate financing for clean energy infrastructure. Australia has a green economy agreement with Singapore and wants to deepen and broaden cooperation with Indonesia in this area. Australias new government plans an $A200m climate and infrastructure partnership with Jakarta.

There are opportunities also in Southeast Asias burgeoning digital economy and in building much needed human capital, including for example in providing low-cost, job-specific vocational training at scale. Health security remains a further area of opportunity, for all the baggage carried on vaccines. Southeast Asia was striving for greater vaccine security and self-reliance even before COVID struck. Supporting mRNA technology transfer or in-region manufacturing would be well received.

Trade is strategy4

China touts access to its market by Southeast Asia as part of a win-win road to economic recovery from the pandemic. The United States and its close partners can respond through measures that open markets and facilitate trade.

This is easier for Japan and Australia because of their membership of regional plurilateral and bilateral free trade deals. Regrettably, the Biden Administrations Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) cant and wont fill the exceptionally large hole in U.S. Southeast Asian economic strategy after its withdrawal from the TPP. What Southeast Asia really wants is market access.

The IPEF could still help the United States build influence in Southeast Asia if it becomes a valued platform for regular engagement on economic issues

Nonetheless, the IPEF could still help the United States build influence in Southeast Asia if it becomes a valued platform for regular engagement on economic issues with a plurality of Southeast Asian countries. This requires very active diplomacy and an agenda that has enough in it to interest the region.

Influence is Personal

China is strongly focused on influencing elites in Southeast Asia. It generally takes care not to arouse anti-China sentiment in the region where it can, but is more concerned with close relationships with leaders in government and business than in being popular. The case studies show Chinas pandemic aid allowed it to reinforce ties with leaders in all three countries.

The pandemic has disrupted other programs designed to influence elites, such as sponsored visits, media training and exchanges, political party outreach, and scholarships. Still, most Southeast Asian experts interviewed see these disruptions as temporary, even with Beijings determination to continue with its Zero COVID strategy.

Beijings courting of elites often comes with corruption. The United States and its close partners cannot and should not compete on this ground. But the soft power of the West remains a significant advantage. Programs that invest in young leaders and Southeast Asian elites, across government, business, civil society, the security establishment, and in political parties are worthy of additional investment. The new U.S.-ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders and the doubling in size of the established Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative and U.S.-ASEAN Fulbright program are good examples of initiatives in this area.

In some cases, such as Australias scholarships program in some Southeast Asian countries, budget cuts of past years need urgently to be restored, and new programs developed where China is making in-roads, including into regional political parties. A Quad initiative on sponsored visits or short-term professional training might add to bilateral programs on a scale that matches China.

Theres a war going on  an information one

Chinese news sources often dominate Southeast Asian media reporting on the pandemic. Beijing builds influence and shapes perceptions of China in Southeast Asia through the use of Chinese state-owned media content in mainstream news sources, Chinese and locally-owned digital news apps, and news and opinion available on social media platforms like Facebook. Chinese diplomats have also become more confident and sophisticated in their public diplomacy, including in English5.

The United States and close partners like Australia and Japan need to find ways of engaging in the information war in Southeast Asia with greater effect

This is not a tide the United States and countries like Australia and Japan can turn back. But the United States and close partners like Australia and Japan need to find ways of engaging in the information war in Southeast Asia with greater effect. This involves much more than Ambassadors being present on Twitter. Strategic communication nodes in foreign ministries have to become faster and more agile in providing messages in a range of different country circumstances. The United States and its partners also need to look afresh at what they can do, as governments or in partnership with the private sector, to make strategic investments in the viability of independent Southeast Asian media platforms.

1 See, for example, Foreign Minister Penny Wongs speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (Singapore) on July 6, 2022. https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/special-lecture-international-institute-strategic-studies-shared-future-australia-asean-and-southeast-asia

2 The speech by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the 2022 Shangri-La Dialogue is a good example of getting this right.

3 Just try not to insult our intelligence by visiting, only to shove platitudes down our throat, was one blistering review of the Secretary of State Tony Blinkens speech on the Administrations Indo-Pacific strategy given (rather unwisely) in Jakarta in December 2021.

4 Former Singaporean Foreign Minister K Shanmugam speaking in 2015 on the United States and the (then) Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trade is strategy and youre either in or out  how credible are you going to be?

5 See, for example, the Chinese Ambassador to ASEANs Jakarta Post opinion piece on AUKUS, which cleverly played to Indonesias concerns about Australias plans for nuclear-propelled submarines
Todays community college students face an array of demands that affect their success. Personal issues  balancing college and work, meeting the demands of family and friends, and dealing with mental health issues and disabilities  present obstacles for many students. As I complete my first year as the president of Minnesota State College Southeast, I feel connected to their struggles, because as a first generation, working-class college student myself I faced many of the same challenges our students do today.

When I attended North Hennepin Community College in the mid-1980s, I came from a low-income household and was definitely in a minority. At that time most of my fellow students came from more affluent families. My father had died at the age of 39, leaving my mother to raise 11 children on her own. I wasnt encouraged to participate in higher education; there was no implicit expectation that I would attend college. With our limited financial resources, investing in college might have seemed frivolous to my family. They were focused on the here and now and

the familys immediate needs.

I was not only a low-income student, but I was also a first-generation college student. My mother had finished high school, but my father only completed the eighth grade. Through discipline and hard work, they were successful entrepreneurs who started and sold two profitable businesses in Southwest Minnesota. My parents instilled the value of hard work to accomplish ones goals. I would describe my childhood experience as stable, safe, loving, protective, strict and supportive.

Our family dynamic that supported the value of family first still guides me as president when considering employee and student needs. I believe my working-class background has helped motivate me to be an inclusive, honest, transparent, positive, conversational and genuine leader.

As a working-class student, I remember many times when I didnt feel like I fit in. I struggled to remain loyal to my familys heritage and at the same time wanted to embrace a new social identity. My first year of college I lived with my sister and her family. Working-class students have to learn the academic culture, as many rules and guidelines are unwritten. Like me, they feel the need to work harder simply because they feel like they dont belong.

Mentors played a big role in my life. They helped me learn the academic culture, soft-skills language, networking and etiquette. I attribute these supportive relationships for much of my individual success. Without those individuals who took a personal interest in me, provided inspiration and motivation, its not likely I would be a college president today. A few of these people believed in me more than I believed in myself!

Because of my background and the opportunity that education provided me, I am strongly focused on students, student learning, and student success. I believe in everything we do, every decision we make, we must keep in mind the impact that it has on students and the community. At the end of the day, the reason we exist is to provide a quality education for our students.

Being able to impact the lives of working-class college students is what drives me. At Minnesota State College Southeast we are helping people who can most benefit from education  we can see the impact we are making. We open our arms to people of all backgrounds. Thats why Im here. Its who I am. Its the very essence of what I believe in action. Its an opportunity to serve at an institution that aligns with so much of my passion. Thank you for giving me this opportunity!
When asked if he would support legislation to protect same-sex marriage, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was almost nonchalant.

I see no reason to oppose it, Johnson, R-Oshkosh, told reporters, bringing Democrats one vote closer to an unexpected victory as they move to safeguard same-sex marriage and other rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Johnsons answer, which came after 47 Republicans voted for the bill in the House last week, was reflective of a stark shift in GOP positioning after decades of fighting same-sex marriage. Ten years ago, most Republicans proudly espoused that marriage could only be between a man and a woman. Now, a federal law protecting same-sex marriage is within reach in an election year, with some Republican backing.

The signal of possible support from Johnson  arguably the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection this year  comes as Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, is the lead Democrat charged with persuading the necessary 10 Republicans to vote for the bill.

Baldwin, who is the first openly gay senator and has been working on gay rights issues since she first entered state politics in 1986, said the world has changed, especially since the Supreme Courts 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision upholding gay marriage.

Broad support

A Gallup poll conducted in May showed broad support for same-sex marriage, with 71% of U.S. adults saying they think such unions should be recognized by law, including 55% of Republicans. Polling in Wisconsin mirrors that national survey, with 54% of Republicans in the state saying that they favor same-sex marriage in a Marquette Law School Poll from April. In May 2014, the state poll found support from only 23% of Republicans.

People began to see that the sky has not fallen, Baldwin said in an interview, and that the 2015 decision gave legal protections to families who did not previously have them. She said every member of Congress now has friends, family or staff who are openly gay.

That probably has the biggest impact on where people land, she said. This is a vote of conscience.

The bill pending in the Senate would repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages and instead required states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed. The new Respect for Marriage Act would also protect interracial marriages by requiring states to recognize legal marriages regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.

A vote could come as soon as next week, but it will more likely be in September, when Congress returns from the August recess.

Lining up

Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have said they will vote for the legislation; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has also supported same-sex marriage in the past. Several other Republicans have said they are undecided, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Indiana Sen. Mike Braun.

Notably silent is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has declined to comment until Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer holds a vote.

Baldwin and other advocates say more GOP senators are quietly contemplating the bill. Democrats need 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster and get a bill through the 50-50 Senate.

A range of Republicans voted for the bill in the House, including New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican; Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus; and all four Republican members of Utahs congressional delegation.

Still, the majority of House Republicans voted against it, and a similar dynamic is expected in the Senate.

Some pushback

Republicans opposing the bill give a variety of reasons, with most arguing that the Supreme Court is unlikely to overturn Obergefell and that Senate Democrats are playing politics by putting the bill on the floor. Democrats point to Justice Clarence Thomas concurring opinion to the June ruling overturning Roe in which he said that high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage and the right for couples to use contraception should also be reconsidered.

Asked about their opposition, many Republicans have focused on the process rather than the substance.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is up for reelection this year, told CNN last week that he thinks the bill is a stupid waste of time. He said later that he believes there is zero chance, below zero chance, that the Supreme Court or anyone is going to outlaw gay marriage in this country.

Even Johnson blamed Democrats as he said he was unlikely to oppose it, arguing that it was settled law and the vote is unnecessary. He said he still believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. But society has pretty well accepted it and moved on, he said.

Other Republicans have made similar arguments, shifting from the more ideologically rigid statements of years past.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who will vote against the bill, said he recognizes that reasonable people can disagree with him that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and there is room for a diversity of views on that question.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said he will vote against it unless I can be compelled somehow. He said he believes because of his evangelical Christian faith that marriage is between a man and a woman, but its not like I feel super strongly about it, either.

Cramer said he thinks the Senate will get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill. Its more that people are ambivalent about it, he said.

Change of heart

Portman, who is pushing to get more votes from his party, notes that public opinion has changed substantially over the years. He has supported same-sex marriage since 2013, when he announced that one of his sons is gay and that he believes people should be respected for who they are.

He faced criticism from some fellow Republicans at the time, but he said people now come up to him frequently to thank him for his support.

Its not just Republicans who have evolved on the issue. Former President Barack Obama didnt publicly support same-sex marriage until 2012, pushed in part by his vice president, Joe Biden, who had come out in support a few days earlier. When the Defense of Marriage Act passed the Senate in 1996, only 14 Democrats opposed it.

David Stacy, a lead lobbyist for the Human Rights Campaign, said advocates for same-sex marriage faced many setbacks in the early 2000s, including state ballot measures to ban gay marriages. But he said he believes Republicans created a backlash of sorts by trying to use the issue against Democrats.

While the advocates lost many of those fights, we were educating the public and moving public opinion, Stacy said.
Underrated doesn't begin to describe the Ninth Doctor's tenure in the Tardis. Christopher Eccleston's time as the Doctor often gets overlooked when fans discuss the best modern version of the character. Eccleston's task of modernizing a character that- while firmly entrenched in British cultural memory- hadn't been relevant in a decade was a steep one. Although the black-on-black Matrix look the Ninth Doctor utilized might be the least memorable attire of the revival series, Eccleston's portrayal of a psychologically wounded veteran was harrowing and compelling. However, a contentious relationship with the BBC put the Ninth Doctor's journey on ice almost as swiftly as it was beginning to warm up.

Recently, Eccleston has decided to embrace his time on Doctor Who. After signing with Big Finish for a series of Ninth Doctor audio dramas, it looks like fans will finally get some more adventures with the character. In addition to more adventures, Eccleston's sunnier relationship with the Doctor Who franchise has allowed the actor to engage with the show's fanbase. In the video linked above, Eccleston sits with the audience at FedCon 30 to talk about Doctor Who.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a central conference on the united front work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held from Friday to Saturday. [Xinhua/Yao Dawei]

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua)  President Xi Jinping has stressed promoting the unity and hard work of Chinese people at home and abroad to pool strength for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a central conference on the united front work held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing.

Xi emphasized following the guidance of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and upholding the CPC leadership and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Xi underscored holding high the banner of patriotism and socialism, balancing commonality and diversity, concentrating on the central task, serving the overall interests of the country, keeping pace with the times, and innovating on the basis of what has worked in the past.

He also emphasized giving full play to the united front's political role in rallying the people's support and pooling their strength to promote harmony in relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religious sectors, social strata, and compatriots at home and abroad.

Li Keqiang presided over the conference, which was also attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Yang delivered concluding remarks.

The united front is an important component of the Party's general line and policy, said Xi, noting that the CPC has made historic achievements in the united front work since the 18th CPC National Congress.

We have formed the thought on the Party's united front work in the new era through practice. It serves as the fundamental guideline for the united front work in the new era and must be fully and faithfully applied by the whole Party, Xi stressed.

As an important way to unite Chinese people at home and abroad to achieve national rejuvenation, the united front must be upheld on a long-term basis, he said.

Xi pointed out that the essential requirement of the united front work is to achieve great unity and solidarity, and the key lies in seeking common ground while shelving differences and seeking commonality while respecting diversity.

Xi also underscored the importance of ensuring the Party's overall leadership over the united front work.

Noting that profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly across the world, Xi said the united front is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security, and development interests.

It is also playing a more important role in serving the overall interests in efforts to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects, and in strengthening the Party's class foundation and expanding its mass base, he added.

Xi stressed efforts to truly unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation from different political parties, ethnic groups, social strata and groups, as well as those with different beliefs and living in different social systems.

The relationship between unity and struggle in the united front work must be properly handled, so as to reach a real, impregnable unity, Xi said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has always been attaching great importance to the united front work from an overall and strategic perspective.

Xi called for upholding and improving the system of the CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, uniting non-CPC intellectuals and people of new social groups, facilitating the healthy growth of the non-public sector and encouraging those working in this sector to achieve success.

He also called for fostering overseas patriotic elements and enhancing cyberspace united front work.

The fundamental requirement in strengthening the united front work in the new era is to uphold the Party's leadership, Xi said, calling on all relevant authorities and departments to form a strong synergy.

He also asked personnel in this regard to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation and carry out the united front work with better methods.

Presiding over the conference, Li Keqiang called for efforts to earnestly study Xi's important speech, and think and act in line with its guiding principles. Li also called for completing various tasks based on actual conditions.

In his concluding remarks at the conference, Wang Yang called for full and faithful understanding of Xi's important thought on the Party's united front work in the new era. Wang urged concerted efforts to serve the Party's central task in the new era and write a new chapter in the cause of the united front.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a central conference on the united front work in Beijing, capital of China. Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attended the conference, which was held from Friday to Saturday. [Xinhua/Yao Dawei]

(Source: Xinhua)
Weather Alert

...DENSE FOG ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 AM CDT WEDNESDAY... * WHAT...Areas of dense fog reducing visibility to one quarter mile or less. * WHERE...Most of southern Illinois, the Purchase area of western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri near the Mississippi River. * WHEN...Until 800 AM CDT this morning. * IMPACTS...Areas of dense fog will make for hazardous driving conditions overnight and early Wednesday morning. Be alert to rapidly changing visibilities! PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A Dense Fog Advisory means visibilities will frequently be reduced to less than one quarter mile. If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of distance ahead of you. &&
WASHINGTON  Twelve years after then-President Barack Obama signed the aviation safety law they won through sheer force of will, the Families of Continental Flight 3407 will return to Washington on Monday to see their achievement recognized  and to resume a battle it seemed they won long ago.

The Federal Aviation Administration, often a friend and sometimes a foe to the families as they've pressed for safety regulations, will dedicate a plaque in their honor at the agency's headquarters. And afterwards, the families will do what they've done dozens of times over more than a dozen years: head to Capitol Hill to defend key provisions of the law they pushed to passage.

Flight 3407 families, lawmakers decry attempt to trim pilot experience rule One of the proudest achievements of the Families of Continental Flight 3407 would be cut in half at Republic Airways if federal authorities agree with the regional carrier's recent request for a waiver from the pilot experience requirement.

"It is certainly bittersweet  over 13 years after this crash occurred and with landmark safety legislation and a sterling safety record as the results of our relentless advocacy  that there are still efforts afoot to undercut everything that we have fought for," said Scott Maurer of Palmetto, Fla., whose daughter Lorin, 30, was one of 50 people killed in that crash in Clarence on Feb. 12, 2009.

To be specific, some airlines are blaming the flight cancellations and delays at the nation's airports this summer on a pilot shortage that they say stems from the most controversial provision of that 2010 aviation safety law: a measure that requires pilots to have 1,500 hours of experience before they can fly a passenger plane. Meanwhile, some smaller airlines are seeking ways to skirt the so-called 1,500 hour rule.

But to hear William J. McGee tell it, the pilot shortage is much more complicated than that rule. Senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project and previously aviation advisor for advocacy at Consumer Reports, McGee said the airlines, not the safety regulations, are largely to blame for the pilot shortage. He said they never adapted to the 1,500 rule and cut staff during the pandemic.

"Shame on anyone in the industry who would try to use this crisis  a crisis that is literally the airline's own making  to weaken those standards," McGee said.

Flight 3407-inspired pilot database goes live Each time we board an airplane, we can be thankful to the families of Flight 3407 who fought tirelessly to make flying safer for everyone," said Rep. Brian Higgins.

A landmark achievement

Obama didn't just sign a tough new aviation safety law on Aug. 1, 2010. He opened an unprecedented new era of aviation safety.

Some 1,186 people were killed in crashes of U.S. commercial planes in the two decades before the Flight 3407, but since the advent of that safety law, only two people have been killed on flights sponsored by U.S. airlines.

That being the case, the Flight 3407 families are proud of what they achieved through countless trips to Capitol Hill: an aviation law aimed at ensuring that pilots get more comprehensive training and more rest between flights, and ensuring that airlines have more information about pilots' flight records before hiring them.

"It just works," Karen Eckert of Williamsville, who lost her sister Beverly Eckert in the crash, said of the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010.

But the 1,500 hour rule has been controversial from the start, and the Flight 3407 families have fought off several attempts to weaken it.

Now, though, aviation industry figures are pushing back on that experience requirement by saying it prevents would-be pilots from pursuing their dreams.

"The rule has made it very expensive to decide to become a pilot  about $250,000 out of pocket and two or three years for people not trained by the military," Ben Baldanza, the former CEO of Spirit Airlines, said in a recent op-ed in Forbes magazine. "It also has made it difficult to attract new populations, including women and minorities, into the pilot profession."

Flight 3407 families blame fatal cargo crash on FAA delay Family members said they were aghast that the database still had not been implemented in time to prevent the crash of an Atlas Air cargo plane in Texas in February 2019.

A pilot shortage

The airlines are also now blaming the 1,500 hour rule for a problem that others say they themselves helped create: the pilot shortage that's contributing to the chaos at the nation's airports this year.

There is no doubt that the nation needs more commercial airline pilots. A consulting firm called Future and Active Pilot Advisors estimates that U.S. airlines need to hire 13,000 pilots this year  but only 5,020 people got commercial pilot licenses in 2021.

"There is a severe and growing pilot shortage in the United States," said Sen. Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican who last week proposed raising the maximum age for commercial pilots to 67 from 65 in hopes of alleviating the shortfall. "Every air traveler sees and feels the impact when they go to the airport."

Is the 1,500 hour rule to blame? Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of Mesa Airlines, told senators in May that it was.

"While the U.S. is generally considered a leader in aviation safety, it is interesting to note that no other country in the world has adopted these regulations, not a single one," Ornstein said at a Senate Aviation Subcommittee hearing. "And every day, foreign pilots who would be deemed unqualified to fly in the U.S. are flying wide-body international aircraft into congested airspace over places like New York and Los Angeles. It just doesn't make sense."

Yet there are other factors that led to the pilot shortage, too  most notably, a wave of early retirements that the airlines encouraged at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. While overall statistics on those retirements are hard to come by, Delta Airlines alone acknowledged that 20% of its workforce, or about 17,000 people, took buyouts or early retirements in 2020.

That being the case, Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, blames the pilot shortage on the airlines.

"Why are airlines understaffed? During the pandemic, Congress gave them $54 billion in taxpayer-funded relief. That money was supposed to be used to keep pilots and other staff so that airlines would be ready to go when travel demand returned," she said on a recent conference call with reporters.

Calling on the Department of Transportation and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate, Gillibrand added: "It is clear that airlines have traded good customer service and sound hiring practices for higher profit margins and greater shareholder wealth. It's outrageous and unacceptable."

In response to Flight 3407 crash, FAA adds pilot professionalism training Starting in April, commercial airline pilots will have to undergo leadership and command training, as well as instruction in how to mentor

The fight ahead

The Flight 3407 families have been defending the 1,500 hour rule for years. But now, in a sign that their efforts have been largely successful, they're fighting on smaller battlefields.

The Regional Airline Association now says that it is not seeking repeal of the 1,500 hour rule, yet two regional airlines  Republic and SkyWest  are asking the FAA to approve end-arounds that would allow them to skirt the experience requirement.

Republic is asking the FAA to allow it to hire pilots with only 750 hours of experience, arguing that its own training academy gives its new hires all the experience they need.

"The ... program provides an efficient and well-defined path to becoming an airline pilot," the airline, which operates flights for American, Delta and United, told the FAA.

Meanwhile, SkyWest asked the FAA to allow it to convert some of its low-volume flights from commercial service to charter service, a move that would allow it to hire co-pilots with as little as 190 hours of flying experience.

The move "is critical to maintaining service" in 11 smaller communities in the Upper Midwest and Mountain states, SkyWest said in its application to the FAA.

Those moves have drawn strong opposition from pilot unions.

Republic and SkyWest are now conceding that, despite receiving substantial federal support, they still cant figure out how to competently manage an airline without cutting corners on safety, said Capt. Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association.

The Flight 3407 families will be pressing against those proposed rollbacks, along with any renewed effort in Congress to weaken the 1,500 rule.

"We want all regional airlines and any other stakeholders who might be tempted to spend more money on lobbying Congress to water down key tenets of this safety bill to know that we will continue to be active in our efforts to protect the safety advances that were made as a result of our loved ones paying the ultimate price," Maurer said.

What's more, the families have powerful allies, led by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Under absolutely no circumstances will Leader Schumer allow a rollback of the 1,500 hour rule that he spent over a decade fighting for alongside the 3407 families," Schumer spokeswoman Allison Biasotti said.
70% of nurses and midwives in Wales say their mental health worsened during pandemic

Findings from Public Health Wales new report highlights the detrimental impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of nurses and midwives in Wales.

2,880 registered nurses, midwives and health care support workers across Wales responded to an online survey during June  August 2021, sharing their reflections on the impact of the pandemic on their health and wellbeing.

Key findings include 70 per cent of respondents perceived that their mental health had worsened since the beginning of the pandemic.

Over 50 per cent of respondents had mental wellbeing scores indicative of either probable clinical depression (31 per cent) or possible mild depression (27 per cent).

After taking age and gender into account, healthcare support workers were twice as likely to report scores indicative of probable clinical depression than senior managerial nurses.

Attending work when unwell (presenteeism) was common. Overall, 80 per cent of respondents had attended work at least once in the past year when unwell.

The survey found that stress, anxiety and depression, and musculoskeletal conditions were the main reasons reported for attending work when unwell.

Newly qualified nurses, mid-career nurses and healthcare support workers were the professional groups who reported frequently attending work when unwell.

Almost, 60 per cent of respondents had considered leaving the profession since the beginning of the pandemic. This was highest amongst early-career nurses (67 per cent) and mid-career nurses (62 per cent).

Benjamin Gray, Senior Public Health Researcher at Public Health Wales and lead author of the report said: This is one of the largest surveys amongst a key workforce in the Welsh NHS  and we thank all those who took part.

Whilst we recognise that those who did respond may not be representative of the wider profession, the findings are consistent with wider evidence from across the UK.

Understanding the longer term direct and indirect impact of responding to COVID-19 on physical and mental health, is needed to direct support.

Rhiannon Beaumont Wood, Executive Director Quality, Nursing & AHPs, Executive Team, Public Health Wales said: The levels of poor mental health reported amongst the nursing and midwifery workforce is a concern, both in the context of the current COVID-19 response and on health and wellbeing of the workforce more broadly, which in turn will have the potential to impact on recruitment and retention in the longer term.

Therefore mental health should remain a priority for any health and wellbeing workforce strategies.

Sue Tranka, Chief Nursing Officer, Welsh Government, said: Ensuring we have a targeted and consistent health and wellbeing offer for our workforce in Wales is fundamentally important. 

I want all staff to feel empowered to ask for help and support for themselves and for each other as needed.

We recognise that organisations that prioritise staff wellbeing see higher levels of staff and patient satisfaction as well as being better able to retain the workforce needed to meet service requirements for now and future demands. Thank you to PHW for undertaking this valuable survey.

The Health and wellbeing of the nursing and midwifery workforce in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic was put together using 2,880 responses to a national online survey amongst registered and student nurses/midwives and health care support workers in Wales.

In consideration of service pressures. The survey was open between 21 June and 9 August 2021 and at a time where Coronavirus NHS pressures were the lowest in 12 months and Wales was beginning to move to alert stage one.

The questionnaire collated data on demographics, work related information (role, pay and environmental factors) and health and wellbeing from respondents.

Wellbeing support and resources for those working in all roles across the health systems in Wales are available within the Health Education and Improvement Wales available here: Colleague health and wellbeing  HEIW (nhs.wales)
Animal magic and creature comforts attracting HE students to leading college

Animal and the creature comforts of learning closer to home have attracted students to a college university centre.

Coleg Cambrias HNC and HND in Animal Management have been lauded for the hands-on experience and bespoke teaching offered at its picturesque site in Northop, Flintshire.

Programme Leader Sadie Thackaberry said the colleges industry links and modern facilities  including the vibrant Small Animals Centre  have led graduates to ecology internships and a wide range of jobs including zookeepers and RSPCA welfare officers.

Our students get to work with around 100 different species from all over the world, including native livestock breeds and a variety of invertebrates, amphibians, fish, birds, mammals and from next year we will introduce alpacas and a cane toad, she said.

Because the students are close to the animals and partake in in-depth theory sessions this comprehensive approach provides a unique perspective on the care and management of these amazing creatures.

Of course, there is the academic element to the qualifications we offer but being part of a real-life, real-time environment prepares them better for their future careers.

Having such a vast selection of species and topics also gives the learner an opportunity to find a setting that works for them.

That enables us to deliver a more bespoke offering tailored to their passions and interests, said Sadie.

For some it might be livestock, others the exotic lizards and birds; there is no one size fits all approach and that has given the students a far more enjoyable experience.

She added: As we return to a more personal, up-close way of working post-pandemic, we are beginning to introduce site visits and guest speakers, which has been a major USP in past years, and practical assessments and reports.

But one thing we will keep  which worked well in lockdown  is the virtual, remote element of the course, which enabled us to be more flexible and call upon some of the biggest international names in animal care, wherever they are in the world.

An example was Professor Raj Sekhar Aich, who joined us from India to discuss his acclaimed book on white sharks and cage diving  a fascinating highlight for all of us.

With more students choosing to study closer to home following months of self-isolation, Sadie says the openness and relaxed atmosphere at Northop has provided them with an alternative to the hustle and bustle of university life.

Attitudes have changed, thats the feedback weve had, and you can see it across multiple sectors, she added.

Mental health and wellbeing are more important than ever, as is pastoral care and support, which is why more people are turning to Coleg Cambria.

To be here among these incredible animals is like another world, its an escape and a chance to navigate a pathway you choose toward your future  that independence and guidance has made the degree-level courses here more popular than ever.

The HND can be studied over two years full-time or four years part-time and features modules on Animal Behaviour in Society; Anatomy and Physiology; Business and the Business Environment; Animal Husbandry; Ecological Principles, Anthrozoology, and Wildlife Conservation.

For more information, visit the website www.cambria.ac.uk and follow the Northop Animal Care Facebook page here.
Supporters of the nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdads Green Zone, the heavily fortified area that houses the US Embassy, military forces and contractors, and occupied the federal parliament Saturday. Al-Sadrs spokesperson said, The demonstrators announce a sit-in until further notice.

About 125 people were injured in the protests, 100 protesters and 25 members of security forces, as demonstrators called for an end to corruption and the political system put in place after the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq to unseat the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It follows a similar storming of parliament Wednesday.

Iraqi protesters fill the parliament building in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 31, 2022. Thousands of followers of an influential Shiite cleric stormed into Iraq's parliament on Saturday, for the second time in a week, protesting government formation efforts led by his rivals, an alliance of Iran-backed groups. [AP Photo/Anmar Khalil]

The sit-in, a direct threat to al-Sadrs rivals, is aimed at preventing legislators convening to form a government. Parliament Speaker Mohammed Halbousi has suspended future sessions.

The turmoil underscores the worsening political crisis in Washingtons puppet state that has become a proxy battle ground for regional and international political conflicts. Some 1.2 million people are still internally displaced due the many conflicts that have beset the country, which also hosts at least 250,000 Syrian refugees. Food insecurity is rife.

Iraq has seen numerous protests over endemic corruption, the terrible social and economic conditions reflected in unemployment and poverty rates of 40 percent and 32 percent, and water and power outages. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has taken a terrible toll on peoples livesaround 25,000 deaths have been officially recordedhealth and livelihoods.

Adding to the deep sense of crisis have been the sandstorms that have hit a country already suffering from soil degradation, intense droughts and low rainfall linked to climate change. At least 5,000 people have been hospitalised with breathing problems, while airports, schools and public offices across the country had to close.

Last Octobers elections saw al-Sadrs Sairoon movement win the most votes on a voter turnout of just 41 percent, even lower than in the 2018 elections, as hostility towards the sectarian-ethnic political regime and its rival backers in Washington and Tehran soared. Ten months later, Iraqs venal political factions have still not agreed on a new government.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence officer seen as Washingtons man in Baghdad, has continued in a caretaker role, unable to set a budget for 2022, despite the increase in oil prices that could help alleviate the acute social crisis.

He came to power in May 2020 after months of mass protests, the largest since the 2003 US invasion, brought down the government of Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Mahdis government had sought to suppress the protests with lethal force, deploying the security forces and paramilitary groups to shoot down more than 600 protestors, further inflaming tensions until the pandemic and the accompanying restrictions emptied the streets.

Al-Kadhimi not only continued the economic and social policies of his predecessor, but also implemented new measures aimed at securing loans from the International Monetary Fund that have devastated workers incomes. He continued the intimidation and repression of oppositionists as militias affiliated to the various political parties assassinated political activists, local leaders and outspoken journalists and critics. He reneged on his pledges to investigate the killings by the security forces and to introduce legislation that would overturn Iraqs sectarian political system, key demands of the protest movement, because the established parties refused any changes that would encroach on their privileges, patronage and wealth.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi (Wikimedia Commons)

While al-Sadr and his Sairoon bloc won the most seats (73) in the 329-seat parliament, up from 54 in 2018, at the expense of his Iran-allied Shia opponents in the Coordination Framework, it was far short of a clear majority.

The former militia leader from a leading Shia clerical family, who led the main Shia resistance to the US occupation, has no progressive answers to the immense suffering of the Iraqi people. Posing as a nationalist opposed to foreign interference in Iraq, he has in the past been close to Iran and acted as kingmaker in forging ruling coalitions. He has put his men in most arms of the state, including in the cabinet, the state-owned oil company, powerful ministries and local authorities, where they take a cut on government contracts to pass on to his organisation that provides jobs and social welfare for its impoverished supporters in Baghdads slums and runs a militia.

Al-Sadr announced his intention of forming a government with the largest Sunni and Kurdish blocs, leaving the Iran-aligned Shia parties in opposition, an arrangement that breaks with the custom followed since 2003 whereby all parties are represented in government. Not wanting to be excluded from the patronage system, his Shia opponents maneuvered to block his coalition-building process via a series of procedural and legal interventions, including using the Federal Supreme Court to block the nomination of a president and launching missile attacks on his Kurdish allies.

In June, al-Sadr announced that his entire bloc would renounce their seats in parliament in a move aimed at forcing his rivals to agree to a new government and opening the door to street protests, counter-demonstrations and instability to force the dissolution of parliament and new elections.

In the event, new lawmakers were sworn in accordance with the constitution, making the pro-Iran bloc, the Coordination Framework, under former premier Nuri al-Malikis party, the State of Law Coalition, and the pro-Iran Fatah Alliance, the political arm of the Shia-led former paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi, the largest in parliament. There is little agreement between them on any of the major political issues confronting the country.

When the Coordination Framework nominated Mohammed al-Sudani for the premiership, al-Sadr objected and mobilized his supporters to storm the parliament, which was not in session, with the security forces standing by. Before al-Sudani can officially be nominated as premier-designate, parliament must first select a president from the Kurdish parties, a process that has been no less contentious.

The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional government (KRG) had originally backed al-Sadrs bloc, but tensions between Erbil and Baghdad escalated after the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled in February that the KRGs oil and gas law was unconstitutional, meaning that the KRGs oil and gas sector had no legal basis for keeping its revenues, largely derived from sales to Turkey. The KRG rejected the ruling, calling it unjust and unconstitutional. KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani began to push for a new constitutional arrangement that would cede more power to the Kurds and other ethnic constituencies.

US President Joe Biden has sought to distance Baghdad from Tehran, urging Washingtons regional allies, including Saudi Arabia, to restore diplomatic relations with Iraq as a means of containing Iranian influence and bolstering al-Kadhimis political legitimacy. He invited al-Kadhimi to talks with the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan in Saudi Arabias port city of Jeddah in an effort to broker an anti-Iran alliance as part of Washingtons broader preparations for war with Russia and Chinawith whom Tehran has forged increasingly close relations.

Iraq has, however, passed a law in May making it a crime to normalise relations with Israel, visit the country, or promote normalisation, with violations of the law punishable with life in prison or the death penalty.

Further roiling the Iraqi state has been the bombing on July 20 of Barakh in the KRGs Duhok province that killed nine Iraqi tourists. Iraqi and Kurdish officials blamed the attack on Turkey.

According to a Defense Ministry report, Turkey, a NATO member, has set up more than 100 military bases and outposts on Iraqi territory and has stationed more than 4,000 troops inside Iraq, along with tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters and heavy weapons as part of Ankaras decades-long war with the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkeys troops far outnumber even those of the US (2,500) and France (800).

Ahmed al-Sahaf, Iraqs foreign ministrys spokesperson, said Iraq had recorded 22,740 violations of Iraqi sovereignty by Turkish forces since 2018, with 296 official complaints submitted to Ankara. Al-Sahaf denied there was any security or military agreement with Turkey and accused Ankara of having expansionist goals behind the attacks it is carrying out. Al-Monitor cited Turkeys Presidential adviser Ayhan Ogan warning on July 21 that if Turkeys security concerns are ignored and, moreover, provoked, Turkey would create a new security belt all the way from Aleppo to Mosul. This would mirror Ankaras plan for a 30-kilometer-deep safe zone in northern Syria.
Although the number of coronavirus infections in Germany is exploding during the summer months, hospitals are filling up and an even bigger wave is looming for the fall, the Bundestag (federal parliament) has gone into summer recess until September without adopting any protective measures against the spread of the virus.

Currently there are about 1.8 million people in Germany infected with the disease and the 7-day incidence rate is 679 (infections per 100,000 people). In the state of Saarland and 59 counties, the incidence is over 1,000, meaning that 1 percent of the population there is freshly infected every week. In the district of Wittmund, the incidence is 2,290, and in the district of Wunsiedel it is as high as 2320, where the incidence tripled within a weeks time.

Medical staff wearing protective clothing on Ward 43 of the Charite hospital in Berlin (Image: DOCDAYS Production)

And even this is a suppressed incidence rate due to the summer vacation season. With the end of the summer holidays, there is a real threat of further increases due to the return of travelers and the start of school. Furthermore, those who have already suffered infection this year are at risk of reinfection.

Hajo Zeeb of the Leibnitz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen warned in the news magazine Der Spiegel: We are dealing with variants with a high immune escape potential. So you cant feel particularly safe regarding infections in the winter if you were infected during the summer, since there are clearly reinfections.

The official figures themselves represent an inadequate reflection of the actual incidence of infection. First, mandatory testing in many areas as well as testing capacity have been restricted and free testing has been abolished. Second, many of those infected no longer have a PCR test conducted, yet only these tests count in the statistics. In recent weeks, the rate of positive test results exploded from a very high 28.4 percent in the 21st calendar week to 53.7 percent in the 27th week. A high rate of positive tests indicates a high number of unidentified infections.

Vulnerable groups have been increasingly affected by the massive rise in contagion. Outbreaks have been growing for weeks in both medical treatment facilities and nursing homes. In the former there were 157 outbreaks last week, up from 108 the previous week; 12 people died. In nursing homes and homes for the elderly, there were 300 outbreaks (235 the previous week), with 58 deaths.

Hospitals are again filling up. The adjusted hospitalization incidence is now 12.5, which corresponds to over 10,000 hospitalizations per week. Just a month ago, this figure was only half as high.

Likewise, the number of patients surviving on intensive care is on the rise. Currently, there are 1,330, compared to 1,238 a week ago. The number of COVID-19 patients treated in hospitals is currently twice as high as in the previous summers. The number of COVID-19 deaths is also rising. According to Johns Hopkins University data, the 7-day average doubled from 53 on June 17 to 104 on July 25. This means that more than 700 people are dying per week.

An additional burden is the high rate of sick leave among hospital workers and the high number of absences due to infection and quarantine. Gerald Ga, chairman of the board of the German Hospital Association, told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers, In many hospitals, scheduled operations have had to be postponed and, at times, entire areas have had to be shut down.

The situation is particularly dramatic at the Wurzburg University Hospital. Currently, 59 COVID-19 patients are being treated there and six others are in intensive care, more than at any time since the beginning of the pandemic. A week ago, there were 47 infected patients and two weeks ago 39. Due to the high workload, the hospital management has already announced that scheduled treatments may be postponed in all areas.

If the situation at the clinics is already dire, it will become catastrophic in the fall. Ga warned, The numbers make it clear that the fall could again be an extreme stress test for the clinics.

The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, told Funke Mediengruppe that he has called for the possibility of lockdowns to be included in the new Infection Protection Act: Anyone who categorically rules out measures such as contact restrictions or lockdowns from the outset has neither understood the meaning of the law nor grasped the seriousness of the situation.

The government is entirely aware of the consequences of its coronavirus policy. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently said, If we went into the fall as we are now, that is, without further protective measures, without masks, without anything, it would mean that the number of cases would rise sharply, as well as that the intensive care units would be overloaded.

He added, Its like a candle burning at both ends: staff burning away at the bottom and patients burning away at the top. If appropriate measures were not put in place soon, he said, the population would face a catastrophic pandemic development.

As Minister of Health, Lauterbach is the individual responsible for taking appropriate action. In fact, he is doing just the opposite, dismantling nearly all the protective measures that still remain in place.

His tenure in office includes the governments decision to end the epidemic state of emergency, the new Infection Protection Act that had been in effect since March and provides only basic protection, the rejection of general mandatory vaccination, the reduction of the quarantine period to five days and the end of free testing.

Health Minister Lauterbach explicitly did not adopt any safety measures for the current summer wave, rather only recommended wearing masks indoors and a fourth vaccination for people with many contacts. So far, the federal governments planned Coronavirus Autumn Strategy does not include a single mandatory measure, instead focusing on a vaccination campaign and the procurement of updated vaccines.

In fact, the spread of the highly contagious and immune-resistant BA.5 Omicron variant, which already accounts for 87 percent of infection incidence, shows that it is impossible to combat the virus in the long term with vaccination alone. As the virus spreads unchecked, more and more dangerous variants are emerging.

The societal impact is extremely far-reaching. Tens of thousands are suffering long-term consequences from Long COVID and the mass deaths to date have also led to a significant decline in average life expectancy in Germany. Officially, more than 143,000 people have succumbed to the virus. The Federal Statistical Office calculated that life expectancy for girls born in 2021 has fallen by 0.4 years compared to those born in 2019, and by as much as 0.6 years for boys.

There is only one way to stop this social regression. What is required is the elimination of the virus through a combination of all scientifically warranted measures: lockdowns, a comprehensive vaccination campaign, mass testing and contact tracing. Since such elimination is incompatible with the profit interests of the ruling class under capitalism, the working class worldwide must unite and fight for the elimination of COVID-19 within the framework of socialist politics.
Workers showed little interest in last Thursdays factory meeting at Ford Saarlouis. Although Ford Germany boss Martin Sander had announced he was coming and works council chairman Markus Thal had said in advance that he would be calling for a clear concept for the future, fewer workers than usual were present.

WSWS reporters were at the factory gates all day, starting with the early shift, talking to workers going in and out. When asked what they expected from the meeting, the most common response was, Nothing! Some added that was also the reason they would not be going to the meeting.

WSWS reporters handing out leaflets to Ford workers in Saarlouis [Photo: WSWS] [Photo: WSWS]

Were just pissed off!; Theyre all in cahoots; Were well and truly being lied to from all sides, and I stress from all sides, including the works council; I dont have to put up with this. This eternal talk of a plan for the future, while in reality they are destroying our future, I cant listen to it anymore. Many comments were similar.

When asked why they were not at the meeting, some responded by expressing their distrust of the works council: Ive had enough of this talk; Its all a scam; Im not so naive as to believe it; Id rather have a coffee, its time better spent.

Another worker recalled the 2014 closure of the Ford plant in Genk, Belgium, which eliminated 4,300 jobs, saying At that time, only 300 workers remained, and they had the job of dismantling the plant. I assume that it will be no different here. In the end, the press plant will also be closed so that the entire site can be sold.

Thorsten, a younger worker, expressed what many are thinking: the closure decision had hit him like a blow a month ago. Ive worked here with my wife for more than 15 years. We recently built a house and have loan payments to make. He is not the only one; almost the entire younger generation has all kinds of obligations.

WSWS reporters distributed an article exposing the role of the works council as a stooge and accomplice of management and warning that Thal & Co plans to use the summer break to organize the liquidation of the plant. The article states, There is a very clear way to overcome the control of the widely hated works council and its mafia-like methods. Building the Ford Action Committee to truly represent the interests of the workforce.

The Action Committee had already stated in January that concessions do not save jobs. It had shown that all the givebacks and concessions that had been made in the past at many sites had never led to jobs being saved. On the contrary. The concessions initiated a downward spiral, at the end of which unemployment or low-wage jobs were the outcome for many.

On principle, we reject the blackmail and brutal competition being instigated between us and workers at other plants. Playing one off against the other leads to disaster, the Action Committee declared, demanding even then an immediate end to the secret negotiations and the disclosure of all concessions made in the internal bidding competition with the plant in Valencia, Spain.

The calls of the Action Committee and the WSWS articles are well known in the plant and are followed and supported by many. Some workers who had taken the leaflet that morning stopped to talk to reporters as they came out. You are right! What you write is correct and true, was the most common comment.

One worker, who did not want to give his name, introduced himself as an executive board member of the IG Metall union and said that since the announcement of the closure, more and more workers openly accused Thal of having betrayed and sold them out. Without saying it openly, he hinted that unrest in the plant was growing and that he feared there might be some kind of rebellion against the works council.

At the factory meeting, Ford Germany boss Martin Sander tried to give the workforce a few balms. He said that there was a strict timetable, which would be adhered to. The Saarbrucker Zeitung quoted him saying, By the end of September, we want to examine and evaluate the internal options under the Ford umbrella. In parallel, talks with the state government would take place. Also, initial visits by potential investors should take place.

By the end of 2022, we then want to develop an initial concrete plan for the future of the plant, according to an internal email forwarded to the Saarbrucker Zeitung. Based on this, the aim is to agree the future concept with the first potential investors, the works council and the state government by the end of the 1st quarter of 2023. The task force intends to provide an interim status at the end of September 2022.

Works council head Thal emphasizedaccording to the Saarbrucker Zeitungthat it was very welcome that Ford boss Sander had now once again issued the employment guarantee. This is of course very important for the workforce. These are clear messages, Thal said. The workforces fears that Ford would pull the plug before 2025 were very great, and he was glad Sander was announcing this plan in this way. However, he said, he must now also deliver.

Thal warned that Ford management had gambled away a great, great deal of trust in recent weeks. It must be added, however, that the works council itself no longer enjoys any trust among the workforce to gamble away. It has completely discredited itself through its years of pandering to management, its involvement in the internal bidding war and the associated blackmailing of employees.

That is why the call issued by the Action Committee receives support. It states: Today it is absolutely clear that the defence of the plant and the jobs is only possible against IG Metall and its works council representatives, not with them! Only the active intervention of the workers themselves can prevent the liquidation of the plant, which was built up by several generations over more than 50 years.

The allies of Ford workers in Saarlouis are neither IG Metall, the works council nor the state government, but their Ford colleagues in Valencia, Cologne, Craiova, Turkey, the US and India. The workers in Valencia are paying for Fords promise to continue production there with massive wage cuts, job losses and the deterioration of their working conditions. All this was proposed by the works council there.

In discussions at the factory gate, it was also explained that the Action Committee had started to develop international cooperation. Last weekend, the second online meeting of Ford workers from Saarlouis and Chennai in southern India took place. The Indian Ford workers reported in detail about their struggle against the plant closure.

Young workers there had taken the initiative and organized a very courageous struggle. They went on strike for five weeks and temporarily occupied the plant gates. But the unions did everything from the beginning to isolate and sabotage the strike. Now Indian workers are beginning to organize independently to resist this sell-out.

The announcement of 8,000 layoffs at Ford in the US and the campaign of Will Lehman were also discussed. Lehman, an autoworker in the US, is running for president of the United Auto Workers union as a rank-and-file worker, against the corrupt leadership of the union. He emphasizes that workers need their own global strategy to prevail against the international corporations that pit workers against each other worldwide. That is why building rank-and-file action committees and networking them internationally is so critical.

At the factory gate in Saarlouis, a Turkish worker said he has been reading the WSWS for some time and thought the call for an Action Committee was an important and serious proposal. He said the situation at the factory was getting worse. In the past, he had asked questions in a factory meeting, and since then has been harassed. Anyone who questioned the decision of the works council or makes a slight criticism faced all kinds of problems at work, he said. But now, the situation is getting even worse. Anyone who criticized the union and questioned its decisions must expect to be fired, he said. He thought it was important to participate in the Action Committee

Contact the Ford Action Committee via WhatsApp at +491633378340.
The application process is about to begin for millions of dollars in assistance for commercial and residential property owners in East Buffalo, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Saturday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul adds $50 million to investment in Buffalo's East Side The money includes $36.5 million for housing and social services. She said more than 1,000 homeowners struggling to keep their houses in good shape will receive about $10,000 each in grants to fix their homes.

Applications will be available Monday for the second round of the $4 million East Side Commercial Districts Program, which will help renovate buildings in the Jefferson Avenue Commercial District, the MLK Park Business District and the Broadway Fillmore and Kensington Bailey districts.

A public information session on the program and how to apply for it will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 9 in East Community High School, 820 Northampton St. It also can be attended on Zoom by emailing sonia.lombardo@esd.ny.gov.

Hochul said applications will open Aug. 9 for three other programs  the $20 million Buffalo East Homeowner Assistance Fund, which will help homeowners behind on taxes and other municipal fees; the $10 million Buffalo East Home Improvement Program, which will support emergency home repairs; and the $4.5 million East Buffalo Down Payment Assistance Plus Program, which will help aspiring homeowners with their down payments.

Beginning Wednesday, residents can call 211 to learn how to apply for house and small business grants.
Want to change your political party affiliation today? You can. Want to change it on Primary Day, Aug. 23, when New Yorkers will cast their votes for open seats in Congress and the State Senate? You can do that, too.

In a normal year, voters are prevented from changing their party enrollment between Feb. 14 and seven days after the June primary date due to state election law. But with New York's lengthy redistricting process to redraw the congressional map leading to two split primary dates, the state Legislature chose not to extend the enrollment freeze beyond the second primary, Aug. 23. Instead, the freeze ended July 5.

The fallout from the Legislature's decision means any New Yorker may change party enrollment  either leave, join or switch parties  prior to or on Primary Day by completing an affidavit ballot, also known as a provisional ballot, that affirms their new party. The result is, as the Gothamist put it Tuesday, an unintended "open" primary election.

Analysis: Why Langworthy v. Paladino is not the only battle in NY-23 If you thought the congressional battle between Carl Paladino and Nick Langworthy was really something, just wait until you hear about the battles behind the battle.

This twist affects a high-profile, expensive and contentious primary race in which Carl Paladino and Nick Langworthy vie for the Republican nomination for a redrawn congressional district, NY-23. One of the two will replace former Rep. Christopher L. Jacobs, who withdrew his bid for re-election in June after several Republican party officials pulled their endorsements due to Jacobs' comments on gun control.

In other words, a registered Democrat could change party affiliation, or an unaffiliated voter could join the GOP for this primary alone to participate in the Paladino-Langworthy race.

Or, given the intense partisan divide among voters, this party-swapping opportunity may cause only a ripple. The Buffalo News' Jerry Zremski reported in June that, according to an American National Election Study, the amount of respect that partisans have for the other party fell by about half between 1980 and 2016.

Here's the official language from the state Board of Elections.

"If a voter has cast a ballot in an affidavit ballot envelope on which such voter claims a party enrollment different from the enrollment in the records of the board of elections, such affidavit shall be treated as an application for change of enrollment."

Voters who intend to change party affiliation prior to or on Primary Day must still be registered to vote and must appear at the proper polling location, although early voting allows voters to pick a polling place of their choice. Other ways registered voters may change their party affiliation, or register with a party, include by mailing or appearing in front of their county's board of elections, or by appearing in front of a board of inspectors before the primary, the state Board of Elections said in a press release.
One of the major questions in the Republican primary for the 23rd Congressional District centers around just how much mud will get slung in the contest between endorsed candidate Nick Langworthy and out-there-on-his-own Carl Paladino.

The pair of stalwart Republicans have always proven allies  even friends. But while handfuls of swamp muck are not yet flying, some significant specks of dirt are beginning to appear.

Paladino seems to be taking the initiative. Last week he lashed out at Langworthy, even though Paladino claims a new poll shows him leading by a hefty 30 points. After Langworthy, the state Republican chairman, challenged Paladino to debates in each of the districts seven counties, Paladino called the idea a political stunt, a ridiculous demand and a desperate plea.

Nick Langworthy should drop out of this silly vanity project campaign he is bound to lose and he should do his job as State Party Chair and focus on electing a Republican Governor and Republican candidates up and down the ballot, Paladino said in a statement. Instead he is attacking fellow Republicans which is a disgrace.

Paladino, the 2010 GOP candidate for governor and a major figure in New York State politics, was responding to Langworthys call for a basic part of American politics. In fact, were pretty sure neither Abe Lincoln nor Stephen Douglas regarded their 1860 face-off as a stunt. Ditto for JFK and Richard Nixon a century later.

Maybe Paladino is feeling good about the recent poll he commissioned showing 54% of Republican primary voters supporting him, compared to Langworthys 24%. He took particular pleasure in noting the poll showed only 30% of Republican primary voters have heard of Langworthy.

Could be. But remember that Paladino paid for this survey. Then again, maybe Langworthy is creeping up, sparking Paladinos new tone. Last week, in a reference to Langworthys ad pointing to former President Donald Trumps request for him to lead the New York party, Paladino tried to out-Trump his opponent.

What is most disturbing is that Nick Langworthy is lying to voters trying to convince them that he was chosen by President Trump, Paladino said in his statement. Voters are smart and they see right through Nick Langworthy as another lying desperate politician. And voters know that Trump country is Carl country.

Langworthy, meanwhile, is demonstrating the power of his powerful state party post. On an almost daily basis, the Langworthy campaign rolls out support from party chairs, county and state legislators and other familiar Republicans. Its a signal of the kind of organizational support that often wins primaries.

Similar organizational support for Paladino is sparse. And while Paladino opts to ignore newspaper inquiries these days, the Politics Column can predict with a degree of confidence his reply: So what? Ive got the people. (Though there are new indications that he is outraged over continuing party support for Langworthy).

Still, some rules apply, and Paladino is ignoring at least one. While Langworthy filed a required financial disclosure form showing his investments and salary, Paladino has not.

When The Buffalo News asked about the tardiness, Paladino spokesman Vish Burra said the campaign never fulfilled its filing requirement because nobody ever reached out to us.

They have to provide us access to do it, and they did not open their website to do that, he said, adding the campaign now plans to soon submit Paladinos required financial disclosure.

  

 Yes, another congressional primary will face Western New York voters on August 23 as Buffalo businessman Eddie Egriu has finally succeeded in his long quest to challenge Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo. Egriu tried unsuccessfully in several previous elections to qualify for the Dem ballot, and finally succeeded this year.

I look forward to giving him the battle of his life, Egriu said last week.
A drone attack at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet wounded six people and shut down a festival marking Navy Day in the Crimean peninsula city of Sevastopol, the mayor said Sunday.

"There were no fatalities, six people were injured, two in moderate condition, the rest are in stable condition," Mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev said on social media.

The Black Sea Fleets press service said the drone appeared to be homemade and described the explosive device as low-power." Crimean authorities raised the terrorism threat level for the region to yellow, the second-highest tier.

Sevastopol is about 100 miles south of the Ukrainian mainland and has been under Russian control since 2014, when the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea. Russian forces also control much of the mainland coast area along the Black Sea. There was no immediate information on where the drone came from.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to take Crimea back from Russia. His top aide said the drone strike was a reflection of Russia's weak air defenses.

Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans?" Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram.

USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates

Latest developments:

Russian rockets hit a school in Kharkiv and a bus station in Sloviansk, among other strikes. In southern Ukraine, one person was reported killed and six injured in shelling in a residential area in Mykolaiv, local officials said.

The British Ministry of Defense points to Belarus' role as a Russian ally in the war, saying in Sunday's intelligence update that at least 20 missiles were launched from Belarusian territory into northern Ukraine on Thursday. The ministry also deems Belarus authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko "almost wholly dependent on Russia.''

Anatoly Chubais, who resigned as a high-ranking adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and left Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, was reported to be in intensive care in a European hospital on Sunday for a neurological disorder.

Story continues

Russias state-owned natural gas corporation said it has halted shipments to Latvia because of contract violations. Gas giant Gazprom said the shipments were stopped because Latvia broke terms for extraction of gas.'' The statement likely referred to a refusal to meet Russias demand for gas payments in rubles.

A Russian soldier guards the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, Sunday, July 31, 2022.

Wealthy businessman killed in what Ukrainian official calls targeted attack

One of Ukraines wealthiest men and his wife were killed in their Mykolaiv home by a Russian missile strike that an Ukrainian official said was carefully targeted.

Oleksiy Vadatursky, who headed a grain production and export business and once was given the "Hero of Ukraine'' award for his contributions to the country, died alongside his wife, Raisa, in an early Sunday morning attack, regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim said.

Their killing comes just as Ukraine is about to resume exporting grain under a deal with Russia brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

The southern port city of Mykolaiv came under heavy bombardment overnight, but presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Vadatursky, 74, was specifically targeted. Vadaturskys agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad.

It was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder,'' Podolyak said. "Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike.

Zelenskyy announces mandatory evacuation from Donetsk region

As Russian forces and separatists try to completely take over the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials are calling for citizens to evacuate from Ukrainian-held parts of the province. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a mandatory evacuation and urged people to leave the region and to persuade their loved ones still there to go, according to CNN and Reuters.

"The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said in his nightly video address Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned that the region will face severe heating problems this winter because of the destruction of gas mains and said people should evacuate before the cold sets in.

New Russian maritime policy targets US, NATO

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a Maritime Doctrine that claims U.S. efforts toward dominance in the world's oceans and NATOs mounting activity are major security threats to Russia. The new policy, posted on the Kremlins legal information web portal, cites the global U.S. influence on issues related to the use of transportation lanes and energy resources.

The policy calls for developing Russia's shipbuilding industry in the Far East, in particular for building "large-tonnage vessels" for use in the Arctic as well as advanced aircraft carriers for the navy.

Strategic goals of the policy include raising Russian navys combat capabilities to protect Russia's national security and its national interests.

Low expectations for UN conference on nuclear nonproliferation

Nuclear nonproliferation agreements are difficult under the best of circumstances. The current conditions, with Russia waging war in Ukraine and at times reanimating fears of nuclear confrontation, are far from ideal.

That's what awaits representatives from more than 110 countries as they convene starting Monday at a major U.N. conference on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The gathering was supposed to take place in 2020, on the treaty's 50th anniversary, but was postponed because of the pandemic.

The four-week meeting aims to generate a consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial  if any  agreement.

It is a very, very difficult moment, said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, referring to Russia's aggression and nuclear saber-rattling. How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy.

Ukraine condemns Russia for latest act of 'terrorism'

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Russia to be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing the "deliberate mass murder" of Ukrainian war prisoners via shelling in the separatist eastern region of Donetsk.

Dozens of Ukrainians held as prisoners of war were reportedly killed in a missile strike Friday  an attack for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. Separatist authorities and Russian officials said at least 53 people died and 75 were injured in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. The prisoners were captured after Mariupol fell in May.

"Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today's world," Zelenskyy said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine live updates: Drone strikes Russian forces in Crimea
England face Germany in the final of Euro 2022 on Sunday.

The Lionesses have captured the imagination of the nation on their scintillating run all the way to Wembley. Austria and Northern Ireland were seen off either side of the 8-0 thrashing of Norway in the group stages before the nerve-shredding extra-time victory over Spain in the quarter-final.

Number two ranked Sweden proved no match in the semi-finals either with Sarina Wiegman's side cruising to a 4-0 win in Sheffield on Tuesday night. Now only one more match separates them from a first major trophy and a first for either the men or the women's sides since 1966.

Opponents Germany have impressed too, however, coming out comfortably on top of a group including Denmark, Spain and Finland. Austria were dispatched in the quarter-final before France were beaten in the semi-finals with top scorer and talisman Alexandra Popp once again in the goals on Wednesday evening.

Heres everything you need to know about the Euro 2022 final:

When is England vs Germany?

The final kicks off at 5pm BST on Sunday 31 July at Wembley Stadium.

Where can I watch it?

The match will be shown live on BBC One, while viewers can also stream the match on the BBC Sport website and iPlayer.

Coverage begins at 3.50pm with Gabby Logan presenting and Alex Scott and Ian Wright providing analysis.

Commentary comes from Robyn Cowen and Rachel Brown Finnis.

How did both teams reach this stage?

England cruised through the group stage with wins over Austria, Norway and Northern Ireland without conceding a goal. Spain forced the Lionesses into extra-time before Georgia Stanway's stunning winning goal. They they went on to thrash Sweden in the semi-final to earn their place here.

Germany saw off Denmark, Spain and Finland in the group stages before advancing past Austria in the quarter-finals. Two goals from top scorer Popp were enough to see them progress from the semi-final against France.

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Confirmed line-ups

England XI: Earps; Bronze, Bright, Williamson, Daly; Walsh, Stanway; Mead, Kirby, Hemp; White

Germany XI: Frohms; Gwinn, Hendrich, Hegering, Rauch; Magull, Oberdorf, Dabritz; Huth, Popp, Brand

Odds

England 29/20

Draw 21/10

Germany 15/8

Prediction

These two teams, packed with in-form stars on both sides, appear well matched on paper and know each other's strengths and weaknesses well. The two managers will have both ready with the stage certainly not too big for either. Perhaps itll be home advantage and a packed Wembley crowd that proves the key difference to get the Lionesses over the line for a first major trophy. England 2-1 Germany


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After a much-needed summer getaway, Kate Middleton is back in action! On Sunday morning, the Duchess of Cambridge made an appearance at a sailing event in Plymouth in support of 1851 Trust, a charity that uses sailing and the marine industry to inspire children in sports, education, and technology.

For the engagement, the royal style icon looked sporty in a striped shirt and white shorts with gold details. She wore her hair down in loose waves and paired her nautical ensemble with whiteSuperga plimsolls and simple gold jewelry.

During the outing, Katewho is the Royal Patron of the non-profitmet with young people and learned about seagrass, a natural tool that is instrumental in countering damages caused by climate change. There, they also took part in making seagrass mats that are planned to be planted off the nearby Plymouth Sound to help improve marine health.

Afterward, the Duchess changed into an even more sporty ensemble and joined the Great Britain SailGP Team aboard their F50 foiling catamaran in a friendly "Commonwealth Race" against Team New Zealand. Also in attendance was Sir Ben Ainslie, who is considered the most successful sailor in Olympic history. She played crewmember for the British team and helped them as they raced their yacht against their rivals.

Photo credit: Matt Keeble - PA Images - Getty Images

This isn't the first time Kate has taken part in a sailing race. Back in 2019, she and Prince William faced off in the King's Cup Sailing charity race on the Isle of Wight. The Duke of Cambridge's team came out in third place, while his wife's team was disqualified. Prior to that, the two also competed in a sailing race in 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand, where Kate emerged victorious.

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Few record executives have had played such a role in shaping the music business as Ahmet Ertegun. The great co-founder of Atlantic Records helped steer the careers of countless superstar acts and was also a distinguished songwriter, producer, and philanthropist.

The urbane Turkish-American entrepreneur was born on July 31, 1923, in Istanbul, and his impact on the music world started soon after the end of World War II. He died at 83 in December 2006, but to this day, the standards he set are aspired to by the modern generation of label heads.

Erteguns unique insight and acumen were a huge influence on the emergence of such R&B figureheads as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett, and rock legends including Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and many others. The personal relationships he built with those and so many other artists gave him an aura that went far beyond the music he helped bring to the world.

In February 2007, Billboard magazines special edition paying tribute to Ahmet included a profile of his international achievements by this writer. We reprint part of it here.

The tales of Ahmet Erteguns international adventures as an executive and a socialite are legion. And just when you think youve heard them all, up pops another musician touched by his presence to contribute more memories.

What set the late co-founder of Atlantic Records apart from his contemporaries was his world view. The record business to him was never just about the United States. Just as his father had been a globe-covering Turkish ambassador, Ertegun truly had a window on the world of music, and through it he saw cultural possibilities for which scores of his international artists will forever be grateful.

At 77, [Ertegun] travelled to London to be guest of honor [at a star-studded industry event] in 2001. He was presented with the Music Industry Trusts Award...for his contribution to the global careers of such British greats as the Rolling Stones, Cream, Yes, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and many others.

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I feel partly British

They dont give that award to foreigners, do they? Ertegun asked this writer just before flying to the United Kingdom. He explained: I feel partly British, because I spent part of my youth in England. I was a great fan of British music even from the jazz days of the 1930s, when I was a very young boy. Prior to living in England, wed been in France and Switzerland, but England felt much closer to America.

One recalls that on the awards night, approaching the podium for a typically memorable speech and walking with a stick, he said: Theres no truth in the rumour that one of my rappers did this.

The musical exchange program between the United Kingdom and the United States was one that Ertegun helped establish. It brought rich rewards for the aforementioned Brits and such others as the Bee Gees, Dusty Springfield, and Anglo-American acts Foreigner and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

And that exchange worked both ways. In 1967, it took a package of artists on Atlantics mighty Stax label to Europe for a revue tour that represented the most soulful experience in the young lives of many future British stars.

One of the artists on that itinerary, Sam Moore, then of Sam & Dave, tells Billboard that he had the recent, timely opportunity to break bread and make good with Ertegun. I was doing a listening party [for his Overnight Sensational album] at the Cutting Room in New York, Moore says, and the next thing I knew, in walks Ahmet, without an entourage. He and I sat down and we talked, and it was the most glorious time.

This guy was ok

All the years Dave and I were with Atlantic, I never thought he cared that much about me. But I found out later on, man, this guy was ok. Everybody that came up under Ahmet, they all learned from Ahms. He set the mold. There was so much respect, not fear, for this man.

Ertegun said in 2001: With the advent of R&B, and the last gasps of the blues in America, a new crop [of musicians] arose. Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, people who were not imitators. They somehow swallowed the pill and became natural blues players. They play like originals, and I idolise them.

Claptons colleague in Cream, Jack Bruce, tells a story that somehow evokes the ambience of Erteguns jetsetting days and his comfort in rock star company. He was in London at [manager and impresario] Robert Stigwoods office in mid-winter, and asked me if Id give him a lift to his hotel. I had this very strange car called an Adams Probe.

It was [something like] 2 feet 6 inches high. To get in, you had to open the roof. I was supposed to be driving him to whatever posh hotel. We went down the stairs in Brook Street, and it had been snowing. Ahmet said Where's the car? There was this little mound of snow, and I said Its under there.

More seriously, Bruce salutes Ertegun as a genuine frontiersman. The nice thing about all of those guys  Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin and Ahmet  was that they were all in there pretty much from the beginning. Ahmet was very much into the music and very innovative. Where would we be without him?

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.
A 2019 report by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) provides values for taxing carbon dioxide emissions. These taxes will discourage burning of fossil carbon and are necessary if nations are to meet the emission reduction goals made at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

The recommended tax for the United States is $35 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions. This is equivalent to increasing the current pump price of gasoline by 5% (23 cents per gallon). Electricity prices could increase by 12%.

When American voters are willing to support these taxes our political parties will be willing to propose these taxes. Supporters include the Sierra Club and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Without emission reductions global surface temperatures will continue to increase at an average rate of 0.33 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. Global population has now increased to 8 billion, and the key problem in our future will be feeding a growing population of humans living on a planet that is overheated. Our oceans have limited fish and droughts can degrade agriculture.

Michael Patterson

Clarence Center
Women, girls, mothers, sisters, daughters and men who support us  we must stop this madness! We are not second-class citizens. We work, pay taxes, support families and communities and vote. Why are our politicians enslaving us? They are taking away our reproductive rights, control over our bodies, our confidential conversations with our physicians and our ability to choose. They are taking away our personhood. We are becoming chattel.

In Ohio, the General Assembly voted to restrict abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy and Mike DeWine signed the bill. When a 10-year-old girl in Ohio became pregnant because she was raped, she had to travel to Indiana for an abortion. If that wasnt sufficiently horrendous and traumatizing, Ohios very own lawmakers questioned whether the story was verified. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stated he had not heard  a whisper of the case. In fact, he said What Im saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence. Ohios representative Jim Jordan declared the story to be another lie. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou called the case, A garbage lie that a simple google search confirms is debunked. These people are cruel, mean and repulsive.

This poor, traumatized child isnt even believed. Men in power, along with the Supreme Court, have decided they will control women, their bodies, and their (true) stories.

Just when you think this cant get worse, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada requested consent to quickly pass the legislation in the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act that would protect the rights of women to travel to other states to seek legal abortions. This bill was met with resistance from Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who objected on behalf of Republicans.

What have we come to? Women are equal citizens in this country. We count. (Even though we are still waiting for the ERA to become law). But most importantly, we vote. Dont let power hungry, privileged men tell us what we can and cannot do, especially when it comes to our bodies and our lives. Speak up, tell your stories and vote.

Debbie Barber, Kent

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Letter: Women, men who support them, need to make their voices heard
The body of a man who exited an aircraft mid-air before it made an emergency landing on Friday near Raleigh in North Carolina has been recovered, authorities said.

In a statement the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that around 2.40pm local time, a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar landed in the grass at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

An airport spokesperson said that the pilot of the plane was found alone in the aircraft and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The planes co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks, 23, who was not wearing a parachute, did not survive the fall and was found in the backyard of a Fuquay-Varina resident, reported WRAL-TV.

The town of Fuquay-Varina is about 30 miles (48km) south of the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

In a statement Fuquay-Varina police said on Facebook: Earlier today, surrounding law enforcement and fire service agencies responded to the Sonoma Springs Subdivision with the objective of locating the co-pilot that had exited a plane while in mid-flight.

The police then responded to information provided by a Captain Cove resident.

After further investigation, we were able to positively identify the co-pilot. With the assistance of City-County Bureau of Identification, we were able to identify the co-pilots next of kin. The father of the co-pilot located in Fairfield, Connecticut, was notified of the incident.

It was not immediately clear if Crooks jumped from the plane or fell out of the aircraft, and the authorities are also not certain of the planes height when Crooks exited.

A map of the planes flight path from flight-tracking service ADS-B Exchange suggested that the plane was at about 3,800 feet, said Darshan Patel, operations manager for Wake County emergency management, at a news briefing.

First responders found Crooks when a resident flagged them down after they heard something in their backyard, Mr Patel was quoted as saying.

According to audio recordings obtained by WRAL-TV from the plane, a pilot can be heard asking air traffic control for help.

Story continues

Emergency, weve lost our right wheel, said the pilot in the recording.

Wed like to speak to Raleigh and make an emergency landing at Raleigh.

Videos obtained by the news outlet show the plane skid off the runway, where it spins in a partial circle before coming to a stop.

The video also shows ambulances waiting at the site.

The incident is being probed by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) greets Pope Francis as he arrives at the Citadelle de Quebec in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, on July 27, 2022. VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images

Pope Francis told reporters after his six-day trip to Canada that he may consider retirement.

Pope Francis described his trip as a "test" of his health, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

During his trip, the Pope made a speech about Native American boarding schools, calling them "genocide."

Pope Francis may soon consider hanging up his papal hat.

The Pope, 85, told reporters Saturday on his trip home from Northern Canada that his recent six-day trip was a "test" of his health. He acknowledged he may have to slow down as a result of strain on his ligaments, which has resulted in him using walking aids and a wheelchair during his trip.

"I think at my age and with these limitations, I have to save [my energy] to be able to serve the church, or on the contrary, think about the possibility of stepping aside," he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

After reporters asked him if he considered resigning before, the Pope said he had not, but said the "door was open" for such a possibility, ABC reported.

"It's not strange. It's not a catastrophe," Pope Francis told reporters. "You can change the Pope."

Pope Francis' trip to Canada began in Alberta and ended in Nunavut. A significant part of his trip involved addressing the church's involvement in Canada's legacy of using boarding schools to indoctrinate indigenous children.

In the late 19th century and much of the 20th century, religious institutions including the Catholic Church ran schools that took First Nation children from their homes and stripped them of their culture and language. Thousands of children have been found buried near the grounds of these schools.

Insider's Kelsey Vlamis and Morgan Keith previously reported about American boarding schools similarly created to "kill" Native American culture.

While speaking to reporters on the Papal aircraft, Pope Francis told reporters the boarding school programs were "genocide."

Indigenous communities and the Canadian government criticized the Pope's previous apologies, saying they did not go far enough in naming the Catholic Church as directly responsible for the abuses committed at boarding schools, NPR reported.

The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Daniel Shular/The Grand Rapids Press via AP

Michigan gubernatorial primary candidate Tudor Dixon made an especially striking argument about why abortion should be outlawed, at a recent campaign stop.

During a conversation about a proposed ballot referendum this year that would guarantee accessible abortion in the state, Dixon said that doing so would create a safe haven for any type of predator out there.

If youre a predator theres nothing you like more than abortion. And if you can get a girl an abortion without her parents knowing you can keep hurting her, Dixon said at a meet-and-greet at Na-Lar Farms last week.

So we have to make sure we protect people from predators in this state. We cannot let this constitutional amendment be passed and give predators a chance to keep preying on young women, she added.

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last month, a decades-old state law banning abortion went into effect in Michigan, only providing exceptions for if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. While the law has been at least temporarily blocked in court, Michiganders have been left in limbo over the future of abortion access in the state.

Organizers for the proposed ballot referendum argue its a means to protect pregnant people from carrying unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest. The website for the coalition backing the proposal, Reproductive Freedom For All, says the proposed referendum would affirm that every person has access to political interference about all matters relating to pregnancy, including birth control, abortion, prenatal care, and childbirth.

The group did not return a request for comment on how that referendum would impact parental consent, which conservative groups and Dixon have questioned the possibility of. But Michigan law already requires that physicians, nurses, social workers, teachers, school staff and more must report suspected child abuse, including pregnancies in children.

Story continues

Dixon supports an almost absolute ban on abortionwith only exceptions for the life of the motherand its not the first time shes provided outlandish explanations to back up her position.

In another interview with internet talk-show host Charlie LeDuff earlier this month, LeDuff challenged Dixon with a hypothetical, worst-case scenario: a 14-year-old who got pregnant as a result of incest by an uncle.

Dixon responded, Perfect example.

She went on to outline her rationale on why that hypothetical teen should be required to carry the pregnancy to term, arguing that the means of conception shouldnt matter in how the law defines a life. A life is a life for me. That's how it is, she said.

Dixon added that in that hypothetical scenario, theres a concern for protecting that guy, and weve got to get those guys in jail.

In another interview on the Guy Gordon Show this month, Dixon argued that access to abortion pills would allow child sexual abusers to hide victims pregnancies with little scrutiny. The Biden administration has ordered that abortion pills remain available by mail for any individual to take from the comfort of their home.

There are dangers with these things. We cant let traffickers or predators have these pills that hide that there is a child, Dixon said.

Dixon is backed by the largest anti-abortion rights group in the statewhich she proudly touts on her campaign site under a page simply titled Life. Shes also racked up endorsements from Michigan GOP power players like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and former Education Secretary Betsy Devos, among many others.

President Donald Trump endorsed Dixon on Friday night, just ahead of the Tuesday primary.

Tudor Dixon is a Conservative Warrior who built an impressive career in the steel industry while working with her fabulous father, who is now watching her proudly from above, he said in a statement. She raised a beautiful family, and is ready to save Michigan. Shes pro-God, pro-Gun, and pro-Freedom, and she wont be stopped!

The gubernatorial hopeful originally worked in the steel industrybut later went on to create a morning news program for kids after becoming concerned about the indoctrination of children in our schools, according to her campaign site.

Should she win the nomination, Dixon will face incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) this November in whats slated to be a tensely competitive general election. Whitmer rose to prominence over the past two years during the coronavirus pandemicand as a plot to kidnap her was foiled by law enforcement last year.

Whitmer is also unabashedly pro-abortion rights, and in a June statement called the existing law banning abortion in Michigan antiquated and said that she would fight like hell to protect every Michiganders right to make decisions about their own body with the advice of a medical professional they trust.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Hunters this fall could see smaller deer with smaller antlers as a result of the extreme heat and drought this summer across Oklahoma.

"Some of our mature bucks might not be sporting the head gear they had the year before," said Dallas Barber, big game biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Nutrition for deer is the key to antler development. A lack of adequate rainfall means vegetation for deer such as clover and broad-leaved herbaceous blooming plants commonly known as forbs may be scarce.

If forbs are not edible, deer will not consume them. Forbs supply nourishment, energy and minerals that deer need.

Parts of the state such as southwest Oklahoma and the Panhandle have experienced drought-like conditions in recent years, but the rest of the state hasn't seen such an extreme drought in several years, Barber said.

More:How many alligators call Oklahoma home? Wildlife Department wants to find out

Antler development and body weight of deer could suffer this summer as a result of the extreme heat and drought.

"It's not anything that is going to be drastic, but the habitat conditions across most of the state have not been good for antler development," Barber said. "Some of these areas that are seeing extended drought that haven't in a while, you could see an impact on antler development.

"There are going to be pockets where deer have found suitable habitat, revolving around agriculture that is irrigated or they've still got some wet spots where they have a pretty good food source going on, but it hasn't been what we have seen over the last five years. We have been in a really good spot the last couple of years as far as habitat conditions throughout the summer."

Bucks start growing their yearly set of antlers in late spring, and the antlers only start to mineralize or harden in late August. Blood supply to the antlers stops once growth is complete. They will be shed by early spring and ready to sprout again next year.

Barber said the nutrition a buck gets in the first three years of its life is used on development of the animal's bones and body. After the third year, those same nutrients become important for antler development, he said.

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Most fawns are dropped in late May and Oklahoma was still green and flush in the first few critical weeks of their lives this spring, Barber said. However, fawns born late or that become ill will have a harder time surviving the summer's heat and drought, he said.

More:Oklahoma wildlife needs help to beat the scorching heat. Here are some tips.

Volunteers needed for youth deer hunts

The Oklahoma Youth Hunting Program, a nonprofit organization, is seeking volunteers to guide youths ages 12 to 17 on first-time deer hunts.

This year, OYHP plans to enroll about 60 youths who have never hunted and who do not come from a hunting family. The youths and an accompanying adult parent or guardian will be assigned to a volunteer hunting guide and go afield during Oklahomas youth deer hunting season on Oct. 14-16.

In order to have the best experience for our youths, we need experienced and enthusiastic volunteers that love hunting and the outdoors, said OYHP coordinator Darrell Noblitt. There are a number of needs at each hunt location. We are looking for shooting instructors, cooks, guides, photographers, and experienced outdoorsmen and women that can assist during the hunts.

OYHP provides food, lodging, hunting sites, guns and ammunition. Noblitt urges anyone interested in volunteering to attend the first group meeting from 2 to 7 p.m. Aug. 13 in Mustang. For more information, email darrell@noblittoilandgas.com or call 405-833-2112.

To apply as a volunteer, go to oyhp.org and submit an online application. Volunteers must pass a background check and then attend a volunteer training course.

Youth hunters may also apply on the OYHP website and will be notified in August if they have qualified to attend a hunt.

More:Oklahoma mountain streams might hold unique species of smallmouth bass

The National Wild Turkey Federation and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation are partnering to sponsor a Deer Hunting Conference and Expo in Midwest City on July 31.

Commissioners to consider arrow rifle hunting rules

On the agenda for Monday's meeting of the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission is proposed emergency rules to allow air-powered arrow rifles, or air bows, to be used during any open deer rifle season.

State legislators passed and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed SB 1571 this spring, which made air-powered air rifles legal during open deer rifle season. Air bows are similar to crossbows but the arrow is propelled by compressed air.

The commission meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at Wildlife Department headquarters, 1801 N Lincoln, in Oklahoma City.

More:How many alligators call Oklahoma home? Wildlife Department wants to find out

Deer hunting conference on Aug. 13

The National Wild Turkey Federation and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation will hold a Deer Hunting Conference and Expo Aug. 13 at the Reed Conference Center in Midwest City.

Those attending can choose five of 30 deer hunting sessions provided throughout the day. Registration is $35, which includes lunch. Seating is limited to 300.

For more information, contact Rick Nolan at 405-410-1379 or email rick@nolanoutdoors.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Deer could have smaller antlers this fall due to Oklahoma weather
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged civilians remaining in the easternmost Donbas region of the country to leave as the most intense fighting with Russian forces continues there.

Zelensky said in a statement on Saturday that hundreds of thousands of people remain in the area and refuse to leave but must for their own safety. He said people specifically leaving Donetsk, the province in the Donbas that Russia has focused on capturing since taking the other province of Luhansk earlier this month, will reduce the number of people that the Russian army can kill.

Therefore, if you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas, the statement reads. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave, especially if they are families with children. If you have the opportunity to help displaced people, do it.

Zelensky said the government is organizing for a mandatory evacuation from Donetsk, but people need to decide to leave. He said the Ukrainian government will provide full logistical and financial assistance.

We are not Russia. That is why every life is important for us. And we will use all available opportunities to save as many lives as possible and to limit Russian terror as much as possible, he said.

Zelensky also called on the world, and specifically the U.S. State Department, to recognize Russia as a terrorist state. He said it would not be just a political gesture but an effective defense of the free world.

He said the recognition will cut various political and business ties that Russia has, making it difficult for the state to exist. He said the sooner the recognition is issued, the less evil Russia will be able to inflict.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Zelensky said terror is Russias main weapon at this point in the war, and the main task for every Ukrainian and defender of freedom and humanity in the world is to isolate Russia and protect as many as possible from its attacks.

Ukrainian officials warned earlier this month that Russia is preparing for another offensive, with the next target likely the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk province.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(University of Texas / SWNS)

A new high-tech mattress is able to trick people into falling asleep faster, researchers have claimed.

The innovative mattress, developed by a group of engineers at the University of Texas, Austin, works by manipulating the bodys core temperature.

Our body temperature changes according to a natural 24-hour rhythm and a lower core temperature helps to make you feel sleepy.

Although it may appear counterintuitive, the mattress lowers core temperature by warming up the neck, which helps stimulate blood flow towards the hands and feet - allowing that heat to dissipate faster.

Dr Shabab Haghayegh, who led the development of the mattress, said: We facilitate the readiness to fall asleep by manipulating internal body temperature-sensitive sensors to briefly adjust the thermostat of the body so it thinks the temperature is higher than it actually is.

The team reviewed two different iterations of the mattress: one that used water and another that used air to manipulate body temperature.

The mattresses were tested on 11 individuals, who were asked them to go to bed two hours earlier than usual and to use the cooling-warming functions of the mattress on some nights and other nights not.

On average, the participants fell asleep 58 per cent faster when they used the mattress functions compared with when they did not, despite going to bed two hours early.

And not only did it help them nod off faster, but the researchers also said it improved their quality of sleep.

The project is the latest from the lab of Professor Kenneth Diller of the Cockrell School of Engineering which seeks to find new ways of helping people sleep using heat.

In 2019 the researchers published a study that found taking a warm bath an hour or two before bed helped people fall asleep faster.

The current project, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, is similar in that it aims to lower the internal body temperature at to send the signal to go to sleep.

Professor Diller added: It is remarkable how effective gentle warming along the cervical spine is in sending a signal to the body to increase blood flow to the hands and feet to lower the core temperature and precipitate sleep onset.

This same effect also enables the blood pressure to fall slightly overnight, with the benefit of allowing the cardiovascular system to recover from the stress of maintaining blood flow during daily activities, which is highly important for long-term health.
JOHNSTOWN, Ohio  Just 15 minutes outside of downtown Columbus, the suburbs abruptly evaporate. Past a bizarre mix of soybean fields, sprawling office parks and lonely clapboard churches is a field where the Biden administration  with help from one of the worlds largest tech companies  hopes to turn the U.S. into a hub of microchip manufacturing.

In his State of the Union address in March, President Joe Biden called this 1,000-acre spread of corn stalks and farmhouses a field of dreams. Within three years, it will house two Intel-operated chip facilities together worth $20 billion  and Intel is promising to invest $80 billion more now that Washington has sweetened the deal with subsidies. Its all part of a nationwide effort to head off another microchip shortage, shore up the free worlds advanced industrial base in the face of a rising China and claw back thousands of high-end manufacturing jobs from Asia.





But even as Biden signs into law more than $52 billion in incentives designed to lure chipmakers to the U.S., an unusual alliance of industry lobbyists, hard-core China hawks and science advocates says the presidents dream lacks a key ingredient  a small yet critical core of high-skilled workers. Its a politically troubling irony: To achieve the long-sought goal of returning high-end manufacturing to the United States, the country must, paradoxically, attract more foreign workers.

For high-tech industry in general  which of course, includes the chip industry  the workforce is a huge problem, said Julia Phillips, a member of the National Science Board. It's almost a perfect storm.

From electrical engineering to computer science, the U.S. currently does not produce enough doctorates and master's degrees in the science, technology, engineering and math fields who can go on to work in U.S.-based microchip plants. Decades of declining investments in STEM education means the U.S. now produces fewer native-born recipients of advanced STEM degrees than most of its international rivals.

Story continues

Foreign nationals, including many educated in the U.S., have traditionally filled that gap. But a bewildering and anachronistic immigration system, historic backlogs in visa processing and rising anti-immigrant sentiment have combined to choke off the flow of foreign STEM talent precisely when a fresh surge is needed.

Powerful members of both parties have diagnosed the problem and floated potential fixes. But they have so far been stymied by the politics of immigration, where a handful of lawmakers stand in the way of reforms few are willing to risk their careers to achieve. With a short window to attract global chip companies already starting to close, a growing chorus is warning Congress theyre running out of time.

These semiconductor investments won't pay off if Congress doesn't fix the talent bottleneck, said Jeremy Neufeld, a senior immigration fellow at the Institute for Progress think tank.



Given the hot-button nature of immigration fights, the chip industry has typically been hesitant to advocate directly for reform. But as they pump billions of dollars into U.S. projects and contemplate far more expensive plans, a sense of urgency is starting to outweigh that reluctance.

We are seeing greater and greater numbers of our employees waiting longer and longer for green cards, said David Shahoulian, Intels head of workforce policy. At some point it will become even more difficult to attract and retain folks. That will be a problem for us; it will be a problem for the rest of the tech industry.

At some point, youll just see more offshoring of these types of positions, Shahoulian said.

A Booming Technology

Microchips (often called semiconductors by wonkier types) arent anything new. Since the 1960s, scientists  working first for the U.S. government and later for private industry  have tacked transistors onto wafers of silicon or other semiconducting materials to produce computer circuits. What has changed is the power and ubiquity of these chips.

The number of transistors researchers can fit on a chip roughly doubles every two years, a phenomenon known as Moores Law. In recent years, that has led to absurdly powerful chips bristling with transistors  IBMs latest chip packs them at two-nanometer intervals into a space roughly the size of a fingernail. Two nanometers is thinner than a strand of human DNA, or about how long a fingernail grows in two seconds.

A rapid boost in processing power stuffed into ever-smaller packages led to the information technology boom of the 1990s. And things have only accelerated since  microchips remain the primary driver of advances in smartphones and missiles, but theyre also increasingly integrated into household appliances like toaster ovens, thermostats and toilets. Even the most inexpensive cars on the market now contain hundreds of microchips, and electric or luxury vehicles are loaded with thousands.

It all adds up to a commodity widely viewed as the bedrock of the new digital economy. Like fossil fuels before them, any country that controls the production of chips possesses key advantages on the global stage.



Until fairly recently, the U.S. was one of those countries. But while chips are still largely designed in America, its capacity to produce them has declined precipitously. Only 12 percent of the worlds microchip production takes place in the U.S., down from 37 percent in 1990. That percentage declines further when you exclude legacy chips with wider spaces between transistors  the vast majority of bleeding-edge chips are manufactured in Taiwan, and most factories not found on that island reside in Asian nations like South Korea, China and Japan.

For a long time, few in Washington worried about Americas flagging chip production. Manufacturing in the U.S. is expensive, and offshoring production to Asia while keeping R&D stateside was a good way to cut costs.

Two things changed that calculus: the Covid-19 pandemic and rising tensions between the U.S. and China.

Abrupt work stoppages sparked by viral spread in Asia sent shockwaves through finely tuned global supply chains. The flow of microchips ceased almost overnight, and then struggled to restart under new Covid surges and ill-timed extreme weather events. Combined with a spike in demand for microelectronics (sparked by generous government payouts to citizens stuck at home), the manufacturing stutter kicked off a chip shortage from which the world is still recovering.

Even before the pandemic, growing animosity between Washington and Beijing caused officials to question the wisdom of ceding chip production to Asia. Chinas increasingly bellicose threats against Taiwan caused some to conjure up nightmare scenarios of an invasion or blockade that would sever the West from its supply of chips. The Chinese government was also pouring billions of dollars into a crash program to boost its own lackluster chip industry, prompting fears that Americas top foreign adversary could one day corner the market.

By 2020 the wheels had begun to turn on Capitol Hill. In January 2021, lawmakers passed as part of their annual defense bill the CHIPS for America Act, legislation authorizing federal payouts for chip manufacturers. But they then struggled to finance those subsidies. Although they quickly settled on more than $52 billion for chip manufacturing and research, lawmakers had trouble decoupling those sweeteners from sprawling anti-China competitiveness bills that stalled for over a year.

But those subsidies, as well as new tax credits for the chip industry, were finally sent to Bidens desk in late July. Intel isnt the only company thats promised to supercharge U.S. projects once that money comes through  Samsung, for example, is suggesting it will expand its new $17 billion chip plant outside of Austin, Texas, to a nearly $200 billion investment. Lawmakers are already touting the subsidies as a key step toward an American renaissance in high-tech manufacturing.

Quietly, however, many of those same lawmakers  along with industry lobbyists and national security experts  fear all the chip subsidies in the world will fall flat without enough high-skilled STEM workers. And they accuse Congress of failing to seize multiple opportunities to address the problem.

STEM help wanted

In Columbus, just miles from the Johnstown field where Intel is breaking ground, most officials dont mince words: The tech workers needed to staff two microchip factories, let alone eight, dont exist in the region at the levels needed.

Were going to need a STEM workforce, admitted Jon Husted, Ohios Republican lieutenant governor.

But Husted and others say theyre optimistic the network of higher ed institutions spread across Columbus  including Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College  can beef up the regions workforce fast.

I feel like we're built for this, said David Harrison, president of Columbus State Community College. He highlighted the repeated refrain from Intel officials that 70 percent of the 3,000 jobs needed to fill the first two factories will be technician-level jobs requiring two-year associate degrees. These are our jobs, Harrison said.



Harrison is anxious, however, over how quickly he and other leaders in higher ed are expected to convince thousands of students to sign up for the required STEM courses and join Intel after graduation. The first two factories are slated to be fully operational within three years, and will need significant numbers of workers well before then. He said his university still lacks the requisite infrastructure for instruction on chip manufacturing  were missing some wafer processing, clean rooms, those kinds of things  and explained that funding recently provided by Intel and the National Science Foundation wont be enough. Columbus State will need more support from Washington.

I don't know that there's a great Plan B right now, said Harrison, adding that the new facilities will run into the tens of millions.

A lack of native STEM talent isnt unique to the Columbus area. Across the country, particularly in regions where the chip industry is planning to relocate, officials are fretting over a perceived lack of skilled technicians. In February, the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation cited a shortage of skilled workers when announcing a six-month delay in the move-in date for their new plant in Arizona.

Whether its a licensure program, a two-year program or a Ph.D., at all levels, there is a shortfall in high-tech STEM talent, said Phillips. The NSB member highlighted the missing millions of people that are not going into STEM fields  that basically are shut out, even beginning in K-12, because they're not exposed in a way that attracts them to the field.

Industry groups, like the National Association of Manufacturers, have long argued a two-pronged approach is necessary when it comes to staffing the high-tech sector: Reevaluating immigration policy while also investing heavily in workforce development

The abandoned House and Senate competitiveness bills both included provisions that would have enhanced federal support for STEM education and training. Among other things, the House bill would have expanded Pell Grant eligibility to students pursuing career-training programs.

We have for decades incentivized degree attainment and not necessarily skills attainment, said Robyn Boerstling, NAMs vice president of infrastructure, innovation and human resources policy. There are manufacturing jobs today that could be filled with six weeks of training, or six months, or six years; we need all of the above.

But those provisions were scrapped, after Senate leadership decided a conference between the two chambers on the bills was too unwieldy to reach agreement before the August recess.

Katie Spiker, managing director of government affairs at National Skills Coalition, said the abandoned Pell Grant expansion shows Congress has not responded to worker needs in the way that we need them to. Amid criticisms that the existing workforce development system is unwieldy and ineffective, the decision to scrap new upgrades is a continuation of a trend of disinvesting in workers who hope to obtain the skills they need to meet employer demand.

And it becomes an issue that only compounds itself over time, Spiker said. As technology changes, people need to change and evolve their skills.

If we're not getting people skilled up now, then we won't have people that are going to be able to evolve and skill up into the next generation of manufacturing that well do five years from now.



Congress finally sent the smaller Chips and Science Act  which includes the chip subsidies and tax credits, $200 million to develop a microchip workforce and a slate of R&D provisions  to the presidents desk in late July. The bill is expected to enhance the domestic STEM pool (at least on the margins). But it likely falls short of the generational investments many believe are needed.

You could make some dent in it in six years, said Phillips. But if you really want to solve the problem, it's closer to a 20-year investment. And the ability of this country to invest in anything for 20 years is not phenomenal.

Immigration Arms Race

The microchip industry is in the midst of a global reshuffling thats expected to last a better part of the decade  and the U.S. isnt the only country rolling out the red carpet. Europe, Canada, Japan and other regions are also worried about their security, and preparing sweeteners for microchip firms to set up shop in their borders. Cobbling together an effective STEM workforce in a short time frame will be key to persuading companies to choose America instead.

That will be challenging at the technician level, which represents around 70 percent of workers in most microchip factories. But those jobs require only two-year degrees  and over a six-year period, its possible a sustained education and recruitment effort can produce enough STEM workers to at least keep the lights on.

Its a different story entirely for Ph.D.s and masters degrees, which take much longer to earn and which industry reps say make up a smaller but crucial component of a factorys workforce.

Gabriela Gonzalez, Intels head of global STEM research, policy and initiatives, said about 15 percent of factory workers must have doctorates or masters degrees in fields such as material and electrical engineering, computer science, physics and chemistry. Students coming out of American universities with those degrees are largely foreign nationals  and increasingly, theyre graduating without an immigration status that lets them work in the U.S., and with no clear pathway to achieving that status.

A National Science Board estimate from earlier this year shows a steadily rising proportion of foreign-born students with advanced STEM skills. Thats especially true for degrees crucial to the chip industry  nearly 60 percent of computer science Ph.D.s are foreign born, as are more than 50 percent of engineering doctorates.

We are absolutely reliant on being able to hire foreign nationals to fill those needs, said Intels Shahoulian. Like many in the chip industry, Shaoulian contends there simply arent enough high-skilled STEM professionals with legal status to simultaneously serve Americas existing tech giants and an influx of microchip firms.

Some academics, such as Howard Universitys Ron Hira, suggest the shortage of workers with STEM degrees is overblown, and industry simply seeks to import cheaper, foreign-born labor. But that view contrasts with those held by policymakers on Capitol Hill or people in the scientific and research communities. In a report published in late July by the Government Accountability Office, all 17 of the experts surveyed agreed the lack of a high-skilled STEM workforce was a barrier to new microchip projects in the U.S.  and most said some type of immigration reform would be needed.

Many, if not most, of the foreign nationals earning advanced STEM degrees from U.S. universities would prefer to stay and work in the country. But Americas immigration system is turning away these workers in record numbers  and at the worst possible time.

Ravi (not his real name, given his tenuous immigration status) is an Indian national. Nearly three years ago, he graduated from a STEM masters program at a prestigious eastern university before moving to California to work as a design verification lead at an international chip company. Hes applied three times for an H-1B visa, a high-skilled immigration program used extensively by U.S. tech companies. But those visas are apportioned via a lottery, and Ravi lost each time. His current visa only allows him to work through the end of year  so Ravi is giving up and moving to Canada, where hes agreed to take a job with another chip company. Given his skill set, he expects to quickly receive permanent legal status.

The application process is incredibly simple there, said Ravi, noting that Canadian officials were apologetic over their brief 12-week processing time (theyre swamped by refugee applications, he said).



If given the choice, Ravi said he wouldve probably stayed in California. But his story now serves as a cautionary tale for his younger brother back home. Once he sort of completed his undergrad back in India, he did mention that he is looking at more immigration-friendly countries, Ravi said. Hes giving Canada more thought, at this point, than the United States.

Ravis story is far from unique, particularly for Indian nationals. The U.S. imposes annual per-country caps on green cards  and between a yearly crush of applicants and a persistent processing backlog, Indians (regardless of their education or skill level) can expect to wait as long as 80 years for permanent legal status. A report released earlier this year by the libertarian Cato Institute found more than 1.4 million skilled immigrants are now stuck in green card backlogs, just a slight drop from 2020s all-time high of more than 1.5 million.

The third rail of U.S. politics

The chip industry has shared its anxiety over Americas slipping STEM workforce with Washington, repeatedly asking Congress to make it easier for high-skilled talent to stay. But unlike their lobbying for subsidies and tax breaks  which has gotten downright pushy at times  theyve done so very quietly. While chip lobbyists have spent months telling anyone who will listen why the $52 billion in financial incentives are a strategic imperative, theyve only recently been willing to discuss their immigration concerns on the record.

In late July, nine major chip companies planned to send an open letter to congressional leadership warning that the shortage of high-skilled STEM workers has truly never been more acute and urging lawmakers to enact much-needed green card reforms. But the letter was pulled at the last minute, after some companies worried about wading into a tense immigration debate at the wrong time.



Leaders in the national security community have been less shy. In May, more than four dozen former officials sent a leader to congressional leadership urging them to shore up Americas slipping immigration edge before Chinese technology leapfrogs ours. With the worlds best STEM talent on its side, it will be very hard for America to lose, they wrote. Without it, it will be very hard for America to win.

The former officials exhorted lawmakers to take up and pass provisions in the House competitiveness bill that wouldve lifted green card caps for foreign nationals with STEM Ph.D.s or masters degrees. Itd be a relatively small number of people  a February study from Georgetown Universitys Center for Security and Emerging Technology suggested the chip industry would only need around 3,500 foreign-born workers to effectively staff new U.S.-based factories.

This is such a small pool of people that there's already an artificial cap on it, said Klon Kitchen, a senior fellow focused on technology and national security at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Kitchen suggested the Republican Partys wariness toward immigration shouldnt apply to these high-skilled workers, and some elected Republicans agree. Sen. John Cornyn, whose state of Texas is poised to gain from the expansion of chip plants outside Austin, took up the torch  and almost immediately got burned.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowas senior Republican senator, blocked repeated attempts by Cornyn, Democrats and others to include the green card provision in the final competitiveness package. Finding relief for a small slice of the immigrant community, Grassley reasoned, weakens the possibility to get comprehensive immigration reform down the road. He refused to budge even after Biden administration officials warned him of the national security consequences in a classified June 16 briefing, which was convened specifically for him. The effort has been left for dead (though a push to shoehorn a related provision into the year-end defense bill is ongoing).

Many of Grassleys erstwhile allies are frustrated with his approach. Weve been talking about comprehensive immigration reform for how many decades? asked Kitchen, who said hes not inclined to let Americas security concerns tread water in the background while Congress does nothing to advance broader immigration bills.

Most Republicans in Congress agree with Kitchen. But so far its Cornyn, not Grassley, whos paid a price. After helping broker a deal on gun control legislation in June, Cornyn was attacked by Breitbart and others on his partys right flank for telling a Democratic colleague immigration would be next.



Immigration is one of the most contentious issues here in Congress, and we've shown ourselves completely incapable of dealing with it on a rational basis, Cornyn said in July. The senator said hed largely given up on persuading Grassley to abandon his opposition to new STEM immigration provisions. I would love to have a conversation about merit-based immigration, Cornyn said. But I don't think, under the current circumstances, thats possible.

Cornyn blamed that in part on the far rights reflexive outrage to any easing of immigration restrictions. Just about anything you say or do will get you in trouble around here these days, he said.

Given that reality, few Republicans are willing to stick their necks out on the issue.

If you look at the messaging coming out of [the National Republican Senatorial Committee] or [the Republican Attorneys General Association], its all border, border, border, said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition. Shi said even moderate Republicans hesitate to publicly advance arguments championing these sensible visas for Ph.D. STEM talents for integrated circuits for semiconductors.

Theyre like  I cant say those phrases until after the elections, Shi said.

That skittishness extends to state-level officials  Ohios Husted spent some time expounding on the benefits of bringing talented people here to do the work in America, rather than having companies leave America to have it done somewhere else. He suggested that boosting STEM immigration would be key to Intels success in his state. But when asked whether hes taken that message to Ohios congressional delegation  after all, he said hed been pestering them to pass the chip subsidies  Husted hedged.

My job is to do all I can for the people of the state of Ohio. There are other people whose job it is to message those other things, Husted said. But if asked, you heard what my answer is.

Of course, Republicans also pin some of the blame on Democrats. The administration ignores the fire at the border and the chaos there, which makes it very hard to have a conversation about controlling immigration flows, Cornyn said.

And while Democratic lawmakers reject that specific concern, some admit their side hasnt prioritized STEM immigration as it should.

Neither team has completely clean hands, said Sen. Mark Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Warner noted that Democrats have also sought to hold back STEM immigration fixes as part of a sweetener so that business-friendly Republicans would in turn back pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He also dinged the chip companies, claiming the issue is not always as straightforward" as the industry would like to frame it and that tech companies sometimes hope to pay less for foreign-born talent.

But Warner still supports the effort to lift green card caps for STEM workers. Without that high-skilled immigration, its not like those jobs are going to disappear, he said. Theyre just gonna move to another country.

And despite their rhetoric, its hard to deny that congressional Republicans are largely responsible for continued inaction on high-skilled immigration  even as their allies in the national security space become increasingly insistent.

Stuck on STEM immigration

Though theyve had to shrink their ambitions, lawmakers working to lift green card caps for STEM immigrants havent given up. A jurisdictional squabble between committees in July prevented advocates from including in the Houses year-end defense bill a provision that wouldve nixed the caps for Ph.D.s in critical STEM fields. Theyre now hoping to shoehorn the provision into the Senates defense bill instead, and have tapped Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina as their champion in the upper chamber.

But Tillis is already facing pushback from the right. And despite widespread support, few truly believe theres enough momentum to overcome Grassley and a handful of other lawmakers willing to block any action.

Most members on both sides recognize that this is a problem they need to resolve, said Intels Shahoulian. Theyre just not at a point yet where theyre willing to compromise and take the political hits that come with it.



The global chip industry is moving in the meantime. While most companies are still planning to set up shop in the U.S. regardless of what happens with STEM immigration, Shahoulian said inaction on that front will inevitably limit the scale of investments by Intel and other firms.

Youre already seeing that dynamic playing out, he said. Youre seeing companies set up offices in Canada, set up offices elsewhere, move R&D work elsewhere in the world, because it is easier to retain talent elsewhere than it is here.

This is an issue that will progressively get worse, Shahoulian said. Its not like there will be some drop-dead deadline. But yeah, its getting difficult.

Intel is still plowing ahead in Johnstown  backhoes are churning up dirt, farmers have been bought out of homes owned by their families for generations and the extensive water and electric infrastructure required for eight chip factories is being laid. Whether those bets will pay off in the long-term may rest on Congress ability to thread the needle on STEM immigration. And theres little optimism at the moment.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said she sometimes wishes she could shake everybody and tell them to wake up. But she believes economic and geopolitical realities will force Congress to open the door to high-skilled foreign workers  eventually.

I think the question is whether you do that now or in 10 years, Cantwell said. And you'll be damn sorry if you wait for 10 years.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill on June 16, 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Speaker's office has said House Speaker Pelosi will visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan.

The itinerary does not include Taiwan. Chinese officials repeatedly warned her against visiting the island.

A leading propagandist for China said its military could attack her plane if she did visit Taiwan.

A press release from the Speaker's office says that she will be visiting Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan on her trip to Asia, with no mention of Taiwan.

The statement made by the Speaker says the trip will focus on "mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region."

The news comes after China repeatedly warned Pelosi against visiting the island, as the state saw it as a breach of the One China rule.

A leading propagandist for the Chinese government warned that China's military could attack the plane carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she is escorted by US fighter planes to Taiwan.

In addition, top military experts on China have warned that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi could heighten the risk of an "accident" that could spark a crisis in the region.

In the lead-up to her trip, Pelosi's office has never confirmed or denied if the Speaker would visit Taiwan.

Reports indicate the Pentagon planned to call upon US warplanes and ships to provide additional security near Taiwan if a visit went ahead.

Tensions between China and Taiwan have been high for decades, with China considering the island its territory. Taiwan, an island democracy of 23 million that broke away from Communist China in 1947, sees itself as an independent state.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Hacienda AltaGracia

Auberge Resorts Collection

One of Costa Rica's most prized cultural exports is coffee, yet some of the best is difficult to find domestically. At Hacienda AltaGracia, Auberge Resorts Collection, located among the spectacularly lush mountains of Perez Zeledon, coffee gets the spotlight it deserves. At the resort's on-site coffee bar Mercado, head barista and coffee scientist Fabiola Rojas showcases the region's best-in-class coffee, some sourced from farms just a few kilometers away.

"I buy the coffee from when they are green beans, and I'm in charge of roasting profiles and all coffee experiences on the property," says Rojas, who is the brains behind Mercado. "We really wanted a high-end coffee experience, the same way you would get a high-end wine experience at our restaurant Grano." Much like the detailed wine menu at Grano, which serves elegant dishes spotlighting indigenous ingredients and cuisines throughout Central America, Mercado has a coffee menu that specifies each bean's farm of origin, varietal, and processing method.

Guests can set up private coffee tastings with Rojas, or they can grab a latte at Mercado and watch the peaceful cloud forest downpour from the cozy interior.

Hacienda AltaGracia

Maria Yagoda

On a recent visit, I did both. The picturesque resort, which is dotted with thousands of coffee plants and 50 spacious casitas, offers guests some of the most immersive coffee experiences of anywhere I've traveled, on- and off-site. Coffee-obsessed guests can visit scenic local coffee producers and farms located in the nearby mountains, followed by immersive tastings and seminars on roasting styles. If your vacation personality is more about luxuriating, you can stay put  surrounded by 180 acres of rainforest  and drink some of the world's best coffee from the comfort of your casita (or even exceptional coffee soda, complimentary in the mini fridge). Even for the spa-inclined, there are coffee options: The Well at Hacienda AltaGracia offers luxurious river baths, which include a handmade coffee scrub treatment, in the middle of the verdant on-site forest.

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At Mercado, I marveled at the chalkboard of coffees on offer, and the incredible amount of detail. If guests like a particular coffee, Rojas can arrange to ship it to them when they return home from vacation. And since the menu changes often, she can recommend other beans with similar flavor profiles.

Hacienda AltaGracia

Maria Yagoda

Rojas scouts the coffee herself, which means she maintains strong relationships with growers and producers; this usually involves proving to them she will roast, brew, and serve their beans properly before they'll even sell to her. Currently, Rojas is overseeing a new project for Hacienda AltaGracia, Auberge Resorts Collection, to produce its own coffee.

"There are around 7,000 coffee plants on the property," she says. "The idea is to produce very good quality coffee. We always support our producers and will work with the best to make our own. We have four varieties that will be ready in one and two years. In March we saw some flowers."

Hacienda AltaGracia

Auberge Resorts Collection

During my tasting at Mercado, Rojas presented the hometown favorite Milenio F1, a new honey-processed coffee that had just days prior had won the "Cup of Excellence" at a prestigious green coffee competition. I sampled it in three different formats: made with a siphon, a Vandola (a terracotta, Costa Rican-invented, pour-over brewing device), and another locally made, clay pour-over pot. She tasted along with me, remarking on the different qualities each process extracted from the beans.

She was most excited to show me the results from the Vandola, a device invented just a few years ago by Minor Alfaro and handmade in Santa Barbera de Heredia. "It is the first patented Latin-American coffee pot," she said. The beautiful blue jug, which narrows at the neck where the filter begins, lends a sweetness and soft body to the coffee. "So much of the best Costa Rican coffee goes abroad. It doesn't always happen here in Costa Rica."
With the January 6 Select Committee implicating former President Donald Trumps responsibility for the insurrection, and criminal investigations heating up at the Department of Justice and in Georgia, Trump should run.

But, not for reelection, but for the hills.

He should gather up his sycophants and cronies and flee to Moscow. Im betting his genius pal and savvy friend President Vladimir Putin would give them political asylum.

It could be slightly dangerous though if Putin made them wait at the Ukrainian border while their asylum application is pending.

Patrick Norton

West Seneca
Ukraines harvest could be up to 50 per cent smaller than usual this year because of Russias war, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.

In a statement published on Sunday morning, President Zelenksy said that in spite of the depleted harvest, Ukraines main goal was to prevent a global food crisis.

He added that the countrys authorities would find alternative ways to export grain, amid fears that millions could go hungry because large parts of the world rely on Ukraine for their food supply.

Earlier this month, Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement with the United Nations and Turkey on reopening Black Sea routes, blocked by Moscow, in order to resume grain exports.

It is feared, however, that the Kremlin could renege on its promises and continue to use grain as a weapon of war.

Russian forces have targeted ports, grain depots, livestock and crops during the conflict. Just hours after the two countries signed the grain deal on 22 July, Russian forces fired precision missiles into the port of Odesa as grain was being prepared for export.

Mr Zelenkys warning came as fighting intensified in the south and east of Ukraine.

Authorities said the city of Mykolaiv, about 100km northwest of Kherson, near the Black Sea, had suffered a massive Russian bombardment overnight.

The citys governor said that Oleksiy Vadatursky, one of the countrys richest men, and his wife, Raisa, had been killed in the attack.

Mr Vadatursky, 74, owned Nibulon, a major agricultural firm that specialises in the production and export of grains including wheat, barley and corn.

A hotel, a sports complex, two schools, a service station and some homes were destroyed during the shelling, which the mayor described as the strongest of all time.
Mission Hospital, at 509 Biltmore Avenue.

ASHEVILLE - Buncombe County and the city of Asheville have filed a joint class-action lawsuit against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health, alleging the companies have been involved in anti-competitive practices.

The lawsuit is the third of its kind filed in less than a year by Western North Carolina entities. The first was filed in August 2021 by six Asheville-area residents. The second was filed by the city of Brevard.

Previous coverage: Plaintiffs in HCA/Mission antitrust lawsuit double down on anti-steering accusations

The County Commissioners are concerned that HCAs business operations monopolize healthcare while artificially inflating prices, and self-insured organizations like ours have no other recourse," Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Brownie Newman said in a news release.

More about the first WNC antitrust lawsuit against HCA:

"On behalf of our public employees and our community, we have a responsibility to challenge these unfair business practices that harm patients and families at a time they are often most vulnerable.

Buncombe County, City of Asheville v. HCA Healthcare, Mission Health by Andrew Jones on Scribd

Download the full lawsuit here: Buncombe County, city of Asheville v. HCA Healthcare, Mission Health

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said the legal action was taken with careful consideration.

The Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners felt it was necessary to take this step to bring an end to predatory practices that limit HCA Healthcares competition and clearly result in overpriced and limited choices in peoples healthcare," Manheimer said. "We believe this lawsuit will not only address the damages sustained by local governments and other self-insured organizations, but will also result in a fair and improved healthcare system for our entire community.

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Buncombe expansion: 3 hospitals compete for Buncombe expansion: Which does your doctor, mayor support?

"We are disappointed in this action and we continue to be proud of the heroic work our team does daily," said Mission and HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell. "Mission Health has been caring for Western North Carolina for more than 130 years and our dedication to providing excellent healthcare to our community will not waiver as we vigorously defend against this meritless litigation. "

Lindell noted Mission's "demonstrated" contributions to the community including $270 million in charity care and uninsured discounts it provided 2021, expansion of hospital services, a new pediatric emergency room, a new 120-bed behavioral health hospital and its "A" grade from hospital assessment group Leapfrog.

"Mission Health is committed to the health and well-being of every person who comes to us for care and we are proud of our dedicated hospital teams and the exceptional care they provide to our patients," Lindell said.

HCA Healthcare and Mission Health have 21 days to respond to a summons in the case, filed July 28.

The 59-page complaint "details an extensive pattern of behavior by HCA intended to monopolize healthcare markets in western North Carolina," according to the release. It was filed in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina.

The result of these practices, the city and county allege, is artificially high prices for healthcare services and a reduced standard of care that has damaged, and continues to damage, local governments and private entities who act as self-insurers for their employees.

The Asheville-Buncombe complaint's language overlaps with the Brevard lawsuit's. In early paragraphs, they both mentioned "working families and governmental employees" who need affordable health care options.

HCA and Mission limit these options, the lawsuits allege, through practices that limit competition.

More: NC Attorney General Stein says state should 'deny Mission' hospital expansion application

"This case arises at a time when providing affordable health care insurance plans for working families and governmental employees, such as firefighters, police, and teachers, and controlling health care costs have been top priorities for Plaintiffs and members of the proposed Class, the business communities they serve, and state and local governments in Western North Carolina," the Asheville-Buncombe lawsuit states. "As described in detail in this Complaint, Defendants conduct has restricted competition in the health care markets defined herein, thereby substantially and artificially inflating health care prices paid by Plaintiffs and proposed Class member health plans."

The lawsuit also repeats market share numbers discussed in both the August 2021 suit and the Brevard suit. HCA Healthcare, the new suit alleges, holds a monopoly market share  70% or more  in seven counties: Yancey (88.3.9%), Madison (89.1%), Buncombe (88.6%), Mitchell (85.4%), Transylvania (78.7%), McDowell (76.4%) and Macon (74.7%). The market share percent in the new lawsuit is slightly higher than it was when cited in the 2021 lawsuit.

And they could be even higher.

"Given the high entry barriers facing new hospitals, and also Defendants Scheme alleged herein, these market shares have not been materially reduced, and have likely increased, since HCA bought Mission," the Asheville-Buncombe lawsuit stated.

HCA Healthcare and Mission Health are currently vying with AdventHealth and Novant Health to build 67 new acute care beds in Buncombe. The other two hospital systems want to build new facilities. Mission wants to expand its main Asheville campus.

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Health Service Regulation will make a decision on which hospital is granted a certificate of need for the new beds.

Currently the process is in a public comment period, and anyone can send feedback to DHSR.CON.Comments@dhhs.nc.gov and julie.faenza@dhhs.nc.gov. That process closes July 31.

There will be a public hearing on the CON applications Aug. 12.

The Asheville-Buncombe lawsuit wasn't the only piece of stormy weather HCA and Mission have been through in the past few days.

On July 25, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein sent a letter to NCDHHS asking they not consider HCA's CON application. Stein also cited noncompetitive practices and said his office had received numerous complaints about the cost and quality of health care in WNC since HCA bought Mission in 2019, a $1.5 billion deal he approved at the time.

Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe, Asheville file class action lawsuit against HCA, Mission
An unrelenting heat wave that may have led to at least seven deaths weighed down on the Pacific Northwest on Sunday as temperatures were expected to soar again into the triple digits.

The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for more than 10 million people across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California on Sunday. Temperatures were forecast to reach as high as 103 degrees and surpass more than a dozen daily heat records in the region.

Why is the heat significant? Saturday tied a record with six consecutive days of temperatures over 95 degrees for the Portland region, weather service meteorologist Shawn Weagle said. Temperatures ranged from 15 to 22 degrees above normal, according to the weather service.

Deadly heat waves become more frequent. In 2021, a deadly heat wave led to about 800 deaths in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia during late June and early July because of a heat dome weather phenomenon that prompted record temperatures.

When will the heat subside? Forecasters expect the heat to wane for the Pacific Northwest on Monday as a storm brings cooler air, returning the area to more normal temperatures by Tuesday or Wednesday.

More coverage of the heat wave:

Deadly, record-breaking heat across Washington, Oregon, Idaho

Dozens of cities and towns from Washington to Oregon to Montana broke or far exceeded daily heat records over the weekend.

On Friday, Missoula reached 102 degrees, breaking its daily heat record for July 29. Redding, California, hit a daily record high of 114 degrees, and Medford, Oregon, hit 114, shattering its 2009 daily record of 109 and falling 1 degree short of tying an all-time high for the city.

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Multiple consecutive days of triple-digit heat is atypical for a region used to moderate summer temperatures, according to Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.

"Getting 20-something degrees above normal, it's definitely anomalous," Jackson said. "Getting up over 100 this number of days is rare."

The heat has been particularly dangerous because of high daily lows across the region as well, according to the weather service. Temperatures have remained abnormally high at night, making finding relief after the sunsets more challenging for residents  many of whom don't have air conditioning in their homes.

When will this heat wave end?

The Pacific Northwest is expected to see a slow cooling trend beginning Monday, according to Jackson.

"Significant relief comes Monday into Tuesday, depending on your exact location," he said. "Low pressure is expected to move into the Northwest coast, or at least a trough of low pressure through the early parts of this week."

Here is picture of Reflection Lake and Mt. Rainier to put some cool thoughts in your head. Hot spell day 6 today. Slow cooling trend starts Monday with highs only 60s and lower 70s by Thursday. Warming back up to 70s and lower 80s next weekend. #wawx pic.twitter.com/fftL5IEiAK  NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) July 31, 2022

Though the cooling trend will bring heat relief, the sustained high temperatures have led to concerns about dryness in the area, which could lead to drought conditions and wildfire risk. Parts of Montana and southern Oregon were under fire weather warnings and watches throughout the weekend.

"Dry/hot conditions make fuels very receptive to ignition," National Weather Service Seattle tweeted Sunday. "Please be careful with any and all sources of sparks."

Tips to stay cool and safe during a heat wave

Hyperthermia  an abnormally high body temperature  is suspected in the deaths of at least seven people in the Pacific Northwest since the beginning of the heat wave last week.

An elderly man in Oregon died in his home without a working air conditioner, according to Portland television station KOIN-TV. The other six possible hyperthermia deaths occurred earlier in the week in Multnomah, Umatilla and Marion counties of the state.

Jackson suggests residents wear light-colored clothing, seek out cooling centers and check in on neighbors, especially those who live alone or without air conditioning. Many of those who died in the heat wave in 2021 were older and lived alone.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pacific Northwest heat wave suspected in seven deaths
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared during a ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice that he is ready to fight the U.S. and eliminate South Korea.

July 27, 1953 marks the date on which an agreement signed by allies and leaders of the North and South sides of the peninsula led to a cease-fire, bringing a bloody three-year war to an inconclusive stalemate.

North Korea celebrates the day as a Victory in the Fatherland, and the official state Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday the details of the authoritarian leaders speech.

U.S. imperialists are pushing the South Korean authorities into a suicidal confrontation, said Kim on Wednesday.

More from NextShark: Cause I, I, I'm in the stars tonight: BTS Dynamite to be first K-pop song played in space

He assured citizens that the countrys armed forces were thoroughly prepared for any crisis and that their nuclear war deterrent was ready to mobilize its absolute power at any given time.

The South Korean regime and its military thugs are devising tactics to confront us militarily  Such a dangerous attempt will be immediately punished by our powerful force, and the Yoon Suk-yeol regime and his army will be eliminated.

The speech marked Kims first public appearance in nearly three weeks and included some of his strongest rhetoric against South Korea in recent times.

More from NextShark: 'Hasnt the time come': South Korean president wants to ban dog meat consumption

Newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, had pledged to take a tougher stance against Pyongyang after former President Moon Jae-in was heavily criticized by many for being too soft towards North Korea,and so desperate to please the supreme leader.

Despite dealing with the worst of its coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, North Korea has also increased its military drills, firing over 13 reported launches of short-range missiles in the first half of this year alone.

Story continues

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Featured Image via Arirang News

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A new billboard reading "Together with Russia" goes up outside Simferopol, Crimea on March 11, 2014. (Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times)

They have handed out Russian passports, cellphone numbers and set-top boxes for watching Russian television. They have replaced Ukrainian currency with the ruble, rerouted the internet through Russian servers and arrested hundreds who have resisted assimilation.

In ways big and small, the occupying authorities on territory won by Moscows forces are using fear and indoctrination to compel Ukrainians to adopt a Russian way of life. We are one people, blue-white-and-red billboards say. We are with Russia.

Now comes the next act in President Vladimir Putins 21st-century version of a war of conquest: the grassroots referendum.

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Russia-appointed administrators in towns, villages and cities like Kherson in Ukraines south are setting the stage for a vote as early as September that the Kremlin will present as a popular desire in the region to become part of Russia. They are recruiting pro-Russia locals for new election commissions and promoting to Ukrainian civilians the putative benefits of joining their country; they are even reportedly printing the ballots already.

Any referendum would be totally illegitimate, Ukrainian and Western officials say, but it would carry ominous consequences. Analysts in Moscow and Ukraine expect that it would serve as a prelude to Putins officially declaring the conquered area to be Russian territory, protected by Russian nuclear weapons  making future attempts by Ukraine to drive out Russian forces potentially much more costly.

Annexation would also represent Europes biggest territorial expansion by force since World War II, affecting an area several times larger than Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Putin took over in 2014.

The prospect of another annexation has affected the military timetable as well, putting pressure on Ukraine to try a risky counteroffensive sooner, rather than waiting for more long-range Western weapons to arrive that would raise the chances of success.

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Carrying out a referendum is not hard at all, Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Russian-imposed Crimean parliament, said this past week. They will ask: Take us under your guardianship, under your development, under your security.

Konstantinov, a longtime pro-Russia politician in Crimea, sat next to Putin at the Kremlin when the Russian president signed the document annexing the peninsula to Russia. He also helped organize the Crimean referendum in which 97% voted in favor of joining Russia  a result widely rejected by the international community as a sham.

Now, Konstantinov said, he is in constant touch with the Russian-imposed occupying authorities in the neighboring Kherson region, which Russian troops captured early in the war. He said that the authorities had told him a few days ago that they had started printing ballots, with the aim of holding a vote in September.

Kherson is one of four regions in which officials are signaling planned referendums, along with Zaporizhzhia in the south and Luhansk and Donetsk in the east. While the Kremlin says it will be up to the areas residents to determine their own future, Putin last month hinted he expected to annex the regions outright: He compared the war in Ukraine with Peter the Greats wars of conquest in the 18th century and said that, like the Russian czar, it has also fallen to us to return lost Russian territory.

At the same time, the Kremlin appears to be keeping its options open by offering few specifics. Aleksei Chesnakov, a Moscow political consultant who has advised the Kremlin on Ukraine policy, said Moscow viewed referendums on joining Russia as its base scenario  although preparations for a potential vote were not yet complete. He declined to say whether he was involved in the process himself.

The referendum scenario looks to be realistic and the priority in the absence of signals from Kyiv about readiness for negotiations on a settlement, Chesnakov said in a written response to questions. The legal and political vacuum, of course, needs to be filled.

As a result, a scramble to mobilize the residents of Russian-occupied territories for a referendum is increasingly visible on the ground  portrayed as the initiative of local leaders.

The Russian-appointed authorities of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, for instance, announced this past week that they were forming election commissions to prepare for referendums, which one official said could happen Sept. 11  a day when local and regional elections are scheduled to be held across Russia.

The announcement invited residents to apply to join the election commission by submitting a passport copy, education records and two ID-size photographs.

Officials are accompanying preparations for a vote with an intensified propaganda campaign  priming the areas residents as well as the domestic audience in Russia for a looming annexation. A new pro-Russian newspaper in the Zaporizhzhia region titled its second issue last week with the headline: The referendum will be! On the marquee weekly news show on Russian state television last Sunday, a report promised that everything is being done to ensure that Kherson returns to its historical homeland as soon as possible.

Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said this month, comparing the referendum preparations with the Kremlins moves in 2014 to try to justify its annexation of Crimea. Annexation by force will be a gross violation of the U.N. Charter, and we will not allow it to go unchallenged or unpunished.

In Kyiv, Ukraines capital, officials say any referendum on merging with Russia or forming a Russian client state in occupied areas would be illegal, riddled with fraud and do nothing to legitimize land seizures.

For Ukrainian civilians, the occupation has been accompanied by myriad hardships, including shortages of cash and medicine  a situation the Russians try to exploit to win allegiance from locals by distributing humanitarian aid.

Those seeking a sense of normalcy are being incentivized to apply for a Russian passport, which is now required for things like registering a motor vehicle or certain types of businesses; newborns and orphans are automatically registered as Russian citizens.

Theres no money in Kherson, theres no work in Kherson, said Andrei, 33, who worked in the service department of a car dealership in the city before the war. He left his home in the city with his wife and small child in early July and moved to western Ukraine.

Kherson has returned to the 1990s when only vodka, beer and cigarettes were for sale, he said.

After taking control in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian forces sought out pro-Kremlin Ukrainian officials and installed them in government positions.

At the same time, they engaged in a continuing campaign to stifle dissent that included abducting, torturing and executing political and cultural leaders who were deemed a threat, according to witnesses interviewed by The New York Times, Western and Ukrainian officials, and independent humanitarian groups like Human Rights Watch.

Russian occupiers cut off access to Ukrainian cellular service, and limited the availability of YouTube and a popular messaging app, Viber. They introduced the ruble and started changing the school curriculum to the Russian one  which increasingly seeks to indoctrinate children with Putins worldview.

A top priority appears to have been to get locals watching Russian television: Russian state broadcasting employees in Crimea were deployed to Kherson to start a news show called Kherson and Zaporizhzhia 24, and set-top boxes giving access to the Russian airwaves were distributed for free  or even delivered to residents not able to pick them up in person.

Igor Kolykhaiev, mayor of the city of Kherson since 2020, said late last month that the Russian propaganda, coupled with the feeling of being abandoned by the government in Kyiv, was slowly succeeding in changing the perceptions of some residents who have stayed behind  mainly pensioners and people with low incomes.

I think that something is changing in relationships, probably in peoples habits, he said, estimating that 5% to 10% of his constituents had changed their mind because of the propaganda.

This is an irreversible process that will happen in the future, he added. And thats what Im really worried about. Then it will be almost impossible to restore it.

Kolykhaiev spoke from a makeshift office in Kherson. Days later, his assistant announced he had been abducted by pro-Russian occupying forces. As of Friday, he had not been heard from.

Putin has referred to Kherson and other parts of Ukraines southeast as Novorossiya, or New Russia  the regions name after it was conquered by Catherine the Great in the 18th century and became part of the Russian Empire.

In recent years, nostalgia in the region for the Soviet past and skepticism of the pro-Western government in Kyiv still lingered among older generations, even as the region was forging a new Ukrainian identity.

Early in the occupation this spring, residents of Kherson gathered repeatedly for large, boisterous protests to challenge Russian troops even if they provoked gunfire in response. This open confrontation has largely ended, according to a 30-year-old lifelong Kherson resident, Ivan, who remains in the city and asked that his last name be withheld because of the risks of speaking out publicly.

As soon as there is a large gathering of people, soldiers appear immediately, he said. Its really life-threatening at this point.

But signs of resistance are evident, residents said.

Our people go out at night and paint Ukrainian flags, said another man, Andrei. In yellow and blue letters they paint, We believe in the Ukrainian armed forces.

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A pastor from Oregon slammed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for touting Christian nationalism in her political messages. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

An Oregon minister slammed Rep. Greene for pushing Christian nationalism in her political comments.

Rev. Chuck Currie called Christian nationalism a "racist ideology incompatible with Christianity."

"Beware false teachers like Greene. She dances with the devil," Currie tweeted.

A minister in Oregon this week rebuked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's embrace of Christian nationalism  an ideology he said is "incompatible with Christianity."

Rev. Chuck Currie responded to a social media post from Greene, where she called liberals "godless" and bragged about being a "proud Christian Nationalist."

"The left has shown us exactly who they are. They hate America, they hate God, and they hate us," Greene tweeted on Monday night.

In response, Currie tweeted: "Unlike Marjorie Taylor Greene, I've studied the Scriptures & devoted myself to serving the Church."

Unlike Marjorie Taylor Greene, I've studied the Scriptures & devoted myself to serving the Church. Christian nationalism is a racist ideology incompatible with Christianity. Jesus was for all the world, not one nation. Beware false teachers like Greene. She dances with the devil. https://t.co/077Te6OBCX  Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) July 26, 2022

Currie, who is a chaplain emeritus at Pacific University in Oregon, added that he thought Christian nationalism is a "racist ideology incompatible with Christianity."

"Jesus was for all the world, not one nation," he tweeted. "Beware false teachers like Greene. She dances with the devil."

Christian nationalism is not the same as Christianity  it is a right-wing ideology that, among other things, advocates against the separation of church and state.

Reports from CNN and The New York Times have tracked how fringe conspiracy theories have taken hold in the movement, and how far-right politicians like Lauren Boebert, Doug Mastriano, and Greene, have espoused these messages.

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This weekend, former President Donald Trump, too, appeared to push messaging in line with the tenets of Christian nationalism, telling a conference crowd that "Americans kneel to God, and God alone."

Currie and representatives for Greene did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Sunday defended his no vote on a bill to aid military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits against what he called false accusations from comedian Jon Stewart.

Toomey, during an appearance on CNNs State of the Union with host Jake Tapper, called the former Daily Show host a pseudo-celebrity and accused the bills Democratic backers of the oldest trick in Washington.

People take a sympathetic group of Americans  and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans whove been exposed to toxic chemicals  craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own, and dare Republicans to do anything about it, Toomey said.

The legislations supporters, Toomey said, will then unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo-celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldnt be there.

Toomey insisted that he and his fellow Republicans dont oppose the bill itself, but are worried instead about Democrats using it to acquire funds for unrelated matters and switch discretionary funding to mandatory.

Stewart has knocked the GOP for holding up the bills progress and for misinterpreting the proposal.

Their constituents are dying, Stewart said in D.C. last week.

On Sunday, Stewart blasted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for voting no and called claims about the spending language in the bill and the potential to misuse included funds factually incorrect.

All Democrats and eight Republicans voted for the bill when it was first introduced last week, but the tally fell five votes short of the amount needed to bypass the filibuster.

Toomey on Sunday emphasized the Republican push for an amendment vote on the bill.

This is why they do this sort of thing, Jake, because it gets very deep in the weeds and very confusing for people very quickly  We are spending way too much money to use  to hide behind a veterans bill the opportunity to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree is wrong. And we shouldnt allow it, the Pennsylvania senator said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Its been six months since Stockton Fire Capt. Vidal Max Fortuna was shot and killed in the line of duty while responding to a fire and on Saturday he was was added to the California Firefighters Memorial in Sacramento.

Fortuna, 47, was killed while responding to a dumpster fire early Jan. 31 near Aurora and Washington streets. And in June, a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge ordered Robert Alston Somerville, the man charged in connection with the fatal shooting, to stand trial in Fortuna's death.

ICYMI: Robert Somerville ordered to stand trial in death of Stockton Fire Capt. Max Fortuna

While many of our SFD family were able to attend, the citys 12 firehouses needed to be staffed. As 12 firehouses worth of firefighters were watching the livestream, eagerly awaiting the calling of Maxs name, structure tones erupted, Stockton Firefighters Local 456 said in a Facebook post.

Stockton Fire Dept. Capt. Max Fortuna

A total of 82 fallen firefighters from Los Angeles County, CAL FIRE, Stockton and more agencies across the state were added to the Capitol Park memorial on Saturday.

"Max paid the ultimate sacrifice, not knowing he would be a victim of violent crime. When we go on calls, that's the last thing we think of," Mario Gardea, president of the Stockton Firefighters Local 456, told CBS13 Sacramento.

As Fortunas name was read at the ceremony his son accepted the state flag on behalf of the family, CBS13 Sacramento reported.

This is not the first time that a Stockton Fire Department firefighter's name has been added to the California Firefighters Memorial at Capitol Park.

Brett Alan Laws, 29, and Bryan Jacob Golden, 21, who were killed in a 1997 structure fire on Mendocino Avenue in Stockton, were among 21 other San Joaquin County firefighters whose names were added to the limestone wall 20 years ago.

Take a look: Remembering Stockton, San Joaquin County firefighters who died in the line of duty

They were among the first 855 fallen California firefighters whose names were added to the memorial 20 years ago when the California Firefighters Memorial was unveiled on April 6, 2002. Annual Memorial ceremonies have been held since, adding more than 400 names to the memorial.

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Tracy Fire Department Capt. Daniel Stephen Havicus was also added to the memorial on Saturday.

California's Attorney General Rob Bonta was among those who attended the memorial.

From house fires to brutal wildfires, every day CA firefighters risk their lives to keep us safe.



I'm honored to join @CAFireFound in paying tribute to 82 fallen firefighters at the #CAFirefightersMemorial.



While nothing can bring them back, they have our deepest gratitude. pic.twitter.com/0NEvsSQzfy  Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) July 31, 2022

From house fires to brutal wildfires, every day CA firefighters risk their lives to keep us safe. I'm honored to join @CAFireFound in paying tribute to 82 fallen firefighters at the #CAFirefightersMemorial. While nothing can bring them back, they have our deepest gratitude, Bonta said via Twitter.

As this is all happening, Maxs name is being read  Rest easy brother, we got it from here, Stockton Firefighters Local 456 said in the Facebook post.

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton fallen firefighter added to California Firefighters Memorial
Jul. 31LEBANON

N ew Hampshire has lost a true champion for children and families.

Dick Cyr, the founder of David's House, a refuge for families with sick children, died on July 24 at age 85.

Cyr leaves a legacy of love and compassion that grew out of his own grief and loss.

Jaye Olmstead, executive director of David's House, was friends with Cyr for 15 years.

"Dick will just always be one of the most special people I've ever met," Olmstead said, her eyes and voice brimming with emotion. "He has just inspired so much kindness and care."

When she thinks of her dear friend, "compassionate and generous" are the first words that come to mind, Olmstead said. "He had so much love for families," she said.

Built on the campus of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, David's House looks like an old-fashioned New England inn. A welcoming front porch features rocking chairs and heart-shaped designs, a playground adorns the front yard, and hydrangeas bloom near a gazebo that's a perfect spot for quiet contemplation.

Spend a little time here and it's clear: This place is a sanctuary.

Over the years, more than 16,000 families have stayed overnight at David's House, free of charge, while their children were receiving care at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock. Many thousands more have been day guests, Olmstead said.

For families going through difficult times, it's a place to take a shower, have a meal and meet other families going through similar experiences and sometimes loss.

Something special

The vision that became David's House came out of the worst pain a family can know: the terminal illness and death of a beloved child.

Dick and Gerry Cyr, who had two grown children of their own, adopted 10-month-old David in late 1979. The baby had been placed in a foster home by the state of Vermont after he was found malnourished and living in a car with his birth family.

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David soon was thriving at the Cyrs' Vermont home, where Dick Cyr posted a handmade sign, "David's House," to reassure the little boy that he had found his forever home. That sign now hangs above the door at David's House.

When David was 2, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

More than three years of medical treatments and hospitalizations followed at what was then Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, where the Cyrs met families from all over who had come here for world-class pediatric care.

While their own home was just a 20-minute drive across the river from the medical center, they saw many families who slept in waiting rooms or in their cars while their children were hospitalized.

Each time David left the hospital after treatment, he begged his dad to let him bring the other children home with them, Olmstead said. "Some day," Cyr would promise him.

Whenever David got money for chores or gifts, he would hide it away. His father teased him, asking him what he was saving his money for. "And he'd say, 'Something special, Daddy,'" Olmstead said.

David died on Sept. 8, 1984. He was 5.

His father resolved to fulfill his promise: "We're going to build a house so that all of the kids and their families have a place they could be together," Olmstead said.

After David died, his father found his son's treasure trove, and that $300.78 was the first deposit into a fund to create the nonprofit organization that became David's House.

Something special indeed.

Its first location was a house in Hanover with seven bedrooms, purchased in 1986. When Dartmouth Hitchcock moved to the Lebanon campus, its leaders approached David's House with a proposal, Olmstead said: "If we lease you land for $1 a year, would you build a new David's House on the new campus?"

They did so, and the new house opened in 1994. In the years since, rooms have been added, and the house now has 20 bedrooms, each carefully decorated with natural themes: the bird room, garden room, dolphin room. There are common areas for gathering and eating, and places where you can be alone.

Home away from home

Half of the families who stay at David's House, Olmstead said, are coming for scheduled appointments and treatment, for children with chronic medical conditions. The other half end up here because of a crisis, she said, such as a car crash or premature birth.

"For these families, they were not planning their trip to the hospital, so they have nothing with them," she said.

Everything at David's House is offered free of charge: the cozy rooms, toiletry items and meals that volunteers bring in. There is no time limit on stays, Olmstead said. One mother whose baby was born prematurely last October has been living at David's House ever since.

The busiest time for families at the house tends to be between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., Olmstead said. "They've been at the hospital all day," she said. "They have been laser-focused on their child."

Ellah Murray was born on Feb. 26, 2017 at just 24 weeks, a tiny baby weighing only about a pound.

Her dad, Mike Murray of Tilton, said his wife, Stephanie, had an emergency C-section and had to stay in the hospital, but he rushed to CHaD to be with their firstborn daughter.

"Everything was a blur," he recalled.

The staff in the newborn intensive care unit told the Murrays about David's House. Over the next five months, as little Ellah battled for life, "It became our home away from home," he said.

That allowed them to be there whenever Ellah's condition took a turn for the worse, even if it was the middle of the night. "We had a few phone calls to come up and say goodbye," Murray said. "We would rush over to the hospital."

"We were able to have that connection instead of being an hour and a half away."

The Murrays met and bonded with other families who were going through a similar ordeal, he said. "We were able to bounce off each other if you had a rough day," he said.

They got to know Dick Cyr during their stays at David's House, and Cyr never failed to ask about Ellah, who is now 5.

Murray remembers Cyr as "a guy with a big heart."

"He took a tragic event that happened to him and made something of it," he said.

Grief and solace

Sometimes, David's House is a gathering place for extended families when it's time to say goodbye to a little one.

"Dick just wanted families to be together when it mattered most," Olmstead said.

Dan Gauthier, a former Concord middle school teacher who now lives in Georgia, became close friends with Dick Cyr through their bond of shared grief.

Gauthier's 6-year-old daughter, Taylor, died in 2006, two months after she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of cancer. She spent a month at CHaD, and her parents stayed at David's House.

David's House was a refuge during those dark days, Gauthier said. "Just being around people who are going through the same situation," he said.

"You don't even have to talk to them. You just look at each other and nod," he said. "People just know."

After his daughter's death, Gauthier became active in David's House, serving on the board for many years and becoming an "ambassador," working on fundraising and public events.

It was a way to channel his grief over the loss of his little girl, he said. "The biggest fear of any bereaved parent is that his child will be forgotten," Gauthier said.

Because of Dick Cyr, he said, "David will never be forgotten, and Taylor is not going to be forgotten either."

"I just want people to understand the absolutely compassionate, genuine and generous human being this man was," Gauthier said. "His legacy is in the house, and his legacy is in the tens of thousands of families he's come in contact with."

Source of refuge

Jessica Laperle, patient experience manager for Dartmouth Health Children's Child Life Program, said David's House has been a critical resource for families. "David, Dick, and the whole Cyr family understood that it is never just the child that needs care," she said. "The whole family experiences the illness or injury and needs a place to heal and recover where they can be together."

Executive director Olmstead said she feels privileged to be part of David's House "and to know it makes such a difference."

"We hear that every day, that David's House is truly life-saving and life-changing for families," she said.

For one family from Spofford, "It's really been our home away from home for 25 and a half years," said Robin (she didn't want her last name used). Her 26-year-old daughter, Natalie, has a rare genetic disease that causes serious medical issues, including cerebral palsy, and they often have to be at the medical center for appointments.

In the most difficult times, David's House has been a source of refuge, Robin said. "It's the people, it is the comfort, it is just knowing that you have a place that is home when you're not home."

They got to know Dick Cyr well over all those years, and he was always so kind to Natalie, she said.

The man was "a gift," Robin said. "Gentle, kind, loyal, delightful."

"He had a great sense of humor, a twinkle in his eye, always a smile," she said. "You felt loved."

Jaye Olmstead got the news of Cyr's death as she was driving home from the 12th annual "Sundae at David's House," a gathering for families who over the years have found comfort and friendship there.

For those who knew him, it seems fitting that Cyr left this world on a day set aside for remembrance, kindness and love.

"Maybe he was holding out for that last Sunday," said Mike Murray, Ellah's dad. "He was there in spirit."

Cyr liked to say that David's House "always had the right people in the right place at the right time," Olmstead said. And that's what last Sunday felt like, she said.

"He knew the right people were in the right place, and it was the right time for him," she said.

.

Plans for a celebration of Dick Cyr's life will be posted on davids-house.org.

swickham@unionleader.com
Kelowna, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2022) - Strathmore Plus Energy Corp. (NEX: SUU.H) (OTC: SUUFF) ("Strathmore Plus" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce it has entered into an amending agreement dated July 19, 2022, to the shares-for-services agreement dated January 13, 2022 (collectively, the "Shares for Services Agreement") between the Company and Mr. John Dejoia. Mr. DeJoia acts as technical advisor to the Company in respect of its proposed acquisition of Wyoming Uranium LLC and its 131 lode mining claims totaling 2,706 acres in the Beaver Rim area of the Gas Hills District, Wyoming, USA (the "Acquisition"). The Acquisition remains subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Subject to regulatory approval, and pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") Policy 4.4, the Company proposes to pay Mr. Dejoia 500,000 common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares") at a deemed price of $0.29 per Common Share and equivalent in value to $145,000 (the "Consideration") based on the closing price of the Common Shares on January 12, 2022 (the last trading day preceding the date of the Shares for Services Agreement). Mr. Dejoia rendered services to the Company beginning in October 2021 by identifying, evaluating and facilitating the Acquisition and, subject to the Consideration, will receive no other compensation for such services. Mr. DeJoia is at arm's length to the Company within the meaning of the policies of the TSX-V, and the value of the Consideration was established through arm's-length negotiation.

Mr. DeJoia, P.Geo, is an experienced geologist having explored and mined through much of the United States, and has extensive experience in the Gas Hills. Dev Randhawa commented; "We are happy to have John on board with his vast exploration and mining experience."

About Strathmore Plus Energy Corp.

Strathmore Plus is a uranium exploration company, focused on in-situ recoverable uranium deposits in the State of Wyoming.

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Strathmore Plus Energy Corp.

Contact Information:

Investor Relations

Telephone: 1 888 882 8177

Email: info@strathmoreplus.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Dev Randhawa"

Dev Randhawa, CEO

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, the issuance of the Consideration, the consummation and timing of the Acquisition, and the timing and receipt of regulatory approvals. Forward-looking information is frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. These forward-looking statements may also include statements regarding perceived merit of mining claims; timelines; strategic plans; market prices for precious and base metals; or other statements that are not statements of fact.

Forward-looking information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include failure to receive the required regulatory approvals to effect the Transaction; changes in laws, regulations and government practices; risks pertaining to the outbreak of the global pandemics, including COVID-19; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators and in other Company reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The Company's forward-looking information reflects the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information or beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131357
steam rises from a cup of coffee

Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Stylist: Torie Cox

With temperatures reaching record highs not only here in the South but throughout the U.S. and around the world, we're all thinking about ways to keep our cool this summer. One idea that's been floating around for decades is that sipping hot drinks in hot temperatures will cool our bodies off. But will it? We checked in with experts to find out.

Will Hot Drinks Keep You Cool?

When asked if there is any science behind the belief that drinking hot drinks in hotter weather helps manage body heat, Douglas J. Casa, Ph.D., CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute and a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, told Southern Living, "[There is ] absolutely no evidence. To be very clear, hot drinks are a very bad idea during hot weather. They will cause you to heat up even more than you already are.

"It is very beneficial to have cold drinks to cool yourself down from the inside," Casa continued. "Some good evidence is the benefit of slushie-type drinks to help keep body temperature down."

W. Larry Kenney, Ph.D., a professor of physiology and kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University and a member of the American Physiological Society, added "I can tell you that there is zero evidence that hot drinks are useful in warm weather. [It's an] old wives' tale."

Dry Versus Humid Heat May Make A Difference

Whether or not hot beverages can make a difference in managing body heat may depend on whether conditions are dry or humid.

S. Tony Wolf, Ph.D., a member of the American Physiological Society, says that there is some evidence that drinking a warm beverage increases evaporative heat loss potential and, therefore, reduces body heat storage in dry environments that allow for sweat evaporation. The key words here are dry environments. Think: desert conditions.

"The reason for this is that there are warm-sensitive thermosensors in the esophagus and the stomach, and when those sensors detect a rise in temperature, sweat rate increases," explains Wolf. "So, for those who are trying to stay cool in a hot-dry environment, drinking hot beverages may promote enhanced body heat dissipation." In other words, sweat.

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"However, in more humid environments, where evaporation of sweat is limited, those increases in sweat rate are not likely to be as beneficial because the sweat is not readily evaporated into the environment," Wolf adds. "Evaporation of sweat is required for the dissipation of heat; if the sweat is not evaporated, it has no beneficial effect on the maintenance of heat balance. Thus, in humid environments a cold beverage is likely more beneficial than a warm beverage."

Nathan Morris, assistant professor in thermal physiology in the Department of Human Physiology and Nutrition at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs adds, "In humid conditions, like in Florida, people often can't evaporate all the sweat off their skin due to the humid conditions, and it is the evaporation of sweat, not the production of sweat, that cools people down. More sweat dripping off their bodies won't cool them down more, so hot drinks in Florida will be particularly ineffective."

Morris adds that instead of hot beverages, "Fans are effective in humid environments because they help evaporate more sweat."

Stay Hydrated

Whatever you decide to drink in the heat of the summer, one thing remains important: Stay hydrated.

"It is, indeed, important to replenish lost fluids in the heat to prevent significant dehydration," says Wolf. "In fact, the increased sweating associated with hot beverage ingestion likely increases the rate of dehydration; thus, more fluid intake would be necessary to replace the fluids lost through sweat."

Morris advises, "Since the body adjusts its sweat rate to account for the heat content of the drinks, people are best off drinking the temperature of water that tastes best and feels best to them, usually around 10-12C (50-54F), as it will encourage them to drink more water."

"If rehydration is key, then fluid temps between 50F and 59F are optimal to allow larger quantities of ingestion," says Casa, adding that warm drinks are not palatable for large volumes, and really cold liquids are hard to ingest in large quantities.

This is not to say that cups of coffee or tea, or other hot drinks, need to be completely off the table when summer temperatures are soaring.

"Drinking hot drinks are fine in hot weather if you are not going to have any intense challenges to your thermoregulation, for example exercising or working in the heat, or living in oppressive conditions, like without air conditioning," says Casa, adding that some athletes lose two to three liters per hour of intense activity in the heat.

"But, if you are going to be active or having to live extensively in the heat, stick with cold beverages," he advises.
England have a chance to make history when they take on Germany in the Euro 2022 final at a sold-out Wembley on Sunday.

Sarina Wiegmans Lionesses will be looking for a first-ever European Championship crown and Englands first major tournament title  mens or womens  since 1966.

Record winners Germany, in contrast, will be seeking to become champions for the seventh time in the last eight editions and for the ninth time overall.

Here we take a look at three key on-field battles that could decide the match.

Millie Bright vs Alexandra Popp

(PA Wire)

Bright has been a stalwart of Englands defence throughout the Euros and led the backline of a team who have only conceded one goal so far, however she faces a tough challenge against Germany captain Alexandra Popp. Having missed the last two Euros through injuries  including a potentially career-threatening cartilage tear  Popp has had a Euro 2022 to remember. The 31-year-old Wolfsburg forward is joint leader  alongside Englands Beth Mead  in the race to win the Golden Boot with six goals from five matches and she will provide a formidable test for Bright and her defensive colleagues.

Rachel Daly vs Svenja Huth

(PA Wire)

Left-back Daly arguably struggled against Spain during Englands quarter-final victory and most of the Spanish attacking threat was down their right-hand side, but the 30-year-old has been a source of strength during other matches. Germany forward Huth has done well against English opposition this season  scoring twice during Wolfsburgs Champions League win over Chelsea  and could look to exploit Daly and cause similar problems to the ones posed by Spains Athenea del Castillo, as well as limiting the defenders ability to break forward.

Keira Walsh vs Lena Oberdorf

(PA Wire)

Walsh has been impressive all tournament for England in the centre of midfield, and embodies the spirit installed into the team by Wiegman, while 20-year-old Oberdorf has grown throughout the competition. Although defensive midfielders are usually the ones who go under the radar, the battle to gain the upper hand in the middle of the park could go a long way to determining the outcome of the final.
Covid test

Getty

President Joe Biden's recent health relapse has raised some questions about COVID-19 rebound.

After first testing positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, July 21, Biden, 79, began a Paxlovid treatment and started testing negative again on Tuesday evening. The White House later revealed that he tested positive again on Saturday in what has become known as a rebound case.

In a statement on Sunday, the president's physician, Dr. Kevin C. O'Connor, noted that Biden "continues to feel well" while still testing positive. He will continue conducting business while remaining under "strict isolation."

RELATED: President Joe Biden Tests Positive for COVID for the Second Time in a Month

The Biden administration has previously recommended the use of Paxlovid, of which more than 3 million courses have been administered in the United States since December, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Paxlovid for emergency use in December after it was proven to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death in high-risk adults by 89 percent. And although the treatment has been effective for many, some have reported rebound cases of COVID-19 after taking the antiviral.

As Biden continues to recover, here are some important facts to know about COVID-19 rebound.

Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again.



This happens with a small minority of folks.



Ive got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me.



Im still at work, and will be back on the road soon.  President Biden (@POTUS) July 30, 2022

What is COVID-19 rebound?

Back in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidance on COVID-19 rebound, which is described as "a recurrence of symptoms or a new positive viral test after having tested negative."

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Rebound cases have been reported in patients between two to eight days after their initial recovery, and symptoms continue to be mild in those who have completed Paxlovid treatment.

"Based on information from the case reports, COVID-19 rebound did not represent reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 or the development of resistance to Paxlovid," the guidance added.

RELATED: What to Know About Paxlovid, the Antiviral Drug That President Biden Is Taking for COVID

The CDC also reported that during the Paxlovid clinical trial, a small percentage of rebound cases were found in both those who were administered the drug and people who took the placebo, meaning rebound does not appear to be caused by the antiviral.

"There was no increased occurrence of hospitalization or death, and there was no evidence that the rebound in detectable viral RNA was the result of SARS-CoV-2 resistance to Paxlovid," the report added.

Paxlovid

Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

How common are COVID-19 rebound cases?

Although rebound cases have been reported to be rare, some medical experts say they're more common than originally thought, according to The Washington Post.

Catherine Bennett, a professor of epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, told the outlet that rebound cases are "not rare, but uncommon," as they've occurred with around 10 percent of people who've been treated with Paxlovid.

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.

In a study published last month in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that rebound cases in Paxlovid users appeared to be due to insufficient exposure to the drug, meaning that higher dosages or longer treatment durations could be necessary pending further research.

Is COVID-19 rebound contagious?

Dr. Michael Charness of the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Boston told CNN that those who experience rebound COVID are "at risk of transmitting to other people, even though they're outside what people accept as the usual window for being able to transmit."

Charness previously worked with a team of researchers at Columbia University that found at least two instances of patients with COVID-19 rebound transmitting the infection to others, even before symptoms returned.

President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House

Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty

"It's certainly conceivable that there are other people out there who don't have symptoms and still have a viral rebound," Charness added.

Although transmission of infection during rebound cases has been reported, CDC notes that "it remains unknown whether the likelihood of transmission during rebound differs from the likelihood of transmission during the initial infection."

What treatment do COVID-19 rebound cases require?

Those with rebound cases should continue to follow the CDC's isolation guidelines for at least five days, after which they can end quarantine if symptoms are improving and they've gone 24 hours without a fever (and without the help of fever-reducing medication).

RELATED VIDEO: FDA Authorizes Pharmacists to Prescribe Pfizer's COVID-19 Antiviral Pill

Patients should also continue to wear a mask for 10 days after rebound, CDC stated. If symptoms worsen, they are advised to see their doctor.

"There is currently no evidence that additional treatment is needed with Paxlovid or other anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapies in cases where COVID-19 rebound is suspected," the CDC noted in their guidance while stressing that the drug is still "recommended for early-stage treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 among persons at high risk for progression to severe disease."
LANSING  The biggest statewide race in Tuesday's primary is the Republican contest to see who will go up against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Nov. 8.

There are five candidates on the ballot, after five others were disqualified in May for submitting too many forged signatures, in a scandal the former candidates are blaming on unscrupulous signature gatherers and some of the companies that hired them.

Republican candidates running to be the next Michigan governor are (top row from left) Tudor Dixon, Ryan Kelley, and Ralph Rebandt, and (bottom row from left) Kevin Rinke and Garrett Soldano.

One of the disqualified candidates, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, is continuing to campaign as a write-in candidate.

On the Democratic side, Whitmer, who is seeking a second four-year term, is the only choice.

Republican challengers to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson were endorsed at a state party convention and do not compete in a primary.

Here is a look at the Republicans on the primary ballot:

Tudor Dixon

Residence: Norton Shores, Muskegon County

Age: 45

Occupation: Dixon has worked in the steel industry and in media, including a stint as a conservative commentator on cable TV's "Real America's Voice."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon talks to delegates and alternates during the MIGOP State Convention at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids on April 23, 2022.

Issues: Dixon is highly critical of Whitmer's handling of the pandemic, saying too many businesses were closed for too long and children suffered from a lack of in-person learning. She also says nursing home residents, including her own grandmother, suffered needlessly as a result of excessive restrictions on family visits. On education, Dixon believes Michigan's per-pupil grant should follow the student, including to private schools, which would require a constitutional amendment. She is alone among the five candidates in not calling for big cuts to higher education spending. Early in the campaign, Dixon said changes in election practices in Michigan created the potential for fraud, but did not say fraud affected outcomes. Later, she said she believes former President Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the presidential election, although as recently as Sunday she deflected that question. Dixon opposes abortion rights, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

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Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology, University of Kentucky

Family: Married with four children

Endorsements: Former President Donald Trump, the DeVos family, Right to Life of Michigan, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Police Officers Association of Michigan, Conservative Political Action Conference, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, U.S. Rep Lisa McClain, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, former Gov. John Engler.

Website: https://www.tudordixon.com/

[ Full Tudor Dixon profile ]

Ryan Kelley

Residence: Allendale Township, Ottawa County

Age: 41

Occupation: Real estate broker

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley speaks during a protest outside of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing demanding a forensic audit on Feb. 8, 2022.

Issues: Kelley was a leader in the fight against Whitmer's pandemic orders and also active in the "Stop the Steal" movement promoting, without evidence, claims that fraud tilted the election outcome in favor of President Joe Biden. Kelley, who faces misdemeanor charges arising from his presence at the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, says he would declare the COVID-19 pandemic over on his first day as governor, favor a reversal of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage, and eliminate all government jobs related to "diversity, equity, and inclusion." He says he would also move the state to zero-based budgeting where each agency would have to justify its annual expenditures as if starting from scratch, sharply reduce Michigan's 6% corporate income tax and ban abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

2022 Michigan primary voter guide

Enter your address for information on which races and candidates will be on your ballot for the Michigan primary election on Aug. 2.

Education: Studied electronics engineering at Grand Rapids Community College, but did not graduate

Family: Married with six children

Endorsements: National Firearms Coalition, Michigan Coalition for Freedom, Michigan Health Choice Alliance PAC, American Patriots Forum, former state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, former state Rep. Kevin Green.

Website: https://ryandkelley.com/

[ Full Ryan Kelley profile ]

Ralph Rebandt

Residence: Farmington Hills, Oakland County

Age: 64

Occupation: Retired pastor, police chaplain

Republican gubernatorial candidate Pastor Ralph Rebandt of Farmington Hills talks about his ideas on how he would run the state of Michigan if he were to win the election at his home in Farmington Hills on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.

Issues: Rebandt says he wants to make the Bible the primary textbook in public schools  a change that would be prohibited under the U.S. Supreme Court's current interpretation of the establishment clause of the constitution. He says he would eliminate state funding for public universities, though unspecified amounts would be allocated to students to use at the postsecondary school of their choice. He favors releasing more nonviolent offenders from prison and says the state could save money by relying more on faith-based organizations to work with offenders. Rebandt says Trump was the rightful winner of the presidential election and filed a notarized statement with the Legislature alleging he witnessed illegal activity while observing the counting of absentee ballots in Detroit. Similar claims were rejected by Michigan courts. Rebandt opposes abortion rights, with no exceptions.

More: Most Michigan GOP governor candidates would have nixed $600M incentive GM received

More: GOP candidates for governor attack one another at Oakland University debate

Education: Bachelor's Degree in religious education from Pennsylvania's Summit University; master's in religious education and master of divinity from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.

Family: Married with four grown children

Endorsements: Southeastern Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, Michigan Health Choice Alliance PAC.

Website: https://www.ralphrebandtforgovernor.com/

[ Full Ralph Rebandt profile ]

Kevin Rinke

Residence: Bloomfield Township, Oakland County

Age: 61

Occupation: Businessman

Kevin Rinke, a local auto dealer millionaire is among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Michigan governor visits the Detroit Free Press on Feb. 4, 2022, for an interview. Rinke was joined by his campaign manager Marshall Moreau.

Issues: Rinke would eliminate the state income tax, which brings in close to $13 billion a year. He has not specified what if any programs he would eliminate, but says significant recent increases in the overall budget would make the change more manageable and economic growth resulting from the change would generate additional state revenue. Though he has pointed to voter fraud and ran a TV ad about dead Democrats voting, Rinke is alone among the five candidates in declining to say that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election, although Dixon recently skirted the question. Rinke is critical of Whitmer's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic for reasons similar to those voiced by the other Republican candidates. He would allow tax credits for donations to private schools. On abortion, Rinke also stands alone in the GOP primary field in favoring exceptions to an abortion ban in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant person.

Education: Bachelor's degree, Michigan State University

Family: Married with three grown children

Endorsements: Former gubernatorial candidate and Michigan State Police Capt. Mike Brown, Michigan-born rocker Ted Nugent, conservative broadcaster and author Hugh Hewitt, former state Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker.

Website: https://rinkeformichigan.com/

[ Full Kevin Rinke profile ]

Garrett Soldano

Residence: Texas Township, Kalamazoo County

Age: 44

Occupation: Chiropractor

Garrett Soldano, one of five Michigan gubernatorial candidates, talks about his campaign Friday, June 10, 2022.

Issues: An early leader of groups opposing Whitmer's management of the pandemic, Soldano says he opposes vaccine mandates, even when imposed by private employers. Though he is the only GOP gubernatorial candidate who says he would have agreed to pay GM the more than $600 million in incentives the state has promised it to help attract $7 billion in investment and two new Michigan manufacturing plants, Soldano says he generally favors lower taxes and regulations over direct incentives. On education, he says he favors parental choice and parental rights over "partisan teachers unions," and, like the other four candidates, would ban critical race theory. He wants to eliminate the personal income tax and further reduce corporate taxes but said any spending cuts would first be identified through "forensic accounting." Soldano believes Trump won the 2020 presidential election and opposes abortion rights, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Education: Bachelor's degree in criminal justice, Western Michigan University

Family: Married father of two

Endorsements: This information has been requested from the campaign.

Website: https://garrettformichigan.com/home/

[ Full Garrett Soldano profile ]

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan governor race 2022: Meet the Republican candidates
Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge will bring her soulful sounds Aug. 14 to Liberty Hall in Lawrence.

For her latest album, "One Way Out," Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge recorded songs that had fallen through the cracks.

Now Etheridge, a native of Leavenworth, is bringing them into the light.

"I've just loved having them out now because I can play these songs live," she said. "I really missed them. I didn't record them way back then, but those reasons are so silly now to me. I'm so happy to have them out."

Etheridge is adding them to her extensive repertoire, which includes hits like "I'm the Only One," "Like the Way I Do" and "Come to My Window."

Etheridge will bring those tunes and more to life on stage at 8 p.m. Aug. 14 at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence.

Former band members helped her in cutting her new album, which is on sale in tangerine vinyl for $23.98.

"I did them with my original musicians from the '80s," Etheridge said. "It was really fun to get back together with them."

'Feel the fear and do it anyway'

Melissa Etheridge's Aug. 14 concert in Lawrence will feature new releases from her album "One Way Out."

The title of Etheridge's album and tour, "One Way Out," signifies how she approaches life.

"The way out is just walk right through it, and don't let anything stop you," she said. "Feel the fear and do it anyway."

Etheridge has experienced fear numerous times in her life, such as when she faced stigma coming out as gay in 1993, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and when she watched as her child struggled with and subsequently die from opioid addiction in 2020.

Etheridge stands up for the issues that have affected her the most  equality for the queer society, support for people affected by cancer and their ability to use cannabis products for treatment, and for an end to opioid addiction.

"This is a big part of what I speak about and the path that I walk," Etheridge said. "Those things are important to me. They're part of my life."

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Rock star: Equality for queer society is in a precarious situation

"It is something that we unfortunately think about," said Etheridge in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. "I always hope for the best.

"The world is filled with a lot of fear, and people are very fearful of the 'other,' of any thing that's not just like them, and it's unfortunate that our love is fearful to them."

Etheridge said she is sad but hopeful she will see the pendulum swing back to a more inclusive direction.

Melissa Etheridge: Marijuana needed as a treatment for illness

"Having gone through breast cancer, I used cannabis, and I enjoy legal cannabis here in California," Etheridge said.

"I wish that there were (laws legalizing marijuana) in Kansas because there are many people suffering that cannabis helps, and there's, again, a whole lot of misinformation about it," she said.

Kansas-born singer says opiates are a menace to society

The rock star's son, Beckett Etheridge, was 17 years old when he became addicted to opiates after breaking his ankle in 2016.

He battled the addiction for four years, eventually becoming a user of fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.

"There were no alternatives, and he was having such a hard time," Melissa Etheridge said. "That's why we have the Etheridge Foundation."

The organization supports scientific research into new treatments for opioid use disorder.

An enduring love for Kansas

Melissa Etheridge wrote the book "Heartstrings" about her love affair with her guitars, each one named after a significant woman in history.

The songstress said she loves being back in Kansas, although she was more than ready to spread her wings after high school.

"I lived about three blocks from the penitentiary, and I tell people, 'I've spent 18 years in Leavenworth,'" she said. "I was one of those people that, 'I can't wait to get out of here and into the world,' and now that I have children and I've seen the world, I'm like, 'Come on, I want to go back to Kansas.'"

Melissa Etheridge loves the work ethic, the "Do good in life and harm no one" and "Be a good person" philosophies of Kansas, she said.

"That's pretty much what I learned in my hometown," she said.

How to get tickets to see Melissa Etheridge in Lawrence

Tickets for Melissa Etheridge's "One Way Out Tour" cost between $69 and $122 at Ticketmaster's website. Those wishing to purchase tickets are urged to do so soon, as availability is decreasing, and ticket prices are likely to increase.

The event organizer is requiring COVID-19 vaccination proof for attendees (14 days past the final vaccination shot).

Children younger than 12 years may be required to take a COVID-19 diagnostic test (generally within 48 to 72 hours before the event) and provide proof of negative result prior to entering the venue.

Proof of vaccination can be a physical paper copy or a snapshot on a mobile device, along with a matching photo ID.

Catheryn Hrenchir is a feature writer for The Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at chrenchir@gannett.com or (785) 817-6383.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Grammy Award-winning Melissa Etheridge to play Aug. 14 in Lawrence
Sacked Formula One race director Michael Masi has said he received death threats following the decision that cost Lewis Hamilton an eighth world title.

Masi was stood down from the race directors role after an investigation into his handling of the Abu Dhabi title showdown finale in December.

The Australian controversially let lapped cars pass the safety car on the final lap  meaning title rival Max Verstappen had a clear run at Hamilton on much faster tyres.

Max Verstappen, centre, celebrates his maiden F1 world title victory in Abu Dhabi (PA)

Verstappen won the one-lap shoot-out, denying Hamilton the crown at the seasons big finale.

Masi quit F1 last month to return home to Australia, and has now revealed the scale of abuse he has received.

There were some really dark days, Masi told Sydneys Daily Telegraph.

I felt like I was the most hated man in the world.

I got death threats, people saying they were going to come after me and my family.

I still remember walking down the street in London a day or two later. I thought I was OK until I started looking over my shoulder.

I was looking at people wondering if they were going to get me.
Women and children at a Taliban-controlled checkpoint outside the Kabul airport last August. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Next month marks one year since Kabul fell. On Aug. 15, 2021, after 20 years of occupation, the United States was withdrawing from Afghanistan as the Taliban encroached upon the capital.

Memories of past civil wars still haunted Kabul. Many of my relatives rushed to the Kabul airport hoping to make it out. Some waited days at checkpoints, amid massive crowds, but after a suicide bombing rocked the airport  at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the chaos  the last planes flew out of Kabul without them. In West Sacramento, Calif., my family and I watched the news and called our relatives for updates, feeling helpless.

A few weeks later, I began to hear of a U.S. government program called humanitarian parole. Essentially, it was a special program that could grant temporary entry into the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons. Online, I read that Afghans qualified for humanitarian parole because of Kabuls fall and a majority of Afghans had no other pathway out. The applications were expensive, $575 per person, but it seemed like a legitimate route into the U.S. My father, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1983, was less optimistic. Its a scam, he said. Only those with connections will get out.

And yet I remained curious. Hopeful. I reached out to Afghan Americans who had experience working with refugees. They invited me to a WhatsApp group with other volunteers keeping up to date on the Afghan refugee crisis. At first, they too seemed hopeful.

Soon after, seeking humanitarian parole turned into a phenomenon in my community in West Sacramento. Our region has one of the largest Afghan communities in the U.S. Every Afghan I knew was filling out these applications for relatives or friends. They fundraised, organized information sessions and gathered evidence to prove applicants were targets of serious harm.

By September, Afghanistans economy was in a free-fall after the Biden administration had frozen roughly $7 billion in central bank assets to punish the Taliban. My relatives in Kabul and Logar, in eastern Afghanistan, began contacting me with greater urgency. My uncle in Kabul, who worked for the passport office and who hadnt been paid in months by the former regime, offered me his life savings to act as his sponsor and to fill out applications for his family.

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Over the next few weeks, I attended an information session organized by immigration lawyers; I printed out applications and gathered my uncles paperwork. I asked my siblings to free up an evening so we could fill out multiple applications at once. As humanitarian parole fever spread, even my cynical father gave in. He was receiving nonstop messages and calls from his relatives in Logar, and he wanted to see if we could help. I also had a beloved cousin who had escaped Afghanistan two years earlier and was living undocumented in Turkey. At 20, he was working 10-hour shifts in a factory in Istanbul, in perpetual fear that he might get caught and deported. I planned to fill out an application for him as well. We had about 20 relatives waiting on us.

And yet I held off. My fathers first warning echoed in my head. I wanted to be certain that this wasnt another American scam.

I had a stack of applications partially filled out. I had photos of ID cards and passports. I had job descriptions and heartfelt pleas. But as I scrolled the messages in my humanitarian parole WhatsApp group, I realized that I hadnt heard of a single acceptance. I held out hope because I hadnt seen any rejections either, but by December, the volunteers in my WhatsApp group were getting worried. They shared reports of incredibly long response times, understaffed U.S. agencies and issues with third-party countries where some Afghans had fled.

Then, in January, the rejections started trickling in. As volunteers and lawyers tried to figure out why specific cases got rejected, it quickly became evident that all their cases  no matter how much evidence was submitted or how foolproof the case had seemed  were going to be denied.

Toward the end of February, I began to call my relatives and inform them that I wouldnt be submitting their applications. It was a scam, I said in Pashto, echoing my father. My cousin in Istanbul still dodges police day and night. My relatives in Logar are all out of work. My uncle in Kabul took a severe pay cut at his passport office job and struggles to pay for medications and rent. Meanwhile, the Biden administrations sanctions have devastated the economy, with few viable pathways for Afghans to leave.

By June, out of some 46,000 humanitarian parole applications from Afghans, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had approved only 297 while rejecting 4,246  with the rest pending, according to CBS News. The federal agency recently expanded some eligibility requirements for humanitarian parole, but its website still says the U.S. is prioritizing parole applications for Afghans outside of Afghanistan (and cant process requests for those who remain in the country since the American Embassy in Kabul is closed).

The situation remains dire. The Afghan American community has made efforts to assist refugees abroad and to raise funds for starving Afghans back home. My own family organized a food drive in May. But I often feel as if we are trying to put a bandage on a bullet wound. The other day, as my father and I were watching a news program on the food crisis in Afghanistan, he looked away from the screen and asked about the U.S.: How much more are we supposed to suffer? How much longer will this country punish us?

Its a question Im afraid to answer.

Jamil Jan Kochai is a Stegner fellow at Stanford and author of the recent short story collection The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories. @jamiljankochai

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Sunday that she will be visiting Asia but did not mention whether she will make a stop in Taiwan.

Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm Americas strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region, the California Democrat said in a statement. In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance."

Her press release left open the possibility that she still might visit Taiwan, something that has been the subject of much political debate in recent days in both the United States and Asia. China regards Taiwan as an integral part of its territory, a view not shared on that island nation located just off China's coast.



The possible visit has also created political complications for the White House. The military thinks its not a good idea right now, President Joe Biden said of the trip July 20.

Pelosi herself has long been a critic of China for its record on human rights. In 1991, she showed up in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with a banner that paid tribute to dissidents who were murdered in pro-democracy protests there two years earlier. Chinese authorities briefly detained her, as well as then-Reps. Ben Jones (D-Ga.) and John Miller (R-Wash.), over their protest.

Tiananmen Square is a magnet for us. There is no way we could come here without being drawn to the square," Pelosi said at the time.



China has considered Taiwan part of its territory since Mao Zedong established a communist state on the mainland in 1949 and nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. The U.S. did not recognize the mainland's government until the 1970s; since then, American governments have had awkward, indirect relationships with Taiwan.

In her statement, Pelosi said she was traveling with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.).
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a naval doctrine on Sunday that accused the United States of seeking to dominate the worlds oceans and extends Moscows own ambitions into the Arctic Ocean.

Putin inked the document shortly before delivering a patriotic speech on Navy Day urging Russia to defend its national security interests, according to Reuters.

The 55-page naval doctrine says Russia will aim to become a great maritime navy with a presence across the world to counter the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the worlds oceans.

Guided by this doctrine, the Russian Federation will firmly and resolutely defend its national interests in the worlds oceans, and having sufficient maritime power will guarantee their security and protection, the doctrine reads, per Reuters.

It also says Russia will expand its ambitions in the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. has previously warned Russia and China against aggression in the Arctic region.

Speaking at the city of St. Petersburg off the Neva River later in the day, Putin said Russia will defend our interests in claimed territories.

We need to take resolute action today, given the challenges were facing, the Russian leader said. The homeland for everyone is a sacred concept. We need to defend it.

As Putin finished, he earned a large hoo-rah from the naval sailors and officers who gathered for Navy Day, which is celebrated on the last Sunday of July.

Putin did not mention the war in Ukraine, but he pledged to defend Russian naval power in the Black and Azov seas.

We need to rely on our capabilities, and anyone who would like to endanger our sovereignty will get a strong response, Putin said.

The Russian president ordered an invasion of Ukraine in late February, in part because he feared Ukraine would join the western security alliance NATO.

With the U.S. spending billions to arm Ukraine, tensions between Moscow and Washington are higher than at any point since the Cold War.

However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday held their first call since the war began, to discuss a possible prisoner swap.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Weather Alert

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM WEDNESDAY TO 11 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 102 expected. * WHERE...In Washington, Eastern Columbia River Gorge of Washington, Simcoe Highlands, Kittitas Valley and Yakima Valley. In Oregon, Eastern Columbia River Gorge of Oregon. * WHEN...From 11 AM Wednesday to 11 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
MONTREAL  A panel of scientists and activists at the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal urged worldwide governments over the weekend to ramp up resources to handle the monkeypox outbreaks.

The plea came as international experts gathered on Sunday to discuss the necessity to avoid reproducing mistakes made during the early HIV response.

Marina Klein, research director and professor of medicine at the division of infectious diseases and chronic viral illnesses service at McGill University in Que., said Montreal could set an example as it becomes crucial to improve the monkeypox global response.

"There was a very rapid response in Montreal to address the rising infections, with the implementation of a very liberal and open, accessible vaccine," Klein said in an interview on Sunday.

Montreal was the initial epicentre of outbreaks in Canada, with about 360 confirmed cases as of July 29. There are now more than 800 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the country.

But the rate of infections has started to stabilize and hit a plateau in Montreal, Klein said.

"Part of that has come directly from the Public Health Department but also with the involvement of the community, which has been the key to educating about the importance of the vaccine," she said.

Klein, however, said she worries other provinces, in particular Saskatchewan, won't have the same ease to connect with vulnerable communities.

"Although there are only two cases as far as identified  we know that in Saskatchewan theres been many challenges, both with HIV and sexually transmitted infections, especially among vulnerable populations including Indigenous communities," Klein said.

She stressed the importance of community engagement and having a vaccine response ready to go, but also the need to study the extent of monkeypox transmission.

"We did respond rapidly, but nowhere in the world responded rapidly enough to address this and get rid of this in the short time frame that we needed to," she said.

Story continues

"Now we are going to have to switch our gear and think about how do we control this over the long term."

Her criticisms were echoed by several other speakers at Sunday's conference.

Keletso Makofane, a public health researcher at Harvard University, called the monkeypox global response "worse than the initial HIV response."

Over 19,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported over the last few months from 78 countries, mostly among men who have sex with other men.

"We knew enough to have done a lot better to have contained this thing," Makofane said in an interview, adding that the general fatigue from fighting COVID-19 made the monkeypox response slower than it should have been.

Makofane also decried thousands of vaccine doses sitting in Denmark while the number of cases continues to climb.

Unlike the numerous companies that made COVID-19 vaccines, Denmark's Bavarian Nordic is the only maker of the vaccine used against monkeypox.

"Its scandalous and its worse than HIV in the sense that we have the tools to respond," Makofane said.

Dr. Meg Doherty, director of the World Health Organization's global HIV, hepatitis and STIs programs, told the attendees an equitable approach is crucial to ensure the tools are available not only to wealthier countries, but also in Africa where monkeypox is traditionally found.

"Thirty-five countries have been accessing or asking to have access to the vaccines  is there a risk that countries who are putting in (requests) for access are coming from rich countries? That's quite a possible risk," Doherty said on Sunday.

"We want equity. We can't have a monkeypox response that is only responding to the U.K., Canada and the United States."

The international AIDS 2022 conference  from July 29 to Tuesday  is expected to attract more than 9,000 delegates from around the world, with another 2,000 registered to participate remotely.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2022.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press
BLOOMER  On Saturday, a group of veterans, politicians, locals and descendants of Martin A. Treptow gathered at the American Legion in Bloomer to honor a serviceman who never made it home from World War I.

During the ceremony, attendees gave the pledge of allegiance, listened to the story of Treptow, and saw the man honored with a 21-gun salute and the taps bugle call.

The gathering was a long time coming. Treptows family has spent the last three years trying to secure their great-uncle a Purple Heart for his sacrifice.

The problem was that Treptow had no direct descendants. His great-nephews and great-nieces took up the charge to try and get Treptow the Purple Heart, but the fact that they werent his children or grandchildren proved to be a roadblock.

In a chance meeting between Treptows great-nephew who bears the same name  Martin Treptow  and State Rep. Jesse James, R-Altoona, the younger Treptow told James hed been trying to get his relative the Purple Heart.

Together, they made it happen.

This is the coolest thing that Ive been able to do as a legislator, James said. They asked for help. Thats what we did.

James said that he and his staff worked diligently to make sure the Purple Heart was awarded, and they were able to get it in just over a month.

We helped with documentation and the application process, he said.

James said this is meaningful for him as a veteran and a politician.

We have to honor our veterans. When they give their life for what we have as American citizens, James said. To recognize someone 104 years later  you just cant beat that.

Twenty-four-year-old Treptow died in France on July 28, 1918.

At the time he was killed he was carrying a message between units. Upon recovering his body, friends and fellow servicemen found a journal on his person which held various writings and thoughts.

One note in his journal stood out and has stood the test of time. Known as Pvt. Treptows Pledge, the message reads:

I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully, and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.

Those words have been shared from the Senate building to former President Ronald Reagans inauguration speech in 1981. They were also used as a motivational quote during World War II.

Treptow was honored about a century ago in his hometown of Bloomer when locals bestowed his name upon the newly minted American Legion Post: the Martin A. Treptow American Legion Post No. 295.

Treptows body is buried in Bloomer but his legacy continues. His family has been reunited due to the work theyve endured to garner Treptow a Purple Heart.

For 72-year-old Martin Treptow and other living descendants, the award does more than honor their great-uncle for his patriotic duty and sacrifice. The process of securing the Purple Heart and the award ceremony in Bloomer brought family members together whod been long since removed.

Theres only six of us grand-nephews and nieces left, Treptow said. This kind of gives us closure.

Treptow said reconnecting with family has been a blessing.

We have cousins in Boston and Texas. We have cousins we didnt even know about before this, he said.

A year from now the Treptows and extended family will come together in Bloomer for a huge family reunion.

It will be a lot of excitement for this little town  Bloomer  and we cant wait to get everyone together, he said.
Today

Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 105F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 85F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 103F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Jeep has been facing increasing interference from Chinese politicians in the nation and hence has decided to shut down its only factory in China, reports Autoblog. According to the Stellantis CEO in an interview with Bloomberg Television, the automaker is following an "asset-light" approach in the nation due to worries that escalating political tensions could result in sanctions in a dispute between China and the rest of the globe. The CEO made it clear that the company does not intend to be a "victim" of the cross-sanctions like the companies in other regions of the world with political tensions.

The CEO's open remarks provide a justification for Stellantis's last week's statement that it is ending a 12-year manufacturing alliance with the government-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group. The shutting down of factories in China is raising questions about the future of foreign manufacturers in China.

It is to be noted that the world is facing supply chain disruptions because of rising political tensions in the world and the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Moreover, the number of sanctions on Russia might be a picture of what might be manufacturers' future in China.

Also read: New Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara vs 2022 Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyrder: Which is better hybrid SUV?

Business in the nation is getting more difficult for automakers like Stellantis, Volkswagen AG, and General Motors as local producers like BYD Co., Li Auto Inc., and Nio Inc. are catching up quickly, including with a variety of fully electric options, reports Autoblog. Jeep has been the producer of multiple widely sold models like Jeep Cherokee, Renegade, and Compass widely sold in the international market.

It is to be noted that China is one of the world's biggest car markets and has been a source of growth for domestic and international companies. Strengthening the fact further is the volume of cars sold in the nation in the nation annually with more than 2 million passengers. To add a perspective, the number is significantly higher than the cars sold in other big car markets like the USA, Japan, and India.
Mahindra Bolero is one of the most potent off-roaders by the Indian automaker in India. A rough and tough SUV capable of traversing rugged terrain. However, many feel that the looks of the SUV do not justify its off-roading capabilities, even more so with the Bolero pickup truck. Taking that into consideration and sharing the same feeling Kam Customs modified a brand new Mahindra Bolero Camper 4x4 to look like an off-roading monster. To be specific, they have taken the dual-cab version of the pickup for modifications.

The modifications of the front end of the Mahindra Bolero Camper give it the feel of an aggressive-looking truck replacing the conventional bull bars on it. In addition, the bumper of the tuck has been replaced with a metal off-road bumper. The metal bumpers have been equipped with lamps and an electric winch to help it in tough situations. In addition, the off-roader now has smoked head and tail lamps. Furthermore, the car has been repainted with British racing green colour to add to the appeal.

The modified Mahindra Bolero truck grips the road with 15-inch off wheels wrapped in 31-inch MT tyres. This camper's fenders and side steps have Line-X coating for extra protection while off-roading. The Bolero camper's side step is a custom-made unit. This Mahindra Bolero Camper's suspension system has also been upgraded. It now includes Arc shocks and leaf springs. Furthermore, the spare wheel of the camper has been placed in the loading tub.

Also read: Jeep pulls out of China, blames Chinese government for meddling in its business

The original seats in the Camper are designed in this manner. The driver and co-passenger each get new seats for the truck. For added comfort, the seats are taken from a Mahindra XUV500. This Mahindra Bolero Camper also has an air conditioning system. The video shows the Mahindra Bolero Camper 4x4 going off-road, and it seems the vehicle has the capabilities to do what it promises.
The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically impacted the global aviation sector putting everything on hold. In May 2019, two of the top 20 international air travel routes from India were to Dubai according to the data. However, it has now increased multifold as in May 2022, 7 of 20 international air travel routes were to Dubai from India according to data provided by aviation analytics company Cirium.

"International air travel is guided by bilateral rights. In the case of Dubai, (the number of) Emirates flights are back (to the pre-pandemic level) but that is not the case with every other region. This made Dubai climb up the list faster than others," said Ameya Joshi, aviation analyst and founder of aviation blog "Network Thoughts."

Emirates was one of the first airlines to deploy full capacity on routes to India, taking a lot of traffic to the European Union, Russia, and North America, he noted. Covid-19 had significantly curtailed international travel from the beginning of 2020 to the beginning of this year. Its impact is now receding and airlines across the world have largely resumed their international flights.

Also read: Pilot falls off plane without parachute before making emergency landing, dies

In May 2019, the busiest international air travel route from India was Kolkata-Dhaka with 301 flights, the data mentioned. However, the busiest international route in India in May 2022 was Mumbai-Dubai with 406 flights. Not just that, the second busiest international route in May 2022 was Delhi-Dubai with 332 flights.

There were 167, 152, 136, 133, and 131 flights on the Cochin-Dubai, Hyderabad-Dubai, Chennai-Dubai, Bengaluru-Dubai, and Calicut-Dubai routes in May 2022 respectively, the data showed. These seven routes to the city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were among the top 20 international air travel routes connecting India in May 2022, it mentioned.

In comparison, there were just two Dubai routes -- Mumbai-Dubai (252 flights) and Delhi-Dubai (218 flights) -- among the top 20 routes in May 2019, it noted. Meanwhile, according to Cirium's data, while there were four India-Kuala Lumpur routes among the top 20 routes in May 2019, there were none in May 2022.

"The India-Kuala Lumpur route was largely dominated by AirAsia Bhd, Malindo, and Malaysia Airlines. These three have not returned with full force yet and hence, the impact," Joshi explained.

Also read: NokAir Boeing 737-800 skids off runway at Chiang Rai Airport in Thailand

The reason these airlines have not returned with full force is that they carry traffic to Kuala Lumpur and beyond in the region alone and not as far and wide as Emirates from Dubai, he said, adding that the region is yet to be fully open for tourism.

The third busiest international air travel route from India in May this year was Chennai-Colombo with 183 flights, the data showed. The fourth busiest route was Cochin-Dubai with 167 flights.

(With inputs from PTI)
MUMBAI: Mohit Suri's latest directorial 'Ek Villain Returns', which opened in cinemas this Friday, has opened to mixed reviews. The film starring Arjun Kapoor, John Abraham, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria witnessed an opening of Rs 7 crore and has maintained its momentum in the ticket window. It has so far collected Rs Rs 14 crore. As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, it collected Rs 7.47 crore on its second day, taking its total to Rs 14.052 crore.

"#EkVillainReturns collects in similar range on Day 2... Marginal increase at national chains, but down in mass pockets... All eyes on Day 3... Fri 7.05 cr, Sat 7.47 cr. Total: Rs 14.52 cr. #India biz," Adarsh tweeted.

#EkVillainReturns collects in similar range on Day 2... Marginal increase at national chains, but down in mass pockets... All eyes on Day 3... Fri 7.05 cr, Sat 7.47 cr. Total:  14.52 cr. #India biz. pic.twitter.com/eX8jclhsPJ  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) July 31, 2022

Seeing the audience's positive response, an elated Arjun said, "The fact that 'Ek Villain Returns' opening is the fifth biggest of my career, even while the industry tries to bounce back post-pandemic, is extremely validating. I have consistently tried to do films that connect to the youth and the masses and it feels great to see them enjoy 'Ek Villain Returns'. I'm thrilled with the start that the film has got and I'm sure it will continue its momentum in the days to come."

He added, "For me, personally, there is a lot to be proud of. The fact that I have been able to contribute to a Bollywood film opening at the counters is validation enough. I'm glad that people are appreciating my performance. I wanted to be a part of an edgy, cool film and the result is something for me to cherish right now."

Disha also expressed her happiness. "The response has been so surreal! I am so grateful for all the love audience has showered for Rasika (Disha's character). It feels great to be back in theatres, especially the youth enjoying it. I have been going through your messages all this while and have nothing but a broad smile on my face reading them. It`s a feeling of immense fulfilment and I hope you continue to shower your love on us," she said.

'Ek Villain Returns', which was released on July 29, is the sequel to the 2014 hit film 'Ek Villain', which starred Sidharth Malhotra, Shraddha Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh. The second installment features Riteish Deshmukh and Badshah in pivotal roles. It is to be noted that Aditya Roy Kapur was originally signed for the role portrayed by Arjun Kapoor, but later backed out due to creative differences and had a fallout with director Mohit Suri.
Hope Ventures, the investment arm of Hope Fund, will expand its entrepreneurial-themed reality show Beban to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurs and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) across the region.

For this Hope has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UAEs Ministry of Economy and The Entrepreneurial Nation to collaborate on scaling promising businesses.

Beban aims to shed light on success stories and facilitate the co-investment of high-potential businesses alongside the private sector. Its first season featured 12 Bahraini entrepreneurs across 4 episodes and resulted in a commitment of 5 deals worth over $1,000,000 in total and $120,000 worth of advance orders.

Bigger and exciting

Season 2 is planned to be bigger and more exciting, as it will include 10 episodes featuring 50 promising entrepreneurs as they pitch for equity investment and strategic business development opportunities before a diversified panel of regional investors.

Through the MoU, Beban is expanding to include up to 15 shortlisted entrepreneurs from the UAE, along with investors, and strategic partners. This will benefit entrepreneurs from the ease of access to diversified UAE investors and strategic partners who contribute to the acceleration of their regional and international expansions.

The shows expansion will further support shortlisted businesses by providing added exposure for entrepreneurs around the GCC and the region through the show's distribution and airing on major regional networks, as well as cross-country expertise and knowledge sharing.-- TradeArabia News Service
An Eau Claire man is accused of sexually assaulting a woman, stabbing her repeatedly, then setting a Chippewa Falls house on fire on Wednesday.

Scott M. Vaningan, 58, faces possible charges of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of arson, intentionally harming animals, mutilation of a corpse, and felony bail jumping.

Judge James Isaacson on Friday set $1.5 million cash bond for Vaningan.

Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell told Isaacson about what officers found after a fire was extinguished Wednesday at 721 Superior St.

The person was deceased prior to the start of the fire, Newell said. It appears there was a sexual assault prior to the fire.

Authorities have not yet released the victims name. Based on the early information, Newell requested the $1.5 million cash bond.

This is a very significant situation, Newell said.

Vaningan was wearing an electronic monitoring device, but he removed it. He was arrested Thursday night in Barron County.

He was in possession of a utility knife that had blood and tissue on it, Newell said. That is significant because there were multiple stab wounds to (the victims) lungs.

In 1995, Vaningan was convicted of aggravated battery and sexual assault, Newell said. Vanigan spent time in prison for those convictions.

Chippewa County Coroner Ron Patten said an autopsy was performed in Minnesota on Thursday. He has received a preliminary report, but said any release of information would be coming from either Newell or Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matt Kelm.

Defense attorney Les Liptak appeared via video from the Chippewa County Jail, without his client.

Mr. Vaningan refused to speak to me, and refused to appear, Liptak told Isaacson.

Newell responded: The states request is we go forward with the bond hearing; he doesnt have to participate.

Isaacson agreed and set the cash bond, with a requirement that if Vaningan were to post bond, he cannot possess weapons or be within a quarter-mile of the home, located at the corner of Stanley and Superior streets on the citys West Hill.

Liptak did not object to the cash bond amount.

It doesnt seem to be out of line with other cases. Whether its $1 million or $1.5 million, there is no way this individual will be able to post the bond, Liptak said.

Newell told Isaacson he anticipates having the criminal complaint ready by Tuesday or Wednesday. Isaacson set a return court date for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Investigators are processing the fire scene and are being assisted by agents with the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.

The fire caused about $125,000 worth of damage to the home. John Bowe, Chippewa Falls battalion chief, said the first call at 721 Superior St. was reported at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Upon arrival on scene, we found heavy smoke and flames from the rear of the residence, Bowe wrote in a press release. The main body of the fire was extinguished in 15 minutes. The fire extended into the attic of the residence. Crews attacked the fire from the interior and roof of the building.

The Chippewa Fire District and Anson Fire departments provided mutual aid, and in all, 24 firefighters were on scene.

Online court records show Vaningan was recently charged in Chippewa County Court with fourth-offense OWI, battery to an officer or judge, operating while revoked and bail jumping, stemming from a March 26 incident. His address at that time was an area hotel. He posted a $1,000 cash bond on May 13.
Mumbai: The pictures from the 'table read session' of the upcoming biopic 'Sam Bahadur' were released by the film's makers on Saturday. The pictures shows the lead stars of the film -- Vicky Kaushal, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra -- director Meghna Gulzar, writers Bhavani Iyer and Shantanu Srivastava, along with the producer Ronnie Screwvala, attending the reading section.

'Sam Bahadur' is based on the life of Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw, whose career spanned four decades and five wars, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in World War II with a string of legendary exploits. Manekshaw, whose earlier unit, 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, became a part of Pakistan Army after Partition, was reassigned to the 8th Gorkha Rifles.

The film marks Meghna Gulzar's return to the screen three years after her last film 'Chhapaak' starring Deepika Padukone and Vikrant Massey, which, too, was a biopic on acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal.

'Sam Bahadur' will see Vicky playing the titular role, while Fatima, who plays former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, will reunite with her 'Dangal' co-star Sanya Malhotra in the film.

Vicky took to his Instagram handle and dropped photos where he can be seen laughing as others including Sanya and Fatima go through the script. He wrote in the caption, "Reading together, a story we are honoured to tell. Of a Soldier and a Gentleman."
New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor defended Congress Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in an interaction with the press. He said, "I think we should let the matter go. This is not an issue, it has nothing related to corruption or govt negligence. A man, whose Hindi is perhaps like mine, made a mistake. He accepted it, let's move on. There are far graver issues in the country.

He also stated that Chowdhury made a mistake and he had no bad intention.

"Before entering Parliament, Adhir said he made a mistake, it was a slip of tongue & he had no bad intention. But he wasn't allowed to speak. When someone seeks time before Ques Hr, Speaker tell them to sit&that they'll get time during Zero Hour," he said.

What is the 'Rashtrapatni' remark row?

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary caught himself in a controversy after he used the term "rashtrapatni" for President Murmu. Later he said that he had used the term "rashtrapatni" by mistake and that the ruling party was deliberately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

"I can't even think of insulting the President. It was just a mistake. If the President felt bad, I will personally meet her and apologise. They can hang me if they want. I am ready to get punished but why is she (Sonia Gandhi) being dragged in this?" Chowdhury told ANI on Thursday questioning why the Congress Interim President is being dragged into the controversy.
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday demanded the resignation of BJP president J P Nadda over the arrest of his party's Meghalaya unit vice-president Bernard N Marak for allegedly running a sex racket in the state. The BJP leadership did not take any action against Marak even after he was booked and subsequently arrested in Uttar Pradesh while attempting to flee, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said.

Marak, a former militant leader, had gone missing following a police raid, which started on the night of July 22 and ran till the next morning, on his farmhouse at Tura in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district. The Meghalaya Police said they arrested 73 people from the farmhouse and rescued six minors -- four boys and two girls.

Marak was arrested near a toll plaza at the Ghaziabad border in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday after a look-out notice was issued against him. The Meghalaya Police took custody of the BJP leader on Wednesday.

The Congress spokesperson claimed the police recovered explosives from Marak's farmhouse but he was still part of the BJP. Women leaders of the saffron party did not even speak up about the issue, Kumar added.

He claimed crimes and atrocities against women and girls, especially those from the weaker and oppressed sections of society, were on the rise and BJP leaders were involved.

Kumar referred to the cases of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger, who was held in the Unnao rape case, and sitting MLA Goruk Pordung of the Bameng assembly constituency in Arunachal Pradesh.

"So many BJP leaders are committing crimes and atrocities against women and girls. BJP president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should resign from their posts," the Congress spokesperson told reporters, alleging that the BJP leadership has not initiated any action against the accused.

All such leaders continue to be part of the BJP despite the serious cases against them, he alleged.
West Bengal politics: Former West Bengal Cabinet Minister and suspended Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee has been in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for over a week now but the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hasn`t been able to capitalise on an issue as sensitive as corruption in the recruitment of teachers.

Save for a few token demonstrations in Kolkata and the suburbs, the BJP hasn`t made any effort to mobilise support in rural areas till now. This has led to criticism from a section of leaders who want an all-out campaign to start before the Panchayat Elections in West Bengal in 2023.

"We have 71 MLAs in West Bengal and the Left Front has none. Yet, the Left has started organising protest rallies and meetings in the districts, particularly in small towns and rural areas. Our top leadership is in Kolkata, holding press meets to counter the Trinamool Congress` claims.

The Trinamool Congress is on the backfoot now, however much the party may try to put up a brave front. This is the time to strike at the grassroots level. After all, a large number of eligible candidates denied jobs as teachers due to this racket are from small towns and villages. Somehow, our leadership fails to understand this," a BJP MLA said.

On Sunday, state BJP president and MP Sukanta Majumdar said that people in West Bengal have realised by now that the Trinamool Congress is corrupt.

That may be true but what alternatives do people in villages have where the BJP has not been able to make inroads. Apart from 71 MLAs, the Party also has 16 Lok Sabha MPs from the state.

This should have provided the necessary backing to create strong units in rural areas. After all, its a well known fact that Panchayat Elections in West Bengal have been marred by violence and intimidation.

"Its too much to expect the common villager to rise up and protest while facing political goons and the police who will be doing the bidding of the political party in power in the state. MLAs are ready to start active protests in the rural areas but there is no clearance from the leadership. If the Panchayat Elections are won by the Trinamool Congress, it will provide a great boost to the Party ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary Polls.

"While many eligible candidates who were denied jobs are from villages, so are several ineligible ones who sold land to pay for jobs. Once they lose their jobs and are directed to return salaries, they will face severe hardships. This is where the BJP has to step in and tell people how both sections of people have been let down by the Trinamool Congress," another MLA said.

Several video clips, on eligible candidates unable to get jobs, have already started doing the round. One such clip in Bangla is about a vegetable seller in Jhargram named Akash who secured first class in Sanskrit and also completed his B.Ed before clearing his Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) in 2015. He received no call letter. Akash now sells vegetables and gives tuitions to run his family.

While chief minister Mamata Banerjee speaks of development of Jangalmahal (Jhargram is a part), there are many such Akashes whose dreams have been ground to dust over the last several years. A section of BJP leaders want to capitalise on this but the state leadership doesn`t seem to be listening.
New Delhi: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had created a controversy after his remark on 'Gujaratis and Rajasthanis'. He said if they were were removed from Maharashtra, then Mumbai will no longer remain the financial capital of the country. During a speech at an event held to name a chowk after the late Shantideva Champalalji Kothari in Mumbai`s Andheri on Friday, Koshyari said, "Sometimes I tell people in Maharashtra that if Gujarati and Rajasthani people are removed from here, then you will be left with no money. You call Mumbai the financial capital, but if these people of both these states are not here, then it won`t be called financial capital."

On this comment, he has received a lot of backlash from Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and other Opposition leaders. Uddhav Thackeray said, "I do not want to insult someone sitting on the post of Governor. I respect the chair but Bhagat Singh Koshyari insulted Marathis and there is anger among the people. Governor is trying to divide the society on the basis of religion, he is crossing every limit.

However, Koshyari is no stranger to controversy and has been under scrutiny in the past as well. Here are his past controversies:

Also Read: Marwari vs Marathi row: Uddhav Thackeray breaks silence on Maha governor's remark

Remark on Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule

For instance, in March this year, the Maharashtra governor had made controversial comments on social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, more specifically on their child marriage. He had said, "Savitribai was married off when she was ten years old. And her husband Jyotirao was 13 years old. Now imagine, what would the boy and girl have been doing after marriage? What would they have been thinking?"

Controversy on his Chhatrapati Shivaji comment

Before that, in February, BS Koshyrai had stated that Samarth Ramdas was Chhatrapati Shivaji's teacher or guru. This also stoked strong responses from the NCP, Congress and other parties. He had said, "Many chakravartis (emperors), maharajas took birth on this land. But, who would have asked about Chandragupta had there not been Chanakya? Who would have asked about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj had there not been Samarth (Ramdas)."

He had further said, "I am not questioning the calibre of Chandragupta and Shivaji Maharaj. Like a mother who plays a key role in shaping her child. Similarly, the role of guru (teacher) has a big place in our society,"

As a damage control measure, Koshyari later issued a clarification and said, "Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is the inspiration of the nation and from what I knew, from what I had read in the early days, I knew that Samarth Ramdas Swami was his guru. But if people have told me some facts from history, I will check those facts further".

Last year in December, the Governor's powers in the appointment of the univeristy Vice-Chancellors were curtailed in the state by the MVA government, denting their relationship further.
Chandigarh: Punjab Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra came under fire from several quarters on Saturday after he allegedly forced the vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) to lie on a dirty mattress during an inspection. After the incident that happened on Friday, VC Raj Bahadur quit from the post and said he had conveyed to the Punjab chief minister the "humiliation" he faced and requested that he be relieved from services as the work environment was not conducive.

"I have expressed my anguish to the chief minister and said to him I felt humiliated," Bahadur told PTI over the phone on Saturday.

When Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was asked about the incident on the sidelines of an event here, he said such "talkhiyan" (bitter situations) do emerge during work and added, "I feel the situation could have been handled in a better manner."

The incident triggered an outrage and opposition parties and various doctors' bodies, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), strongly condemned the health minister's behaviour and demanded his apology.

Earlier on Saturday, Dr. Bahadur interacted with reporters in Mohali and said Chief Minister Mann had expressed regret over the behaviour of his minister.

Cheap theatrics of Aam Aadmi Party never ceases. Today the Vice Chancellor of Baba Farid Medical University,Raj Bahadur Singh was publicly humiliated by the Health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra (+2 Pass).This type of mob behaviour will only demoralise our medical staff. pic.twitter.com/ZGJCbEPjhm  Pargat Singh (@PargatSOfficial) July 29, 2022

Asked if he will take back his resignation, Bahadur replied, "I told the chief minister whatever happened...The chief minister apologised."

"When you work so hard and put in your best efforts, one does feel low when you have to face this kind of behaviour," the senior doctor said.

Sources said that the chief minister has taken a strong view of the incident and spoken to Jouramajra. Mann is also learnt to have asked Bahadur to continue in the position and meet him next week.

VC Raj Bahadur is a very good friend of mine: Bhagwant Mann

Bhagwant Mann said Dr Bahadur is a very good friend of his.

"When my father suffered from a spinal cord injury, at that time Dr Raj Bahadur was director of GMCH (Government Medical College and Hospital) in Chandigarh. He is a very good doctor," he said.

The incident happened Friday when Jouramajra was on an inspection to Faridkot's Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, which comes under the BFUHS.

A video clip of the incident that circulated on social media showed Jouramajra place a hand on the veteran surgeon's shoulder as he pointed towards the "damaged and dirty condition" of the mattress inside the hospital's skin department.

The minister is then seen to be allegedly forcing Dr Bahadur to lie down on the same mattress.

Bahadur in the video is seen explaining to the minister that he was not responsible for the facilities, to which the AAP leader retorted, "Everything is in your hands."

The doctor also broke down in tears when state Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring came to meet him to express solidarity.

I couldn't see eye to eye with Dr Raj Bahadur Ji, as there was helplessness in his eyes. It was not he who felt insulted and humiliated, but all of us together. Entire Punjab stands in solidarity with you, Sir. pic.twitter.com/CxPY2aU4Jp  Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (@RajaBrar_INC) July 30, 2022

Bahadur, 71, is a specialist in spinal surgery and joint replacement and is a former director-principal of Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh and has also been the head of the orthopaedic department at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Chennai: Amid the ongoing Phulwari Sharif Terror module threats and Udaipur killing, in which a terrorist angle was suspected, engineering students in Tamil Nadu have been arrested for their alleged links with the terrorist outfit Islamic State (IS). According to IANS, the man was allegedly planning a terrorist attack and was in touch with the banned organisation for the same. The terrorist suspect is a 22-year-old engineering student at a private college in Tamil Nadu. The suspect was conspiring to kill an important personality in Tamil Nadu to instil fear among the non-Muslim communities in the state, IANS reported quoting sources in the state police.

Who is the IS terrorist suspect arrested in Tamil Nadu

Meer Anas Ali, a resident of Masudi street in the Ambur district of Tamil Nadu was arrested by the police on Saturday after Central intelligence agencies received information about him having regular contact with the IS groups. As per the intel, he used to communicate through these militant groups via telegram and other social media platforms.

Ali has come on the radar of the Central Intelligence Bureau after some of his online activities raised suspicion in the police officers.

He is a third-year Mechanical Engineering student at a private college in the Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu. After his arrest, Ali was taken to Anaicut police station in Vellore, police sources told IANS.

FIRs filed against Meer Anas Ali for IS links

Police have registered FIR against him under IPC Sections 121 (waging war, or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the Indian state), 122 (collecting arms, etc with the intention of waging a war against India, 125 (waging of war or abetting of war against any Asiatic power that is in alliance with India) and various other sections under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

He was produced before a magistrate court during the early hours of Sunday and remanded in Vellore Central Prison.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress has submitted notices seeking a debate in both Houses of Parliament on the issue of crimes against women, as it targeted the government days after a BJP MLA in Gujarat was accused of rape. TMC Lok Sabha members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Dola Sen and Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Noor have submitted the notices for a discussion on Monday on the "need for prevention of crimes against women" in light of "latest reported incidents". Sources said the Congress, which came under attack from the BJP over its leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's alleged "sexist" remark against the President, will also move similar notices soon.

The sources said the TMC MPs moved the notices after Gujarat Rural Development Minister and BJP MLA Arjunsinh Chauhan were accused of raping and illegally confining a woman.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra targeted the prime minister over the issue and tweeted, "Lady raped & confined by BJP Guj Minister Arjunsinh for 5 yrs. Expecting Hon'ble @ombirlakota to hand the mic to Oppn as SOON as he enters LS on Monday so we can ask PMji to Maafi Maango. Equality before the law, Sir! Ominous silence from Drama Bahu brigade."

Many Opposition leaders, who condemned Chowdhury's remark, alleged that the BJP, while vociferous if comments are made against its women leaders, is largely silent on party leaders accused of a crime against women.

After a controversy broke out over his "Rashtrapatni" remark, Congress leader Chowdhury said it was a "slip of the tongue" and later apologised to President Droupadi Murmu.
New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC on Sunday (July 31) condemned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) action on Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, calling it vendetta politics and an attempt to curb "opposition voices" by the ruling BJP-led Central government. "This is an attempt to stifle opposition voices both inside and outside Parliament. Inside Parliament, you (BJP-led Centre) get opposition MPs suspended and outside, you use central agencies to threaten opposition leaders," TMC MP Santanu Sen was quoted as saying by PTI. "The raid on Sanjay Raut's residence is a reflection of vendetta politics," the TMC leader added.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was detained by the ED sleuths after a day-long raid at his bungalow 'Maitri' in Mumbai in an alleged money-laundering case in the Patra Chawl land scam. Raut said he won't bow down and quit the party, shortly before being taken to the south Mumbai office of the ED. They (ED) are going to arrest me. I am going to be arrested, the Shiv Sena leader told reporters.

Sunil Raut, brother of the Shiv Sena MP, said that the ED officials did not seize any document related to the Patra Chawl case during the search. At around 7 am, 20-22 officers arrived at Sanjay Raut's residence with search warrants, but they did not find any document related to Patra Chawl case. Even if he gets arrested he'll not bow down. No documents were seized, no questioning was done, he was cited by ANI.

ED action against Raut comes in the wake of another recent high-profile case involving former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in which crores of rupees have been seized from residences linked to his aide Arpita Mukherjee. The now-suspended TMC leader, who has denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the "money does not belong to him, was arrested by ED earlier this month pertaining to the alleged money laundering in School Service Commission (SSC) scam case.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Sunday (July 31, 2022) visited Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's house in Mumbai after he skipped summons twice for questioning in a money-laundering case. The action follows multiple summons issued by the ED against Raut, the latest being on July 27.

Mumbai | Enforcement Directorate officials at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's residence, in connection with Patra Chawl land scam case pic.twitter.com/gFYdvR89zU  ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022

The central agency had summoned Shiv Sena MP on Wednesday for questioning in connection with a case of alleged money laundering linked to the redevelopment of a chawl project in Mumbais suburbs. Earlier, Raut had skipped summon by ED on July 20 as well citing Parliament session.

Rauts lawyers informed the central agency that, due to the ongoing Parliament session, he could appear only after August 7. However, their appeal was rejected and subsequently, ED issued a fresh summon, asking Raut to appear before it on July 27.

The Rajya Sabha MP is being investigated by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities involving the re-development of a Mumbai 'chawl'.

In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Rauts wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.

Raut, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, had denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted due to political vendetta.
A Newport News attorney has agreed to pay the IRS $869,000 in back taxes after admitting to federal tax fraud.

Nosuk Pak Kim, 61, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of felony tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Richmond. She faces up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for each of the two counts, aside from the restitution to which shes already agreed.

Kim, whos been licensed as a Virginia lawyer for 31 years, is a founding partner at the Oyster Point law firm Cowardin & Kim, where she specialized in immigration law.

Shes been a substitute judge since 2014 in Newport News General District Court and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, and has taught in recent years as an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary Law School.

She was accused of working to evade taxes on some of the millions of dollars the government paid to her husbands company over the years.

Her husband, Beyung Kim, 63  now in federal prison in West Virginia  owned and operated a Hampton company, I-Tek, which provided clothing and various promotional materials to the military from 2011-18.

The company, on Executive Drive in Hamptons Coliseum area, provided thousands of West Point swim trunks to the Army and various trinkets  coffee mugs, water bottles, mouse pads, foam balls, T-shirts and pencils  for the Marine Corps and various state National Guards. The company also provided wire rope for the Coast Guard operations.

But court documents say Beyung Kim and certain employees defrauded the government by attesting that the goods were Made in the USA when in fact they were manufactured in China or other low-cost sourcing locations.

Beyung Kim and I-Tek sourced these products in cheaper, foreign markets like China to inflate their profit margins, court documents say. They concealed the fraud by, among other things, removing the labels reflecting the true country of origin.

The scheme also involved providing the Department of Defense with fake supplier quotes and purchase orders. The conspiracy separately featured a retired disabled veteran falsely posing as the companys president and owner in order to qualify for Small Business Administration set-asides.

Story continues

Nosuk Kim wasnt charged in the underlying fraud case involving her husband and I-Tek. But court documents say she worked to evade taxes on some of the proceeds that came in.

A statement of facts agreed to by prosecutors and the defense as part of Nosuk Kims guilty plea Thursday says I-Tek was paid more than $4 million under a Marine Corps contract  plus another $141,000 for 30,000 T-shirts to the Indiana National Guard  in 2015 and 2016.

But when I-Tek received those payments, it wired about $2.2 million to an overseas entity in China, Goldway International Trading LLC, which then wired the money back to Nosuk Kims attorney trust account at her Newport News law firm.

The lawyer then withdrew that money, spending most of the cash to pay down debt on the couples financial interests.

Kim took out four separate cashiers checks  totaling about $1.2 million  to pay down a business loan for a company called BBK Enterprises LLC based at a Jefferson Avenue address.

She used $621,000 to pay down the balance on a home equity line of credit on the couples home on Ferguson Cove in Newport News.

She used the rest  about $415,000  to buy out a partner and pay down a business loan involving a commercial property on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard.

The IRS said the Kims should have reported that $2.2 million as taxable income in 2015 and 2016. The failure to do so, the statement of facts said, cost the government about $869,000 in lost tax revenue.

Nosuk Kims web page at her law firm says she holds an undergraduate degree in accounting from William & Mary in 1983 and a law degree from Suffolk University School of Law in Boston in 1989.

For over 25 years she has represented clients of all nationalities who wish to work and stay in America, the website says.

In 2011, Kim co-founded the Peninsula School for Autism, the first school on the Peninsula specifically devoted to autistic children. She was a board member of the Hampton Roads International Montessori School and an advisor to the Peninsula Korean-American Association, among other groups.

Kims attorney, Timothy Clancy, said his client is doing all she can to make amends for what she did.

I certainly think its fair to say that she is very well regarded in the community, both professionally and personally, Clancy said. Shes certainly accepting responsibility and is doing everything she can to remedy this situation, including paying the taxes.

As of Thursday, the Virginia State Bar lists Kim as an attorney in good standing in Virginia, with no disciplinary actions to her name in 31 years of practicing law. Felony convictions are typically a bar to practicing law in the Commonwealth.

Clancy said Kim is no longer practicing law.

Shes doing no more than wrapping up her practice and ensuring that her clients are protected, he said.

Kims bond conditions require her to stay at her home between now and her sentencing. She cant leave the commonwealth except for a pre-planned vacation to the Outer Banks that her probation officer signed off on.

Shes not allowed to open any lines of credit, cant practice law and has to make her financial accounts open for inspection.

Beyung Kim was sentenced in August 2021 to four years and 10 months in prison for I-Teks conspiracy to defraud the United States and is slated for release in late 2024. Hes also on the hook to pay $7.6 million in restitution.

Four other I-Tek employees were also sentenced in the conspiracy case last year:

Dongjin D.J. Park, 55, of York County, was sentenced to 31 months and ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution. Pyongkon Phil Pak, 54, of James City County, was sentenced to 32 months and $147,000 in restitution. Chang Alex You, 62, of York County, was sentenced to five months and $247,000 in restitution; and Seung Sam Kim, 32, of Newport News, was sentenced to five months and $36,000 in restitution.

Nosuk Kim will be sentenced Jan. 5 on the tax evasion charges.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
Sanjay Raut DETAINED: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in connection with an alleged money-laundering case in the Patra Chawl land scam, here on Sunday evening. He was earlier grilled for several hours prior to shifting him to the ED office for further action -- with arrest not ruled out -- on alleged grounds of `non-cooperation` with the probe.

#WATCH | Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut being taken by ED officials along with them after he was detained in connection with Patra Chawl land scam case from his residence pic.twitter.com/VtjjuQJhxM  ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022

The ED action came after its sleuths swooped on Raut`s Bhandup residence, `Maitri` at dawn on Sunday and carried out searches for over 9 hours. The developments followed Raut skipping two ED summons and then seeking time till August 7 as he was tied up in Parliament-related commitments.

As he was escorted out of his `Maitri` bungalow, Raut waved at the hundreds of supporters waiting outside, while his wife Varsha, mother and other family members looked on grimly.

En route, Raut told a private news channel on phone that he was "fully cooperating with the ED" and would not be cowed down by the political tactics employed to destroy the Shiv Sena.

"I am not scared... There`s no question of non-cooperation with the law, I am ready to sacrifice myself for the Shiv Sena. The ED team came without giving any notice early morning, no papers have been found from me on this so-called case," Raut said.

He reiterated that he was being pressurised in the past to help topple the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government (which fell on June 29), and termed the ED allegations against him as `false`, declaring he would not bend before anybody, but continue to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Raut said that he had sought time from the ED since he was tied up in the upcoming Vice-Presidential elections for which he was coordinating with various Opposition parties.

"The party is behind me, Uddhav Thackeray is supporting me... We shall not surrender before such pressures, intended to silence us and finish off Shiv Sena," Raut declared.

Earlier, his brother MLA Sunil Raut told a private news channel that the ED could not locate certain documents pertaining to the Patra Chawl case, leading to Sanjay Raut`s detention and he would be taken to the ED offices.

The ED action came after its sleuths swooped on Raut`s Bhandup residence, `Maitri` at dawn on Sunday and carried out searches for over 9 hours.

The developments followed Raut skipping two ED summons and then seeking time till August 7 as he was tied up in parliament-related commitments.

Hundreds of Shiv Sainiks converged outside and staged protests, raised slogans and condemned the detention and arrest of Raut.

The ED move comes a day ahead of the crucial hearing before the Supreme Court pertaining to the disqualification of 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs which could chart the further course of Maharashtra politics, in an upheaval since June 20.

The government had deployed tight security by the Mumbai Police and Central Reserve Police Force, to avoid any untoward incident.

ED had earlier questioned Pune businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody in DHFL Yes Bank case, and sources claimed that they wanted to grill Raut in this matter too.

Sources claimed that Patra Chawl case of ED is also linked to DHFL case.

Raut earlier took to Twitter to allege that he was being victimised on the instructions of the Centre.

In April, the ED had attached Raut`s property in connection with the land scam.

A property worth Rs 9 crore of Raut`s associate Pravin Raut and assets worth Rs 2 crore belonging to Varsha Raut, the wife of Sanjay Raut, were attached by the ED.

Pravin had eight land parcels in Alibaug and a flat registered in the name of Varsha Raut which were attached.

The ED had arrested Pravin in connection with the matter.

"We had filed a chargesheet in the matter against Pravin, Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan of HDIL and Guru Ashish Construction and others were named as an accused in the chargesheet," said an ED official.

The ED came to know during the probe that Pravin allegedly paid Rs 55 lakh to Varsha. This was paid from the bank account of Pravin`s wife.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may arrest party leader Sanjay Raut, and alleged that the agency's ongoing action against him was part of a "conspiracy" to finish off the party. Thackeray was addressing the party leaders and workers from Thane district at his residence 'Matoshree' here on the day the ED is conducting searches at Raut's house in connection with a money laundering probe. "ED guests are at Sanjay Raut's house. He may get arrested. What conspiracy is this? Shiv Sena gives strength to Hindus and Marathi people and hence there is a conspiracy to finish off the party," he said.

Thackeray said people whom Shiv Sena helped to grow politically are now switching loyalty.

"Arjun Khotkar (former minister who joined the rebel camp) at least admitted that he was revolting under pressure. (Late Sena leader) Anand Dighe showed Shiv Sainiks what loyalty is when he was jailed for two years," he said.

Thackeray said Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari insulted Marathi and Maharashtra through his remarks on Mumbai. "He has to be shown Kolhapuri chappals," he said.

Koshyari had said on Friday evening that if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis are not there, Mumbai's flow of money would dry up and it would cease to remain the financial capital of India.

"What was the reaction of those who have become slaves...It was very mild...Just said we don't agree," he said in a veiled reference to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who led the rebellion against the party.

"The Chief Justice of India has also said the opposition should not be considered enemies. But when we were allies, we were considered as enemies," Thackeray said without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He said the party needs workers who are fearless and committed to fighting injustice.

Shiv Sena workers from Thane under the leadership of party MP Rajan Vichare called on Thackeray to pledge their support to him.

Talking to reporters, Vichare said, "We came to assure Uddhavji that we are with him. Shiv Sena got its first taste of power when it won the Thane civic polls. Thane will continue to be solidly behind Uddhavji."

Dighe's nephew Kedar Dighe and Anita Birje, Thane district's first woman Shiv Sainik, also met Thackeray along with Vichare and others.
Islamabad: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that a constructive dialogue with India has become difficult after 2019, according to a media report on Saturday. Bilawal, who attended the SCO's Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tashkent, said India and Pakistan are part of the SCO and the two countries are currently engaged in the context of the broad-based activities of the organisation.

"India is our neighbouring country. While one can decide on a lot of things, one cannot choose its neighbours, therefore, we should get used to living with them," Bilawal was quoted as saying by Geo News on Saturday.

After 2019, constructive dialogue with India became difficult, Bilawal said, apparently referring to India announcing the abrogation of article 370, the withdrawal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories in that year.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad in an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence. India has said the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

India's decision evoked a strong reaction from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy. Pakistan also halted bilateral trade with India.

The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was also attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal also said that there were no plans for any meetings between Pakistani and Indian prime ministers on the sidelines of the annual SCO summit to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15-16, the report said.
New Delhi: After Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's statement on 'Gujaratis-Rajasthanis' stirred a controversy in the state, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reacted to his statement. During an interaction with the press, Fadnavis said that he didn't agree with Koshyari's statement as Marathi people have contributed to the development of the state.

As quoted by ANI, he said, "I don't agree with Governor's statement. Marathi people have contributed to process of development of Maharashtra. Many other people involved in this development journey but importance of Marathi people cannot diminish."

I don't agree with Governor's statement. Marathi people have contributed to process of development of Maharashtra. Many other people involved in this development journey but importance of Marathi people cannot diminish: Maharashtra Dy CM D. Fadnavis, on Gov Koshyari's statement pic.twitter.com/Ikso7C1hqe  ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022

On Saturday, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had created a controversy after his remark on 'Gujaratis and Rajasthanis'.

He said if they were were removed from Maharashtra, then Mumbai will no longer remain the financial capital of the country.

Also Read: Bhagat Singh Koshyari's remark sparks Gujarati-Marathi row; here are Maharashtra governor's past controversies

During a speech at an event held to name a chowk after the late Shantideva Champalalji Kothari in Mumbai`s Andheri on Friday, Koshyari said, "Sometimes I tell people in Maharashtra that if Gujarati and Rajasthani people are removed from here, then you will be left with no money. You call Mumbai the financial capital, but if these people of both these states are not here, then it won`t be called financial capital."

On this comment, he has received a lot of backlash from Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and other Opposition leaders.

Uddhav Thackeray said, "I do not want to insult someone sitting on the post of Governor. I respect the chair but Bhagat Singh Koshyari insulted Marathis and there is anger among the people. Governor is trying to divide the society on the basis of religion, he is crossing every limit.
Aurangabad: Common citizens got no benefits from the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government, and Shiv Sainiks received no help despite the chief minister being from the party, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said here on Saturday. Shinde and several Sena MLAs had rebelled against then CM Uddhav Thackeray and brought down the MVA government, which also comprised the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, on June 29.

"Even though there was a Shiv Sena CM earlier, there was no benefit. Under the MVA, common citizens, Shiv Sainiks got nothing," he said while attending the ground breaking ceremony of a sugar factory in Vaijapur.

Taking a swipe at Thackeray, he said, "We didn't do this (rebellion) in hiding. We went according to the teachings of Balasaheb (Sena founder Bal Thackeray) to fight injustice. We have seen people from the opposition coming to the government, we went from the ruling side to the opposition."

He went for an alliance with a natural partner like the BJP with whom the Sena contested 2019 Assembly polls jointly, Shinde added.

He also said some saints were unfortunately oppressed during the MVA, though the CM did not give details of any specific incident.

There will be earthquake if I started speaking: Eknath Shinde warns Uddhav Thackeray

In a veiled warning to Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde on Saturday also said that there will be an "earthquake" if he started speaking. Questioning Thackeray's decision to join hands with the NCP and Congress, Shinde also said he knew what happened to late Sena leader Anand Dighe.

"I was witness to what happened with `Dharmaveer'," said Shinde, referring to Dighe, a fiery Shiv Sena leader and his mentor who died following a road accident in 2002.

Speaking at a rally at Malegaon, Shinde said he rebelled as he wanted to "protect Balasaheb Thackeray's legacy."

"There will be an earthquake if I start giving interviews.....Unlike some people, I never travelled abroad every year for holidays. Shiv Sena and its growth were the only things on my mind," he said.

The late Shiv Sena founder's daughter-in-law Smita Thackeray and his eldest grandson Nihar Thackeray have supported him, Shinde noted.

Without naming Uddhav, he said rebel legislators were being being called traitors.

Thackeray, who resigned as chief minister in June after Shinde rebelled against him alongwith majority of Shiv Sena MLAs, have often dubbed the rebels as "traitors."

"What do you call those who compromise with Balasaheb's ideology just to become chief minister?" Shinde asked.

"You fight elections in alliance with BJP and then form government with Congress and NCP to become chief minister. Isn't this a betrayal," Shinde further asked.

The Sena faction led by him and BJP would together win 200 out of 288 seats in the next Assembly elections, he claimed.
Ahmedabad: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal will address a public rally at Veraval and visit a temple in Rajkot in Gujarat's Saurashtra region on Monday, a party official said on Sunday. This will be Kejriwal's second visit to Rajkot in a week and fourth to the poll-bound state in a month. The AAP leader will address a public meeting in Saurashtra and make an important announcement regarding the upcoming Assembly election, Gujarat AAP's general secretary Manoj Sorathiya said.

"Kejriwal will arrive at Porbandar airport at 1 pm tomorrow. From there, he will leave for Veraval in Gir Somnath district," he said.

The AAP chief will address a public meeting at KCC Ground (Railway Colony) at 3 pm in Veraval and make an important announcement regarding the upcoming elections, he said.

After the rally, Kejriwal will leave for Rajkot, where he will take part in the Maha Aarti at a temple built on the grounds of Sanjay Rajguru College, and then leave for Delhi, Sorathiya said.

Kejriwal addressed a gathering of traders in Rajkot last week, during which he offered them five "guarantees" if the AAP comes to power in the state. With the state Assembly election due later this year, the AAP has been positioning itself as an alternative to both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Kerala: In a first, a man in Kerala died on Sunday after noting the symptoms of Monkeypox infection, ANI reported. If confirmed, this would be Indias first death due to the Monkeypox virus, which has wreaked havoc in most European and African countries. The deceased, who was a suspected case of Monkeypox, died with symptoms in Chavakkad Kuranjiyur. According to ANI, he tested positive for Monkeypox in a test conducted in a foreign country. Kerala Health Minister Veena George has assured a high-level investigation in the matter and said all lapses or delays if any, will be probed and action will be taken against the doctors.

A high-level urgent meeting has been called in Punnayar pertaining to the death of the patient.

A high-level inquiry will be conducted into the death of a person with symptoms of monkeypox in Chavakkad Kuranjiyur. The result of the test conducted in a foreign country was positive. He sought treatment in Thrissur: Kerala Health Minister Veena George pic.twitter.com/AL7tOU3Tsa July 31, 2022

A high-level inquiry will be conducted into the death of a person with symptoms of monkeypox in Chavakkad Kuranjiyur. The result of the test conducted in a foreign country was positive. He sought treatment in Thrissur, George told ANI.

Delay in seeking treatment will be investigated. The health department called a meeting in Punnayur regarding the death of a young man due to monkeypox. A contact list and route map of the deceased youth were prepared, Kerala Health Minister Veena George added.

Monkeypox outbreak in Kerala

Notably, the Monkeypox spread in India began in Kerala only, after the first confirmed case of the virus was found in a man with foreign travel history. The patient, however, has fully recovered and is negative of all symptoms.

As it was the first case of monkeypox in the country, tests were conducted twice at an interval of 72 hours as per the instructions of the National Institute of Virology (NIV), the government said.

Apart from three confirmed cases in Kerala, another fourth case of Monkeypox was found in Delhi.
New Delhi: Former West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee on Sunday (July 31, 2022), while talking to the reporters, denied any connection with the money which was found by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the raid at the ministers and his close aide Arpita Mukherjees residence.

This is not my money. I have nothing to do with this money, exclaimed Partha Chatterjee. He also said that he is not feeling well.

The ED had arrested Partha Chatterjee on July 23 in connection with the case of alleged irregularities in the recruitment drives by the School Service Commission (SSC) which took place when he was the Bengal education minister from 2014 to 2021. Chatterjee's close aide Arpita Mukherjee was also arrested and ED has seized crores of rupees from her houses in different parts of Kolkata.

Crores of rupees in cash were found at apartments of his aide, Mukherjee, besides gold believed to be in kilograms, documents of properties and foreign exchange were recovered by the ED, forcing the TMC to suspend him and take away his ministerial portfolios.

Meanwhile, ED has begun the process of freezing five bank accounts of Arpita Mukherjee, where they have found at least Rs 2 crore, a senior official said yesterday. Other bank accounts, linked to several "shell companies" allegedly operated by Mukherjee, are also under the ED's scanner, he said.

"The process of freezing Mukherjee's five bank accounts has started. A total of around Rs 2 crore has been found in these accounts. We suspect these accounts were used to carry out several transactions and further probe is underway," the ED official said.

Chatterjee's bank accounts are also being checked, he said.
New Delhi: One terrorist was killed in an encounter that broke out in the Binner area of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday (July 31, 2022), according to the police. The officials informed that incriminating materials including arms and ammunition were also recovered by the Jammu and Kashmir police and security forces.

The terrorist who got killed in the encounter has been identified as Irshad Ahmed Bhat of Pattan, active since May 2022 and linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT. One AK rifle, 2 magazines and 30 rounds have been recovered so far.

"#BaramullaEncounterUpdate: 01 #terrorist killed. #Incriminating materials including arms & ammunition recovered. Search going on," Kashmir Zone Police tweeted on Sunday.

#BaramullaEncounterUpdate: Killed #terrorist has been identified as Irshad Ahmd Bhat of Pattan #Baramulla, active since 5/2022 & linked with proscribed #terror outfit LeT. 01 AK rifle, 2 magazines & 30 rounds recovered.@JmuKmrPolice https://t.co/pfY7V7Uywn July 31, 2022

The gunfight started on Saturday evening after a joint team of police and security forces received an input about the presence of terrorists in the area. The security forces cordoned off the area. Terrorists hiding there started firing drawing retaliation by the security forces.

Further details into the matter will follow.

The encounter had broken out in the late hours of Saturday evening.

"#Encounter has started at Binner area of #Baramulla. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow. @JmuKmrPolice" Kashmir Zone Police said in a tweet on Saturday.
Howrah: Five people, including all the three Congress Jharkhand MLAs who were nabbed with loads of cash in Bengals Howrah, were arrested on Sunday, reported ANI quoting Swati Bhangalia, SP, Howrah Rural. All five people will be presented in court today. The MLAs, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari, were caught by Howrah police on Saturday and a huge amount of cash was found in their car. The Congress party has alleged the involvement of the BJP government and termed the cash seizure an attempt to topple the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance government. Meanwhile, BJP has countered the allegations and said that Congress is trying to destabilise the Jharkhand government.

Five people including 3 MLAs from Jharkhand Congress who were nabbed with huge amounts of cash, have been arrested. All the five people will be presented in the court today: Swati Bhangalia, SP, Howrah Rural July 31, 2022

Congress suspends the 3 MLAs

Congress on Sunday suspended its three Jharkhand MLAs- Dr. Irfan Ansari, Naman Vixal Kongadi and Rajesh Kachhap- who were caught with a large amount of cash in Howrah district of West Bengal, for anti-party activities.

Addressing a press conference, Jharkhand Congress in-charge and party`s general secretary Avinash Pandey said that the top leadership of the party has taken this decision in view of the allegations against the three MLAs.

BJP rejects Congresss allegations

After Jharkhand Congress alleged that BJP attempted to destabilize the state government following the seizure of cash from three MLAs, BJP slammed the Congress for their allegations.

Talking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said "Whenever Congress or leaders from the Jharkhand government land up in any difficulty they immediately start using the word `destabilization` like Pakistan`s government use Kashmir word. But they cannot escape by blaming BJP."
Over half a million Michigan voters have returned their absentee ballots for the upcoming August primary. Are you one of them? Wondering how to check whether your ballot arrived to your local clerk's office and make sure your vote counts? Here's how:

How do I check the status of my ballot online?

The Michigan Voter Information Center from the Secretary of State's Office allows you to look up your ballot by entering some basic information. At https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us, click "Your voter information" at the top of the page. Under "Search for your voter information" input your first and last name, birth month and year and ZIP code in the required fields.

You can also search your voter information under "Search by driver's license number" by inputting your driver's license number, birth month and birth year. Then click search by name or driver's license number depending on which option you used.

The next page should display an "Absentee ballot" box in the upper right corner with the date of the Aug. 2 primary, the date your application for an absentee ballot was received, the date your ballot was sent and the date the ballot was received.

Some municipalities may also have their own additional ballot tracking system. Detroit voters, for instance, can use BallotTrax at detroitav.ballottrax.net/voter/ to look up the status of their ballot and receive updates by email, text or phone.

What if my ballot hasn't been received yet?

If you mailed your ballot at least two weeks before the election, it will likely arrive before 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, the deadline by which ballots must be returned in order to be counted. The volume of absentee ballots returned to clerk's offices is expected to increase and the status of your ballot will likely be updated as local elections offices process those ballots.

I'm worried my ballot won't arrive in time, what are my options?

You can call your local clerk's office or visit your clerk's office in person to double-check the status of your ballot and potentially spoil the ballot you already returned and cast a new one if you're concerned it won't arrive by the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline.

Story continues

Voters wishing to spoil their ballot must sign a request to do so and ask for a new one. Voters who already returned their ballot must spoil their ballot in person by 10 a.m. the day before the election (Monday, Aug. 1).

You can find contact information and the address of your local clerk's office or satellite offices by putting your information into the Michigan Voter Information Center at https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us or by going to your local clerk's website for more information.

I already applied for an absentee ballot, but I haven't gotten it yet. What should I do?

If you're requested an absentee ballot that hasn't arrived, you may first want to check your voter information page at Michigan Voter Information Center at https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us to see whether it has been sent.

A voter who has not returned an absentee ballot to their clerk has until 4 p.m. the day before Election Day (Monday, Aug. 1) to spoil their ballot and request a new one.

You can vote in person at your polling location  open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 2  and sign a statement saying that the ballot was lost or destroyed and go vote.

2022 Michigan primary voter guide

Enter your address for information on which races and candidates will be on your ballot for the Michigan primary election on Aug. 2.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How to check the status of your Michigan primary ballot
Chitradurga: Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar on Sunday said party's national leader Rahul Gandhi will attend its political affairs committee meeting on August 2, amid rumblings within ahead of 2023 assembly polls, as he will be in the state to take part in senior leader Siddaramaiah's 75th birthday bash. He will also be visiting the Murugarajendra Mutt, a prominent Lingayat seminary in the region, during the visit.

"On August 3, Rahul Gandhi has desired to meet Chitradurga's Muruga mutt seer (Sri Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru) and other seers. Before that he will be attending the party's state political affairs committee meeting of about 35 state leaders on August 2 evening in Hubballi," Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here after meeting the seer at mutt, he said, on August 3, Rahul Gandhi will be attending the 75th birthday celebrations of Siddaramaiah at Davangere, following which he will be leaving to New Delhi via Hubballi.

Gandhi's visit to other prominent mutts in Davangere and surrounding areas is still being worked out, as he will be once again travelling in the region during Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in September and thinking on whether visits to other mutts can be planned then, he added.

The visit comes even as the Congress in Karnataka seems to be in a conundrum, as many within the party fear about it imploding ahead of assembly polls, amid a game of one-upmanship between its two top leaders-Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar- as to who will be the Chief Minister in the event of the party coming to power. There is also palpable worry within the party about a virtual division getting created between the camps of both leaders, and it diminishing its prospects in the polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Bhopal: A 20-year-old student of Bhopal's prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the third floor of a hostel in the complex on Sunday evening, a police official said.

The woman, a second-year MBBS student, is a native of Ernakulam in Kerala and may have been suffering from depression, Bagsevania police station in charge Sanjeev Kumar Chowkse said.

"She jumped off the hostel in the campus at 6pm. We do not know why she took this step. No suicide note has been found and probe into the incident continues," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday (July 31) took a dig at Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, whose house in Mumbai was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case, asking why is he scared if he has not done anything wrong. "Raut has declared that he has not done anything wrong. If that is so, why fear a probe? Let it happen. Why fear if you are innocent?" Shinde was quoted as saying by PTI.

"ED also conducted investigations earlier. If ED works under the fear of the Central govt then the Supreme Court should take action on this. ED is doing their work," the Maharashtra CM told reporters in Aurangabad.

Earlier in the morning today, ED officials, along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, reached Sanjay Raut's 'Maitri' bungalow in Mumbai and began the search. Raut, senior Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha member, has maintained that he has not done anything wrong and claimed that he was being targeted due to "political vendetta".

"I swear by late Balasabheb Thackeray that I have nothing to do with any scam," Raut said in a tweet after the ED raid began. "I will die but won't leave Shiv Sena," he added.

The Sena MPs supporters gathered outside his residence and staged protests against the EDs action.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Maharashtra and former minister Girish Mahajan said that Raut should not be afraid of the ED action if he is innocent. "Sanjay Raut is unnecessarily invoking late Balasaheb Thackeray and instigating Sena workers against the Union government. He should not be afraid of anything if he is had done nothing wrong, the BJP leader said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, who has been targeted by the Opposition over the delay in cabinet expansion, said that the allocation of ministries for state Cabinet formation will be decided soon, adding that he and his Deputy Devendra Fadnavis are working on the growth of the state.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: In the wake of the ongoing investigations into West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have claimed that along with Partha Chatterjee, the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee were also fully involved in the offence.

"Mamata Banerjee is the main culprit. Partha Chatterjee used to be with the CM for almost 8 to 10 hours, the SSC scam happened only with the blessings of Mamata, and she is associated with Partha Chatterjee. Mamta Banerjee is now trying to save herself and her nephew. (She) will do a lot of gimmicks and we will have to see." said BJP Bengal Vice President Saumitra Khan while speaking to ANI.

Also Read: 3 Jharkhand MLAs Caught with HUGE CASH in Bengal... Congress says 'Operation Lotus'

"ED is only looking for the cash money, why is the money that has been into the bank account not being investigated? The money has been sent to CM`s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and it should also be investigated, this is a big conspiracy," he further added.

'Not possible that Mamata Banerjee did not know': BJP's National Secretary on WBSSC scam

On the other hand, BJP`s National Secretary Anupam Hazra said that it is not possible that a big leader like Mamata Banerjee is not aware of the scam."It is not possible that a big leader like Mamta Banerjee does not know from where the money is coming to Partha Chatterjee`s house. She is an autocratic leader, and without her permission, no one can even breathe in the party. Partho Chatterjee cannot do anything without the permission of the high command, " Anupam Hazara told ANI.

"In the future, it will also be known from whose consent, Partha Chatterjee was collecting this money. Maybe, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is a little worried that Partho Chatterjee should not take anyone`s name in the custody, that is why he has been suspended from every position of the party," Hazara further added.

Partha Chatterjee claims there is a conspiracy against him

After being stripped from his positions and portfolios by TMC on Thursday, Partha Chatterjee said a conspiracy was being hatched against him. He said that time will tell whether right or wrong is happening to him. Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in the school recruitment scam case. He was taken to the hospital for a medical examination on Friday.

Outside the hospital, he said he was being made a "victim of a conspiracy".Trinamool Congress` decision to part ways with one of its most senior leaders was announced by party leader Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference in which he said "if anyone commits something wrong then Trinamool Congress will not spare him" and `there will be zero tolerance for corruption".

Mamata Banerjee removes Partha Chatterjee as minister in state govt

He said Partha Chatterjee will remain suspended till the probe is underway. Party leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee removed Partha Chatterjee as a Minister in the state government. He was considered one of the most trusted lieutenants of the Chief Minister, a "go-to" man, and was regarded third in party hierarchy after the Chief Minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

After his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, Partha Chatterjee had called Mamata Banerjee four times. She did not take his calls. Political observers said that Partha Chatterjee has been virtually left in the cold by the party to defend himself in the face of apparently onerous allegations in the ED probe.

They said that the Trinamool Congress` move is also aimed at cutting any losses due to the ED probe into the teacher recruitment scam.Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal on Saturday.Abhishek Banerjee told the media here that Partha Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of general secretary, national vice president and three other posts.

"He has been suspended till the investigation is underway. He can come back if proven not guilty. CM took the decision and the (Partha Chatterjee) minister was removed. The probe into the matter is underway. If anyone commits something wrong then TMC won`t spare him," he said.

Abhishek Banerjee said the investigating agency must complete the probe in a time-bound manner.The arrest of Partha Chatterjee followed Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellery worth above Rs 1 crore being recovered from the Kolkata residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former education minister.

The ED unearthed many disproportionate assets allegedly of Partha Chatterjee since his arrest, of which were three flats in West Bengal`s Diamond City.The ED raided Arpita Mukerjee`s house in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal. "The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam," the probe agency had said in a statement. A five-time MLA, Chatterjee, was appointed as the Minister-in-charge of higher education and school education in 2014 and he held the portfolio till 2021.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (July 31, 2022) addressed the 91st edition of his monthly radio programme `Mann Ki Baat`. During his address, PM Modi stated that India is set to witness a glorious and historic moment as it completes 75 years of Independence and said that he is happy to see 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' become a mass movement.

"We are all going to witness the historic moment of 75 years of our independence. The Amrit Festival of Independence is taking the form of a mass movement. People from all walks of life and from every section of the society are participating in various programs related to it," said the prime minister.

The prime minister also urged citizens to participate in the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign from August 13 to 15 by unfurling the flag atop their homes. Under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, between August 13 to August 15, 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement, will be held. You should become a part of this movement and unfurl the national flag atop your home, said PM Modi.

PM Modi also suggested that they change their social media profile pictures to the Indian flag from August 2 to 15.

Under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, between August 13 to August 15, 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement, will be held. You should become a part of this movement and unfurl the national flag atop your home: PM Narendra Modi on 'Mann ki Baat' July 31, 2022

During his Mann Ki Baat address, the Prime Minister noted that there is a growing interest in Ayurveda and Indian medicine around the world and Ayush exports have witnessed a record growth.

"There has been substantial growth in the research of plants which have medicinal value, amid the Covid times. It is a good beginning. Just this July, the Indian Virtual Herbarium was launched. It shows how we can use the digital world to connect with our roots," said PM Modi.

"There's a database of preserved plants or plant parts on the Indian Virtual Herbarium, which is freely available on the web. More than 1 lakh specimens & related scientific information are also available. This virtual herbarium displays our botanical diversity," he added.

He also mentioned that initiatives like national beekeeping and honey mission are transforming the lives of our farmers by helping increase their income.

"My dear countrymen, today we started our discussion on 75 years of Independence, with a visit across the country. The next time we meet, the journey of our next 25 years would have already begun. We all have to join for our beloved tricolour to be hoisted at our homes and those of our loved ones. Do share with me how you celebrated Independence Day, if you did anything special, this time. Next time, we will talk again about the different colours of our Amrit Parv. Till then, I take leave of you. Thank you very much," said PM Modi.

Prime Minister Modi on Sunday addressed the 91st edition of his monthly radio program `Mann Ki Baat` at 11 a.m.
New Delhi: A man, suspected to have contracted monkeypox, died in Thrissur district of Kerala on Saturday (July 30, 2022), a few days after returning from high-risk UAE. The samples of the deceased has been sent to testing and the authorities are yet to give official confirmation on the same.

According to the local media reports, 22-year-old man, who had arrived from UAE three days ago, showed symptoms of the viral disease, his body reportedly did not have red marks or blisters. Many reports quoted the doctors, who treated the patient, as saying that the mans symptoms were similar to monkeypox.

On the otherhand, a man from Kollam district of Kerala, who was Indias first monkeypox patient, has recovered from the disease and discharged from the Government Medical College yesterday, state health minister Veena George said. The second monekypox case in the country, reported from Kannur, was also returnee from the UAE.
A Congress MLA from Jharkhand on Sunday alleged that his three fellow legislators, who were caught in West Bengal with cash, had asked him to meet Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati for negotiation to topple the JMM-Congress government in the state.

Congress` Bermo MLA Kumar Jaimangal alias Anoop Singh lodged a complaint regarding offer.

He alleged that Congress MLAs Naman Vixal Kongadi and Rajesh Kachhap called him to Kolkata and offered him money, promising Rs 10 crore per MLA.

"Irfan Ansari and Rajesh Kachchap want me to come to Kolkata and then take me to Guwahati where they will make me meet Himanta Biswa Sarma who will give me assurance of a definite ministerial berth, apart from the money. Ansari has told me that he has already been promised the Health Ministry in the new government. He also told me that he shall be reaching Kolkata on Saturday afternoon," he alleged.

"He also said that he will get money transferred to him, once he reaches Guwahati and promises it in front of the Assam CM. He assured me that Sarma is doing it with the blessings of top shots of BJP in Delhi," Jaimangal stated.

"I do not want to be part of this unconstitutional, illegal and downright criminal activity and hence informing you that please take action against them who are in Kolkata with token amount and pressurising me to come to Kolkata and accompany them to Guwahati," he alleged.

Congress on Sunday suspended the three MLAs caught with cash on Saturday in West Bengal for anti-party activities.

Addressing a press conference, party General Secretary and Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pandey said: "The three MLAs are suspended with immediate effect."

On Saturday, three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand - Ansari, Kongadi and Kachhap - were detained in West Bengal`s Howrah district by the police after cash worth more than Rs 48 lakh was seized from a vehicle in which all of them were travelling.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury 'Rashtra-patni remark': A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in Madhya Pradesh against Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for his controversial remark on President Droupadi Murmu on the complaint of a BJP leader, a police official said on Sunday.

The FIR registered at Dindori police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including promoting enmity between different groups, has been sent to Parliament House police station in Delhi for action, he said.

A case was registered against Chowdhury under IPC sections 153 (A) (1) (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) on the complaint of former MP minister Om Prakash Dhurve, said Inspector CK Sirame of Dindori Kotwali police station.

"The FIR has been transferred to Delhi Police by Dindori Superintendent of Police Sanjay Singh for perusal and investigation," he added.

As the incident took place in Delhi, the FIR has been sent to Parliament House police station for action, Singh told PTI on Sunday.

In his complaint, Dhurve claimed Chowdhury's remark had hurt the sentiments of tribals. The Congress leader has already apologised for the statement, which caused a huge uproar inside and outside Parliament.
The Army on Sunday in a military ceremony paid homage to elite assault dog Axel who lost his life after being hit by the bullets of the terrorist during a gunfight between army and a terrorist at Wanigam Bala in Jammu and Kashmir`s Baramulla district on Saturday. "The ceremony was held at HQ 10 Sect RR Hyderbaig, Pattan and was attended by Maj. Gen. S.S. Slaria, GOC Kilo Force, Officers and ranks of 10 sect RR and reps of JKP," army said.

"Wreaths were laid by the KILO force commander, Cdr 10 sect RR, CO 29 RR and reps of JKP."

In addition the Officer Commanding, 26 Army Dog Unit and Axel`s handler also paid last respects to the fallen canine. On Saturday, the army had launched an anti-terror operation in Baramulla.

An assault dog named Axel who is helping the Indian Army in the mission to neutralise a militant in J&K's Baramulla district on Saturday, took three bullets on his head and lost his life instantly.



Om Shanti Axel!



Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. @adgpi pic.twitter.com/G7Lq2B4K8c  Geetha Kothapalli (@Geethak_MP) July 31, 2022

Axel was sent inside a house to monitor the movement of terrorist. The dog was killed in terrorist firing. During the encounter one terrorist was killed and three security forces personnel were injured.
New Delhi: Sanjay Arora, a Tamil Nadu-cadre IPS officer, was on Sunday (July 31, 2022) appointed as the new Commissioner of Delhi Police. Arora, currently serving as the Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Force, will take charge as Delhi's top cop on Monday (August 1).

He will succeed Rakesh Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer.

According to an official order, the competent authority has approved the inter-cadre deputation of Arora to the AGMUT cadre.

Who is Sanjay Arora, Delhi Police's new Commissioner?

Sanjay Arora is a 1988 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre. He has a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Jaipur's Malviya National Institute of Technology.

After joining the IPS, he served in various capacities in Tamil Nadu Police. He was Superintendent of Police (SP), Special Task Force, where he achieved significant success against the Veerappan gang, for which he was awarded CMs Gallantry Medal for Bravery and Heroic Action.



In 1991, Sanjay Arora, after being trained by NSG, had a pivotal role in forming the Special Security Group (SSG) to provide security to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu during the heydays of LTTE activity.

He has also served as the Superintendent of Police in various districts of Tamil Nadu.



Arora has served in ITBP on deputation as Commandant from 1997 to 2002. He commanded a border guarding ITBP Battalion in Matli, Uttarakhand from 1997 to 2000. As an instructor, Arora had made remarkable contributions in the field of training, serving as Commandant (Combat Wing) at the ITBP Academy, Mussoorie from 2000 to 2002.

Sanjay Arora has also served as Coimbatore Police Commissioner

Sanjay Arora has also served as Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore city from 2002 to 2004. He was also the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Villupuram range, and Deputy Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.



He has led the Chennai City Police as  Additional Commissioner  Crime & Headquarters and Additional Commissioner  Traffic. On promotion, he was appointed as ADGP (Operations) and ADGP (Administration) in Tamil Nadu Police.



He has served as IG (Special Operations) BSF, IG Chhattisgarh Sector CRPF, and IG Operations CRPF. He has served as ADG HQ & Ops CRPF and Spl DG J&K Zone CRPF before being appointed as DG, ITBP.

Sanjay Arora assumed charge of DG ITBP on August 31, 2021

Sanjay Arora assumed the charge of DG ITBP on August 31, 2021, as the 31st Chief of the Force.



He has been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2004, Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2014, Police Special Duty Medal , Antrik Suraksha Padak and UN Peacekeeping Medal among others.
Congratulations to Virginia U.S. Sen. Mark Warner for stubbornly pushing a computer chip manufacturing bill through the Senate. It provides $52 billion to promote U.S. chip making facilities and set up tax credits to help the industry, as well as providing for future spending on science and research and development.

After more than a year of wrangling, the legislation finally won approval last Wednesday on a 64-33 vote. As this editorial went to press, the bill was expected to pass the House and be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

That 32 Republican senators and erstwhile Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders voted against the chips bill and dozens of Republican House members and a handful of Democrats were expected to vote against it boggles the mind.

This country faces a computer chip shortage that leaves otherwise finished new cars sitting idle in lots unavailable for sale. The lack of U.S. chip manufacturing facilities leaves U.S. national security in the hands of Taiwanese chip makers. U.S. defense weapons and technology depend on chips to operate. Ceding such a critical component to a foreign countryeven a friendly one  is a recipe for disaster. If China takes over Taiwan, our greatest military and economic rival stands to cook our technological goose.

As Warner pointed out in a stump speech that he offered hundreds of times in the past 12 months, semiconductor chips are involved in anything that has an on and off switch, from cars, to fighter jets, to cell phones to televisions. But while the U.S. built just 15 manufacturing plants in recent years, other countries around the world, including China, built 120. The U.S. share of the chip market shrank from 37% to 12%, Warner said.

In the face of this news, Congress hemmed and hawed for months. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pulled the plug on a conference committee looking at earlier legislation that included chip making. That left Warner and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas hunting for nine Republican colleagues to join Warner, Cornyn and other Democrats to find 60 votes to end debate on the chips bill and bring it to a floor vote.

Members of Congress are too often spared the hard decisions of floor votes for political reasons. Good sense bills that legislators would look stupid voting against simply never get to a roll call.

With the chips bill, the process tested Warners bipartisan tenacity. A couple of weeks ago, he tweeted out an offer to strip the bill of almost anything that Republicans and Democrats could not agree on simply to get an up or down vote. The thing is, this bill was never what Washington insiders sarcastically call a Christmas tree. The term refers to bills on which politicians hang pet projects in exchange for their votes.

Recently in this space we visited the subject of dysfunctional partisanship. Even in a self-evident victory for the American people like chip manufacturing, progress crawls along so slowly that it seems participants might grind their teeth to the gums before they act, leaving no bite to what they do. Fortunately, Warner understood the bigger picture in the chip crisis. He started talking about it two years ago. In part, this is because of his history as a risk-taking tech entrepreneur. In part, it is because his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee gives him a very sophisticated and sobering understanding of U.S. security risks.

Given its military and economic implications, Warner thinks history may judge the chips bill as one of the most significant pieces of legislation that the Congress has gotten to the president in years, if not decades.

In Washington, they joke that lawmaking is like sausage making. Senate and House members pick and choose what to stuff into a sleeve of political skin. This chips bill took long enough to breed the animals, raise them, slaughter them and then argue about how much meat from each to put in.

These domestic political games gave the rest of the world a years head start solving the chip crisis. For America, that is no laughing matter.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said on Sunday that while the country wants `Har Ghar Tiranga` in Kashmir, neighbouring Pakistan wants `Har Ghar Matam` in Srinagar. Addressing the passing out parade at the police training school (Manigam) in Ganderbal district, the DGP thanked the people for supporting the initiative of hoisting the Tricolour on every home.

"We want Har Ghar Tiranga while our neighbouring country wants Har Ghar Matam (Mourning in every home) in Kashmir," Singh said.

He said narco-terrorism is the biggest challenge faced by the J&K Police at present.

"We are dealing with the menace of narco-terrorism effectively, but much more needs to be done.

"Drones are being used to drop drugs and weapons. We are committed to ensure a peaceful atmosphere, but our neighbour is hatching conspiracies to disrupt peace. This money is used to lure youth towards drugs and terrorism," he said.

He paid tribute to 1,601 police personnel and 514 special police officers (SPOs) who laid down their lives in the line of duty in J&K during the last 30 years.
New Delhi: Several parts of north India are likely to receive heavy rainfalls during the next five days, as per the India Meteorological Departments (IMD) latest forecast. According to the weather department, heavy to very heavy rainfall activity is likely to continue over the Western Himalayas during the next five days. Heavy to very rainfall have been predicted in several parts of the country over the next few days as the rainfall activity is likely to gradually enhance over Peninsular India from Sunday (July 31, 2022), informed the Met Office.

"Fairly widespread/widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorm/lightning very likely over Bihar during 30th July- 02nd August; Jharkhand during 31 st July- 02nd August; Gangetic West Bengal on 31st July & 01st August; Odisha on 01st August; Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim, Assam & Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura during next 4 days," said IMD.

The weather department also informed that rainfall activity is likely to gradually enhance over Peninsular India from today. While heavy rains is predicted over Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and northeastern states during the next few days.

The weather department hs issued an orange alert, warning of heavy rainfall, in Uttarakhand for the next four days starting July 29. The areas included in the alert are Dehradun, Nainital, Tehri, Pauri, Champawat and Bageshwar.

Check IMDs rainfall prediction here:

Press Release (i) Heavy rainfall activity likely to continue over Northwest Indian plains today and decrease thereafter.



(ii) Heavy to very heavy rainfall activity likely to continue over the Western Himalayas during next 5 days. @ndmaindia @DDNewslive @moesgoi pic.twitter.com/PmO5S592s1 July 30, 2022

- Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms or lightning are very likely over Uttarakhand till August 3 and over Himachal Pradesh on July 31.

- Isolated very heavy rainfall is also very likely over Bihar on July 31 and August 1, over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya on July 31.

- Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning is predicted over Central India during the next four to five days.

- Isolated heavy falls are also likely over East Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on August 3.

- Fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorm and lightning very likely over Coastal Andhra Pradesh & Yanam during 01st 03rd August; Telangana during 30th July & 01st03rd August; Coastal Karnataka on 30th July & 01st 03rd August.

- A cyclonic circulation over the Tamil Nadu region will bring heavy rain to Chennai and surrounding districts on August 1 and 2, the Regional Meteorological Center (RMC) predicted. "Though light to moderate rain was predicted for the past few days for Chennai, only a few areas received rainfall. With cyclonic circulation prevailing over TN region, rainfall is expected in North Tamil Nadu from next month," the meteorological official said in a statement.
Mumbai: Television actors Arjun Bijlani and Shraddha Arya are all set to star in director and producer Karan Johar`s upcoming film.Taking to Instagram, the `Naagin` actor recently dropped a picture with Karan, which he captioned, "Finally had the opportunity to shoot with the one and only @karanjohar sir. I sincerely appreciate your love, warmth and guidance. Glad could be a part of this magical film."



The picture also showcases a hand-written note from the `Kuch Kuch Hota Hai` director which reads, "Dearest Arjun, thankyou so much for doing my film. Welcome to Dharma. I look forward to working with you in the future."





Apart from him, television actor Shraddha Arya also received a welcome note from Karan, which reads, "Dearest Shradha, Welcome to the Dharma family. All my love, Karan."



Reportedly, Shraddha and Arjun will be playing an important role in Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt`starrer romantic drama film `Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani`.



After Maniesh Paul, television celebs Arjun and Shraddha become the two new joiners in the Dharma Family and the fans can`t wait to watch their favourite actors on the big screen.



Apart from that, the `Dill Mill Gayye` actor was recently seen in MX Player`s romantic show `Roohaniyat`with actor Kanika Mann. The show gathered a decent response from the netizens. Along with this, he is currently hosting the show `Ravivaar with Star Parivaar`.



Shraddha, on the other hand, is currently a part of Zee Tv`s much popular show `Kundali Bhagya`.



Apart from Ranveer-Alia, `Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani` also stars veteran actors Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi in prominent roles, and the film is all set to hit the theatres on February 11, 2022.
NEW DELHI: Actress Kriti Sanon has proved her mettle for acting and has established a place for herself in the Hindi film industry. She made her acting debut with Telugu psychological thriller '1: Nenokkadine' in 2014 and went on to work with several A-listers including, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Shah Rukh Khan, Sushant Singh Rajput, Kartik Aryan, Arjun Kapoor among others. The actress, who turned a year older on July 31, had a working birthday as she was busy shooting for her upcoming film 'Shehzada' on Sunday. As Kriti was busy fulfilling her professional commiment, her fans could not contain their excitement and thronged her film sets in Haryana to greet the actress on her special day.

In an exclusive video from the sets of Shehzada in Haryana where Kriti was shooting on her birthday, a huge mob of fans assembling at the gate of the film sets is seen. The fans were excitedly pouring their hearts out for Kriti, and screaming birthday wishes.



FANS MOB KRITI SANON'S FILM SETS IN HARYANA



The overwhelmed actress took time out from her shoot to go to the gate and greet her fans. She shook hands with a few as the screams of excitement got louder on getting a glimpse of the 'Mimi' actress. Overwhelmed with all the love, Kriti made sure to thank them for all the love.

Later, a few pictures from the sets surfaced on social media where the 'Shehzada' team arranged a birthday cake for her. Kriti celebrated the birthday with the crew, including director Rohit Dhawan, her co-star Kartik Aaryan and others. The cake-cutting was followed by a fun schedule wrap party.

KRITI SANON'S DANCE VIDEO WITH KARTIK AARYAN

With one impressive career graph behind her, Kriti's lineup ahead also looks extremely promising with films like 'Adipurush', 'Shehzada', 'Bhediya', 'Ganapath' and Anurag Kashyap's untitled next in the pipeline.
MUMBAI: Bollywood star Kajol on Sunday completed 30 years in the film industry and thanked her fans for the unconditional love she received during the journey. The 47-year-old actor took to Instagram to celebrate the milestone and posted a video montage of her character stills from some of her blockbuster movies.

"Someone asked me yesterday what am I feeling? Couldn't really put it into words, except to say that it is a feeling of deep gratitude for all the love everyone has showered on me so unconditionally! "So cheers to 30 years and counting... And God willing to another 30 more!" Kajol wrote in the caption.

Kajol, daughter of veteran star Tanuja and director Shomu Mukherjee, started her career in movies with action drama film 'Bekhudi', which was released on July 31, 1992. Over the next three decades, the actor gave memorable hits such as 'Yeh Dillagi', 'Dushman', 'Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya', 'Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha', 'Fanaa' and 'Gupt'.

It was her on-screen with pairing with superstar Shah Rukh Khan in blockbusters such as 'Baazigar', 'Karan Arjun', 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'Kabhi Khushi

'Kabhie Gham?', 'My Name Is Khan' and 'Dilwale' that earned her a plethora of fans.

Besides, Kajol is known for films such as 'Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha', 'Ishq', 'Raju Chacha', 'U Me Aur Hum' and 'Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior' with actor-husband Ajay Devgn. She has also starred in Tamil films such as 'Minsara Kanavu' with Arvind Swamy and Prabhudheva, and 'Velaiilla Pattadhari 2', alongside Dhanush.

In a recent interview with PTI, Kajol had said she was fortunate to have collaborated on "great films with some fabulous directors. "I will always be grateful that my fans believe in me. And all this has got me to 30 years, I am here, kicking, streaming, alive and relevant," she had said.

The actor, who made her digital foray with the Netflix film 'Tribhanga' in 2021, will soon make her series debut with a Disney+ Hotstar project.
NEW DELHI: Once tagged as the most adorable couple in the south, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Naga Chaitanya's fairytale wedding hit rock bottom last year and the duo decided to announce their separation. Married for almost four years, 'ChaySam' broke a million hearts after they decided to go separate ways and file for divorce. Today, both of them are focussing on their respective professional commitments. However, every time they decided to address their divorce, they end up making it to the headlines.

Naga Chaitanya, who is otherwise known to be a reserved guy, opened up on his separation from Samantha Ruth Prabhu. In a candid chat with ETimes, Chaitanya opened up about all the loose talk going around his separation from Samantha and confessed, "It is frustrating. I am here as an actor and I want my professional life to do the talking. I dont want my personal life to be the topic of discussion. We all have a personal space and theres a reason why it's called 'personal'."

SAMANTHA AND NAGA CHAITANYA'S SEPARATION

Naga said that he understands people's fascination with his life as such things come with being a celebrity. He, however, adds that it's his responsibility to not get affected by such things. "Unfortunately, it's a part of this job where your personal space also becomes a narrative. Thats the baggage that this job carries. It's my responsibility to be affected by it or not. Every celebrity needs to take that call, actually. It does become frustrating that my personal life makes for a bigger headline than my professional achievements. But I guess, I just need to keep working harder on my profession. The personal life bits will come and go," the 'Thank You star told the publication.

Naga further discloses why he chose to stay silent on the buzz being done around his separation from Samantha Ruth Prabhu. "Whatever both of us wanted to say, we both put out a statement regarding that. That's what I have always done with my personal life anyway. Things that I feel are crucial to be shared and put out, I do inform the media about it, whether its good or bad. I come out, tell the people about it through a statement and thats it. In our case, Samantha has moved on, Ive moved on and I dont feel the need to inform the world about it, more than that," he said.

Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Naga Chaitanya declared their separation in October last year, after four years of their marriage. Samantha recently made an appearance on Karan Johar's chat show 'Koffee With Karan 7' where she spoke about parting ways with Naga and all the rumours that surfaced on the internet.

Speaking of their professional work, Naga Chaitanya's Thank You opened in cinemas on July 22. He will next be seen in 'Laal Singh Chaddha' also starring Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Mona Singh. The film is set to arrive in theatres on August 11, 2022.
New Delhi: Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal are one of the most loved couples in Bollywood today. They tied the knot in December last year and keep treating fans with their adorable pictures ever since. On Sunday, Katrina's beauty brand 'Kay Beauty' won 'brand of the year' title and her husband is very proud.

Actress-entrepreneur Katrina Kaif's beauty line Kay Beauty won 'brand of the year' honour at a recent awards ceremony. Fans are super happy and proud of the actress and are really wishing good luck to her.

Katrina reposted an Instagram post of Vogue India on her official account and shared the happy news, it read, "It came, it conquered, and its definitely here to stay  meet the homegrown makeup brand that won hearts across the country and the VOGUE India beauty brand of the year award for #VBF2022. Ever since its 2019 launch, Katrina Kaifs (@katrinakaif) Kay Beauty (@kaybykatrina) instantly grew to become one of Indias most loved makeup brands. The philosophy was simple  making makeup more accessible to the girl and boy next door. And even three years later, Kay Beauty doesnt fail to impress with its array of high-performance, trendy, and super affordable products that are formulated with natural ingredients. The brands celebration of skin colour and body positivity, make it the perfect go-to for every generation in the country."

Vicky was quick to react, he commented, "Brand of the year by the Woman of my life! Congratulations beautiful." Vicky also reshared Katrina's post on his Instagram story alongside red heart emojis and 'unstoppable' song.

Vicky and Katrina got married in a magnificent wedding in Rajasthan on December 9, 2021, in the company of close friends and family. Prior to their marriage, neither Vicky nor Katrina commented on their relationship.

On the work front, Katrina will be seen sharing screen space with Vijay Sethupathi in 'Merry Christmas'. The upcoming film is being helmed by Sriram Raghavan. She also has 'Tiger 3' with Salman Khan in her kitty.

On the other hand, Vicky is currently busy preparing for Meghna Gulzar's much-anticipated film Sam Bahadur, a biopic on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. He will also be seen sharing screen space with Sara Ali Khan in Laxman Utekar's yet-to-be-tiled film. In his kitty he also has 'Govinda Naam Mera' with Bhumi Pednekar.
New Delhi: The deadline to submit your income tax return for the fiscal year 20212022 is today, after which a late fee for submitting a delayed ITR will be assessed. In addition, the Centre has stated that they have no plans to extend the ITR filing deadline, therefore it would be wise for the taxpayer to file the return as soon as possible.

The income tax department has released the top ten frequently asked questions surrounding ITR filing in order to help clear up some of the confusion that people and taxpayers still have (FAQs). Read More: ITR Filing for financial year 2021-22: Will Income Tax Return filing due date be extended today?

E-verification

According to standard procedure, it takes 34 days for various banks to give the department information. After that, it is prefilled in the JSON for tax returns. The taxpayer can choose to wait the necessary amount of time for the ITR to automatically reflect the information of the taxes paid. Read More: ITR Filing for financial year 2021-22: Is ITR filing, July 31 a bank holiday? Know what it means

Alternatively, if the taxpayer has previously filled out more information beyond the pre-populated information, the additional information can be manually input after clicking the "Add Details" link for Advance Tax and Self Assessment Tax Payment details under Schedule "Taxes Paid."

2. How to pre-validate the bank account and select a bank for refund?

The taxpayer must follow the steps below to add a bank account to which a refund is needed: Browse to Profile. View My Bank Account Bank Account Add>> Give accurate bank information and validate. For validation, the request will be forwarded to the relevant bank or NPCI.

The taxpayer may designate the bank account for a refund when the validation is successful. Note: If a user's bank account has the status "Validation in Progress" while filing an ITR, that account may be designated for a refund without waiting for confirmation. However, the bank's confirmation process must be completed before the refund, if any, would be credited.

3: While trying to file the ITR-7 claiming exemption under below sub-sections, I am not able to find the relevant dropdown in ITR 7 utility. What should I do in this regard?

[Section 10(20); Section 10(23AA); Section 10(23AAB); Section 10(23BB); Section 10(23BBA); Section 10(23BBC); Section 10(23BBE); Section 10(23BBG); Section 10(23BBH); Section 10(23C)(i); Section 10(23C)(ii); Section 10(23C)(iii); Section 10(23C)(iiia); Section 10(23C)(iiiaa); Section 10(23C)(iiiaaa); Section 10(23C)(iiiaaaa); Section 10(25)(i); Section 10(25)(ii); Section 10(25)(iii); Section 10(25)(iv); Section 10(25)(v); Section 10(25A); Section 10(26AAB); Section 10(26B); Section 10(26BB); Section 10(26BBB); Section 10(44)]

The ITR-7 is not required to be filed by those claiming exemptions under any of the aforementioned sub-sections; they are free to utilise another ITR type instead, if necessary.

4: How to e-verify through net banking?

The user must do the following to get into their e-filing account using their net banking account:

 On the "Login" tab, click the "Net Banking" link under "Other ways to access your account."

 Choose the bank, then sign in with your net banking credentials on the website.

On the bank website, look for the Income tax e-filing tab. (Note: There are variations among banks.)

 On the bank's website, click the "Login to Income Tax e-filing" link.

 You'll be sent directly to the dashboard for e-filing.

 Under "e-file> Income-tax returns," click the "e-verify return" link.

 To have the return electronically confirmed, click the "e-verify" option.

 You'll be taken to a "success" page where your return will be verified.

5: Difference between income as shown in AIS and 26AS?

The income shown in the AIS and 26AS is based on data gathered from various sources and tax filings filed by various parties. The taxpayer is given access to these for reference only. The taxpayer should review his documents and fill out the return using the information that is currently in his possession.

The Taxpayer may rely on the TDS/Tax payment information supplied in Form 26AS for the purpose of filing a tax return and for the purpose of computing pre-paid taxes if there is a difference between the TDS/TCS or tax payments as reported in Form 26AS and the TDS/TCS or tax payments provided in AIS.

6: How to register for legal heir/documents required?

How to Register as an Heir Legally: e-Filing Portal login >> Authorized Partners >> Sign up as a Representative Assessee here. Let's start now>> New Request Created >> Select "Deceased (Legal heir)" as the assessee category, then complete the necessary information. Attach any required files, then click Continue.

Document required for uploading:

 A copy of the deceased person's PAN;

 A copy of the deceased person's PAN;

 A copy of the required legal heir evidence; (any of below)

- The declaration of legal heirs made by a judge.

- the local revenue authorities' lawful heir certificate.

- The local revenue authorities' certificate for surviving family members.

The registered will.

The State/Central government's certificate of family pension

Letter from a bank or other financial institution with seal and signature, mentioning the nominee or joint account holder information for the deceased person's account at the time of death.

 A duplicate of the death certificate issued by the municipal government, a corporation, or the registrar of deaths

If relevant, a copy of an order made in the deceased person's name.

A copy of a letter of indemnity (optional)

"If the document is in any vernacular language, please submit a certified Hindi / English translation of the document, as well as a copy of the original document."

7: How to reset password without e-filing/Aadhar OTP?

To reset password without e-filing OTP (if registered mobile has changed)/Aadhaar OTP (if Mobile is not linked to Aadhaar or Aadhaar is not linked to PAN), use a valid DSC or login directly through Internet Banking into an E-filing account. The DSC should be linked to the Taxpayer's PAN, and the user can reset the password even if the DSC is not registered on the portal.

If none of these solutions work or are unavailable, taxpayers can submit a request to efilingwebmanager@incometax.gov.in by attaching and providing the following information with the request email:  Scanned copy of the Taxpayer's PAN; and Scanned copy of the Taxpayer's PAN; and

 Scanned PDF copy of identity proof (such as passport/Voter Identity card/Driving License /Aadhaar card /Bank passbook with Photo); and Scanned PDF copy of address proof (such as passport/Voter Identity card/Driving License /Aadhaar card /Bank passbook with Photo); and

 Letter in writing, requesting password reset by providing valid reasons

Note 1: Please only attach documents in ZIP (.zip) format; otherwise, your request will be ignored.

Note 2: The user must self-attest to all documents.

Note 3: The request for password reset must come from the PAN holder's registered email address or the Taxpayer's current email address.

Note 4: Processing such requests may take at least one working day.

Once the papers have been authenticated, the reset password link will be sent to the email address used to make the request.

8: How to claim some deductions like 80TTA when Tab is not visible?

Deductions u/s 80TTA or other deductions can be submitted on the Total deductions tab (click display all deductions) in ITR 1 and 4, and in other ITRs. Deductions can be placed into Schedule VI-A under Parts B, C, CA, and D.

9: How to file return through offline utility?

Complete instructions are provided in the User Manual to assist taxpayers in submitting their income tax returns using the offline utility. For more information, please see the links below. - User Manual for Offline Utility for ITRs | Income Tax Department

10: How to opt/Change tax regimes?

If a taxpayer files an ITR-3 or ITR-4, he or she may opt in.

(i) Taxpayer opted for the New Tax Regime last year by filing Form 10-IE or ITR as applicable for A.Y. 2021-22 and wishes to continue doing so for A.Y. 2022-23 as well. In this instance, the taxpayer is not needed to complete Form 10-IE again this year. The taxpayer may refer to the previous year's Form 10-IE. Ack. No. and date of filing for the fiscal year 2022-23

(ii) If a taxpayer is opting into the 115BAC tax regime for the first time in fiscal year 2022-23, he or she must file Form 10-IE and include the Ack. No. and date of filing by selecting the 'Opting in Now' option in ITR-3/4.

Changing tax regime: If the taxpayer opted for the New Tax Regime last year and filed Form 10-IE for A.Y. 2021-22, and now desires to opt out of the New Regime for A.Y. 2022-23, he must file Form 10-IE this year and include the filed Form 10-IE Ack. No. and Date of Filing in ITR-3/4.
New Delhi: The deadline for submitting your income tax return(ITR) is today, July 31. Although many taxpayers and people have urged the government to extend the deadline, it is anticipated that this year won't see an extension like the previous two. Individual taxpayers who haven't yet submitted their ITRs should do so right away.

The government reported that as of Saturday at 8:36 p.m., more than 5 crore ITRs for the assessment year 202223 had been submitted. The income tax department asked taxpayers, mostly individuals and members of the salaried class, to file their forms by the deadline of July 31 through its official Twitter account. Read More: Will Centre extend ITR filing date beyond July 31 deadline? Income Tax Department shares important message

Over 5 crore ITRs filed upto 8:36 pm today. Please file your ITR now, if not filed as yet. The due date to file ITR for AY 2022-23 is 31st July, 2022. #FileNow to avoid late fees. Pl visit: http://incometax.gov.in," the income tax department tweeted. Read More: ITR Filing for financial year 2021-22: Is ITR filing, July 31 a bank holiday? Know what it means

The Twitter hashtag "#Extend Due Date Immediately" was trending amid requests for a deadline extension.

In response to some tweets claiming that the department's e-filing website was down, the department's Twitter account wrote:

"As informed by our team, the e-filing portal is working fine. May we request you to retry after clearing the browser cache. If you still face any issues, pl share your details (with PAN & mobile no.) at mailto:HYPERLINK "mailto:orm@cpc.incometax.gov.in"orm@cpc.incometax.gov.in"HYPERLINK "mailto:orm@cpc.incometax.gov.in"orm@cpc.incometax.gov.in. Our team will connect with you."

Aaykar Seva Kendras (ASKs), or income tax support centres, will be open on Sunday across the nation, and additional receipt counters will be opened, where necessary, to "ease filing of tax returns by the taxpayers," according to a separate directive from the CBDT.

A senior officer told PTI that a "war room" of technological experts working on the portal and the CBDT's social media team, which is compiling individual and public responses to the file, are cooperating around-the-clock.

According to the officer, problems with the e-filing system are being immediately fixed, and every taxpayer's question is being answered.

During the most recent fiscal year 20202021, 5.89 crore ITRs were submitted by the extended deadline of December 31, 2021.
New Delhi: The number of taxpayers filing their income tax returns (ITRs) for the assessment year 202223 (AY23) increased manifold, in the final hours, with the Sunday, July 31, deadline approaching. As of now, the government has provided no information on the extension of the deadline for filing ITRs. However, the income tax department, on Sunday (July 31), gave a major update related to ITR filing.

Taking it to microblogging platform Twitter, the income tax department said that as of July 30, more than 5.10 crore ITRs have been filed and that on July 30 alone, around 57.51 lakh returns were filed. (ALSO READ: ITR Filing for financial year 2021-22: Will Income Tax Return filing due date be extended today?)

More than 5.10 crore ITRs have been filed till 30th July,2022. Over 57.51 lakh #ITRs were filed on 30th July,2022 itself.

Do remember to file yours, if not filed as yet. #FileNow to avoid late fee.

Today is the due dt to file #ITR for AY 2022-23

Pl visit: https://t.co/GYvO3n9wMf pic.twitter.com/3bVrHid1MF  Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) July 31, 2022

More than 5.10 crore ITRs have been filed till 30th July,2022. Over 57.51 lakh #ITRs were filed on 30th July,2022 itself, the income tax department said in its tweet. (ALSO READ: ITR Filing for financial year 2021-22: Facing issues with e-verification, legal heir registration, check THESE FAQs by Income Tax Dept)

Do remember to file yours, if not filed as yet. #FileNow to avoid a late fee. Today is the due date to file #ITR for AY 2022-23," the income tax department said in the same tweet posted on the microblogging platform on Sunday.

After missing the deadline to submit your income tax return for the fiscal year 20212022, you will have to pay a late fee if you decide to file belated ITRs.

Although the government has been asked to extend the deadline by numerous taxpayers and citizens, it is predicted that this year won't see an extension like the previous two. As a result, individual taxpayers should submit their ITRs immediately if they haven't already.
Mid-Willamette Valley voters elect local politicians who will try to represent their best interests, and most of the time, things work out pretty swell. City councilors and county commissioners take their positions seriously and generally try to listen to residents when making big decisions.

And once in a while, these officials completely disregard the will of the people.

Thats happening in at least one jurisdiction on the topic of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes.

Oregonians have already made their voices heard, and they did so in the November 2020 General Election. We dont think voters were particularly naive or ill-informed on this topic when they cast their ballots and passed Measure 109 with 56% approval.

That result may feel shocking to some, but it fits neatly into a pattern of maverick milestones for Oregon. Think of the bottle bill, euthanasia and other landmarks. The Beaver State hasnt been afraid to zig where others zag, or to decriminalize that which fills the Zig-Zags, which it did way back in 1973. This is simply another bit of trailblazing.

Oregon became the first state in our nation to greenlight the manufacture, sale and administration of psilocybin, which can be used to treat the effects of anxiety, depression and trauma  and this includes helping veterans suffering from mental health problems.

Magic mushrooms arent some sort of magic bullet, but studies have shown that they are beneficial for some people. Oregonians understood this and hoped that psilocybin could provide better treatment in some circumstances than mainstream pharmaceuticals.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald.

Under the measure, Oregon counties and municipalities can opt out of permitting psilocybin facilities if voters approve a local moratorium or ban. The deadline to put such a matter on the November 2022 ballot is Aug. 19.

Theres a bit of confusion and misinformation regarding magic mushrooms, and we dont agree with some of the slippery slope arguments being used against psilocybin therapy. Trained practitioners will administer the substance at licensed facilities, so if youre looking for a drug scourge to combat, might we suggest fentanyl, prescription opioids or heroin?

Nevertheless, we have no complaints with stays or outright prohibition in jurisdictions where Measure 109 failed.

In Lebanon, for example, about 53% of voters were against psilocybin therapy in November 2020. So it seems fair that the Lebanon City Council has put a two-year moratorium before voters.

Similarly in Linn County, roughly 55% voted no on Measure 109, and on the November 2022 General Election ballot, commissioners are putting an outright ban on psilocybin therapy for consideration.

On the flip side of this equation, theres the Philomath City Council, which is putting forth a two-year moratorium on psilocybin therapy, despite the town approving Measure 109 with a whopping 60% of the vote.

A proposed moratorium in Corvallis barely failed during a City Council vote, despite overwhelming support at the ballot box in 2020.

Other communities have yet to make a decision on the matter.

Benton County commissioners are mulling the merit of magic mushrooms, though 63% of voters there approved the treatment.

In Albany, 52% of voters passed Measure 109, and the council hasnt determined a course of action yet.

Again, we dont think voters were misled or foolhardy regarding Measure 109, and those who passed it seem highly unlikely to change their minds. If anything, we expect support of psilocybin therapy to gradually increase over time in more conservative-leaning areas.

So it makes absolutely no sense for officials in Philomath to try and overturn the decision of the electorate.

Putting the matter before voters once again seems like a waste of time in this instance. The peoples voice was loud and clear the first time around.
Bullet train Update: Railway authorities are working 24X7 to give India its first bullet train by 2026. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently visited the site of the bullet train project and has updated netizens about the progress of the project. Vaishnaw shared the onsite review of the Bullet Train project at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai on his official twitter handle with pictures of the construction site.

Onsite review of the Bullet Train project at BKC in Mumbai," Vaishnaw said in a tweet while posting a video of the under construction project. Progressing at pace #MAHSR #Anand #Gujarat #BulletTrain #Infra4India," his another tweet read.

Onsite review of the Bullet Train project at BKC in Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/wP2OaGD1Gq  Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) July 30, 2022

Earlier in June this year, Vaishnaw announced that India might get its first operational bullet train by the year 2026. He mentioned that good progress was being made into making the first bullet train of India operational between Surat and Bilimora in Gujarat in 2026.

"We are keeping the target of running the first bullet train between Surat and Bilimora in 2026. The progress is very good, and we are confident of running the train by that time," he said in an official statement.

Also read: Bharat Gaurav train: IRCTC introduces Shri Ramayana Yatra package, price starts at ONLY

Bilimora is a town in Navsari district of south Gujarat. The project is aimed at running the bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai on a high speed rail (HSR) corridor at a speed of 320 kmph, covering a distance of 508 km and 12 stations.

The bullet train is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to about three hours from the current six hours. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding 81 percent of project cost which is estimated at Rs 1.1 lakh crore.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has recently introduced multiple tour packages taking care of the needs of travelers who want to have a vacation. Most recently, the organisation has launched a tour package wishing to travel from Lucknow to the Andaman Islands. The tour package covers the travellers for six days and five nights and multiple tourist spots like Kalighat Temple and Victoria Memorial in Kolkata along with places like Historic Cellular Jail in Port Blair, Corbyn Cove Beach, Samudrika Museum, and Sagarika Emporium along with multiple beaches.

The vacation for the tour package starts on September 23 and after the aforementioned duration ends on September 28. It is to be noted that the travel from Lucknow to the Andaman Islands will be via Kolkata. Furthermore, the traveller will travel from Lucknow to Kolkata via train. Later on. from Kolkata, the passengers will get a flight from Kolkata to the Andaman Islands. It is to be noted that the tour package includes breakfast and dinner. In addition, it also covers the travellers' lodging.

The price per person for the journey from Lucknow to Andaman is Rs 65,900. The price drops to Rs 53,785 (per person) for two people and to Rs 53,295 for a group of three. For a stay with parents, the package cost per child is Rs 49,335 (including beds) and Rs 46,620 (without beds).

Also read: Indian Railways operations hit for hours as Brahmaputra mail hits bull

Before this IRCTC had launched a similar tour package under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and Dekho Apna Desh initiatives covering passengers for six days and seven nights for a tour to South India. The package covered multiple destinations in the Southern part of the Indian peninsula like Padmanabhaswamy temple, Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Ramanathaswamy Temple, Meenakshi Temple, Lord Balaji Temple, and Sri Kalahasti. The tour package had a cost of Rs 59,760 for a single person and Rs 47,190 for two.
Beijing: Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Saturday he deleted a tweet warning of military retaliation should U.S. fighter jets escort House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on any visit to Taiwan, after Twitter blocked his account. Pelosi, number three in the U.S. line of presidential succession, after Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, signalled on Friday she was embarking on a trip to Asia.

She did not mention Taiwan, but speculation of her visiting the democratically ruled island, claimed by Beijing, has intensified in recent days, fuelling tensions beyond the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden in a phone call on Thursday that Washington should abide by the one-China principle and "those who play with fire will perish by it."

Hu, former editor-in-chief of state tabloid Global Times, wrote on China`s microblog Weibo: "I`ve conveyed the message: if the U.S. military sends fighter jets to escort Pelosi to Taiwan, then the move would take the vile nature of such a visit to another level, and would constitute aggression."

Also Read: Don't 'play with fire' over Taiwan, China's Xi Jinping warns in call with US President Joe Biden

'Okay to shoot down Pelosi's plane': Former editor-in-chief of state tabloid Global Times

If Pelosi were to visit Taiwan, Hu, a nationalist firebrand with a wide Twitter following, wrote, "Our fighter jets should deploy all obstructive tactics. If those are still ineffective, I think it is okay too to shoot down Pelosi`s plane."

Hu said he had to delete the tweet to unlock his Twitter account, which had been blocked as the tweet was deemed by Twitter to have violated the platform`s rules and had to be removed by the account holder. Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

On Friday, a White House national security spokesperson said the United States had observed no evidence of looming Chinese military action against Taiwan, when asked about a possible visit to the island by Pelosi.

Visits by U.S. officials to Taiwan are a source of tension between Beijing and Washington, which does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. The United States has a large military presence in the Asia-Pacific, including around the South China Sea, through which a U.S. aircraft carrier is traversing as part of what the U.S. navy said was a routine patrol.
London: A Charitable Fund founded by Britain's Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, accepted a donation from slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's family in 2013, a UK media report claimed on Sunday. According to The Sunday Times, Prince Charles met with the Al Qaeda founder's half-brother Bakr in London and allegedly agreed to accept GBP 1 million. The report claims that several of the senior royal's closest advisers urged Charles heir to Britain's throne to return the money. However, his Clarence House office has denied that the royal was personally involved in the decision.

"The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF) has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken in accepting this donation, a Clarence House spokesperson told Sky News.

The decision to accept was taken by the charity's trustees alone and any attempt to characterise it otherwise is false," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund said the donation from Sheik Bakr bin Laden in 2013 was carefully considered by PWCF trustees at the time.

Due diligence was conducted, with information sought from a wide range of sources, including the government. The decision to accept the donation was taken wholly by the trustees. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is misleading and inaccurate," PWCF said.

Osama bin Laden was the mastermind behind the September 11 terror attacks of 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the US. The Sunday Times claims in its report that Charles' meeting with Bakr, the patriarch of the wealthy Saudi family, happened two years after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan.

The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund was founded in 1979 and awards grants to UK-registered non-profit organisations for projects in the UK, Commonwealth and other countries.
Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia. In a late-night television address, Zelensky also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighboring Luhansk region, needed to leave.

"The more people leave (the) Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation.

Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation needed to take place before winter begins since the region`s natural gas supplies had been destroyed.

Also Read: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, wife pose for magazine cover amid war with Russia, netizens react

Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of people were still living in areas of Donbas where fighting was fierce.

Prez Zelensky also urges people in Donbas to leave

"Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," the president said. "If you have the opportunity, please talk to those who still remain in the combat zones in Donbas. Please convince them that it is necessary to leave."

Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine`s military said more than 100 Russian soldiers had been killed and seven tanks destroyed in fighting in the south on Friday, including the Kherson region that is the focus of Kyiv`s counteroffensive in that part of the country and a key link in Moscow`s supply lines.

Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military`s southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east.

South of the town of Bakhmut, which Russia has cited as a prime target in Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces had been "partially successful" in establishing control over the settlement of Semyhirya by storming it from three directions.

"He established himself on the outskirts of the settlement," the military`s evening report said, referring to Russian forces. Defence and intelligence officials from Britain, which has been one of Ukraine`s staunchest allies since Moscow invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum.

Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and - in the assessment of British defence officials - leaving Russia`s 49th Army highly vulnerable on the river`s west bank.

The Kherson region`s pro-Ukrainian governor, Dmytro Butriy, said fighting was continuing in many parts of the region, and that Berislav district, just northwest of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, was particularly hard hit.

'In some villages, not a single home has been left intact': Kherson region's pro-Ukrainian governor

"In some villages, not a single home has been left intact, all infrastructure has been destroyed, people are living in cellars," he wrote on Telegram.

Just to the north of Lysychansk, which Moscow`s forces captured in early July after weeks of fighting, Ukrainian partisans destroyed a railway junction box near the Russian-controlled town of Svatove on Friday night, making it harder for Moscow to transport ammunition to the front lines by train, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Officials from the Russian-appointed administration running the Kherson region earlier this week rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation.

On Friday the British ministry described the Russian government as "growing desperate", having lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the war. British MI6 foreign intelligence agency chief Richard Moore added on Twitter that Russia is "running out of steam."

Prison deaths

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile strike or explosion early on Friday that appeared to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the front-line town of Olenivka, held by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Donetsk.

Russia`s defense ministry on Saturday published a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Ministry spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said "all political, criminal and moral responsibility" rested with Zelensky, "his criminal regime and Washington who supports them".

Ukraine`s armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of those held there. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday Russia had committed a war crime and called for international condemnation.

Reuters could not immediately verify the differing versions of events, but some of the deaths were confirmed by Reuters journalists who visited the prison.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences in a Friday phone call with Kuleba and said Washington was committed to "hold Russia accountable for atrocities," the U.S. State Department said.

The United Nations is prepared to send experts to Olenivka to investigate if it obtains consent from both parties, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was seeking access and had offered to help evacuate the wounded.

A charity linked to Ukraine`s Azov Regiment said on Telegram it was not immediately able to confirm or deny the authenticity of the Russian list of people killed and wounded. Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities against civilians and identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians and war crimes.
Residents once again rallied to support Ukraine, which is fighting against a Russian invasion, at the Benton County Courthouse in Corvallis on Saturday, July 30. The rallies have been happening regularly since Ukraine was attacked in February.

Hannah Bittner, who recently returned from the besieged country, was among the flag-waving demonstrators. Bittner and her husband, Mykhaylo Misha Zyryanov, spent months on a dangerous mission carrying medical supplies and other equipment into Ukraine. Now back in Corvallis, Bittner reflected on their experience.

When the war broke out, the couple immediately realized they had to act. They were married in Ukraine, Zyryanovs home, and had family and friends in harms way. Strapped with bags and suitcases full of supplies destined for frontline soldiers, clinics and hospitals, Zyryanov left first, joined shortly after by Bittner.

Once they reached Ukraine, they set out on frequent trips into nearby countries to obtain more gear to aid in the war effort: gloves, boots, knee and elbow pads, fleece jackets, uniforms, backpacks and more. Everything was funded by donations  more than $100,000 has been raised since February.

They are people risking much more than either of us, Bittner said. There was never any question whether we would do everything we could to help.

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And they werent alone in stepping up. The vast majority of passengers on Zyryanovs flight home were also returning Ukrainians, Bittner said, noting her flight was similarly loaded with people going towards the war, not away from it. Some were delivering supplies, others retrieving family, and some were going to fight.

The couple was based in western Ukraine in Corvallis sister city of Uzhhorod, traveling to Slovakia, Poland, Austria and Hungary to procure supplies. A few times they brought displaced people with them, refugees from the war zone. But mostly it was just the two, working like a well-oiled military machine.

Zyryanov became a U.S citizen, and the couples American passports allowed them to cross borders with little difficulty, noting that Ukrainian men of fighting age have been required to stay in the country.

Highlighting the efforts of others, Bittner emphasized that anything the couple has done was also being done by Ukrainians and will continue being done by them as time goes on. She said the reality is the war will drag on much longer and Ukrainians will keep resisting.

Remembering people they met along the way, one stood out most to Bittner  a seamstress in a village outside of Uzhhorod whose dedication and skill made her crucial to the operation. The one-woman factory turned out batches upon batches of bags to carry supplies.

Another standout is the women of the volunteer group that the couple coordinated with in Uzhhorod. Bittner said they have been working hard since 2014, when Russia started aggressions connected to the ongoing war. She said translated, the group is called Happiness in the Palm of your Hands Transcarpathia.

In my circle of friends and acquaintances and family in Ukraine, everybody is involved, Bittner said. Everybody is doing something to help support the armed forces of Ukraine or refugees. Average people are now full-time volunteers.

Life goes on even in a war zone, and despite the serious nature of their visit, the couple found moments to enjoy being together with their loved ones again. Bittner turned 30 in April and had no plans for celebrating given the circumstances. But her friends had other ideas.

On the night I turned 30, I came home to the apartment and it was packed full of friends who surprised me, Bittner said. There was a cake and they got me a Ukrainian Olympic running jersey because Im a runner. That was a really tender and beautiful memory for me.

Wonderful as the evening was, bedtime that night was punctuated by air raid sirens, a sharp reminder of the potential danger. While Uzhhorod itself hasnt been bombed, Bittner said nearby locations have, and anything could happen.

There is nowhere safe in Ukraine right now, she said.

Bittner asks that people pay attention to whats happening in Ukraine, saying the war is far from over and Ukrainians have tough days ahead. She called for financial support both from private citizens and the U.S. government, including arms for Ukrainian troops.

Making that statement from the safety of Corvallis, she said its like living in a split reality, difficult to navigate and hard to explain, but ultimately frustrating not just for the couple, but for so many Ukrainian immigrants and refugees around the world who feel the same.

We try to be present where we are, where our feet are, Bittner said. But its really hard.

To donate to the couples #StandWithUkraine fundraiser, send an email to hellohannah2@gmail.com.
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HARTFORD  Police are investigating the discovery of a dead body found here Sunday, according to multiple media reports.

A report from WTVY-News4 indicates a female body was found dead in a home on Geneva County Road 45. The report also states the Hartford Police Department has asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to assist in the probe of the incident.

The Eagle has reached out to several law enforcement agencies, including the Hartford Police and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, but no additional details have been released.

As additional information becomes available, this story will be updated.
stc Bahrain has announced plans to build the foundation for a 5.5G network, in partnership with Huawei, making it the first company that will adapt this network, not just in Bahrain, but the Middle East region as a whole.

The 5.5G network speed will be ten times faster than 5G network, and the applications that it will support will achieve more than improved connectivity, it will support the Internet of Things in a way that has not been done in the past.

The 5.5G network will also create opportunities and pave the way to use the latest artificial intelligence technology and will improve data storage capabilities on a global scale in addition to empowering green technology, nurturing the environment and reducing energy consumption.

The announcement comes as part of stc Bahrains strategy to establish and develop the infrastructure to power the next version of 5G (5.5G) within the next three years, reflecting stc Bahrains commitment to invest in the latest technology and keep up with global trends.

World-class infrastructure

stc Bahrains current 5G network covers all areas of the kingdom and supports 2CC (two cell carriers), enhancing stc Bahrains network performance and contributing to the kingdoms Vision 2030 to build a world-class infrastructure that links Bahrain to the global economy.

The milestone was announced during the quarterly board meeting, where Eng Nezar Banabeela, Chief Executive Officer of stc Bahrain, presented the companys vision around the evolution of 5G and its ambitious plans to start building the foundation of a 5.5G network, commenting: stc Bahrain is committed to investing in network infrastructure that positions Bahrain as a global telecommunication and ICT leader. We are incredibly proud to be at the forefront of building Bahrains future advanced network connectivity services, paving the way for innovation, and further digital transformation across the kingdom.

He added: As more intelligent applications and demands emerge, we want the infrastructure to be able to support a thriving digital ecosystem and setting the foundation of 5.5G, is critical to that future.

Five business capabilities

stc Bahrain has identified five business capabilities which will be focused to achieve the ambition of the target network: service penetration, efficiency creativity, resource integration, value competitiveness, and social contribution.

As part of phase one of the vision, major network revamp and upgrades have been initiated in all network domains including wireless, Datacom, Transmission, Core, IT and Digital Infrastructure. With the completion of phase one of the project, the stc network will be upgraded and evolved to the very latest telecom standards to make the network foundation ready for 5.5G capability (also known as 5G-Advance as per 3GPP standard).

At the conclusion of the programme, network capability will increase from 3Gbps to 10Gbps. stc Bahrains implementation of Artificial Intelligence and digital tools to optimise network management will position the company as a regional innovator and leader in terms of network operations.-- TradeArabia News Service
AgStart Building Future of Food in Northern California



The Lab@AgStart includes a state-of-the-art wet lab.

Agriculture in California is more than just vineyards and avocado groves. According to data from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, farmers in the Golden State produce more than one-third of the United States vegetables, two-thirds of its fruits and nuts, and manage more dairy cows than any other place in the United States. In fact California is the largest food-producing state in the country, and a critical lynchpin in the nations agricultural ecosystem. It is also globally competitive, producing 80 percent of the worlds almonds and one-third of the worlds processed tomatoes, while remaining a significant exporter of citrus, sushi rice, and other crops. But issues of workforce, water, and land availability are coalescing to challenge the future of food in California.

Innovation is going to be the salvation of Californias agricultural competitiveness, and  with it  U.S. agricultural competitiveness, explains John Selep of the Sacramento-based AgTech Innovation Alliance. The major question girding the future of food in California, according to Selep, is how do you bring food and ag-tech innovators together with the resources they need to be successful?

Envisioning the Future of Food

In 2012, economic development leaders with a regional non-profit joined forces with the University of California, Davis to establish AgStart, an agricultural technology incubator designed to drive innovation in the Sacramento Valley. Supported by a $1 million investment from an i6 Challenge Grant awarded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), AgStart grew from the shared recognition that ag sector innovation was coming from startup companies, but that startups faced a difficult journey moving from concept to market.

For the first nine years of AgStarts life, it operated as a virtual incubator, providing technical assistance, business counseling, and expert-led workshops to support ag-tech startups in the expansion and scaling of their enterprises. Three additional EDA grants  combined with state and local investment  allowed AgStart to grow its offerings, build a network of like-minded incubators across the state, and establish a physical presence. In 2021, AgStart opened the Lab@AgStart, a new facility providing startups a state-of-the-art wet lab, a commercial-grade test kitchen, and co-working and meeting space where startup companies could commercialize their innovations.

Driving Ag-Tech Innovation

Within five months of opening, the Lab@AgStart successfully filled all 26 of its wet lab benches and  as of July 2022  has recorded $2.4 million in new annual payroll generated by companies setting up shop in the facility. An additional $45 million in private funding has flowed into the area in the form of investments in AgStarts incubator residents. Responding to increasing demand, the Lab@AgStart will soon open a new wing, adding fermentation and tissue culture capacities, and more than doubling its lab and office space.

For startups, however, one of AgStarts most important assets may be its position embedded in the burgeoning agricultural innovation cluster centered in the Sacramento Valley. There, a tetrad of drivers, including extensive business networks, market access, solid infrastructure, and a supportive policy framework, are combining to generate the kind of serendipity that feeds organic innovation growth.



California is the United States largest food-producing state.

We have a company originally founded in Singapore that wanted to establish a U.S. presence, so they direct-launched from there into our incubator and hired local staff; AgStart is their North American headquarters, says Selep, who also serves as board chair of AgStart. If you're an ag-tech startup coming from Singapore, New Zealand, or Israel, youre not operating in a large enough local market to achieve success. Investors want to see that companies have a globalization strategy, and our AgStart incubator can act as that North American landing spot.

Aside from jobs created, and investment generated, a more intangible benefit for California agriculture is coming in the form of the new technologies and processes growing out of AgStarts incubator residents. Companies like Pheronym, which is developing safe and eco-friendly methods of pest control; MyFloraDNA, which offers services to accelerate and optimize plant selection using DNA analysis; and TurtleTree, a company creating new cell-based dairy nutrition products, are a few AgStart residents developing the ideas and innovations that will help increase the efficiency and competitiveness of California food production into the 2030s and beyond.

According to Trish Kelly, Managing Director at Sacramentos Valley Vision and a member of AgStarts board of directors, the incubator has set a new standard for collaborative economic development in Northern California: I have been involved with EDA projects for decades and have never seen a project that leveraged such involvement from both the private and public sectors.

AgStart is one of several investments EDA has made in Californias agricultural future, including the Citrus Clonal Protection Program at the University of California Riverside, the proposed Fresno-Merced Future of Food (F3) Initiative, infrastructure support for cheese producers and packagers, and more.

To see how others are using EDA grants to support local economic development, visit EDAs website.

The Lab@AgStart includes a state-of-the-art wet lab. California is the United States largest food-producing state.

Tags: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
City of Elko Planning Commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, at Elko City Hall. Public hearings will be conducted on development of a subdivision entitled Bergeron Village. A tentative map calls for subdividing 142 acres into 97 lots on either side of East Jennings Way between Puccinelli Parkway and Statice Street. Beldco LLC of Park City, Utah, is also requesting a zoning change on 23 acres in the proposed subdivision.

Elko County Board of Commissioners will meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, in the Nannini Administration Building. Commissioners will consider making a comment in support of a plan to transfer more than 6,000 acres of federal land to the City of West Wendover.

City of Elko Arts and Culture Advisory Board meets at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Elko City Hall. New business includes discussion and possible action to begin the process for nominations of artists to be considered for the Mayor Arts Awards.
Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China, sees the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) as a signal of the greater opening-up of the Chinese market.

The expo, which concluded on Saturday in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, attracted exhibitors from 61 countries and regions. Some 2,800 brands from 1,955 domestic and international enterprises participated in the exhibitions.

China is committed to opening up further and is increasingly determined to unleash the potential of its market by boosting consumption, Megarbane said. It was also the second time L'Oreal has exhibited at the expo, and it this year expanded its exhibition area to 625 square meters.

There were over 50 French companies and nearly 250 French brands participating in the expo held on the resort island of Hainan. France was the guest country of honor at this year's CICPE and, after China, the second-largest exhibitor.

French fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld and the Hainan Global Duty-Free Plaza on Feb. 26 signed a strategic cooperation agreement to share the opening-up opportunities and accelerate the expansion of Hainan's consumer market.

Durian, coffee, snacks and various delicacies exhibited by Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group were audience favorites during the event. "The expo is a very good platform and is in line with the development strategy of our company," said Xue Zengyi, senior vice chairman of the group's Agro-Industry and Food Business China Area.

Attracted by the preferential policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the group increased its investment in Hainan and established a global trade company in 2021. Xue said the company hopes to import the world's best consumer goods into Hainan and then push them from Hainan to the Chinese market, and, at the same time, bring high-quality Chinese consumer goods to the world.

Oranuch Wannapinyo, commercial consul of Commercial Section at the Thai Consulate-General in Guangzhou, said she believes that in participating in the expo, more premium and high-quality Thai brands will be promoted to the Chinese market and across the globe.

Foreign direct investment inflows, in actual use, increased 17.4 percent year on year to 723.31 billion yuan (about 107.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said that during the expo, the number of foreign exhibitors and brands increased significantly, the international exhibition areas expanded, and the quality of economic and trade activities also improved, which shows that the expo's platform role has become more prominent and the Chinese market has become more attractive.
Deputy Minister Pham Quang Hieu greets Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng. (Photo: NDO)

The delegation greeted Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng and had meetings with Secretary of State of Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ouch Borith; General Sok Phal, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Home Affairs; Phnom Penh Mayor Khuong Sreng and Kratie Province Governor Var Than.

At the meetings, Deputy Minister Pham Quang Hieu congratulated Cambodia on successfully organizing the election of the communal and ward councils, and the positive results that Cambodia has achieved in COVID-19 pandemic prevention and socio-economic development, as well as in the role of ASEAN Chair 2022.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng and leaders of ministries and branches assessed the two countries' relations as developing deeply and thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for their practical support in all aspects over the past time.

The two sides highly appreciated the organization of activities in the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2022 on the occasion of the two countries' 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations, including the 45th anniversary of the "Journey towards the overthrowing the genocidal regime of Pol Pot" by Prime Minister Hun Sen at the border area of Binh Phuoc province and Tboung Khmum province on June 20 and the solemn 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations in Hanoi on June 24.

The two sides agreed that these activities have been and will contribute to helping the two peoples of the two countries, especially the young generations, have a correct understanding of the history of the two countries' relations to be more responsible in preserving the good friendship.

Deputy Minister Pham Quang Hieu thanked the Cambodian Government and people for creating favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to do business and live stably in Cambodia, suggesting Cambodian leaders continue to pay attention to solving some problems related to Vietnamese people./.
At the reception (Photo: TDO)

On July 28, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son received Ms. Kanni Wignaraja, Deputy Regional Director and Director for the Asia-Pacific of the UNDP, who is visiting and working in Vietnam.

At the meeting, the Minister sincerely thanked UNDP for its help and support for Vietnam since Vietnams national reunification.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son also appreciated UNDP's valuable support to Vietnam in the areas of poverty alleviation, increased governance, resilience and moving towards the sustainable development goals after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The representative of Vietnam suggested that UNDP mobilize resources and provide policy advice to effectively and fully implement the national program document for Vietnam for the period 2022-2026, and coordinate with UN organizations to implement the Vietnam-UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for the period of 2022-2026.

At the meeting, Ms. Kanni Wignaraja expressed her delight at her visit to Vietnam on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Vietnam's accession to the UN. She highly appreciated Vietnam's socio-economic development achievements, welcomed Vietnam's commitments to multilateral cooperation, and Vietnam's role and contributions at the UN.

Ms. Kanni Wignaraja expressed her impression of Vietnam's strong commitments to respond to climate change, including energy transition, and the Vietnamese Government's efforts in building an efficient and transparent public administration.

She affirmed that UNDP is ready to support and accompany Vietnam in green, sustainable and inclusive socio-economic recovery and development./.
Photo for illustration (Source: UAVS-NSW)

The event is organized with the mission of supporting overseas Vietnamese students on their journey to find their dream jobs. UAVS-NSW believes that this event will bring many benefits to young Vietnamese people living and studying in Australia with the need for career orientation, search and development.

The fair, which will be held at the Wesley Conference Center in Sydney, aims to help students gain a deeper understanding of currently popular job search or internship process; provide practical advice from career experts or alumni who have been working in Australia; expand the network and impress recruiters who are at the fair to get job opportunities after the event ends.

UAVS Career Fair 2022 is expected to have about 300-400 attendees and 24 businesses. Participants are second-year, final-year students or graduates from universities in the state of New South Wales.

UAVS-NSW was established with the goal of helping, supporting and representing over 10,000 Vietnamese students in NSW. At the same time, it helps to enhance the image, values and talents of Vietnamese people in Australia.
At the event (Photo: VNA)

These businesses were supported by the Vietnamese Trade Office in Germany and the Vietnamese Consulate General in Frankfurt as part of the National Trade Promotion Programme.

At the fair, many Vietnams products were displayed, including tea, herbs, rice and cashew, as well as pepper, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and chili that have been certified as meeting international organic standards.

A trade exchange programme was held on July 27 for Vietnamese enterprises to update information on the market, potential and consumption trends of consumers in Germany and the EU as a whole.

Vietnamese Consul General in Frankfurt Le Quang Long pledged to assist Vietnamese enterprises in connecting with partners in Germany.

According to Vietnamese trade counselor Bui Vuong Anh, German consumers are increasingly paying close attention to a healthy lifestyle and using organic food products more often, creating opportunities for Vietnamese organic food exporters.

He also informed participants about the possibility of strengthening co-operation with partners, trade centres, supermarket systems and importers in some states in Germany in the future.

Biofach/Vivaness 2022 is the worlds leading trade fair for organic food, attracting nearly 2,300 international exhibitors who showcase ideas and innovations relating to organic products such as fresh, frozen and dried products as well as organic beverages with certified quality.

During the fair, a number of Vietnamese enterprises have signed contracts with foreign partners at the fair, including a contract to supply bamboo straws between Germans Life Natura and Tien Duc JSC.

In addition, Vinasamex, a leading Vietnamese business operating in the field of processing and exporting star anise and cinnamon, also received an export order for cinnamon and anise worth about 320,000 USD, while Ecolink tea company secured an order worth 90,000 USD./.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and his Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi have been sending mixed messages to the country's new Islamic Republic Parliament ahead of its opening on May 28.

Rouhani tweeted on Monday: "As the Majles turns 40, and starts the fifth decade of its activity, the people are looking forward to the cooperation between the Majles and the administration during the next year. The administration is reaching out to the new Majles for friendship."

On the same day, Vaezi warned the next Majles not to intervene in the affairs of the administration.

Some of the conservatives who dominate the new Majles had vowed during their election campaign to question Rouhani's performance once in the legislature. Some have even threatened to impeach Rouhani for his poor performance during the past seven years and particularly for his reaction to major events such as the nationwide protests in November 2019.

Rouhani's last year in office as Iran's President coincides with the first year of the 11th Majles. Several political analysts in Tehran have said that Rouhani is likely to have a hard time in his dealings with the Majles once the parliament leaves its first few weeks behind and elects its speaker and presidium members.

At least three of the four conservative factions, the ultraconservative Paydari and Pro-Ahmadinejad groups as well as the pro-Qalibaf neoconservatives have made it clear that they oppose the Rouhani administration and will stand against it once the Majles starts its business.

The administration's media outlet, Iran daily in its May 26 issues extensively covered the administration's expectations of the new Majles, however, it did shy away from highlighting Rouhani and his administration's concerns about the possibility of damaging confrontations with parliament.

Although it is highly unlikely that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would allow the Majles to take the idea of impeaching Rouhani any further, but he couldn't care less about criticisms that might damage Rouhani's image and his political ambitions beyond his presidency. Rouhani is far less than Khamenei's ideal model of a president. He has said at least twice recently that he wants a "youthful revolutionary president" in 2021. The new Majles is full of aspiring examples for that model.

Rouhani's concern about what the Majles might have in mind about him is clearly evident in the way the administration's mouthpiece, the Iran newspaper, has configured its interviews with four pro-administration and pro-reform figures, a media expert, an academic and a conservative analyst. The way the opinions are lined up and presented in the paper emphasize the need for healthy interactions between the Majles and the administration.

Akbar Torkan, a confidant of Rouhani, said the Majles should refrain from intervening in executive affairs, and suggested that instead of creating trouble for the administration, parliament needs to restore its damaged status and prestige.

Gholamreza Ansari, a leading member of the reformist Unity of nation Party offered some pragmatic advice and told the new Majles to try to avoid tensions with the administration ahead of the 2021 presidential elections. Ansari suggested that the Majles should try to resolve the deadlock surrounding the anti-money-laundering and terror-financing bills that in reality have already cleared parliament and are being held back by hardliner watchdogs.

Another member of the same Party, Majid Farahani suggested that the new Majles should avoid differences and disputes with other institutions, without noting that within the Islamic Republic's political structure, some of these institutions have the upper hand in legislation and may overturn any decision by parliament.

Academic Gholamreza Zarifian called on the new Majles to have a realistic approach to Foreign Policy but did not say how this can be done despite the approach of powerful institutions that drag the country in a different direction.

Media analyst Hassan Beheshtipour advised that the Majles needs to be in some kind of accord with the administration and conservative analyst Nasser Imani opined that the Majles should stay away from political disputes within and outside the parliament and instead, attempt to follow up the idea of amending the Election Law.

Former reformist MP Mohammad Reza Khabbaz expressed his concern about the way the new members of the parliament might attack the administration in its last year in office because of old grudges and factional interests. Reminding that some of the new MPs have said they want to impeach Rouhani as soon as the new parliament opens, Khabbaz said this might disrupt the state of affairs in the country.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 30. Since noon on July 30, units of the Armenian armed forces have been firing intensively from different-caliber weapons at the positions of the Azerbaijani army stationed on the state border in the Kalbajar and Lachin districts, Trend reports citing Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

As a result of adequate response measures taken by the units of the Azerbaijani army, the actions of the opposite side were suppressed.
Adnoc Distribution, the UAEs largest fuel distributor, has entered into an agreement with TotalEnergies Marketing Afrique SAS to acquire a 50% stake in TotalEnergies Marketing Egypt for $186 million, with an additional earn-out of up to $17.3 million.



The partnership with TotalEnergies, a leading global multi-energy company with a strong brand and successful track record in Egypt, includes a diversified portfolio comprising 240 fuel retail stations, 100+ convenience stores, 250+ lube changing stations, and car washes, as well as wholesale fuel, aviation fuel, and lubricant operations.



Through this deal, Adnoc Distribution and TotalEnergies will develop future growth opportunities of TotalEnergies Egypt through unlocking value potential and exploring beneficial synergies in fuel distribution, lubricants and aviation businesses driven by economic growth and post Covid recovery.



The acquisition will also see the refurbishment of several service stations to full Adnoc branding, with certain future sites being constructed under the Adnoc brand, offering a robust foothold in a fast-growing fuel retail market in Egypt.



The acquisition is expected to be completed in Q1 2023 pending satisfaction of certain conditions, including customary regulatory approvals.



Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Managing Director and Group CEO of Adnoc, and Chairman of Adnoc Distribution said: This acquisition marks a significant milestone in Adnoc Distributions international growth story. Egypt is the Arab worlds most populous country and we look forward to entering such a dynamic market. The acquisition is also well aligned with the Industrial Partnership for Sustainable Economic Growth between the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan and will leverage the strengths of both the UAE and Egypt to boost growth in the related markets.



Bader Saeed Al Lamki, CEO of Adnoc Distribution, said: Egypts fuel retail market is highly attractive with exciting potential for future growth. Due to its young and expanding population, alongside a series of progressive economic reforms, Egypt has recorded positive GDP growth with a strong outlook.



This acquisition by Adnoc Distribution reaffirms our commitment to expanding our business in attractive international growth markets. It is a testament to our ability to leverage our experience in both fuel and non-fuel retail, to deploy cash to accelerate our international expansion, and to realize natural business synergies and partnership opportunities that allow us to quickly and efficiently enter new and dynamic markets.



The acquisition will be earnings accretive to Adnoc Distribution from the first year post closing. We look forward to providing the best possible service to customers in Egypt, and working with TotalEnergies to accelerate our international expansion in Egypt and beyond, added Al Lamki.



Thierry Pflimlin, President Marketing & Services at TotalEnergies, said: TotalEnergies is pleased to be joining forces with Adnoc Distribution in Egypt. The rich experience of the leading fuel distributor in the UAE will bring substantial added value to TotalEnergies Egypt. We look forward to collaborating with Adnoc Distribution in its international growth strategy.



The acquisition is another milestone in delivery of Adnoc Distributions international growth strategy, after it opened its first stations outside the UAE in Saudi Arabia in 2018, with 55 stations operational across the Kingdom as at the end of March 2022. In addition, the companys Adnoc Voyager lubricants continues to expand the companys overall international footprint, exporting to 20 countries globally.  TradeArabia News Service
Irans top negotiator to talks between Iran and the P4+1 (Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) Ali Bagheri Kani said on Sunday that Tehran is ready to conclude talks soon if the other side is also ready to do the same, Trend reports citing IRNA.

"We shared our proposed ideas, both on substance & form, to pave the way for a swift conclusion of Vienna negotiations which were aimed at fixing the damaging complicated situation caused by the U.S. unilateral & unlawful withdrawal," Bagheri Kani wrote on his official Twitter account.

He said that Iran works closely with other JCPOA partners, in particular the Coordinator, to give another chance to the US to demonstrate good faith and act responsibly.

As Iran, we stand ready to conclude the negotiations in a short order, should the other side be ready to do the same," Bagheri Kani added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. As many as 9,727 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, reads the statement of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran, Trend reports.

In addition, 61 people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

At the same time, the condition of 1,227 people remains critical.

So far, more than 53.2 million tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus.

In total, over 153 million doses of vaccines have been used in Iran so far. A total of 64.7 million doses have been used in the first stage, 58.1 million doses - in the second stage, and 30.2 million doses  in the third stage.

Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from Iranian officials, over 7.39 million people have been infected, and 141,998 people have already died.

Meanwhile, about 7.08 million people have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread of the virus.

Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The Islamic Republic announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.

---

Follow the author on Twitter:@BaghishovElnur
The US course towards dominance in the World Ocean and NATOs mounting activity are major security threats to Russia, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, Trend reports citing TASS.

The new document was posted on the Russian governments legal information web portal.

"The major challenges and threats to the national security and the sustainable development of the Russian Federation related to the World Ocean are: the US strategic course towards dominance in the World Ocean and its global influence on international processes, including those related to the use of transportation lanes and energy resources of the World Ocean," the document says.

The new doctrine also identifies the expansion of the NATO military infrastructure to the Russian borders and the growing number of the military blocs drills in the seas adjacent to Russian territory as major security threats.

The new doctrine points to the attempts by the United States and its allies to limit Russias access to the World Oceans resources and vitally important sea transportation lanes and the US desire to achieve the overwhelming supremacy of its Navy.

Russias new Maritime Doctrine stipulates stepping up activities in the Arctic, the document suggests.

"The new doctrine envisages "diversifying and stepping up maritime activity on the Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagoes and Wrangel Island," the document says.

Russia will be ramping up the Navys operational capabilities to ensure national security and protect its interests in the World Ocean, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine.

"The strategic goals of the national maritime policy are as follows: raising the Navys operational (combat) capabilities for ensuring national security of the Russian Federation and protecting its national interests in the World Ocean," the document says.

Another strategic objective is to raise the efficiency of defending and protecting the state maritime borders of the Russian Federation, the document says.

Russias new Maritime Doctrine stipulates developing the shipbuilding industry in the Far East, in particular, for building aircraft carriers, as follows from the document.

"Developing a modern, hi-tech shipbuilding industry in the Far East designed for building large-tonnage vessels (in particular, for the Arctics development) and advanced aircraft carriers for the Navy," the document reads.

NATOs expansion to Russian borders is unacceptable in Moscows relations with the military bloc, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine.

"NATOs plans of moving its military infrastructure close to the Russian borders and the alliances attempts to assume global functions continue to be unacceptable for the Russian Federation and remain a determining factor in its relations with NATO," the document reads.

As the doctrine specifies, Russias national maritime policy in the Atlantic region is shaped taking into account the existence of NATO whose activity "is aimed at direct confrontation with the Russian Federation and its allies.".
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. Minister of National Defense of Turkiye Hulusi Akar had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Trend reports citing Turkish media.

According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, an exchange of views took place on preparations for the start of grain shipment and the activities of the Joint Coordination Center in Turkish Istanbul.

Ministers said that the technical part of the issue has been completed, and upon completion of the preparatory work, the shipment is planned to begin as soon as possible.

According to Anadolu, ministers also expressed satisfaction with the fact that the employees of the Joint Coordinating Center work harmoniously and in cooperation with each other.
Libyas Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli received on Tuesday the first flight operated by EgyptAir, the country's flag carrier, for the first time in eight years.
A somber gathering of about 5,000 people marked the 10th anniversary of what has become known as the Marikana massacre, when police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 in 2012.
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.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Friday there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine ``and dissolve it from the world map entirely.''

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council that the United States is seeing growing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to attempt to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including by installing ``illegitimate proxy officials in Russian-held areas, with the goal of holding sham referenda or decree to join Russia.''

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ``has even stated that this is Russia's war aim,'' she said.

Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscow's overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its ``unacceptable regime.''

Apparently suggesting that Moscow's war aims extend beyond Ukraine's industrial Donbas region in the east comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: ``We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.''

Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the Security Council on Friday that ``The de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out in full.''

``There must no longer be a threat from this stage to Donbas, nor to Russia, nor to the liberated Ukrainian territories where for the first time in several years people are finally able to feel that they can live the way they want,'' he said.

Polyansky also warned Western nations supplying long-range artillery and MLRS surface-to-surface rockets that they were shifting ``the provisional security line'' further toward the west, ``and in so doing clarifying even further the aims and objectives of our special military operation.''

Thomas-Greenfield went after countries that say ``one country's security should not come at the expense of another's,`` asking what they call Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She didn't name any country but this is a view China has repeated frequently, including Friday by its deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang.

He told the council, ``Putting one's own security above that of others, attempting to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute superiority ... will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make themselves less secure.``

The U.S. ambassador also went after nations that call for all countries to embrace diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: ``Let us be clear: Russia's ongoing actions are the obstacle to a resolution to this crisis.'' Again she named no countries but a significant number of nations in Africa, Asia and the Mideast take this approach.

Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of mounting atrocities including the reported bombings of schools and hospitals, ``the killing of aid workers and journalists, the targeting of civilians attempting to flee, the brutal execution-style murder of those going about their daily business in Bucha,'' the suburb of Ukraine's capital Kyiv where local authorities said hundreds of people were killed during its occupation by Russian forces.

She said there is evidence Russia forces ``have interrogated, detained forcibly, deported an estimated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children -- tearing them from their homes and sending them to remote regions in the east.''

Nearly 2 million Ukrainians refugees have been sent to Russia, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these journeys as forced transfers to enemy soil, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home.

A recent Associated Press investigation based on dozens of interviews has found that while the situation is more nuanced that the Ukrainians suggest, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal trip into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, stripped of documents and left confused and lost about where they are. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtration points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip searches to being yanked aside and never seen again.

``The United Nations has information that officials from Russia's presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating filtration operations,'' Thomas-Greenfield told the council.''

Polyansky countered that despite Ukraine's efforts at intimidation of their citizens ``people are choosing the country that they trust'' -- Russia.

He warned that heavy weapons being poured into Ukraine by the West ``will spill over into Europe'' because of what he claimed is ``the flourishing corruption among Ukraine's political and military leadership.''

Polyansky said Western weapons are only ``dragging out the agony and increasing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.''

Addressing Western ambassadors, he said: ``The aims of our special military operation will be achieved either way, however much fuel you pour into the fire in the form of weapons.''

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Russia launched nighttime attacks on several cities in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said Saturday as they and officials in Moscow blamed each other for the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in a separatist-controlled area of the country's east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have a duty to react after shelling of a prison complex in Donetsk province killed the POWS.

``It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,'' Zelenskyy said in a video address late Friday. ``There should be a clear legal recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.''

Both sides alleged the attack on the prison was premeditated and intended to silence the Ukrainian prisoners and to destroy evidence, including of possible atrocities.

Russia claimed Ukraine's military used U.S.-supplied precision rocket launchers to target the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People's Republic.

Separatist authorities and Russian officials said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded another 75.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has organized civilian evacuations in the war and worked to monitor the treatment of POWS held by Russia and Ukraine, said it has requested access to the prison ``to determine the health and condition of all the people present on-site at the time of the attack.''

``Our priority right now is making sure that the wounded receive life-saving treatment and that the bodies of those who lost their lives are dealt with in a dignified manner,'' the Red Cross said in a statement.

Elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, Russian rockets hit a school building in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, overnight, and another attack occurred about an hour later, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Saturday. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The bus station in the city of Sloviansk also was hit, according to Mayor Vadim Lyakh. Sloviansk is near the front line of fighting as Russian and separatist forces try to take full control of the Donetsk region, one of two eastern provinces that Russia has recognized as sovereign states.

In southern Ukraine, one person was killed and six injured in shelling that hit a residential area in Mykolaiv, a significant port city, the region's administration said Saturday on Facebook.

Friday's attack on the prison reportedly killed Ukrainian soldiers who were captured in May after the fall of Mariupol, another port city where troops famously held out against a monthslong Russian siege.

Moscow opened a probe into the attack, sending a team to the site from Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's main criminal investigation agency. The state RIA Novosti agency reported that fragments of U.S.-supplied precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rockets were found at the site.

The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka, and it accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said the competing claims and limited information prevented assigning responsibility for the attack but that the ``available visual evidence appears to support the Ukrainian claim more than the Russian.''

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General Hotel Management (GHM), a creator of stylish hotels, has entrusted design firm WATG, and its interior design studio, Wimberly Interiors, with its third property in the GCC region, The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort, Doha, Qatar.



Responsible for some of the worlds most iconic hospitality landmarks, WATG has drawn on its 77-year legacy to reimagine Dohas luxury landscape with its interpretation of Mughal heritage with a touch of Ottoman influence. Scheduled to debut in November 2022, The Chedi Katara will offer 59 elegantly-appointed rooms and suites as well as 32 villas complemented by world-class culinary concepts along the beachfront of the Katara Cultural Village.



For 30 years, GHM has introduced the exquisite touches of Asian hospitality to wondrous destinations all over the world, melding refined luxury with the best of each locales offerings. We recognised WATG and Wimberly Interiors mastery in honouring a sense of place and authenticity by seamlessly infusing sensory cues from the land and culture into beautiful design solutions, said Tommy Lai, chief executive officer of GHM.



This strategic partnership aligns well with our vision to expand GHMs distinctive presence at the most captivating and culturally significant destinations with The Chedi brands relentless pursuit of hospitality and design excellence.



Sandwiched between desert and sea across a 66,000 sq m plot, the design of The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort is heavily inspired by Mughal architecture and features elements of Ottoman heritage. The hotel is comprised of 91 rooms, suites and villas in addition to five epicurean venues that include The Restaurant, The Lobby Lounge, The Cigar Lounge, The Beach Club and Marsa Katara. The orientation of the hotel offers all guestrooms, lounge and restaurant areas privileged views of the main pool and private beach.



With The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort, we kept in mind the architectural elegance of the locale and fused this with the avant-garde buildings design, materials and colours, with subtle but apparent injections of The Chedis rich legacy, said Jeremy Heyes, Senior Vice President, WATG London. The result is an authentic design that embodies the destination and breathes new life for all who enters to relish.



From carefully detailed frame fretwork, to ensuring precise accuracy behind the hotels figurative elements and mouldings, all design elements of The Chedi Katara were curated to be authentic to the fabric of Mughal design. The decor bears great Arabic influence in both old and new. Inspired from an exploration trip to Rajasthan in India, much of the facade is adorned with chhatris that is typical of traditional Indo-Islamic and Indian architecture. Refined details carved out of stone were also specially made to splay across the palatial building.



The epitome of understated luxury, the regal Lobby Lounge makes a charming centrepiece upon guests arrival. Fashioned out of a typical Mughal courtyard, the lounges 10m high ceiling and walls adorned by original Mughal and Indian-inspired artworks capture the grandeur of The Chedi Katara, alongside elegant hung tapestries of Ottoman influence. A large window becomes a transformative moving canvas framing the nearby sea, reminding guests of their impending stay in a tranquil oasis. The lounge opens to a balcony which overlooks the main pool below and unblocked views of the beach.



Few changes were made to the propertys master plan to leverage on its unique location,



Which included its situation at the northern end of the famed Katara Cultural Village, nestled between the Arabian gulf on one side and a canal on the other, allowing for dual-accessibility to the hotel from either within the village or from Lusail expressway through the canal road. A public promenade in the original structure was removed to let guests wander along palm-lined courtyards and easily access the private beach to sunbathe. A separate stand-alone signature pier restaurant, Marsa Katara, was constructed for indoor, outdoor and private dining, made accessible by a long jetty ride across the azure blue waters.



In tackling Qatars challenging climate, WATGs architects ensured that the property remains mostly enclosed and air-conditioned in its meticulous planning. Glass screens are installed in areas typically left open to the elements in temperate conditions. Working with the Indian and Mogul design language, the screens were glazed to appear as authentic and close to the buildings original architectural details, rather than stand out as something visibly foreign.



We are thrilled to debut Dohas new beachfront landmark that will showcase modern sophistication while remaining respectful of the majestic lustre of its Mughal heritage. The Chedi Katara, which will bring GHMs signature services and A Style to Remember to life, is the ultimate compliment to the Qataris palatial lifestyle, said Morton Johnston, General Manager of The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort.



The Chedi Katara Hotel & Resort is the latest property opening for GHM, adding to the groups strong pipeline of seven projects in destinations like Taiwan, India and Thailand. This includes The Chedi El Gouna, an upcoming beachfront resort slated to open in 2022 on the Red Sea in Egypt.  TradeArabia News Service










Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Saturday for the evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region which has seen fierce clashes between his country's forces and the Russian military.

"There's already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk region," he said in his daily address. "Please, follow evacuation. At this phase of the war, terror is a main weapon of Russia."

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's republican decree (329/2022) on Friday that granted presidential pardons for several political activists who were serving sentences in various cases was highly welcomed by Egyptian political parties and MPs.

The so-called Alliance of Egyptian Political Parties said in a statement on Sunday "we highly welcome President El-Sisi's decree that led to the release of a new batch of political activists who were not involved in terrorist or violent activities."

Tayseer Mattar, secretary-general of the 41-member alliance and a member of the Senate, said "President El-Sisi's decree comes as a continuation of the political leadership's efforts aimed at releasing more prisoners who do not have blood on their hands."

"This decree also creates a favourable climate for the national dialogue proposed by President El-Sisi last April and is expected to be held soon to draw up a new roadmap for the country's political, economic, and social life in the coming few years," said Mattar.

On Friday 29 July, President El-Sisi issued a decree that pardoned four political activists who were handed down final jail sentences. They include journalist Hisham Fouad, researcher Ahmed Samir, and actor Tarek El-Nahry. The pardon also included political activists Qassem Ashraf Qassem, Abdel-Raouf Khattab, Tarek El-Mahdi, and Khaled Abdel-Moneim Saber.

Mattar argued that President El-Sisi's decree sends a sincere message about the political leadership's intention to implement the newly adopted Human Rights Strategy and turns it into fact on the ground.

Diaa Rashwan, the General Coordinator of the National Dialogue, said during a TV programme on 29 July that more than 700 prisoners have been granted a presidential pardon since President El-Sisi called for the National Dialogue in April. "The pardons pave the way for the National Dialogue to take place in a convenient atmosphere," said Rashwan.

Also following a meeting held by the National Dialogue's Board of Trustees on Saturday, members said that they highly appreciate President El-Sisi's decrees to pardon different kinds of prisoners. "We have high hopes that more will be pardoned in the coming stage," said a statement.

Tarek El-Khouli, a member of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee and member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, said in a statement on Saturday that "the presidential pardons help create bridges of mutual trust between the political leadership and activists and send a message of confidence about the new republic," said El-Khouli.

MP Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, also revealed in a TV interview that President El-Sisi's 329/2022 decree is not the first and will not be the last. "I expect that another batch of prisoners who were handed down final jail sentences will be also released very soon," said Abdel-Aziz, adding that "President El-Sisi's decision to invoke his constitutional right to get different kinds of prisoners released reflects sincere intentions and shows that the political leadership intends to open a new page and give young activists, who were implicated in illegal activities related to publication offences or violation of the demonstration law, a new chance to normalize within the country's political life."

He added that President El-Sisi's pardons also show that "Egypt is now a stable and strong country, was able to defeat the forces of terrorism, and is now ready to create a more politically favourable climate for all with the stipulation that all respect the law and observe stability."

Abdel-Aziz said, "the presidential pardon committee is governed by clear-cut rules and upon these rules, they take the decision of recommending new batches of prisoners to be released regardless of whether they are high-profile prisoners or not."

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Egypt announced Sunday it would hold five regional roundtables over the coming two months in its role as president of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in an unprecedented initiative to to catalyse investments in different climate sectors.

The Egyptian initiative will put climate projects, investors, companies, international financing entities, development banks and other stakeholders at one table with the aim of actually implementing projects that help achieve climate action goals, according to a statement by the office of the UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt.

The roundtables will be organised by Egypt in cooperation with UN regional committees and UN high level climate champions, said the statement.

The first roundtable will take place in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa as the home of the UN regional economic committee for Africa on 2-4 August.

Bangkok will host the second roundtable on 25 August for the Asia-Pacific region, while Santiago will host the third roundtable on 1-2 September for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Beirut will host the Arab world roundtable on 15 September, while Geneva will host the last roundtable on 20 September for Europe.

The outcomes of the five meetings will be announced during COP27, slated to be held November in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN climate change high level champion for Egypt, said the initiative aims to discuss investment opportunities in the sectors of food, water, irrigation, increasing agricultural productivity, new and renewable sources of energy and its infrastructure.

Additionally, they will tackle the digital transformation of those sectors in a way that helps in implementing climate projects on the ground, achieving climate goals and providing job opportunities in the five regions.

According to the statement, the Addis Ababa's roundtable will be titled "Towards COP27: African Regional Forum on Climate Initiatives to Finance Climate Action and the SDGs," with high level Egyptian participation.

Egyptian participants in the forum will include Sameh Shoukry, foreign minister and COP27 president designate; Yasmine Fouad, environment minister and COP27 ministerial coordinator and envoy; Rania Al-Mashat, international cooperation minister; and Mohamed Farid, EGX chairman.

Many African ministers, UN officials, businessmen, investors, representatives of international financing entities and development banks from inside and outside Africa will also take part in the event.

The event will include many sessions that will discuss financial vehicles for just transition finance, upscaling investment in adaptation, in ecosystem based approaches and disaster risk reduction loss and damage, green business matchmaking in Africa and private sector networking for climate action, the statement added.

According to the agenda, the event will contain six discussions that address energy access and just energy transition and transport, food security, climate smart agriculture and building resilience and ecosystem based approaches, digital transformation, the development of African carbon credit markets, the Blue Economy and supporting water access for different cities.

Mohieldin said the forum aims to catalyse climate finance and investment flows towards building climate resilience in Africa as well as advancing Agenda 2063 and the Agenda 2030, finding climate and economic solutions that help achieve the sustainable development goals in Africa.

It also seeks to get the most benefit out of Africa carbon credits, tackle key barriers precluding large scale debt swaps, enhance collaboration between public and private stakeholders and different countries to improve risk management, he assured.

Hopes are pinned on COP27 to turn climate-related pledges into action to help facilitate the move to green energy in order to reduce harmful gas emissions and adapt to climate change as per the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement  adopted at COP21 and signed by over 190 states including Egypt  came into effect in 2016 with the aim of limiting the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Climate finance has been debated at every COP meeting since as developed countries have failed to meet their promise to mobilise $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing nations with mitigation and adaptation measures.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has issued a decree to establish a branch of the Portuguese NOVA University Lisbon in the New Administrative Capital.

Decree No. 330 of 2022 was published in the official gazette Sunday.

Nova University Lisbon signed an agreement with Egypts The Knowledge Hub Universities to establish a branch under the name Nova Cairo at the New Administrative Capital in October 2021.

Studies at the university are scheduled to begin in the academic year 2022/2023. The Nova Cairo will present the following programmes: Applied Mathematics to Risk Management, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management, Information Management and Management.

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The Arab Network for Digital Media and Human Rights (ANDMHR) welcomed in a statement on Sunday the recently issued presidential pardons to several prisoners who have received final judicial rulings.

On Friday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a new pardon list that included journalist Hisham Fouad, who was sentenced last November to four years in prison on charges of spreading false news on social media along with other convicts in a case referred to by the media as the Hope Cell Plot.

The list also included actor Tariq Al-Nahry, researcher Ahmed Samir Abdel Hai, Qassem Ashraf Qassem Ahmed, Abdel Raouf Khattab Hassan Khattab, Tariq Muhammad Al Mahdi Siddiq, and Khaled Abdel MoneimSadiq Saber.

Over 700 prisoners were released since the activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee, the statement added citing media remarks by Egypts National Political Dialogue (NPD) Coordinator and Head of Press Syndicate Diaa Rashwan.

On 26 April, El-Sisi announced during the annual Egyptian Family Iftar banquet the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee  which was initially formed in October 2016.

The ANDMHR's statement also cited Rashwan's latest remakes that the pardons will pave the way for establishing a National Dialogue between national forces without exclusion.

"The succession of presidential pardons  reflects the seriousness of the trend towards political reform in Egypt  implementation of the national human rights strategy and openness to accept those imprisoned in opinion cases to participate and reintegrate back into the political community," the ANDMHR added.

Additionally, it called for issuing more presidential pardons to achieve the targeted progress to improve the atmosphere of the national dialogue.

The Egyptian president has stated that the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood will be not invited to the dialogue.

The ANDMHR statement noted that the Presidential Pardon Committee has set clear standards for dealing with imprisoned youth, including the non-interference in cases of joining terrorist organizations and not releasing anyone who used violence against the Egyptian people, incited violence, or caused a direct violation of the right to life during the past years.

On Saturday, the NPD 19-member Board of Trustees held its third organizational meeting. It agreed on the economic and political fundamentals of conducting the dialogue.

The previous meetings have set the bylaws as well as the dialogues 25-article code of conduct and ethics and formed the sub-committees under the dialogues political track.

Rashwan stressed that the goal of the dialogue is to reach common grounds among participants including political, partisan, and syndicate forces.

El-Sisi has issued presidential pardons for thousands of prisoners during the past few years on various national and religious occasions including 727 prisoners on the 70th anniversary of the July 23 revolution and 1270 prisoners during Eid al-Adha earlier this month, according to the ANDMHR.

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Two people have been killed and several others injured after UN peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday, the UN said.

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing towards the immobilised UN convoy behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. The town is in eastern DR Congo's Beni territory on the border with Uganda.

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the gate, driving on and continuing to shoot while people scattered or hid.

Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor's representative in Kasindi, said that "eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured" in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not give a reason for why the UN convoy was prevented from crossing the barrier.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC's troubled east. The UN first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999.

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO -- the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among them, according to the UN.

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC.

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fuelled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

UN under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to "talk to the Congolese authorities", he said.

"(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives," he said.

"We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support."

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Libya's oil production has returned to the volume recorded before a months-long blockade that paralyzed the economy, official sources said on Sunday.

"We are happy to announce that our production rates have reached the pre-force majeure levels" of 1.2 million barrels per day, Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Twitter.

Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Aoun told AFP that he "confirms" production has returned to that level.

On July 15, Libya's new oil chief lifted force majeure at all the country's oil fields and export terminals as groups besieging several installations ended a blockade that had begun in mid-April.

Force majeure is a legal measure allowing companies to free themselves from contractual obligations in light of circumstances beyond their control.

The NOC, vital to oil-rich Libya's economy, has repeatedly resorted to the mechanism amid blockades of oil installations through years of violence and political upheaval following the NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Conflict in recent years broadly pitted authorities in the capital Tripoli against a camp in the east, where parliament is based.

As the country's divided authorities struggled for power, groups close to the eastern camp blockaded six oil fields and export terminals over demands for a more "equitable distribution" of hydrocarbon revenues.

Oil production fell to around 400,000 barrels of crude per day during the mid-April to mid-July blockade.

Western diplomatic sources said the eastern-based camp agreed to reopen the facilities in exchange for a share of oil revenues for spending in regions under their control.

The deal, which has not been confirmed officially, also saw the Tripoli-based government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah replace veteran NOC head Mustafa Sanalla with Farhat Bengdara.

Bandara is reportedly close to the United Arab Emirates, which supports the eastern-based camp.

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The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has launched a Food Security Response Program (FSRP) worth $10.5 billion to support the banks 75 member countries, including Egypt, to address the ongoing food crisis amid the Russian-Ukrainian war.

This facility is expected to provide $3.2 billion in immediate financing for the IsDBs member countries over the upcoming 18 months for short-term acquisition of urgent agricultural and food supplies as well as supporting social protection in the most vulnerable countries.

The FSRPs key focus over the next three years is improving early innovative interventions over the medium and long-term in order to tackle weaknesses and to deal with the causes of food insecurity in member countries.

This will be executed through six initiatives; including building the agricultural capabilities in terms of climate change adaptation, supporting input and food value chains, boosting small farmers productivity and supporting access to new markets, supporting people in rural areas, developing the livestock and fisheries and building flexible food supply systems.

Ongoing IsDB financing dedicated to food security and agriculture development is worth $20.6 billion spread over 1,538 operations.

This financing includes $5.7 billion for the IsDBs member countries and to support their ongoing projects in this regard.

The FSRP contains direct contributions provided by the IsDBs affiliated organisations, including $4.5 billion dedicated to finance trade from the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC); $269 million for private sector financing from the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD); $75 million in loans, grants and capital resourced from the Islamic Solidarity Fund; and $500 million from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC).

Egypt has been an IsDB member country since 1974 and one of its founders, with 7.19 percent of the Banks total subscribed capital.

Since then, total project portfolio between the IsDB Group and Egypt has amounted to $17.8 billion.

This portfolio covers energy (60 percent), agriculture (18 percent), real estate (11 percent) and mining (nine percent).

In May, the IsDB launched its first regional headquarters in Cairo during the group's 2022 annual meetings, which were held in Sharm El-Sheikh under the auspices of Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

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Zewail City of Science and Technology celebrated the graduation of a new batch of students in the presence of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.

On the occasion of graduation for the academic year 2021/2022, the Zewail City's University of Science and Technology held a big ceremony attended by the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, Mahmoud Saqr, President of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Mahmoud Abd Rabbo, Acting CEO of Zewail City, Hesham Okasha, CEO of the National Bank of Egypt and members of the citys Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors, and a number of public figures, at the headquarters of the Administrative and Cultural Complex in Zewail City on 26 July.

In his inaugural speech, Abdel-Ghaffar congratulated the newly graduated students and their colleagues who preceded them, expressing his pride that many graduates of the university attend some of the major universities at postgraduate levels and their involvement in various fields of scientific specializations in various work and production sites in our country.

The minister stressed that Zewail City is a national scientific edifice and that the results of its work and the efforts of its founders and those in charge have begun to appear in the form of distinguished graduates, who are in no way inferior to their peers at the best universities in the world. He also noted the citys excellence in the field of international publishing pointing out that "the size of the states investments in this project amounted to approximately 4 billion pounds in the first and second phases of establishing the city and approximately 6 billion pounds allocated to complete the rest of the citys facilities, reflects the volume of investments the state pumps to build the Egyptian person".

"The Egyptian state is determined to provide the necessary support to Zewail City; to complete its mission in education and scientific research. Studies will start at the College of Computing Sciences and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Science and Technology for the new academic year to complement the role of the university in providing distinguished education to the sons of the country as a tributary of development in the Egyptian state", he added.

Abdel-Ghaffar concluded his speech urging the graduates to continue to succeed and excel in their working lives, to always believe that sincerity in work is the fruit of brilliant success, to always be ambassadors for Zewail City and their country in all parts of the world, and raise its banner in every field.

For his part, acting CEO of Zewail City Mahmoud Abd Rabbo confirmed that the celebration of the graduation of a new batch of the University of Science and Technology with its scientific and engineering tracks at the city's new and permanent headquarters represents a historic moment and a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the city's establishment. He added that the city of Zewail has stabilized, and a great scientific breakthrough has taken place. He also stated that it is on the right path set by its founder Dr. Ahmed Zewail, who always asserted that the true scientific renaissance will only be achieved with the active participation of the countrys people with international expertise and skills.

Abd Rabbo pointed out that the University of Science and Technology in Zewail City aims to prepare a generation capable of making a real scientific renaissance.

He also added that it aims "to become the first public and private university to obtain this accreditation in Egypt, in addition to obtaining the first place in Egypt and tenth in the Arab world, according to The Times classification of Arab universities, which confirms the excellence of the educational and research service in the city.

The acting CEO of Zewail City confirmed that the university is working to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship in its graduates.

"This contributes to creating job opportunities for themselves and other young people. The citys graduates have established companies based on adapting scientific research to deal with strategic challenges, including raising the efficiency of power plants and monitoring fish farms with the aim of reducing the wastage of toxic wealth, which confirms the ability of the graduates of the University of Science and Technology to contribute to solving the problems of society and transforming it into an added value, he explained.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, Minister Abdel-Ghaffar honored Reem Arafa, professor of biomedical sciences, by awarding her the Excellence in Teaching Award, Menna El-Serafi, a researcher specializing in genetics, by awarding her the Zewail Incentive Award for 2022, as well as Abdel-Rahman Mihoub, Associate Professor in the Nanoscience Programme, by awarding him Zewail City award.

Student Ayman Mohammed in the Earth Physics Programme and Abdullah Shaaban in the Nanotechnology and Nanoelectronics Programme were both honored for their superiority in the undergraduate stage. They were awarded the Dr. Ahmed Zewail Cup.

The minister also honored several heads of Egyptian banks, companies, and institutions who contributed to providing support to Zewail City students and researchers believing in the message of the city of Zewail.

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Ahram Online spoke to Professor Naiem Moimen, president of the International Association of Burn Injury on the challenges faced by burn survivors in Egypt and what the future holds for them, including what hospitals in Egypt are doing for them.

Ahram Online: Tell us more about yourself and how you developed a passion for the field of burn treatments?

Naiem Moiemen: I am the president of the International Association of Burn Injury (ISBI) and the chairman of the Medical and Scientific Research Centre at Ahl Masr Hospital for Burn and Trauma.

Additionally, I am a professor at the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham and a consultant plastic surgeon at the University Hospital.

I am also a member of the senior editorial board of BURNS and the Journal of Burn Care Research (JBCR), Journal of Burn and Trauma and I was in the past the deputy editor of Journal of Burn and Trauma (JBT).

Previously I occupied the position of president of European Burn Association (EBA) and the British Burn Association (BBA).

The reasons why a healthcare worker gets into the field of healthcare or social care may differ from one person to another; however, there always is a common reason between all of us.

That is the drive to help and care for individuals and provide them a more comfortable life, especially after going through a traumatic experience.

Burn injuries may seem like they are like other injuries; however, burn survivors not only live through a life-long physiological impact but also a scarring psychological impact too that sadly takes extensive treatment and time to fully recover from.

AO: What are the main challenges that burn survivors face in Egypt?

NM: It is without doubt that the survivors face many challenges, first of which is the speed of medical assistance and that is why in Ahl Masr Hospital we have two helipads.

It is crucial that burn survivors get the medical assistance they need within six hours because with each passing minute, the risk of losing their life increases and the burn injury often escalates to a long-term disability or a disfiguration.

Secondly, most burn survivors belong to the most disadvantaged groups and therefore cannot pay for the cost of treatment.

That is why the existence of Ahl Masr Hospital as an entity serving Egypt, Africa, and the Middle East by treating burn survivors at no cost through the support of hearty donations, is crucial and critical.

Decreased awareness of burn injuries still has burn survivors feeling as if they are not welcome in their societies due to the intentional and unintentional bullying due to their appearance and injuries.

That is a challenge that we, as a society, face by raising awareness about burn injuries and constantly including burn survivors in national initiatives and more.

AO: Have you noticed any change in terms of how Egyptian society views burn victims? And what are your aspirations in that regard?

NM: Unquestionably, burn survivors in Egypt are going through a transitional phase from being treated as outcasts to being included as active members in the society.

A prime example of this is Manal Hosny, our official spokesperson at Ahl Masr Foundation and Ahl Masr Hospital, hosting several panels and [Basmalah Mohamed, a nine-year-old girl who suffered severe burns,] joining the Ask the President panel in the Differently Abled ceremony, during its third edition in December 2021.

Egyptians saw how President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi warmly supported the burn survivors and shed light on the issue of burn injuries.

This was a great step in Egypt where a role model for many has proved that burn survivors should be included in our society and are active members just like able-bodied individuals.

I aspire that for the future we see more national initiatives regarding burn injuries. In addition, it is important that the private sector play an active role in having a positive impact on this issue.

AO: How can a specialised hospital of such a magnitude make a difference in the country and the region?

NM: Ahl Masr Hospital is the first and largest hospital of its kind in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa to offer free treatment to trauma and burn victims in Egypt and it will make a huge difference in Egypt and the region because of its experienced medical healthcare workers and solid infrastructure.

The hospital has a capacity of 200 beds, consisting of six floors, in addition to two air ambulance landings (helipads), not for luxury, but for the speed of transferring cases.

Additionally, in Ahl Masr Hospital we have implemented the latest modern technology such as big data analysis and artificial intelligence mechanisms to ease the treatment process and overall recovery of patients.

AO: In your opinion, how can such a project maintain itself financially?

NM: Ahl Masr Hospital has been built built and will operate by the generous donations by individuals and entities, such as banks and private companies.

Since Ahl Masr Hospital treats burn survivors at no cost, it may feel worrysome to some at times when donations are not as impactful as before. Just like the time of COVID-19, when many priorities changed.

However, in these harsh times, we as individuals must come together and remember to support the causes we hold dear to our heart and that greatly need our support.

AO: What are five goals you wish to reach in your career in general and maybe specifically in Egypt?

NM: I wish to see an extensive healthcare insurance system available for all people and if we are speaking in Egypt, then all Egyptians near and far, across the country.

I also wish to see an increased awareness in Egypt about the severity of burn injuries, its repercussions and how to prevent them.

With generations to come, I hope to train and equip medical healthcare workers specialising in treating burn injuries, and in return, they would educate generations to come.

I also wish that the science and technology advance in tissue regeneration to prevent deformity and help in saving as much tissue as possible for regrowth.

Finally, I wish to see burn survivors integrated more into society and participate as active members of the community.

So to sum up, globally, and in Egypt in specific I wish for an extensive healthcare insurance system, increased awareness, trained medical personnels, technology advancement and integration of burn survivors.

AO: What is most fulfilling about reaching out with help to burn victims? Can you share incidents or stories from your memory in that regard?

NM: Every case and every survivor left an impact on me to this day even if I did not interact with them directly.

Many think that only healthcare workers leave an impact on their patients, but that is not entirely true.

It warms my heart when a burn survivor rises from the dark against all odds and participates in the society as an active member due to the long journey of recovery.

I hold it dear to my heart when I find the burn survivor fight against the challenges that they face, either physiological, psychological or even societal.

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Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate, has increased the weekly number of flights to Southeast Asia from its Muscat hub, offering 10 flights to Bangkok, 7 flights to Kuala Lumpur, 5 flights to Manila, and 4 flights to Jakarta.



The additional flights offer greater convenience and connectivity for Oman Air guests to discover more than 40 other exciting destinations in Southeast Asia and Australia.



Oman Air is optimizing its network through increased cooperation with alliance partners to link passengers to more locations as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. This will result in increased travel connections and an expanded network of destinations.



Oman Air currently has four partner airlines in Southeast Asia, allowing guests to fly to 44 destinations across Southeast Asia and Australia from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. In total, Oman Air has entered into strategic codeshare agreements with 18 different partner airlines. These agreements enable Oman Air to market 229 different sectors, which, when combined with the 45 sectors that the airline itself operates, brings the total number of sectors it serves to 274.



Oman Air offers wide-body service, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A330, between Muscat and destinations in Southeast Asia.  TradeArabia News Service
The casualties were reported in the capital of Sanaa and the southwestern province of Dhamar, where it began raining late last week, the Houthi-run Sanaa Radio said.

Both Sanaa and Dhamar are held by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been warring since 2014 with the internationally recognized government which is aided by a Saudi-led coalition.

In Dhamar, at least six people were killed when floods swept their vehicle late Saturday, the report said.

Three more children were dead after heavy rains damaged their home in the capital's district of Moaeen, it said, and a fourth child was critically injured.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is located at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, overlooking the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
The seminar was attended by multinational youth leaders from several countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Ecuador, Armenia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Hungary, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Gambia, Tunisia, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Egypt, among the alumni and members of the movement, along with Hassan Ghazaly, founder of the Nasser International Youth Movement, and the Hungarian leader Istvan Dobrei, an expert in international trade relations and a member of the movement.

During the seminar, Ghazaly highlighted his unlimited support for the great efforts made by the movement's members for four years in serving and developing their societies in several areas such as education, training, and women empowerment economically as well as their efforts in the fields of social justice, climate education, and peacebuilding.

Moreover, Ghazaly asserted that Nasser Youth Movement has benefited over four years almost 9,500 young men and women through over 65 national branches in five continents (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Aruba, and Australia). He noted that the movement's coordinators were able to launch about 49 development programs and projects in several societies, in addition to their success in establishing networks with local and international institutions and civil society organizations, thus achieving the seventeenth goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Nasser International Youth Movement was established in July 2019 aiming to strengthen historical ties and support bilateral relations between Egypt and the rest of the brotherly and friendly countries, in addition to introducing development agendas and regional and international agreements at the grassroots level such as the Free Trade Agreement, Ghazaly said.

The movement organized the Nasser Fellowship for International Leadership, which is held under the auspices of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The fellowship aims to popularise the authentic Egyptian experience in national institution-building and create a new generation of transformational young African leaders with a vision that aligns with the Egyptian presidency of the African Union in serving the goals of African unity through integration, training, capacity building, and the development of strategic visions, as well as organising meetings of the most influential young leaders at the continental level.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 31, 2022 - 21:15 | World, All

Myanmar police on Saturday detained a Japanese man who was taking part in an anti-coup protest in Yangon, local media reported.

The Japanese Embassy in Myanmar said Sunday it has requested the release of the man in his 20s, reported to be documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota. He is being held for questioning at a police station in Yangon, the embassy said without confirming his identity.

The man was with protesters in the South Dagon Township area and was detained along with two Myanmarese, the reports said. The police confiscated their belongings including a camera.

The Southeast Asian country has been under military rule since February 2021 when the democratically elected government was deposed and many of its leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, were arrested.

Yuki Kitazumi, a Japanese freelance journalist, was arrested in April 2021 in Yangon and indicted for spreading false information and violating visa stipulations. He was released the following month at the request of the Japanese government and other intermediaries.

Following the latest detention of a Japanese national, about 100 people, including Myanmar nationals living in Japan and Kitazumi, held a rally in Tokyo on Sunday to urge the authorities in Myanmar to "release all people who have been illegally detained immediately."

Kitazumi said Kubota, whom he met around 2018, has been making documentary films about Myanmar since when he was a student.

"I'm very shocked to hear that he was detained and I can't forgive (the Myanmar authorities)," the 46-year-old said.

Citizens in Myanmar continue to protest the military rule despite its violent crackdowns on protesters.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group monitoring the situation in the country, more than 14,900 people have been detained so far since the coup. The death toll from the crackdown has risen to over 2,130.

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KYODO NEWS - Jul 31, 2022 - 20:06 | World, All

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will travel to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia from Sunday but made no mention of Taiwan after reports of her potential trip to the island sparked an outcry from China.

Pelosi said the congressional delegation she is leading will discuss security, trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance during the tour.

"Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm America's strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region," Pelosi said in a press release.

China has been increasing its pressure on Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province awaiting reunification with the mainland, by force if necessary.

At the same time, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has been enhancing ties with the self-ruled democratic island. A visit by Pelosi would be the first from a serving U.S. House speaker in 25 years.

The potential visit has met strong warnings from China, with the country's military saying it "will not sit idly by" if it were to go ahead. On a call Thursday between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two leaders also traded warnings over destabilizing acts regarding Taiwan.

During her stay in Japan, Pelosi is likely to hold separate meetings with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Japan's House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In April, Pelosi postponed a planned visit to Asia including Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus. She had also considered visiting Taiwan during the trip, Taiwanese and Japanese media reported.

Related coverage:

Biden, Xi square off over Taiwan, but to explore face-to-face talks

U.S. House speaker Pelosi looks to visit Japan in August: sources
KYODO NEWS - Jul 31, 2022 - 09:15 | All, Japan

The Expo 2025 in Osaka, western Japan, is picking up momentum as 130 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in the global event so far after marking 1,000 days to go until the opening.

Hungary, Fiji, Mauritius and Mauritania on Friday joined 126 countries and regions as well as eight international organizations, such as the United Nations, that have already confirmed their participation in the event.

On July 18, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a "1,000 Days to Go!" event in Tokyo and said, "Ushering in a new era by cutting-edge technologies, I would like to make this (the Osaka Expo) as an opportunity to solve social issues."

The nickname of the official character of the Expo was announced as "Myaku-Myaku," selected from over 33,000 submitted entries, at the event, while a countdown ceremony was held the same day in the host city Osaka.

In Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, adjacent to Osaka Prefecture, a demonstration flight of a "flying car" was held in front of invited guests from the prefectural government and firms.

The 5.7-meter long, 5.6-meter wide and 1.7-meter tall vehicle with the capacity of two people ascended to about 30 meters above the ground and successfully flew a distance of about 840 meters with no one aboard.

It is planned to be in service at the Expo 2025, which will be held from April 13 to Oct. 13 under the central theme of "Designing Future Society for Our Lives."

In an online meeting Thursday of the National Governors' Association, Kenji Wakamiya, minister for the World Expo 2025, said the expo will be an "ideal opportunity for revitalizing local economies."

Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said, "I hope local charms will be disseminated through the Expo," asking other governors for cooperation in the success of the event.

Yoshimura also expressed his desire to create a framework similar to a host town program, through which local people and visitors to the Expo 2025 can mingle and foster friendship.

The Japanese government aims to draw the participation of 150 countries and regions, as well as 25 international organizations, in the World Expo.

Related coverage:

2025 World Expo in Osaka to feature 8 main pavilions

Japanese-operated sushi outlet at Dubai Expo sees COVID outbreak

Osaka Pavilion at 2025 World Expo to focus on futuristic urban life
KYODO NEWS - Jul 31, 2022 - 20:34 | All, Japan

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday he will seek to add momentum to global efforts toward a world free of nuclear weapons amid Russia's war in Ukraine by attending a U.N. review conference on a nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

Kishida, who will become the first Japanese leader to participate in the conference, is expected to stress that nuclear weapons should not be used and call for nuclear powers to enhance transparency in their arsenal.

"The global momentum for realizing a world without nuclear weapons has been declining significantly. I intend to reverse this trend (by attending the conference)," Kishida told reporters at his official residence before departing for the conference in New York.

Elected from a constituency in Hiroshima, which along with Nagasaki was devastated by a U.S.-dropped atomic bomb in World War II, Kishida sees his vision for a nuclear-free world as a top priority.

And as leader of the only nation to have experienced the horrors of a nuclear attack, he is seeking to serve as a bridge between nuclear powers and non-nuclear states.

The upcoming meeting to review the operation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons comes after Russia's nuclear threat has raised alarm and its war in Ukraine shows little sign of ending.

The prime minister is expected to unveil a plan to set up a U.N. fund to help young people from around the world to visit the two Japanese cities and learn about their devastation as part of efforts toward a nuclear-free world, government sources have said.

During his visit to New York, Kishida plans to hold talks with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and participate in a foreign ministers' meeting of the 12-member Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative, a framework involving non-nuclear states in the NPT treaty such as Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The previous NPT review conference held in 2015 ended without an outcome document due to disagreements among the participants. Kishida, who was foreign minister back then, said in an interview with Kyodo News on Friday that it would be "ideal" to have a document on which all nations can agree this time.

A review comes every five years and the latest round was scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting runs from Monday to Aug. 26.

Related coverage:

Japan PM to unveil fund for youth to learn about A-bomb horrors

U.N. disarmament chief stresses need to reaffirm NPT regime

Japan to push for nuclear arms reduction at NPT review conference
KYODO NEWS - Jul 31, 2022 - 20:14 | All, World, Japan

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan Cabinet support sags to record low 51% after Abe funeral plan

TOKYO - The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet has dropped to a worst-ever 51.0 percent from a record high of 63.2 percent just weeks ago, following his government's decision to hold a state funeral for slain former leader Shinzo Abe, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.

The survey found 53.3 percent of respondents expressed opposition to the state funeral, while 61.9% said a parliamentary debate on holding the event is necessary.

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U.S. House Speaker Pelosi to visit Asia, no mention of Taiwan

WASHINGTON - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will travel to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia from Sunday but made no mention of Taiwan after reports of her potential trip to the island sparked an outcry from China.

Pelosi said the congressional delegation she is leading will discuss security, trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance during the tour.

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Japanese man detained by Myanmar police at anti-coup protest: reports

YANGON - Myanmar police on Saturday detained a Japanese man who was taking part in an anti-coup protest in Yangon, local media reported.

The Japanese Embassy in Myanmar said it has requested the release of the man in his 20s, reported to be documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota. He is being held for questioning at a police station in Yangon, the embassy said without confirming his identity.

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Japan mulls changing COVID-19 measures amid hospital strain

TOKYO - Japan is considering altering COVID-19 measures, including a potential change in the collection of infection numbers, in a bid to lessen the burden on hospitals as they strain under a resurgence of the coronavirus across the country, government sources said Saturday.

Medical facilities and public health centers currently cooperate to report the total COVID-19 cases to the government, but the change may limit reporting of cases from designated establishments, they said.

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Japan, China to hold in-person foreign ministerial talks on Aug. 4

TOKYO - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi are planning to hold in-person talks on Thursday on the sidelines of a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Cambodia, government sources said Saturday.

The top Japanese diplomat is expected to air concerns over repeated intrusions by Chinese coast guard ships into Japanese waters around the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands, as well as China's intensifying military activities near Japanese waters.

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Biden tests positive for COVID-19 again, shows no symptoms

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 again on Saturday in what his doctor described as a "rebound" case after taking antiviral medication, the White House said.

Biden "has experienced no re-emergence of symptoms and continues to feel quite well," the White House physician Kevin O'Connor said in a letter released by the White House.

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Expo 2025 in Osaka gains momentum with 130 nations on guest list so far

TOKYO - The Expo 2025 in Osaka, western Japan, is picking up momentum as 130 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in the global event so far after marking 1,000 days to go until the opening.

Hungary, Fiji, Mauritius and Mauritania on Friday joined 126 countries and regions as well as eight international organizations, such as the United Nations, that have already confirmed their participation in the event.

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Japan diving shop sorry after customers pose on sunken U.S. warship

NAHA, Japan - A diving shop in the southern Japan prefecture of Okinawa apologized after a photograph online that showed its customers posing on the shipwreck of a U.S. warship from World War II sparked a protest from a member of an organization comprised of family members and friends of former crew, it became known Saturday.

The customers who dived off the coast of Okinawa had been seen posing on the remains of the Emmons, a destroyer sunk in a Japanese kamikaze attack during the war. The move was seen as discourteous and incited disapproval from the member of the group residing in Okinawa.
Photo taken on July 22, 2022 shows an electrical vehicle imported by Green Tech Africa and a charging station at its showroom in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)

ADDIS ABABA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A striking phrase written in Amharic, Ethiopia's working language, is visible on each side of cars displayed inside a showroom located on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The phrase reads "An Electric Vehicle" -- a rare sight in a country where electric mobility is in its infancy.

The showroom, which exclusively displays a wide range of electric vehicles for potential Ethiopian buyers, belongs to Green Tech Africa, an East African-based renewable energy company that works in partnership with major Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers as part of its aspirations to promote electric mobility in Ethiopia and beyond across the African continent.

As the Ethiopian government recently engaged in an ambitious effort to fast-track the transition into electric mobility in the face of the global fuel uncertainties, the company has recently partnered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport in a series of events that envisaged creating public awareness of e-mobility.

One such initiative is a one-month-long free electric vehicle transportation campaign for Addis Ababa residents.

The phenomenon has caught the attention of many on the streets of Addis Ababa, most of whom are experiencing their first-ever battery electric vehicle excursion.

Kidem Tesfaye, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Green Tech Africa, said that a growing number of Ethiopians are lately interested in electric cars.

The Ethiopian government, preoccupied with the mammoth cost of fuel that was further exacerbated by the current global fuel price hikes, is recently promoting electric vehicles as a viable solution.

The East African country spends an estimated annual average of 4 billion U.S. dollars for the purchase of fuel, according to government figures. For comparison, Ethiopia's overall export revenue during the Ethiopian 2021/2022 fiscal year that ended earlier this month was 4.12 billion U.S. dollars.

Experts argued that Ethiopia, which spends a major part of its forex earnings on fossil fuels, should tap into the global climate change agenda as its priority to reduce emissions.

"As a water tower of Northeast Africa, Ethiopia is potentially endowed with plenty of hydroelectric potential. Hence, it makes sense that we look to electric cars as a future machine of mobility," Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Carmakers are looking at alternative fuel sources, with the aim to reduce harmful exhaust emissions while still delivering the kind of all-round performance and range capabilities," Costantinos said, as he advised Ethiopia to follow suit.

The Ethiopian government, as part of its 10-Years Perspective Development Plan that runs from 2021 to 2030, plans to import 4,800 electric buses and 148,000 electric automobiles.

Tesfaye argued that cognizant of the current global shift toward electric vehicles, the East African country should aspire even higher.

Many argue that Ethiopia's transportation system has been a key source of carbon dioxide emissions with the influx of cheap used cars that are imported into the country, where brand new cars are a rare sight and electric vehicles are nearly unheard of until very recently.

Tesfaye emphasized that Green Tech Africa, working in collaboration with its Chinese partners, envisaged changing the situation by introducing Chinese-made electric vehicles that are convenient to the local demand.

The company currently is importing the cars from Chinese car manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Corporation and has plans to establish a car assembly factory in the near future toward realizing its ultimate goal of becoming the manufacturing hub of electrical vehicles in Africa.

"Within the next ten years, we see Green Tech Africa (becoming) the manufacturing hub of electrical vehicles and having at least 60 percent of the electric vehicle components manufactured locally," Tesfaye said. 

An electrical vehicle imported by Green Tech Africa is charged at its showroom in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)

Kidem Tesfaye, chief executive officer of Green Tech Africa, shows how to operate a charging station at a company showroom in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 22, 2022 shows electrical vehicles imported by Green Tech Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)

An electrical vehicle imported by Green Tech Africa is charged at its showroom in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 22, 2022. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua)
Photo taken on July 26, 2022 shows the booth of cosmetics giant L'Oreal in the French pavilion at the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

HAIKOU, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Fabrice Megarbane, L'Oreal North Asia Zone president and chief executive officer of L'Oreal China, sees the second China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) as a signal of the greater opening-up of the Chinese market.

The expo, which concluded on Saturday in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, attracted exhibitors from 61 countries and regions. Some 2,800 brands from 1,955 domestic and international enterprises participated in the exhibitions.

China is committed to opening up further and is increasingly determined to unleash the potential of its market by boosting consumption, Megarbane said. It was also the second time L'Oreal has exhibited at the expo, and it this year expanded its exhibition area to 625 square meters.

There were over 50 French companies and nearly 250 French brands participating in the expo held on the resort island of Hainan. France was the guest country of honor at this year's CICPE and, after China, the second-largest exhibitor.

French fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld and the Hainan Global Duty-Free Plaza on Feb. 26 signed a strategic cooperation agreement to share the opening-up opportunities and accelerate the expansion of Hainan's consumer market.

Durian, coffee, snacks and various delicacies exhibited by Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group were audience favorites during the event. "The expo is a very good platform and is in line with the development strategy of our company," said Xue Zengyi, senior vice chairman of the group's Agro-Industry and Food Business China Area.

Attracted by the preferential policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the group increased its investment in Hainan and established a global trade company in 2021. Xue said the company hopes to import the world's best consumer goods into Hainan and then push them from Hainan to the Chinese market, and, at the same time, bring high-quality Chinese consumer goods to the world.

Oranuch Wannapinyo, commercial consul of Commercial Section at the Thai Consulate-General in Guangzhou, said she believes that in participating in the expo, more premium and high-quality Thai brands will be promoted to the Chinese market and across the globe.

Foreign direct investment inflows, in actual use, increased 17.4 percent year on year to 723.31 billion yuan (about 107.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said that during the expo, the number of foreign exhibitors and brands increased significantly, the international exhibition areas expanded, and the quality of economic and trade activities also improved, which shows that the expo's platform role has become more prominent and the Chinese market has become more attractive. 
Photo taken on July 29, 2022 shows a building of the Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project in Kafue, Lusaka Province, Zambia. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta)

Zambia on Friday commissioned a Chinese-funded project that would benefit about half a million people by giving them access to clean and safe water as well as proper sanitation in the capital city Lusaka.

KAFUE, Zambia, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Friday commissioned a project financed by China aimed at improving water supply and sanitation in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

The 150 million U.S. dollars phase-one Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project financed by the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) and constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) would ensure that about 500,000 people in the Zambian capital have access to clean and safe water as well as proper sanitation.

It involved the construction of an intake structure, treatment plant, booster station and transmission lines to deliver a total of 50,000 cubic meters of water per day.

The commissioning ceremony was attended by President Hakainde Hichilema and Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Du Xiaohui, as well as officials from the Chinese firm.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema (C) addresses the commissioning ceremony of the Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project in Kafue, Lusaka Province, Zambia, on July 29, 2022. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta)

The Chinese Ambassador commended the Chinese firm and other stakeholders for successfully completing the project which will go a long way in improving access to safe and clean drinking water for residents of the Zambian capital, saying the project was meant to solve the problem that the original water supply system faced of not meeting the demand for water in the capital.

According to him, the water supply capacity of the project will provide people in the capital with sufficient, healthy and clean water, and it has also contributed to the creation of local employment and enhanced capacity building.

He said nearly 1,000 local people were employed and trained at the peak of the construction of the project.

Hichilema praised China for financing the construction of the water plant, saying it symbolizes China's sincerity in pursuit of the greater good and shared interest in improving the quality of life of people.

Photo taken on July 29, 2022 shows the interior of the Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project in Kafue, Lusaka Province, Zambia. (Xinhua/Martin Mbangweta)

The Zambian president also urged water utility companies in the country to find more innovative ways of efficiently and effectively using water in order to avoid wastage in view of the challenges brought by climate change.

"For example, once the water has been used in our households, we should find ways to harness it again for other uses such as agriculture purposes," he said.

Hichilema, who is also the Global Cholera Control Champion, said he takes seriously the levels of water and sanitation resources as this poses a threat and enables the outbreak of waterborne diseases. He pledged that his government would continue investing in the water sector in order to ensure equitable access to clean and safe drinking people for all as proper sanitation.

Eric Ding, the general manager of the CCECC Zambia, thanked the Zambian government and the local people for their support during the construction period.

He, however, said more financing will be required to undertake the second phase of the project to increase the water supply to the Zambian capital due to the increased population which requires more water. 
RTHK: Iraqi cleric's supporters occupy parliament

Supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, occupying parliament with no immediate plan to leave.

In a deepening political crisis, it is the second time in days that Sadr supporters have forced their way in to the legislative chamber, months after elections that failed to lead to formation of a government.

"The demonstrators announce a sit-in until further notice," Sadr's movement said in a brief statement to journalists over the WhatsApp messaging platform and carried by state news agency INA.

Supporters of Sadr, who once led a militia against US and Iraqi government forces, oppose the recently announced candidacy of Mohammed al-Sudani, a pro-Iran bloc's pick for prime minister.

Demonstrators waved Iraqi flags and pictures of the cleric inside the legislature. They crowded the chamber where some sat at lawmakers' desks while others milled about, raising their mobile phones to film the occupation.

They entered after thousands of protesters had massed at the end of a bridge leading to the Green Zone before dozens pulled down concrete barriers protecting it and ran inside, an AFP photographer reported.

Security forces had fired tear gas near an entrance to the district, home to foreign embassies and other government buildings as well as parliament.

Some protesters on the bridge were injured and carried off by their fellow demonstrators.

"All the people are with you Sayed Moqtada," the protesters chanted, using his title as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.

Sadr's bloc emerged from elections in October as the biggest parliamentary faction, but was still far short of a majority. Ten months on, deadlock persists over the establishment of a new government.

The mercurial Sadr, long a player in the country's politics, has a devoted following of millions among the country's majority Shiite population.

His supporters oppose the candidacy of former minister and ex-provincial governor Sudani, who is the pro-Iran Coordination Framework's pick for premier.

The protests are the latest challenge for oil-rich Iraq, which remains mired in a political and socio-economic crisis despite elevated global crude prices.

Saturday's demonstration came after crowds of Sadr supporters breached the Green Zone on Wednesday despite volleys of tear gas fire from the police.

They left two hours later but only after Sadr told them to.

On Saturday, security forces shut off roads in the capital leading to the Green Zone with massive blocks of concrete.

"We are here for a revolution," said one protester, Haydar al-Lami.

"We don't want the corrupt; we don't want those who have been in power to return... Since 2003, they have brought us only harm," he said, referring to the year when a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

By convention, the post of prime minister goes to a leader from Iraq's Shiite majority.

Sadr had initially supported the idea of a majority government.

That would have sent his Shiite adversaries from the Coordination Framework into opposition.

The Coordination Framework draws lawmakers from former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's party and the pro-Iran Fatah Alliance, the political arm of the Shiite-led former paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi.

But on June 12 Sadr's 73 lawmakers quit in a move seen as seeking to pressure his rivals to fast-track the formation of a government.

Sixty-four new lawmakers were sworn in later that month, making the pro-Iran bloc the largest in parliament.

That triggered the fury of Sadr's supporters, who according to a security source also ransacked the Baghdad office of Maliki's Dawa party on Friday night, as well as that of the Hima movement of Ammar al-Hakim which is a part of the Coordination Framework.

"We would have liked them to wait until the government was formed to evaluate its performance, to give it a chance and to challenge it if it is not," Hakim said in a recent interview with BBC Arabic.

"The Sadrist movement has a problem with the idea that the Coordination Framework will form a government," he said. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-31. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
About 412,000 travel & tourism jobs in the US will remain unfilled this year, putting in serious jeopardy the recovery of the sector, according to new analysis by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).



According to WTTCs data, one in 18 jobs remained vacant during the first half of 2022, highlighting a talent crunch that has plagued the sector since early 2021. An estimated 321,000 travel & tourism positions went unfilled in the January  June 2022 timeframe (a 5.4% shortage), and worker shortages are expected to persist into 3Q, peaking at 412,000 sector job vacancies (a 7% shortfall).



During 2020, employment in the sector dropped by 35.9% in the US at its lowest point. As global travel & tourism began recovering in 2021, the US saw a 12.4% hike in the number of jobs directly supported by the sector, adding a welcome 480,000 jobs back into the market.



Despite the positive growth in 2021, sightseeing transportation, accommodation and recreation are experiencing the most serious labour shortage impact this year. Employers in the accommodation industry in particular could struggle to find suitable candidates for nearly one in seven hotel and resort job postings.



As the US pushes full steam ahead toward a solid recovery for Travel & Tourism, a lack of qualified, available talent remains a major concern for the sector, said Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO. This is especially true given the sudden spike in international visitors following the removal of COVID tests for inbound travellers.



Measures to boost employment growth



According to WTTC, the outlook could be more positive later this year and into 2023 if government officials and the public sector work together to increase the availability of eligible workers while adapting sector career opportunities to better appeal to top talent.



There is huge potential to increase the number of available workers in the US by fostering greater labour mobility within the US and across its borders, said Simpson. Stringent visa allocations are affecting many industries which ultimately impacts the wealth and growth prospects for the US. We urge officials to consider measures that make visas and work permits more easily accessible.



According to the report, the United States Census Bureau data indicates that between 2016 and 2020, international migration to the US plunged from around 1.05 million people to just 477,000.



Some of the key measures identified in the report for both governments and the private sector to address the talent gap are:



 Facilitate labour mobility across international borders, with more favourable visa policies

 Enable flexible and remote working where feasible  allowing part time or contractor-based opportunities, where possible

 Ensure decent work and competitive employee benefits and compensation packages

 Attract talent by improving the perception of jobs and promoting viable career paths with growth opportunities

 Develop and support a skilled workforce through comprehensive educational programs, as well as upskilling and reskilling current talent

 Adopt innovative technological and digital solutions to alleviate pressure on staff, improve daily operations and an enhanced customer experience.  TradeArabia News Service
RABAT, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Saturday called for building "normal relations" between Morocco and Algeria.

"I look forward to cooperating with the Algerian presidency so that Morocco and Algeria may work hand in hand and enjoy normal relations between the two brotherly peoples," he said in a speech on the occasion of the Throne Day.

"The borders separating the two brotherly Moroccan and Algerian peoples will never stand in the way of the interaction and understanding between the two peoples," he added.

The king also asked Moroccans to preserve the brotherhood, solidarity and good neighborliness toward Algerian people.

Relations between the two North African countries have been marred by several conflicts over territorial disputes. 
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A speech made by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be published Monday in the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered the speech at the ceremony on Aug. 1, 2017.

The article noted that the glorious history of the people's army was forged in blood, and thus it merits our remembrance. For the Chinese people to realize national rejuvenation and happiness in their lives, we must expedite the development of the people's army into a world-class military.

It emphasized that history informs us that "the Party commands the gun" is a basic guarantee to ensure the people's army maintains its essential nature and its aim, adding that this is an irrefutable truth that arose from the Party's fierce struggles.

It also said that noble ideals and beliefs imbue the people's army with the inner strength to courageously march forward, and that reform, innovation, and constant renewal form the most propitious path for developing the people's army.

The article noted that since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, we proposed building a people's army that follows the command of the CPC, is victorious in battle, and shows exemplary conduct. It added that the people's army has remolded its political environment, organizational form, systemic strength, and its manner of conduct.

The article emphasized that, in order to strengthen the military, we must not waver from the principle of the absolute leadership of the Party over the military, and ensure that the people's army will always follow the Party.

We must at all times focus on battle readiness, so as to forge a powerful army that comes when it is called, is ready for battle when it comes, and is victorious in battle. We must remain committed to the fundamental principle of wholeheartedly serving the people, forever being an army that has the trust, support, and love of the people, the article said.

China will always, as ever before, be a promoter of world peace, contributor to global development, and upholder of the international order, and hence the Chinese army will always be a staunch force in keeping world peace, the article added. 
Actors perform during the "Kyrgyzstan Day" event at the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

China and Kyrgyzstan have become veritable good neighbors, good friends, good partners and good brothers, Wang said.



CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to build a community with a shared future, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Saturday.

China-Kyrgyzstan relations have withstood trials and tribulations and gone through an extraordinary journey, Wang told reporters after meeting with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev.

Under the strategic guidance of the two countries' heads of state, China and Kyrgyzstan have become veritable good neighbors, good friends, good partners and good brothers, Wang said, adding that with no major differences or unresolved issues, the two countries should only pursue greater friendship and more cooperation.

Standing at a new historical starting point, China is ready to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to join hands with Kyrgyzstan to open up a brighter future for bilateral cooperation and deliver more benefits to the Chinese and Kyrgyz people, he said.

Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2021 shows a bridge completed during the second phase of a new North-South highway project in Kazarman of Jalalabad Region, Kyrgyzstan. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)

The Chinese foreign minister briefed reporters on the series of consensuses reached between the two sides.

Both sides believe that the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Kyrgyzstan should be raised to a higher level. With an eye to the development of bilateral relations in the next 30 years, the two countries decided to build a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future, contributing to the building of a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Both parties are convinced that facing the current complex regional and international challenges, China and Kyrgyzstan should speed up the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping, jointly promote the stability and development of Central Asia, oppose stirring up turmoil and divisions in the region, adhere to true multilateralism, safeguard the basic norms of international relations, and unite efforts in the international community to meet global challenges.

Workers unload boxes containing the second batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China at the Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, July 11, 2021. (Photo by Roman/Xinhua)

Both sides agreed to further strengthen strategic coordination, continue to firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests, unswervingly back each other in following a path of development in line with national conditions, and resolutely object to foreign interference in the internal affairs of the two countries.

The two sides decided to accelerate high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. They consider the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as a strategic project of regional connectivity, and the time and conditions are becoming ripe for the launch of this important project.

The first group of Chinese experts have arrived in Kyrgyzstan recently and started the survey work, kicking off the construction process of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.

The two sides will also speed up the construction of major projects in Kyrgyzstan, including canals and road networks, and open new border ports to facilitate the flow of people and freight.

A Chinese border policeman introduces entry-exit related matters to a driver from Kyrgyzstan in Erkeshtam port, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 11, 2019. (Xinhua/Luo Yang)

They will foster new growth areas such as ecological agriculture, e-commerce, cross-border payments and green energy, build a "green Silk Road," and create a new landscape for common development.

The two countries agreed to vigorously promote China-Kyrgyzstan friendship from generation to generation. China will build a Luban Workshop in Kyrgyzstan as soon as possible to train more vocational and technical personnel for the development of the Central Asian country.

They also agreed to set up cultural centers in each other's country at an early date, and strengthen people-to-people ties to consolidate the foundation of long-lasting friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan. 
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China recorded a decline in passenger transport in urban areas in the first half of this year (H1), official data showed.

In the January-June period, the number of passenger trips in 36 major cities stood at 20.7 billion, down 22.1 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The northern city of Shijiazhuang reversed the overall downturn, registering a 28.6-percent growth during the period.

In terms of transportation modes, bus and tram passengers dropped 23.5 percent, while urban rail passengers shrank 20.3 percent, according to the ministry. 
The ongoing truce between Yemen's warring sides has given an opportunity for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to save the Old City of Sanaa.
MOSCOW, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Armed Forces will obtain Zircon hypersonic missile systems in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.

"The capabilities of the Navy ... are constantly improving. Suffice it to mention the latest Zircon hypersonic missile systems, which are unstoppable and have no analogues in the world. Dear comrades, their delivery to the Russian Armed Forces will begin in the coming months," Putin said during the Navy Day parade.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov will be the first to take up combat duty with this weapon on board, he added.

"The duty area of the ship equipped with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles will be determined based on the interests of ensuring Russia's security," he said.

Putin said earlier that a Zircon missile could have a speed of Mach 9 (over 11,000 kph) and a flight range of more than 1,000 km. 
BAGHDAD, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and Arab League on Saturday called for an end to the escalation in the country during protests against the nomination of Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani for the post of prime minister.

"The ongoing escalation is extremely concerning. Voices of reason and wisdom are critical to prevent further violence," the UNAMI said on Twitter, encouraging all sides to "de-escalate in the interest of all Iraqis."

Meanwhile, the Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit also appealed to all Iraqi political forces to work quickly to stop the escalation and start a real and sincere dialogue.

"The Secretary-General stresses that getting things out of control will not be in the interest of Iraq or in the interest of any party," the Arab League said on Facebook.

On Wednesday, hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr broke into the parliament building after the Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, nominated al-Sudani on Monday for the post of prime minister.

Earlier in the day, al-Sadr's followers entered the Iraqi parliament building again and started an open sit-in in the building.

The Coordination Framework became the largest alliance in the Iraqi parliament after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the elections held on Oct. 10, 2021 with 73 seats, to withdraw from the parliament.

During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, as the parliament has been unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.

During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, as the parliament has been unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.

The president, if elected, will appoint the prime minister nominated by the largest alliance in the parliament, the Coordination Framework, to form a new government that would rule the country for the coming four years. 
Members of China's 5th peacekeeping infantry battalion to South Sudan take a military exercise in South Sudan, on Jan. 4, 2019. (Photo by Zhu Xiaonan/Xinhua)

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- "In this vast world, I may be just like a small feather. But even so, I want this feather to carry the wish for peace."

These are not lines of a beautifully written prose poem about the lightness of being. They are excerpts from the diary of He Zhihong, a female Chinese peacekeeper who died in the line of duty while serving in a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Haiti in 2010. She was just 35 when she died.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shared He's story at the UN Peacekeeping Summit in New York in 2015.

"This was her wish, and it is also China's commitment to peace," Xi said at the summit.

Since first dispatching five military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization in 1990, China's armed forces have stood fast as a disciplined force for peace and justice and become a crucial part of UN peacekeeping operations.

He Zhihong, from the southwestern province of Yunnan, lost her life while serving the peacekeeping mission when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake ravaged Haiti. She left behind a four-year-old son and elderly parents.

She was posthumously honored with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal for her contributions to world peace. The award was named after the former UN secretary-general who died on a peace mission to the Congo in 1961.

She is far from the only Chinese peacekeeper to have sacrificed her life in the name of world peace. Over the past three decades, of the nearly 50,000 members of Chinese men and women in uniform to have served in 25 UN peacekeeping missions, 16 never came home.

"Peace is the common aspiration and lofty goal shared by all of humanity," President Xi said at the UN Peacekeeping Summit.

At the same summit where Xi shared He's story, the president announced a raft of measures China would take to support UN peacekeeping. From building a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops, to training peacekeepers from other countries, and sending its first peacekeeping helicopter squad to the UN peacekeeping operations in Africa, these commitments show China to be a champion of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order.

China honors its promises. It completed the registration of a UN peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops in 2017. In the following five years since the summit, China provided 20 training programs to over 1,500 peacekeepers from more than 60 countries.

As the largest troop-contributing country among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has sent peacekeepers to over 20 countries and regions, including Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sudan, playing a vital role in facilitating the peaceful settlement of disputes, safeguarding regional security and stability, and promoting economic and social development in host nations.

They erected a hospital in the scorching heat in Mali, repaired a bridge that floods in the DRC had damaged, rebuilt a village primary school in South Sudan, fought the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, one of the hardest hit countries, and offered free medical treatment to locals in Lebanon.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, a total of 2,240 Chinese peacekeepers are currently serving on seven peacekeeping missions and at the UN headquarters.

Such support for UN peacekeeping operations has earned China recognition from the UN and the international community.

"China is one of our main supporters, really both in terms of the financial contributions, also in terms of the contributions in the field with more than 2,000 peacekeepers," UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said ahead of this year's International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers in May. 
BAGHDAD, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr started on Saturday an open sit-in inside the Iraqi parliament building in central Baghdad, while his political opponents called on their supporters to prepare for a counter-protest.

"The people choose the open sit-in in the parliament," Ibrahim al-Jaberi, head of al-Sadr's office, wrote on his Facebook page.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of al-Sadr's followers broke into the Green Zone, which houses the main government headquarters, residencies of some top political leaders and some foreign embassies, and entered the Iraqi parliament building for the second time in three days.

A statement by the Iraqi Health Ministry said up to 100 people and 25 security personnel were wounded when security forces tried to prevent the demonstrators from entering the Green Zone.

Videos aired by TV channels and circulated on social media showed dozens of demonstrators inside the parliament building waving Iraqi flags and hailing their leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

In a statement, Iraqi President Barham Salih urged everyone to keep calm and resort to dialogue to ensure the country's security and stability and consolidate its civil and social peace.

In a televised speech, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called on everyone "to be calm, patient, and rational, and not to be drawn into confrontation."

"We must all cooperate to stop those who accelerate this sedition, and everyone must know that the fire of sedition will burn everyone, so the political blocs must resort to negotiation for the sake of Iraq and the Iraqis," he said.

Later in the day, dozens of al-Sadr's followers continued to enter the Green Zone to participate in the public sit-in inside the parliament building.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by al-Sadr's opponents in the Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, called on "the people who believe in the law and constitutional legitimacy to demonstrate peacefully in defense of the state, its legitimacy, and its institutions."

For his part, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi announced in a statement the suspension of the parliament sessions "until further notice," calling on all leaders and political blocs to gather for an urgent national meeting.

In the evening, another statement by the Coordination Framework said that it was decided to postpone the date of the counter-demonstrations until further notice and to give time for dialogue and positive political solutions after some CF leaders, tribal, and religious leaders tried to ease the tension.

On Wednesday, hundreds of al-Sadr followers broke into the parliament building after the Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, nominated Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Monday for the post of prime minister.

The Coordination Framework became the largest alliance in the Iraqi parliament after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the elections held on Oct. 10, 2021 with 73 seats, to withdraw from the parliament.

During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, as the parliament has been unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.

The president, if elected, will appoint the prime minister nominated by the largest alliance in the parliament, the Coordination Framework, to form a new government that would rule the country for the coming four years. 
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, July 30, 2022. (Xinhua)

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here Saturday, with both sides agreeing to further enhance bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership and promote cooperation in various areas.

Zhaparov asked Wang to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that Kyrgyzstan always cherishes the friendship between Kyrgyzstan and China, and sincerely appreciates China's firm support and valuable assistance to Kyrgyzstan in safeguarding sovereignty and security, accelerating economic development and improving people's livelihood.

With the joint efforts of both sides, from establishing diplomatic ties to forging a comprehensive strategic partnership, Kyrgyzstan and China have set an example of good-neighborliness and friendship among neighboring countries, said Zhaparov.

Kyrgyzstan will continue to stand firmly with China on all issues concerning China's core interests, he said, adding that the country stands ready to deepen the alignment of their development strategies, expand cooperation in economy, trade and investment between the two countries, and advance people-to-people exchanges as well as cooperation at local levels.

The Kyrgyz side regards the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as an important link in building the Belt and Road, the president noted, saying that his country thanks China for sending experts to do field study and is eager to advance this state-level cooperation project in an accelerated manner.

For his part, Wang extended the Chinese president's greetings to Zhaparov, saying that the successful meeting between the two heads of state in February this year has injected strong impetus into bilateral relations.

Noting that Kyrgyzstan and China are linked by mountains and rivers, Wang said maintaining political, social and policy stability serves the interests of Kyrgyzstan and its people, helps the country accelerate its development and revitalization, and that is also China's sincere wish.

China will continue to firmly support Kyrgyzstan in safeguarding its national sovereignty, security and development interests, resolutely oppose any interference in Kyrgyzstan's internal affairs, and will always be a trustworthy and reliable partner of Kyrgyzstan, Wang added.

Wang stressed that thanks to the unremitting efforts of both sides, China and Kyrgyzstan have become good neighbors, good friends, good partners and good brothers in every sense of the word.

Strengthening bilateral strategic coordination and pushing China-Kyrgyzstan comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and the common expectations of the two peoples, he said.

China is willing to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Kyrgyzstan as a new starting point, jointly build a community with a shared future for the two countries, consolidate strategic mutual trust, strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs, and create another 30-year golden period in China-Kazakhstan relations, Wang said.

The condition for the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is getting ripe, Wang said. The first batch of Chinese experts have arrived in Kyrgyzstan recently for site survey, and the construction process has kicked off, he said, adding that China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to speed up the feasibility study.

China is also ready to steadily advance cooperation in various fields and provide assistance to the best of its ability in accordance with the needs of Kyrgyzstan's national development and improvement of people's livelihood, said Wang.

Zhaparov said that Kyrgyzstan highly appreciates and supports the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind put forward by President Xi, and is willing to work with China to build a community with a shared future for both countries.

The close cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and China in international and regional affairs reflects their high-level comprehensive strategic partnership, noted Zhaparov, saying that the Kyrgyz side welcomes and supports the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative proposed by President Xi, and looks forward to continuing to strengthen cooperation under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Central Asia + China and other mechanisms, and to jointly promote regional peace, stability and development.

On Saturday, Wang and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev also met and attended a press conference together. 
JERUSALEM, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government decided on Sunday to advance the establishment of a joint industrial park with Jordan located on the border between the two neighbors.

The project, named Jordan Gateway which also qualifies the park as a free trade zone, "will allow Israeli and Jordanian entrepreneurs and businesspeople to communicate directly," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid told the ministers during the cabinet meeting.

"It will produce joint initiatives in trade, technology and local industry," he added.

Under the project, a new bridge spanning Israel and Jordan has been built and will serve as a convenient crossing for entrepreneurs interested in the joint industrial park.

Lapid said the final details of the project were discussed last week during his trip to Amman to meet King Abdullah II of Jordan.

"This is an initiative that will increase employment in both countries, advance our economic and diplomatic relations, and enhance the peace and friendship between our two countries," the Israeli leader noted.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, before the Jordan Gateway project was first approved in 1998.

"Twenty-eight years since the peace agreement with Jordan, we are taking the good neighborly relations between our two countries another step forward," Lapid said. 
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The Central Conference on United Front Work was held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended and delivered an important speech.

In his remarks, Xi stressed that this year marks the centenary of the CPC's clear identification of its united front policy. It is imperative that we continue to ensure the patriotic united front develops in the right direction and accurately understand its historic position in the new era.

Xi defined the main tasks of the patriotic united front in the new era as follows: to follow the guidance of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and uphold the CPC's leadership; to adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and hold high the great banner of patriotism and socialism; to balance commonality and diversity, focus on the central task of economic development and serve the overall interests of the country; to advance with the times and innovate on the basis of what has worked in the past; to strengthen theoretical and political guidance, and fulfill the political function of gathering support and pooling strength; to promote harmony between different political parties, ethnic groups, religions, social strata, as well as our compatriots at home and abroad; to promote concerted endeavor of Chinese people at home and abroad and bring together powerful strength for building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Li Keqiang presided over the conference. Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attended the conference. Wang Yang delivered concluding remarks.

Xi noted in his speech that the united front, as an important part of the Party's general line and general policy, has played a significant role in the different historical periods of China's revolution, construction and reform. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Party has implemented the national rejuvenation strategy within the wider context of once-in-a-century changes taking place in the world, and made comprehensive arrangements for united front work from the strategic perspective of national governance. Thus, we have made historic progress in united front work, with the united front demonstrating greater solidarity and dynamism while forging ahead to open up new horizons.

Xi stressed that we have developed, through practice, important thoughts on advancing the Party's united front work in the new era and put forward a series of new concepts, ideas and strategies to improve united front work. These mainly include the following twelve aspects: we must give full play to the role of the united front as an important means; we must secure support of the people and pool strength for our cause; we must strike the right balance between commonality and diversity; we must uphold, develop and improve China's new model of political party system; we must make fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation the main task in the Party's work related to ethnic affairs; we must develop religions in the Chinese context; we must foster close bonds with non-CPC intellectuals and personages from new social strata; we must facilitate the healthy growth of the non-public sector of the economy and encourage those working in this sector to achieve success; we must exert the role of united front work to win hearts and minds of people in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese; we must strengthen the ranks of non-CPC representative figures; we must grasp the laws governing united front work; and we must enhance the Party's overall leadership over united front work.

The important ideas on improving the Party's united front work in the new era represent a crystallization of the Party's wisdom in developing the united front over the past century and serve as the fundamental guidelines for united front work in the new era. The whole Party must implement them fully and faithfully, Xi said.

Xi noted that the united front must be maintained for a long time to come as it is an important assurance for the CPC to defeat the enemy, to govern and rejuvenate the country, and to rally all Chinese people both at home and abroad to realize national rejuvenation. Gaining people's support and an advantage in strength is vital to the success of the cause of the Party and the people, and represents the number one consideration in politics. Great unity and solidarity are what united front work tries to achieve as it is essentially about winning people's support and pooling strength. To achieve this, it is crucial that we stay committed to the principle of seeking common ground while putting aside differences, carry on the fine tradition of remaining united while staying open to criticism, seek commonality while respecting diversity, and as a result, expand common ground and achieve the greatest possible convergence of interests.

The CPC leadership over all aspects of united front work must be secured. United front affairs are the work of the entire Party, which requires close attention and concerted efforts of all Party members. Efforts must be made to establish a pattern of united front work, with Party committees exercising unified leadership, united front departments being responsible for coordination and other relevant departments performing their respective duties.

Xi stressed that great changes have taken place in terms of the opportunities and circumstances united front work faces as well as the missions and tasks it shoulders. As profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly in the world, the united front plays an even more important role in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests. On our journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects and realize national rejuvenation, the united front plays an even more prominent role in focusing on the central task and serving the country's overall interests. As the structure of our society is undergoing a profound change, the united front plays an even more important role in bolstering the Party's class foundation and expanding public support for it. We must thoroughly understand the significance of developing and expanding the patriotic united front in the new era and effectively perform our duties with a strong sense of mission and responsibility.

The united front was created for the purpose of achieving solidarity, on the basis of which it has thrived, said Xi. The historic task of the patriotic united front in the new era is to promote great solidarity of all Chinese people. He said that to fulfill this task, we must balance our efforts to uphold the Party's leadership and to expand consensus, making tireless efforts to achieve the latter and effectively uniting all the Chinese people from different political parties, ethnic groups, social strata, social groups, with different beliefs and even living under different social systems. We must strike a balance between making obvious achievements and those that are substantial but less obvious, so as to uphold a right perspective on officials' performance and advance the Party's united front work steadily into the future. We need to balance principle and flexibility, abiding by principled guidelines and policies while adopting flexible measures and solutions when necessary. While taking a firm political stance and adhering to basic political principles, we should also adopt proper approaches and methods in line with specific cases. We should balance solidarity and struggle, being adept in carrying out struggle and improving our ability in this regard to strive for genuine solidarity that is indestructible.

Xi emphasized that since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee has attached great importance to united front work from an overall and strategic perspective. A series of significant laws and regulations have been promulgated and several important meetings have been convened, such as the Central Symposium on Tibet Work, the Central Symposium on Xinjiang Work, the Central Conference on Ethnic Affairs, and the National Conference on Religious Affairs. Specific requirements were put forward and comprehensive arrangements made for improving the Party's work related to ethnic and religious affairs in the new era, and these requirements and arrangements must be fully implemented. Xi noted that we must uphold and improve the CPC-led system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation, calling for efforts to uphold the Party's leadership, strengthen political guidance and improve systems and mechanisms so as to make such cooperation rule-based, orderly and vibrant in the new era.

We should strengthen united front work on non-CPC intellectuals and personages from new social strata. With the fundamental focus on building consensus and the aim of instilling love for the country and an enterprising spirit, we will encourage them to strive for success in their careers and make the best of their talent by devoting themselves to reform and innovation. We should also promote the healthy development of the private sector and encourage those working in the sector to achieve success. We need to help them to develop firm ideals and convictions and uphold core socialist values, to put into practice the new development philosophy and to nurture an entrepreneurial spirit, so that they become qualified builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Efforts should be made to strengthen the ranks of patriots overseas, and help more foreigners understand and become friendly to China, so as to boost exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign cultures. We should also do a good job in united front work online and practice the mass line through the Internet, Xi said.

Xi noted that to strengthen united front work in the new era, it is crucial to uphold the Party's leadership, so that the entire Party make concerted efforts and all relevant sectors act in a coordinated manner. Party committees and leading Party members' groups at all levels must fulfill their principal responsibility for putting united front work high on their agenda. All departments and units should better realize the importance of united front work and join hands to create a powerful synergy. United front work departments should enhance self-development and exert their important roles as advisors, organizers, coordinators and supervisors. Officials of united front work should strive to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation, master the art of work and improve methods of work to establish a good image for their departments and themselves.

Li stressed while presiding over the meeting that Xi's speech carries great significance. According to Li, Xi hailed the historic contributions united front work has made over the past century and its achievements in the new era, expounded on its new ideas, thoughts and strategies formed since the 18th CPC National Congress, and analyzed its historic position in the new era. Li said that Xi also proposed guiding principles, fundamental tasks, focus of work as well as policies and measures for improving united front work in the new era, which are of political, ideological and theoretical significance.

We should study and digest what Xi said to think and act in line with the guiding principles of his speech. The Party has established Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and defined the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the significance of which requires our in-depth understanding, Li said. We should continue to strengthen our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership; enhance our confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and uphold Xi's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole as well as the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We need to carry out all our tasks in line with actual conditions, and make unremitting efforts to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Li said.

According to Wang Yang in his concluding remarks, Xi's speech features great insight and rich connotations, elucidating a series of major theoretical and practical issues of united front work in the new era. Offering historic insight as well as theoretical and practical guidance, Xi's speech is a programmatic document containing the truth of Marxism.

Wang said that we should take studying and applying the guiding principles of the meeting as an important political task, deeply understand the decisive significance of the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and comprehend General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thought on united front work in the new era in a complete, accurate and comprehensive manner. Firmly grasping the historic position and key missions of the patriotic united front, we should also revolve around the Party's central tasks on the new journey in the new era to bring together the strength and will of the people.

Wang called for concrete efforts that live up to people's expectations and stronger awareness in political orientation, thinking, and action of the need to effectively carry out united front work in the new era. It is imperative to industriously offset our deficiencies, set a good example in shouldering responsibilities, and use our wits to ably perform our duties, in a continued effort to maintain and enhance solidarity, progress, pioneering spirit, and dynamism in the united front. We should reinforce the Party's leadership over united front work, further improve the working pattern of building a broad united front, and proceed from realities to implement the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee in a creative manner, in a bid to write a new chapter in the cause of the united front.

Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, relevant leading members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, state councilors, president of the Supreme People's Court, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and relevant leading members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference attended the meeting.

Also present were leading Party and government officials and officials in charge of united front work from all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), leading officials of Party committees from sub-provincial cities, relevant leading officials from the central Party and government departments, people's organizations and the Central Military Commission, and leading Party officials from the financial institutions, enterprises and universities under the direct auspices of the central government, and heads of related research institutes. The meeting was held in the form of video teleconference, with venues set up in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the XPCC. 
A man rides a scooter on a street in Ankara, Turkiye, on July 28, 2022. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)



Between April 2021 and June 2022, eight people were killed and 899 others injured in Turkiye's accidents involving e-scooters.



ANKARA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- For people living in Turkiye's big cities, the electric scooter has become essential to their everyday lives as it offers an alternative to public transport amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the soaring fuel prices.

But as the two-wheeled electric vehicle proliferated on the streets, so did the traffic accidents, which sparked a debate in Turkiye over their safety.



Between April 2021 and June 2022, eight people were killed and 899 others injured in the country's accidents involving e-scooters, according to official data.

People ride a scooter on a street in Ankara, Turkiye, on July 28, 2022. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

In a crash on July 12 this year, a 23-year-old woman lost her life after being hit by a car while riding an e-scooter on her way home. The accident happened in Istanbul, Turkiye's largest city with over 16 million people where traffic is a daily problem.

The debate over their safety forced the government to impose regulations on e-scooters in 2021. Under the regulations, e-scooters can only be used by people at the age of 16 and above and are allowed only on bicycle lanes.

In places without bicycle lanes, they can be used on motor vehicle roads with a speed limit of 50 km per hour. Any violators are subject to fines.

"Scooters entered our lives as a facilitating tool. They offer a solution as an eco-friendly transport device. Their benefits can not be ignored," Yigit Dedeoglu, a road safety expert from Istanbul, told Xinhua.

"But on the other hand, they entered our daily lives too fast. Therefore adaptation to this new device has not come accordingly," he added.

A man rides a scooter on a street in Ankara, Turkiye, on July 28, 2022. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)



Dedeoglu suggested new safety measures such as basic and formal road security instructions for all e-scooter riders and the compulsory wearing of security gear such as helmets and knee and elbow pads to prevent major injuries.

"It is impossible to ban altogether e-scooters because micro-mobility is our future. New regulations should be imposed for more safety," the expert noted. 
DAR ES SALAAM, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Environmental authorities in Tanzania said on Saturday preparations are underway for the launch of a countrywide cleanliness campaign to be known as "my dustbin".

Selemani Jafo, the Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office responsible for Union and Environment, said the campaign will involve placing dustbins in urban centers in all districts and regions across the east African nation.

"The objective of the 'my dustbin' campaign is to keep our urban centers clean. We don't want to see rubbish in our urban centers, including food waste, plastic bottles and banana peels," said the official.

He also directed district and regional authorities to make sure that markets at their places remained clean instead of turning them into dumping grounds.

Jafo said experience showed that most of the markets in urban centers were an eyesore with heaps of unattended garbage. 
PHNOM PENH, July 31 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Cambodia Li Ailan on Sunday called on people to get their booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines as the number of daily cases has seen an uptick.

Thirty-six new cases were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on Sunday, lifting the national case tally to 136,789, with 133,517 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the health ministry said, adding that no new deaths have been reported since April.

"We are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases recently in Cambodia," Li wrote on social media. "Your health is precious. Get vaccinated with all doses recommended to you."

She said COVID-19 vaccination remains one of the most effective tools to prevent severe diseases, protect the health care system and ensure business recovery.

"Together, we protect the health care system and ensure a sustainable and successful reopening in Cambodia," she said.

Propelled by its high vaccination rates, the Southeast Asian nation has resumed all socioeconomic activities and reopened its borders to travelers without quarantine since November last year.

According to the health ministry, 94.5 percent of Cambodia's 16 million population have so far received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 90 percent have taken two basic shots, 61 percent have got a third dose, 22 percent have obtained a fourth dose, and 3 percent have received a fifth dose.

China's Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines have been widely used in the kingdom's immunization program. 
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the situation in Ukraine during a phone conversation on Friday.

The statement said Lavrov outlined Russia's principled approaches in light of the ongoing special military operation, stressing that its goals and objectives will be achieved.

According to the statement, they also discussed global food security and problems of bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, the UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, said on Friday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of ending, despite an "encouraging" grain deal.

She said the United Nations is making every effort to support the implementation of the deal on the safe resumption of grain exports via the Black Sea.

She also noted that the conflict's impact globally is "glaringly clear," saying that the consequences will only become more pronounced the longer fighting lasts, particularly with the onset of winter.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service








BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A speech made by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be published Monday in the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered the speech at the ceremony on Aug. 1, 2017. 
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's national observatory on Sunday continued to issue a yellow alert for high temperatures as an intense heatwave lingers in many regions of the country.

During daylight hours on Monday, parts of Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian are expected to experience temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius, the National Meteorological Center said.

Temperatures in parts of Sichuan and Chongqing may surpass 40 degrees Celsius.

The center advised the public to avoid outdoor activities during high-temperature periods in the afternoon and suggested workers exposed to high temperatures or who 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. 
ANTANANARIVO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A total of 32 people died in an arson attack on Friday in a village in the Malagasy district of Ankazobe, about 100 km west of the capital Antananarivo, Madagascar's Minister of National Defense Richard Rakotonirina confirmed to the press Saturday.

"Airplanes and helicopters are mobilized to support the ground elements in tracking down the perpetrators of this atrocity which cost the lives of thirty-two people," the minister said.

A source close to the investigation told Xinhua that four people were also injured in the attack, adding that they were being treated at the hospital in Ankazobe, while one of whom had to be evacuated to Antananarivo.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the victims are made up of seven households, including women and children and even infants. They took refuge on the floor of a house and tried to fight back with stone throwing.

The assailants, armed with three AK-47 assault rifles, one MAS-36 rifle and eight shotguns, burned the house from the ground floor. They locked up the victims and shot at those who tried to escape, said the same source.

Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina on Sunday offered his condolences to the families of the victims and condemned the act. He also announced those who committed the crime are being hunted down and will be punished according to the law in force. 
TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet has decreased to the lowest-ever 51.0 percent compared to a record high of 63.2 percent just weeks ago, a Kyodo News survey showed on Sunday.

According to the result of the two-day nationwide telephone survey, the approval rating this weekend was the Kishida administration's lowest since it took office in October 2021.

Among the surveyed, 53.3 percent said they are opposed to the state funeral for former leader Shinzo Abe, while 61.9 percent said it is necessary to hold a parliamentary debate on the state funeral.

The sharp decline came following the Kishida cabinet's best-ever support in the wake of the ruling coalition parties' victory in the House of Councilors election on July 10 and Abe's shock death after being fatally shot during a July 8 campaign stump speech.

However, the government's decision to hold a state funeral for the former prime minister drew strong criticism from the opposition and the public who said there are no legal provisions for holding such a funeral.

The country's resurgence of COVID-19 infections and surging commodity prices which led to rising living costs also contributed to the decline in Kishida cabinet's support rate.

Amid spike in COVID-19 cases, the survey showed 53.3 percent of the respondents support the government's COVID-19 response, down 7.7 percentage points from the previous poll conducted on July 11-12.

About 63.6 percent said they do not approve of the government's measures on rising prices, compared to 28.1 percent who approve.

The survey called 509 randomly selected households with eligible voters on landline phones and 1,877 mobile phone numbers, receiving valid responses from 425 people from households and 625 mobile phone users. 
A helicopter dumps water on the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon, July 31, 2022. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

BEIRUT, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported.

The dust cloud has gone as far as 1,500 meters from the port, according to Environment Minister Nasser Yassin.

However, "the container terminal and activity at the port will not be affected after the collapse," said Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh.

A fire broke out in the northern part of the port's silos about three weeks ago because of the fermenting grains there and has been going on despite constant efforts to extinguish it.

The northern part of massive silos withstood the huge explosions on Aug. 4 2020 in the Beirut port which killed at least 200, wounded more than 6,000, and destroyed a big part of the Lebanese capital. 

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

A man takes a photo of the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon, July 31, 2022. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

A helicopter dumps water on the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon, July 31, 2022. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows the Beirut port grain silos after its northern part collapsed in Beirut, Lebanon. The northern part of the Beirut port grain silos collapsed on Sunday after being on fire for weeks, causing a huge cloud of dust, the National News Agency reported. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)
THALAND: Jiraporn Mesungnon, 58, can't remember the last time she got out of debt. She obtained a loan to buy a motorcycle so that he could earn a starting monthly salary of 2,200 baht (US$60) to work as a freshman teacher in eastern Thailand at the age of 18.

He started a tour company two decades ago to supplement his income, taking on more debt to buy tour buses. As he supported his family and paid off credit card debt while buying a new family home, his debt increased.

Jiraporn claims that she has never been in black, despite making 30 times as much money as she did four decades ago. His debt, which is still outstanding, is 8 million baht ($218,000).

I am not sure if I will ever be free from debt till the age of 80, she said. But how will I be able to achieve anything in life without borrowing money?

Jiraporn is a part of the domestic debt crisis that affects nearly half of the 66 million people in Thailand, despite the fact that she earns a regular income in contrast to the millions who work in the country's unorganized sector.

Kajorn Thanapas, a representative of the Bank of Thailand, claims that many Thais take loans when they are young or early in their careers. Speaking at a recent Think Forward Center symposium, he said data showed that half of those over 30 had debt, and a fifth of them were unable to repay it, leaving them with an "economic scar". Left together which affected their productivity and emotional stability.

Around 2017, the central bank established a "loan clinic" with a focus on financial literacy, responsible lending, which included, for example, a prepayment fee adjustment and a loan-to-value principle.

To help farmers, teachers, government employees, police officers, and people with student loans with debt restructuring and debt settlement, the Thai government has set 2022 as the year to tackle household debt.

JiraPorn is one of many teachers who borrow money from federally-backed teacher cooperative savings, where monthly payments are automatically deducted from bank accounts, leaving borrowers with little or no money to cover living expenses. There is no money. As they continue to borrow money from credit cards or loan sharks to pay for requirements, it creates a vicious cycle that drives them deeper into debt.

Until 2019, when a group of borrowers sued the education minister alleging misconduct, the organization technically ignored a rule from the Ministry of Education that required teachers to leave with at least 30% residual Was.

According to the Bank of Thailand's Kajorn, the remaining 30% will not only assist borrowers with expenses, but will also help them maintain their dignity.

The crisis started before Kovid

At the end of 2021, household debt in Thailand was 90% of GDP, and is expected to rise, cripple consumption and further delay economic recovery. It is one of the largest in Asia. By comparison, South Korea's domestic debt stood at 104% of GDP during the first quarter of this year, but unlike Thailand, it has a developed economy.

The central bank estimates that household debt in Thailand stood at 14.5 trillion baht (394 million US dollars) in 2021, with most loans for home mortgages, business loans and car or motorcycle leases.

Dechrut Sukkumnoed, an economist and director of the Think Forward Centre, claimed that unlike loans in other major economies, household loans in Thailand were primarily for consumption and became non-performing over time. Depending on the state of the Thai economy in the coming years, he continued, it would take decades for Thailand's domestic debt level relative to GDP to decline.

"Knowledge is valuable."

Jiraporn now works as a cargo lorry driver in the central and eastern regions of Thailand, where most of his manufacturing and distribution facilities are located during his summer holidays.

She claims the job pays between 70,000 and 80,000 baht ($1,900 and $2,170) per month and that working conditions are not as bad as she had anticipated. She works with many other female truck drivers.

Achin Chunglog, vice president of the Supa Wongsena Foundation for Debtors' Rights Reform, whom Jiraporn first met five years ago, advised him to take up the position.

Achin joined the organization in 2009, and a year later, more than 10,000 people with more than 7 billion baht ($190 million) in debt had signed up to participate in their debt rehabilitation program.

When Achin first met her, Jiraporn had six credit card balances, and the credit card company later sued her and confiscated her home. "For her case, a relocation strategy was to negotiate a settlement with the credit card company and pay off the debt gradually, one at a time."

Achin is currently working on a bill that would protect people in dire financial situations, much like the company could get a court-approved business rehabilitation protection. When a credit card or loan interest is already high to begin with, this aims to seek protection for the individual's assets that were vulnerable to being confiscated by debtors, in Jiraporn's case, his home, Achin said.

According to Achin, loans have become a common way for people to access money so they can buy assets, leaving many people in a permanent state of debt. Loans accumulate, and the term loan eventually turns into an ongoing loan as well.

To break out of the cycle, Achin is collaborating with a network of about 50 volunteers in various regions of Thailand to inform people about money matters and assess their financial situation in order to come up with a solution for their debt issues. She has assisted in the resolution of cases for people who simultaneously borrowed money from a dozen loan sharks and for farmers who became indebted after their crops failed.

"Knowledge is crucial because most borrowers are ashamed of their predicament and many of them are unaware of the full scope of the loan contract. Thailand has a very low level of financial literacy, and we are actively trying to change that.

Thailand's PM wins no-confidence vote in Parliament

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China is assumed to be better compared to the EU at finishing projects in Africa
United Nations: Public health officials are warning that wealthy countries' decision to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine while refusing to share doses with Africa could leave millions more vulnerable to a more dangerous strain of the disease and further human virus spread. may be at risk.

Critics worry about a repeat of the dire inequality issues that existed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Boghuma Kabisan Titanji, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US, said that "the mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic are already being repeated."

Wealthy countries have ordered millions of vaccines to fight monkeypox within their borders, but none of them plan to distribute doses to Africa, where the disease is spreading more deadly than in the West .

Since May, nearly 80 countries have reported more than 22,000 cases of monkeypox, with about 75 suspected deaths occurring in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. The first cases of monkeypox-related deaths outside Africa were reported on Friday in Brazil and Spain. The second case of monkeypox was reported in Spain on Saturday.

In discussions about the global response, "African countries dealing with monkeypox outbreaks for decades have been taken back on a footnote," claimed TitanG.

According to scientists, unlike campaigns to prevent Covid-19, mass vaccination against monkeypox will not be required. They believe that by using available supplements strategically, among other actions, it will be possible to stop the spread of the pandemic, which was recently classified by the World Health Organization as a global health emergency.

The need for vaccines could increase if the disease spreads to the general population, experts warn, even though monkeypox is much less contagious than Covid-19. Currently, in Europe and North America, the disease is affecting almost exclusively gay and bisexual men.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday demanded that the continent receive vaccination priority as it was once again being ignored.

Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa CDC, said that "if we are not safe, the rest of the world is not safe either."

Although monkeypox has been endemic in some areas of Africa for decades, it generally only spreads to people when wild animals become infected, and it has not usually spread far outside the continent.

Before the disease began to spread through sex in two waves in Spain and Belgium, experts believed that monkeypox outbreaks in North America and Europe may have started in Africa. Currently, more than 70% of all monkeypox cases worldwide occur in Europe, and 98% of these cases affect men who have sex with other men.

The deaths in Spain did not change the agency's assessment of the outbreak, according to Catherine Smallwood, a senior WHO Europe emergency official.

She wrote in an email, "Monkeypox can cause serious complications, even though the disease is generally self-limiting. About 8% of infections reported hospitalization, and monkeypox can sometimes lead to life-threatening complications such as encephalitis. Bullying can result in complications.

According to Smallwood, we can anticipate more fatalities as monkeypox continues to spread across Europe.

WHO is building a system to share vaccines with affected countries, but little information has been made public about how it might operate. The UN health agency has only stated that vaccines will be given on the basis of epidemiological need; There are no guarantees regarding prioritizing poor countries in Africa.

Now first monkeypox-related death confirm in Brazil

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On Saturday, US President Joe Biden was once again found infected with Corona. His strict isolation was over after being free from coronavirus infection just 3 days ago. Re-emergence of infection in Biden after treatment with antiviral medication is a rare case.

White House physician Dr Kevin O'Connor said in a letter that Biden has no symptoms this time and is feeling well. According to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden will once again remain in isolation for at least 5 days. The agency said that in most cases of corona re-emergence, the symptoms are mild and due to this, there is no information about patients falling ill with serious patients. The White House reported his visit to Michigan on Tuesday, just two hours before the announcement of Biden being found infected once again. The US President was not found infected in the Corona investigation conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday. Thereafter, their strict separation was over.

After recovering from Corona, Biden told Americans that Covid is not gone. Serious illness can be avoided through anti-Covid vaccine doses, booster doses and treatment. Along with this, while expressing gratitude to the people, he said that he has to go back to the Oval Office. Biden was first found infected with Corona infection on 21 July. However, he was discharging his duties through an online medium due to isolation.

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USA: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's much-awaited visit to Asia has begun, with her office listing four locations but omitting Taiwan.

It comes amid additional storm warnings from Beijing amid rising tensions over its intended visit to the island.

Pelosi, who is third in line to become US president, is leading a six-member congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, according to a statement released by her office on Sunday.

Tensions escalated after days of persistent rumors about a possible halt, with the statement making no mention of Taiwan. Beijing referred to the rumors as "provoking" and cautioned Washington against "playing with fire".

"Our delegation will hold high-level meetings in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to discuss how we can pursue our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic development and trade," the statement quoted Pelosi as saying. The COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.

The 82-year-old Democratic lawmaker declared that the US is "strongly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and prosperous Indo-Pacific is vital to prosperity in our country and around the world."

Beijing cautions against any official exchanges with the autonomous island and views Taiwan as a separate province that should be reunited by force if necessary.

Ahead of his planned visit, Pelosi was accused of supporting "Taiwan independence" in defiance of the US's declared one-China policy.

Taiwan: Washington's carelessness could bring US-China relations to an impasse

China announces fresh military drills around Taiwan

Chinese naval exercises begin as Xi cautions Biden against "playing with fire" over Taiwan
BEIJING: On July 30, Xinhua reported that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has begun "live-fire exercises" near the Pingtan Islands off the coast of Fujian province. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the announcement as she was getting ready to fly to Asia.

Whether or not she will stay in Taiwan during her Asian tour is still unknown. When the Speaker of the House visited the island, the White House insisted on Friday that there was no reason for Washington and Beijing to be "shocked."

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday night cautioned the US not to play with fire on Taiwan, emphasizing that any involvement would ultimately have a negative impact on the US. When Pelosi's US government plane landed in Taipei, the Chinese Defense Ministry signaled possible military action.

We should note the fact that Beijing has made it clear that it wants to follow Washington's political goals and seek a way to coexist, says Dr. Chang. In their talks with Biden on July 28, senior diplomats, including Xi, repeatedly addressed conflict avoidance positions with Washington, including the term of "competition" adopted by the Biden administration to define Sino-US relations. However, Beijing has insisted that the Taiwan issue is a non-negotiable redline."

However, the academic downplayed hopes that Pelosi's visit could lead to a military confrontation between the US and China over Taiwan. A PLA spokesman said the Chinese military would not be passive if Pelosi's visit to Taiwan did indeed happen, but Dr Chang claimed he "did not indicate any specific military action or retaliation."

Trap for Biden in Taiwan

It begs the question of why the Biden administration is simultaneously provoking both China and Russia with belligerent rhetoric, provocations, threats and sanctions measures.

There are some "political signals", academic claims, that Pelosi's attempt to visit Taiwan is "inconsistent and non-synchronized with Biden's overall China policy." However, "this reckless political maneuver" caught the US president in a trap and gave "opposition party politicians the perfect excuse to put pressure on Biden's national security team."

While neither Biden nor the Chinese political establishment are eager to extend the term of Taiwan's position, Dr Chang warns that "we do not know when and how Washington may reach the point of no-return on the redline." "

They claim that the [US] salute-piece strategy of intimidating Beijing by changing some diplomatic practices towards Taipei is dangerous. Beijing believes that all of these political moves are aimed at inciting Taiwan to declare its independence. The risk of conflict between Washington and Beijing has been increasing unavoidably in recent years, but there is no exact There's no limit."

China announces fresh military drills around Taiwan

Chinese naval exercises begin as Xi cautions Biden against "playing with fire" over Taiwan

Xi Jinping Warns Biden Against Playing With Fire Over Taiwan
BEIJING: In light of strategic competition with China, which a recent report referred to as "both a current and long-term challenge", the United States intends to increase its naval fleet to more than 500 ships by 2045.

According to the US Navy, the expansion was necessary to preserve US maritime dominance as part of the country's "integrated deterrence" strategy.

However, Chinese military experts believe there are significant financial limitations to the US plans. He said the Chinese Navy still lags behind in fleet tonnage and technology and the US Navy's financial woes should not be used as an excuse to expand.

According to a Tuesday report by USNI News, the most recent US naval strategy calls for a fleet of 373 manned ships by 2045, supported by about 150 unmanned surface and underwater vehicles.

According to Admiral Mike Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, China's military is "endangering US naval forces" because of its rapid military modernization and expansion.

China is developing cross-domain military capability to compete with the US. According to Gilday, its belligerent behavior is threatening US interests, undermining partnerships and alliances, and undermining the rules-based system.

China builds its military with one goal in mind: to turn the security landscape in its favor by blocking US military access to the western Pacific and beyond.

This decade is important. According to the report, the US should maintain maritime dominance as international rivals pose a threat to US interests.

It comes as tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea are rising, especially in light of a possible visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. Sino-US relations are also deteriorating.

After the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold passed through the Taiwan Strait last week, the Chinese military criticized Washington for its constant "provocation".

With the largest number of warships in the world, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is set to achieve its objective of establishing a blue water navy with at least six aircraft carrier battle groups by 2035 with the launch of a third aircraft carrier last month. Getting closer.

According to a US Defense Department report published in November, China has the world's largest maritime power, with an inventory of about 355 ships, which is projected to grow to 420 in about four years and to 460 by the year 2030.

Our total may exceed their number, but the tonnage is less. According to retired naval analyst Li Jie, who now lives in Beijing, the US has a large fleet of aircraft carriers and amphibious ships.

Li claimed that the US had increased the number of Chinese ships to promote the idea that China was a threat to the world and its own citizens.

According to Gilday's report, the US Navy has 12 Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarines, 12 aircraft carriers, 96 large and 56 small surface ships, 31 large-deck amphibious warships, 18 light amphibious warships, approximately 150 unmanned surface and water warships.

Additionally, it wants about 900 anti-ship and anti-submarine aircraft as well as 1,300 carrier-based aircraft.

Li noted that the US Navy has "nothing [with] to persuade Congress and that it has to use China [the threat doctrine] as an excuse" to retire soon. Due to the high maintenance cost of carriers and other large warships.

Chinese analysts pointed out that most of the fleet is made up of smaller classes of ships, arguing that the US Navy should not use the expansion of China's maritime forces as a justification for requesting more funding.

According to Zhou Chenming, a researcher at the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing, the US is under pressure from China's military modernization. However, Zhou said China's recent plans are unlikely to be implemented due to lack of funding.

According to Zhou, they have difficulty achieving [this goal] because they have wasted too much money in the past.

America's emphasis on unmanned ships has been brought to light by Shanghai-based military analyst Nie Lexiong, who claims it is in line with the advancement of future military technologies that emphasize "unmanned, stealth and intelligent" warfare. .

Ni also pointed out that China lags behind the US in major naval force technologies, and US sanctions on Chinese military technology continue to hinder China's efforts to modernize its military.

China announces fresh military drills around Taiwan

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Kathmandu, July 31

The government says the European Commission is sending its air safety audit team to Nepal claiming it could be the commissions preparation to remove the Nepali aviation industry from its blacklist.

The European Commissions decision to blacklist the country has barred aircraft belonging to Nepali airline companies from the European skies since 2013. In its recent revision in June also, Nepal failed to get out of the list.

But, Pradeep Adhikari, the chief of Nepals civil aviation authority, says the commission has sent a letter to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, saying it will send a team to audit the status here soon. Because the commission is ready to audit the status unconditionally, the authority has interpreted it as a positive move, according to him.

Further, as Nepal has progressed in a recent ICAO air safety audit, this shall be reflected in the EU audit also, according to him.
There are no records of how much rain the Manang district gets annually. Photo: Mukesh Pokharel

On May 29, a Tara Air Twin Otter en route to Jomsom from Pokhara crashed, killing all 22 on board. Following the crash, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation formed a commission to investigate it under the stewardship of its senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman.

The commission is yet to submit its findings, but according to preliminary reports and local knowledge, the crash happened due to the aircraft flying in poor weather.

The government made another decision following the crash. According to the new rules, clear weather throughout the route is mandatory to carry out a flight. All flights following the visual flight rules (VFR) have to follow the decision, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepals Deputy Director-General Devendra Lal Karna.

For that, CAAN depends on the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, which is the only body in Nepal that provides weather forecasts. But, the department says it does not have the resources to provide en-route weather forecasts for domestic flights.

We also dont have the technology to provide them en-route weather forecast, says senior meteorologist Barun Poudel. Its not that we cant provide it. We can, but we need technology to do that.

Another senior meteorologist Indira Kandel says Nepal uses weather research and forecast model (WRF) to predict the weather. But, it is hard for that model to accurately show weather forecasts around Nepals hills and valleys, which is a major issue as most of Nepals remote airports are in these areas.

The models used by developed countries cant be used here. If we want accurate data in these areas, we need to install automatic weather stations, says Kandel.

A challenge to aviation safety

The wreckage of a Tara Air aircraft that crashed in Mustang, on Sunday, May 29, 2022. Photo credit : Sushilbabu Thakali

Most of Nepals plane crashes happen due to changes in weather. On February 16, 2014, 18 people died after Nepal Airlines ABB Twin Otter en route to Jumla from Kathmandu crashed in Argakhachi. The committee formed to investigate the case said the crash happened due to poor weather.

In the past six decades, there have been many examples of air crashes due to poor weather during monsoons. The Thai Airways jetliner carrying 113 people crashed in Nepal in 1992 in Rasuwa. The incident happened during peak monsoon, killing all on board.

Similarly, in 2006, an MI-17 helicopter crash killed 24 people in Kanchenjunga.

According to Sanjaya Kumar, the chief of the Rescue Coordination Centre at CAAN, changing weather during short intervals was the main reason for air crashes.

There are a lot of factors that affect flights, such as air velocity, external visibility, air pressure, temperature and humidity. A change in any of these causes several issues in flight, Kumar says.

Kumar adds that during winter, an aircraft faces problems due to fog. During summer, the high winds and torrential rain along with thunderstorms create disturbances in the smooth flight. And when an aircraft does not receive accurate weather forecasts, it faces major problems during the flight, he says.

Existing weather forecast mechanisms can only give us information about the aircraft and some places around the airport, says Kumar. But, most accidents happen in Nepal due to the unavailability of en route weather forecasts. We need a mechanism that will provide this information.

Issues galore

A flooded Melamchi Bazaar of Sindhupalchok, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Photo: Bikash Shrestha

The aviation sector is not the only one facing problems due to poor weather forecasting mechanisms. People who are living close to rivers and those on treks too are facing unfortunate consequences and many have lost their lives as well.

On October 4, 2014, unseasonal blizzards and avalanches triggered by the tail of cyclone Hudhud killed around 39 people, including trekkers, in Manang and Mustang. According to the Department of Tourism, it helped rescue around 384 people including 216 tourists.

Due to the blizzard, there was a 12-hour snowfall in the Annapurna region and snow in some areas was as high as five feet. The peoples lives could have been saved and the rescue effort could have been made easier, but weather forecast warnings did not come in time and the blizzard caused havoc in the region.

Similarly, on October 11, 2018, nine climbers, including five Koreans and four Nepalis, were killed by a Himalayan mountain storm in Gurja Himal. Some of their bodies were found inside tents while some were found outside.

Tourism entrepreneur Karma Sherpa Lama says the need for accurate weather forecasts in high-altitude trekking is of paramount importance. He says not having this information is a major risk for the industry.

The weather forecasts we receive now are mostly inaccurate. There have been times when the sun has beamed the entire day when they have forecast snow while the weather has been the absolute worse when they told us itd be great. Inconsistent forecasts are a cause for concern, says Lama, The government says they are bringing in a system, but nothing concrete has happened in years.

The flood in Melamchi in 2021, which killed 24 people, is a good example of the need for a good weather forecasting and information system. As the government has not placed a weather forecasting centre at the source of the Melamchi river, it does not know the amount of rainfall that caused the flood that inundated homes of people leaving hundreds homeless.

Had we had a centre at the source, we could have warned people downstream that a flood was imminent. This could have saved peoples lives, says senior meteorologist Kandel.

The flood in Manang caused havoc in the district.

Further west, torrential rain in Manang did a lot of damage in June 2021. The area that rarely receives rainfall caused major floods in the Maryangdi river, which swept away many homes.

Had a weather forecast mechanism been set up in the high hills of Manang, people could have been able to save their valuables even if they could not save their homes.

Read also  The weather station on Everest peak elevates the confidence of Nepali climbers and meteorologists alike

Barun Poudel from the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology says they need an automatic weather station or a weather radar to provide data.

The department has set up a weather radar in Surkhet, which gives data up to 200 kilometres away. He says that the department is planning to set up these radars in Palpa and Uadayapur too.

But, the radar only gives weather forecasts about places on a straight line so there is still a need to install weather stations in hills and valleys, say weather experts.

No means to measure snow or water

The automated weather station in Jumla. Photo: DHM

The major issue Nepal faces in weather forecasts is a lack of equipment to measure snow or water. Hydrologist and climate change expert at International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Santosh Nepal says the country needs to look at the larger picture because things like these caused recurring issues.

Scientifically, it is very important to know how much snowfall and rainfall is occurring in an area. And if we know this, we can even use it for agriculture and irrigational purposes, says Nepal, who believes not having accurate data is even affecting infrastructure development in many areas of the country.

A flood in the Marsyangdi river on June 15, 2021, did major damage to 22 hydropower projects. Out of them, most of them were on the verge of completion. The Independent Power Producers Association Nepal says damages exceeded Rs 12 billion.

Engineer and investor Shailendra Guragain says that most projects that were damaged in the flood had never thought of a major flood that would hit the area.

The designs werent made with the flood in mind because we didnt have data from higher areas, says Guragain.

There are even examples where the hydropower projects produce 40 per cent less power during the winter as they do not receive accurate data about the flow of the river. This issue is being faced by both small and big hydropower plants due to the lack of data.

The only accurate data that Nepal has is from the Everest region. But, no one knows what is happening in other areas of the country. Experts say more scientific research is needed to assess the effects of climate change on weather. They also say the country needs to set up more and more weather forecast units across the high mountain regions so that the next generation can make use of them.

Apart from the one weather station installed on Everest by National Geographic, there are only five weather stations around Nepal above 4,000 metres that measures rainfall. Of these, only one is operational. Like National Geographic, others have also installed weather stations, but the department is unaware of this.

File: Snowfall in Humla

Since not many people live in the high hills of Nepal, the only way to get accurate data is via automatic weather stations. Although these stations do not come cheap, there is no other option, hence the government has to set aside a budget to set these stations up, say experts.

Senior hydrologist at the National Disaster Management Risk Reduction and Management Athuhotity, Rajendra Sharma, says that the country does not use human-operated weather stations anymore and emphasises the need for automated machines. But, these towers need a telephone network to operate.

We dont have phone networks everywhere. We need help from telecommunication companies and set up these automated weather stations. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology needs to talk to them about this, says Sharma.

The automated stations have a sensor that sends out hourly information about the weather in the area. The other option for a country like Nepal is using weather forecast satellites, but this will be very expensive, says Sharma.

The department has stepped up efforts to set up weather stations in the Annapurna region to minimise the risk of trekkers and locals getting affected by blizzards and snow storms. This will also help mountaineers who come to climb Annapurna I.

To ensure what happened in 2014 doesnt repeat, we have stepped up efforts to install nine weather stations around the Annapurna area, says Poudel from the Weather Forecasting Division.

The departments director general Kamal Ram Joshi also says they are talking to donor agencies about installing one weather station every year.

Yet, the department is not proactive. Why? Because once it installs the station, it will have to regularly go monitor it and the department will have to hand out daily allowances to those who go there.

Finance-wise, its going to be an issue because the money that the government allows us to spend will not be enough, says the departments former director general Sharma.

This story was translated from the original Nepali version and edited for clarity and length.
Indonesia is blocking residents from accessing various online platforms after those services failed to comply with a July 29th regulatory deadline, reports Reuters (via The Verge ). Among the affected platforms are PayPal, Steam and Yahoo (owned by Engadgets parent company Apollo Management).

Under the countrys 2020 MR5 law, companies labeled as Private Electronic System Providers had until this week to register with a government database or face an outright ban. Similar to Indias restrictive 2021 IT law , MR5 gives Indonesia the power to force online platforms to take down content the government deems unlawful or a threat to public order. In instances involving urgent requests, services have four hours to take action.

According to Reuters, a handful of tech companies, including Google, Meta and Amazon, rushed in recent days to meet Fridays deadline. Indonesia may restore access to some of the online services that are currently blocked in the country, provided they register with the government.

PayPal and Valve did not immediately respond to Engadgets request for comment. Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the general director of Indonesias Ministry of Communication and Information, told a local news network that the government could temporarily lift restrictions on PayPal to allow users to withdraw their money.

Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch have criticized Indonesias new content moderation rules. [MR5] is a tool for censorship that imposes unrealistic burdens on the many digital services and platforms that are used in Indonesia, said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal advisor at Human Rights Watch. It poses serious risks to the privacy, freedom of speech, and access to information of Indonesian internet users.
Searching for affordable housing in Las Cruces? It's an 'unforgiving' market

Residents and housing analysts say the city's housing and rental market continues to rise, pricing out those on the lower end of the pay scale.

Natalie Medina is one of those residents. She says she recently escaped an abusive relationship, leaving her and her teenage daughter and son in search of housing without much savings. She works for $12 an hour at a recovery center. It's enough to rent a two-bedroom apartment in a less-desirable part of town.

It hasn't been an easy road for Medina, as Las Cruces Sun-News reporter Annya Loya learned through her reporting  in one of her final stories for us. (More on that later.) Annya took a broad look at the Las Cruces housing market, for both homebuyers and renters, and she found a housing market described as "unforgiving"  and even more so for lower-income Las Crucens. Annya said:

Working on the housing market story was probably the most I researched for a story while working for the Sun-News. I also think was it was my longest story overall, which makes sense. Reporting on this was a little bit frustrating at the beginning, because I was dealing with concepts I wasnt very familiar with. I wanted to make sure I understood the structure of the housing market and how and what makes it move around. This story really felt like an end-of-the-semester final project for me  which makes sense, as it would be my last story for the Sun-News. I started working on this story almost at the beginning of my internship, but it didnt really come together until the very end, which I think made it somewhat special.

That's right. Annya, a Multimedia Journalism major at the University of New Mexico, was a summer intern  made possible through the New Mexico Local News Fund. She did a lot of great work during her time in our newsroom, and we're going to miss her, but will be following her future work closely. About her time at the Sun-News, Annya said:

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Interning with the Sun-News reaffirmed what I already knew, which was that I want to be a journalist and I want to continue working in this field for many more years. Im incredibly thankful to the staff  and especially my mentor, Lucas Peerman, for such an amazing learning experience. I look forward to putting all my new skills to use in the next chapter of my career.

City launches Lift Up Las Cruces program with neighborhood block party

Tents and tables, buses and a fire truck lined Ash Avenue Saturday morning at the launch event for Lift Up Las Cruces, the citys anti-poverty initiative.

Each booth featured a different city department, government agency, faith group, nonprofit or social services organization. All offered information about their services and resources and gave out swag to the attendees of the block party, which closed off Ash between Wade Street to Calle Sosa from 9 a.m. to noon July 30. There were also games and activities for children.

Lift Up is a program seeking to reduce poverty and crime by targeting one specific area of the city at a time. The block party was held in the first "footprint" chosen, bound by North Solano Drive, East Madrid Avenue, Anita Drive, North Triviz Drive and Spruce Avenue  all within the 88001 ZIP code. The area concurrently faces high poverty and crime. Nearly one in four Las Crucens live in poverty, according to census data.

Sun-News reporter Michael McDevitt, who covers city and county government, attended the event and spoke to many of those on hand. Michael, who has been covering this city initiative since it was announced, said:

This past Saturday, I spent my morning at the block party signifying the launch of the Lift Up Las Cruces anti-poverty program. I got to speak to a few locals, but mostly with government officials and staff from various organizations which provide services and programs that all serve the mission of Lift Up in various ways.

What the government figures and entities leading the charge in Lift Up all say is they want the community served to pick up their torch and run with it. I certainly saw people interested in picking up brochures and chatting with various providers of services, but its unclear if the community the city is targeting has bought into the vision shared by the organizations and government employees there yet. Yes, I met people who lived in the area served by the program, but I also saw government employees dressed down with their kids and met one family who lives in El Paso. Community buy-in is what the city sees as a key to success, and so as a reporter, its where I seek to take this coverage next.

In this image released by the Las Cruces Police Department, an officer's body camera shows him pointing a gun at Amelia Baca, who stands inside her home on Fir Avenue on April 16, 2022. LCPD circled two large kitchen knives that Baca is holding in her right hand.

City settles multi-million-dollar lawsuit with Amelia Bacas family. Another lawsuit is in the works.

The City of Las Cruces agreed to pay Amelia Bacas family $2.75 million after settling a wrongful death lawsuit.

The settlement is the first of two following Bacas killing on April 16. Baca, 75, was shot twice by Las Cruces Police Department officer Jared Cosper. Cosper was dispatched to Bacas home on the 800 block of Fir Avenue after Bacas daughter called 911.

Baca threatened to kill her daughter while in the throes of a mental health crisis, according to a statement she gave to police. Cospers body camera shows the officer walking up to Bacas house and making brief contact with two of Bacas family members as they calmly exit their house. Then, Cosper sees Baca holding two kitchen knives. For about 40 seconds, Cosper shouts at Baca to drop the knives, drop the f***ing knives! before shooting her twice. Baca only spoke Spanish.

Sun-News public safety reporter Justin Garcia, who covers crime, cops and courts, kind of stumbled upon this development, as he explains:

Sometimes, you struggle over a story for weeks. You know something is true, but you can't prove it. You don't have the right source or the proper document. Sometimes, a story falls in your lap. The latter was the case for the Amelia Baca settlement story. Here's how it happened:

I was reading documents involving an unrelated City lawsuit and found a typo. I thought, "Geez, I wonder how much money the City shelled out for this lawyer who's not entirely sure when to use a comma." I'm not a stickler for grammar or spelling (as you may know from reading anything I write), but the questions lingered. It eventually evolved into, "I wonder how much the City is paying to be represented in the Cosper/Baca case."

The answer could be found in the contract between the City and the firm they hired. That contract is a public record. So, I requested it. Instead of a contract, I got back the "Indemnity Agreement." That document showed that the two parties agreed to come to terms and settle the case.

That settlement was later confirmed by Baca's family attorney, Sam Bregman. But this is not the end of the story. First, it hasn't been determined whether Cosper will be prosecuted for shooting Baca. That's a determination, we discovered last week, that may now be made by New Mexico's Office of the Attorney General. Also, there is a lawsuit in federal court that is just beginning. In that case, Bacas family accuses Cosper and the City of using excessive force on Baca and killing Baca without due process. Unlike the state case, there is no limit on the monetary damages that may be awarded.

Las Cruces Public Schools, police assure public on school security

Las Cruces police and two special agents of the FBI sought to assure families Wednesday night that their children were safe at public schools, even as community members raised questions about security protocols and the assignment of officers throughout the district.

The Las Cruces Public Schools hosted a forum in the city council chambers at city hall that was also live-streamed. Most of the 70-minute meeting was devoted to questions and comments from the gallery following presentations by law enforcement.

Seated in the audience was Gadsden Independent Schools Superintendent Travis Dempsey, who faced skepticism from his school board and members of his community last week over the allocation of school resource officers in that district.

The shadow of the May 24 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas was implicit as LCPD Lt. Joy Wiitala assured families that errors in the law enforcement response there would not be repeated in Las Cruces.

It was a wide-ranging and robust conversation, and our reporter, Algernon D'Ammassa, felt it was important to cover. Algernon said:

Two months after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, school security is in the foreground of families concerns.

Recently I witnessed public meetings where New Mexicos second- and fourth-largest school districts faced questions about security protocols, armed officers and resources needed to keep kids safe.

It is an essential promise, yet keeping it (and funding it properly) is not easy.

A man shops in the alcohol section at a grocery store in Albuquerque on June 26, 2022.

The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, Ep. 27: Blind Drunk

This week, were talking about alcohol  specifically, New Mexicos crisis of alcohol-related deaths. In a massive eight-part series, New Mexico In Depth recently took a look at many of the reasons drinking kills New Mexicans at a far higher rate than anywhere else in the nation. And its getting worse, not better. In the thoroughly-reported series, reporter Ted Alcorn discovered a long history of failures by state leaders to address the escalating problem.

I thought this was a really fascinating conversation. Ted  a New Mexico native who grew up in Albuquerque and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post Magazine  spent a ridiculous amount of time reporting this series, interviewing more than 150 people to get the story. We also talk to New Mexico In Depth's Managing Editor, Marjorie Childress, who tells us a little about how this series came to fruition.

You can listen to it HERE.

On behalf of all of us at the Las Cruces Sun-News, thank you for taking the time to read this week's newsletter.

Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Affordable housing, Lift Up Las Cruces, one Amelia Baca suit settled
BEIJING, July 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To encourage Gen Zers to take a closer look at the history of China and use their wisdom to bring cultural relics to life, the second episode of season two of the China Daily series Youth Power, "Chinese Civilization: Generation A meets Generation Z", was broadcast online on July 30.

In the episode, Gen Zers from China, France and the United States gathered in Henan Museum in Henan province, central China, to explore treasures handed down by generations past, drawing from them lessons for the contemporary world.

"China's civilization is one of the four greatest civilizations and the only surviving one," said AlexandreGuery, a French Gen Zer who lives in China. "It gave so many technologies to the world, including gunpowder, printing and paper making."

One item in the museum that left him full of wonder was an 8,000-year-old bone flute.

The Gen Zers who gathered in the museum said they believed that in an age of globalization it is important for young people to learn about history and the origins of one's cultures. They discussed the increasing appreciation of Chinese traditional culture, the pros and cons of turning ancient relics into cultural and creative products, and the reasons for the vitality of Chinese civilization. They also discussed whether cultural relics lost abroad should be returned to China.

"In the 1920s the Tianlongshan Grottoes suffered a large excavation," said Ruan Kexin, a PhD candidate in the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University. "More than 240 statues were stolen. Almost all the heads and even the whole bodies of statues were taken away and transported abroad. It was also a very great loss for the cultural heritage of our country."

However, after nearly a century overseas the statues were finally returned to China, he said.

"Allowing more people from other countries to see our cultural relics and feel our culture can help the Chinese culture to go global and strengthen its international influence. Instead of the unregulated movement of artifacts, this can be achieved through the regulated exchange of cultural relics."

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Jennifer Courtney Holstein, 26, from the United States, said it was sad that cultural relics are missing from China.

"In the case of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, a lot of the things were 'lost' or stolen or looted. You can't really imagine what it used to be like, because so much of it was destroyed or taken away."

Zhong Yutong, the episode host, said: "We now know what bad things have happened before and we should do everything we can to ensure they don't happen again."

He encouraged Gen Zers to express their ideas on breathing new life into historic relics, with the aim of ensuring that these memories become part of present-day thinking.

Through stories, music and dance, Gen Zers breathed life into the relics in Henan Museum, retelling stories of the past. One of the invitees, Wang Licheng, 17, created a song related to the museum's cultural relics, after he went into various stories and explored the culture.

"I was inspired by the relics themselves and the accompanying information on the walls," Wang said. "I wasn't sure what everything meant. There were some expressions and characters I couldn't even understand, so I almost felt as though I wasn't fully Chinese."

Chen Shihua, a 17 year-old who is about to start her college life at Peking University, performed a dance from the show "Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting" that reinterprets the renowned artistic work "A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers".

"This performance showcased the aesthetic value and classical beauty of the Song Dynasty," Chen said. "The classical beauty of traditional China has a very important place in today's world. And its beauty needs to be cherished."

Zhang Yun, a graduate of the Communication University of China in Beijing and the author of the illustrated series "Guardian", talked about the inspiration of her creation, which presents the traditional culture of the Miao nationality in the form of paintings.

"This is a unique form of artistic expression that reflects the spiritual beliefs and philosophies of all ethnic groups in ancient China."

Zhang said she would like to further explore all kinds of traditional culture in China and to present it to young people from all over the world, hoping that through it they can better understand and appreciate Chinese culture.

Youth Power, organized by China Daily, aims to build a global platform for communication and exchange focusing on the interests and ideas of Generation Z. The program comes in the form of interviews, forums and speeches, with topics related to anything of current interest in the world.

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View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-daily-series-youth-power-invites-gen-zers-to-bring-cultural-relics-to-life-301596509.html

SOURCE China Daily; Youth Power
Digitalatto is a company focused on blockchain ecosystem. Recently it has launched its Crypto "DGTL" that can be used for online Shopping to Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Alibaba, and Over 50 million Online Retailers

London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - July 30, 2022) - Digitalatto Ltd UK, a company focused on developing and deploying the blockchain ecosystem and the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, is launching a platform where consumers can shop anything from anywhere in the world using their digital assets from any global retailers including Amazon, eBay or Alibaba. The new feature of DGTL is launching on 31st July.

DGTL has begun to build an entire blockchain ecosystem around the global shopping experience, complete with staking and DeFi mechanisms. Since its incorporation in 2019, DGTL has been developing a series of innovative solutions aiming to make cryptocurrency easily accessible for daily use. A whole new shopping experience is available to users, such as:

Online and in-store Retail Shopping Revolutions

Customer loyalty reward program, and

Making a global impact in E-commerce.

Crypto Cashback

The next development from DGTL is the launch of Google Chrome extension and the marketplace. This will enable millions of users to buy anything from anywhere in the world with their cryptocurrencies, just by connecting their existing wallets. DGTL is a potential game-changer for crypto enthusiasts looking for a safe, simple solution to use their digital assets for everyday expenses.

Mr M.P. Shanavas, Co-Founder & CEO of Digitalatto stated, "The focus at DGTL from the start has been on building a platform that's easy and safe to use, both for the consumer and the retailers. Using our DGTL token, consumers can avail of massive discounts and offers from retailers, and benefit from exclusive rewards for holders and staking participants. We are excited about enabling the biggest transition from FIAT to crypto in the coming years. And our journey is just getting started."

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A smooth transaction and conversion from Fiat to Crypto to Fiat are the key fundamentals of DGTL.

About Digitalatto's Projects

Digitalatto Ltd developed and deployed its DAPP for KYC and certificate applications. (digitalattodoc.com)

It has launched its decentralized exchange and wallet. (dgtlwallet.com).

In addition to that, the full-fledged LMS (Learning Management System) (Digitalatto Academy) has been developed by the company.

It is also progressing on its ongoing project including the NFT marketplace and browser mining, this blockchain ecosystem catalyses Digitalatto Ltd to grow exponentially.

DGTL is launching on 31st July with the listing price of $0.02 per coin and available for a pre-sale price of $0.01 at IDO - www.digitalatto.io/ido. For more information, please visit the official website digitalatto.com

Intending users and potential client must visit the following links for more information and to purchase its coin.

https://www.digitalatto.io/ido

Digitalatto Social Medias:

Telegram:https://t.me/digitalatto

Twitter:https://twitter.com/DigitalattoDGTL

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/digitalatto_dgtl/

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2RVsh5CNGhRk5_Oj8lfnlA

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/digitalatto/

Github:https://github.com/Digitalatto/

Contact person: Mundolakkal Purathum Kudi Shanavas

Media Contact Email: ceo@digitalatto.com

For further marketing queries please email on: marketing@digitalatto.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/132419
Former Nueces County Judge and Corpus Christi Mayor Samuel Loyd Neal Jr. died Saturday. He was 85.

He was first elected mayor in 1997 and went on to serve four terms. He was elected to the top county position in 2006 and served until the end of 2018.

Neal was credited as the driving force for multiple major projects in South Texas over the course of decades, including the nearly $1 billion Harbor Bridge currently under construction, a naval base, and Whataburger Field.

Loyd Neal, then the Nueces County judge, addresses those gathered at his last Commissioners Court meeting on Dec. 12, 2018.

Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales, who succeeded Neal as the county's top leader, said in a Facebook post Saturday that hed made many contributions to the community and his impact was felt in any room.

She wrote that she would forever remember him swearing her in as a Port of Corpus Christi Authority commissioner and, later, handing her the keys to the office as Nueces County judge. As a gift, she said, he painted the office for her. It had been maroon, reflecting his devotion to Texas A&M University, while she was a devoted Longhorn.

We were affiliated with different parties, styles and philosophies, but we shared a love for a great county and the passion for advocating for our military and veterans, Canales wrote. He will be missed by his Nueces County family.

Then-Corpus Christi Mayor Loyd Neal was a key leader in the construction of Whataburger Field. He ended his career as mayor in April 2005 after serving four terms in office.

Neal was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2018. At the time he said it nearly cost him his life, according to a Caller-Times article published that year. Several years prior, he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, which causes weakness and rapid muscle fatigue. As he struggled to recover from his pneumonia, he retired as county judge at the end of 2018.

Neal volunteered for a number of community organizations  such as Driscoll Children's Hospital and Boy Scouts of America  and was active in promoting new business and economic development and supporting military installations in the area.

He was the first chairman of the board for the Corpus Christi Area Economic Development Corp. in 1986 and chaired the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce from 1990 to early 1992. In 1984 and 1985 he was also chair of the South Texas Homeport Committee, which successfully lobbied to have a naval warship and the U.S.S. Lexington housed at what would later become Naval Station Ingleside.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry (left) listens as Corpus Christi Mayor Loyd Neal (right) answers questions from the media after Perry announced a $5 million loan to the City of Corpus Christi for military infrastructure improvements at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz Center on Oct. 13, 2004.

Joe McComb, a former Corpus Christi mayor who served as a county commissioner while Neal was the county judge  and who defeated Neal in the Republican primary for county judge in 2002 before losing the race to Democrat Terry Shamsie  said Neal was a good man whose death represented a great loss for the community.

McComb, who was also Neals neighbor, described the former county judge as a fun-loving guy. Because of Neals military background, McComb said, when he was in his official capacities as mayor and county judge, he didn't put up with a lot of foolishness.

If you took the amount of time you saw him doing public stuff and you doubled that, it probably wouldn't equal the amount of time that he really spent doing stuff for Corpus Christi, McComb said. He was an incessant worker on behalf of the city of Corpus Christi and Nueces County as county judge.  He loved the community.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Former Nueces County, Corpus Christi leader Loyd Neal dies
Samer Habbas is representing the surviving relatives of family killed in drunk driver tragedy

Irvine, California--(Newsfile Corp. - July 30, 2022) - On Halloween night 2019, 20-year-old Carlo Navarro walked into a liquor store and illegally purchased a bottle of whiskey. This would begin a chain of events leading up to the deaths of a mother, father, and their 3-year-old son who were trick-or-treating. Navarro has been officially found guilty, and now, Mr. Habbas is seeking financial restitution via a suit against Green Diamond Liquor.

Samer Habbas is representing the family of Joseph Awaida, Raihan Dakhil, and their son Omar, who were the innocent victims of this senseless crime. See, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles Case No: 21STCV39948. As the parents were pushing Omar in his stroller down the streets of Los Cerritos, which was crowded for Halloween, Navarro's SUV jumped a curb going 70 miles per hour and collided into the family. When first responders arrived, they had to free Omar's body from a nearby sedan where he was pinned from the impact of the collision. The three were transported with critical injuries, and they all were pronounced dead later.

Joseph was studying to be a pediatrician; Raihan was a passionate social worker; and Omar was just a toddler.

Navarro was found guilty for three counts of murder for driving while intoxicated. Now, attorney Samer Habbas is representing the surviving heirs of the decedent in suing the liquor store Green Diamond Liquor, involved. On the night of the tragedy, a clerk named Amor Amacio at Green Diamond Liquor sold a bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey to Navarro despite knowing that he was not 21 years of age. After leaving the liquor store, Navarro got behind the wheel and proceeded to strike and kill the family of three.

Samer Habbas said, "What happened was a tragedy that should have never taken place. There were failures and lapses in judgment at every level that could have prevented this deadly collision. We intend to do everything in our power to get justice for the family and hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions."

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Mr. Habbas is seeking financial restitution for the loss of life of their loved one.





Samer Habbas & Associates



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8976/131959_f8022ec934323b48_001full.jpg

California Business & Professional Code 25658 says it's illegal to sell, furnish, or give away alcohol to a person under 21 years of age. California's Dram Shop Law makes it possible to impose liability on a bar, liquor store, or social host providing alcohol to anyone under 21.

Mr. Habbas' specialty is personal injury, and it's through his adept knowledge of California laws that he serves his clients. More information can be found at https://www.habbaspilaw.com.

ABOUT THE LAW OFFICES OF SAMER HABBAS & ASSOCIATES, PC

Samer Habbas & Associates, PC, offers comprehensive legal services for personal injury clients with an emphasis in negotiating the best potential settlements possible.

Anyone with information on the events on the evening in question is encouraged to contact the firm at https://www.habbaspilaw.com

CONTACT

Samer Habbas & Associates, PC

200 Spectrum Center Dr.

Irvine, CA 92618

Phone: +1 949-727-9300

Facebook: @habbaspilaw

Website: https://www.habbaspilaw.com

https://www.habbaspilaw.com/samer-habbas-associates-is-representing-the-long-beach-family-killed-by-drunk-driver-on-halloween/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131959
(Bloomberg) -- The trial of JPMorgan Chase & Co.s former head of precious metals has offered unprecedented insights into the trading desk that dominates the global gold market.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Michael Nowak, who ran precious metals trading at JPMorgan for over a decade, is being tried in Chicago along with colleagues Gregg Smith and Jeffrey Ruffo for conspiring to manipulate gold and silver markets. The focus now is on the jury, which began deliberations late Friday, but the proceedings have already shone a new light on the inner workings of the business, from its profitability and market share to its largest clients.

Annual Profits

The court was shown internal figures detailing the banks annual profits from precious metals, the first time such detailed information has ever been made public. JPMorgans earnings reports dont break out the results from the precious metals desk, or even its broader commodities unit. A spokesperson declined to comment on the disclosures in the trial.

In summary: the business is a consistent moneymaker for JPMorgan, notching up annual profits between $109 million and $234 million a year between 2008 and 2018. The lions share of that comes from trading in financial markets, but the bank does plenty of physical business as well. Trading and transporting physical precious metals makes the bank about $30 million a year on average.

Still, the profits disclosed in the trial have been overshadowed more recently: in 2020, JPMorgan made $1 billion in precious metals as the pandemic created unprecedented arbitrage opportunities, according to people familiar with the matter.

Market Share

JPMorgan holds tens of billions of dollars in gold in vaults in London, New York and Singapore. It is one of four clearing members of the London market, where global gold prices are set by buying and selling metal held in a few London vaults -- including JPMorgans and the Bank of Englands.

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JPMorgan is the biggest player among a small group of bullion banks that dominate the precious metals markets, and internal documents presented by prosecutors provided a glimpse of just how dominant a role the bank has played.

In 2010, for example, 40% of all transactions in the gold market were cleared by JPMorgan.

Big Bonuses

JPMorgans top precious metals employees on the desk were remunerated handsomely, and some jurors audibly gasped when the court was told how much the defendants had earned.

Ruffo, the banks hedge fund salesman, was paid $10.5 million from 2008 to 2016. Smith, the top gold trader, got $9.9 million. Nowak, their boss, made the most of all: $23.7 million over the same period.

Their pay was linked to the profits they made for the bank. FBI agent Marc Troiano, citing internal JPMorgan data, told the court that the total profit allocated to Ruffo from 2008 to 2016 was $70.3 million. Smith generated about $117 million over the same period, while Nowak made the bank $186 million, including $44 million in 2016.

Key Clients

Hedge funds like Moore Capital, Tudor Investment Corp and George Soross eponymous firm were some of the desks most important clients. Getting access to those clients was the main reason for retaining Ruffo after the banks acquisition of Bear Stearns, according to ex-trader Christian Trunz, who testified against his former bosses and referred to Ruffo as the best salesman on Wall Street. Being a top client of JPMorgan came with perks: employees at the funds could be provided with free tickets to the US Open, according to messages involving Nowak shown during the trial.

Another set of important clients were central banks, which trade gold for their reserves and are among the biggest players in the bullion market. At least ten central banks held their metal in vaults run by JPMorgan in 2010, according to documents disclosed in court.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
VANCOUVER, BC, July 29, 2022 /CNW/ - The Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada (PacifiCan), will announce funding to support the Vancouver Pride Society.

Government of Canada to announce new funding to support Vancouver Pride Society (CNW Group/Pacific Economic Development Canada)

The Minister will make remarks at the TD Community Stage and then be available for media.



Event: Minister Sajjan to announce funding to support the Vancouver Pride Society







Date: Sunday, July 31, 2022







Time: 1:30 p.m.







Location: TD Community Stage (west side of Sunset Beach)

Sunset Beach Park

1204 Beach Avenue

Vancouver, BC

Stay connected

Follow PacifiCan on Twitter and LinkedIn

SOURCE Pacific Economic Development Canada

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2022/31/c8331.html
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Over 1,000 children in the U.S., U.K., and other countries have contracted an unusual form of hepatitis since the spring, and theres still no clear cause. According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak has resulted in dozens of liver transplants and at least 22 deaths. Scientists are scrambling to find answers as to whats causing this new spate in casesyet many basic aspects of the outbreak remain a mystery.

For one, scientists arent even sure if its an outbreak or not, since its unclear what normal rates of unexplained hepatitis in children are. In the U.S., where a cluster of hepatitis cases in Alabama was reported in May, a virus called adenovirus type 41 was detected in five patients blood samples. Jacqueline Tate, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Division of Viral Diseases, told The Daily Beast that clinicians do not routinely test for adenovirus in hepatitis cases, prompting the CDC to issue a recommendation that they start doing so for the sake of the ongoing investigation.

The hypothesis that we are looking into is: Is it associated with adenovirus? Tate said. Adenovirus 41 is known to cause hepatitis in immunocompromised children, but the children who have contracted severe liver infections were otherwise healthy. Tate added that the mechanism by which adenovirus infection might be related to these cases and other co-infections is unknown.

FDA Probing Organic Strawberries in Connection With Hepatitis A Outbreak

Other evidence is piling up that a second virus, called adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2), may play a role in these infections. AAV2 on its own cannot cause hepatitis, but with an assist from a virus-like adenovirus, it can infect human cells and cause damage to the body. Two recent preprint studies from the U.K. that have not been peer-reviewed yet found associations between hepatitis cases and AAV2. In one of the new studies, researchers also detected activators for AAV2 in the form of adenovirus and another helper virus for the majority of children with severe, unexplained hepatitis that they studied.

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Still, based on evidence from childrens infected livers that required transplantation, the studys authors suspect liver malfunction in these patients was not directly caused by infection from either AAV2 or an associated helper virus.

The hepatitis in children investigation is one of the most complex Ive been involved in, Catherine Moore, a consultant clinical scientist with the public health service for Wales, wrote on Twitter. She added that she believes adenovirus is the culprit, but that an out-of-control immune response may contribute to the severe infection, too.

The hepatitis in children investigation is one of the most complex Ive been involved in. AAV2 is definitely there as shown by the metagenomics, In the cases we investigated, AdV was in the blood of all of them. However, I accept more work is needed to understand the interactions  Catherine Moore (@SmallRedOne) July 25, 2022

Ongoing investigations have also looked at COVID infections and lockdowns as a contributing factor for the new hepatitis outbreak. An article in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology published this month lays out the case for superantigen-mediated immune activation, which posits the coronavirus spike protein could trigger a broad overreaction by the bodys immune system that may explain why severe bouts of hepatitis have been associated with a few normally mild viruses.

One of the new preprints also proposes that lockdown measures and physical distancing may have created populations of children with increased susceptibility to AAV2, adenovirus, or another helper. The theory goes that these children would have normally been exposed to the viruses gradually over the course of the past several years. But because of lockdowns and distancing measures, they are now being infected all at once and getting hit with especially severe infections. Still, this hypothesis has yet to be supported by any hard evidence from patients.

Sumit Rawat, a microbiologist at Bundelkhand Medical College in India, co-authored a preprint that looked at associations between COVID-19 infection and hepatitis cases in central India that sprang up between spring and summer of 2021. Rawat told The Daily Beast that these cases were less severe than the ones reported across Europe and the U.S. this year, and that it could be interesting to see how history of infection with particular COVID variants may or may not be associated with severity of these hepatitis cases.

According to Tate, the CDCs investigation team is looking into the data on COVID infection. So far, infection rates do not seem to differ between hepatitis cases and healthy individuals.

As of early July, it appeared as if new reports of cases worldwide were decreasing, and that new infections mainly affected Europe. Officials quickly cautioned against overinterpreting any statistics, though. Case numbers may depend not on infection trends but instead on the recent creation of surveillance networks to scan for hepatitis cases in the latest mystery outbreak.

During this investigation, as reports come in from states, it may seem like there is a growing number of children with hepatitis, but this might not be the full picture, the CDCs website on the investigation reads. These may not be new cases of hepatitis, and they may not be linked to this current investigation.

WHO Reports 650 Cases of Severe Hepatitis in Children Since April

The investigation team, said Tate, will continue to put out updates as the data become available, which could take several months. She recommended that parents watch their children for symptoms of liver inflammationwhich include jaundice, fever, and loss of appetiteand promote frequent hand-washing. Adenovirus is best killed with soap and waternot by alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

From what we've seen so far, this appears to be rare, Tate said. That being said, it is serious. If your child gets hepatitis, it can be quite scary.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, has died. Nichols son Kyle Johnson shared the news on Sunday. I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years, he wrote on Instagram. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all. Nichols was 89 when she passed away on Saturday, July 30th of natural causes.

To say Nichols was a trailblazer would be an understatement. She broke into Hollywood at a time when the opportunities for Black women were few and far between. In interviews years after The Original Series ended, Nichols said she had considered quitting the show during its first season to pursue a career on Broadway but had a change of heart after meeting Martin Luther King Jr. King, as a fan of the show and someone who saw Nichols as a role model, was apparently horrified to find out she wanted to leave and convinced her to stay with it.

We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars. pic.twitter.com/pmQaKDb5zw  NASA (@NASA) July 31, 2022

Beyond starring in The Original Series and its film sequels as well as making memorable appearances in shows like Heroes and Futurama, Nichols spent decades working with NASA to help the space agency diversify its talent pool. She also famously attended the christening of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1976 alongside Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and much of the cast of The Original Series. In 2015, she also flew aboard NASAs SOFIA telescope during an eight-hour flight where the observatory studied Mars and Saturn. She will be missed.
Steve Helber/AFP/Getty

For seven weeks, our social media feeds were held hostage by the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. Depp, whod previously been found by a U.K. judge to have abused Heard on 12 occasions, alleged three counts of defamation by Heard related to a 2018 op-ed she published in The Washington Post wherein she called herself a public figure representing domestic abuse who spoke out against sexual violence.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star claimed the piece damaged his reputation and career to the tune of $50 million, prompting Heard to file a $100 million counterclaim against Depp. On June 1, after 61 hours of testimony from each side, including dozens of experts and witnesses, all of which was livestreamed to a ravenous public, the jury ruled that Heard had defamed Depp, awarding him $10.35 million in damages; Heard, meanwhile, was granted $2 million.

Heards team has since filed a post-trial motion asking the court to set aside the verdict or order a new trial, arguing that Heard played no role in crafting the op-eds headline that had the phrase sexual violence in it (this much was revealed during the trial); that the amount awarded to Depp was disproportionate; and that a juror may have impersonated another juror. The judge denied the motions, though Heard can still appeal. Depp, for his part, launched a TikTok accountpresumably as a thank you to his legion of rabid fans, who flooded the algorithm with selectively curated clips from the trial favoring their heroand quietly settled a lawsuit with a crew member who claimed that the actor drunkenly assaulted him on the set of City of Lies (that case was set to go to trial this month.)

How an Angry Mom Took Down the Revenge-Porn King

Over the weekend, more than 6,000 pages of court documents in the Depp v. Heard trial were unsealed. The docs, which were viewed by The Daily Beast, shed new light on the case seen round the world, providing new insights into each teams legal strategy. Ultimately, as youll see, the mountain of docs do not appear to reflect too well on Team Depp.

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Did Depp want to submit Heards nudes into evidence?

In unsealed pretrial court documents, Heards team argued to the judge that evidence of a number of irrelevant personal matters should be excluded from the defamation trial, while alleging: Mr. Depp inappropriately seeks to introduce evidence of the following Irrelevant Personal Matters: (1) nude pictures of Amber Heard; (2) Amber Heards sister Whitneys reality show video; (3) Whitney and Ambers past romantic relationships; (4) Ambers brief stint as an exotic dancer years before she met Mr. Depp and Mr. Depp attempting to frivolously and maliciously suggest or imply that Ms. Heard was at one time an escort.

Depps team tried to use the death of Heards friend against her

A deposition of Whitney Henriquez, Heards sister, dated February 3, 2022, is included among the newly unsealed court documents. During the interview, Depps attorneys ask a series of questions about Logan, a friend of Heards who passed away in a car accident as a teenager, which had a profound impact on Heard and, according to Henriquez, left her devastated. Depps attorneys first asked if Heard and Logan were romantically involved or ever fought, to which Henriquez replied no. They then attempted to insinuate that Heard told Henriquez she was with Logan the day he died and/or was driving the car he died in, to which Henriquez said that did not happen. Still, Depps attorneys continued to press Henriquez, asking whether Heards drivers license being suspended had anything to do with the accident in which Logan died, to which Henriquez replied, It had nothing to do with that. Henriquez further testified that Heard had never hit, slapped, or thrown anything at her, adding, I never said I was subjected to any violence because of Amber.

Depps damning missing texts

Among the newly unsealed documents are exhibits of text messages that Depps then-assistant Stephen Deuters sent to Heard in 2014, about the time Depp had allegedly kicked Heard during a fight aboard a private jet. If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, he would be appalled, Deuters texted Heard about Depp. Im sad he does not have a better way to really know the severity of his actions yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I remember them in full, in full detail, everything that happened. He was appalled, when I told him he kicked you, he cried. Depp subsequently texted Heard, Once again, I find myself in a place of shame and regret. Of course I am sorryI will never do it againMy illness somehow crept up and grabbed meI feel so bad for letting you down. In messages retained by Heard, he subsequently texted to apologize while calling himself a fucking savage and a lunatic.

But Depps law firm, Brown Rudnick, could not find any record of the texts in Depps iCloud, and looked into whether they may have been, in their words, deleted. Ultimately, the law firm determined they were missing for reasons unknown. These texts regarding the kicking incident were presented in the U.K. trial but not deemed admissible in the Virginia defamation trial.

Heard walked away from millions

The court documents reveal that during their divorce proceedings, Heards lawyers begged her to reconsider her decision to walk away from tens of millions of dollarssince Depp shot the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie during their marriage, and therefore it was considered a community property asset with Heard entitled to half the income from the asset. Since Depp had earned over $33 million from Pirates 4, it stood to reason that the number would be that or higher for No. 5. But Heard refused, leading her lawyers to tell her via email that she was being amazingly true to your word, that this is not about the money. The judge, however, rejected the inclusion of any evidence related to their divorce proceedings in the defamation trial.

Amber Heard speaks to her legal team as Johnny Depp returns to the stand during their defamation on April 21. Jim Lo Scalzo/AFP/Getty

Depp said he was not alleging harm from Heard

Though Depps team spent many hours of the trial trying to paint Heard as the abuser in the relationship, an unsealed motion by Depps team opposing a mental examination of Depp argued that the actor should not be subjected to an independent medical examination, Because Mr. Depp Is Not Alleging Harm Based On A Specific Physical or Mental Injury. Depps team further claimed that, Mr. Depp does not allege a specific cause of action for intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress; does not assert that Ms. Heards actions caused him a specific psychiatric injury; and does not claim that Ms. Heards actions caused him to experience unusually severe emotional distress.

Heards list of comparable actors

A rather dubious claim made by Heards team in pretrial docs was that the actress suffered economic losses in the range of $47-50 million over a 3-5 year period due to defamatory statements made by Depp and his inner circle. Heards team further listed a series of actors that they felt were comparable to Heard in stature, including Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Zendaya, Ana de Armas, and Chris Pine. All of these actors were clearly much bigger stars than Heard.

Were Depps photos and audio subject to manipulation?

According to the unsealed court documents, Heards team argued that metadata from photos and audio submitted by Depp as evidence in the case reveals the items were Modified days before their production in this case; that Depp produced multiple partial audio recordings that begin and end in the middle of a sentence; and that metadata indicates the [audio] recordings were created in September 2015 and then modified in June 2016, and again one day before their production, but Depp only produced the modified version. This raises significant concerns of manipulation, alteration, and deletion.

Heards team repeatedly requested the full audio of these conversations but were denied it. As far as the photographs Depp produced allegedly showing scratches and bruises on his person from Heard, their metadata contained Create and Modified dates of years after the alleged incidents occurred, Heards team alleged. One had a date of 7/24/2019, another photo had no creation date but a Modified Date of 7/4/2020, and yet another ones Creation, Modified, Received, and Sent Dates are July 22, 2019, despite Mr. Depp claiming this picture was taken in March 2015, according to Team Heard. Another photo Depp submitted of an alleged injury had no Creation or Modified date metadata and lists the Sent and Modified dates as July 3, 2020.

Furthermore, Heards team retained Julian Ackert, a forensic expert at iDiscovery Solutions, who declared under penalty of perjury that hed reviewed the metadata of Depps submitted evidence and found anomalies that call into question the authenticity of the multimedia documents, including instances where the date metadata, such as creation and date metadata, is either missing or is significantly after the alleged date of the incident. Missing creation dates and/or modification dates that post-date the facts can be a sign of digital evidence manipulation. Ackert later testified in court that photos Heard submitted of her bruised face were originals.

Russian bots?

Depps team argued in a separate motion that the court should exclude any evidence of his then-lawyer Adam Waldmans supposed misdeeds, including his Russian connections, which was granted by the court. Lawyers for Depp also fought to exclude evidence of negative social media traffic and purported Russian bot campaign regarding Ms. Heard.

Unlikely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence

Among the unsealed court documents is a counterclaim filed by Depps legal team on February 7, 2022, objecting to Heards fourth set of interrogatories. In response to Heards teams demand that Depp Please describe in detail each and every incident during which You contend that Ms. Heard inflicted any type of physical or emotional violence or abuse upon you, along with dates, times and location, as well as a description of the communications and actions leading up to, through, and following such alleged violence or abuse, Depps team further objects to this interrogatory as unlikely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence and that it seeks documents and communications that are irrelevant, immaterial, or unnecessary to the issues in this Action.

Amber Heard testifies at the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse on May 5. Jim Lo Scalzo/AFP/Getty

Marilyn Manson

Depps team fought hard to exclude any references to and evidence regarding Marilyn Manson because they argued it would smear Mr. Depp under a guilty by association theory.

Heard Teams testimony and evidence Depp fought to exclude

Depps legal team fought to convince the court to exclude the testimony of actress Ellen Barkin , whod claimed Depp angrily threw a bottle in her direction while they were dating; Dr. David Spiegel , a psychiatrist who testified on behalf of Heard about the alleged trauma inflicted by Depp; texts between Depp and his actor/pal Paul Bettany wherein Bettany suggested they submit Heard to a drowning test to determine whether or not shes a witch, to which Depp replied, Lets drown her before we burn her!!! I will fuck her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead; and audio of Heard telling Depp, I had dumped you a fucking week, week prior, a fucking week prior after you beat the shit out of me.

Team Depp also wished to exclude the testimony of Dr. Dawn M. Hughes , a psychologist who met with Heard for 29 hours over four sessions and determined that she suffered from PTSD as a result of intimate partner violence by Depp; forensic expert Julian Ackert , who suggested that audio and photos submitted as evidence by Depp raised concerns of manipulation, alteration, and deletion; any evidence regarding Depps medical condition and medical history other than physical injuries sustained by Mr. Depp during the parties relationship, or the use of drugs or alcohol in Ms. Heards presence in the context of alleged abuse, as they worried Heard wished to present evidence that Mr. Depp takes Valtrex; and Dr. Amy Banks , who was a relationship consultant that met with the couple and answered in the affirmative in court when asked if Heard was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Mr. Depp.

UPDATE : A previous version of this story said that the testimony from Barkin and others was excluded from jury consideration, but those motions by Team Depp were not signed by the judge, so they still factored in.

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In a setback for Visa in a case alleging the payment processor is liable for the distribution of child pornography on Pornhub and other sites operated by parent company MindGeek, a federal judge ruled that it was reasonable to conclude that Visa knowingly facilitated the criminal activity.

On Friday, July 29, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California issued a decision in the Fleites v. MindGeek case, denying Visas motion to dismiss the claim it violated Californias Unfair Competition Law  which prohibits unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business acts and practices  by processing payments for child porn. (A copy of the decision is available at this link.)

In the ruling, Carney held that the plaintiff adequately alleged that Visa engaged in a criminal conspiracy with MindGeek to monetize child pornography. Specifically, he wrote, Visa knew that MindGeeks websites were teeming with monetized child porn; that there was a criminal agreement to financially benefit from child porn that can be inferred from [Visas] decision to continue to recognize MindGeek as a merchant despite allegedly knowing that MindGeek monetized a substantial amount of child porn; and that the court can comfortably infer that Visa intended to help MindGeek monetize child porn by knowingly provid[ing] the tool used to complete the crime.

When MindGeek decides to monetize child porn, and Visa decides to continue to allow its payment network to be used for that goal despite knowledge of MindGeeks monetization of child porn, it is entirely foreseeable that victims of child porn like plaintiff will suffer the harms that plaintiff alleges, Carney wrote.

UPDATE: Visa, Mastercard Cut Off Ability to Buy Pornhub Ads After Court Ruling in Child Porn Case

In a statement, a Visa spokesperson said: Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse materials as repugnant to our values and purpose as a company. This pre-trial ruling is disappointing and mischaracterizes Visas role and its policies and practices. Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity. We continue to believe that Visa is an improper defendant in this case.

Story continues

A rep for MindGeek provided this statement: At this point in the case, the court has not yet ruled on the veracity of the allegations, and is required to assume all of the plaintiffs allegations are true and accurate. When the court can actually consider the facts, we are confident the plaintiffs claims will be dismissed for lack of merit. MindGeek has zero tolerance for the posting of illegal content on its platforms, and has instituted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history.

The companys statement continued, We have banned uploads from anyone who has not submitted government-issued ID that passes third-party verification, eliminated the ability to download free content, integrated several leading technological platform and content moderation tools, instituted digital fingerprinting of all videos found to be in violation of our Non-Consensual Content and CSAM [child sexual abuse material] Policies to help protect against removed videos being reposted, expanded our moderation workforce and processes, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organizations around the world. Any insinuation that MindGeek does not take the elimination of illegal material seriously is categorically false.

In June, MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo resigned. The Montreal, Quebec-based company also laid off an unknown number of employees. That came in the wake of a June 20 New Yorker expose that found Pornhub hosted sexually explicit nonconsensual videos including those with children.

The plaintiff in the case against MindGeek and Visa is Serena Fleites, who, when she was 13, was pressured by her then-boyfriend into making a sexually explicit video  which he allegedly uploaded to Pornhub (with the title 13-Year Old Brunette Shows Off For the Camera) without her knowledge or consent. Fleites attorneys say the video, which was alleged to have been viewed millions of times on MindGeek sites, destroyed her life: While MindGeek profited from the child porn featuring plaintiff, plaintiff was intermittently homeless or living in her car, addicted to heroin, depressed and suicidal, and without the support of her family, her lawsuit, filed in June 2021, states. Fleites story was featured by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in December 2020, who detailed how MindGeek monetizes child rapes.

In his July 29 decision, Carney ruled partly in Visas favor. He wrote in the opinion that Fleites simply has no basis for claiming Visa directly participated in the sex trafficking ventures that harmed her. In addition, he ordered Fleites to provide a more definite statement with respect to her common law civil conspiracy cause of action against Visa.

In a second, related ruling (available at this link), Carney compelled MindGeek to undergo jurisdictional discovery, which attorneys for Fleites said will reveal MindGeeks shadowy operations and those controlling it by exposing the defendants financial relationships. Where the money flows in the MindGeek web, which may relate to ownership of the porn sites that generate revenue, matters to the courts jurisdictional analysis, the judge said in the opinion. As the court sees it, financially benefitting from the sexual exploitation of minors is the core of this case.

On Saturday, activist investor Bill Ackman of hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings, who has previously called out the role of Visa and Mastercard in enabling MindGeeks ability to make money from child pornography, posted a thread on Twitter about the ruling in the case.

Visas conduct here is inexcusable, likely to cause the company incalculable financial and reputational damage as well as create serious personal liability and potential criminal liability for the board, Ackman wrote in part. According to Ackman, neither he nor Pershing Square have any economic interest, long or short, in Visa, Mastercard or any other payments company, bank or financial institution.

According to Ackman, after he read the Times story about Fleites and Pornub, he reached out to the CEOs of Visa and Mastercard to express concerns about their part in enabling MindGeeks business. Shortly afterward, both companies cut off consumer payment processing to MindGeeks sites; within a day or so, MindGeek removed >10m illegal videos, 80% of its content, the hedge fund manager said. However, they both soon reactivated business-to-business payments for the purchase of ads on MindGeek sites and for subscriptions to premium content, representing about 90% of the companys revenue, per Ackman.

Ackman wrote that Visa CEO Alfred Kelly should know that the majority of child trafficking victims are from lower-income families including Black and Brown families. I would recommend that Visas board, and separately Mr. Kelly, should hire independent white collar and criminal counsel. He concluded the thread with, Et tu, @Mastercard?

Michael Bowe, partner at Brown Rudnick and lead attorney representing Fleites in the lawsuit, said in a statement, The courts holding that our detailed complaint adequately pleads Visa was engaged in a criminal conspiracy to monetize child porn means Visa and other credit card companies are finally going to face the civil and perhaps criminal consequences of this unconscionable and illegal activity.

The case, Serena Fleites v. MindGeek S.A.R.L. et al., is Docket No. 2:21-cv-04920-CJC-ADS in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Fleites is one of 34 individual plaintiffs who last year sued Pornhub and MindGeek, alleging exploitation and monetization of child pornography, rape videos, trafficked content, stolen content and other nonconsensual content. The litigation is the first application to date of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), child pornography and trafficking laws seeking to hold financial institutions accountable for illegal conduct monetized by and through the systems of companies whose payments they process.

Best of Variety
Kindness is the most important value for most (81%) Australians

Most Australians (63%) fear expressing our honest views online for fear of retribution

The pandemic has meant more authentic social media representation, as fewer (-38%) respondents misrepresent their lives since 2018

SYDNEY, Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WPP, Australia & New Zealand, today announces the launch of Secrets and Lies Chapter Six: 'Fact, Fiction and What's New in 22?'.

WPP, Australia & New Zealand, today announces the launch of Secrets and Lies Chapter Six: Fact, Fiction and Whats New in 22?. Rose Herceg, WPP President, Australia & New Zealand, says: Now more than ever, Australians desire authenticity, connection, honesty and realism. Those that tap into those needs in 2022 will be the ones that win."

The report, which revisits key themes from the previous five reports, shows how the perceptions and priorities of 2,000 Australians have shifted over the past four years against the country's rapidly changing political, cultural, and social backdrop.

Multifaceted truth-telling

Aussies are more partial to telling lies than ever before. Forty-two per cent of us have lied about our whereabouts to family or friends compared to 27 per cent of us in 2018.

Additionally, 29 per cent of us use work as an excuse to avoid time with them, a 9 per cent jump from 2018. Millennials and Generation Z are more likely to lie than generation X, baby boomers and the silent generation in each of these scenarios.

However, there are two key areas where Aussies lie a lot less: to our employers and on social media. While 52 per cent of us regularly lied to our employers four years ago, that number has fallen to 28 per cent. Additionally, 49 per cent of us previously mispresented our lives on social media. Now that number has fallen to 11 per cent.

Prosperity, fairness and kindness

We have seen a rapid decline in perceptions of prosperity and fairness since 2018, with just 56 per cent of respondents believing that fairness exists in Australia today, compared to 77 per cent of those surveyed in 2018. Perceptions of prosperity have also decreased from 77 per cent to 65 per cent.

Regarding our values, 81 per cent of those surveyed say nothing is more important than kindness in 2022. Despite this, 30 per cent have admitted to hurting someone physically or emotionally, 61 per cent of us are jealous of the good fortune of others, and 15 per cent have regularly trolled someone online.

Story continues

Rediscovering cultural roots

Those Australians who speak more than one language were presented with the following statement: My ability to speak a language other than English has given me an entirely different perspective on the world. While 41 per cent agreed in 2018, this number has jumped to 73 per cent.

Evidentially, Australians across the country are rediscovering their cultural roots, speaking in their native tongue at home and connecting with families via technology.

Forty per cent of Australians who speak a language other than English said they were reminded of their roots during the pandemic.

Spooked into submission

The rule-breaking, age-defying, Woodstock-loving generation has been spooked into submission.

In 2019, WPP research found that 78 per cent of Australians over 50 agreed that middle age starts at 60 rather than 40. However, this number is now down to 61 per cent.

Additionally, back in 2019, 78 per cent of those surveyed stated they felt much younger than their age; this number is now down to 59 per cent. Whilst 61 per cent thought they were living their best years; now this number is down to 40 per cent.

Fear of the online world

Distrust is gaining momentum in the online world. In 2020, 68% said we no longer trust what we read online. Now that number has risen to 80 per cent. Additionally, 75 per cent of us don't know the truth anymore because of online manipulation. Now that number has increased to 79 per cent.

63 per cent of us fear expressing our honest views online for fear of retribution. And while in 2020, 53 per cent felt that there were no longer any shades of grey and that we are often forced to choose sides in a debate, this number has risen to 66 per cent.

Buzzword bingo

A distrust in truth can also be attributed to the use of buzzwords. 81 per cent of Australians said companies choose buzzwords or industry speak, making it hard for us to get to the truth of what they are selling in 2021. Now, this number has risen to 87 per cent.

78 per cent of us found ourselves reading about a product or service and wondering why it wasn't written in simple English. Now that number has risen to 84 per cent.

Rose Herceg, WPP President, Australia & New Zealand, says: "It is clear from these findings that there are multiple ways brands can tap into the interests and desires of consumers across the country. Now more than ever, Australians desire authenticity, connection, honesty and realism. Those that tap into those needs in 2022 will be the ones that win. It's time to bring back the magic."

To see the full report, visit https://www.wpp.com/aunz/secrets-and-lies.

About WPP

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

About the research

YouGov conducted this study between 23 May and 1 June 2022. The questionnaire replicated questions from the previous five chapters to track how results have changed. The sample comprised 2000 Australians aged 18+, with data weighted by age, gender, and region to reflect the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates.

SOURCE WPP Australia and New Zealand
One of the more noticeable features of the Rappahannock River downstream of the Fall Line (Route 1 bridge) in late summer Fredericksburg is the accumulation of silt and other sediment. This shoaling below the Fall Line can be deleterious, as fish eggs and other aquatic life are smothered. In addition, this shoaling can be unsightly and is a hindrance to motorized boats.

Some background and history is needed to understand this problem. The upper Rappahannock west of the Fall Line is a lotic aquatic system, or fast-moving body of water that descends from higher elevations in the Piedmont of Virginia. When the waters and sediment of the upper Rappahannock River reach the slower-moving estuarine, or tidal waters below the Fall Line at Fredericksburg, the sediment tends to fall out or settle on the river bottom. The river below the Fall Line is also wide, which facilitates this dropping of sediment load, often for several miles downstream of Fredericksburg.

It is an amazing fact that during flooding and high-water events, the upper Rappahannock River can carry sediment loads exceeding several thousand cubic yards of silt. In the words of Kathleen Harrigan, former executive director of the Friends of the Rappahannock, the river is naturally a sediment transport system and if dredging is done, it would have to be on a continuing basis to be effective.

I was an environmental scientist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Fredericksburg Field Office for 24 years. Over these decades, I have witnessed the annual high-water events on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg and the accompanying public opinions played out in The Free LanceStar regarding the shoaling below the Fall Line. One article references a paddlewheel riverboat below the Fall Line in Fredericksburg getting stuck on a sandbar in the river and includes a quote from John Tippett, former director of the Friends of the Rappahannock, regarding the actual cause of the shoaling. He states: The sediment in the river comes from two primary sources: plowed farm fields and eroding streambanks. There are several other news articles from the 1990s referencing the large volumes of sediment that appear each year in the lower Rappahannock River associated with high water events. Most of these articles were published prior to the breach of the Embrey and Crib dams in 2004.

In the late 1990s, going into the early 2000s, I was a member of the project delivery team (PDT) with the Corps. The Corps, in partnership with the city of Fredericksburg and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was authorized by Congress with the task of breaching and removal of the Embrey Dam and the Crib Dam behind it. Prior to the breach of the Embrey and Crib dams in February 2004, the PDT identified a location for a dredge containment facility in the upland and it was constructed. Some 250,000 cubic yards of silt was then dredged from behind the two dams and deposited in this upland containment facility. After the breach of the dams, some silt remaining from behind the dams did migrate downstream, prompting the Corps to return and dredge an additional 20,000 cubic yards of silt remaining from behind the two dams.

It has now been over 18 years since the removal of the Embrey and Crib dams. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to address the current silting and sediment shoaling in the lower Rappahannock River is through the planting of streamside forest buffers in the upper watershed of the river. Environmental conservation groups such as the Friends of the Rappahannock have been greatly involved in this activity. Dredging the river to remove the sediment may only provide short-term benefits and can be harmful to aquatic life, not to mention the costs and expense of building containment facilities in the upland, along with permitting by state and federal agencies to accomplish this.

Hal Wiggins, a retired environmental scientist and naturalist, is a resident of the Fredericksburg area.
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.
Opal Lee, who's known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth, will be in Colorado Springs this weekend for two events. On Saturday she'll speak and sign copies of her children's book, "Juneteenth: A Children's Story," at Hooked on Books downtown. On Sunday she'll be honored at Packard Hall at Colorado College during An Evening of Inspirational Word and Song, a performance sponsored by The Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District.
The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, is shown in this photo from the National Archives.
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The year of 2021 saw a massive decline in number of fourteener hiking days in Colorado when compared to 2020, falling much closer to overall numbers seen in 2019 and significantly behind overall numbers seen in 2018.
Two years after a pandemic that turned bedrooms into classrooms, many Colorado Springs-area students are finally beginning to show signs of re
The rate at which Colorado students are going to college right out of high school has dipped, and those who do go are less prepared. And parti
A federal judge will extend his temporary restraining order that prevents certain new gun safety regulations in the town of Superior from taking effect, while the parties to the legal challenge prepare to make arguments on recently-issued precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Time to answer some mail, emails and texts

To Craig in Washington state: I agree with you. I will not win a Tom Selleck look-alike contest with my new moustache. As I told someone the other day, it is attached to me; Im not sure yet whether Im attached to it.

To Betty in Illinois, who wrote that she appreciated my recent column on politicians who become less devoted to serving the public as their personal political ambitions rise. Betty, my advice to you at election time is this: Regardless of political party, vote for someone who wants to do something  and not for someone who wants to be something.

To Bob in Wisconsin, who also appreciated my observation that some successful politicians in the Legislature actually return to their roots and continue to serve. Bob wrote that he was in Washington D.C. several years ago and was awed by the patriotic emotions he felt  and hopes that the nations capital will once again evoke those kinds of feelings.

To Laura in North Iowa, a former Mason City resident, who responded to my column on Mason Citys continuing drop in population. I think Ive figured it out, she wrote. Mason City needs a university and heres why:

While NIACC is a great community college, it tends to be a stepping stone for people to move out of town and onto a university. She said she went to NIACC first, then went on to the University of Northern Iowa and continued to live in the Cedar Valley region for about 10 years.





Young adults 18-22 are typically looking to have fun with friends. When they enter the ages 20-25, they start looking for a lifelong partner, she wrote. According to her, Mason City will have more opportunities for young couples to settle down in if there is a university.





Universities usually bring in more international students, more diversity and more tolerance  all possible ways of increasing population, she said.





Also, said Laura, universities usually offer the possibility of additional events and additional funds.

Thanks for your input, Laura, Insightful, respectful and thought-provoking. NIACC has had working agreements with four-year schools like Buena Vista University for students to extend their education here  but it is not the same as having a four-year university program all its own.

Who knows what the cost would be for additional classrooms, additional resources, additional maintenance and additional staffing.

A question that has been a thorn in the side in Mason City for many years is this: Is it better to try something bold, even if it turns out that it didnt work  or not to try something bold for fear that it wont work?

Lets chew on that one for a while.
Bunuel wrote:

By conducting a national study of opioid abuse on college campuses, researchers hope to determine where students purchase opioids, how frequently students abuse opioids on average, and which college stressors most commonly contribute to opioid abuse among students .





A. which college stressors most commonly contribute to opioid abuse among students



B. which are the college stressors common to students who are likely to be turning to opioid abuse



C. the common stressors of college that are likely to contribute to opioid abuse among students



D. the stressors of college common among students who turn to opioid abuse



E. the types of college stressors that are common to students who are likely to turn to opioid abuse

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains

(A)Because this sentence has a list in the underlined portion, determine whether that list has a parallel structure. The list is where students purchase . . . how frequently students . . . and which college stressors . . .  As written, the list has parallel structure, with each item beginning with a wordwhere, how, and whichthat could begin a question (an interrogative adverb, if youre curious) followed by a nounstudents, students, and college stressors, respectively. Other elements worth checking are the modifying words most commonly before the verb contribute and the idiomatic usage of contribute to. All are correct.(A) and (B) begin with which, which is parallel to where and how. The remaining choices begin with elements that break the parallel structure.(C), (D), and (E) are incorrect because they begin with a word that breaks the parallel structure of the list. (B) is wrong because it is unnecessarily wordy. The sentence here is correct as written, so (A) is the answer._________________
The Pittsylvania-Danville Health District is expanding efforts to trap animals following recent attacks by a rabid fox.

Four people were bitten by a rabid fox that was later shot by police at the Walmart parking lot July 22.

In one incident, two people were bitten in the Walmart parking lot after the fox came out from under some bushes and ran at them, said Paulette Dean, executive director of the Danville Area Humane Society.

Last week, animal control officers and the Danville Police Department started to corral a group of feral cats that may have had contact with a rabid fox. Officials are undertaking the effort to prevent the spread of rabies after four people were bitten by a rabid fox in the area, including two who were bitten in the parking lot at Walmart.

Now the local health district has recommended trapping other potential animals in the areas of Mount Cross Road and Tyler Avenue in Danville.

Those animals, including feral cats, raccoons, possums, and skunks may have been exposed to rabies, and pose a continuing threat to people and pets in the area, Linda M. Scarborough, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health, wrote in a news release. Trapping the animals is a public health measure to prevent the spread of rabies by removing from the public any animals that were exposed to the rabid fox.

Area animal control officers are in the process of trapping the cats and taking them to the Danville Area Humane Society, where they will be housed in a separate area, Scarborough said. They will be observed for 10 days, after which they will be sent to the state laboratory in Richmond for further analysis.

Due to this trapping period, domestic cats that are not contained by their owners may inadvertently find the traps where they will then be transported to the local animal shelter, Scarborough wrote.

Any residents in the area around Walmart on Mount Cross Road whose pets are missing during that period are encouraged to call the Danville Area Humane Society at 434-799-5306.

Rabies is a viral disease of mammals that is 100% fatal if contracted, the health department stated.

Any incident in which a person has been bitten or scratched by an animal, or exposed to the animals saliva should be reported to the local health department right away, in order to determine any risk of rabies exposure and recommendations for public health and medical follow up.

Also, any situation where a pet or other domestic animal is attacked or bitten by a wild animal should be reported.

If anyone thinks they have been exposed to the fox or any other animal near Mount Cross Road or Tyler Avenue in Danville, they should contact the Pittsylvania-Danville Health Department at 434-766-9828.

For additional information, visit www.vdh.virginia.gov/environmental-epidemiology/animal-contact-human-health/.
DANVILLE, Va.  A fox known to have bitten at least two people in the vicinity of Mount Cross Road and Tyler Avenue on Thursday has tested positive for rabies, the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District reported Sunday evening.

The Pittsylvania-Danville Health District would like to alert the community that anyone who received a bite or scratch, or were otherwise exposed to the saliva from the fox around July 21 in the vicinity of Mount Cross Road and Tyler Avenue in Danville should seek care at the nearest emergency department immediately, a news release stated.

Rabies is a disease that is 100% fatal once symptoms begin, the release stated. However, it can be prevented if treatment begins immediately after exposure.

For those already exposed or who have concerns that they might have been exposed, they should contact their personal provider for evaluation and possibly treatment, Dr. Scott Spillmann, director of the local health district, told the Register & Bee last week.

The Pittsylvania-Danville Health District is encouraging everyone to vaccinate their pets to protect them, family members, loved ones and the community at large from rabies, the release stated. Virginia law requires domestic animals to be vaccinated against rabies.

In addition to keeping pets vaccinated and keeping vaccinations current, the department offers steps to protect families and pets from exposure to rabies:

Avoid contact with wild animals, such as raccoons and skunks or stray cats and dogs;

Do not feed wild animals or stray cats and dogs;

Report stray animals to your local animal control agency;

Eliminate outdoor food sources around the home; and

Keep pets confined to your property or walk them on a leash.
MARTINSVILLE, Va.  In what Martinsville Speedway officials are calling a beautification project, the track will be making adjustments to seating in Turns 1 and 2.

The lower concrete grandstands in those areas of the track will be removed and replaced with new grass berms, a change that will be in place for the fall NASCAR race weekend this October.

Work on the area started on Thursday.

The track is making the changes as it continues to look for ways to further improve the fan experience, an email from Brent Gambill, Martinsville Speedways Senior Director of Track Communications, read.

A portion of the infrastructure in Turns 1 and 2 that will be impacted has not been in use in several years, Gambill added. The Glenn Wood Tower, Old Dominion Tower, and Clay Earles Tower in those areas will not be impacted.

Ticket holders with seats that are being removedwhich the track said is a limited number, but did not say how manywill receive new seats in the same pricing options in the premium Clay Earles Tower. The tracks ticketing team began communicating with the ticketholders in the affected areas on Thursday.

The Turns 1 and 2 adjustments will enhance the look and feel of the historic track for all fans in attendance, a statement from the track read.

Further details about new fan experiences and uses for the new grassy areas will be shared at a later date, Gambill said in a phone call Thursday morning.

The track has removed seating in recent years to make room for other enhanced fan zones. The SkyDeck above the press box in Turns 1 and 2 was added in 2018, and The Brake Pad, with seats right beside the track in Turn 3, was added last fall.

Martinsville Speedway has historically been known for its natural elements around the track. Boxwood bushes were planted in Turns 1 and 2 near the fence line in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azalea plants seen around the track more than a decade ago are not currently planned to be replanted, because, They would not be in bloom on the tracks race dates, Gambills email read.

Gambill said in a phone call on Thursday that the grass area will not be completed before the start of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 on September 24, but will be completed in advance of the fall NASCAR race weekend.

Martinsville Speedway will host the Henry County Fair on September 21-24.

The Martinsville Speedway fall NASCAR race weekend will begin with the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 as part of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, on October 27. The NASCAR Xfinity Series Dead On Tools 250 will take place on October 29 at 3 p.m., and the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 will race on October 30 at 2 p.m.
RUFFIN  Rockingham County authorities, along with investigators with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, searched a home here on July 21 and netted roughly $100,000 worth of illicit drugs, cash, firearms and charged two men with multiple drug crimes.

The agencies served a search warrant at 149 Ruffin School Road and arrested Robert Deangelo Reid, 32, of 9815 U.S. 29, Pelham, and John Henry Adams, Jr., 35, of 392 Jennings Blackwell Road, also in Pelham, according to a news release from the Rockingham County Sheriffs Office.

The men face multiple felony charges related to the discovery of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, weapons and cash, the release said.

Investigators discovered and seized 258 grams of a fentanyl/cocaine mix, 14 grams of fentanyl, six grams of heroin, 10 grams of cocaine, seven grams of crack cocaine, more than $7,300 in cash and three firearms, one of which was stolen.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website, the amount of fentanyl seized was enough to potentially kill 139,000 people  more than the countys population of about 93,000, the release said.

Reids charges include: trafficking opium, a Level III narcotic; two counts of trafficking cocaine, a Level II; trafficking opium, a Level III; trafficking opium, a Level I; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver cocaine; and maintaining a dwelling to sell drugs. Fentanyl and heroin are members of the drug class opiates as cited in the charges.

Reid is being held in the Rockingham County Detention Facility in Wentworth on a $1,000,000 secured bond.

Adams was charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine.

He is being held in the Rockingham County jail on a $20,000 secured bond.

No court dates for the men were immediately available.
SAN DIEGO  Too many politicians have it in their nature to lie, manipulate and disappoint.

As the consummate politician, President Joe Biden is exceptionally skilled at all three. This is especially true when he finds himself under pressure and dealing with tough issues that cause elected officials to make enemies. Like most politicians, Biden is probably terrified that  if he loses too much support  he could wind up having to make a living in that scariest of places: the private sector.

For Biden, that might as well be another planet. The 79-year-old has been cashing government payroll checks nearly nonstop since he was sworn in, at 28, to fill a seat in Delaware on the New Castle County Council in 1970. If there is one thing Biden knows how to do, its how to make a promise that convinces folks to vote for him, then weasel out of the commitment. Thats Political Survival 101.

Like former President Barack Obama  whom he served as vice president for eight years, learning the tricks of the trade  Biden survives the buzzsaw of the immigration debate by playing both sides. He says whatever he needs to say to placate the left, but he has found a lot to love in the atrocious and racist immigration policies advanced by former President Donald Trump.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden repeatedly told pro-immigration groups that he would stop construction of what Trump liked to call his big, beautiful wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. In August 2020, while speaking virtually to Latino and African American journalists, Biden pledged that  if elected  his administration would not build another foot of wall on the border. He also said that, while he would make sure the border was protected, his approach would be to rely on high-tech capacity methods to protect it.

However, the Biden administration has now quietly given the green light to completing a portion of that same wall. In late May, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would replace a deteriorated barrier located near the cross-border Friendship Park in Imperial Beach, south of San Diego. The administration claims that the barrier, in its current condition, poses safety risks to Border Patrol agents, community members, and migrants.

This isnt the first time that Biden has embraced Trumps immigration policies  the same ones that he criticized during the 2020 campaign. You see why so many Americans hate politics?

Biden promised to end the governments invoking of Title 42, a section of the U.S. Code put there by the Public Health Service Act of 1944 to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the U.S. by keeping out foreigners. Trump used the code to exclude people from Latin America, and Biden promised to end that practice. Instead, he continued it.

It appears that Biden tried to keep his promise to end Trumps Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as the Remain in Mexico policy. But the federal courts thwarted these efforts and ordered the White House to continue the policy. And when it started the program up again, the Biden administration did something sneaky: It folded Haitian refugees into the mix and sent them to Mexico, too. So the courts ordered the administration to restart the program, and the administration responded by expanding it beyond Mexicans and Central Americans. Now the Supreme Court has overruled the lower courts, and given the administration permission to once again admit immigrants and asylum seekers.

As if. You think the administration wants more footage on the evening news of the huddled masses crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, especially in an election year? No way, Jose.

Attention pro-immigration liberal Democrats who thought Biden would be a kinder and gentler alternative to Trump: Youve been bamboozled. On this issue, the two men are pretty much the same guy.

Immigration rights advocates are furious that Biden has weaseled out of the pro-immigration stance he adopted to get elected.

Good. They should be outraged. But they shouldnt be surprised. For the record, I was never fooled by this particular weasel.

In December 2020, just one more month after he was elected president, I wrote an essay that began:

(Joe) Biden insists that, with a new sheriff in town, things are going to change. But he still has to convince Congress, and navigate the politics of the immigration debate.

Put me down as skeptical. Biden makes it all sound so simple, but both his track record and the delicate position hes in suggest that hes likely to fall short.

And fall short he has.
" " Telemedicine can be a quick and easy way to see a doctor. AJ_Watt/Getty Images

Whether it's an ordinary emergency (3 a.m. stomach pains) or a very extraordinary situation (COVID-19 exposure, anyone?), there are times when you need to see a doctor but it's not convenient. Wouldn't it be great if that doctor could make a house call to you? That may be possible thanks to telemedicine. The appointment is just going to be a little different from what you're used to, since it'll take place via a smartphone or computer screen.

Telemedicine is defined by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) as the practice of using technology to provide health care from a distance. It's been around since the 1960s, particularly for rural areas looking to contact specialists. But it became more popular after the computer revolution and the widespread availability of broadband starting in the late 1990s, which allowed easier transmission of medical records and video calls.

The 2020 COVID-19 epidemic has marked a significant turning point in the practice of telemedicine. In fact, it figures prominently in the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which notes that greater access to virtual health care is a major prong of the effort to defeat COVID-19. This is especially good news for patients in rural communities, veterans, the elderly and others of elevated risk who have traditionally had limited access or limited mobility to see in-person doctors.

"In the COVID-19 epidemic we want to support social distancing," says Dr. Steven Waldren, vice president and chief medical informatics officer with the AAFP, noting that this is especially critical as there are a lot of people who never show symptoms of the illness, therefore putting others at risk. "An elderly patient with a stable chronic disease that needs to be followed up, typically that would [done] in person, but a lot of physicians are doing that with telemedicine to keep them from going out into the community."

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Types of Telemedicine

There are three main types of telemedicine to choose from depending on the need. They are:

Synchronous telemedicine (aka "real-time" telemedicine): Waldren likens this to a Zoom or FaceTime-like call where both doctor and patient encounter the visit at the same time via video or audio chat. This situation is ideal for people generally in good health who need prompt attention for a fixable issue.

Asynchronous telemedicine ("store and forward"): This is when the physician and the patient perform their ends of the encounter at different times. "The patient puts in information and it is packaged and sent to the physician," Waldren explains. "The physician at some point in time [usually within a couple of hours] would review that information and make a determination of care and send it back." For instance, the patient (or an imaging center) sends over some medical records to the doctor. This is an extremely convenient option because it works with everyone's schedule. "The physician doesn't have to change the workflow significantly and the patient can do it whenever they want," he says.

Telemonitoring (or "remote patient monitoring"): This type tracks a patient's vital signs at a distance. For instance, a diabetic could monitor her glucose levels and transmit the data over to her doctor.

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Seeing a Telemedicine Doctor

Elizabeth (last name withheld) in Atlanta has used the services of telemedicine giant Doctor On Demand on three separate occasions, once taking advantage of the company's 24/7 policy. "For the flu, it was 3 a.m. and I was sick as a dog in bed," she recalls. "I was in no shape to leave my house. The doc called in prescriptions for me and my husband was able to pick them up as soon as the pharmacy opened." The other two instances required prescription antibiotics to treat urinary tract infections (UTI), a common, but painful ailment that needs quick treatment for relief and to prevent spread of the infections to other organs.

In case you're wondering how a UTI could be diagnosed without a lab test, Doctor on Demand's website spells it out: "A doctor doesn't necessarily need a lab sample to make a diagnosis. Your physician may be able determine if you have a UTI based off your symptoms and past history. ... In some cases, a doctor may ask that you perform an over-the-counter home UTI test. Sometimes an additional exam can be done to ensure that your UTI has not traveled to your kidneys, and your doctor will be able to give you instructions over video."

So far, Elizabeth has been impressed with the time-and-cost savings. She paid $40 per visit, but the price varies depending on whether your employer has an agreement with the service or what your insurance plan covers. If you have no insurance, the cost of a medical visit is $75 at Doctor on Demand. (GoodRX has launched a telehealth marketplace with competing companies offering services at a variety of price points.)

Elizabeth says the first and longest appointment was 22 minutes total because she had to set up payment and create an account with the app; the other two visits ranged from seven to 12 minutes. In other words, she was finished in less time than it takes most people to drive to the doctor's office. She's also been pleased with the ability to book an appointment quickly. For the 3 a.m. appointment, "I was seen immediately, but even the other day I was able to schedule an appointment within two hours of my request," she says.

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Limitations of Telemedicine

For starters, telemedicine lacks the element of human contact. "The physical exam piece is still challenging," Waldren says, noting that there's some cool technology out there to transmit useful data, but most patients don't have that readily available unless they have known medical issues. However, data from tools such as the Apple watch, which can detect atrial fibrillation, is helpful.

There are ways around the lack of physician contact, though. Even at the typical office appointment many symptoms are self-reported by the patient. "As family physicians and others as well, a lot of times we take the patient's word for things," says Waldren. "What the physician is going to do is look at all the information in totality," he notes, adding that virtual doctors also obtain additional details to make sure the reported data are accurate, for example, that the recording of a temperature was done properly.

Billing has traditionally been something of an issue for telemedicine patients, too. "Sometimes their health plan doesn't support payment to physicians for providing those services," Waldren explains. So, it behooves patients to check with their insurance provider before the virtual appointment to make sure it's covered. Fortunately, the CARES Act has made provisions to alleviate this issue, among them that high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts can cover telehealth services before the deductible has been met.

Then, of course, there's the matter of technical difficulties. Waldren notes that it can be challenging for some people to get that video connection working, whether due to lack of reliable high-speed internet access, or simply not understanding the technology. The CARES Act also took that into account by removing "real-time audio/visual technology" from the definition of telehealth, so that providers can opt for audio-only visits, if necessary.

And, of course, not every issue can be diagnosed via telemedicine. It can depend both on the specific ailment as well as the provider. "[It's] really up to the physician and the patient," Dr. Waldren explains, "A lot of hospitals and clinics will put up a list of things they'll see patients remotely for."

So, while your teledoctor can be a nice complement to your health care, you probably still need to forge an in-person relationship with a primary care doctor.

Now That's Important A lot of people think of telemedicine and telehealth as one and the same, but they actually aren't. Telemedicine offers remote clinical services, but the broader term of telehealth also encompasses additional nonclinical services, including medical education, training and administrative meetings via videoconference.
A 46-year-old Great Falls man and a 42-year-old Great Falls woman were charged with felony theft after being accused of stealing a vehicle in Helena. The man is also being charged with misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer.

On Thursday, a report came in of a stolen vehicle from the 7500 block of N. Montana Avenue.

According to court records, the complainant told a deputy that she had left her keys in the car while she went into a business. While walking into the business, a male matching the description of Lando Jack Gregori was standing out front. She did not give permission to Gregori or Kandace Emilee Saunders to enter her vehicle or take it, according to court reports.

When she exited the business about 5 minutes later, Gregori, Saunders, and her car were gone. A staff member told the complainant that they saw her car go north on N. Montana Avenue. A manager at the business stated that Gregori and Saunders had been loitering outside the business all day, and once Gregori disappeared, so did Saunders.

Family and friends came to help her look for her vehicle.

A friend spotted the vehicle traveling south on Applegate and followed it until the vehicle turned onto a dead-end road. Two subjects exited and ran away from the vehicle, one matching the description of Gregori, according to the friend.

An area search was conducted for Saunders and Gregori. Two witnesses who live next to where the vehicle was left told authorities that Saunders and Gregori had asked them for a ride before they continued walking west.

Saunders was found in a neighborhood adjacent to where they left the vehicle. Gregori was found hiding in a dog house and would not exit the dog house when authorities asked. Gregori had to be physically removed from the dog house and was booked along with Saunders into the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center on Thursday.
The Bitterroot National Forest has opened the hiking trail to Lappi Lake thanks to young out-of-state volunteers who learned to appreciate nature, see the rewards of hard work and value stewardship.

This week, volunteers from CatRock Ventures, a youth leadership development group from the Bronx, New York, experienced the beauty of a Montana forest, saw a night sky full of stars, and swam in a mountain lake as they cleared trail #324, a Bass Creek hiking trail unused since 2002.

This is the third time CatRock has volunteered with the Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation in Montana. The SBFC partners with the Forest Service and relies on volunteers to assist with wilderness stewardship, including trail maintenance, tree-cutting, brushing, treading and wilderness monitoring.

CatRock didnt come in 2020 because of COVID or in 2021 due to fires.

SBFC crew leader Nicholas Capille said the eight days with the Bronx crew was an amazing experience.

Getting these high schoolers outside and working hard teaches you to appreciate a trail that is clear and brush-free, he said. It is really good for them to enjoy the outdoors that they dont have out their backdoor in New York City. It was fun to have them out here and put them to work.

The crew fully cleared the Bass Creek Trail up to Lappi Lake, by cutting fallen trees, removing them from the trail and brushing back overgrown vegetation. Trail #324 is about 1.2 miles with a thousand-foot elevation gain.

Its not an easy trail, it is steep with lots of tripping hazards, Capille said. We cleared the trail and dug a lot of tread which is one of the harder jobs you do when you do trail work. It was amazing to see the teens work hard and reach their goal.

Digging tread is repairing the surface of the trail to make it optimum for hiking.

Capille said the SPFCs mission is to be stewards of the land and to get the next generation to be land stewards.

Its a partnership that brings them out here, he said. We are happy to have them here.

Forest Service Trail Crew Forman Steve Bull said trail #324 had not been used since 2002 due to a lack of funding for trail crews.

It wasnt a high-priority trail but now that we have partners like CatRock and SBFC we can start going after some of these trails that have fallen into disrepair, Bull said. Its a big deal, people are going to be very excited about this.

He said the funding came from the Great American Outdoors Act, under the Trump administration, to provide for deferred maintenance.

It allowed us to do additional work, hire additional personnel and form more partnerships, Bull said. The use numbers are increasing significantly and the trail heads are always full, they are busy.

He said the types of users have changed a bit from backpackers to trail runners.

Ill have a crew 20 miles in with packs and here comes a runner with a water bottle, he said.

Trail crew member Patrick Megnizin said he values the challenging experience.

It was a great week for city kids to go out into something were not used to, he said. We gained skills using tools such as the saw, Pulaski and ax. We had to cut down a few trees, we learned to clear out the moss that has been there for a while.

He said the experience of hard work and a job well done was rewarding.

I feel amazing right now, he said. The hikes were really fun. I hope people do visit Lappi Lake because the end was really rewarding.

CatRock alumni and youth leader Katia Lopez said the experience was exhausting but valuable. For her, it has been a trip of many firsts  her first trip on a plane, her first time in Montana and her first time to be away from the East Coast.

This trip has been very challenging and exhausting but just as rewarding, she said. Its been so nice to come with the students who are younger than me and watch them experience what I went through as a high schooler. Everything you see or do here is nothing you can see or do in the Bronx or in New York. As tired as I am, I would definitely do it again.

She said seeing stars was her biggest thrill.

I dont see stars back home, she said. The views are so different. I like the water here and the people here are very nice.

Crew member Tristin Eversley Hernandez said the biggest challenge for him was mental.

Most of the hikes had a lot of uphills, he said. Mostly I was behind but would tell myself to keep going.

Getting up in the mornings, ice-cold creek crossings and the heat of the day were also things he found challenging.

But Im thankful for CatRock bringing us out here, Hernandez said. Im also a first-time flier and this is the farthest Ive been in the states.

Trail crew member Britany Herrera said that it was also her first trip to Montana.

It is super different from New York, she said. I thought New York was big but coming to Montana changed my perspective on how big everything is. The trail work was difficult, the hikes super-difficult but when we got to Lappi Lake and got to relax it didnt feel real.

CatRock adult leaders Abiola Van Osoy-Bruce and Eric Becker said the program has a big impact on youth.

The idea is to get youth into the outdoors and to also become stewards of the land and their environment, Becker said. We get to offer experiences like this because of partnerships, it is super rewarding. It was a hard trail to clear, it was steep, an intense climb up but the students persevered and got the reward of seeing that awesome lake up there and swimming in it.

Becker said the goal is for these students to become volunteer leaders for CatRock Ventures or another organization and lead other teens into the outdoors.

Van Osoy-Bruce praised the trail team for their effort and perseverance.

We are very proud of all of these young people for accomplishing this, it was not an easy hike, she said. It was hard work. I got to do it all, you have to lead by example.

Shes done the hard work before as she has led many teams on trail work in the Catskill Mountain range in New York. This is her second trip to Montana.

The CatRock trail crew slept in tents and said great camp food was packed in for them.

CatRock Ventures is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization investing in youth. Its mission is to empower the next generation of environmental, community, and business leaders from underserved communities (based in the Bronx, New York).

The Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing citizens and youth to the wilderness to work, live, and play. Since 2006, SBFC has helped steward the four-million-acre Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, across Idaho and Montana.

To find trail #324, from Highway 93 (four miles south of Florence) turn west onto Bass Creek Road, travel 2.5 miles to the Charles Waters Memorial Campground. The Bass Creek Trailhead is at the west end of the campground.
As the 2022 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally approaches, the city of Sturgis is working on preparations for the town of less than 7,000 residents to swell to the hundreds of thousands. Last year's rally count came in at over half a million.

The citys rally planning department itself consists of three full-time employees but literally every department in the city pitches in, including the police department, public works, the community center, City Hall, human resources, planning and permitting, and attorneys, according to Rally Director Tammy Even-Cordell.

The whole city works on the rally. Nobodys left out of working on the rally, including even the library, said Even-Cordell.

As of Thursday, there are approximately 200 vendors registered for the rally, according to Even-Cordell. Permits are on track to hit last years number, about 650, but Even-Cordell said its difficult to predict vendor numbers because most wait until the Wednesday before the rally before registering.

They wait until they know for sure that theyre coming, so they dont waste their money. With gas prices and the cost of their supply and stuff, most of them wait, she said.

The rally department employees are new to the job. Even-Cordell started as director in May after working as the assistant director for three months and shes the most senior member. She said shes relied on people in the city who have experience planning the rally. According to Journal archives, Even-Cordell also brings experience with event planning including Biketoberfest, Daytona Bike Week festivals and Harley-Davidson Rally Point.

It's a good thing we have a great support staff all the way around the city. They are incredible, she said.

The Sturgis Police Department also bears a responsibility leading up to and during the rally. The SPD hires outside officers to help enforce the law during the rally. Police Chief Geody VanDewater said the department hires officers from all over the country, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio and Alabama.

The majority of them are right in the surrounding states here, VanDewater said.

VanDewater said the department sends letters in the spring reaching out to officers who worked the rally previously. Applicants must be certified law enforcement officers in good standing with their department or governmental agency, according to the SPDs website.

The officers  VanDewater wouldnt disclose how many for safety reasons  are sworn in the first day of the rally and given the authority of the department. They work every day of the rally and bring their own duty weapons, but the SPD provides them with uniforms and a radio. About half the officers will be outfitted with a body camera. VanDewater said not all officers need a body camera.

The primary goal of the force is to address any violation of South Dakota law or city ordinance. He said officers from out of state who have worked the rally before know South Dakota laws through experience, and newer officers are usually paired up as a backup officer.

They learn the stuff. Theyre not out there just shooting at the hip trying to write citations, VanDewater said.

During the rally, the SPD works with the Meade County Sheriffs Office, South Dakota Highway Patrol, the South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation, the FBI, the ATF and Homeland Security.

Capt. Casey Collins, who oversees the West River office for the Highway Patrol, said the agency meets with other agencies several times throughout the planning process and they work closely together.

With an event like this, large partnerships with local agencies is key to our success, Collins said.

Although Highway Patrol does not hire additional officers, Collins said they make sure there are enough troopers stationed throughout the state as usual to protect people and property.

Our top priority is always public safety and specifically highway safety in an event like the Sturgis Rally. We want the event to be as safe and as efficient as possible for our visitors. Our mission is the same as it is throughout the year  protect people, Collins said.

Highway Patrol sees an increase in DUIs, drug violations and general traffic offenses during the rally. VanDewater said crime increases across the board due to the influx of people entering the area.

We see everything, VanDewater said. When you put a couple 100,000 people in a town of 7,000, that gets pretty congested.
DECATUR  While no cases have been reported locally, Macon County public health leaders are preparing for the state's monkeypox outbreak to reach the area.

Illinois had 414 confirmed cases of the disease as of Friday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Only New York and California have higher case counts, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We will keep the community informed on the monkeypox virus situation in Macon County," said Marisa Hosier, director of health promotion and public relations at the Macon County Health Department, in an email. "In regards to contact tracing, the process will operate similarly to contact tracing for other communicable diseases, and we will be following all the guidelines set forth by IDPH and CDC."

The monkeypox virus is part of the same family as the variola virus, otherwise known as smallpox, according to the CDC. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox, but milder, and the disease is rarely fatal. The disease does not spread easily between people without close contact and the outbreak has primarily affected men who have sex with men, health officials say.

But anyone can spread the disease through contact with bodily fluids, sores, shared items such as clothing and bedding that have been contaminated with fluid or sores, or through respiratory droplets in close settings.

"There are many causes of rash illness. However, if someone has a rash illness that they are concerned about, they should talk with, or see, a health care provider about their symptoms," Hosier said in the email.

While monkeypox has been known to affect people for decades, the current outbreak is the largest. Earlier this month, it was designated a global emergency by the World Health Organization, and a shortage of vaccines for the once-rare disease has caused public health leaders to scramble.

In Illinois, the state's department of public health announced that the state is prioritizing giving the first dose of the vaccine, known as the Jynneos vaccine, to as many high-risk people as possible, rather than giving fewer people more protection with a second dose 28 days after the first.

The state agency said studies have shown the first dose can offer protection for several months.

The state has received 7,371 doses of the vaccine, designating 4,631 of those for Chicago. Additionally, Chicago has received 18,707 doses, according to IDPH.

Currently, the state is only issuing the vaccines to areas and counties with cases reported and is limiting it to the first dose until more supplies become available.

More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries since about May, according to the CDC. To date, monkeypox deaths have only been reported in Africa, where a more dangerous version of the virus is spreading.

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.

Symptoms can range from a fever, headache, chills, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes, muscle aches, sore throat, nasal congestion, cough, and a rash that can look similar to pimples or blisters.

The rash can appear on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body like the hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus. It will go through different stages before healing completely.

Anyone experiencing symptoms should cover up any rashes, wear a mask and notify a healthcare provider as soon as possible. Cases should be reported to the health department.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
DECATUR  A 14-year-old girl visiting Decatur to attend a graduation party was shot and killed early Sunday in a burst of gunfire that also left three other young people wounded, police said.

The victim was later identified Sunday as T'Earra D. Moore from Chicago. Macon County Coroner Michael E. Day said she was pronounced dead near the scene of the shooting at 2882 North Dinneen Street.

"Ms. Moore was attending a graduation party in an establishment located in the 2800 block of North Dinneen Street," said Day.

"As the party was concluding about 2 a.m. people were exiting the establishment or already in the parking lot when shots were fired ... Ms. Moore apparently fled the parking lot where the shooting occurred and collapsed in a back lot of a nearby business located in the 1900 block of East Pershing Road."

The coroner said emergency medical crews found her body there.

Three additional gunshot victims  a 19-year-old male, a 19-year-old female and a 15-year-old juvenile  were transported to Decatur Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

A news release from Decatur Police said officers had been called to the scene at 1:59 a.m. after reports of shots fired and multiple victims.

The news release stated numerous shell casings were located throughout a parking lot and on North Dinneen Street leading to Pershing Road.

The investigation is ongoing and Detective Sgt. Steve Carroll, speaking late Sunday morning, said no arrests have been made.

Authorities are encouraging anyone with information about this incident to contact the Decatur Police Departments Criminal Investigations Division at 217-424-2734 or Crimestoppers at 217-423-8477.
Special guests at the Dittlinger Rose Dedication at the Dittlinger Memorial Library, April 1993. L-R: Bill Schumann, County Agent; Hippolyt Mengden, a Dittlinger grandson; Maria Liebscher, Dittlinger granddaughter; Christine Brown, who donated the roses; Ethel Canion; and Sue Ragusa. Courtesy Photo
Over the past two years, 380 students have left Catawba County Schools to study at home.

Catawba County Schools had 179 students withdraw to attend home-schools in 2021-22. In 2020-21, there were 201 withdrawals to attend home-schools, according to data provided by the district.

Those numbers are up compared to the 63 students who withdrew to attend home-schools in 2017-18.

Officials with Hickory Public Schools and Newton-Conover City Schools did not supply any data regarding home-school losses. The Hickory Daily Record was told that these systems either did not track this data or were unable to provide it.

The county school system is striving to work with home-school students, officials said.

Catawba County Schools has created and marketed flexible options for learning through our Online Catawba Virtual Learning Program, which now operates K-12, Director of Marketing and Communication Kim Jordan said via email. Middle and high school home-schooled students can enroll to take a class or classes through Catawba County Schools, either online or seated.

Another tool Catawba County Schools is using to pull home-school students back into the district is by offering face-to-face and virtual information meetings throughout the county during the enrollment period. The meetings are designed to inform families about the districts options for home-schooled students.

Parents switch to a home-based education for a number of reasons, and the limited data available might be an indicator that the pandemic exacerbated the issue.

Safety concerns, masks fuel decisions

Tanya Ennis and her husband Fred Garrison decided to start home-schooling their daughter Taren Ennis, 13, and son Randall Garrison, 6, in the fall of 2021. Taren Ennis is an eighth-grader and was attending Hudson Middle School. Randall Garrison is in kindergarten and would have attended Hudson Elementary School.

Ennis said one of the main reasons for the switch was because of safety concerns, specifically school shootings. Other concerns were COVID-19 and bullying. She said when the school year started Randall got COVID-19 and then the entire family caught it.

Rebekah Kales son has been home-schooled for two years. He finished his fifth-grade year in the spring. Kale said she has always wanted to teach her child at home because it is important to her to invest as much as possible into her sons future.

Kale was previously working full-time and her son was attending Banoak Elementary School. Her husband landed a job that made it possible for her to educate her son from home.

Kales son is an active participant in 4-H, and he takes trumpet lessons as well as classes at the Hickory Museum of Art. Education can happen anywhere, Kale said.

Heather Beards 6-year-old daughter finished first grade this year in the comfort of her own home. The Beard family lives in Burke County. Beard's daughter would be attending George Hildebrand Elementary if she was in a public school.

Beard started home-schooling in August 2020 due to the COVID-19 protocol in schools. Beard said she didnt want her daughter to have to wear a mask all day at school.

Melissa Stevenson has three sons  Thomas, 13, Luke, 9, and Jacob, 7  who have been home-schooled since August 2021 and moved to Hickory from Burke County in March.

Stevenson said her sons complained of having headaches and started to dislike school during the time when they were required to wear masks. She said this was the main factor in her decision to teach from home.

Stevenson said she has seen positive changes in the attitudes of her sons toward school and in their emotional health since the switch. By teaching her kids at home, they are able to have a snack when needed and are able to enjoy the company of their emotional support animals while doing schoolwork.

Flexibility and field trips

All of the mothers said they appreciate the flexibility that comes with home-schooling. Kale and Beard said they spend an average of four hours per weekday doing schoolwork and once they are finished, they have free time for their hobbies.

Beard said the flexibility helps when her child is sick because they can easily catch up on missed work another day.

Stevenson said the family has more time for educational field trips that focus on each of the varied interests of her three sons. She incorporates the Bible into their lessons as well, which is important to her, she said.

Stevenson said a benefit to home-schooling is her sons can learn at their own pace.

Stevenson said one of her sons has attention deficit issues. Through the Monarch Christian Learning online program, he is able to listen to his lessons while he walks and moves around to focus. At public school he had to remain still, which she said made it difficult for him to concentrate.

Stevenson likes that she can push her sons forward if they are excelling or take it slowly if they need more time on a subject. She said in a classroom her sons would get bored from finishing their work early and not being challenged enough.

Getting started

Kale acknowledged that home-based education comes with a financial cost, but she said a lot of people sell used curriculum to home-schooling families, which can help reduce the cost.

Kale spends the summer mapping out her lesson plans for the whole school year in order to make her teaching less stressful. When asked what advice she would give to other families who want to start home-schooling, she said, Have the confidence that you can do it.

You dont have to have all the answers because heaven knows I dont, Kale said. When she does not know the answer to one of her sons questions, she is able to make it into an experience where they can learn and work together to find the answer.

Beard said there is less of a stigma around home-schooling now than there was when she was in school. She said that she meets a lot of families like hers. I run into people everywhere it seems, Beard said.

The Ennis children are part of a home-schooling co-op where they take various classes, such as art and theater, with other home-school kids. She said joining home-schooling groups on Facebook helped her to find resources. She said she also sought advice from parents who had more experience teaching from home. She recommended that parents who plan to teach at home try joining a co-op or other home-school group.

Looking ahead

Beard wants to home-school her two other children when they are of age to start school. She said that she might consider public school for her children when they get to high school because of the college credit classes that schools offer.

At the end of each school year, Kale and her husband sit down with their son and ask him if he wants to continue learning from home. So far, he has chosen home-school. Kale said that is because he says its fun for him.

Stevenson said she doesnt plan to send her sons back to public school. Ennis said she hopes to be able to continue home-schooling until her son graduates.

Kale said the most rewarding part of teaching from home is watching her child learn, grow and develop a love for education that she has nurtured.
NEW YORK  Michelle Obama will have a book out this fall, The Light We Carry, in which she reflects upon her experiences and shares insights on navigating an increasingly stressful world.

It's the former first lady's first entirely new work since the 2018 release of her acclaimed blockbuster Becoming, which has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, surpassing the sales of any memoir by a previous first lady or modern president, including her husband, former President Barack Obama.

Ive learned its okay to recognize that self-worth comes wrapped in vulnerability, and that what we share as humans on this earth is the impulse to strive for better, always and no matter what, Michelle Obama writes in the book's introduction, included in Thursday's announcement by the Random House Publishing Group and its imprint Crown.

We become bolder in brightness. If you know your light, you know yourself. You know your own story in an honest way. In my experience, this type of self-knowledge builds confidence, which in turn breeds calmness and an ability to maintain perspective, which leads, finally, to being able to connect meaningfully with others  and this to me is the bedrock of all things."

The new book is not part of the reported eight-figure deal the Obamas reached in 2017, shortly after he left office, with parent company Penguin Random House for their respective memoirs. A spokesperson declined to discuss financial terms for The Light We Carry.

Crown will publish the 336-page book Nov. 15, almost exactly four years after the release of Becoming," and has announced a first printing of 2.75 million copies for the U.S. and Canada. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times will come out simultaneously in 14 languages and 27 countries, with additional rights deals expected.

In The Light We Carry, Mrs. Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress, the publisher's announcement reads in part.

Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles  the earned wisdom that helps her continue to become.

On Thursday, Penguin Random House announced it was renaming an annual writing prize in her honor, the $10,000 Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, part of an awards program for public high school students the company launched in 1993.

Since completing Becoming," Michelle Obama has written an edition for younger readers and launched a podcast. With Barack Obama and their production company Higher Ground she has worked on such projects as the Oscar-winning documentary American Factory and a documentary about her tour for Becoming, when she appeared at arenas nationwide with such guest interviewers as Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Jessica Parker. Promotional plans for The Light We Carry will be announced later.

Crown is also the longtime publisher of Barack Obama, himself a million-selling author. A Promised Land, the first of two planned memoirs about his presidency, came out in 2020. A spokesperson declined to comment on when the next book will be released.
Maria Gonzalez Garcia, a rising senior at North Forsyth High School, had never heard the word viscosity before this summer.

On Friday, she stood before a table in the lobby of Wake Downtown, using the learned language of a scientist, throwing such fancy terms as stratified viscous fluid and fluid dynamics as she explained what she had been up to over the last six weeks.

Nearby, other local high school students were talking about fibrin molecules, electron paramagnetic resonance and red blood cell morphology.

This was getting me out of my comfort zone, Maria said.

She was one of 12 students chosen to participate in a new six-week paid internship developed by Wake Forest University. The Lab Experiences: Academics and Professions program  or LEAP  gave local students with an interest in math and science a chance to conduct lab-based research alongside Wake Forest mentors, typically a faculty member and a graduate student.

At Fridays symposium, students set up tables describing their research and answering questions, marking the end of the internship.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund awarded Wake Forest a three-year grant for the program. It will expand over the next two years, from 12 this year to 18 next year and 24 in year three.

The goal is to find money to sustain the program after the grant expires, said Rebecca Alexander, the director of Wake Downtown and a chemistry professor at Wake Forest.

The internship is for students in Title 1 high schools in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Title 1 schools are schools where more than 40% of the student body comes from low-income families.

Many of us have hosted high school students in our labs, said Alexander, but theyve usually been the children of friends of friends, and they tend to be students of privilege. We wanted to change that.

Students with an interest in science, technology, engineering and math were identified at schools. Each were paid $1,800 to cover what the students could have earned at a summer job. The program also paid for meals and transportation for students who needed it.

They were matched with faculty members doing all kinds of research, some of it in the field. Angel Vargas Sanchez, a rising junior at North Forsyth, visited Pilot Mountain State Park as part of his research on why so many trees at the park fail to reach maturity. Aaliyah Hill, a rising senior at Kennedy High School, collected water samples in Salem Creek to study filtration methods.

As part of the internship, students had to interview professionals in their fields of interest. Maziel Valerrabano-Bernal, a rising junior at Kennedy, got to talk to astrophysicists at Harvard University. Maziel aspires to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Maria, who wants to be a nurse, talked to several nurses and learned of different routes to go into the field, such as going first to community college then to a four-year college.

Students also had to practice public speaking in anticipation of their presentations and learn how use libraries to verify their research, said Alana James, the associate director of community engagement for Wake Downtown.

The amount of confidence Ive seen in them has grown times 10, James said.

Some students are reconsidering what they want to study based on the internship. Aaliyah, for example, is now thinking about going into environmental law based on what she learned about pollutants in local waterways.

I always wanted to be a lawyer or judge, but Ive gotten a whole new outlook, she said. This has really opened my eyes.

Fatima Pichataro Martinez, a rising senior at Parkland, has always been science-minded. She came to enjoy the weeks she spent in a lab studying the shape of cells.

If you had asked me before, I would have said I wanted to be a nurse or nursing assistant, but now Im thinking about biomedical engineer, she said. Its like a door opened to a whole new career I could possibly do.
Hate Out of Winston, a local social justice organization, called Saturday for a boycott of the three Ego Beauty Supply stores in Winston-Salem during its protest at the stores Waughtown Street location.

The organizations appeal for a boycott came after a demonstrator said he told the stores owner to keep your God damned hands off Black women.

The organization staged the protest in response to videos posted to social media showed the stores owner and an employee in a physical confrontation with a Black customer.

Miranda Jones, a representative of Hate Out of Winston, told 25 demonstrators that her organization will lead a boycott of the stores because Hasan Kanan, the owner of the Ego Beauty Supply store at 1232 Waughtown St., has refused to meet the organizations demands.

Kanan couldnt be reached for comment Saturday. A man who answered the phone at the store declined to comment on the Hate Out of Winstons planned boycott of the Ego Beauty Supply stores.

The organization wants local residents to stop buying products from the Ego Beauty Supply stores on Waughtown Street, Shattalon Drive and New Walkertown Road in Winston-Salem.

Terrica Hughes of Bermuda Run was involved in a scuffle July 16 at the stores Waughtown Street location with Kanan and a female employee.

Videos show that Kanan and the employee grabbed Hughes during the encounter. At one point, Hughes hits Kanan and the employee as she leaves the store.

Hughes was among the protesters who attended Saturdays rally.

It warms my heart that you all are so involved, Hughes told the demonstrators. This issue is bigger than me. We are pressing an issue that is very prevalent in the Black community.

Black female customers are mistreated daily in nail shops, beauty supply stores and other retail businesses, Hughes said.

Beauty supply stores are part of a billion-dollar industry, which is fueled by Black female customers, she said.

The mistreatment is uncalled for, Hughes said.

The protesters demonstrated on the sidewalk and in a parking lot near the store for about 90 minutes. They carried signs that said, If Terrica Cant Shop, We Cant Shop, We are Terrica, and Shop Black Owned.

During the protest, the demonstrators chanted, Protect black women. Respect Black women.

Talaya Holland, a co-owner of the House of J. Lorraine in Salisbury, a beauty supply store, urged the demonstrators to order beauty products online from her store.

It is of the utmost important that we patronize Black owned businesses, Holland said.

The protest was peaceful, but there were tense moments.

When Effainguan Muhammad, a student minister with the local Nation of Islam, spoke to the demonstrators, he turned toward a man whom he described as a store representative and said, Our message is short and simple. Keep your God damned hands off Black women.

The man didnt respond to Muhammads statement. Later in the protest, Muhammad approached the man and said that Kanan, the stores owner, had an opportunity to speak to the protesters and the community.

During that exchange, Muhammad told the man not to wave his hands near Muhammads face. The man then walked away toward the store.

We are not patronizing your store, a protester said to the man.

About 30 minutes later, two demonstrators stood in the parking lot in front of the store and urged Black customers not to shop at the store. They also confronted the man who had been monitoring the rally and had earlier spoken to Muhammad.

A few minutes later, a police officer arrived on the scene and spoke to one of the demonstrators. The protester told the officer she and two others had a right to protest in front of Ego Beauty Supply.

The officer told the protester not to block the stores front door. Three demonstrators stood in the parking lot several feet from the stores front door.

They want your money, LaChaundria Hairston of Winston-Salem, a demonstrator, said to the group of Black people who were walking toward the store. You then go into the store and get your ass whipped.

Hate Out of Winston has demanded that Ego Beauty Supply not press charges against Hughes and make an apology to Hughes and the Black community.

The organization also demanded that the store donate no less than 5% of its annual profit to three to five Black nonprofit organizations for three years.

It also demanded that Ego Beauty Supply immediately enact a policy that its employees will not physically assault or place their hands on Black women or any Ego customers.

The group requested that the store make a one-time donation to Hughes business to make their apology more sincere.

During Saturdays protest, Jones said that her organization stood behind its demands to the store.

We are not extortionists, Jones said. We are used to being denigrated, demeaned and castigated by this store. That must change.

Hate Out of Winston posted a video on its Facebook page last week that shows part of the incident, calling it an example of how some retailers mistreat Black customers.

The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. July 16.

Hughes, a hairstylist who has made wigs for the store, went to the store to buy hair glue and another product. The total came to $31.17.

The issue began as she was paying. Kanan said it was unclear whether her payment actually cleared.

At some point during the encounter, Hughes showed them her online banking account, which showed the purchase as pending.

Hughes thought that was the end of of it. Kanan did not.

Hughes posted a 71-second clip of that video to social media, saying she posted it publicly to show the circumstances that led to the incident.

The video shows moments leading up to the encounter between Hughes, Kanan and the female store employee. Hughes attempts to leave the store, where she says she spent 20 to 30 minutes.

Kanan grabs Hughes and pushes her back to the stores counter. The female employee also grabs Hughes, and Kanan takes a bag from her.

The full video includes footage that shows Hughes hitting Kanan and the employee as she leaves the store. At one point, Hughes posted a clip with that encounter.

Kanan has admitted taking the merchandise from Hughes on July 16 but, Kanan said he did not hit or attack her. He said he went behind her and held her to get the merchandise.

Hughes and Kanan have apologized publicly for their actions during the incident.
Sleeping Alone: Stories, Ru Freeman, Graywolf Press, 216 pages, $16.

In Waterville, Maine, Maya visits Venus Day Spa & Bistro to have a spa facial. She brings "tropical brown skin to the table" and also a "bliss-resistant body." Suzanne, the salon's owner, puts her at ease, first by massaging away nerves and then by sharing confidences about her mother who abandoned her as a child.

Such candid revelations prompt Maya to trace parallels with her own hardscrabble childhood in a foreign land. Soon she is looking back and opening up, telling Suzanne how she coped when her mother left her behind in their hut on a muddy riverbank to earn money as a housemaid elsewhere. As Maya talks, she throws light on the girl she was and the woman she became.

"Beauty Treatments" is one of 11 tales that make up "Sleeping Alone," Ru Freeman's first short story collection. Though unnamed, Maya's "island home" is presumably Freeman's native land, Sri Lanka. It provided the setting for her two novels. However, it serves as the backdrop for only a couple of stories here. Freeman bases her miniature dramas in several locations and homes in on a variety of sharply drawn characters, many of them outside their comfort zones and trying to adapt and connect.

In "The Irish Girl," we meet another character who has left "the island." Don arrives in Dublin from Sri Lanka in 1969 to start work at a cheese company. He lodges with Madailein, her feckless husband, and their daughters. As he spends time in his landlady's company, enjoying her songs and sherry-fueled conversations, he gradually experiences "the full-bellied solace of desire."

Freeman's longest and most inventive story, "The Wake," plays out in New York City and follows a girl called Sylvia who endures considerable upheaval when her mother becomes a devotee of a cult that meets in their family apartment  the only place in the city in which Agapito, the cult's leader, can feel "divine vibrancies." But when Agapito dies, his miraculous resurrection doesn't go quite to plan.

A handful of stories deal with reactions to lives cut tragically short. "Kobe Loves Me" unites a teacher and student in their grief for a "Black king who turned Black boys into princes." "Retaining Walls" centers on a contractor who forges a strong bond with his latest clients and learns of the suicide of a much-missed brother and son. But while he earns trust and builds intimacy, his marriage starts to unravel.

One or two stories peter out without having amounted to much. The rest of them are deftly constructed and vividly realized. The eponymous tale about a Middle Eastern immigrant intent on wreaking havoc ("I am the slim, slivered bone that buries itself in an unreachable part of your throat, just when you thought the chowder tasted good") shows that Freeman is capable of producing darker hues, and of disturbing and delighting in equal measure.
This should set off alarm bells  and take your breath away.

One-third of Republicans, 20% of Democrats and 37% of gun-owners believe that "it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government," according to the results of a new University of Chicago Institute of Politics poll.

Incredible!

That's madness.

"This is the road to destruction and no one gets to leave" are the lyrics to the song.

The poison has been spread and it has taken hold and here we are just 246 years after 1776 on the verge of blowing it.

"We must not be enemies," Lincoln pleaded just before our Civil War erupted.

"Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

"The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

It's time to listen to Lincoln again  and get it right this time.

* * *

Public schools are on the defensive in Nebraska.

That's where most kids get their early basic education, where imaginations are triggered, stimulated and fueled, where lives and dreams begin to take shape in concert with the growth and encouragement and vital support that comes from home.

Some political detractors like to call them government schools because they are tax-supported. It's not a friendly term.

They are under attack in Nebraska and elsewhere in America -- and often struggling for political support.

"Political battles are now a central feature of education, leaving school boards, educators and students in the crosshairs of culture warriors," a Washington Post article earlier in the year stated.

"Schools are on the defensive about their pandemic decision-making, their curriculums, their policies regarding race and racial equity and even the contents of their libraries."

The Nebraska Board of Education came under fire a year ago and halted plans for new health education standards after criticism from some parents and conservative family-values groups that the content was sexually inappropriate.

It's certainly fair, and even vital, that families and taxpayers monitor public school performance.

But, hopefully, the goal would be to seek and support quality public education rather than pursue political objectives.

* * *

Finishing up:

* Rep. Mike Flood's committee assignments as the newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives: the Small Business Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee. The latter is the main investigative committee of the House.

* After noting that Nebraska's congressional delegation voted against the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that pumped a billion dollars of federal economic recovery funding into Nebraska, Bob Kerrey ended a commentary article in the Nebraska Examiner with three words: "Thank you, Joe!"

* If Jim Pillen is elected in November, it looks like he would be the first Nebraska governor elected from the agricultural sector in almost a century, although Dwight Burney, a Hartington farmer, served as governor for four months following the death of Ralph Brooks in 1960 after moving up to the governorship from his post as lieutenant governor.

* And if Carol Blood wins the governorship, she would be the second woman elected to be Nebraska's governor following the election of Kay Orr in 1986 when voters chose between two women nominees. Former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis carried the Democratic banner; Orr was the first Republican woman to be elected as a governor in the United States.

* The Russians stayed in Afghanistan for almost 10 years after their 1979 invasion before giving up and heading home.

* Early legislative maneuvering and speculation: Sen. John Arch of La Vista is still on course to be elected Speaker; Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, chairwoman of the Revenue Committee, is emerging as an increasingly powerful legislative figure next year; a big decision is still unsettled as to who will chair the Appropriations Committee.

* The guess at the Capitol: No special session this year to attempt to enact a bill prohibiting abortions in Nebraska with few, if any, exceptions. If there aren't 33 votes locked down and guaranteed, Gov. Pete Ricketts isn't going to take the risk of finishing his governorship with an embarrassing political loss on a key Republican issue that would reverberate nationally.

* Zach Pluhacek tweet: "make the Haymarket pedestrian only."
Two weeks ago, we had the official Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at our new Telegraph District offices.

It was a wonderful reminder of our long-standing commitment to the community at the same time we celebrated the transformation the Lincoln Journal Star has witnessed.

And that transformation continued this week with the news that Natalia Wiita has been named president and publisher of the Journal Star. I will continue to be president of the Omaha World-Herald, but I am taking on new duties, overseeing Lee Enterprises markets from Nebraska to Napa, California.

Ill live in Lincoln, have an office for occasional use in Lincoln, but Natalia is running the show here now.

Having worked closely with her for almost 18 years, I am excited to hand the reins of a fantastic business to her.

When I joined the Journal Star in 1995, I was a single mom to a 5-year-old girl and an 11-day-old baby boy. I was attending UNL and working in the classified ad department. I took the job at the paper for the free parking close to the university, but I had dreams of finishing college and attending law school.

My mom took care of my son so I could work and go to school. The kids and I lived in a six-plex at 19th and F streets. My landlords were an amazing couple named Roger and Jan, who helped our little family in countless ways. My friends and other family members pitched in, too. It was a challenging time, but I had a ton of help along the way.

And I discovered I loved the Journal Star. Over the years, my work changed a lot. I joke that Ive done just about every job in the company. It seems like just about the time I felt like I figured out one thing, my job changed again. There were long hours and many weekends spent working. My kids practically grew up in our old building at Ninth and P streets, but they didnt complain.

What never changed  and still hasnt  is my deep appreciation for those who have been part of making the past 27 years extraordinary, both inside and outside my newspaper family. I have been mentored by exceptional leaders, pushed and supported by caring co-workers and I have been uplifted by friendships and professional relationships with wonderful people everywhere in our community.

But my work outside Lincoln has demanded more time, and Natalia has been quick to step up  as she always has.

Like me, she started at the Journal Star in classified sales while attending UNL. She was named advertising director in 2012, then vice president in 2017. In January of 2021, her role was expanded to include markets across Nebraska.

Natalia has played a key role as the Journal Star has broadened the way it delivers content to readers and audiences to businesses.

She has been pivotal in the growth of our Inspire program, which celebrates womens leadership across the broad spectrum of business, government, education and philanthropy. The growth of the Inspire Womens Leadership program  in its eighth year  is a source of pride and joy for me.

In my roles at the Journal Star and on various committees and boards, Ive been exposed to countless great leaders pushing this community forward, people who lead big businesses and are actively supporting Lincoln with their time and treasure. I have been involved in causes that have introduced me to people who have faced real-life struggles and challenges and have persevered, enriching our community one life at a time.

Thats why the Inspire program has become so important to me  and why I have been grateful for the communitys support of it. It honors women and cuts across socioeconomic lines to recognize good people doing good things wherever they may be. It honors women trying to transform our community. Well celebrate them at the upcoming event in September.

Transformation is a constant in life and in business. For a business thats been around as long as the Journal Star, weve seen a lot of it. Its accelerating, exhilarating and sometimes a little hard or sad.

I have relished  and will continue to enjoy  my relationships in the community. But Im really excited to see where this staff in this new space and with its new leader will go.
A grand jury has reviewed the fatal shooting of a Columbus man by a Nebraska State Patrol trooper in Lincoln and cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

According to a recently filed transcript of a closed hearing earlier this summer, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Dan Zieg told jurors the sole question was whether Trooper Adam Strode's decision to use deadly force against German Pedraza was justified under the law.

On Nov. 24, Strode and Lincoln Police Investigator Andrew Barksdale, both members of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force, had been driving through the area of 19th and G streets on the way to check out a Crime Stoppers call.

Nothing came of the Crime Stoppers tip. But on the way to it, Barksdale said he noticed a distinctive car, a white Chrysler 300 with a black driver's side quarter panel and 25-county plates, that they'd recently seen in a hotel parking lot known for drug dealing. He pointed it out to Strode.

While they were leaving the Crime Stoppers tip, they drove back past the apartment complex at 1905 G St.

There's no video of what happened next. Task force investigators don't wear body cameras.

Barksdale said he saw a man he didn't know, later identified as Pedraza, walk to the Chrysler with a woman and get in. Pedraza made a U-turn and turned into the apartment parking lot without signaling.

So the two officers, in plain clothes and in an unmarked pickup, pulled up behind the car, blocking them in, to talk to them about the traffic violation, Barksdale said.

He said when he and Strode got out with their badges on lanyards around their necks, Pedraza, who was getting out of the car, looked right at them.

"And he had like a very wide-eyed, shocked look to see that we were there," the LPD officer said.

He thought Pedraza was going to take off running, but instead he got right back in the car.

Barksdale can't remember if he said the word "police" but they were calling out directions and the two inside could see their badges. He said he went to the passenger door and pulled the woman, Cassie Navrkal, out.

But Pedraza stayed put, his left hand on the steering wheel or next to it.

Barksdale thought Pedraza was going to ram their truck to try to get away, which could be especially dangerous with both officers just outside the car's open doors.

So he reached in to the push-button ignition to try to turn off the car.

"Simultaneously, or maybe even as I was going inside the vehicle, I noted Mr. Pedraza was going for his right front pants pocket," the officer told the grand jury.

Barksdale said he saw a baggie that looked like meth fall out of Pedraza's pocket.

He said he struggled with Pedraza, trying to get him out, but Pedraza kept tugging on something. He thought he was going for a weapon, so he started striking him, yelling for him to get out of the car and to Strode that he was going for something in his pocket.

"At some point, his hand comes from his front right pants pocket up toward his waist," Barksdale said.

Pedraza hunched over the steering wheel and started turning toward the driver's door.

Barksdale went to get out of the passenger side. That's when he heard Strode yell, "Gun."

"And then I heard a single gunshot," he said.

Barksdale didn't know right away who fired. When he came around the car, Pedraza was lying on the ground, with a single gunshot wound to his neck, a silver pistol on the ground next to him.

He wasn't moving. Navrkal was screaming.

Barksdale cuffed her and called dispatch for an ambulance, running to the front of the building to see the address.

Strode, who had been on the driver's side, told the jurors he had opened the driver's door with the intent of removing Pedraza from the car and detaining him.

First, he had tried to break his grasp from the steering wheel. That's when he started digging in his pocket.

It turned into a struggle between Pedraza and the two officers that Strode said felt like quite some time but in reality lasted just seconds.

Their strikes weren't working, he said. So he tried to pull him out by his left arm.

When Pedraza brought his arm forward and leaned down, "It was at that moment ... I saw him with the gun in his hand," Strode said.

"I honestly thought I was going to be shot," the trooper said.

Strode yelled "Gun" and drew his handgun, placed the muzzle into Pedraza's back or upper neck area and kept yelling for him to stop and show him his hands.

"And did he ever stop or show you his hands?" Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon asked him.

"No," Strode said.

It was too close quarters to use a Taser or pepper spray, even if they had them, both officers said.

When Pedraza planted his left foot out of the car, Strode said he got a clear view of the serrations on the side of the gun's slide and the black grip above his thumb.

He said his mind raced: What if it's a fake; what if it's unloaded?

"He was beginning to stand up and lean out of the vehicle. At that time, I decided to fire a round. And I squeezed the trigger and fired one round," Strode said. "He immediately dropped to the ground."

He said Pedraza still was grasping the gun in his right hand, so he leaned down and used two fingers to take it out of his hand.

It was loaded with two bullets.

Pedraza died in the hospital four days later.

Condon asked Strode if there was a reason he didn't try to fire into his leg or his arm to disable him.

"Yes, because we're trained to shoot center mass into vital organs to neutralize the threat," he said.

Plus, he said, he had to worry about the possibility of crossfire hitting Barksdale.

In the investigation that followed, Lancaster County Sheriff's investigators learned there was a warrant out for Pedraza's arrest for missing court for a high-speed chase Oct. 17 in Butler County that turned up more than a half pound of methamphetamine and two stolen guns.

He was facing seven felony drug and gun charges for it that would surely send him to prison if he ended up convicted.

Pedraza had just gotten out of prison in June 2020, after serving a 10- to 14-year sentence on burglary, theft and gun charges. And Navrkal said he'd told her he wasn't going back.

She wasn't called to testify before the grand jury, but she told an investigator she thought he was going for his gun when he reached in his pocket.

In separate reviews, the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, Lincoln Police Department and Nebraska State Patrol all concluded the officers' actions and the use of deadly force that day were justified.

In the end, so, too, did the grand jury.
Nebraskas two U.S. senators expressed confidence that a bill expanding health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan will make it across the finish line after they joined Republican colleagues earlier this week to delay the bills passage.

Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse were among the 41 Republicans in the Senate who moved to force debate on amendments that would reduce future mandatory spending in the bill. Both Nebraska senators were among the 84 who voted in favor of another version of the bill last month.

That legislation hit a snag due to a line on nontaxable benefits. The Constitution requires all bills with tax items to originate in the House. The House passed the bill on an overwhelming 342-88 vote earlier this month.

This time around some Republican senators said they wanted to take the opportunity to debate amendments to the legislation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will bring the bill back to the floor next week, and that he will allow Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to bring an amendment addressing mandatory spending to the floor for debate.

The Republican senators who changed their minds, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, did so shortly after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced a deal with Schumer on a separate tax and spending bill that Republicans are united against.

The delay sparked an outcry from Democrats, some of whom were joined Thursday by comedian Jon Stewart, who has been an outspoken advocate for the legislation.

They love to say they support the troops, but they dont support the troops, Stewart told reporters Thursday. They support the war machine.

But some Republican senators downplayed the delay as part of the normal process and expressed optimism about the ultimate fate of the bill.

A spokesperson for Fischer said the senator expects the legislation, known as the PACT Act, to make it across the finish line next week.

Sen. Fischer remains committed to getting this bill done, the spokesperson said.

A spokesman from Sasses office also said they expect the bill will become law, adding that its unfortunate that Democrats are trying to score partisan points.

This is part of the legislative process: The Senate passed the bill two weeks ago with Senator Sasses support, the House made some changes so it came back to the Senate, and now the Senate should include an amendment from Senator Toomey to fix an accounting issue, the spokesman said.

Toomey, one of the few senators to consistently vote against the bill, has said it creates a slush fund and would create a huge explosion in veterans funding in the future.

The version passed by the Senate last month would have expanded health care and disability benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in response to concerns about their exposure to toxic burn pits. The military routinely used open burn pits set ablaze with jet fuel to dispose of tires, batteries, medical waste and other materials during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was projected to increase federal spending by about $283 billion over 10 years and did not include offsetting spending cuts or tax increases to help pay for it.

There are going to be veterans who die between now and when this bill passes, Senate Veterans Affairs Chairman Jon Tester said following the delay in the Senate. I apologize for the dysfunction, but if were able to step up, I think we can right this ship.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who supported the legislation last month, told reporters he believes the bill will eventually pass, provided Republicans are allowed debate on their amendments. Democrats want to pass the bill before they break for the August recess.

The issue is personal for President Joe Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer. Beau Biden served overseas near burn pits, and Biden has suggested that the toxins from the pits may have caused the disease. The president mentioned protections for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in his first State of the Union address this year.

World-Herald staff writers Steve Liewer and Ryan Hoffman contributed to this report, which includes material from Bloomberg News and the Associated Press.
Until a couple of years ago, Mark Walz said he had never even heard the term "derecho."

That's impressive for an insurance company CEO, but it illustrates to some degree how the nature of weather-related disasters in Nebraska has changed over the past few years.

When Nebraskans think of weather-generating headlines, they likely think of tornadoes that have caused significant damage to cities such as Grand Island, Omaha and Hallam.

But lately, it's been just as likely that hailstorms or derechos  the name for a long-lived, straight-line wind storm that's usually associated with fast-tracking thunderstorms  are responsible for big, expensive weather events.

Another notable change: Extreme weather events are happening more frequently in months when they wouldn't be expected.

For example, the derecho that tore through Nebraska in December spawned nearly two dozen tornadoes, more than four times as many as had been recorded in the month in the state's history.

"Both the frequency and the severity of weather-related disasters has absolutely increased in the state of Nebraska over the past decade, with the 2020, 2021 and 2022 storm seasons reflecting this phenomenon," said Walz, chairman, president and CEO of Farmers Mutual of Nebraska.

Prior to 2016, he said, the storm season in Nebraska typically began in mid-April and was done by Sept. 1.

"Since that time, we have experienced large storm events as early as March 13 and as late as Dec. 25, with the norm now appearing to be mid-March through mid-October," Walz said. "That represents a 75-day extension of our storm season. This is not an insignificant change."

That longer time span in which extreme weather events are occurring also translates to Nebraska seeing more of them.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Nebraska has been affected by 53 weather events since 1980 that have caused at least $1 billion in damage. However, 44 of the 53 have occurred since 2000, and 29 have occurred since 2010.

In the 20-year period from 1980-2000, the state averaged one billion-dollar disaster every two years, but from 2000-2020 it averaged 1.8 per year.

And if you look more recently, the pace is accelerating. From 2010-2020, the pace was 2.1 per year. In the last five years, ending in 2021, there was an average of 2.8 billion-dollar disasters per year.

And this year, there have already been four through mid-July, including a derecho that hit the state in May  the third in as many years  and a hailstorm in early June. On Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that 20 counties in central and eastern Nebraska are now eligible for federal disaster assistance because of damage caused by the May derecho.

Combine those two events with another severe storm with hail in June and Walz said Farmers Mutual has seen the second-, third- and fifth-largest loss events in its 130-year history this year alone, totaling nearly $300 million. That amount doesn't include an estimated $40 million in losses from the December derecho.

The Nebraska numbers mirror a national trend. According to NOAA, the U.S. as a whole has averaged 7.7 billion-dollar weather disasters a year since 1980, but the rate has more than doubled, to 18.7, in just the past three years. The total cost of those disasters has nearly doubled in the past three years as well.

Nebraska State Climatologist Martha Shulski said climate change is not only playing a role in the frequency of weather disasters, but it also amplifies their effects.

"We do see an increasing trend in natural hazards that are occurring locally, nationally and globally," Shulski said.

"For us in Nebraska, these increasing trends of costly disasters will continue upward as climate change leads to more extreme events," she said. "We will have a greater risk for heat events, severe storms, drought (and) flooding because their occurrence will generally increase in magnitude and frequency."

Walz agrees. He highlighted the fact that Nebraska has seen three derechos in the past three years after previously averaging about one per decade as "a clear indication that weather patterns are changing."

"While we cannot predict future weather disasters in the state of Nebraska with certainty, our experience suggests that we should expect an increased frequency and severity of these kinds of events in the future," he said.

Shulski said it's important for officials to make moves now to help mitigate the effects of those future weather events.

Among her suggestions: reviewing and updating the state drought plan, which was released more than 20 years ago, and incorporating amplified hazards into municipal planning documents such as emergency operations and hazard mitigation plans.

"Events such as worsening heat waves and intense, flooding rains should be viewed looking forward, not in the rearview mirror," she said. "We will be much better off to use our climate planning roadmap and not just our climate history."
The pastor is at his pulpit, eulogizing his 10-year-old through tears.

But his sons classmates, parishioners, friends, family are laughing at the memories of Ben Prince. Theyd been given permission to laugh, and to cry, at the start of the funeral on July 11.

Tim Prince is reading from a list he started the family's first night home from Nebraska, when he pulled out a piece of paper and started writing down all he could remember about Ben.

His wife and two other sons joined him, and they filled five pages.

Ben woke consistently at 6:30 a.m., except Saturdays, when the boys had free rein of the TV, so Ben would wake his brothers at 5:30 a.m.  or earlier  to play video games.

Ben had just mastered the Rubiks cube and was teaching himself to juggle.

Bens favorite place was grandpa and grandmas farm. In June, he helped fix a fuel line on a machine. He was right in there, he wanted to get it right. He was eager to grow up.

Ben was a good thinker but an average student who believed handing in homework was optional.

Ben didnt like biking, but he loved swimming. He was learning to play the piano, he was going to be a school crossing guard in the fall, he loved reading maps and he loved Calvin and Hobbes  and wore a smirk like Calvin.

He was a good-looking kid, a really good-looking kid, his father says now, tears returning. When they retrieved his body on Sunday, I got to just sit with him in the ambulance and hold his hand. He has the most beautiful hands, a boys hands, but you could see they were already getting bigger and stronger.

The incredible weight of the debris

They were on vacation.

Tim Prince had delivered the service at Faith Community Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, the morning of July 3, and then he and his family  wife Darcy and sons Caleb, Ben and Jordan  headed southwest for a trip to Colorado.

They were traveling with two other pastors from the church and their families, and they all made it as far as York that first day. The Princes checked into the Hampton Inn, 500 miles from home.

The 911 calls started pouring in just after 9 that night.

Multiple calls, people screaming, York Police Sgt. Ben Rodenborg wrote the next day in his report, one of six officer accounts obtained by the Journal Star through a public records request.

The ceiling above the swimming pool at the Hampton Inn  a 13-year-old hotel just north of Interstate 80  had collapsed, the callers told dispatchers. And people may be trapped.

Officer Zac Milliken arrived before Rodenborg. Inside the pool area, he found a father holding his sons hand.

The boys head and chest were on the deck, his legs were still in the water, and he was pinned by a large piece of the ceiling. He was not moving.

The man was also pushing against the slab, trying to free the boy. York Police officers and York County Sheriffs deputies tried to lift the debris, too, but were unable to.

These attempts were impeded by falling water from the ceiling and the incredible weight of the debris, Milliken wrote.

When it fell, the ceiling brought with it the 2-by-4 framing, ductwork, lights and wiring, and had torn open a pipe, and water was gushing into the pool room.

The first responders feared more of the ceiling could fall, so they evacuated, one of the officers taking the man by the arm and walking him out.

Rodenborg arrived, saw the boys body and the gushing water, and found the hotels maintenance man at the front desk.

We need to shut off the water and power immediately, he said.

The control rooms in the pool area, the maintenance man told him.

Together, they pushed through several inches of water and forced the control room door open enough to get inside. The manager joined them, and Rodenborg told her to check the hotels cameras, to make sure nobody else was trapped.

At about the same time, Officer Bricen Bates was searching for the utility shut-offs, too, and slipped on the wet tile, wedging his right foot beneath a door and falling.

He stood, felt the pain in his ankle, but kept working, he wrote.

Just outside the pool, Bates found two adults and two boys, crying. He was guiding them to a safer place to wait when the older boy asked him to promise: Dont let my brother die.

I told the juvenile that he needed to be a strong big brother and help his little brother and mom.

Rodenborg told Bates to confirm nobody else was beneath the debris, so he found the manager and reviewed the surveillance footage.

On it, he saw just the three boys in the pool, and their mother watching from the deck. He saw the ceiling sag in the center, the mother helping her sons get out. And then he saw the ceiling collapse, and he couldnt see anything after that.

Bates joined other officers  and two jail employees  who were evacuating hotel guests, ushering them across the street to Runza. Most of them complied, but the front desk told Bates that people in three rooms were refusing to leave.

He got a master key, and he and the other officers canvassed the hotel, checking room after room, ensuring they were empty.

They found two locked with security latches, so he and Sgt. Jeffrey Brown used their body weight to force the doors open. They escorted the guests out of the building.

Officers obtained that nights hotel guest list and conducted a roll call at the Runza. Eventually, everybody was accounted for, and the Hampton Inn manager found them rooms at the Best Western.

Only then did Bates go to the hospital for his ankle.

Back in the pool room, the York Fire Department was trying to retrieve the boys body. The debris was too heavy to lift by hand, so tow trucks from Hitz Towing and Mogul Towing were called to stabilize part of it while firefighters used airbags, lifting the debris enough so they could pull him out.

But almost all of the pool was covered by the ceiling, and they wanted to be sure nobody else was under it, Fire Chief Tony Bestwick said. That night, they called Lincoln Fire and Rescues Urban Search and Rescue team, to see if it had an underwater camera. It didnt, Bestwick said.

Then, at about midnight, they checked with the Grand Island Dive Rescue Team, which did, and made arrangements for the team to be in York early the next morning.

The fire chief didnt really want us in the water, said rescue team secretary Jack Welch. So I had my underwater camera and I had it on a pole that I could put down in the water.

He added dive lights, and they spent about 45 minutes recording beneath the ceiling and reviewing the footage. They were able to access most of the pool, but not all of it, Welch said.

The fire department called a plumber, who drained the pool. Firefighters were finally able to climb down into it and move the drywall and other debris around enough to determine it was empty.

No authority to investigate

A month later, its not clear what caused the ceiling to collapse.

Theres been no investigation by authorities, and none appears to be planned.

The day after the collapse, news outlets reported the Nebraska State Fire Marshal's Agency was investigating. But it isnt, said spokeswoman Regina Shields. The fire marshal investigates fires and explosions, not structural failures.

It did dispatch an inspector to the hotel to look for any fire code concerns with the rest of the hotel, because the sprinkler system is connected throughout the building.

York Police officers documented what they saw  and what they did  that night, but they arent investigating further because its not a criminal case, said city administrator Sue Crawford.

And the citys building inspectors arent looking into the collapse, either, she said. Their authority is to make sure a new structure meets the citys building codes and is safe for occupation  and remains safe after a renovation.

They dont investigate problems after a building is issued an occupancy permit.

I was hoping the fire marshals office had that authority, but it turns out they dont, Crawford said. Our job, in terms of safety, is to ensure the buildings structurally safe when built and remains structurally safe when occupied.

When it was built in 2009, the Hampton Inn  like other buildings in York  went through a 28-step process before it could earn an occupancy permit, with multiple inspections, including a final sign-off by an engineer.

But all of that is proactive, ensuring the building is structurally sound. When there is a tragedy and no one knows for sure what the cause is, that is unsettling to me, Crawford said.

She predicted the collapse will, ultimately, be investigated and litigated civilly  in court.

When someone is harmed, terribly harmed, that is another way the law works, that there is a civil investigation to identify responsibility and accountability.

If something similar happened in Lincoln, the citys Building and Safety Department wouldnt necessarily investigate to determine the cause of the failure, but it would make sure the rest of the building was safe, said director Chad Blahak.

Wed show up and do an investigation to ascertain what kind of repairs are needed, and do we have to condemn the area? If there was a collapse like that, wed get involved.

The hotels management isnt talking. A woman who came to the phone in York said she was authorized to answer questions but: Were not answering questions at this time.

And a corporate spokeswoman for Hilton  Hampton Inns parent company  declined to reply to questions, saying the York hotel is independently owned and operated, and shed forward the Journal Stars inquiry to the property owner.

A banner at the top of the website for Yorks Hampton Inn said the pool was closed for renovations.

So hard and dark

Eight days later, at the start of his sons funeral, Tim Prince gave thanks.

He thanked the two pastors and their families who had been traveling with them to Colorado. They sat and cried with the Prince family that night in York, drove them home to Hudson, stayed at their house with them until relatives arrived.

One of our family mottos is, well have what we need when we need it. You were what we needed on July 3.

He thanked Yorks first responders. Who worked so hard to retrieve Bens body and treated it with such dignity. And sat with us while we waited for the worst. Words cannot express our gratitude.

And he thanked his family.

After narrowly escaping the room with their own lives, all three rushed back into a collapsing building to rescue their brother and pushed and pulled and fought with a collapsing ceiling until their backs and knees and hands were raw and bleeding.

Near the end of his sons eulogy, Prince talked about the pain of the family's loss.

Over and over through the boys' school years, he and his wife have prayed for their sons, he said. God, prepare them for good work in your kingdom.

We could not wait to see what he would become. That is what has made this last week so incomprehensible to us, so hard and dark. Not just that Ben is gone, but that he left in such an awful way.
Nebraska may hold the record for having the shortest term for a serving governor when Francis Burt took the oath of office on Oct. 16 and died, probably without getting out of bed, on Oct. 18, 1854.

Partially because territorial governors were appointed by the U.S. president, instead of being elected, Nebraska, like other territories, tended to have governors who served only months or a couple of years. A good example is Nebraskas Territorial Gov. Samuel Black who served from 1859 to 1861 and is more remembered for controversies than accomplishments.

Samuel Wylie (occasionally erroneously Watson) Black was born in 1818, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a Presbyterian minister. After becoming an attorney in 1838, he served with the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers as a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican War of 1847.

As he proved successful in the army and was already known as a popular orator, he was nominated for a seat in the U.S. Congress from Pennsylvania while still in the field, however he was narrowly defeated. President James Buchanan appointed him as a judge to the 2nd Judicial District for the Nebraska Territory in 1857, resulting in his moving to Nebraska City.

When Territorial Gov. William Richardson resigned on Dec. 5, 1868, after serving for less than a year, J. Sterling Morton became acting governor. Black was then appointed by Buchanan as Nebraskas fourth (or 3rd or 6th, depending on how you count) governor in February of 1859 and took office as of May 2, 1859.

Because of Buchanans political standing, Black was considered a pro-slavery democrat and a strong partisan. Because, unlike most territorial appointees as governor, he, as a judge, actually lived in Nebraska, he was considered a son and not a carpet bagger and became the first governor who was actually from Nebraska.

The Nebraska City News lauded him and came to his defense after a New York City newspaper called him intemperate, saying the reports were base and malicious lies.

Governor Blacks first address to the Territorial Legislature was long and primarily a detailed list of Nebraskas good points. He did suggest a review of all laws passed by the legislature in 1858, noted that real estate taxes should be the primary source of revenue, that a bounty should be awarded for the planting of trees and that a $30,000 appropriation should be passed to complete construction of the Omaha capitol building.

In 1859 a bill prohibiting slavery in Nebraska Territory passed in the council 7-3 and in the House 19-17. The bill, though passed in both houses, was vetoed by Governor Black. The U.S. census of 1860 showed 81 blacks in Nebraska including 10 slaves, though Mortons three-volume of Nebraska history said, free colored 67; slaves 15 [of which] 10 were in Otoe and 5 in Kearney County.

Some felt the number of slaves was insignificant while Blacks veto quoted a clause in the Louisiana Purchase Treaty guaranteeing inhabitants free enjoyment of their liberty and property ... prior to their admission as states. Black pointed out that slaves were property and Nebraska was not yet a state. A major controversy arose. The governors veto was overridden 10-3 in the council and 33-3 in the house.

On Oct. 9 an election for Nebraskas delegate to the U.S. Congress was held. On Nov. 2 Governor Black confirmed that J. sterling Morton had received the highest number of votes by 14 votes. Then, on April 29, 1861, Governor Black revoked the certification of election saying the canvas of the northern precinct of LEau-qui-Court County was fraud throughout.

He then threw out all of their votes and certified that Samuel G. Daily was in fact elected, not Morton. Although Morton and Black were considered friends at one point, this act ended that.

On May 11, 1861, Black resigned as governor and on May 14 returned to Pittsburgh where he raised the 62nd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, serving with the rank of colonel. On Friday, June 27, 1862, while leading his regiment in a bayonet charge at the Battle of Gaines Mill, Samuel Black was killed and subsequently buried in Pittsburgh.

Although it appears Black resigned to serve in Abraham Lincolns Union Army, Mortons History of Nebraska says Black, the third governor of Nebraska Territory was removed from the office by President Lincoln. Exactly how the removal or resignation occurred, it recalls Winston Churchills quote, history will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Descriptions of Black take both sides of the controversy which played out, one describing him as tall, slender, and straight as an arrow. Another says he was a man warmly attached to those whom he regarded as his friends, but inclined to be vindictive towards his opponents. One thing is certain, President Abraham Lincoln did appoint a Republican, Alvin Saunders of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, as Nebraska Territorys next governor.
OMAHA  Not since the days of Dr. Strangelove has the commander occupying Adm. Charles Richards Offutt Air Force Base headquarters faced so many fast-rising threats to the United States and its nuclear umbrella.

Russia has launched the largest land war in Europe in 80 years while engaging in what Richard calls not-so-thinly veiled nuclear saber-rattling. China is building desert silos for hundreds of ballistic missiles. North Korea has tested rockets with the range to hit the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. Iran is free from an international agreement that constrained it from developing its own bomb.

Against the backdrop of those threats, Richard, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, brought some of the Wests top nuclear policy experts to Nebraska last week for the two-day Deterrence Symposium in La Vista.

We just havent had stress on strategic deterrence in the last 30 years that has compared with what we have today, Richard said during a news briefing last week. The strength of our nuclear deterrent is what underpins and backstops every other thing we do inside the Department of Defense to defend our nation.

The symposium has been held annually since 2009, though the last two were held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Often the conference focuses on the military and academic theory governing the nuclear balance of power that kept the U.S. and Russia from destroying each other during the Cold War and in the years after.

This year, though, sessions focused on concrete topics such as Chinas strategic breakout and Russias invasion of Ukraine. One panel looked at how to deter two nuclear-armed peer competitors at once  a threat that seemed distant as recently as two years ago.

Chinas strategic breakout is not just a talking point anymore, said Christopher Yeaw, a top nuclear strategist at the National Strategic Research Institute, a StratCom-funded think tank at the University of Nebraska.

Currently, the U.S. and Russia remain well ahead of China, but analysts have warned that China  which, unlike the U.S. and Russia, is not part of any arms control agreements  could catch up in a decade or so.

Several panelists warned of the consequences of a three-way nuclear duel among the powers.

We dont have the luxury of just deterring one near-peer nuclear power at a time, said Patty-Jane Geller, a nuclear deterrence and missile defense analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. We need to be able to absorb a first strike, and then retaliate.

Paige Cone, an assistant professor at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies in Montgomery, Alabama, warned of opportunistic aggression. For example: if China tried to seize Taiwan while the U.S. and NATO are focused on Russia and Ukraine.

It also provides the opportunity for two countries to ally themselves against the third. At least for now, it appears the U.S. is most likely to be the odd man out.

(Russia and China) both view the United States as a singular threat, Cone said.

Keir Lieber, director of the security studies program at Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service, described arms control talks as dead, or at least in a coma.

He supports the U.S. development of lower-yield nuclear weapons such as the proposed submarine-launched cruise missile, which would help to offset what he sees as a growing U.S. disadvantage in Asia compared with China and North Korea.

And he warned that the U.S. employed a ham-fisted Ukraine policy in recent years that needlessly antagonized the Russians.

We should be playing kissy-face with the Russians right now, to prevent them from siding with China in the coming conflict, he said, exaggerating for effect.

All of these are factoring into Richards strident calls for the U.S. to keep modernizing its out-of-date nuclear arsenal, though he stopped short of requesting more weapons beyond those called for in the still-unreleased 2022 Nuclear Posture Review.

He singled out Russia specifically for rhetoric that is irresponsible, that is unhelpful, that is unnecessary  unseen, he added, even during the depths of the Cold War.

What previously in some cases had been thought to be a theoretical or highly improbable threat, Richard said, has now turned out to be real.
1872: Moses Sydenham gave up hope of moving the national capital to Fort Kearny, which he claimed was the exact geographical center of the United States.

1882: The telephone company required subscribers to give their own numbers before asking for the numbers wanted.

1892: Lincoln sanitary commissioners proposed a 4-mill levy to straighten Salt Creek.

1902: President Theodore Roosevelt promised to visit Nebraska in September.

Col. William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show drew a big crowd here.

1912: The University of Nebraska was growing, with seven new buildings scheduled on the City Campus and four at the farm on Holdrege Street.

1922: P. Henry DuBois, special detective from the Burns Agency, arrived in Lincoln for an investigation of gas attacks on police and county officers.

Police were called to F Street Park to disperse crowds of railway strike sympathizers.

1932: One man died after inhaling fumigating gas at the Gooch macaroni factory; another was seriously ill.

1942: Nebraska led all states in per capita scrap metal collections. A national campaign was part of the World War II armament effort.

1952: H. Bascom Watts, Nebraska's new Methodist bishop, arrived in Lincoln from his former home in Tulsa, Okla.

1962: Ground was broken on a 230-acre tract south of Lincoln and east of U.S. 77 for what became Lincoln Industrial Park.

Lincoln and Lancaster County residents numbering 101,488 took part in Sabin Oral Sunday to be immunized against polio.

1972: State Motor Vehicles Director John Kissack resigned, beginning changes in state and city government. Gov. J.J. Exon named one of his administrative assistants, John L. Sullivan, to succeed Kissack, and Leo Scherer, administrative aide to Lincoln Mayor Sam Schwartzkopf, replaced Sullivan.

1982: The former Russell Stover Candy factory, 201 N. Eighth St., was being renovated into The Candy Factory, an office and retail development.

1992: Palm trees manufactured by Courtesy Shade Tree Co. by Harold and Dennis Biehl of Lexington began sprouting in Nebraska. The fiberglass trees, which cost between $600 and $800 each, were being used for instant shade in parking lots, swimming pools, playground areas and as props for retailers' displays.

2002: Gov. Mike Johanns asked the federal government to declare the state of Nebraska a disaster area because of the worsening drought. Many Nebraska cities reported some of their driest years, and Scottsbluff reported its driest year.
July 25-29

This list is not comprehensive. Municipalities are listed as they appear on the criminal complaint. Suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. To see mugshots of the accused, visit journaltimes.com/gallery. Additional information about the complaints can be found at: journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts.

Carmelo Arroyo-Venegas, 4200 block of West Johnson Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor retail theft (intentionally take less than or equal to $500), misdemeanor theft (false representation less than $2,500).

Brandon T. Bowers, 1900 block of Lawn Street, Racine, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl (between 10-50 grams), possession with intent to deliver/distribute/manufacture THC (less than or equal to 200 grams).

Allen D. Bronson (aka Red Beard), Cudahy, substantial battery, disorderly conduct

Charles Lee Canady, 1500 block of Grange Avenue, Racine, hit and run (injury), obstructing an officer.

Trent J. Chones, 1100 block of North Wisconsin Street, Racine, criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor bail jumping (domestic abuse assessments).

Vincent D. Cosey, 1600 block of Taylor Avenue, Racine, disorderly conduct (use of a dangerous weapon), misdemeanor bail jumping (use of a dangerous weapon).

Gregory Bernard Cotton (aka Jezzy-Mac), 2100 block of DeKoven Avenue, Racine, robbery with use of force, misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Maxine-Johnise Dacquisto, Milwaukee, burglary of a building or dwelling.

Quincy L. Darby, 4300 block of Yates Drive, Mount Pleasant, possession of THC, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Jacob Allen Decheck, Franksville, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Talyija N. Ellison, 3300 block of First Avenue, Racine, felony personal ID theft (financial gain), uttering a forgery, fraud against financial institution (between $500-$10,000), attempt fraud against financial institution (between $500-$10,000).

Tina S. Geisler, 1900 block of Linden Avenue, Racine, operate motor vehicle while revoked.

Andy Paul Gelmi Jr., 1300 block of Raymond Avenue, Union Grove, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Nicole S. Gossett, 1600 block of Erie Street, Racine, manufacture/deliver cocaine (less than or equal to 1 gram), maintaining a drug trafficking place, delivery of schedule I or II narcotics, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Alvin L. Haywood, Calumet City, Illinois, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer).

Jesus Hernandez Jr., 500 block of Hamilton Street, Racine, misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor bail jumping (domestic abuse assessments).

Sean E. L. Herndon Jr., 1900 block of Monroe Avenue, Racine, criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments), felony bail jumping (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments), possession with intent to deliver/distribute/manufacture THC (less than or equal to 200 grams), possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of narcotic drugs.

Tina M. Higginbottom (aka X Kenesha), 1000 block of Pearl Street, Racine, disorderly conduct (use of a dangerous weapon).

John B. Hodapp, Milwaukee, removal of a major part of a vehicle, misdemeanor theft, criminal damage to property.

Josue Javan-Estudillo, 5900 block of Margery Drive, Mount Pleasant, intoxicated use of a vehicle (great bodily harm), hit and run (injury).

Nicole L. Joseph, 4500 block of Durand Avenue, Racine, possession of narcotic drugs, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Jacob S. Krueger, 5000 block of Kingdom Court, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (2nd offense).

Roman Lascarez-Antonio, 1900 block of Linden Avenue, Racine, first degree recklessly endangering safety (use of a dangerous weapon), possession of THC, criminal damage to property (use of a dangerous weapon), obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct (use of a dangerous weapon).

Vannessa M. Lees, 2000 block of Kentucky Street, Racine, felony bail jumping, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer).

Brittany J. Mason, 2000 block of DeKoven Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Charellis D. Mayhall, 1000 block of Wisconsin Avenue, Racine, felony personal ID theft (financial gain), fraudulent use of a credit card, obstructing an officer, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Armando H. Medrano, 1000 block of 43rd Street, Kenosha, felony bail jumping, negligent handling of a weapon, disorderly conduct (use of a dangerous weapon).

Devin C. Molina, 600 block of CTH DD, Rochester, attempt first degree intentional homicide (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon), felony intimidation of a victim (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon).

Ashley P. Molzahn, Waukesha, misdemeanor retail theft (intentionally take less than or equal to $500), disorderly conduct, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Mancel E. Murphy, 2400 block of North Wisconsin Street, Racine, operate motor vehicle while revoked, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Adam A. Nardi, 1100 block of Milwaukee Avenue, Burlington, threat to a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct.

Adam Neau, 1600 block of Grand Avenue, Racine, disorderly conduct (use of a dangerous weapon), carrying a concealed weapon.

Jeffrey A. Ouellette, Franksville, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (5th or 6th offense, general alcohol concentration), manufacture/deliver heroin (less than or equal to 3 grams).

Justen R. Parello, Kansasville, substantial battery, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct.

Erik Evan Peterson, 2000 block of DeKoven Avenue, Racine, felony bail jumping (domestic abuse assessments), obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct.

Robin D. Pitt, Milwaukee, misdemeanor retail theft (intentionally take less than or equal to $500), disorderly conduct, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Rebecca L. Price, Milwaukee, felony bail jumping, obstructing an officer.

Juan M. Puentes (aka Lil Nino), 100 block of Riverside Drive, Racine, possession of cocaine.

Steven M. Rempala, 1800 block of Kremer Avenue, Racine, false imprisonment (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon), felony intimidation of a victim (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon).

Robert L. Ruffin, 1600 block of Kuiper Lane, Racine, misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Samuel Sanchez Sr., 1200 block of Blake Avenue, Racine, escape.

Howard R. Scott, 1400 block of 16th Avenue, Kenosha, possession of THC, resisting an officer.

Malik D. Seay, 1600 block of Hayes Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor battery.

Scottie A. Senda, Oak Creek, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (5th or 6th offense), possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Bobby J. Shelby Jr., 2000 block of Carter Street, Racine, attempting to flee or elude an officer, felony bail jumping, second degree recklessly endangering safety, attempt third degree sexual assault.

Marquese M. Snow, 1300 block of Deane Boulevard, Racine, obstructing an officer, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Kelly A. Spears (aka Tamar Ruggles), Rockford, Illinois, retail theft (alter price between $500-$5,000).

Morningstar Thomas, Milwaukee, possession of cocaine.

Anjelito W. Woods, 2000 block of Jay Eye See Avenue, Racine, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments).

Deantae A. Woods, 4800 block of 34th Avenue, Kenosha, attempting to flee or elude an officer, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of THC.

Angel V. Zuniga, 1500 block of Superior Street, Racine, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).
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."
RACINE  A crowd of 35 marched down Martin Luther King Drive Saturday for the Unity Pledge March, a march calling to end violence in the city of Racine organized by a parent leadership group.

The head organizers for the March were Elaine De La Cruz and Leanna Johnson, who serves as a communication engagement coordinator for Higher Expectations.

Johnson spoke about the amount of violence in Racine recently. The shooting death of Brittany Booker on April 24 and gunfire at the funeral of DaShontay King that injured two women on June 2 was the catalyst for the group to band together for the march.

Put down the guns, Johnson shouted into her megaphone.

Stop the violence, the crowd chanted back.

Members of the Racine Police Department marched with the crowd, including a group of police cadets.

The marchers were first led in prayer by Minister Devin Cook of the Racine Church of Christ. The crowd then made its way down Martin Luther King Drive to the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After the march, three speakers were invited to speak:

Minister Cook told the crowd about his time growing up in Racine, and his first-hand experiences with the violence in the area growing up.

I was born and raised right here in Racine ... If there is something that I know about this city, its that we have violence in our DNA in a way, Cook said. I remember when I was 16, I briefly moved to Appleton, and when I told people I moved from Racine they looked at me like I just escaped a lions den.

Greta Neubauer, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, spoke to the crowd about the importance of people showing up about the issues they are about beyond the ballot box

I think many of us grow up thinking: Well, we will get somebody elected to office and they will fix the issues that we see in our community, Neubauer said. But the reality is thats not how it works. It actually takes everybody showing up and making their voices up and pushing and supporting people in office to make changes  Movements have been the biggest forces of change in this county over time. Its people just like you all who showed up for voting rights in the 60s. It was people like you who showed up over and over for the environment, to stop violence and showed up to get more opportunities for everyone in this country.

Diana Valencia, the Racine action network lead for 9to5 Wisconsin, a progressive grassroots organizing group, spoke to the crowd about the progress she has seen and the freedom she has earned growing up as a woman in Racine.

She also urged the youth in the crowd to take care of themselves and their peers, recounting how her oldest grandson died of a fentanyl overdose in college.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday said he is openly considering endorsing Adam Steen in the District 63 Republican primary against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Vos has refused to support Trumps attempts to have the 2020 election overturned. He is taking on increasing criticism from the right and Trump himself because of it.

In an interview Friday, Vos told The Journal Times: The single thing that Donald Trump is obsessed with is the 2020 election. I have been consistent for a year, saying we constitutionally cannot decertify the election. Now, when people are threatened by someone who has a loud microphone, a lot of times they buckle, right? I am proud that I have stood for what I believe in and what I know to be true in the face of withering criticism from President Trump.

Now, he hasnt criticized me for the fact that weve cut taxes or that Im pro-life or that Ive worked harder than most people for his election in 2020. He just wants me to do something I cannot do.

In posts Sunday morning on his social media application Truth Social, Trump did not use Steens name but said he is considering endorsing him because anyone would be better than Vos.

For the first time in recent weeks Sunday, Trump also criticized Vos for something other than how hes handled the 2020 election: that Vos has considered supporting putting toll booths on Wisconsins roads, something that has not really been openly considered or discussed in state politics since 2019, and that he previously supported an increased gas tax  a position Vos said he no longer holds.

Robin Vos is only getting worse. Wants toll booths put on many highways, and a BIG GAS TAX ASAP. He is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) disaster, very much as the worst politician in the Nation, Giveaway Mitch McConnell, who gives the Dems everything, and gets NOTHING for itNever fights for Republicans! Trump wrote Sunday. Robin Vos is sooo bad for the Great State of Wisconsin that I am seriously thinking of Supporting and ENDORSING his Opponent. Anyone would be better! STAY TUNED!!!

Vos had gotten on Trumps good side last year by launching the partisan investigation into the 2020 election led by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, which has uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud. As the Gableman investigation appears to wind down with no progress being made toward overturning the last presidential election, Trumps distaste for Vos has grown.

In a Truth Social post later Sunday morning, Trump repeated a proven false claim Gableman had made: that there was uniform 100% turnout in some Wisconsin nursing homes.

Vos has tried to paint Steen as extreme, not only for his assertion the 2020 election could be overturned, but also for holding positions that are resoundingly unpopular with voters. Among Steens positions are:

That there should be no exceptions for Wisconsins abortion ban, even for the life of the mother or in cases of rape.

That the use of contraception is playing God.

Opposition to red flag gun laws. I dont think thats the governments right to decide who should legally be able to carry a firearm, he said during a campaign event earlier this month.

One of Steens core supporters is Harry Wait, the Town of Dover man being investigated by the Department of Justice for requesting the absentee ballots of Vos and Racine Mayor Cory Mason to prove he could do it online without showing a voter ID. Wait requested the ballots last week and publicly admitted to committing a felony, but has not yet been criminally charged. Masons ballot arrived in Waits mailbox Friday, Wait said, an example of what Wait sees as an insecurity in Wisconsins election system.

Election Day in the primary is Aug. 9. Democrats do not have a candidate in the race, indicating whoever wins the Republican primary would almost certainly win the final election to represent District 63.

District 63 includes most of the southern half of Racine County west of Highway 31, including all or parts of Burlington, Union Grove, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant. Steen and Vos both reside in the Village of Rochester.
UPDATE: On Tuesday, Aug. 2, former President Donald Trump formally endorsed Adam Steen over Robin Vos in District 63.

ROCHESTER  The Republican primary in Assembly District 63 is heated, engaging, important, confusing and downright strange.

A former president has gotten involved. So has a former Green Beret tied to spreading falsehoods that fueled the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. There have been three debates with only one candidate in attendance. A Racine County activist being investigated for election fraud is deeply involved in the challengers campaign. And seemingly every home from Burlington to Union Grove has a sign in the front yard, supporting one candidate or the other.

This is all for a partisan primary, with two candidates from the same party whose political opinions seemingly overlap most of the time.

Robin Vos is facing the possibility that his political career could receive a deathblow next week. He has no plans to hang up his political cleats so soon, but Adam Steen wants to force Wisconsins most powerful conservative into an early retirement from the state legislature.

The winner of the Aug. 9 election will almost certainly win the two-year term up for grabs. The Democrats dont even have a nominee in the district.

Besides swapping one Republican for another in the state Legislature, Steen unseating Vos could also lead to a power vacuum.

Vos has been the Assembly speaker  i.e. the leader of the more powerful of Wisconsins two legislative houses  since 2013; he has represented District 63 since 2005.

Hes also been nicknamed the Shadow Governor for coordinating the legislatures powers to, as he puts it, stop the liberal agenda of the Democrats who make up the Legislatures minority.

I am the No. 1 person ... who has stopped Gov. Evers liberal agenda for the last four years in Wisconsin, Vos said.

Boundaries District 63 includes most of the southern half of Racine County west of Highway 31, including all or parts of Burlington, Union Grove, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant. Both Robin Vos and Adam Steen reside in the Village of Rochester.

So similar, so different

Both Steen and Vos talk about a lot of the same things in similar ways. Election integrity. God and country. Dont restrict the Second Amendment. Abortion is bad. Complaining that the left is moving further left. The tenets of fiscal conservatism. Etc.

Steen told a reporter that he and Vos are more-or-less 90% the same politically. The Aug. 9 election will test the already predominantly conservative-voting District 63 on what matters most to them when it comes to the final 10%, and how much Donald Trump still influences the voters in the district he won handily in 2016 and 2020.

2020: Both Vos and Steen supported Trump in 2016 and 2020  although Vos openly said he would have preferred a different Republican candidate.

In recent weeks, Vos has publicly fallen on Trumps bad side by restraining the state from moving toward decertifying the 2020 election  an action election law experts and the Legislatures own lawyers say is impossible.

Steen wants to see the election overturned. Hes among the minority who believe the use of drop boxes to collect ballots in 2020  which has since been disallowed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court  renders the whole election invalid.

Fraud vitiates everything, Steen has said repeatedly. That phrase is taken from an 1878 Supreme Court case regarding a land grant dispute, and it has been ceaselessly cited by those seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

Since Steen asserts that allowing ballots to be collected via drop box constitutes fraud, he asserts the election results should be decertified entirely  even if there is no evidence that Joe Biden didnt win by 20,000-plus votes over Trump.

No court has agreed that the entire election should be vitiated because of Wisconsins use of drop boxes. A Michigan judge last year called the fraud vitiates everything claims puzzling and noted that the 1878 decision was wholly unrelated to election law.

While Vos told WISN-TV that, regarding the 2020 election, there was a lot of things that were done wrong, he has also told reporters You cant just undo an election.

GUNS: Steen opposes red flag laws and other prohibitions for some to own firearms. I dont think thats the governments right to decide who should legally be able to carry a gun, he said.

While Vos is not an opponent of red flag laws, he is endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

ABORTION, CONTRACEPTION, REPRESENTATION: Vos believes there should be exceptions to Wisconsins abortion ban, such as for rape and incest.

Steen doesnt think there should be any exceptions, even for the life of the mother. He asserts the life of the mother and the fetus should be treated as if they have at least equal value.

I believe life begins at conception, Steen said. I believe there are no exceptions, period.

Steen also opposes the use of contraception, he told a reporter July 21, likening the use of contraceptives to playing god.

Vos believes contraception should be legal.

Despite polling showing that Americans overwhelmingly supports contraceptions legality, and a slight majority believing abortions should be legal in at least some situations, Steen still said that if he is elected I would try to bring the will of the people of my district to Madison.

I am first subservient to God, he continued. Second, I follow the Bible and what God taught us. Third, I will follow the Constitution.

Steen said later: I believe our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values  It is the role of Christians to step up and serve in our government, he said, while maintaining it is wrong to hold someone (of a different religion) to a standard they do not believe in.

TERM LIMITS: Vos has represented District 63s communities for 17 years at the state level.

Steen said that is too long; he advocates for term limits.

Vos said he supports term limits at the congressional level, but not in the state Assembly or Senate.

Steen thinks conservative voters want new blood in Madison. He said Vos has been doing the same thing over and over, and that I think people are ready for a change because they have absolute disdain for whats going on in the country.

Vos said his time in office should be a plus for voters. We need some people who have experience in the Legislature, he said.

FUTURE ELECTIONS: Steen uses eight words to describe how he thinks elections should generally be held: In person. On paper. Hand count. One day. The only exceptions should be for military personnel and the elderly. Vos believes those restrictions go too far and would disallow those facing emergencies or living abroad from participating in democracy. If its in person and on one day, how does somebody living in Japan vote? Or how does a senior who is in the hospital vote? Or how does somebody that is on vacation vote?

Prior to Election Day 2020, Vos encouraged the use of drop boxes for collecting ballots but changed his tune as criticism of them grew in conservative circles.

Trump and 2020

In a post on the Truth Social application July 19, Trump didnt endorse Steen, but seemed to indicate he prefers the newcomer to Vos. I dont know his opponent in the upcoming Primary, but feel certain he will do well if Speaker Vos doesnt move with gusto. Robin, dont let the voters of Wisconsin down! Trump wrote.

Vos said in an interview Friday that he is proud to have so stoutly resisted Trumps baseless demands to have the 2020 election results overturned  despite that not being legal.

The single thing that Donald Trump is obsessed with is the 2020 election. I have been consistent for a year, saying we constitutionally cannot decertify the election. Now, when people are threatened by someone who has a loud microphone  referring to Trump  a lot of times they buckle, right? I am proud that I have stood for what I believe in and what I know to be true in the face of withering criticism from President Trump. Now, he hasnt criticized me for the fact that weve cut taxes or that Im pro-life or that Ive worked harder than most people for his election in 2020. He just wants me to do something I cannot do.

In a text message Friday night, The Journal Times asked Steen what would happen next if Wisconsins electoral votes were somehow pulled back more than 1 years after they were cast, asking if he believes a special repeat election should be held as some of his supporters have advocated for.

He replied We had an election that was carried out under fraudulent means and therefore pulling back our electors is inevitable ... There has to be a consequence for breaking the law. And the consequence is pulling back the electors and letting the rest of the country make the same decision for each state.

The reporter replied: OK. So then what comes next? Lets say the Legislature votes to decertify. Whats next?

Steen then did not reply.

Even if the legal impossibility of having Wisconsins electoral votes somehow retracted were carried out, Wisconsin only has 10 electoral votes, far short of the margin of 74 electoral votes by which Biden defeated Trump by in 2020.

Three non-debates

Throughout the course of the campaign, Steen has thrice scheduled debates against Vos.

Each time, Vos didnt show up.

Vos said he would happily take part in a debate, but only if it was hosted by a neutral party. Steen insisted the debates be hosted by his campaign at County Line Hall, a venue that is technically in Kenosha County outside of District 63.

During the final debate July 21, a Steen supporter asked questions regarding gun rights, abortion and the 2020 election. Then, either Steen would speak for several minutes or a video of Vos speaking on the topic would be played, usually to jeers from Steens supporters.

Prior to Steens third and final scheduled debate July 21, Ivan Raiklin  a former Green Beret who has been at the core of spreading claims the 2020 election could somehow be overturned  weighed in. The people of Wisconsin and America await your appearance to get absolutely obliterated by Adam Steen in tonights debate, Raiklin said in a threatening audio recording shared on conservative social media channels. Dont be a coward like Mike Pence.

Harry Wait, the conservative activist being investigated by the Department of Justice for illegally requesting absentee ballots of elected officials just to prove he could, said that Raiklin will be actively supporting Steen through the final week of the campaign. Raiklin for almost two years has continuously spread claims that the 2020 election could somehow be overturned. Hes been the primary purveyor of the Pence Card Theory, which baselessly claims then-Vice President Mike Pence could have blocked certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Raiklin, who is reportedly facing an internal Army Reserve investigation for touting his military status for political gains, did not accept a request for an interview.

Endorsements

Vos said the endorsements he has  from the likes of the Racine County GOP, the NRA, Wisconsin Right to Life, former Gov. Scott Walker and dozens of others  are from the people who matter.

Everything that is a Republican is who I am, Vos said, shrugging off allegations from Trump that he is a RINO  a Republican In Name Only.

Steen has significant endorsements from the likes of the Wisconsin Family Action PAC and Pro Life Wisconsin Victory Fund; Wisconsin Family Action is the anti-abortion organization whose Madison office was set on fire by the militant pro-choice group Janes Revenge in May.

While the Racine County GOP has officially endorsed Vos, Peter Bernegger, a felon convicted of mail fraud and bank fraud who has repeatedly shared inaccuracies about the 2020 election at the invitation of Republican officials in Madison, donated $200 to Steens campaign in April, campaign filings show.

Expectations, experience

The Assembly speaker told a reporter he has no immediate plans to voluntarily leave the Legislature. But, now 54 years old, Vos said that if a Republican unseats Evers this November and the GOP still holds majorities in the Legislature, he could foresee himself not seeking reelection in 2024.

Steen has limited governmental experience. He worked as an applications engineer before being laid off by the manufacturer Putzmeister when the pandemic hit.

He ran for Congress in 2018, but got blown out in a primary where Bryan Steil took more than 50% of the vote  at the time, Steen was known as Kevin Adam Steen, but he now officially uses his middle name. Steen also served on the board of the Wisconsin Soybean Association before stepping down earlier this year.

Vos told a reporter he expects to win the Aug. 9 election, as hes won every District 63 election handily since first being elected.

Steen said the same thing, just mirrored. He believes he will defeat Vos by a margin that could be as wide as 70:30.

Theres no reliable polling at this local level. So, theres no way to predict who will win until the votes are counted after Aug. 9.

Even after engaging in mudslinging for the first time in 2020 to stave off hundreds of thousands of dollars in Democratic spending to unseat him, Vos said the 2022 primary from Steen is the most vigorous challenge I have ever had.
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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UNITED NATIONS  There was already plenty of trouble to talk about when a major U.N. meeting on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was originally supposed to happen in 2020.

Now the pandemic-postponed conference finally starts Monday as Russias war in Ukraine has renewed fears of nuclear confrontation and cranked up the urgency of trying to reinforce the 50-year-old treaty.

It is a very, very difficult moment, said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Russias invasion, accompanied by ominous references to its nuclear arsenal, is so significant for the treaty and really going to put a lot of pressure on this, she said. How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy.

The four-week meeting aims to generate a consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial  if any  agreement.

Still, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, prime ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, and more than a dozen nations foreign ministers are among attendees expected from at least 116 countries, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to speak publicly before the conference.

In force since 1970, the Nonproliferation Treaty has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement. Some 191 countries have joined.

Nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them, while nuclear-armed Britain, China, France, Russia (then the Soviet Union) and the United States agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday. All endorsed everyones right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

India and Pakistan, which didnt sign, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it.

Nonetheless, the Nonproliferation Treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (U.S. President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations by 1975) and serving as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.

The total number of nuclear weapons worldwide has shrunk by more than 75% from a mid-1980s peak, largely due to the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. But experts estimate roughly 13,000 warheads remain worldwide, the vast majority in the U.S. and Russia.

Meetings to assess how the treaty is working are supposed to happen every five years, but the 2020 conference was repeatedly delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Challenges have only grown in the meantime.

When launching the Ukraine war in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that any attempt to interfere would lead to consequences you have never seen and emphasized that his country is one of the most potent nuclear powers. Days later, Putin ordered Russias nuclear forces to be put on higher alert, a move that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called bone-chilling.

The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility, he said.

The events in Ukraine create a tricky choice for the upcoming conference, said Patricia Lewis, a former U.N. disarmament research official who is now at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London.

On the one hand, in order to support the treaty and what it stands for, governments will have to address Russias behavior and threats, she said. On the other hand, to do so risks dividing the treaty members.

Another uncomfortable dynamic: The war has heightened some countries apprehensions about not having nuclear weapons, especially since Ukraine once housed but gave up a trove of Soviet nukes.

Conference participants can stress other security strategies or emphasize the costs and dangers of acquiring nuclear weapons, but its important not to be too preachy, said Michael OHanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

The idea that we can just look other countries in the face and say, Youre better off without the bomb  thats a bit of a hard argument to carry right now categorically, said OHanlon, a senior fellow specializing in defense and security.

Ukraine is hardly the only hot topic.

North Korea appears to have been preparing recently for its first nuclear weapons test since 2017. Talks about reviving the deal meant to keep Iran from developing nukes are in limbo.

The U.S. and Russia have only one remaining treaty curtailing their nuclear weapons and have been developing new technologies. Britain last year raised a self-imposed cap on its stockpile. China says its modernizing  or, the U.S. claims, expanding  the worlds third-largest nuclear arsenal.

Daryl Kimball, who heads the nonprofit Arms Control Association in Washington, cant recall another time when the Nonproliferation Treaty has come up for review with so many difficulties in so many different areas, and where we have seen such severe tensions between the major players.

U.S. Ambassador Adam Scheinman, the presidential special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, said Washington hopes for a balanced outcome that sets realistic goals and advances our national and international security interests.
NEW YORK  A germ that causes a rare and sometimes deadly disease  long thought to be confined to tropical climates  has been found in soil and water in the continental United States, U.S. health officials said.

The bacteria was found on the property of a Mississippi man who had come down with the disease, melioidosis. Officials don't know how long it had been there, but they say it likely is occurring in other areas along the Gulf Coast.

U.S. physicians should consider melioidosis even in patients who haven't traveled to other countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a health alert last week.

"Once it's in the soil, it can be a health threat for people in the area," said the CDC's Julia Petras, who oversaw the investigation.

The illness can start with a wide range of symptoms like fever, joint pain and headaches. It's treatable with the right antibiotics if it's caught early, but it can lead to pneumonia, blood infections and even death if not properly treated.

About 12 cases are reported annually in the U.S. The vast majority have been in people who traveled to places where the bacteria is endemic, including certain regions of Australia, Thailand, and Central and South America.

People can get the illness through direct contact with contaminated soil and water, especially if they have a cut on their hand or foot. It is also possible to inhale the bacteria.

The bacteria may not bother healthy people. But it can be dangerous to those with diabetes, chronic kidney or lung disease and weakened immune systems.

Last year, four people came down with the disease even though none had traveled internationally. Officials blamed their illnesses on a contaminated aromatherapy spray imported from India.

The new findings explain two Mississippi cases in men who hadn't traveled internationally, officials said. One got melioidosis in 2020 and the other, who lives about 10 miles away, got it this year. Both have recovered.

Health officials didn't say exactly where in Mississippi the men live, but investigators took 109 soil and water samples from the area. The bacteria was found in three spots  two in soil and one in a puddle  on the property of the man who was sickened two years ago.

Finding the bacteria in U.S. soil is significant, but not surprising. Investigators have long believed that local soil contamination was behind infections in Texas's Atascosa County in 2004 and 2018, CDC officials said.
NEW YORK  The Rockefeller Foundation, created with wealth generated from the oil industry more than a century ago, plans to make the fight against climate change central to all of its work, including its operations and investments.

In a public letter released last week, foundation president, Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, acknowledged the "irony" that his organization's founder John D. Rockefeller "made his fortune by fueling a growing United States with carbon."

Speaking to The Associated Press before the announcement, Shah said that all institutions that benefited from the development driven by fossil fuels have a responsibility to battle climate change.

"Obviously, an institution like the Rockefeller Foundation has an even higher level of responsibility because we're an even bigger beneficiary of that process," he said. The Rockefeller Foundation funds part of The Associated Press' coverage of climate change.

The commitment builds on the foundation's decision to divest its more than $6 billion endowment from fossil fuels starting in 2020, though it still has what Shah called negligible exposure. The foundation also partnered with the Ikea Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund to launch an international consortium to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, with all three nonprofits giving $500 million. The consortium has since raised around $10 billion in additional funds, the foundation said.

Partnerships like that reflect the Rockefeller Foundation's belief that it can alter the course of history by amplifying the scope of its work and its resources.

"The reason for doing this is basically to put down a marker about our ambition, our sense of urgency and our willingness to be transformational in order to deepen our partnerships with others, to try to actually change the course of the climate equation on this planet," Shah said.

The Rockefeller Foundation plans to take a year to study where it can make the most impactful partnerships and investments.

"Our process is really less about closing, locking ourselves in a closet and reading and modeling spreadsheets, and more about listening to and speaking to leading individuals, institutions, heads of state and the people we ultimately serve," Shah said. "And understanding how philanthropy can best marshal support for their boldest and most urgent ideas."

The foundation remains committed to its current grantees, a spokesperson said, adding "Because climate change is the biggest threat of our time, it requires us to remain adaptable and learn alongside our grantees and partners."

It argues that the new commitment does not represent a change from its mission "to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world." Established in 1913, the foundation focused on public health, including mass vaccination campaigns and the founding of public health authorities around the world. Its first environment related program launched in 1969. The foundation's current work continues to focus on public health as well as access to renewable energy, economic equity and food access. In 2021, the foundation said it had distributed the equivalent of $22 billion in its history.

However, Shah says a response to the climate crisis is urgent. Data shows philanthropic giving to climate change mitigation represented just 2% of total global philanthropic giving in 2020, according to an analysis by the organization ClimateWorks Foundation.

"Combine that with the lack of action happening at the requisite levels of governments and businesses and then the trillions that need to be unlocked," said Shawn Reifsteck, vice president for ClimateWorks. "We need essentially more and more funders doing more things at increased levels."

Increased philanthropic involvement cannot come too soon, according to the world's top body of climate scientists. In April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report that warned of an unlivable world unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut faster than countries' current commitments.

Marion Gee, co-executive director of Climate Justice Alliance, said it was encouraging that a large foundation would want to make confronting climate change central to their work but said foundations also need to challenge the economic system that perpetuates it, including divestment.

"How are you moving that money out of Wall Street where a lot of the problems that we are facing today have been caused by these corporations," and moving the funds into local, sustainable economies, Gee asked.

ClimateWorks' analysis does show foundations donating more to climate change mitigation on an annual basis in the last five years, with the total increasing from $900 million in 2015 to $1.9 billion in 2020.

"We're hopeful that that continues and in fact, accelerates," Reifsteck said.
KEARNEY  You could call Jana Schraeder the lunch lady.

As the senior nutrition coordinator at Peterson Senior Activity Center, Schraeder plans the menus and helps prepare lunches for roughly 110 people every weekday.

Schraeder, an accredited chef with 40 years of experience, never repeats a meal in any given month.

Her most popular entrees are chicken fried steak, hot roast beef sandwiches and fried chicken. Fish is popular, too. It took me a long time to get people to like pasta. They do like spaghetti," she said. "We dont make anything real spicy.

In August, shell be serving chicken cordon bleu, chicken bacon guacamole, beef taco pie and vegetable alfredo lasagna among traditional fare like Swiss steak, baked ham and a hot ham and swiss sandwich.

In the summer, I do salads and sandwiches, just things that are a bit lighter, she said. She prefers planning food for colder months because its easier to plan meals that are heartier. Thats just the way I am.

FOOD PREP

Buffet lunches are served daily at 11:30 a.m. at the centers Central Cafe, but Schraeder arrives in the kitchen at 7:30 a.m. to begin preparing the main dishes, side dishes and bread. Kitchen assistant Tina Putnam gets there at 9 a.m. to begin baking, making salads and preparing cold items. Putnam makes a dessert every day. Were not required to, but its a goal we set for ourselves," Schraeder said.

The staff also includes part-timer Erma Hansen and summer employee Ava Angel Trejo, a Kearney High School student. The four serve an average of 110 people per day, but the crowd can stretch to 150 on days when Peterson offers music over the noon hour. Lunch reservations are required, but Schraeder always makes a bit extra, just in case.

Its just as easy to cook for 150 as for 50. Its all in the planning and the prep work," she said. "We dont serve seconds. Rarely, someone will want a second portion, but I tell them to wait until everyone has been through the line. Then, if anything is left over, I tell them to come get it.

On rare days when she has leftovers, Schraeder finds a way to use them. Im pretty good at cutting right to the bone rather than running out to get something when I have a whole pan of something," she said. "We waste nothing. They say we waste $10 billion on food in this country, yet people are starving. Nobody should be hungry in this country. I do what I can on my level.

A PASSION FOR FOOD

A native of LaCrosse, Kansas, Schraeder inherited her passion for cooking from her mother (an excellent cook) and her father, a former U.S. Army chef.

All his life, my dad was adamant that we all go to college, Schraeder said. But her father died when she was 13, and college academics never appealed to her, so she enrolled in the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. She then moved to Denver, where she spent years cooking for a catering company and a Denver country club.

Fifteen years ago, after she and her husband moved to Kearney, she cooked at WEL-Life Assisted Living and at the Hy-Vee restaurant. Six years ago, she answered an ad for her current job at the Peterson Senior Center. Shes been there ever since.

Owned and run by the city, the 12-year-old senior center serves lunches in partnership with the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska (Mid). Schraeder and her staff are employed by Mid, not the city, and the meals are funded by the South Central Nebraska Area Agency on Aging.

Take-out meals didnt start until Peterson closed during COVID-19. In late 2020, the kitchen staff returned and began preparing take-out meals. They had never been offered before, but they were extremely popular. Now, although the dining room has re-opened, take-out lunches continue. We do half inside and half outside. People got used to grabbing something without coming in, Schraeder said. All meals, whether take-out or dine-in, require reservations.

I like it here, she said. The people are really nice. Its very rewarding. Ive cooked for a lot of the rich and some of the famous, but the people here are more appreciative than anybody.

SOARING PRICES

Schraeder has watched food prices nearly double since COVID began two years ago. Food prices are up eight to 10%. Big number 10 cans of fruit used to be $6, and now they are $10 or $12. Hamburger has gone way up, too Schraeder said.

Because the center can't operate meals in the red, Tammy Jeffs, Mids community services director, had to ask the city for more money for the lunches. The cost of employee wages, take-out containers and packaging costs soared post-COVID, too, Jeffs said. Schraeder said the center is using more recyclable items because you cant even get Styrofoam. The cost of Styrofoam has tripled.

As a result, Peterson reluctantly raised lunch prices by $1 per meal. We hated to raise prices, but lunch here is still a good deal. Seniors get an entree, salad, rolls, butter, beverage and dessert for less than theyd pay at a restaurant, Schraeder said.

She tries to balance quality and cost as she plans menus, a task she enjoys and often does at home. Sometimes I sit down and draw a blank. Other times, I do two weeks at a time. People arent getting as much beef as they used to. Due to rising prices, Ive had to go to cheaper cuts. Ive avoided hamburger, but even tilapia, which they love so much, has tripled in cost since COVID, she said.

I should be sticking to $1 for the protein in each meal, but if I have to, I will spend less on other things so I can spend $2 on a chicken breast, she said.

SEASONED PART-TIMERS

Schraeder depends heavily on her kitchen crew. Trujillo is willing to do anything, Schraeder said. She likes to clean, too. Putnam worked at Apple Market and the old Bobs Superstore bakery.

Hansen, with her late husband, owned Dairy Treat, a small fast-food and ice cream business in Bertrand, and Ermas Korner Kitchen in Loomis. She began working at Peterson as a greeter five years ago and filled in in the kitchen when an employee broke her leg. Now 83, Hansen does whatever needs doing in the kitchen, including washing dishes.

We wash a lot. How many? A lot! she laughed. We always scrub pots and pans. Today we did six big ones, seven and eight ranch pans, and if Tina bakes, we have trays from that. We jabber around and tease each other, she said.

Around 2 p.m., after the kitchen is cleaned up, Schraeder goes home. She shops for produce on the weekends. Cash-Wa provides the bulk of the food, but she prefers to buy the produce.

HAPPY EATERS

Despite higher prices, seniors keep coming. In 2019, the center served 24,722 meals. That figure dipped to 18,199 in 2020, but this year it is projected to be 25,000.

Not long ago, Jerry and Genny Brandorff waited outside the Central Cafe for lunch. The Kearney couple has eaten there every day for 10 years. I dont like to cook, Genny said. Weve never had a bad meal here.

Charles Eberhardt of Kearney waited, too. He moved to Kearney from Imperial shortly before the COVID-19 shutdown and decided to give the lunches a try. Hes been coming ever since. Very seldom do they have meals that I dont like, he said. Its great food served by a great staff. It gets me out every day. I really enjoy it.
Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin is excited to announce a premier partnership with Papa Murphys Take n Bake Pizza to thank donors for lifesaving blood donations.

Through Aug. 14, all attempting donors will receive a coupon code for $10 off their online order of $20 or more while supplies last (the offer is available at select mobile blood drives and donor centers.)

Blood donation helps patients of all ages who are victims of traumatic accidents, needing organ transplants, or fighting through diseases like cancer.

Blood drives at schools during the school year make up 20 percent of the blood collected by Versiti. During the summer months, many blood centers like Versiti experience a significant dip in blood donation as families take vacations and schools are closed.

As summer break winds down, Versiti encourages Wisconsin residents to consider donating blood, an action that can save up to three lives.

Donors can schedule an appointment by calling 1-877-BE-A-HERO (1-877-232-4376) or visiting online Versiti.org/WI.

Anyone 17 or older who is in good health and meets eligibility requirements is encouraged to donate blood. Parental consent is required for 16-year-olds to donate. Appointments are preferred to ensure a quick and convenient donation, but walk-in donors are also welcome. The entire process takes about an hour. Donors should bring a photo ID that includes their birth date.
Marines and Navy Corpsmen with 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines (2/24), conducted a casualty care field exercise July 22-23 on North Post at Fort McCoy as part of their annual training.

The 2/24 is an infantry battalion based out of Chicago consisting of approximately 1,000 Marines and sailors. The battalion falls under the 23rd Marine Regiment and the 4th Marine Division.

The training included mainly 2/24 Corpsmen conducting patrols with unit Marines serving as opposing forces. The contact patrols gave the medics an opportunity to get in some necessary field training while at the same time practicing their combat medical skills.

This was an effort to train on prolonged casualty care, said Medical Officer Navy Lt. Toby Keeney-Bonthrone with the 2/24s Headquarters and Service Company. They had to move to the casualty, stabilize him, and then transport him to an exfiltration point over a 24-hour time period while constantly monitoring him.

The training was conducted in hot weather and overnight in a wooded and hilly training area on North Post. Keeney-Bonthrone said the terrain presented an extra challenge.

It definitely made it tougher, he said. There was the rough terrain and the steep elevation to get to the casualty and then those afternoon temperatures.

Afternoon temperatures on July 22 hovered around 90 degrees and humidity was also high. Keeney-Bonthrone said they kept on  that is until a major thunderstorm halted all training on post on July 23.

Overall, though, he said everyone did well.

You have to train like you fight, Keeney-Bonthrone. So, the more realism, the better the corpsmen are prepared for combat. We got to constantly reinforce principles of tactical medical care under stressful conditions with a realistic mannequin generously provided by the McCoy Medical Simulation Training Center.

In addition, we had a team of five Marines with us to act as opposing forces and tactical mentors, he said. We gave them free reign on how to attack us and that creative element does wonders for both morale and training value.

According to the Navy description for a hospital corpsman at https://www.navy.com/careers/hospital-corpsman, a corpsman can have the most diverse range of work environments available in the Navy.

Your job will likely take you all over the world  and far out of your comfort zone. As a Hospital Corpsman, you could be assigned to a Navy medical treatment facility, like an on-base hospital or clinic. You could also work on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean or a submarine in the depths of the sea. Wherever youre assigned, youll work alongside other medical professionals to be trained as a skilled first responder, whether your skills are needed bedside or in the field.

And Navy hospital corpsman are also assigned to work alongside with and train with Marine Corps units as well. In a story from June 22 at www.marines.mil by Staff Sgt. Timothy Turner with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade about the 124th Navy hospital corpsman birthday, that relationship is explained well.

For the last 124 years, Navy Hospital Corpsmen have served alongside Marines and sailors in every clime and place; in the field and in garrison; in training and in conflicts spanning the globe. Navy Corpsmen derive their name from the U.S. Navys Hospital Corps. Established on June 17, 1898, the Hospital Corps enabled the Navy to provide formal sailors medical training, the article states.

After passing Navy basic training, sailors move on to Hospital Corps School, where they learn things like first aid, emergency medicine, anatomy, hygiene and how to operate medical equipment, the article states. Finally, Corpsmen are assigned to Naval hospitals, ships, or air centers. A select few then train to operate alongside the Fleet Marine Force or the Green side.

Learn more about the Marine Corps by visiting https://www.marines.mil.
Sen. Ron Johnson does not represent the best interests of Wisconsin. He voted AGAINST Covid relief and support for small businesses, infrastructure investment, environmental protection and expanding voting rights. He refuses to acknowledge the severity of climate change. He voted FOR tax cuts for the wealthiest which includes himself.

He promoted hydroxychloroquine to combat COVID-19 though it was proven to not have benefits and could even be harmful. He peddled a conspiracy theory about the safety of vaccines, saying numerous athletes had dropped dead after getting vaccinated. He even claimed mouthwash could kill COVID-19.

Johnson said that what happened on Jan. 6 were peaceful protestors who came to Washington and who supported the police and meant them no harm. Yet we know that many were beaten with various types of weapons and one died the following day as a result of his injuries. Others took their own lives in subsequent days following the attack. This was anything but a peaceful protest.

Johnson supported Donald Trumps claims of election fraud while many in Trumps administration, including his attorney general, said there was zero evidence of widespread voter fraud. Johnsons office even tried to send a false slate of electors from Wisconsin to Mike Pence, who refused to accept them. When confronted about this by reporters on camera, Johnson pretended to be on the phone (he wasnt) and claimed he knew nothing about this.

Wisconsin, we can do better than Ron Johnson, who continues to be an embarrassment to our state.

Marion Peterson
After one-on-one and small and large group conversations with Rebecca Cooke, I can support Rebecca, without reservation, to represent Wisconsins 3rd U. S. Congressional District.

Rebecca has a working knowledge of small business operations. She understands and practices the concept of measuring performance to generate more revenue than costs, to be able to unlock the door every day.

Rebecca Cooke has hands-on experience, connecting community to business, to create, enhance and maintain local jobs. Rebecca understands the marriage of education and training opportunities with hiring, scheduling and making payroll.

Rebecca Cooke offers western Wisconsin voters a candidate who has NOT been a career government employee. Rebecca is a clear thinker capable of communicating new and refreshing insights from a practical and applicable business foundation. She does not dwell on what she did; rather she looks forward to what will be best for her constituents in western Wisconsin.

Rebecca Cooke has demonstrated business practices, and the skill set, which have resulted in generating jobs and building communities.

I have raised eyebrows from many by supporting a Democrat for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District. Please join me in supporting Rebecca Cooke August 9.

Todd Ondell
Candidates running in races that require primaries in August were recently sent a questionnaire by the Winona Daily News about themselves and their interests in the positions they have filed candidacy for.

The three local races among the school, city and county levels that will be on the primary on Aug. 9 are: Winona County commissioner for District 2; Winona County auditor/treasurer; and Winona Area Public Schools School Board member at large, which will result in two members being selected in November.

Candidates running for the Winona County commissioner position for District 2 are: Todd Frahm, Jerry Obieglo and Dwayne Voegeli.

Candidates running for the Winona County auditor/treasurer position are: John Eger, Gabe Vargas and Chelsi Wilbright (Nahrgang).

Candidates running for the at-large positions on the school board are: Anthony Alwan, Maurella Cunningham, Nancy Denzer, Torry Moore and Karl Sonneman.

Candidates answers to the questionnaire will be published Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the Winona Daily News.

The first question  which contained two parts  asked to the candidates was: Why are you interested in this position? Additionally, what experience do you have that makes you a good candidate for this position?

If candidates answers are not listed below, they did not provide answers to the questions or provided answers that significantly exceeded the word limit given.

Here are the candidates answers:

County commissioner, District 2

Jerry Obieglo: I have worked for Winona County for 36 years  first a Detention Deputy then as a Training Officer/Program Officer, and ending my time with the county as the Veterans Service Officer.

As a insider, I know the staff and department heads. I know the strengths and areas where improvements can be made to save tax dollars and open communication.

Dwayne Voegeli: Leadership is about service to others. I am not a single issue candidate. I would like to help make the world a better place. Leaders should bring people together, not divide them. The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is a wake-up call to everyone who loves democracy and freedom. I am a person who seeks out and values diverse points of view. I am a listener. I am a connector. Our American democracy is being pulled apart, we can help fix that problem in our small corner of the universe.

I previously served on the County Board from 2002 to 2010. I helped develop the Economic Development Authority (EDA) and the Drug Treatment Court. I worked to make county government more user friendly and more transparent. I have proven leadership skills. I can hit the ground running on day one.

County auditor/treasurer

John Eger: At this point in my life, I would like to give back to the county and the city that have been my home since I was 11 years old. I believe I have the experience and knowledge to manage a large department with multiple functions. Also, I know I can make a positive impact on the department with improved service and cost reductions.

Separately, about his experience, Eger wrote:

I have over 20 years experience in sales, management, customer service, training and personnel development. I have experience running departments with 3 to 15 direct reports. I also have experience running marketing campaigns for large customers with hundreds of retail outlets.

Ive been an adjunct professor of sales and marketing at Minnesota State College SE, worked as a substitute teacher for four years, and served as a technical and training instructor for several companies Ive worked for.

I studied political science and English at WSU, and I will complete a masters degree in Education Leadership there in the fall of 2022.

My opponents do not have this level of experience. Managing people is different than working with people. My experience will make all the difference in the future success of this office!

Gabe Vargas: I want to serve the Winona County community. I believe the auditor-treasurer office is a unique position requiring the ability to balance county services with community needs. I believe my experience working in health care in the private and public service areas will assist me in meeting the needs of the community. I have the skills to develop relationships with city/township clerks and businesses to address needs and concerns in a timely manner.

Chelsi Wilbright (Nahrgang): As deputy auditor-treasurer, I am familiar with the responsibilities of the office and enjoy the work we do. The A/Ts office is tasked with a broad range of responsibilities including tax calculation and distribution, administering elections, maintaining parcel records and acting as the custodian for county funds. Given the complexity of the role, having someone who is experienced in these tasks is essential. I hold a bachelors in finance and have attained certification with the state of Minnesota for property tax calculation. Ive also taken courses on reading legal descriptions to aid in our land records responsibilities. My service in the Air Force Reserves has given me an edge as well. Through my service, Ive taken valuable teamwork, leadership and development courses and have had opportunities to lead at varying levels including serving as the project manager for a squadron of over 300 individuals while deployed.

WAPS School Board member at large

Anthony Alwan: I am interested in running so that I can be a voice for the voiceless in Winona. For far too long, individuals of marginalized communities have not received equitable treatment in our schools. As a mental health professional and someone who has worked alongside many educators in the WAPS schools, I believe that I can truly advocate on behalf of all people in Winona, particularly those who often are overlooked.

Nancy Denzer: I am interested in the success of the school district as a whole and believe that the work of the school board is to always be guided toward the greater good for our students, staff and the community. Im running for a second term on school board because I believe that the goals I set for my first four years are being accomplished and there is still more to do for the district in term of sustaining a balance budget and healthy fund balance, making improvements to our fleet of 6 buildings and continually improving our curriculum and access to opportunities for all students.

I grew up in Minnesota City just 10 miles outside of Winona and am a product of Winona Area Public Schools. I have resided in Winona for the majority of my life. Our two children are graduates of WAPS and both choose to be licensed educators as their profession. We are a family of educators, as I spent 34 years in public education before retiring in 2018 as a principal with Rochester Public Schools. I decided when I retired that I wanted to give back to a community and a profession that has been very important to me for decades, so I ran for WAPS school board in 2018 and was elected in November of 2018.

Torry Moore: As a parent of children currently in the RIOS program and an alumnus of WSHS, I have a longtime connection to the public schools in Winona and believe that we can do better. Being a business owner, I believe that I can bring my experience in that world to help improve the school district and improve communication between the board and the public.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.

The health organization said, there are now more than 16 thousand reported cases from 75 countries and territories and five deaths. The five documented deaths are in Africa, the one continent without a single shot of vaccine against monkeypox. The numbers center on cases of the outbreak since May.

Ahmed Ogwell is the acting head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or Africa CDC. Since the start of 2022, he said, more than 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in Africa, resulting in 75 deaths.

Ogwell noted that the African continent of 1.3 billion people is again being left behind in access to vaccines as it was during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, let us get vaccines onto the continent.

Monkeypox has been reported in parts of Africa for many years. But the virus did not spread widely outside the continent. Last May, health organizations began reporting cases of monkeypox in the U.S., Europe and many other countries. That started a rush to get vaccines for the disease.

The European Commission said it will purchase 160,000 doses of the vaccine. And health officials in the U.S. said 800,000 doses will be available to doctors around the country after a few weeks of delays. The two-shot vaccine is manufactured at Bavarian Nordics plant in Denmark.

But Ogwell said the Africa CDC cannot make similar statements. He said he hopes to have good news in the coming days but did not know when the shots would be available. He said smallpox vaccines, which can work against monkeypox, are not available, either.

Ogwell reminded the international health community that unless Africa is safe from disease, the rest of the world is not safe.

After seeing the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with wealthy nations spending money for vaccines and treatments, Ogwell said: the solutions need to be global in nature.

The WHO said it is creating a vaccine-sharing system for monkeypox, but not much information has come out. In addition, no countries have agreed yet to share vaccines with the WHO.

Im Dan Friedell

Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

________________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

responsen. something that is done as a reaction to something else

dose n. an amount of medicine to be taken at one time

accessn. the chance to get something, the availability of an item

rush v. to move very fast

global adj. involving the entire world

________________________________________________________________________

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A music class taught by an organization focused on young students who might not otherwise have access to lessons and instruments was wrapping up when a boy turned to an instructor and said he wanted to play the violin.

Well, I said, Do you want to keep playing now because it was time for the class to leave the room, said the instructor, Bonnie Greene.

But the second-grade boy was looking further down the road.

He said, This is what I want to do when I grow up, Greene said.

The exchange occurred during classes led by Harmony Madison last month during a residency program at Leopold Elementary School. It was part of the first year of the Summer Arts Academy run by the Madison School District to offer learning opportunities in visual and performing arts.

Residency programs for grades one through five were provided at existing programs run by Madison School and Community Recreation. While Harmony Madison was one such residency, other elementary sites featured other residency programs in dance, visual art and theater.

Expanded offerings for grades six through 12 were run at three middle school sites  Cherokee, OKeeffe and Wright.

In partnership with Madison community members, businesses and local artists, the district is seeking to offer arts programming in performing arts, digital music and media production, acting, theater and more.

We particularly wanted to target access for students who were invited to summer school, as these students need and deserve the rewarding connections to school programming that the arts can bring, said Peter Kuzma, arts education coordinator for the Madison School District.

While the summer classes were in the morning, the Summer Arts Academy was in the afternoon and was free of charge for registered students.

Its fun, said first-grader Khloe Jones said about the violin class.

Second-grader Anyelly Castillo Salguero said she would continue to play the violin if she had another chance.

Harmony Madison was contracted to run the residency program at Leopold. The organization intends to offer music lessons earlier than students can start them in school and to create a solid foundation so that more students will be successful pursuing music in the more advanced school and community performance groups. It also wants to connect the students to organizations that can provide performance and private lesson opportunities beyond what schools can provide.

Greene is the founder of the Music Makers program, a nonprofit designed to give private, high-quality music instruction to mostly low-income children that is now run by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. Music Makers was invited to be part of the residency program along with the Madison Conservatory. The residency was a chance for the organizations, which are set up to provide private lessons and instruments, to connect with students.

Ria Hodgson, director of WYSO Music Makers, did some teaching during the residency. Her organization offers private lessons and group classes with subsidies available. She said one parent already has reached out to arrange bass lessons for her child.

During the two-week Harmony Madison residency, the students had three, 45-minute daily sessions except during two field-trip days. They learned how to play the violin, studied music history by learning about the diddley bow, explored world beats on pails and African drums, and explored jazz improvisation, melody, harmony and rhythm with ensemble singing.

The teachers from Harmony Madison  Greene, Laurie Lang and Chris Wagoner  were joined by other colleagues and volunteers.

The residency was the first program offered by the organization, which is officially called Harmony Madison of Community Organizations Promoting the Arts, or COPA. Steve Sveum is the director. Some of the new opportunities might be at the facility currently being used by COPA until a new one is built. Some of the motivation and the approach are led by research on the effectiveness of music study for brain development that helps with learning reading and math skills, Greene said.

Harmony Madisons mission is to offer music lessons and performance opportunities to Madison area youth, Greene said. Its access to the arts.

School Spotlight: Adventures in learning, inside and outside the classroom Each Monday, the Wisconsin State Journal features a story about learning in Wisconsin. Here are School Spotlight stories from the past year.
A coward sits on the Legislatures budget committee. A GOP senator or representative killed funding for a land conservation project and doesnt have the backbone to own that decision. Its a sad day for democracy when elected public officials hide their official acts from the people.

At issue are 131 acres of stunning, undeveloped land along the shores of Lake Michigan known as the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs. Its close to Port Washington, about 80 miles northeast of Madison. The site boasts towering bluffs from which anyone can view amazing sunrises before a shaded hike in Cedar Gorge.

Anyone could, that is, if conservationists get their way. As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust wants to buy the land and protect it as a park for Wisconsinites. The land trust stepped up after multiple development proposals had fallen through.

Lakefront acreage is expensive, and the land trust has through September to come up with $5 million to buy the land. It has about $4 million so far.

The state Department of Natural Resources had approved a $2 million Knowles-Nelson Stewardship grant for the purchase when fundraising wasnt as far along. The Legislatures Joint Finance Committee had to sign off on the grant, but a member of the committee anonymously blocked it.

No one is saying who stymied the money. The four Democrats on the committee insist they didnt do it. The 12 Republicans are mum. The identity of the lawmaker remains a mystery.

Its bad enough that one lawmaker can blow up funding for a worthwhile conservation project. That the lawmaker can do it secretly is outrageous. Its called a public office because its supposed to be accountable and transparent to the public.

Maybe voters will agree that the project didnt deserve the money. Maybe they wont. Whichever side one falls on, theres now no opportunity to punish or reward the lawmaker responsible, no opportunity to lobby for a change of mind or to stand strong.

Whichever lawmaker is responsible should come clean and explain why. Without that transparency, the public can only speculate about why this happened. Does the lawmaker have a conflict of interest? Does the lawmaker simply hate parks? No one knows.

Culpability goes beyond a single anonymous Republican lawmaker. Some members of the committee must know who it was. Certainly at least one of the co-chairs  Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green  knows.

Their silence perpetuates an unwritten system that serves only lawmakers afraid to take a tough stand. The cost is their constituents right to know and government accountability. But, hey, they might want their colleagues to have their back someday when they anonymously block funding for something. Best not to make waves.

The Ozaukee Washington Land Trust still needs to raise $1 million. If it doesnt, an anonymous buyer is reportedly waiting to swoop in, buy the property and develop it.

The state created stewardship grants for exactly this sort of project, but one anonymous coward decided he or she knows better. Now its up to the goodwill of donors and even children selling lemonade to raise money. If they fail, what could have become a gem of Wisconsin open spaces is likely to become just one more upscale housing enclave on the lake.

Wisconsin State Journal editorial board The views expressed in the editorials are shaped by the board, independent of news coverage decisions elsewhere in the newspaper. STAFF MEMBERS KELLY LECKER, Executive editor SCOTT MILFRED, Editorial page editor PHIL HANDS, Editorial cartoonist COMMUNITY MEMBERS JANINE GESKE SUSAN SCHMITZ
A person in Canyon County appears to have caught the monkeypox virus, in what would be Idahos first identified case of local transmission.

The Southwest District Health public health department reported the case Friday in a news release.

The investigation is ongoing. Local and state public health officials are working with the patients healthcare providers to ensure the patient is treated and any potential close contacts are identified and notified of exposure risk, the department said.

A spokesperson for the department told the Idaho Capital Sun, Currently, no travel has been identified at this time in the investigation.

The department also reminded the public that most people recover at home after a mild illness. There are antiviral medications available, but public health officials encourage vaccination for people who have been exposed to monkeypox. Individuals with monkeypox should self-isolate until their lesions have fully healed with new skin where the lesions used to be, it said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported more than 4,900 cases of the monkeypox virus in the U.S. Three of those cases were in Idaho.

State and local health officials on July 6 announced the first probable case of monkeypox in Idaho, in a person living in the Central District Health region. The patient was believed to have caught monkeypox during travel to another country. At the time, there were more than 560 known cases of monkeypox in the U.S.

There are many differences between the monkeypox virus and the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Still, observers have noted some parallels between the early outbreaks of both infectious diseases. For instance, monkeypox testing has been limited, and it is unclear how many cases are going undetected, allowing for more transmission. However, the smallpox vaccine is effective against monkeypox, so immunizations do not need to be developed from scratch.

Members of Congress have been slow to react to the growing monkeypox outbreak, States Newsroom reported Thursday.

Public health officials in the Biden administration have held several briefings, expanded testing capacity to nationwide commercial laboratories, distributed more than 200,000 vaccine doses and begun ordering millions more for the national stockpile, according to States Newsroom reporting.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, the court did not complete its official judgment until Tuesday, meaning Idahos trigger law banning nearly all abortions will now go into effect on Aug. 25.

According to the text of Senate Bill 1385, the trigger law takes effect 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its judgment returning the power to regulate abortion to the states.

Idaho passed its trigger law in 2020, making the act of abortion a felony. The law outlines affirmative defenses for rape, incest and to save the patients life, which allows a person prosecuted for performing an abortion procedure to use those reasons as a defense. A rape or incest victim would also have to provide a copy of a police report to the physician who would perform the procedure, a process which can sometimes take weeks or months.

Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit challenging the law on June 27, saying it violates a fundamental right to privacy outlined in the Idaho Constitution. That lawsuit came a few months after a similar challenge from Planned Parenthood over Idahos Texas-style law that allows family members to file civil suits against medical professionals who perform abortions. Both cases were filed by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest and one of its abortion providers in Idaho, Dr. Caitlin Gustafson.

Following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe, the Idaho Supreme Court vacated its original plans for a hearing on the Texas-style law and decided to use the same date to hear specific arguments related to how that lawsuit and the challenge to the trigger law should proceed.

The hearing will include arguments over whether the Idaho Supreme Court should pause enforcement of the trigger law pending the outcome of the case, whether a pause on the Texas-style law should remain in place pending the outcome, whether the two lawsuits should be consolidated into one and whether both cases should be transferred to district court for further review.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 3. Those who want to attend the hearing in person are required to request tickets for seating. Details and instructions on how to reserve tickets can be found here.

Planned Parenthood files 3rd lawsuit with Idaho Supreme Court over 6-week abortion ban

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest and one of its Idaho abortion providers, Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, filed a third lawsuit Tuesday with the Idaho Supreme Court attempting to block a six-week abortion ban that is scheduled to take effect on or around Aug. 19. The Idaho Legislature passed a bill in 2021 criminalizing abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can typically be detected by ultrasound.

Like the trigger law, the language in that bill included a 30-day clock from a judgment issued by an appellate court ruling on a similar law. According to Planned Parenthoods petition to the court, that may have occurred on July 20, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld Georgias six-week abortion ban.

Because of the time constraints, Planned Parenthood has asked the court to intervene and pause implementation of the law, and to add the third lawsuit to the hearing scheduled on Aug. 3. Katie Rodihan, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, said the organization would prefer to consolidate the three cases into one moving forward.

Its confusing to providers and to patients if all of those cases dont get ruled the same way or all together, Rodihan said. Our hope would be to simplify everything by ruling on them all at once.
Opinion: Imagine you are new to Idaho. Youve left your trusted longtime physician behind, and now you need a new primary care doctor. How are you supposed to judge whether a new doctor is qualified, gives good advice and will take good care of you? So you pick one off of your insurers website and hope shes a good one.
During the next year, California officials said last week, the state expects to seize more than $1 billion worth of illegal cannabis products. That announcement came a few weeks after the U.S. Justice Department bragged about guilty pleas by 11 unlicensed California marijuana merchants who had been nabbed with help from state and local law enforcement agencies.

The continuing war on weed in California, which supposedly legalized marijuana in 2016, reflects the striking failure to replace black-market dealers with state-licensed vendors, a plan that has been doomed by high taxes, local bans and overregulation. Judging from the marijuana legalization bill he introduced last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has learned nothing from that experience.

Six years after California voters approved recreational marijuana, unauthorized suppliers still account for somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of sales. A recent report from the Reason Foundation (my employer) highlights one major reason why licensed businesses have had so much trouble competing with illegal suppliers: Taxes are too high.

Geoff Lawrence, the foundations managing director of drug policy, found that Californias effective tax rate ranged from $42 to $90 per ounce, depending on the jurisdiction, compared to an estimated wholesale production cost of $35 per ounce. The corresponding rates in Colorado and Oregon, both of which have been more successful at displacing the black market, are about $33 and $21, respectively.

Despite modest tax relief approved this year, legal marijuana remains overpriced in California. It is also inconvenient to buy in much of the state, Lawrence notes, thanks to local sales bans that have created massive cannabis deserts where consumers have no access to a legal retailer within a reasonable distance of their home.

Legal sellers also must contend with burdensome licensing requirements and regulations. Dale Gieringer, California director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says those rules help explain why legal marijuana prices are much higher than he anticipated.

It turned out that I had vastly underestimated the cost of the regulations imposed by the new law, Gieringer writes in an introduction to the Reason Foundation report. In addition to state and local licensing fees, there were elaborate rules on cultivation, retailing, transportation, manufacture, testing, facility siting, ownership, security, storage, on-site consumption, wholesale distribution, seed-to-sale tracking, waste disposal, labeling, packaging, environmental compliance, water usage, etc. ad nauseam.

Despite years of complaints about these barriers, Schumer decided that the cannabis industry needs more taxes and regulations. His 296-page Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which is cosponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), includes 52 pages dealing with taxation and 71 pages prescribing new regulations for marijuana businesses.

Schumers bill calls for a federal excise tax starting at 10% and rising to 25% by the fifth year, which would be in addition to frequently hefty state and local taxes. Implicitly acknowledging the counterproductive impact of those levies, the bill would cut the rates in half for businesses with proceeds below specified levels.

Schumer wants to charge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with registering marijuana businesses, setting product standards, establishing labeling requirements, policing adulterated and misbranded products, regulating advertising and promotion and imposing restrictions on sale and distribution. In addition to mandating specific rules, such as a nationwide minimum purchase age of 21 and a ban on adding flavors to cannabis vaping products, the bill would authorize the FDA to impose any restrictions it deems appropriate for the protection of the public health.

Given the FDAs dubious sense of what protecting public health means in other areas, such as regulation of tobacco and nicotine vaping products, that is a pretty scary clause. As in those contexts, whatever arbitrary rules the agency comes up with are bound to restrict consumer choice and help perpetuate the black market.

By failing to act, Wyden says, the federal government is empowering the illicit cannabis market. Thats exactly what this bills taxes and regulations would do.
Beijings and Moscows lawlessness and collaborative belligerence threaten all sovereign nations in Europe and Asia.

We still have time to respond with a war-deterring diplomatic stroke: extending NATOs Article 5 to committed nations in the Pacific and East Asia who already field NATO-ready military forces.

Background: The NATO treatys Article 5 exemplified the hard, clear-eyed diplomacy that won the Cold War. Cheekily known as the Three Musketeers Clause, Article 5 told the Soviet Union that an armed attack against one or more of them (NATO members) ... shall be considered an attack against them all.

Each member would then take action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain NATO security. The enemy had to attack a members territory or member forces, vessels or aircraft operating in or over NATO territory.

Moscow and Beijing: Neo-Fascist Russia and Communist China are demonstrably lawless. Russia signed the 1994 Budapest Accords and guaranteed Ukraines territorial integrity in exchange for its nuclear weapons. In 2014 Vladimir Putins Russia invaded and annexed Crimea.

China signed the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) treaty. Ignoring the treaty, China construction barges and fishing boats invaded the Philippines. The barges built artificial islands with jet air bases; the fishing fleet poached Filipino reefs. As the invasion progressed, Beijing claimed Filipino seas as Chinese territory.

In 2016 a U.N. court backed Manilas accusations of robbery and invasion. Beijing still ignores the verdict.

China also broke the Sino-British Treaty and crushed Hong Kong.

Chinese-Russian collaboration is multifaceted but these germane diplomatic and military cases make the big points. China supports Russias invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Chinese diplomats collaborate as they seek to create and exploit political rifts among targeted nations worldwide. In the Pacific, the Russian and Chinese navies, air and missile forces stage mock attacks against Japanese and American air bases and naval targets, from Hawaii to Tokyo Bay.

Does China encourage North Korea to threaten missile strikes on Guam and Hawaii?

Thats a question with nuclear and NATO-less implications.

The U.S. is a founding NATO member. However, Guam and Hawaii are not covered by the NATO treaty and Article 5. The original 1949 treaty covered Europe and North America north of the Tropic of Cancer. Puerto Rico, Guam and Hawaii were outside the geographic zone.

When Turkey joined NATO in 1951 the treaty was amended and Article 5s reach extended. About 97% of Turkey is in Asia  Anatolian Turkey.

2022s serendipity: Article 5 already covers a slice of Asia.

Expanding NATO and extending Article 5s geographic reach in order to deter war isnt a new idea. Though discussed for years, likely Asian members  think Japan  have favored strengthening deterrence using existing security arrangements, such as the bilateral and trilateral relationships that connect the U.S., Japan, Australia and Singapore.

Lawlessness and invasion, however, alter the calculus. In early June Japans Nikkei.com featured a story with this quote from Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.: Lets build a NATO for the Pacific. We need allies to get back on the offensive against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) ... as Chairman Xi (Jinping) looks to expand his sphere of influence, we need a new military alliance centered far out into the Pacific.

At the end of June leaders from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand attended NATOs Madrid summit.

On July 3 Turkish journalist and foreign policy analyst Mehmet Kanci wrote (at aa.com.tr) that the Asia-Pacific fours attendance confirmed that the alliance will go beyond its Transatlantic identity and wave a flag in the Trans-Pacific geography by 2023. Kanci noted NATOs new strategic concept document calls China a common threat. Chinas malicious hybrid operations and rhetoric (e.g., Wolf Warrior diplomacy) harm the security of the alliance... Kanci concludes NATOs paradigm shift has begun.

Lets speed up the shift and put the Pacifics P in NATO. North Atlantic and Trans-Pacific Treaty Organization. If NAPTO seems awkward, APTO is apt.
There were 195 fires in homeless encampments in Oakland, California, over two years that ended in March. In April, someone died in a fire sparked by the toxic-stew squalor in the area known as Wood Street.

There are frequent fires under freeways, where an interchange near the Bay Bridge once had to be closed for more than four hours because of a two-alarm blaze. There are two high-purity oxygen plants 215 feet from the combustible encampments.

Yet a federal judge prohibited California Gov. Gavin Newsom from removing the tent city until a comprehensive resettlement plan is in place.

Robert Marbut, who headed former President Donald Trumps homeless counsel and now serves as a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute, offered, Youve got to give Newsom points. Hes trying.

What gets in the way, Marbut noted, is a 2018 Ninth Circuit ruling, Martin v. City of Boise, that banned cities from enforcing anti-camping laws if they have fewer shelter beds than people experiencing homelessness.

In June for some reason, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to review the decision, so Martin applies in Western states.

Federal Judge William Orrick cited the decision as the reason he blocked Newsoms removal plan earlier this month.

The judge apparently is willing to overlook the possibility of a catastrophic conflagration that Caltrans warned could follow or other environmental hazards that could result if fires disabled a treatment plant.

Even without a catastrophic event, the encampments generate hazardous waste, dirty storm-water runoff and prevent Caltrans workers from inspecting Interstate 880, Caltrans has argued.

Inhabitants tap into Caltrans electrical boxes for power. Propane tanks used in the encampments have exploded. Anything can go wrong, and often does.

When does common sense kick in? Marbut asked. Whether its the safety of the individual, safety of the environment, safety of the community, there ought to be legitimate reasons why state or local officials can remove encampments that endanger public safety.

Actually, Newsom and local governments do have other tools to take back the streets.

Martin has no effect on laws prohibiting drug dealing, violent criminal activity, and conduct that poses environmental and health hazards, attorneys Theane Evangelis, Bradley Hamburger and William Cole wrote in California Real Property Journal. The vast majority of ordinances regulating public spaces remain fully constitutional and enforceable.

The squalor that haunts the underpasses and back alleys of California should move the states progressives to embrace even more law enforcement. Or they can let the state get even more dangerous.

For years, the left argued that not enforcing quality of life laws was the humane and enlightened approach that would lead to more livable cities. But all they got was a toxic stew.
Theres a historic date, which our country ought to mark every year, that has had as great an impact on the world as the July 4 birth of American democracy itself. The date is May 10, 1886  the day corporate supremacy was born. It came about through a court case that breathed life into these artificial, antidemocratic entities  a move that effectively gave corporations greater power than We the People.

The reason that todays Powers That Be (which are  big surprise!  corporate powers) dont want us paying the slightest bit of attention to this momentous date is that the birth of corporate supremacy actually was illegitimate, carrying no force of law. An old proverb says: A lie repeated 1,000 times becomes the truth. This particular lie asserts that every corporate business structure is, in the eye of the U.S. Constitution, equal to real human beings, possessing all the rights of people.

As bizarre as it is, this assertion has been repeated so often by CEOs, politicians, pundits, professors and judges that it is now assumed to be unassailable truth. Again and again, we hear the establishment speak of the right of this or that corporation to do as it pleases, as if the founders themselves had contemplated this as part of their grand democratic design.

Horse doodies. Not only are corporations unmentioned in the Constitution, but the founders would upchuck at the very idea that these things would now be treated by any serious person as part of the natural order.

After the passage of the 14th Amendment, which provided equal protection of the law to former slaves and all other people, clever corporate lawyers began to make claims that the corporation was not a thing, but a person. This is stupider than B.S. on a stick, but there it was, a product of the sophistry and greed of the robber barons. Back then, this argument was going nowhere. No president, Congress or court (federal or state) was willing to embrace the personhood claim, and none has ever acted to elevate the corporation to such an exalted status.

So where do we get todays assumption that a corporation is fully entitled to the constitutional rights of the American people? It was a mistake!

The mistake came in the writing of a headnote to the U.S. Supreme Courts 1886 decision in an obscure tax case called Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. (Ill not burden you with any minutiae from this case, which involved, of all things, the countys right to tax some of the railroads fence posts).

The railroads pushed hard in this unheralded case to get the court to rule that corporations have equal taxation and other human rights under the 14th Amendment. Chief Justice Morrison Waite, a failed Ohio politico and former railroad lawyer, seemed a likely bet to do the corporate bidding  but he did not. The court decided in favor of Southern Pacific on the mundane fence-post matter, but it specifically dodged the immense issue of personhood. It held no open court discussion about it, wrote no opinions mentioning it and rendered no judgment on it.

But a court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis (a former railroad official), wrote the headnote to the decision  a headnote being a summary of the case, for which reporters like Davis received a commission from the publisher of these legal documents. Daviss lead sentence declares: The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a state to deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Thats it. A clerks personal opinion, carrying no weight of law and misinterpreting what the court said  this is the pillar on which rests todays practically limitless assertions of corporate rights. Davis later asked Waite whether he was correct in saying that the court had ruled on corporate personhood, and Waite responded that we avoided meeting the constitutional questions.

Corporate attorneys seized on the headnote, quoting it as the law of the land, and it was not long before politicians and judges themselves joined in the farce, either because they were eager to support the corporate cause or were simply too lazy to read the actual case.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has welcomed Congo and the African Union (AU) for efforts to reconcile Libyan sides in the crisis that has gripped the oil-rich African country since 2011.

President of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, who also heads the AU High Committee on Libya, is preparing a conference on national reconciliation in Libya soon.

Lavrov, who is on an African tour met with the Congolese leader and Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso on Thursday. The Russian top diplomat welcomed Congos role in settling crises in the African continent and holding a conference that will bring together all parties to the Libyan conflict, Al Wasat reports. I want to emphasize the role of the President of the Republic of the Congo as chair of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya, he said.

We will actively assist in the organization of this important forum, he added, noting that Russia has been invited to attend the conference. Russia is a key player in Libya where it backs East-based military commander Khalifa Haftar who controls most of the countrys eastern and southern regions. Haftar backs Fathi Bashaghas government administration.

Libya currently has two administrations, that of the former Interior Minister Bashagha and the one of Abdelhamid Dbeibeh who was fired in February by the countrys parliament, the House of Representative (HoR). Dbeibeh refused to step down until elections are held.

Lavrov also criticized the attempts made so far by some European countries and even by colleagues from the United Nations, which ignored the focus on making this process inclusive of all Libyans.
Tunisias independent electoral commission, ISIE, has fired its chief of staff for professional mistakes in connection with figures of the July 25 referendum that was largely boycotted.

Maher Jedidi, Deputy President of the body, told local Mozaique FM radio that the chief of staff was guilty of serious professional misconduct, requiring sanctions, Webdo Tunis reports.

The sanction comes a day after the body admitted that there were mistakes in preliminary results of the referendum.

Tunisians were called to polls to decide over a constitution proposed by President Kais Saied. The results presented by the ISIE showed a turnout of 30 per cent while over 90 per cent of the casted ballots voted in favor of the infamous constitution.

Major political parties and most civil society groups boycotted the referendum arguing it is unconstitutional and a way to validate the putsch conducted by President Saied on July 25 last year when he snatched all major powers in the North African country.

I Watch; the local branch of Transparency International, disputed the ISIE figures positing that they were incoherent. The organization requested a recount of the vote without the participation of the electoral body.

Despite the errors Jedidi confirmed the result which gave a victory to President Saied.
Daniel Rofin, 41, receives a vaccine against Monkeypox from a health professional in medical center in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Public health officials warn that moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans. Credit: AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File

Spain reported Saturday a second death in as many days from monkeypox. These are believed to be the first confirmed fatalities from the disease in Europe since its recent spread beyond Africa.

The ministry based in Madrid said both fatalities were young men. It reported its first death on Friday, the same day that Brazil also reported its first death from monkeypox.

The global monkeypox outbreak has seen more than 22,000 cases in nearly 80 countries since May. There have been 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo, where a more lethal form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West.

In the U.S. and Europe, the vast majority of monkeypox infections have happened in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.

The deaths outside Africa come one week after the World Health Organization declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.

"The notification of deaths due to monkeypox does not change our assessment of the outbreak in Europe. We know that although the disease is self-limiting in most cases, monkeypox can cause severe complications," said Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe.

"With the continued spread of monkeypox in Europe, we will expect to see more deaths. Our goal needs to be on interrupting transmission quickly in Europe and stopping this outbreak," she said.

Jonathan Parducho, a pharmacist, removes a tray of vials of of the Jynneos vaccine for monkeypox from a box containing 20 doses, in the vaccine hub at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Friday, July 29, 2022, in San Francisco. Credit: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP

On Friday, Spain's health ministry reported 4,298 people were infected with the virus, making it the leading European country for monkeypox cases. Of that total, some 3,500 cases were of men who had had sex with other men. Only 64 were women.

The ministry said 120 have needed hospital attention.

Smallwood said around 8% of the monkeypox cases in Europe have required hospitalization.

Monkeypox has been endemic to parts of Africa for decades. Its leap to Europe and North America was linked by experts to two raves in Belgium and Spain.

Spanish health authorities are administering 5,300 vaccines that Spain received from the joint EU vaccine purchase scheme. Health workers say that's far fewer than the number needed to cover the at-risk groups.

But the rush to buy limited vaccines by richer Western countries is putting Africa in danger of being left out.

Monkeypox spreads mainly through skin-to-skin contact, but it can also be transmitted through bed sheets used by someone with monkeypox. Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and hives. The illness has been relatively mild in many men. But people can be contagious for weeks, and the lesions can be extremely painful.

Explore further UK reports 104 more cases of monkeypox, mostly in men

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Healthcare workers with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene help people register for the monkeypox vaccine at one of the City's vaccination sites, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in New York. U.S. health officials said Thursday that the countrys monkeypox outbreak can still be controlled and eliminated, despite rising case numbers and concerns about limited vaccine supplies in many parts of the country. Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus Saturday, calling the city "the epicenter" of the outbreak.

The announcement Saturday by Mayor Eric Adams and health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said as many as 150,000 city residents could be at risk of infection. The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend code provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread.

In the last two days, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency declaration and the state health department called monkeypox an "imminent threat to public health."

New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second-most, with 799.

"We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more doses as soon as they become available," Adams and Vasan said in the statement. "This outbreak must be met with urgency, action, and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment."

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on July 23 and San Francisco's mayor on Thursday announced a state of emergency over the growing number of cases.

Healthcare workers with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene help people register for the monkeypox vaccine at one of the City's vaccination sites, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in New York. The World Health Organization recently declared that the expanding monkeypox outbreak is a global emergency. Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Healthcare workers with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene help people register for the monkeypox vaccine at one of the City's vaccination sites, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in New York. The World Health Organization recently declared that the expanding monkeypox outbreak is a global emergency. Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Healthcare workers with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene help people register for the monkeypox vaccine at one of the City's vaccination sites, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in New York. The World Health Organization recently declared that the expanding monkeypox outbreak is a global emergency. Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

A health professional prepares a dose of a Monkeypox vaccine at the Edison municipal vaccination centre in Paris Wednesday July 27, 2022. Public health officials warn that moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans. Credit: Alain Jocard, Pool via AP, FIle

The once-rare disease has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades but 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.

To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. Spain reported a second monkeypox death Saturday.

The virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact as well as sharing bedding, towels and clothing. In Europe and North America, it has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, though health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone.

The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful.

Explore further Spain reports 2nd death from monkeypox

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Boeing has cleared a key hurdle with federal regulators and could soon resume deliveries of its large 787 airliner, which has been plagued by a series of production issues since late 2020, a person familiar with the matter said Saturday.

The Federal Aviation Administration notified Boeing on Friday that it would approve the companys process for validating fixes to each plane before they are delivered to airline customers, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that has not been publicly announced.

The FAA declined to comment and referred inquiries to Boeing. In a statement, Boeing said only, We will continue to work transparently with the FAA and our customers towards resuming 787 deliveries.

Approval to resume deliveries would be a boost for Boeing, which collects a big chunk of each planes purchase price at delivery. Boeing has accumulated a backlog of about 120 undelivered 787s. The plane, which Boeing calls the Dreamliner, lists at $248 million to $338 million depending on size, although airlines pay far less than sticker price.

Issues with the 787 started in 2020 when small gaps were found between panels of the fuselage that are made of carbon composite material. That prompted inspections that turned up problems with a pressurization bulkhead at the front of the plane.

Boeing also had to replace titanium parts including fasteners after it was discovered that the Italian supplier used alloys that did not meet FAA standards.

Boeing has maintained that none of the issues raised immediate safety concerns.

It is not clear how long it will take Boeing to deliver all 120 backlogged planes, which were built at factories in Washington state and South Carolina. Each one will need to be cleared by the FAA.

American Airlines expects to get its first two 787s in early August but isnt including them in the schedule until November, the airlines chief financial officer, Derek Kerr, said last week on a call to discuss quarterly earnings.

The FAA decision to approve Boeings retrofitting plan was first reported by Aviation Week.
Of all the changes initiated by Montanas 1972 constitution, the ones most frequently praised are Montanans rights to know about and participate in our government in action. The delegates embedded them in the Declaration of Rights for good reason.

Under our original constitution, Montana citizens couldnt review government documents upon request. We didnt have to be notified that a government body was meeting on a matter of public interest. Government bodies met, deliberated, and voted outside public view. Public input was neither slated nor encouraged.

Much has been written about how much more transparent our constitution has made Montana government, compared to other states governments. Not enough has been said about the value of public comment, also a fundamental right in Montana. Today, every public meeting, whether of a school board, a county commission, or an advisory board of state or local government, must provide the public with an opportunity to comment on any item coming before the body for a vote. Its a powerful right, an opportunity to influence decisions before theyre made.

At its most effective, public comment relies on an unspoken contract between the governing body and the citizen. As we celebrate our 50th year with that right, Id like to explain what I see as the duties of each party to that contract  the government this week; the public, next.

Heres what members of public bodies commit to  or should  as they take public comment:

1. Provide a meaningful amount of time for each person wishing to comment. Three minutes  typical now, in school board and local government meetings  is usually enough. Thirty seconds  what an Office of Public Instruction committee recently allowed members of the public on a highly charged issue  is ridiculous. If you have more people wanting to comment than you have time on the agenda, either go longer or reschedule the decision.

2. Ask first for constituent comments. In legislative hearings, dont let legislators chew up the publics time by providing public comment to committees they dont serve on. Theyll have their time on the floor. Same with lobbyists. They know where to find you. Nothing is sadder than seeing legislators cut to the front of the line while someone who has driven six hours through a snowstorm waits patiently, clutching testimony scrawled in her sons spiral notebook, only to be told when its her turn that the allotted time has expired and the most she can say is me too.

At local meetings, make sure your citizens get priority billing. Yes, its impressive that Someone Important from Somewhere Else showed up for your meeting, but its your constituents who will live with your decision. They deserve equal time  and they deserve to be heard first.

3. Be polite. If your boss was talking, you wouldnt get up and leave, gather in the corner with co-workers for a sidebar, or engage in eye-rolling, snorting, and the like. The public is your boss.

4. Curb audience enthusiasm. Youre conducting a public hearing, not American Idol. Booing from hearing attendees is unacceptable, no matter how unpopular the view being expressed. So is applause, no matter how prevalent the point of view. Both reactions chill opposing speech.

5. Seek to clarify, not to clobber. Members of the public dont have the same access to the microphone and the process you do. When you use your position to show what a great trial lawyer you could have been, grinding some hapless constituent into powder in the process, you abuse your power. You can make your points without getting personal when the body deliberates.

6. Most importantly, suspend judgment on an issue until youve considered all public comment. The right to comment means nothing if officials minds are closed to new information or a different perspective. As a wise man who served in various branches of government, pre- and post-1972, used to tell me, eyebrow raised, Never overlook the possibility that your initial take could be just plain wrong.

Every public official promises to uphold the Constitutions of our state and nation. Treating public comment with respect is part of that promise. Keep it.
When water began filling the mobile home of Amber Smith and her husband, Riley Noble, early Thursday morning, the couple had only minutes to get their four young children dressed and escape.

Hours later, on Friday afternoon, the bodies of all their children had been found in Knott County, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Maddison Noble, 8, Riley Jr., 6, Nevaeh Noble, 4, and Chance Noble, 2, were among the victims of the deadly Kentucky floods that have killed at least 25 people as of Saturday.

Smith's cousin, Brittany Trejo, told the New York Times that the couple got a flash flood alert at 2 a.m. on Thursday and within moments, the family had climbed to the top of their trailer to wait out the flood.

Seeing that their home was about to be swept away, the parents held on tight to their children and managed to float to a nearby tree where they shouted for help, Trejo said, recounting what Smith told her about the tragic encounter.

Even though Smith and Noble held onto their kids for as long as possible, the children were eventually pulled away by the force of the current.

The rage of the water took their children out of their hands, Trejo told the Times.

The grieving parents remained stranded at the tree and were rescued after approximately eight hours by strangers.

After one sibling's body was found, the family had to endure the wait of finding the remains of the other missing children. But by Friday afternoon, all four bodies were discovered.

Family members recalled how tight-knit the young family was.

The kids' uncle, Steven Smith, told the Times that Riley and Chance were always playing together and even in death, their bodies were found the closest to each other.

I know they hung on to each other till the very end," Steven Smith said.

A GoFundMe created by Trejo for funeral costs has raised more than $38,000. She shared a text message from Smith, 23, who said, "Thank You all Truly From the bottom of my heart I appreciate all the help."

Story continues

Gov. Andy Beshear said in a press conference Saturday that search and rescue missions are ongoing and that the death toll will continue to rise.

"We continue to pray for families that have suffered unfathomable loss, some having lost almost everyone in their household," Beshear said.

Earlier reports said the fatalities included six children, but the governor clarified that two were later confirmed to be adults.

As of Saturday afternoon, at least 1,432 people had been rescued by first responders from Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. More than 18,000 power outages were being reported across the state.

It is expected to be dry through Sunday afternoon, but the forecast predicted rain later on Sunday through parts of Monday, with counties below the Mountain Parkway getting another inch to possibly 2 inches of rain, Beshear said, adding it "could be rough."

Weather disasters like this are inextricably linked to human-induced climate change. The planet has already warmed 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, according to NASA, making disasters worse. Heat waves are getting hotter, more frequent, and longer-lasting while heavier rainfall across the US is triggering more inland flooding. Wildfire seasons are getting longer and hurricanes are getting wetter and more dangerous. And the cost of climate disasters is soaring.
After 22 years of sitting on the bench in North Carolinas 25th Judicial District, Burford A. Cherry is hanging up his robe.

The longtime judge, a Catawba County resident who has been the chief District Court judge since 2014, has spent the last few weeks making his rounds to the three counties whose District Court sessions he oversaw.

That farewell tour saw him take the bench for the last time in Burke County on Friday, his last working day before his retirement becomes effective Sunday night.

He first got started in law in the early 1980s, obtaining a bachelors degree from North Carolina State University and a juris doctor degree from Campbell University after that. But this part of the legal system isnt where Cherry always thought he would end up.

When I was in high school, I had this idea that I wanted to be an FBI agent, Cherry told The News Herald.

It was after he started working as an attorney in Hickory that he was faced with the choice between two career paths.

I had made some brief inquiries about the FBI, but I went to work with a former FBI agent who was a lawyer, so I was practicing law with him, Cherry said. I got a phone call out of the blue from the field office in Charlotte wanting me to come for an interview.

He and his wife discussed it, and he decided he didnt want to make the jump to a new career path when he already had launched his career as an attorney  and what a career it has been.

At the forefront of judicial issues over the last several decades has been substance abuse issues.

Theres very little that is not influenced by alcohol and substance abuse, Cherry said. If it werent for those two things, we wouldnt have a job in District Court, whether its district criminal court, or whether its juvenile court, or whether its child support court, or whether its domestic violence court. Civil courts a little bit different, but all the other courts that we do are heavily influenced by alcohol and drugs.

And in the 40 years Ive done this, theres been very little progress in addressing those issues.

Part of the problem, Cherry said, is that no matter how much investigators try to put drug dealers behind bars, theyre always going to be a supplier who steps in so long as there is a demand.

Its pure economics driven by supply and demand, and as long as the demand side of the equation is there, you can interdict, or rev, imprison till the cows come home and youre just gonna make a dent in the situation, Cherry said.

He said the judicial system has taken some steps toward alleviating the problem with things like drug treatment court, but until theres enough addiction treatment available for people in need, theres not much that can be done.

One thing weve learned over the years is substance abuse and addiction, addiction is a disease, Cherry said. Its just no question. Its a disease. And you can treat people, but it takes long-term treatment. Putting somebody in detox for five days or sending them to a 30-day treatment program didnt work, doesnt work, never will work. It has to be long term.

His time on the bench has also seen him help families through Department of Social Services cases. Clerks described seeing a joy-filled Cherry on the bench any time families were able to be reunited.

Its always a special event to see that happen because everybody who comes into juvenile court starts off behind the eight ball, Cherry said. I was born in 1957. During my entire school career from kindergarten to high school, I never knew of anyone that was born testing positive for methamphetamine, cocaine, THC, fentanyl and all kinds of other drugs. That is a routine occurrence now.

Being on the bench has been a lesson in tolerance and patience, Cherry said, but said he knew it was time for him to leave after having some health issues.

Im leaving while my health is still intact and I can still do things, Cherry said.

He said plans to spend time with family, enjoying his hobbies like hunting, fishing and reading, and hopes to get some travelling in next year.

For those hoping to end up on a career path like his, he encouraged them to come sit in court or volunteer to make sure its what they want to do.

I would try to encourage young people dont think that you have to follow this path of graduate from high school, go to college, get a degree, get a job, Cherry said. Find out something that you like to do. And if you like to fix an air conditioner, go to community college and learn how to fix air conditioners  If you dont have a passion for (your career), you need to go do something else.

Sitting in his cleaned-out office Friday, he thanked everyone hes worked with throughout his career.

Ive enjoyed working with everybody, Cherry said. The lawyers, the clerks, law enforcement, everybody in the court system, I think, is truly dedicated to the job.
The city of Morganton is expected to take some steps toward officially deciding how to spend millions of dollars from the federal government to help recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Council members will decide whether to adopt seven policies on non-discrimination, records retention, conflicts of interest, eligible uses, cost principles, property management and program income for funds allotted to the city by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Morganton received more than $4.8 million in ARPA funding, and the policies the council will decide on Monday night are required by the act. Information from the city said the rules were drafted by city attorney Louis Vinay, and modeled after sample policies developed by the UNC School of Government.

The policies must be adopted before the council can commit ARPA funds to any projects.

Council members also will take some steps toward correcting a notice of violation issued by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality  Division of Water Infrastructure.

The violation came after the citys first stormwater audit was finished, and council members had been warned to expect a violation. Information from the city said every other municipality that has been audited has received a violation.

Council members will have before them a resolution supporting the citys intent to comply with the stormwater permit and program and a contract with Withers-Ravenel worth $86,750 to ensure the city adequately responds to the notice of violation.

Thats not the only water topic on tap for Mondays meeting.

Council members also will decide whether to approve a contract and work authorization with Wildlands Engineering Inc. for conceptual design plans for the design of Hunting Creek.

The contract, which would be a total of $30,000, would see the engineering firm work with Development by Design to coordinate a plan that maximizes creek restoration potential along with the proposed greenway and trail system through the corridor.

The timeline for this work would be from August through October, so staff can seek funding packages from October through December. That timeline is necessary to meet deadlines to pursue funding during the long session of the North Carolina General Assembly, according to information from the city.

The council also will decide whether to contract with a company for application preparation for funding opportunities for water and sewer infrastructure.

Information from the city said staff has been seeking funding for water and sewer infrastructure projects for a few years. One of the large projects that has already been designed is the rebuild of the water treatment plants coagulation and sedimentation basins, a project the city estimates will cost around $4.16 million.

Staff spent the spring working with W.K. Dickson & Co. to apply for funding from ARPA grants, but ultimately the grant was not awarded. The company has told the city it believes the project would receive grant funding in the fall round if the capital improvement plan was extended by five years.

If approved, the city would contract with W.K. Dickson for $1,500 to apply for the grant funding. Information from the city said if grant funding is not awarded, low-interest loan funding would be accepted instead.

Other items up for discussion at Monday nights meeting include awarding several contracts, purchasing a new firetruck, knuckle boom loader and front loader, and adopting a 10-year capital improvement plan for the water resources department.

The council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers of Morganton City Hall, with public comment to start the meeting.
Most Wanted ListThose who have a new or gently used copy of any of the Top 10 Titles and would like to donate it to the library, it would be most appreciated. To date, the library has received 955 of the most wanted books.

Current BCPL Top 10 Holds1. Shattered by James Patterson  13 holds

2. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover  nine holds

3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens  eight holds

4. The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci  seven holds

5. Sugar and Salt by Susan Wiggs  seven holds

6. The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand  six holds

7. 22 Seconds by James Patterson  six holds

8. The Best is Yet to Come by Debbie Macomber  five holds

9. Sparring Partners by John Grisham  five holds

10. Wyoming Homecoming by Diana Palmer  five holds

Current New York Times Bestsellers and NC Cardinal Consortium Holds1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens  661 holds

2. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover  320 holds

3. Verity by Colleen Hoover  186 holds

4. The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci  503 holds

5. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover  92 holds

6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid  240 holds

7. The It Girl by Ruth Ware  239 holds

8. The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand  615 holds

9. November 9 by Colleen Hoover  41 holds

10. Book Lovers by Emily Henry  201 holds

Adult programmingBeginning tomorrow adults can call to register for August programs and register for pick-up programs which will begin in September. Those wishing to register for Bibliomaniacs/CraftyMe will only need to register for Bibliomaniacs as the two will be combined. Bibliomaniacs is a monthly themed subscription box which includes a library book, craft, and a handful of items that go along with the theme. Return the library book and keep the rest.

Bibliomaniacs & Savory Spice Club will both resume in September. Savory Spice Club is a monthly pick-up consisting of a new spice as well as some history and recipes. Participants will pick-up their spice on the first Tuesday of the month then meet at Valdese Public Library the following Thursday to create one of the recipes. Savory Spice is one pick-up per household, but the cooking portion is first come, first served as space is limited.

All programs are free unless otherwise noted. Call 828-764-9269 with any questions.

Young adult programming#YAS Summer Reading Program has wrapped up! This year we had over 160 teens participate and read over 1,000 books. Were taking a break this week, but YAS will be back next week with a full month of programs and activities just for middle and high school students.

The sign-ups for some awesome programs including a Murder Mystery Party on Aug. 13 and a Bob Ross Painting Night for teens and adults on the 15th and more is available now. For information visit us online at bcpls.org/yas or contact Lizzie at 828-764-9273 or by email at lizzie.whisnant@burkenc.org to pre-register.

Childrens programming Today, July 31, is the last day to log any points for the Summer Reading Program. Please visit any of our branches to redeem prizes that have not been collected yet. As of Sunday, July 24, there had been over 128,000 minutes logged by kids in both programs! Can we get to 150,000 by July 31?

We are eagerly getting ready for our 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Celebration for all of this years achievers to be held in August. Come in and update your progress at any of our three branches by turning in completed reading logs. Invitations to those that have completed the challenge since August 2021 will be mailed soon, so if your address has changed, please let us know that as well. If you havent signed up for the program yet, we would love to have your family participate in the challenge with us! You can register at any branch.

Registration for our fall storytime groups will begin on Aug. 8, and the weekly programs will resume on Monday, Aug. 29. Visit the website (www.bcpls.org/kids) or see our monthly calendar for more details.

eBooks @ your libraryThere are 3,891 Burke County Public Library users registered to use the librarys digital collection available through the e-iNC consortium and NC Kids Digital Library. The digital collection includes eBooks, audiobooks, and streaming video available to Burke County Public Library cardholders. Apps are available for download for a variety of devices including Kindle, iPhone and Android phones. Go to http://omc.overdrive.com to see the apps. To access the collection and download items go to http://e-inc.lib.overdrive.com and follow the instructions to set up an account. You will need to know your library card number and your PIN. Please contact the library if you need any assistance.

Find us on the webGo to www.bcpls.org for a list of programs and events. Unless noted otherwise, all library programs are free. Some programs have pre-registration and age requirements.
Aunt-niece duo Missy Okrusch and Jubilee Stearns have been dreaming about Paper Cranes for three years. This isnt to say theyve been dreaming about actual paper cranes  the folded origami birds  but their store, for which the Japanese creation is the namesake.

The store, which opened on June 18, has been a dream of Okruschs for as long as she can remember.

When I was younger, I always wanted to own a boutique, Okrusch said. And (Jubilee) worked in a boutique in Missoula, Mother Moose (Gifts & Gallery), and just fell in love with it.

Stearns, Okruschs niece, moved from Missoula to open up the boutique with Okrusch, but it took a little longer than they anticipated.

We started purchasing and setting up shelves and getting things together in September, Stearns said.

We really got serious because we thought we were going to be open by Christmas, Okrusch said, adding that it eventually became evident that there wasnt enough time.

You think its simple in your head and then theres so much more to it, Okrusch said. I mean, getting your POS systems, stickering everything, our shelf day  we still had to finish this building.

In addition, Okrusch owns the Kings Kids Childcare and Preschool, and while she and Stearns got help setting up the store from Okruschs brother, they both have jobs, and Stearns just had a baby, so the time they were able to spend getting the store up and running was limited.

I think unless you were given or handed wealth, you kind of have to do it that way, Okrusch said.

The shelf day, where the two of them did nothing but assemble shelves, was one of the more challenging parts of the process, Stearns and Okrusch said.

We did it in just a couple of days, Okrusch said. Where our hands were hurting.

And we got blisters, Stearns said, laughing.

Although the store has been in the works for roughly three years, and Okrusch has owned the building with her siblings for six, the pair didnt decide on a name until about November.

Okrusch and Stearns had a host of names they were tossing around, but none of them sounded quite right. One day, they were eating lunch in Missoula and Okrusch suggested the name after she saw a paper crane on the wall, but Stearns turned the idea down.

However, after months of running the name by friends and family, they decided it was the right fit after all.

In some stories in ancient Japanese culture, its said that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes in one year will be granted a wish by the gods, according to Paper Cranes website.

And it means like peace and hope and security and all these beautiful things, Okrusch said. So we have to fold 1,000 paper cranes this year.

Stearns had some experience folding paper cranes from childhood, and picking it back up was easier than she though it would be. Shes taught Okrusch, and some of the paper cranes theyve made hang in the window.

As they make more, they put them in different places around the store and sometimes give them away to customers.

Theres been some days where Im like Im going to make a lot of paper cranes, and I get down here and I make like 50, Stearns said.

The name of the whole building will eventually be The Hoist House because their building is next to the headframes, Okrusch said, a suggestion of her brotherss, and next door, Drizzle, an ice cream and coffee shop Okrusch and Stearns hope to open by summer 2023.

They said the store will have basic ice cream flavors for bases, and then create unique sauces to drizzle over both the ice cream and coffee drinks. They hope the store will be somewhere families can visit when they go uptown, where people can take their kids to sit down.

From the name to the merchandise, every detail of the store was chosen with thought and care from both Okrusch and Stearns.

Its stuff you cant find anywhere else, Okrusch said. We want our target audience to be every age and every price range  we want our customers to be everyone.

The store has a lot of unique merchandise, spanning many different categories culminating into a melting pot of sorts. Inside, you can find clothes, jewelry, small batch snacks and drinks, home decor, kitchen ware, youth toys, baby items and gift baskets. There are also handmade fabric birds in colorful designs that magnetically clip to branches so customers can buy just one or multiple, and clip the birds to the branch to make a bird family.

Another thing Okrusch and Stearns pride themselves on is the type of businesses their store supports. While they strive to have many local businesses in their store, they also work to make sure they support women-owned businesses and businesses that support what they believe are worthy causes.

And thats one of our big things is our vendors that we buy from, a lot of them are from Montana, Okrusch said. We want different stuff from Montana. I love supporting artists, love supporting small businesses. We have some businesses that have fair trade or are helping women from Guatemala work.

For example, Stearns said one their vendors donates to a company that helps house and employ sexually exploited and trafficked people.

So we like finding businesses like that, women-owned businesses, Okrusch said. When you buy from our small business, youre buying another small business.

The best part for Okrusch and Stearns is talking to people who are shopping and getting to know the Butte community.

They said not only have customers given positive feedback about the store, but nearby businesses have been referring customers to them.

Our neighbors are fabulous, Okrusch said. They send customers to us all the time.

Its just a community, Stearns said.

At the end of the day, Stearns and Okrusch are excited to get to know Buttes market.

I dont think weve touched the surface yet, Okrusch said.
Fast action Friday night kept a wildfire from reaching the west shore of Flathead Lake, but conditions remain tense through the hot weekend.

About 7,000 acres of grassland and forest burned by Saturday afternoon in the Elmo 2 fire, which started about 6:30 p.m. Friday. It appeared to have combined with a much smaller Eagle Mountain fire as they burned through forest between Lake Mary Ronan and the Hog Heaven Range of hills northwest of Big Arm Bay.

Within two hours of ignition, the fires had expanded to about 2,000 acres, forcing evacuations in the Elmo vicinity and threatening homes from Dayton to Big Arm. Its cause remains under investigation.

Smokejumpers, aerial tankers and fire departments from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Rollins, Hot Springs, Polson, Ronan, Finley Point/Yellow Bay and Mission all sent 130 personnel to the fire Friday night.

The Red Cross chapter in Polson arranged a pancake breakfast for evacuated families and travelers at the Linderman School parking lot, which was opened for campers to relocate. A Polson Chamber of Commerce notice stated no donations were needed as of Saturday morning, but that could change depending on fire progression.

The CSKT Council also opened space for evacuees to park trailers at the Salish Kootenai Gym in Pablo.

Highway 28 remains closed for 10 miles around Elmo. Traffic on Highway 93 around the west shore of Flathead Lake was intermittent and affected by poor visibility from smoke.

Evacuation orders were lifted on Saturday for all areas except around Black Lake, just west of Dayton.

Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks evacuated and closed state parks at Lake Mary Ronan and Big Arm Friday night.

An extensive power outage around the northwest shore of Flathead Lake complicated communications for many Friday evening. Power appeared to be restored for most residents by Saturday, except between Lakeside and Elmo.

Winds Friday evening appeared to push the front of the blaze from its origin, about 8 miles west of Lakeside, eastward toward Flathead's west shore. Satellite imagery from the National Weather Service showed it creating its own pyrocumulus cloud around 7 p.m. Friday.

Southwest winds were blowing at 5 to 7 mph in the fire area Friday night, and were expected to continue through Saturday. NWS forecasts for Sunday included potential wind gusts of 20 mph or more that afternoon.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation placed the Elmo 2 fire's starting point about 5 miles north of Lake Mary Ronan.

However, photographs on social media showed smoke columns approaching the grasslands between the Hog Heaven Range of hills and Highway 28 northwest of Elmo. By Friday night, flames could be seen cresting Hog Heaven's ridgeline northwest of Polson.
Elon Musk has lost $37.6 billion (R626 billion) in 2022 after his wealth ramped up rapidly from 2020.

According to data from Bloombergs Billionaires Index, Musk had accumulated a fortune of $24.6 billion (R410 billion) by 2020, and by July 2022, it had grown to $233 billion (R3.9 trillion).

However, his wealth fell from approximately $270.6 billion (R4.5 trillion) at the start of 2022.

A fair proportion of his losses can be attributed to a decline in Teslas share prices since January 2022.

At the start of the year, Tesla shares  of which Musk owns around 175 million  were valued at $1,199.78 (R19,985), and they have since dropped about 33% to $797.56 (R13,285).

It should be noted that Musk lost R197 billion in May after his posts on Twitter caused Teslas shares to plummet to the sub-$700 level.

His posts involved him trashing Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) and his announcement that he was switching from Democrat to Republican.

In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party, Musk said.

But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

The chart below tracks Elon Musks net worth from 2013 to 2022, using data from Bloombergs Billionaires Index.

Musks turbulent Twitter deal

Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April 2022 for $44 billion (R743 billion) or $54.20 (R915) per share.

The worlds richest man began building his approximate 9% stake in the social media platform in January 2022 and started ramping up his criticism of the microblogging site in March.

Twitter then offered Musk a position on its board, which he rejected. In April, he proposed taking the platform private through a buyout bid.

Twitter accepted Musks best and final offer of $54.20 (R902) per share in cash less than two weeks later.

The Tesla CEO said hed make the platform a bastion of free speech and dropped other hints about the changes hed make as the owner.

Most of the changes he planned were related to the businesss finances, such as:

Cutting Twitters reliance on advertising to under 50%;

Generating $15 million (R250 million) in revenue using payments business;

Increasing revenue per user by $5.39 (R89.78);

Attaining 104 million new subscribers for an unknown product called X Subscribers;

Reaching 931 million users by 2028;

Quintupling Twitters revenue to $26.4 billion (R440 billion) by 2028; and

Hiring 3,600 new employees by 2025.

Former Twitter executive Jason Goldman slammed Musks free speech ideas, describing them as very naive and unserious.

He also criticised Musks targeting of Twitter employees in his posts.

You absolutely should not allow the prospective owner of the company to troll your employees for the decisions that they made, Goldman said.

Musks online actions contributed to a wave of online abuse directed at Twitters top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, putting him at risk of violating the deals conditions within three days of agreeing to it.

The acquisition hit a speed bump when Musk asked Twitter to prove its claims that bots make up less than 5% of the accounts on the platform  or hed call off the deal.

Musk said he expects the figure is closer to 20%, adding that it could be as high as 90%.

The Tesla CEO terminated the Twitter acquisition deal in early July, causing the microblogging companys stock price to slide 9%.

Twitters lawyers said the termination was invalid and wrongful, and the company instigated legal proceedings to sue the worlds richest man for breaching the contract.

The trial is set to begin in October 2022.

Now read: Former Absa exec appointed Telesure Advisory CEO
Eskom applied to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for a 32.66% electricity tariff increase from 1 April 2023 and will now have to adjust its application after President Cyril Ramaphosas power plan announcement.

This is according to Eskoms chief financial officer Calib Cassim, who told Rapport that it would need to be adjusted to account for additional power purchases and other expenses relating to Ramaphosas power plan.

On 25 July, the President revealed governments plan to end load-shedding and save Eskom  including surplus power purchases and re-hiring skilled engineers.

One of the challenges that Eskom has faced has been the shortage of skilled personnel and engineers, Ramaphosa said.

The utility is now recruiting skilled personnel, including forming Eskom senior plant managers and engineers from the private sector.

Days before Ramaphosas speech, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan accepted labour union Solidaritys standing offer to provide a list of former Eskom engineers willing to return to the state-owned power utility.

Ramaphosa also revealed plans to add additional capacity to the grid by buying surplus power from independent power producers but did not specify who would provide the necessary funding.

Cassim explained that independent power producers would need to provide surplus power at a lower price than what it costs to run Eskoms diesel generators that support its coal power fleet.

If they did, it would make sense to use the cheaper option, he said.

According to Rapport, Nersa isnt happy with how much Eskom uses its diesel-power open-cycle gas turbines, saying that it is the power utilitys own fault that its coal fleet  which produces cheaper electricity  is insufficient.

Nersa has published a consultation paper on its website regarding Eskoms tariff application.

It notes that if the settlements from all Eskoms legal challenges against Nersas previous tariff decisions are factored in, South Africas overall electricity increase for next year would be 38.1%.

Regarding the plan to increase maintenance on the ailing coal-generation fleet, Cassim said Eskom has enough budget  R8.1 billion  to conduct its planned maintenance for the current financial year.

However, he explained it would need time for thorough planning to increase maintenance and obtain necessary parts. Eskom expects its maintenance budget for the next financial year to be around R10 billion.

Despite this, Eskom is asking for about R20 billion a year for maintenance for Nersa. However, it is seldom granted as much as it requests.

As part of its initial application, Eskom is asking for R85 billion for purchasing power from independent power suppliers in 2023/24 and R101 billion for the subsequent year.

Another part of Ramaphosas rescue plan for Eskom includes supporting the power utility through debt relief.

However, Cassim warned that debt relief alone wouldnt be sufficient without tariff increases and improved consumer debt collection.

The full spectrum of Ramaphosas plan includes:

Bringing back former Eskom employees to ensure the right skills and leadership are in place

Make sure Eskom has a budget for necessary maintenance

Stabilising diesel supplies

Allowing Eskom to procure excess energy from own-power and independent power producers with a standard offer

Adopting a pragmatic approach to local content requirements for renewable energy projects

Ramaphosa said the power utility would also import electricity from neighbouring countries through the Southern African power pool arrangement.

He added that governments decision to raise the 100MW ceiling for private power producers had unlocked a pipeline of 80 confirmed projects with a combined capacity of over 6,000MW.

Due to the enthusiasm with which the private sector responded to the invitation to produce their own power, Ramaphosa said government would do away with the embedded generation threshold altogether.
Kazakhstan President sends condolence message to Armenia PM

Armenia has new consul general in Russias Rostov-on-Don

3 men who strangled Yerevan woman, 47, to death are arrested

People continue bringing flowers, toys nearby tragic Yerevan explosion site

Book of condolences opened at all Armenia diplomatic missions abroad

Bomb threat made at Gyumri international airport, railway station

Russian embassy upset by reports about Russia organizations participation in Yerevan market tragedy

Armenia ex-deputy PM Avinyan visits Yerevan market blast site

Yerevan market explosion: We have one missing person, Armenia official says

Armenia Prosecutor Generals Office: No one is charged in Yerevan market blast case

World oil prices going up

Day of mourning declared in Armenia, Artsakh today and tomorrow

Kazakhstan embassy offers condolences over Yerevan market explosion

People laying flowers nearby Yerevan market blast site

Newspaper: One person is charged in Yerevan market explosion case

Newspaper: Armenia ruling party plans to make state institutions employees become party members

Yerevan explosion: 2 people still being searched for

Yerevan market explosion: 2 people still considered missing as of midnight (PHOTOS)

Turkey launches airstrike on Aleppo countryside, 3 Syria soldiers dead

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
As countries around the world replenish their arsenals with armed drones, federal lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to investigate how U.S. parts and technology ended up in what has quickly become one of the world's most popular models: the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2, ProPublica reported.

Manufactured by Turkish company Baykar Technology, the TB2 can hover high above the battlefield and engage targets with laser-guided missiles. Baykar claims that the TB2s are manufactured domestically and almost all parts are sourced from Turkey. However, as ProPublica reported this month, debris from downed drones from multiple conflicts suggests otherwise. A number of components have been manufactured by manufacturers in the US, Canada and Europe.

To learn more, legislator Tony Cardenas recently introduced an amendment to the House version of the National Defense Authority Act. The annual budget bill is often an opportunity for lawmakers to demand a report from the administration on pressing issues, and Cardenas focused on TB2, highlighting Azerbaijan's deployment of the weapon in the 2020 war against neighboring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Pictures of the drone wreckage released by local media and the Armenian military at the time showed details that matched those made by several American companies. Some of these companies told ProPublica that they have taken steps to stop selling directly to Turkey, but others continue to sell key parts.

Turkey has increased TB2 exports in recent years. At least 14 countries now own these drones, and 16 others are looking to acquire them.

Weve been paying close attention to Turkeys drone sales and how these weapons have been deployed around the world, Cardenas told ProPublica in a statement. Im troubled about the destabilizing effects were seeing and the human rights concerns that follow, especially in places like Nagorno Karabakh. We need a full accounting of the role U.S manufactured parts are playing so that Congress can conduct proper oversight.

If passed, the law would require the Department of Defense, in consultation with the State Department, to prepare a report on U.S. TB2 components used in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and any potential violations of export laws, sanctions, or other regulations. Neither the Turkish Embassy in Washington nor Baykar Technology responded to a request for comment on the story. Previously, when Baykar was asked about the source of key components of its drones, it did not answer specific questions and only stated that those questions were based on false accusations.

It's about US export laws. Typically, military parts are tightly controlled, requiring licenses from the State Department detailing their buyers and end use. But many of TB2's key components are commercial-grade technologies that are used in a variety of consumer products and are not subject to gun laws. And Turkey, a member of key global anti-weapon treaties, can easily import finished parts, avoiding a web of sanctions and restrictions aimed at curbing the efforts of countries like Iran and China that also have drone programs.

Some critics are calling for the Biden administration to take action against Turkey. Other countries, including Canada, have previously imposed export bans to prevent the delivery of key parts. But for the US, experts say, there are a number of diplomatic considerations. Turkey is a longtime NATO ally. And more recently, the TB2 has become a critical tool in places like Ukraine, where the country's military uses it to fight Russian troops - a fact repeatedly emphasized by the drone manufacturer, Baykar, in media coverage of the conflict.

In other countries, however, TB2 is much less revered. In fact, it has been used to kill not only soldiers but also civilians, drawing the ire of various governments and human rights groups.

In 2019, for example, Turkey sent drones to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord in Libya despite a UN arms embargo. The UN said the weapons then helped turn a low-intensity, low-tech fight into a bloody conflict. In Ethiopia, amid a war with insurgents, the government used TB2s in airstrikes that killed dozens of civilians, including those living in a displaced persons camp.
The police officers of Frankfurt am Main again attracted the attention of the prosecutor's office: during the investigation of extremist activities, it was found that the comments published in their group Internet chat were contrary to the Basic Law of Germany, Deutsche Welle reported.

The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt and the Hessian State Criminal Police Office federal state announced searches were carried out on five members of the Frankfurt Police Department. Both agencies said high-ranking police officers are among those under investigation. All five police officers have been suspended from work.

The Frankfurt am Main police have been at the center of scandals in the past. For example, most recently, in April 2022, the prosecutors office filed charges against several of its employees who allegedly shared photos and videos of a Nazi nature, as well as inflammatory materials, in their chat group.

Related to this case is a scandal that erupted about two years ago involving the distribution of threatening e-mails throughout Germany, which were addressed to public figures, media representatives and politicians, including deputies of the Hesse Landtag and the Bundestag. Under these messages appeared the signature in the form of the abbreviation NSU 2.0, alluding to the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground (NSU). Investigators believe that the offender, who turned out to be a 53-year-old unemployed man, could use insider information obtained from police circles when sending messages. Last year, the police special forces in Frankfurt were even disbanded, partly due to right-wing extremist content in their chat rooms.

According to the released information, one police officer is currently under investigation on suspicion of using symbols of anti-constitutional organizations. Three more officers are charged with obstruction of justice in the line of duty, and one officer is suspected of violating official secrecy.

The investigation into the extremist activities of Frankfurt am Main police officers continues.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has released a list of countries in the Indo-Pacific region that she plans to visit during her visit. However, Taiwan is not on this list.

Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm Americas strong and unwavering commitment to our allies and friends in the region, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can advance our common interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance. Under President Bidens strong leadership, America is firmly committed to intelligent strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and thriving Indo-Pacific is crucial to the prosperity of our country and the world.

Pelosi also expressed her hope for productive meetings that will allow Congress to continue working to strengthen our partnerships and advance our interests. These include peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.

Earlier, China protested in connection with the plans of Pelosi to visit Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Pelosi's visit would seriously undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Taiwan has become a major point of conflict between the US and China. Homeland security officials have been quietly trying to convince Pelosi of the risks her potential trip to Taiwan could pose at a very sensitive moment.

In a lengthy and candid telephone conversation, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a stern warning to President Joe Biden about this.
Mohammad Sadegh Fazli, Assistant Foreign Minister of Iran and General Director of the West Asia and North Africa Department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, expressed the country's readiness to meet Lebanon's need for fuel, Tasnim reports.

On his Twitter page, the Iranian diplomat confirmed Tehran's support for the Lebanese people in the context of the fuel crisis that has engulfed the Arab country.

As one of the main producers and exporters of energy in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran is on the side of the Lebanese people to help them, Fazli said.

Tehran is ready to accept the Lebanese for negotiations on the supply of fuel needed by the people of this country, the Iranian diplomat said.

Lebanon has been experiencing an acute shortage of fuel for several months, both for refueling cars and for powering power generators.

Lebanon's problems are now exacerbated by indefinite strikes at most government offices as wages are no longer enough to get employees to work. The Beirut office of the International Labor Organization estimates that almost 100% of civil servants are now permanently or intermittently out of work.
The government needs to set up a dedicated fund for capacity expansion of local shipyards which may help local shipyards increase the scale of operation and become globally competitive, said MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai after conducting a study to identify sectors where India has made extraordinary progress in exports and where there is still untapped export potential. "Although the Government of India provided infrastructure status to the shipping industry in 2016, it has not addressed the financial woes of local shipyards," the study document said. There is huge potential for increasing domestic manufacturing capacity for cargo ships, tankers, cruise ships, tugboats, naval ships, fishing boats, and other special purpose vessels. Although indigenous procurement of naval ships has gathered pace after the launch of the 'Make in India' program, India continues to depend on imports for cargo ships and ancillary parts used in ships. Currently, India ranks 16th in terms of global ship ownership andIndian ships carry just 1.3 per cent of the world's export-import (EXIM) cargo. As local shipbuilding activity develops, ancillary companies from foreign countries will set up units in India to cater to the increase in demand for parts and components. "Indian shipping companies prefer to order ships made in foreign shipyards as the prevalence of GST and other local levies undermine the cost competitiveness of locally built ships. Indian ship operators need not pay import duty on the vessels being constructed at foreign shipyards. This differential taxation policy for locally made ships and foreign-built ships hinders the development of the domestic shipbuilding industry," it said. Indian shipyards have the capability to meet the growing demand for naval vessels and ships in Africa and Latin American countries. Identifying new export opportunities can increase the scale of domestic operations and hence the competitiveness of the local industry. It added that all the coastal states should periodically review their maritime policy and should provide special emphasis on shipbuilding within the policy framework. "Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has been at the forefront in promoting shipbuilding parks and clusters under its Shipbuilding Policy 2010. The Policy envisages government incentives for small enterprises to set up manufacturing units in clusters and common infrastructure facilities such as logistics to reduce the cost of operation." India may develop robust institutions and centers of excellence for promoting indigenous research and innovation in ship-building technology. "We should also promote cross-border partnership in technology and joint innovation projects. India should also create more maritime skill development institutions to cater to the increasing demand for engineers and technicians in ship repair and shipbuilding sectors," it further said. (ANI)
Minister Sonowal on Sunday inaugurated the Chahabar Day conference in Mumbai.

Chabahar is located in south-eastern Iran at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman and is blessed with an ideal strategic location connecting the Indian subcontinent with both Afghanistan as well as Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Sonowal urged all the representatives and stakeholders to come forward with suggestions to reduce the transportation time and cost further to make a cheaper, shorter, faster, and more reliable route from India to Iran and Central Asia.

Dignitaries from Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan were also present on the occasion.

The Chabahar Port is a key pillar of India's India-Pacific vision to connect Eurasia with the Indian Ocean Region.

The port will also be part International North-South Transport Corridor network connecting India. INSTC (International North-South Transport Corridor) is India's vision and initiative to reduce the time taken for EXIM shipments to reach Russia, Europe, and enter the central Asian markets.

Minister Sonowal further interacted with the high-level diplomatic delegation from central Asian countries in Mumbai.

On the occasion, Minister of State Shipping and Waterways Shreepad Naik said that India's mutual interest in developing ties with Central Asia is boosting economic activities in this land-locked region.

"This infrastructure linkage will prosper the trade and bilateral relations between all these countries," Naik said.

Deputy Head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Jalil Eslami, during the event, said that Chahbahar port plays an important role in the economic development of India and Iran.

Eslami said that Iran has given special incentives to increase trade cooperation activities between India and Iran through the Chabahar port.

"We want to develop Chabahar port as a transit hub looking at its strategic location," Eslami added. (ANI)
Taking to Instagram, Sonakshi, on Saturday shared a sling of pictures, which she captioned, "The day before I become #NikitaRoy #London."

In the first picture, the 'Dabangg' actor could be seen holding the guardrails and enjoying the London weather in her cool yet comfortable outfit.

In another picture, she could be seen sitting at a restaurant, posing her right profile to the camera lens. The actor donned a long white sweatshirt and matching shorts.

In the last picture, the 'Noor' actor could be seen reading a book outside a book store in London.

The film marks the directorial debut of Sonakshi's brother Kussh S Sinha, which also stars Paresh Rawal and Suhail Nayyar in pivotal roles.

"Kussh and I wanted to collaborate on the right kind of project. Finally, we found something that we both liked and were excited about," she said on her brother's directorial debut.

Apart from that, the 'Akira' actor will be soon marking her OTT debut with Amazon prime video's upcoming series 'Fallen' in which she plays the role of a cop for the first time in her career. The series will stream later this year.

Apart from this she also has 'Double XL' alongside Huma Qureshi and her rumoured boyfriend Zaheer Iqbal. The official release date of the film is still awaited. A horror comedy film 'Kakuda' along with Riteish Deshmukh and Saqib Saleem. (ANI)
Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who was dismissed earlier this year because he was allegedly violating its journalistic standards by advising his brother, disgraced New York governor Andrew Cuomo, opened up on a number of issues to American comedian and "Real Time" show host Bill Maher, reports 'Deadline'. Cuomo, who will soon start a new primetime show on NewsNation (formerly WGN), did not say anything controversial about his former employers, despite Maher trying his best by pointing out that the rating for his old slot is down by 53 per cent. "Happy is probably not the right word," Cuomo said, allowing for the fact that he does miss CNN. "I feel like I lost a sense of purpose for a while because of how things ended." He even admitted that he wanted to get back into his previous role. And, as 'Deadline' notes, he "wasn't baited into disparaging his former home at CNN". Cuomo said: "It's a great organisation and there are great people there. I want good things for people there. I had a great team that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to." Cuomo readily admitted that he advised his brother throughout the scandal. "This is my brother. Obviously, I'm not objective," he declared. Maher brought up Mario Cuomo, Chris Cuomo's father and also New York governor, who once infamously left a plane on the tarmac and declined to run for President despite strong support. Cuomo gave a revealing picture of his father as a way to illustrate what's been lost in politics. "Pop wasn't afraid of losing," the son said. "He came from nothing. He didn't want to run for president. It wasn't because we were in the mob. He didn't run because he didn't think he was good enough to be president. 'I don't believe I am the man for that job.' He respected it, he respected what it means, and didn't see it as an article of his own avarice." --IANS srb/ ( 343 Words) 2022-07-30-22:42:02 (IANS)
Taking to Instagram, the 'Naagin' actor recently dropped a picture with Karan, which he captioned, "Finally had the opportunity to shoot with the one and only @karanjohar sir. I sincerely appreciate your love, warmth and guidance. Glad could be a part of this magical film."

The picture also showcases a hand-written note from the 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' director which reads, "Dearest Arjun, thankyou so much for doing my film. Welcome to Dharma. I look forward to working with you in the future."

Apart from him, television actor Shraddha Arya also received a welcome note from Karan, which reads, "Dearest Shradha, Welcome to the Dharma family. All my love, Karan."

Reportedly, Shraddha and Arjun will be playing an important role in Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt's starrer romantic drama film 'Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani'.

After Maniesh Paul, television celebs Arjun and Shraddha become the two new joiners in the Dharma Family and the fans can't wait to watch their favourite actors on the big screen.

Apart from that, the 'Dill Mill Gayye' actor was recently seen in MX Player's romantic show 'Roohaniyat'with actor Kanika Mann. The show gathered a decent response from the netizens.

Along with this, he is currently hosting the show 'Ravivaar with Star Parivaar'.

Shraddha, on the other hand, is currently a part of Zee Tv's much popular show 'Kundali Bhagya'.

Apart from Ranveer-Alia, 'Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani' also stars veteran actors Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi in prominent roles, and the film is all set to hit the theatres on February 11, 2022. (ANI)
The team behind an unofficial 'Bridgerton' musical has been sued for infringement by Netflix in a Washington, DC US District Court. According to Variety, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the signwriting team behind the project, initially developed the musical on social media. The duo went on to score the No. 1 slot on iTunes US pop charts and even won a Grammy this year in the category of best musical theatre album. Netflix has alleged that it made "repeated objections" against the team as they planned to mount a live stage show of the project. 'The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album Live in Concert' performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC earlier this week, selling out the venue with ticket prices that ranged up to USD 149. The stage show reportedly featured more than a dozen songs that involved exactly copied dialogue, character traits, expression and other elements from 'Bridgerton'. The streamer alleges that 'The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album Live in Concert' misrepresented to audiences that it used the 'Bridgerton' trademark "with permission." Netflix also objects to an allegedly planned line of merchandise and the production's upcoming tour dates. "Netflix supports fan-generated content, but Barlow & Bear have taken this many steps further, seeking to create multiple revenue streams for themselves without formal permission to utilize the 'Bridgerton' IP," Netflix wrote in a statement. As per Variety, they added, "We've tried hard to work with Barlow & Bear, and they have refused to cooperate. The creators, cast, writers and crew have poured their hearts and souls into 'Bridgerton' and we're taking action to protect their rights." Earlier, in her conversation with EW, Barlow credited the pandemic for giving them the room to build their following online. "I feel like a few years ago, Netflix probably would've sent us a cease-and-desist for what we're doing, but I think in a time like this, it is so important to have a creative outlet," she said. (ANI)
Filmmaker Siddharth Anand, who turned a year older on Sunday, calls this year's birthday extremely special as he is "living and breathing Pathaan every moment." "It is a very special birthday for me this year as I'm working on one of the most special films of my career, Pathaan. I'm living and breathing Pathaan every moment of my life and I want to give audiences an experience that is spectacular and like no other," he said. Pathaan stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in the lead roles. "I'm thrilled with the unanimously positive response to every asset of the film that we have launched so far. Starting with the announcement video, to Shah Rukh Khan's first look in the film, to us unveiling a glimpse of Deepika Padukone. We are fortunate that everything has been loved by audiences. What the audience thinks and feels is of utmost importance to us all and we are happy that Pathaan has started off on such a strong note with them. I always endeavour to give audiences a theatrical experience that sets new benchmarks in Indian cinema. We are all working very hard so that Pathaan, hopefully, does the same when it releases," he added. 'Pathaan' marks the fourth on-screen collaboration of Deepika and Shah Rukh Khan after 'Om Shanti Om', 'Happy New Year' and 'Chennai Express'.Produced by Yash Raj Films, the film is slated to release on January 25, 2023, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. (ANI)
According to a new study, getting less than nine hours of sleep in a day leads to cognitive impairment, mental problems and less grey matter in brain regions. As per a study published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal, elementary school-age children who get less than nine hours of sleep per night have significant differences in certain brain regions responsible for memory, intelligence and well-being compared to those who get the recommended nine to 12 hours of sleep per night, according to a new study led by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers. Such differences correlated with greater mental health problems, like depression, anxiety, and impulsive behaviors, in those who lacked sleep. Inadequate sleep was also linked to cognitive difficulties with memory, problem-solving and decision making. The findings were published today in the journal The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children aged 6 to 12 years of age sleep 9 to 12 hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. Up until now, no studies have examined the long-lasting impact of insufficient sleep on the neurocognitive development of pre-teens. To conduct the study, the researchers examined data that were collected from more than 8,300 children aged 9 to 10 years who were enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. They examined MRI images, medical records, and surveys completed by the participants and their parents at the time of enrollment and at a two-year follow-up visit at 11 to 12 years of age. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the ABCD study is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the US. "We found that children who had insufficient sleep, less than nine hours per night, at the beginning of the study had less grey matter or smaller volume in certain areas of the brain responsible for attention, memory and inhibition control compared to those with healthy sleep habits," said study corresponding author Ze Wang, PhD, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at UMSOM. "These differences persisted after two years, a concerning finding that suggests long term harm for those who do not get enough sleep." This is one of the first findings to demonstrate the potential long-term impact of lack of sleep on neurocognitive development in children. It also provides substantial support for the current sleep recommendations in children, according to Dr. Wang and his colleagues. In follow-up assessments, the research team found that participants in the sufficient sleep group tended to gradually sleep less over two years, which is normal as children move into their teen years, whereas sleep patterns of participants in the insufficient sleep group did not change much. The researchers controlled for socioeconomic status, gender, puberty status and other factors that could impact how much a child sleeps and affect brain and cognition. "We tried to match the two groups as closely as possible to help us more fully understand the long-term impact on too little sleep on the pre-adolescent brain," Dr. Wang said. "Additional studies are needed to confirm our finding and to see whether any interventions can improve sleep habits and reverse the neurological deficits." The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages parents to promote good sleep habits in their children. Their tips include making sufficient sleep a family priority, sticking with a regular sleep routine, encouraging physical activity during the day, limiting screen time and eliminating screens completely an hour before bed. The study was funded by NIH. Fan Nils Yang, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Wang's laboratory is a study co-author. Weizhen Xie, PhD, a researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is also a study co-author. UMSOM faculty members Thomas Ernst, PhD, and Linda Chang, MD, MS, are co-principal investigators of the ABCD study at the Baltimore site but were not involved in the data analysis of this new study. "This is a crucial study finding that points to the importance of doing long-term studies on the developing child's brain," said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Sleep can often be overlooked during busy childhood days filled with homework and extracurricular activities. Now we see how detrimental that can be to a child's development." (ANI)
World Breastfeeding Week is annually celebrated from August 1 to 7 to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. Initially, around 70 countries used to commemorate the week, however now, it is celebrated by 170 countries. The occasion commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government policymakers, WHO, UNICEF and other organizations to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. As per WHO, breastfed children are more intellectual and fit. Furthermore, their chances of being overweight, obese, and prone to diabetes are comparatively lesser than the ones who aren't. Breast milk is the best food for newborn babies as it contains antibodies that aid in preventing several prevalent pediatric ailments. This year's theme for World Breastfeeding Week is 'Step Up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support.' On the occasion, in order to shed light on the importance of breastfeeding for mothers, Dr Neharika Malhotra, Consultant- Gynecology, Ujala Cygnus Rainbow Hospital, Agra shared, "Breastfeeding is one of the best ways for a mother to recover from postpartum depression. Some studies have found that breastfeeding reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol in mothers. Not only that, regular practices of breastfeeding decrease the risk of mothers' developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer." According to the WHO estimate, increased breastfeeding could avert 20, 000 maternal deaths each year due to breast cancer. Dr Neharika added, "Therefore, we need to promote the importance of more family-friendly policies to protect and support breastfeeding. More would-be mothers should be subjected to counseling so that the practice of breastfeeding should be inculcated right from the beginning." Breastfeeding is extremely crucial for the healthy growth and development of an infant. Also, it is an overwhelming experience for a mother. As per the WHO reports, 2 out of 3 children are not breastfed. Therefore, it makes it all the more crucial to mark this day. Mothers are recommended to breastfeed their children for 6 months post birth. Speaking on the subject, Dr Manpreet Sodhi, Consultant- Obs and Gynaecology, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, said, "World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Mothers need practical support to initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth (within the first hour) and the social stigma associated with breastfeeding in India hinders the education and support of mothers in this process. We have witnessed a tremendous fall in attention to the topic during the pandemic as health workers were diverted to respond to the overburdened cases of Covid. Counselling, skilled lactation and other steps toward awareness of breastfeeding are rarely a cause of concern in the country and have no place in rural areas." He suggested that according to research, in India, lack of breastfeeding results in serious health issues in children like malnutrition, and over and under-weight micronutrient deficiencies. The World Health Assembly has set a global target to increase the exclusive breastfeeding rate by 50 per cent by 2025. Currently, 55 per cent of children under six months are exclusively breastfed in the country." As World Breastfeeding Week is being commemorated, it is vital to spread awareness about the importance of education and support for breastfeeding. It's not a social stigma but a requirement that shapes a child's physical and mental wellbeing. (ANI)
A huge amount of cash was seized from the vehicle of a Jharkhand MLA of the Congress at Panchla in West Bengal's Howrah district late on Saturday evening, police said. According to Superintendent of Police, Howrah Rural, Swati Bhangalia, the cash was recovered from the boot of a SUV, which had the board of Jamtara MLA, Irfan Ansari. "Besides Ansari, two other MLAs from Jharkhand, namely Rajesh Kacchap from Khijri (ST) Assembly constituency and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira (ST) Assembly constituency, both of the Congress also, were travelling in the vehicle from which the cash was seized. A total of five persons travelling in the car, including the driver, have been detained," she said. The SP said that the MLAs could not procure any documents relating to the huge cash recovered in bundles of Rs 500 denomination. "On Saturday evening, we received information about a car carrying huge amount of cash. Accordingly, our officials intercepted the vehicle, seized the car and the cash and detained all the five passengers at Panchla police station. We have asked a local bank to bring currency counting machines. We can inform you about the exact amount of cash seized after the counting is over," Bhangalia said. She also said that the Jharkhand Police has also been informed since the vehicle seized is registered in that state and three MLAs detained are from that state as well. According to the Trinamool Congress state General Secretary and party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh, it is up to Congress and its state chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to answer why their party MLAs from Jharkhand had come to West Bengal with so much cash. "Just today he was cheering over the cash recovery from Arpita Mukherjee's residence. Now he should answer. But we are keeping a close watch over the entire development," Ghosh said. Despite repeated attempts, Chowdhury could not be contacted for comment. --IANS src/vd ( 333 Words) 2022-07-30-22:36:03 (IANS)
Acting on specific information generated by police regarding presence of a terrorist in village Wanigam Bala in Kreeri area of Baramulla, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by police, army and the SSB.

As the joint search party approached towards the spot where the terrorist was hiding, he began firing indiscriminately which was retaliated.

"In the initial exchange of fire, two soldiers and a police personnel received injuries and were shifted to hospital for treatment where their condition is stable," police said.

"In the ensuing encounter, one terrorist was killed and his body was retrieved from the site of encounter. However, the identification and affiliation of the killed terrorist is being ascertained."

Arms and ammunition including an AK-47 rifle, three AK magazines, seven AK rounds, a pouch and a bag have been recovered from the site of encounter.

--IANS zi/vd

( 187 Words)

2022-07-30-22:40:03 (IANS)
According to a new study, scientists have developed an instrument that can be clipped onto a smartphone to rapidly test for Zika virus in a single droplet of blood. Researchers from the University of Illinois have monitored the COVID-19 pandemic detection methods that are rapid, simple, accurate, and sensitive and are vital for detecting viral pathogens and for controlling the spread of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, laboratory-based methods often require trained personnel and involve complex procedures. Zika virus is primarily transmitted through Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Although the disease is largely asymptomatic or results in mild symptoms in adults, it causes developmental disorders in newborn babies if their mothers are infected during early pregnancy. Currently, the virus is circulating in more than 87 countries, infecting thousands of people annually, necessitating better testing and control measures. "Mosquito-borne viruses cause serious diseases, but they have similar symptoms. If you have Zika, malaria, dengue, or chikungunya, you just might show up to the doctor with a fever and they won't know why," said Brian Cunningham (CGD Director/MMG), the Intel Alumni Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "But it's important to know whether it's Zika, especially if the patient is a pregnant woman, because the consequences to a developing fetus are really severe." Zika virus infections are currently detected through polymerase chain reaction tests performed in a laboratory, which can amplify the genetic material of the virus, allowing scientists to detect it. In the new study, researchers used Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification to detect the virus in the blood samples using an approach suitable for point-of-care clinics. While PCR requires 20-40 repeated temperature shifts to amplify the genetic material, LAMP only requires one temperature--65 C--making it easier to control. Additionally, PCR tests are very sensitive to the presence of contaminants, especially the other components in a blood sample. As a result, the sample is first purified before it can be used. On the other hand, LAMP does not require any such purification step. A cartridge, that contains reagents required to detect the virus, is inserted into the instrument to perform the test while the instrument is clipped onto a smartphone. Once the patient adds a drop of blood, one set of chemicals break open the viruses and the blood cells within five minutes. A heater below the cartridge heats it up to 65 C. A second set of chemicals then amplifies the viral genetic material, and the liquid inside the cartridge fluoresces bright green if the blood sample contains the Zika virus. The entire process takes 25 minutes. "The other cool aspect is that we're doing the readout with a smartphone," Cunningham said. "We've designed a clip-on device so that the smartphone's rear camera is looking at the cartridge while the amplification occurs. When there's a positive reaction, you see little green blooms of fluorescence that eventually fill up the entire cartridge with green light." The researchers are now developing similar devices to simultaneously detect other mosquito-borne viruses and are working on making the devices even smaller. "Although our clip-on detector is pretty small, a lot of the space is taken up by the batteries. In the next version, it will be powered by the phone's battery," Cunningham said. The study "Smartphone clip-on instrument and microfluidic processor for rapid sample-to-answer detection of Zika virus in whole blood using spatial RT-LAMP" was published in the journal Analyst and can be found at 10.1039/d2an00438k. The work was carried out in collaboration with Rashid Bashir (CGD/M-CELS), an Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering; Enrique Valera, a research assistant professor of bioengineering; Minh Do, a Thomas and Margaret Huang Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and William King, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation program. (ANI)
After three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were nabbed with a huge amount of cash in West Bengal's Howrah on Saturday, state party chief Rajesh Thakur claimed that there is a conspiracy to destabilize the government. The Congress leader referred to the Maharashtra political crisis that ended last month with the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government after a faction of Shiv Sena MLAs revolted against the party chief, and stayed in Assam's Guwahati. Earlier on Saturday, three legislators were apprehended including Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, MLA from Khijri and Naman Bixal, MLA from Kolebira. The huge cash was recovered from their cars in Howarah on Saturday evening. Speaking to ANI, Thakur said, "Everyone saw how Assam became the focal point to topple governments, drama happened for 15 days and ultimately the Maharashtra govt was toppled... this indicates that there's a conspiracy to destabilize the Jharkhand government. Things will be clearer in coming times." However, the Congress state chief said that the incident is saddening and the state unit will submit a report to the party's high command on the matter. "It won't be reasonable to talk about it till the probe is done, but looking at the country's situation... nabbed MLAs can better explain the matter. However, the incident is saddening. We'll submit a report to our high command. No one involved is to be spared," he said. Earlier, Jharkhand Congress alleged a conspiracy by the BJP to destabilise the state government. "It is in BJP's nature to try and destabilize any government which is not theirs. The same has been done against Chief Minister Hemant Soren's government. The only reason they were given money (by BJP) is to make the government fall," Bandhu Tirkey, Jharkhand Congress working President told ANI. Hitting out at Congress, after the incident, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said since the formation of the government in the state corruption is rampant. "Ever since their government came to power, corruption is on a rise. Earlier too, large amounts of cash were caught in Jharkhand at officers' homes. They use the public's hard-earned money for other purposes. Police caught them and it came to light," Aditya Sahu, Jharkhand BJP state general secretary said. (ANI)
Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on Saturday held a review meeting on Monkeypox with senior officials and said that the state is taking all necessary steps in view of the virus while also keeping an eye on the situation in the country. An expert committee for the treatment of Monkeypox at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack has been formed by the Health department. "The State is fully prepared to and taking all necessary steps in view of the scare of Monkeypox virus, Government is keeping an eye on the situation in the country," the Minister said after the meeting. Das further said that there is no need to panic, however, added that people need to be vigilant. "The steps have also been taken by the department to make the testing facility available at ICMR, Bhubaneswar. We have requested the Centre to provide kits. There is no need to panic. People need to be vigilant and adhere to guidelines," he said. He further stated that by August 10, training will be imparted to the paediatric, skin and medical specialists and one Integrated Counselling & Testing Center (ICTC) from each district at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. As per the health department, they will be trained on symptoms and other aspects related to monkeypox after that a nodal officer will be appointed for monkeypox in each district of the state. All the medical colleges in the state have been directed to reserve at least two beds for the suspected Monkeypox cases. Meanwhile, amid the growing concerns over monkeypox, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday said the government is ready and alert against viral disease. According to NCDC director Dr Sujeet Singh, 15 testing labs have been started for monkeypox infection testing all over the country. "If any suspected case arrives then we immediately conduct the test. 15 testing labs and our NCDC lab have also started doing the test. Surveillance is also going on. As per the situation, we also modify our strategy and the government is ready and alert," said Dr Singh. "We are constantly doing meetings with all top officials of the Union Health Ministry to keep a close check on the overall situation," he added. Notably, India has reported four cases of monkeypox so far, of which three cases are from Kerala while one is from Delhi. Following this, the central government is on an alert even as the count of infections in some other countries has risen. (ANI)
Congress leader Mallu Ravi on Saturday slammed the Telangana government's 'Dalit Bandhu Scheme' and alleged that the programme is not for their upliftment but for the empowerment of TRS. The state government had launched the scheme aiming to empower the Dalit community and pull them out of poverty. However, the scheme had attracted criticism from the Opposition. "Under the name of Dalita Bandhu, TRS party is cheating the Dalits. TRS MLA in a meeting openly said that they will give Dalits Bandhu scheme's money of Rs 10 lakhs to those who are voting to the TRS party and he said Dalits are not having a sense of what is happening around," former MP Mallu Ravi said. "Firstly they are only giving Dalit Bandhu to TRS party supporters and also people related to MLA, ZPTC, MPTC, MPP's of TRS party". It is not Dalits Bandhu but TRS party Bandhu. It is not the empowerment of Dalits, but of TRS," Ravi alleged. The Congress leader further said that the scheme has been launched only to seek the votes of the Dalit community. "They are promoting the scheme only to get the votes of Dalits. The Congress party created reservations for SCs in education and political fields. To write the Constitution, Congress selected BR Ambedkar as chairman of the drafting committee. I am a Dalit and because of the Congress party, I was able to study and able to do all things freely in society," he said. Notably, according to the government, the Dalit Bandhu Scheme is aimed to empower the Dalit community and to lift them out of poverty. The scheme was designed to give the Dalit Community employment, self-respect and development as it is an effective policy. (ANI)
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually launched the National Solar rooftop portal while participating in the grand finale marking the culmination of 'Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya - Power @2047' on Saturday, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy urged the people of Telangana to use solar panels to generate power at home. The Minister further said that the government will buy power from people who generate it using solar panels, which would fetch people money. "PM Modi has inaugurated the solar power projects under NTPC projects by giving Rs 500 crores to Telangana. Solar panels on the water are the biggest project started in Telangana. I want to thank PM Modi for inaugurating such a huge project on behalf of the farmers and people of Telangana," he said while speaking to ANI. The Minister appealed to the people of the state to make India a "power country". "A new app is also inaugurated to generate power through solar energy on the rooftop of houses. I request people to use solar panels to generate power at home. If you produce more solar, the government will buy and you will get money, 40 per cent subsidy will also be given because in the country along with food, clothes and house, the current (electricity) has also become important. So everyone should try to generate power through solar and make India a power country," Reddy said. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised that the energy sector will play a huge role in accelerating India's progress over the next 25 years, and urged states and union territories to clear their pending power dues as soon as possible. The prime minister wondered that if the common man could pay his electricity dues regularly, why was it that some states failed in paying theirs? The Prime Minister informed that in the last 8 years, about 1,70,000 MW of electricity generation capacity has been added in the country. One Nation One Power Grid has become the strength of the country today. About 1,70,000 circuit kilometre transmission lines have been laid to connect the entire country. Furthermore, by giving 3 crore connections under the Saubhagya Scheme, we are also nearing the saturation goal, he added. "We had resolved to create 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the completion of 75 years of independence. Today we have come close to this goal. So far, about 170 GW capacity has been installed from non-fossil sources," PM Modi said. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate officials on Sunday arrived at Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut's residence and are questioning him in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case. ED sleuths reached Raut's residence around 7 am today. On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Refusing to join the probe and citing the Monsoon Session of Parliament as a reason for not joining the probe, he had then dared the probe agency to arrest him. Later, he reached the ED office. The ED, which took Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody earlier in connection with DHFL-Yes Bank case, wants to grill Raut in this matter too, as per sources. They claimed that Patra Chawl case of ED is also linked to the DHFL case. In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation. The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district). The attached properties also include a flat in Mumbai's suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, the ED said in a statement. According to the ED, Sujit Patkar is a close associate of Sanjay Raut. After arresting Pravin Raut in February, the ED had said he appears to be "acting as a front" or in collusion with some influential person(s). The agency had said during the probe it was revealed he made payments to certain "politically exposed persons". (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday will visit Patna to participate in the closing ceremony of the Joint National Working Committee meeting. "Today, I will be in Bihar, the land of knowledge and hard work, which has always given inspiration to protect the country and democracy. Here in Patna, in the closing ceremony of the BJP Joint National Working Committee, I will interact with my workers and colleagues from all over the country," Shah said in a tweet. The closing session will be held at Gyan Bhawan from 4 pm on Sunday. Shah will participate in the closing ceremony along with BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda. Nadda, who arrived on Saturday in Patna will also attend a two-day meeting of the Joint National Working Committee. While inaugurating "Gram Sansad" program in Bihar's Patna, Nadda said that over 2.63 lakh panchayat profiles have been uploaded on a single portal. Addressing the Bihar Gram Sansad Chapter-II program in Patna Nadda said, "Over 2.63 lakh panchayat profiles have been uploaded on the portal. And a whopping Rs 5.9 thousand crores has been allocated to the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan." He further said, "In order to revamp our Panchayats, a single interface has been created. All the development agendas meant specifically for panchayats have been consolidated on a single portal. So that our Rural Development Minister can monitor progress on a computer screen sitting in one place." During the program, the BJP leader said the "Gram Swaraj" was the idea of Mahatma Gandhi. "The idea of Gram Swaraj was laid by Mahatma Gandhi. The leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh and BJP have done the work to give it a shape by implementing it on the ideological background," Nadda said. This will be the first time that this meeting of the BJP is being held in Bihar. Even though Assembly elections in Bihar are 3 years away, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in alliance with the Janata Dal-United in the state, has already started the preparations. The BJP is holding the 'Prawas Programme' as a part of which the party officials are staying in various Assembly constituencies in Bihar on July 28 and 29 to take feedback from the people. Earlier, state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal and co-in charge for Bihar Harish Dwivedi said at a joint press conference that Nadda will be setting the tone on an inaugural day on July 30, while Home Minister Amit Shah will wrap up the function a day later, i.e., on July 31. More than 400 officials and workers from various fronts will attend the meeting. On July 31, Nadda will inaugurate BJP district offices in 16 districts from Patna BJP state office and lay the foundation stone for the construction of buildings in 7 districts. (ANI)
Right after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's residence in Mumbai on Sunday morning in connection with a money laundering case, Raut lashed out at the Centre, saying that "Maharashtra and Shiv Sena will continue to fight" and denied having any role in the case. "Maharashtra and Shiv Sena will continue to fight," tweeted Raut in Marathi today morning. "False action. False evidence. I will not leave Shiv Sena. Even if I die, I will not surrender. Jai Maharashtra," the tweet read. In a flurry of tweets, Raut asserted that he won't quit the Shiv Sena and keep on fighting amid the ED action against him. "I have nothing to do with any scam. I am saying this by taking the oath of Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray. Balasaheb taught us how to fight. I will continue to fight for Shiv Sena," said Raut in a tweet. The series of tweets further read, "Long live Shiv Sena!!! Will keep fighting.." The Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's residence in Mumbai on Sunday morning. Raut is being investigated by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities involving the re-development of a Mumbai 'chawl.' Meanwhile, supporters of Raut gathered outside his residence, raising slogans against the ED and BJP. On June 28 this year, Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam. Refusing to join the probe and citing the Monsoon Session of Parliament as a reason for not joining the probe, he had then dared the probe agency to arrest him. Later, he reached the ED office. The ED, which took Pune-based businessman Avinash Bhosale into custody earlier in connection with the DHFL-Yes Bank case, wants to grill Raut in this matter too, as per sources. They claim that the Patra Chawl case is also linked to the DHFL case. In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth over Rs 11.15 crore of Raut's wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation. The attached properties are in the form of land held by Pravin M Raut, Sanjay Raut's aide and a former director of Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd, at Palghar, Saphale (town in Palghar) and Padgha (in Thane district). The attached properties also include a flat in Mumbai's suburb Dadar held by Varsha Raut and eight plots at Kihim beach in Alibaug jointly held by Varsha Raut and Swapna Patkar, wife of Sujit Patkar, the ED said in a statement. According to the ED, Sujit Patkar is a close associate of Sanjay Raut. After arresting Pravin Raut in February, the ED had said he appears to be "acting as a front" or in collusion with some influential person(s). The agency had said during the probe it was revealed he made payments to certain "politically exposed persons". The investigative agency is probing the matter. (ANI)
In the 91st edition of his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' is turning into a mass movement and people from all walks of life are participating in the campaign. The Prime Minister also paid tribute to revolutionary Udham Singh on his 82nd death anniversary and all other freedom fighters who sacrificed themselves for the nation. "This time's Mann ki Baat is special as we are now going to be celebrating the 75th Independence Day. All of us are going to be a witness to the glorious and historic moment. God has blessed us with this great privilege. Think if we were born in the period of slavery. How intense that would have been? On 31st July, we all pay tribute to Shaheed Udham Singh Ji and all other freedom fighters who sacrificed themselves for the nation. I am happy to see 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' become a mass movement. People from all walks of life and from all sections of society are participating in various programmes associated with it," said PM Modi. "Under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, between August 13 to August 15, 'Har Ghar Tiranga' movement, will be held. You should become a part of this movement and unfurl the national flag atop your home," he said. He also gave examples of such programmes one of which was celebrated in Meghalaya and Karnataka. "In Meghalaya people celebrated the contribution of Tirot Singh to the freedom struggle through a beautiful carnival. This is how Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is becoming a Jan Andolan. In Karnataka, unique celebrations began with Amrita Bharati Kannada Rathi that paid homage to the freedom fighters of the region," he said. PM Modi said a new initiative has also been started which is Azadi ki Rail Gaadi and Railway Station while adding that the railways have played a role in the freedom struggle. "The Kakori Railway Station is known for the incident when Ram Prasad Bismil and other freedom fighters raided the British Train and showed them the Indian might. There are many such stories of railway stations and 75 such stations across 24 States have been identified to create awareness about the Indian Freedom Struggle," he added. The Prime minister also urged people to unfurl the National Flag atop your home between 13-15 August under the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. India will complete 75 years of Independence this year. The government has announced the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to commemorate this milestone. The initiative of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was launched by PM Modi on March 12, 2021, to celebrate and commemorate 75 glorious years of Independence of India. Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements. The ministry of culture is the nodal agency for the same and has been leading several events. The government also launched the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign under the Ministry of Culture to mark the 75th year of India's independence. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his monthly Mann Ki Baat address, on Sunday said that imported toys into India are continuously declining while the country is emerging as a powerhouse in toy exports. "Today, when it comes to Indian toys, the echo of 'Vocal for Local' is being heard everywhere. You will also like to know that now the number of toys coming from abroad in India is continuously decreasing," the Prime Minister said in the 91st edition of the Mann Ki Baat. Terming the local toys of India as eco-friendly, consonant with both tradition and nature, the prime minister said whatever the domestic toy industry has achieved could never be imagined. "Earlier, where toys worth more than Rs 3 thousand crore used to come from outside, now their import has reduced by 70 per cent and it is a matter of joy that during this period, India has exported toys worth more than two thousand six hundred crore rupees to foreign countries." Earlier, toys worth just Rs 300-400 crore used to go out of India. "And you already know that all this happened during the Corona period. India's toy sector has proven its mettle by transforming itself. Indian Manufacturers are now making toys based on Indian Mythology, History, and Culture. Toy clusters are there everywhere in the country, and small entrepreneurs who make toys, are getting a lot of benefit from it. The toys made by these small entrepreneurs are now going around the world," Modi said. Indian toy manufacturers are working closely with the world's leading toy brands, and the start-up sector is also paying full attention to the world of toys, Modi added. He urged the parents to buy more and more Indian toys, puzzles, and games. Earlier in his address, Modi requested people to visit railway stations of historical importance especially related to the Indian freedom movement. Through an initiative named 'Azadi Ki Railgadi Aur Railway Station', the objective is to make people know the role of Indian Railways in the freedom struggle. "There are many such railway stations in the country, which are associated with the history of the freedom movement. You too will be surprised to know about these railway stations," PM Modi added. As many as 75 stations are being specially decked up and several events are also being organized at such locations. He further requested teachers of nearby schools to visit such stations and narrate the whole incidents and explain the relevance to the students. "You must also find time to visit such historic stations near your place, you will come to know in detail about such aspects of the freedom movement which you were not aware of." Further, he suggested people keep the National Flag as their social media profile pictures during August 2-15. August 2 has a special significance as it is the birth anniversary of the designer of the Indian National Flag Pingali Venkaiah. (ANI)
Stating that Marathi people have contributed to the process of development of Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that he does not agree with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's statement about Mumbai owing its financial capital status to the hard work of Gujaratis and Rajasthanis. Fadnavis further said that many other people are involved in this development journey but the importance of the Marathi people cannot diminish. "I don't agree with the Governor's statement. Marathi people have contributed to process of development of Maharashtra. Many other people are involved in this development journey but importance of Marathi people cannot diminish," said Fadnavis. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari triggered a row, claiming that if Gujaratis and Rajasthanis were removed from Maharashtra then Mumbai will no longer remain the financial capital of the country. Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde who was sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister last month by Governor Koshyari distanced himself from the row and said that he does not agree with the remarks. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also slammed Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and said that he has insulted the Marathis and their pride and that he is trying to divide the society on the basis of community. "The Governor is the messenger of the President, he takes the words of the President throughout the country. But if he does the same mistakes, then who will take action against him? He has insulted the Marathis and their pride," Uddhav added. During a speech at an event held to name a chowk after the late Shantidevi Champalalji Kothari in Mumbai's in Andheri on Friday, Koshyari said, "Sometimes I tell people in Maharashtra that if Gujarati and Rajasthani people are removed from here, then you will be left with no money. You call Mumbai the financial capital, but if people of both these states are not here, then it won't be called the financial capital." Congress chief Nana Patole has condemned Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's statement, demanding an apology from him. "We condemn the remarks made by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. He should apologise to the public. He should be removed from his position with immediate effect," said Nana Patole on Saturday. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut claimed that Koshyari's speech was an insult to the people of Maharashtra. He urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to condemn the statement. "The Marathi man gets insulted as soon as a BJP-sponsored Chief Minister is in power. CM Shinde should, at least, condemn the Governor. This is an insult to Marathi hard-working people," Raut said in a tweet on Saturday. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray slammed Koshyari and said that he has insulted the Marathis and their pride and that he is trying to divide the society on the basis of community. Uddhav Thackeray said, "I do not want to insult someone sitting on the post of Governor. I respect the chair but Bhagat Singh Koshyari insulted Marathis and there is anger among the people. The Governor is trying to divide the society on the basis of religion, he is crossing every limit". (ANI)
The relatives of Congress MLA Irfan Ansari rebuted allegations that BJP is trying to destabilize the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand, making the surprising statement," the government cannot be brought down with just a meagre sum of Rs 40-50 lakh" Relatives of Ansari, who was detained in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in his vehicle, said that he was in Howrah to "do shopping, especially of sarees" ahead of the upcoming festive season and thus, was carrying a huge chunk of cash. Notably, JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha)-Congress alliance is in power in Jharkhand and BJP is in Opposition. Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were detained in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in their vehicle, police said. The SUV in which MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were travelling was intercepted on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in the Panchla police station area. "We got a specific input on the basis of which we stopped the car. Three MLAs from Jharkhand were in the car and we found a lot of cash inside. We had to ask for a counting machine because of the volume of cash. We will be able to tell how much cash was recovered only after full counting is done," SP Rural Howrah Swati Bhangalia said. Talking to reporters today on this development, Mohammad Azharuddin, MLA Irfan Ansari's relative said, "The information we have with us is equivalent to what you all (media persons) have. It is more important for us to find out what exactly the incident was. He (Ansari) comes here (Howrah) every year to buy various items like sarees ahead of the festive season, especially for Durga Puja celebrations that will take place in September." "All the MLAs are good friends. They like travelling together and hence they had about Rs 40-50 lakhs of cash in their car. Rs 40-50 lakhs will not be enough to bring a government down from power," he added. Imran Ansari, MLA Irfan Ansari's brother, said, "News channels are claiming crores of cash has been recovered from the vehicle. My brother came here to do shopping, especially of sarees. Adivasis Diwas, Durga Puja diwas ke liye shopping karne aaye the. (We came here to do shopping for Adivasis Diwas, Durga Puja). At this time, it will be cheaper to buy sarees as it is not the peak of the festive season." In a tweet, the ruling Trinamool Congress referred to "murmurs of horse-trading and the possible toppling of the Jharkhand government". Chief Minister and Trinamool boss Mamata Banerjee had recently accused the BJP of trying to force a change of government in Jharkhand after the recent change in Maharashtra. The BJP did not react specifically to this. Responding to the allegations made by Congress against the BJP, Union Minister Arjun Munda on Sunday said the grand old party make allegations to hide their corrupt practices. Munda responded to the baseless accusations levelled by the Congress party after the grand old party alleged BJP of toppling the government in Jharkhand through "Operation Lotus". Congress made accusations against BJP after three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were detained in Bengal after "a huge amount" of cash was found in their vehicle in West Bengal, the party accused the BJP of toppling the government in Jharkhand through "Operation Lotus". Jharkhand party chief Rajesh Thakur also alleged that this is a conspiracy of the BJP to destabilize the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance government in a state like Maharashtra. Responding to Rajesh Thakur's allegations, the Union Minister said, "The Congress is making baseless allegations. Congress is accusing BJP of destabilizing the government in Jharkhand to hide its corrupt practices. Congress party has a habit of levelling baseless allegations against others to hide their own mistakes under the carpet. Trying to cover up your mistakes with words will not do. The truth is visible to everyone. A huge amount of cash was recovered from their car. They (Congress MLAs) must explain where all the cash recovered from the car came from. They have to tell what were they doing in Bengal with a huge amount of cash."(ANI)
A Delhi government source revealed that soon AAP will release a permit to allow all the private liquor shops to stay open for one more month as the government liquor shops still may take another month to start.

Earlier on Saturday, the Delhi liquor policy row took a fresh turn, with only two days left for the current excise policy to expire, the Delhi government decided to go back to the old regime of retail liquor sales for six months.

The Excise Policy 2021-22, which was extended twice after March 31 for two months each, will expire on July 31.

However, the draft policy has yet to be sent to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for approval.

The strained ties between the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi worsened last week when Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, holding Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in charge of the excise department, accountable.

Right after this move, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at the Centre, saying the Lieutenant Governor was making "false allegations" and leaders of the AAP were "not afraid of jail". (ANI)
Days after his controversy for referring to President Droupadi Murmu as 'Rashtrapatni', Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, calling on Union Minister Smriti Irani to issue an "unconditional apology" for yelling the name 'Droupadi Murmu' without using the prefix 'President.' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury triggered massive outrage by the BJP after his 'Rashtrapatni' remark, which the Congress leader said was a "slip of tongue as not very good at Hindi." However, the BJP had demanded an apology from Chowdhury along with Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi. In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker, the Congress MP said, "I wish to reiterate that It was because of a slip of the tongue that the name of our President Madam was dragged into the unnecessary and unwarranted controversy. This inadvertent mistake happened because I am not very good at Hindi. I have regretted my mistake and have apologized to the President." However, he pointed out that the manner in which Smriti Irani was taking the name of President in the House was not proper and in consonance with the status and position of the President. "However, I may like to point out that the manner in which Smriti Irani was taking the name of Madam President in the House was not proper and in consonance with the status and position of the President. She was yelling 'Droupadi Murmu' repeatedly without prefixing President or Madam or Smt. before the President's name. This clearly amounts to degrading the stature of the office of the President. Therefore. I demand that Smriti Irani may tender an unconditional apology to the President for her disrespectful remarks and for lowering the dignity and stature of the President's office," Chowdhury said in a letter. The problem additionally led to a conflict between the BJP and Congress in Parliament, with Smriti Irani, as claimed by the BJP, being snubbed by Sonia Gandhi who apparently requested the Union minister to not discuss to her within the Home. The controversial remark led to a conflict between the BJP and Congress in Parliament. The BJP also claimed that Sonia Gandhi allegedly shouted at Smrti Irani after the Union minister reportedly intervened as the Congress interim president was speaking to BJP MP Rama Devi. On Thursday BJP MPs including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman protested in Parliament against Chowdhury over the remark and demanded an apology from the Congress party. Notably, Chowdhury issued a written apology to President Murmu over his 'Rashtrapatni' remark which caused a political furore across the country. In a letter addressed to the President, the Congress leader expressed his 'regret for having mistakenly used the word to describe the position.' "I assure you it was a slip of tongue. I apologise and request you to accept the same," Chowdhury wrote in the letter. The BJP insisted the comment by Chowdhury was not a slip of the tongue as being claimed by the Congress leader. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told ANI that it was not a slip of the tongue. "If you watch the clip, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury clearly (referred to President Murmu as) Rashtrapatni twice, then he called her Rashtrapati. Such matters should not be taken lightly," Rijiju said. (ANI)
After Jharkhand Congress alleged that BJP attempted to destabilize the state government following the seizure of cash from three MLAs, BJP slammed the Congress for their allegations. Talking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said "Whenever Congress or leaders from the Jharkhand government land up in any difficulty they immediately start using the word 'destabilization' like Pakistan's government use Kashmir word. But they cannot escape by blaming BJP." "Central as well as state leadership of Congress must give a clarification as to whose money the three legislators were carrying? Of late, ED has made huge recoveries in Jharkhand from officers and MLA representative of big leader, and West Bengal has become the center of cash recovery recently," he added Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand - Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Bixal Kongari were detained in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in their vehicle. Right after this political blame game started. Congress, in clear words, termed it as BJP's conspiracy to topple the Jharkhand government. Speaking to ANI, state Congress chief Rajesh Thakur said, "Everyone saw how Assam became the focal point to topple governments, drama happened for 15 days and ultimately the Maharashtra govt was toppled... this indicates that there's a conspiracy to destabilize the Jharkhand government; things will be clearer in coming times." However, the Congress state chief said that the incident is saddening and the state unit will submit a report to the party's high command on the matter. "It won't be reasonable to talk about it till the probe is done, but looking at the country's situation... nabbed MLAs can better explain the matter. However, the incident is saddening. We'll submit a report to our high command. No one involved is to be spared," he said. (ANI)
The former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who was recently arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the NSE phone tapping and snooping case, moved a bail petition in a Delhi Court. Pandey said that "he had investigated and prosecuted several high-profile and politically sensitive cases and the instant proceedings are a political fallout of honest and sincere discharge of his duties as a senior police officer." The instant case is clearly motivated by political considerations and it is also evident from the fact that an offence that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2017 is being investigated in 2022 i.e., thirteen years after its purported commencement and five years after its purported closure; and that too within a week of the Applicant demitting his office, stated Sanjay Pandey's bail petition. Advocate Aditya Wadhwa with Advocate Siddharth Sunil represented Sanjay Pandey and submitted that the huge delay in the registration of the said FIR raises serious doubts as to the bonafide of the investigation. It appears that the applicant (Sanjay Pandey) is arraigned in the present case, for no fault of his own, and only to fulfill some political vendetta. A Delhi Court, which examined the National Stock Exchange phone tapping and the snooping case, has issued notice to ED on the bail petition. Pandey was arrested by ED under money laundering sections in alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of employees of the stock exchange and is presently in ED remand till August 2, 2022. Special Judge Sunena Sharma on Friday sought the response of the Financial probe agency and fixed the matter for August 2, 2022. Meanwhile, Court had also extended the remand period of Samay Pandey till August 2, 2022. He was earlier sent to 9 days ED remand for further interrogation and confronted the accused with several documents. Earlier, during the arguments held before the court, Sanjay Pandey spoke to the judge directly and said he did not tap phone in the NSE. "The project that ISEC was called analysis of recorded calls. We never did any tapping any live monitoring. We neither had equipment nor were told to tap. Every recording was done by NSE. The machine was installed in NSE and they are the ones who tapped. What is my culpability?" Advocate Aditya Wadhwa appeared for Sanjay Pandey and submitted that the company carries out a forensic study of conversations that had been independently recorded by NSE. "I gave an analysis of the same. Call analysis is what I did for them." Pandey's lawyer said his work was of Periodic study of cyber vulnerabilities. "I would isolate suspicious calls. I am checking any suspicious calls within NSE." Advocate Wadhwa also submitted that "I was a capable public servant till June 30. I was handling the law and order situation in Mumbai as a police commissioner till then. Suddenly after my retirement, 2 FIRs have been registered against me in just 7 days. And now I am arrested. My arresting is clear a political vendetta." For ED, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju and Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta had appeared and submitted that he (Sanjay Pandey) resigned in April 2000 and there was litigation between 2001-2006 his service. VRS moved in 2007 and in October 2008 and he withdrew that. He formed a company incorporated in 2001 when this was incorporated he was still in service even if he was not the director of the company, he attended the meeting. We have records defacto he was in control. ED further submitted that the contract came in as facade 120-B is a predicate offense / criminal conspiracy held. MTNL lines were tapped. This company was a family concern and 4.54 crores were proceeds of crime. The agency's move comes after it reportedly found enough evidence in the NSE co-location scam in which it wanted to know the role of an audit company, incorporated in 2001 by the retired Mumbai Police chief, for raising a red flag that the NSE servers were compromised. The compromise had allowed one of the trading companies to get unfair access to the system, resulting in windfall profits. The case is already being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since 2018. It is alleged that the firm incorporated by Pandey was one of the IT companies tasked with conducting security audits at NSE during 2010 to 2015 when the co-location scam is believed to have taken place. (ANI)
A Special CBI Court of Delhi has declined the remand application moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking further remand of accused Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Rajesh Wadhawan in the DHFL scam. Special Judge Vishal Gogne on Saturday dismissed the application filed by the CBI seeking further police custody for three more days on the ground that there is no necessity for further custodial interrogation in the matter. Court sent them to judicial custody till August 5, 2022, to conduct further investigation into M/s Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) scam to tune 34000 crores. Court noted that the CBI's assessment projected new information inter-alia shares, searches at other properties, an investigation into recovered articles like a helicopter, and investigation into multiple alleged shell companies can be carried out and continued without any particular accretion to investigation from further police custody (CBI custody) of the present two accused. Even if the Court were to mildly comment on the specifics, it may be observed that the mobile phone purportedly recovered from the custody of co-accused Ajay Nawandar has been with the CBI for more than two weeks whereas the mobile phone purportedly now recovered from co-accused Sunny Bathija, the brother-in-law of accused Dheeraj Wadhawan has not been cloned yet and is incapable of being presently used for any confrontation with accused Dheeraj Wadhawan. Court also said, "the continuation of further investigation may well be the necessity of the detailed allegations. It can, however, not be a reason by itself to grant police custody only because it can be granted. The application for police custody is declined." CBI argued that there has been a certain discovery of shares valued to the tune of Rs. 18 crores during the interrogation done in the matter. Further, it was argued that the investigation has also established that the records were dishonestly falsified and material information was concealed from the records of DHFL in order to divert and siphon off the funds dishonestly & fraudulently, availed from different consortium banks led by Union Bank of India. CBI argued that there are voluminous documents/digital data related to around 95 entities/shell companies belonging to various suspects/accused with which both accused are to be confronted. They need to be confronted with the dummy directors of Shell Companies in which the funds were diverted by DHFL availed from banks. It was also argued that there is every likelihood that further custodial interrogation of both the accused persons may lead to the recovery of further valuables and other assets acquired from the defrauded loan amount. CBI also argued that M/s RKW Developers Pvt. Ltd. (owned by the Wadhawan family and the entities owned/controlled by them), is holding substantial shareholding in the Helicopter (AgustaGrand of AgustaWestland) in the name of MWs Varva Aviation, Pune. The value of the Helicopter was Rs.36 crores out of which M/s RKW Developers Pvt. Ltd. contributed a substantial amount in 2017 towards their stake in the cost price and maintenance of said helicopter. CBI also stated that Dheeraj Wadhawan has been non-cooperative in the investigation as he refused to give his voice samples despite explaining the relevancy and requirement of obtaining a sample/specimen of his voice to him. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal appearing on behalf of the Wadhawan brothers strongly opposed the plea of the CBI seeking further interrogation. He argued that despite the previous tenure of eleven days, the CBI has not been able to garner adequate material to justify further custody. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal also argued that the alleged money trail is entirely documentary and capable of verification without custodial interrogation. He argued that the investigation will go on for days, months, or years but CBI cannot seek police custody for the entire period of investigation. Advocate Aggarwal for the accused also argued that his client's refusal to give a voice sample does not show non-cooperation and the same can be taken during further interrogation and CBI has no right to seek his voice sample in terms of Judgment passed by the Supreme Court. According to the CBI, the two accused persons are the principal architects of the concerted diversion of loan amounts amounting to about Rs. 29,000 crores (approximately) out of the NPA amount of Rs. 34,000 crores (approximately) in relation to the total loans of approximately Rs. 42,000 crores. These loans were advanced by the complainant bank i.e. the Union Bank of India and other banks, forming a consortium of 17 Indian banks, to DHFL which is a non-banking finance company engaged in extending financial assistance to low and middle-income group individuals for the acquisition of houses. CBI lawyers further stated that the independent audit of the funds loaned by the consortium to the DHFL revealed that these funds were instead disbursed by the DHFL to connected entities and individuals with commonalities to DHFL promoter/ directors. According to the CBI, out of 35 such entities, 25 entities had minimal operations and were still disbursed loans by DHFL. Thereafter, 31 more connected entities have purportedly emerged. The sum of Rs. 29,000 crores (approx) has allegedly been together diverted to these 66 entities. (ANI)
Former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, an accused in a money laundering case, on Sunday denied his involvement in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam and asserted that the "money does not belong to him." He has been brought to ESI hospital for a medical examination on Sunday afternoon. "When the time comes, you will know...the money does not belong to me," he said to media persons today upon being asked about who is behind this conspiracy. Arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee - who is now suspended from the Trinamool Congress - and his aide Arpita Mukherjee have separately been claiming that they are a "victim of conspiracy." "Partha Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of General Secretary, National vice president and three other posts. He has been suspended till the investigation is underway," Abhishek Banerjee said. Trinamool Congress, which had been distancing itself from its arrested leader Partha Chatterjee, axed him as a minister on Thursday and suspended him from the party leaving it to him to defend himself in the Enforcement Directorate probe in the teacher recruitment scam in which crores of rupees have been seized from residences linked to his aide Arpita Mukherjee. Trinamool Congress' decision to part ways with one of its most senior leaders was announced by party leader Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference in which he said "if anyone commits something wrong then Trinamool Congress will not spare him" and 'there will be zero tolerance for corruption". He said Partha Chatterjee will remain suspended till probe is underway. Partha Chatterjee was considered one of the most trusted lieutenants of the Chief Minister, a "go-to" man and was regarded third in party hierarchy after the chief Minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. After his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, Partha Chatterjee had reportedly called Mamata Banerjee four times. She did not take his calls. Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal. Abhishek Banerjee told the media here that Partha Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of general secretary, national vice president and three other posts. "He has been suspended till the investigation is underway. He can come back if proven not guilty. CM took the decision and the (Partha Chatterjee) minister was removed. The probe into the matter is underway. If anyone commits something wrong then TMC won't spare him," he said Abhishek Banerjee said the investigating agency must complete the probe in a time-bound manner. "There will be zero tolerance for corruption. Investigating agency must complete the probe within the time limit. Even in Sarada case nothing happened, it's just lingering. There should be a time-bound investigation," he said. "The one (Arpita Mukherjee) from whose house sums of money were recovered isn't from TMC. We want stringent action against those who are linked to this matter. I am saying this in a hypothetical way that if Partha Chatterjee goes to BJP after two months then he will become a saint. Since he is in TMC, all of these things are happening," he added. Admitting that huge sums of money had been recovered, Abhishek Banerjee said "TMC is the only party that intervened within seven days in the matter." "I agree huge sums of money were recovered. But, everyday bank frauds are happening what action did BJP take? Nirav Modi flew away, did BJP sack Nirmala Sitharaman, it's TMC who walk the talk," he said. He also took a dig at BJP leader and actor-politician Mithun Chakraborty that 38 TMC MLAs were in touch with the party. "Mithun Chakraborty doesn't even know how many Assembly seats and districts are there in Bengal. He just wants to brag about how big a leader he has become, if he wants to make a mockery of himself, then, so be it," Abhishek Banerjee said. The arrest of Partha Chatterjee followed Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellery worth above Rs 1 crore being recovered from the Kolkata residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former education minister. The ED unearthed many disproportionate assets allegedly of Partha Chatterjee since his arrest, of which were three flats in West Bengal's Diamond City. The ED raided Arpita Mukerjee's house in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal. "The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam," the probe agency had said in a statement. A five-time MLA, Chatterjee was appointed as the minister-in-charge of higher education and school education in 2014 and he held the portfolio till 2021. (ANI)
Striking shopmen show their strength as the rail strikers parade through the Burnside district on Aug. 20, 1922, in the afternoon. At the head of the parade are former servicemen who carried a banner with the words: "We fought the world war so this country might live; let us live." (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

On July 1, 1922, 400,000 railroad shop and track maintenance workers began a strike that would escalate into picket line battles fought with clubs, guns, knives and bombs.

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Yet the initial walkouts were peaceful. Some had a touch of whimsy.

In Jacksonville, strikers left the Florida East Coast Railways shops singing: One grass hopper hopped on another grass hoppers back. In Sacramento, the striking shopmen paraded four abreast through the main business street of the city, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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The Tribune ran photographs of some of the 100,000 local strikers, Chicago being the epicenter of the nations railroad network. An accompanying caption read:

 Peaceful striking was exemplified at many railroad shop centers in the Chicago district, in most of which shopmen who had laid down their tools gathered in knots to discuss quietly the news of walkouts at other points. The picture shows one of those groups, lending to the defection an atmosphere more of a temporary holiday than of a great strike.

The railroad shopmens strike of 1922. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

Strikers leave the I.C.C. shop at the Burnside yard in Chicago, passing by the county watchman during the start of the railroad strike of 1922. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

Looking back a century later, the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 has some parallels to the current union organizing campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon. Like todays baristas and e-commerce order-fillers, the railroad workers were mostly unskilled and therefore easily replaced. They should have been fearful of fighting for a better deal, but circumstances forced their hand.

In 1921 and June of 1922, deep cuts in the workers wages were authorized by the Railroad Labor Board. A federal agency, its roots dated to World War I when the railroads were nationalized. Workers got pay increases that the owners afterward rescinded. Employees were sacked, their jobs given to new hires willing to work for less.

The spirit of the men who have been laid off for two months is full of fight and those who have (been) laid off for a year or more is scrappier yet, the Grand Trunk local notified the unions headquarters.

Eugene V. Debs in Chicago in an undated photo. Imprisoned for opposing World War I, an exhausted Debs was in a Chicago sanitarium when the 1922 strike began. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

But Eugene Victor Debs was pessimistic. Labors grand old man had led an 1894 railroad strike that got workers blacklisted and sent Debs to prison. Imprisoned again for opposing World War I, an exhausted Debs was in a Chicago sanitarium when the 1922 strike began.

The railroads are the most positive example of absolute solidarity, Debs told a Tribune reporter. The workers are split up into groups which attack one at the time  impotent little groups.

He proved prescient.

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William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette, put signs in his window supporting the 1922 strike. When Kansas governor ordered their removal, White complied but noted in an editorial: Violence, indeed, is the child of repression.

As the walkout continued into August and September it developed a regular rhythm: The railroads pressured police chiefs and sheriffs to break it; strikers responded with fisticuffs and sabotage.

Particularly targeted by the strikers were replacement workers  scabs, in labors pejorative vocabulary.

Four days into the strike, one national news roundup reported: Every train passing through Slater (Missouri) last night was searched for strikebreakers, a force two hundred strikers holding the station platform.

On July 10, a guard hired by the Illinois Central Railroad shot and killed 13-year-old Jimmy Fitzgerald, a strikers son, at Clinton, Illinois. Strikers converged there because an inbound train was rumored to be carrying scabs. He would be one of an estimated 10 people killed during the strike, most of them strikers or allies, during the course of the walkout amid myriad acts of violence.

Kids watch as militia men load and clean their guns in Bloomington, Illinois, during the shopmens railroad strike of 1922. On July 10 in nearby Clinton, Illinois, a guard hired by the Illinois Central Railroad shot and killed 13-year-old Jimmy Fitzgerald, a strikers son. Strikers converged there because a train was rumored to be carrying scabs. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

On July 14, the Alexandria Gazette reported: There was an early morning attack on the roundhouse of the Western Pacific at Oroville, California, and many instances of beating and kidnapping. 

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Public support for the strike was strongest in small towns with a railroad facility. In Williston, North Dakota, merchants hung placards proclaiming: If youre a scab, your business is not wanted. In Roseburg, Oregon, a barber refused to shave a strikebreaker. In Easton, Pennsylvania, strikers wives and children showered scabs with dishwater and sour milk.

The strikers also found sympathetic ears in unlikely venues. After the crew of a Santa Fe passenger train walked off the job, stranding riders in the middle of nowhere on a blistering hot August day, the railroad played up the discomfort of women and children aboard in its war of words with the union. But when the train returned to Los Angeles, many passengers were wearing blue armbands as a mark of their support for the strikers.

Arthur Brisbane, editor of the Chicago Herald and Examiner, noted that the strikers cause looked different amid the clanging and grease of a steam locomotive repair shop than it did in a comfortable corporate office.

Men owning railroads that have never done a real days work in their lives find it hard to understand this, he wrote. It can be made clear to them.

The New York Times thought it was the strikers who needed a lesson: When men challenge the Government, they must be met in the way they select, either by law or by force.

The first casualty of the railroad strike of 1922 was John Kassel, shown here at County Hospital after being slugged. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

President Warren G. Harding was getting conflicting advice. He was inclined to agree with cabinet members who urged negotiating with the strikers. But Attorney General Harry Daugherty saw an opportunity to cripple the union movement. He was a vocal supporter of the open shop campaign for outlawing labor contracts that committed management to hiring only union members.

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Daugherty went to Chicago and asked a judge to proclaim the railroad strike an unlawful restraint of trade. Union lawyers responded with a question: Why shouldnt an employer who provoked a strike be similarly enjoined?

A courtroom carnival ensued, as the Tribune reported: Thus the arguments spun while the piles of law books were searched for dogma and tradition and the few written words that might throw light on these immense human problems.

New to the federal bench, Judge James Wilkerson retired to chambers for a day before issuing his Sept. 23 decision. He came down unequivocally on the railroads side. To make the strike effective, he wrote, the strikers adopted as a working basis the entire calendar of crime.

He cited Debs conviction for leading the 1894 railroad strike as precedent for a sweeping list of henceforth prohibited acts:

Vintage Chicago Tribune Weekly The Vintage Tribune newsletter is a deep dive into the Chicago Tribune's archives featuring photos and stories about the people, places and events that shape the city's past, present and future. >

Engaging, directing or encouraging others to engage in the practice commonly known as picketing. Asking someone to stop working by letters, printed or other circulars.  Using union funds to promote or encourage the strike. 

Railroad officials and brotherhood (union) officials just after inspecting the 132nd infantry in Joliet during the shopmens strike of 1922. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

Thus hobbled, the strikers cause was doomed. As Debs feared, higher paid railroad workers  engineers, firemen, machinists  had stayed on the job. Had they struck, they would be harder to replace than unskilled shop workers, erasing the railroads income.

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The Labor Journal, an Everett, Washington, newspaper, put on a brave face: Those not closely connected with the union movement are apt to believe that the railroad strike is over, it wrote on Dec. 15. But anyone making a careful study of the railroad conditions at the present time knows better.

Yet clearly, the railroad brotherhoods had suffered a crushing defeat. Strikers went back to work, on managements terms. Others were blacklisted. During the 1930s Depression, the union movement would just begin to unite skilled and unskilled workers. Until then, management had an advantage born of the 1922 strike.

The line of cleavage it established between the brotherhoods and the American Federation of Labor, the Wall Street Journal noted, will mean great strategic strength to railroad managers, although they are careful not to talk too much about it. It is the thing tactfully ignored, like the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which is always spoken of as a fire in California.

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During a recent study, researchers found that children hold stereotypical views that 'brilliance' is a male trait, and this belief strengthens as they grow up to the age of twelve. The study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) in collaboration with New York University, was published in the scientific journal Child Development in May 2022. It involved 389 Chinese Singaporean parents and 342 of their children aged 8 to 12. Tests were carried out to measure the extent to which parents and their children associate the notion of brilliance with men, and to probe the relationship between parents and their children's views. The study defined brilliance as an exceptional level of intellectual ability and results showed that children are as likely to associate brilliance with men, as their parents are. This belief was stronger among older children and stronger among those children whose parents held the same view. While previous research on gender stereotypes has found the idea that giftedness is a male trait that can emerge at around the age of six, it was not known whether and how this stereotype changes over the course of childhood, until now. Lead author of the study, Associate Professor Setoh Peipei from NTU Singapore's School of Social Sciences, said the Singapore-based study is the first to identify that the tendency to associate brilliance with men (also known as the 'brilliance equals to men' stereotype) increases in strength through the primary school years, and reaches the level of belief seen in adults by the age of 13. "Stereotypical views about how boys are smarter than girls can take root in childhood and become a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Prof Setoh. "For girls, this may lead them to doubt their abilities, thus limiting their ideas about their interests and what they can achieve in life." "Our research work shows parents must also be included in policies and school programs to effectively combat children's gender stereotypes from a young age," she added. For example, as previous studies have found that parents use different explanation styles for daughters and for sons, the research team said programs to train parents and teachers to be mindful of balancing their behavior during interactions with children -- especially with girls -- could be introduced. The authors say the study offers evidence to support Singapore's push to close the gender gap in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) sectors. While Singapore has the second highest in the world OECD PISA scores in mathematics, science and reading, a recent study by the Promotion of Women in Engineering, Research, and Science (POWERS) program at NTU Singapore found that women in Singapore are less confident in their math and science abilities compared to men. Women are also more likely than men to perceive gender barriers to STEM career entry and career progress. (ANI)
The Commissioner of Mangaluru police on Sunday informed the media that they have taken a person into custody who is the alleged owner of the car which was used in the murder of BJP Yuva Morcha worker Praveen Nettaru. While talking to the media, Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said, "The police have taken a person into custody who is an alleged owner of the car that was used in the offence, the person has given some leads of an individual who borrowed the vehicle from him. Once his role is established we will produce him in the court". Further, he also informed that five people have also been arrested for posting derogatory posts on social media. Earlier, the Karnataka Police on July 28, said that they have arrested two people in connection with the murder of BJP Yuva Morcha worker Praveen Nettaru. The accused persons will be produced before a local court, the officials added. The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Dakshin Kannada while speaking to ANI said that till now, a total of 15 people were questioned, out of which 2 people were arrested. He further added that they are also probing the possibility of a Kerala registration vehicle being used in the incident. Praveen Nettaru, a young BJP worker, was attacked with lethal weapons by unidentified people on a bike in Bellare in Dakshina Kannada late evening on July 19. Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra while making a statement on the incident said that the involvement of the extremist Popular Front of India (PFI), and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is suspected. (ANI)
Jharkhand Congress MLA from Bermo Kumar Jaimangal on Sunday alleged that BJP is trying to topple the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand and claimed that Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has a major role to play in it. Jaimangal wrote a letter of complaint against three Congress MLAs nabbed in West Bengal's Howrah with a huge amount of cash. He alleged that the trio had called him to Kolkata to take him to Guwahati and meet Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati along with them where he would have been promised a ministerial berth and cash worth crores after bringing down the JMM-Congress government in the tribal-dominated state. His letter stated, that Assam CM 'is doing it with the blessings of top shots of BJP political party sitting in Delhi.' The Bermo legislator said he was asked by the arrested Congress MLAs to come to Kolkata and leave for Guwahati together. Besides Rs 10 crore for each MLA, Jamtara legislator Irfan Ansari told him that he had been promised the health minister's post in the new government of the BJP. Kumar Jaimangal Singh addressed the complaint letter to the Argora police station in Ranchi. However, Assam CM refuted the allegation made against him to topple the Jharkhand government. "Even topmost persons of Congress keep in touch with me. We don't talk about politics but being in a party for over 22 years, we keep in touch. I don't know why FIR was filed on this," said CM Sarma on allegations by Kumar Jaimangal Singh. Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were detained in West Bengal's Howrah district on Saturday evening after a huge amount of cash was found in their vehicle, police said. The SUV in which MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were travelling was intercepted on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in the Panchla police station area. The relatives of Congress MLA Irfan Ansari rebutted allegations that BJP is trying to destabilize the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand, making the surprising statement, "the government cannot be brought down with just a meagre sum of Rs 40-50 lakh." The Congress party on Sunday suspended three MLAs, who were held with a huge amount of cash in West Bengal on Saturday, with immediate effect. Addressing a press conference today, the general secretary and party in-charge of Jharkhand Congress, Avinash Pande said, "The three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect." Congress alleged that BJP attempted to destabilize the state government following the seizure of cash from three MLAs, BJP slammed the Congress for their allegations. Talking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said "Whenever Congress or leaders from the Jharkhand government land up in any difficulty they immediately start using the word 'destabilization' like Pakistan's government use Kashmir word. But they cannot escape by blaming BJP." Notably, JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha)-Congress alliance is in power in Jharkhand and BJP is in Opposition. (ANI)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed a Special Court of Delhi that the accused Wadhawan brothers clandestinely gave loans to their owned companies/ developers fraudulently whereas it was shown that such loans were given to retail individuals borrowers who in fact, were not existing. CBI further told the court that there are various companies belonging to the accused Wadhawan brothers in which loans were diverted by DHFL. The accused Kapil Wadhawan during custodial remand revealed that he had acquired shares of Dhanlakshmi Bank, Vallash Polyplast and Wadhawan Global valued at Rs 17.98 crores through the broker Antique Stock Broking Ltd. Mumbai. There are reasonable apprehensions that the aforesaid shares were acquired from the proceeds of the defrauded amount and therefore investigation in this regard is also continuing. The investigation has also established that the records were dishonestly falsified and material information was concealed from the records of DHFL in order to divert and siphon off the funds dishonestly and fraudulently, availed from different consortium banks led by Union Bank of India, said the CBI. CBI further submitted before the Court that, during the investigation, certain incriminating digital device recovered is being analysed and it has been felt that the sample voice of accused Dheeraj Wadhawan is essentially required for comparison of his voice with incriminating voice contents found in a digital device. On July 29, 2022, the accused Dheeraj Wadhawan explained the purpose of taking his specimen voice in the presence of an independent witness. Despite explaining to him the relevancy and requirement of obtaining a sample/ specimen of his voice, he declined to give his specimen voice. It is evident that accused Dheeraj Rajeshkumar Wadhawan is not cooperating during the investigation. Special Judge Vishal Gogne on Saturday dismissed the application filed by the CBI seeking further police custody for three more days on the ground that there is no necessity for further custodial interrogation in the matter. Court sent them to judicial custody till August 5, 2022, to conduct further investigation into M/s Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) scam to tune 34000 crores. Court noted that the CBI's assessment projected new information inter-alia shares, searches at other properties, an investigation into recovered articles like a helicopter, and investigation into multiple alleged shell companies can be carried out and continued without any particular accretion to investigation from further police custody (CBI custody) of the present two accused. CBI argued that there are voluminous documents/digital data related to around 95 entities/shell companies belonging to various suspects/accused with which both accused are to be confronted. They need to be confronted with the dummy directors of Shell Companies in which the funds were diverted by DHFL availed from banks. It was also argued that there is every likelihood that further custodial interrogation of both the accused persons may lead to the recovery of further valuables and other assets acquired from the defrauded loan amount. CBI also argued that M/s RKW Developers Pvt. Ltd. (owned by the Wadhawan family and the entities owned/controlled by them), is holding substantial shareholding in the Helicopter (AgustaGrand of AgustaWestland) in the name of MWs Varva Aviation, Pune. The value of the Helicopter was Rs.36 crores out of which M/s RKW Developers Pvt. Ltd. contributed a substantial amount in 2017 towards their stake in the cost price and maintenance of said helicopter. CBI stated that Dheeraj Wadhawan has been non-cooperative in the investigation as he refused to give his voice samples despite explaining the relevancy and requirement of obtaining a sample/specimen of his voice to him. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal appearing on behalf of the Wadhawan brothers strongly opposed the plea of the CBI seeking further interrogation. He argued that despite the previous tenure of eleven days, the CBI has not been able to garner adequate material to justify further custody. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal also argued that the alleged money trail is entirely documentary and capable of verification without custodial interrogation. He argued that the investigation will go on for days, months, or years but CBI cannot seek police custody for the entire period of investigation. Advocate Aggarwal for the accused also argued that his client's refusal to give a voice sample does not show non-cooperation and the same can be taken during further interrogation and CBI has no right to seek his voice sample in terms of Judgment passed by the Supreme Court. According to the CBI, the two accused persons are the principal architects of the concerted diversion of loan amounts amounting to about Rs. 29,000 crores (approximately) out of the NPA amount of Rs. 34,000 crores (approximately) in relation to the total loans of approximately Rs. 42,000 crores. These loans were advanced by the complainant bank i.e. the Union Bank of India and other banks, forming a consortium of 17 Indian banks, to DHFL which is a non-banking finance company engaged in extending financial assistance to low and middle-income group individuals for the acquisition of houses. CBI lawyers further stated that the independent audit of the funds loaned by the consortium to the DHFL revealed that these funds were instead disbursed by the DHFL to connected entities and individuals with commonalities to DHFL promoters/ directors. According to the CBI, out of 35 such entities, 25 entities had minimal operations and were still disbursed loans by DHFL. Thereafter, 31 more connected entities have purportedly emerged. The sum of Rs 29,000 crores (approx) has allegedly been together diverted to these 66 entities. (ANI)
Supreme Court Judge Justice UU Lalit on Sunday said that Inter-generational Equity Environmental Jurisprudence proposes that whatsoever we have inherited from our forefathers should be given to the next generation. Justice Lalit's remark came while addressing the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet organized by NALSA. Justice UU Lalit, who is also Executive Chairman of NALSA, said, "Inter-generational Equity Environmental Jurisprudence proposes that whatsoever we have inherited from our forefathers should be given to next generation. He stressed the need to give it back in a better condition and this idea can be realized only if we channel our resources." Justice Lalit impressed upon the fact that the District Legal Services Authorities work at the grass root level which is why they know the pulse of the people, what the problems are and how to tackle them. He also shared his travelling experiences during the 42-day Pan India Campaign and how he met a lot of people and gained quite a lot of information from that interaction. Justice Lalit informed that based upon those interactions a strategy has been devised. The valedictory session of the first All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet was organized in an unconventional manner under the guidance of Justice UU Lalit, Executive Chairman, NALSA. Justice Lalit while commencing his address enlightened the participants about the purpose of the conference and shared his view to set the vision for the future i.e, vision Legal_Services @2047. Justice Lalit mentioned that four tough sessions were conducted during this two-day conference where a lot of ideas and suggestions were thrown. "This is the first conference of its kind, wherein the officers of the legal services authorities from all over the country were present. He applauded the active participation coming from all the directions of our country," Justice Lalit said. Justice Lalit was happy to express the fact of his association with the institution for the last 15 months as the Executive Chairman of NALSA. He went on to express his thoughts on the future of the legal aid system. The first is the clarity in the matter, the second is the devising of a strategy for the matter and lastly, pondering over the means and measures to implement that strategy. Justice Lalit expressed that "The legal services institutions have the requisite ability since we reached 9.5 lakh villages to create awareness to dispense legal aid services and suggested that this entire body has a tremendous amount of strength, power and efforts which have to be channelized." The outreach programme has been successful in reaching every soul of the country and we are the facilitator of legal aid. Justice Lalit said that the required awareness has been created now and the next step is to dispense legal aid by ensuring the quality of the legal aid services is intact. He highlighted that the trust deficit that still persists needs to be bridged. To bridge this gap, the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System is formulated wherein the lawyers engaged will deal only with the matter of legal aid and thus would be dedicated solely to this noble cause. He has suggested that for this, young and talented advocates should be pooled so that this office can become the backbone of the system and will function as a nodal point. He further applauded the collaborative effort between NALSA and the Ministry of Law wherein the two will work on Tele-Law and Nyaya Bandhu App which will help in constant monitoring of the services provided by the legal aid counsels and solve the problem of implementation. His Lordship informed that an E-library facility will be given to the advocates working in the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System. According to Justice Lalit, every citizen should necessarily be provided three essential services. First is Good Quality Education, the second is Medical Services in Primary Health Care Centers and lastly quality legal aid services. The service of legal aid should be in such a manner that the person who opts for the same reposes confidence in the system that his matter will be dealt with with utmost dedication and confidence and for this youngsters should be engaged as they need exposure. Further, he suggested that every law college should adopt at least three talukas and employ penultimate and final year students which will encourage them to join as para-legal volunteers. He also impressed that there should be mandatory training of law students just like medical students. The Justice mentioned the two reports prepared by Justice Bhagwati and Justice Krishna Iyer which summed up what legal aid ought to be but that report was prepared somewhere in 1972-73 wherein we were virtually dependent upon the expertise of the individual and now, we have travelled miles beyond that as an institution. Justice Lalit emphasized tapping the potential of Lok Adalats as one of the modes of disposal. He said that in the last 15 months, 3 crore cases have been disposed of out of which 2 crores were pre-litigation cases and 1 crore post-litigation. Justice Lalit suggested that the district authorities must be vigilant and that the concerned DLSA/SLSA should initiate the process to correct the courses if gone wrong. As a legal aid institution, it is our duty to see man must not be deprived of legal aid, as this part is within our command. Another Supreme Court Judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud commenced his address by posing the question that why we need technology and stated that most of the beneficiaries are illiterate and this is compounded by lack of resources. These beneficiaries are marginalized due to various factors such as gender, sexual orientation, and geographical and socio-economic opportunities. Justice DY Chandrachud said that there are two ends which have to be met-- one is the might of the State and the other is the beneficiaries. This could be achieved by virtue of technological interventions because technology does what the wings of the State could not. Another Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul commenced his address by urging everyone to utilize the tools available within the system to the best of their potential. Justice Kaul suggested that the entire judicial system needs a bypass and that this should be an endeavour to close litigation at the first stage itself. Lastly, he stated that the judges and defence system must consciously make available plea bargaining. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday demanded to remove the "Singur Andolan" chapter from history books claiming that the chapter has glorified "corrupt" Partha Chatterjee by calling him a freedom fighter. BJP National Secretary Anupam Hazra asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to remove former Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee's name from the pages of history books of the Madhya Shiksha Parshad. "Honourable Chief Minister, this man is now in jail for embezzling money from millions of educated unemployed youth. Now at least remove his name from the pages of Class 8 History books. Otherwise, the new generation will start considering this person as equivalent to Netaji and Khudiram after seeing his name on the pages of the book," tweeted Hazra. Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal. Anupam Hazra while speaking to ANI said, "I have requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee through my tweet to remove Partha Chatterjee's name from history books. Names of those people who have great work for the country are written on the pages of history books. Now, if the names of corrupt people like Partha Chatterjee, who is already in jail, are written in history books, then the children will start considering Partha Chatterjee as equal to Khudiram Bose and Netaji." According to the BJP leader, the 'Singur Andolan' chapter would mislead the new generation. "We want that "Singur Andolan" chapter which has been forcibly included in the textbooks in Bengal, should be removed as it will mislead the new generation," he added. "Right now only Partha Chatterjee's name has come up in the scam, someday Mamta Banerjee's name can also come up. No guarantee. So the Singur Andolan chapter should be removed from the whole chapter because the next generation should not read this. It is the psychology of the people to respect those whose names are etched in books. Then if all these thieves and corrupt people are glorified then it will mislead the next generation," said the BJP National Secretary. In the 'Singur Andolan' chapter, TMC has tried to project that it has brought Independence to the people of Bengal from the hands of CPI (M) ruled in Bengal for about 35 years. The chapter highlighted extortion, murder and gross mismanagement in Bengal during CPI(M) rule. "Mamata Banerjee wants to see her name written in the history books. She is very fond of this. So when she came to power, a chapter of the "SingurAndolan" was forcibly included in the Class 8 history book of Bengal. So, Partho Chatterjee has also been glorified there as well," he added. (ANI)
A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist was apprehended in the higher reaches of Aloosa forest during a joint operation by 26 Assam Rifles, JKP and CRPF, informed the Indian Army on Sunday. During the search, war-like stores were recovered from him. "A specific input was recieved from Jammu and Kashmir and Army Intelligence Unit regarding presence of two suspected terrorists in Gen Area Aloosa Forest. On July 30, a joint operation led by 26 Assam Rifles, JKP and CRPF was launched. During a search of higher reaches in Aloosa Forest, a suspected area was identified. The area was cordoned with extreme caution," said the Indian Army. During a search of the area one suspected individual (terrorist) was seen and surrounded from all sides and apprehended. During the search, war-like stores were recovered from him, added the Army. As per sources, terrorist belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and was planning to carry out attacks on Security Forces in the coming days. His aim was to cause major disruption during Amarnath Yatra. Pakistan's desperate attempts to cause fear and panic amongst the locals are aimed at disturbing the prevailing peace and normalcy in the valley. All efforts will be made by the security forces to deny terrorists any space to operate freely. By apprehending one hardcore LeT a major incident has been averted, added the Army. (ANI)
West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) scam accused Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were taken to the office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after their medical check up at the ESI hospital in Kolkata. Earlier in the day, Chatterjee had denied his involvement in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam and asserted that the "money does not belong to him." He was brought to ESI hospital for a medical examination on Sunday afternoon. "When the time comes, you will know...the money does not belong to me," he said to media persons today upon being asked about who is behind this conspiracy. Arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee - who is now suspended from the Trinamool Congress - and his aide Arpita Mukherjee have separately been claiming that they are a "victim of a conspiracy." "Partha Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of General Secretary, National vice president and three other posts. He has been suspended till the investigation is underway," Abhishek Banerjee said. Trinamool Congress, which had been distancing itself from its arrested leader Partha Chatterjee, axed him as a minister on Thursday and suspended him from the party leaving it to him to defend himself in the Enforcement Directorate probe in the teacher recruitment scam in which crores of rupees have been seized from residences linked to his aide Arpita Mukherjee. Trinamool Congress' decision to part ways with one of its most senior leaders was announced by party leader Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference in which he said "if anyone commits something wrong then Trinamool Congress will not spare him" and 'there will be zero tolerance for corruption". He said Partha Chatterjee will remain suspended till probe is underway. Partha Chatterjee was considered one of the most trusted lieutenants of the Chief Minister, a "go-to" man and was regarded third in party hierarchy after the chief Minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. After his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, in connection with the School Service Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal, Chatterjee had reportedly called Mamata Banerjee four times, which she allegedly did not pick. Abhishek Banerjee has told the media that Chatterjee has been removed from TMC along with the post of general secretary, national vice president and three other posts. "He has been suspended till the investigation is underway. He can come back if proven not guilty. CM took the decision and the (Partha Chatterjee) minister was removed. The probe into the matter is underway. If anyone commits something wrong then TMC won't spare him," he said adding that the investigating agency must complete the probe in a time-bound manner. "There will be zero tolerance for corruption. Investigating agency must complete the probe within the time limit. Even in Sarada case nothing happened, it's just lingering. There should be a time-bound investigation," he said. "The one (Arpita Mukherjee) from whose house sums of money were recovered isn't from TMC. We want stringent action against those who are linked to this matter. I am saying this in a hypothetical way that if Partha Chatterjee goes to BJP after two months then he will become a saint. Since he is in TMC, all of these things are happening," he added. The arrest of Partha Chatterjee followed Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellery worth above Rs 1 crore being recovered from the Kolkata residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former education minister. The ED unearthed many disproportionate assets allegedly of Partha Chatterjee since his arrest, of which were three flats in West Bengal's Diamond City. The ED raided Arpita Mukherjee's house in connection with an alleged teacher recruitment scam in West Bengal. "The said amount is suspected to be proceeds of crime of the said SSC scam," the probe agency had said in a statement. A five-time MLA, Chatterjee was appointed as the minister-in-charge of higher education and school education in 2014 and he held the portfolio till 2021. (ANI)
The programme was held at Janata Bhawan in Dispur.

The orphan children who received the assistance include Manjeet Baro, Taslima Khatun, Raju Chouhan, Annas Ali, Arjun Pegu, Shiba Pegu, Shivani Pegu and Priyanka Kalita.

On the occasion, the Chief Minister also provided financial assistance to the orphaned children of the horrible Satekona murder case, Tuesbar R. Marak and Joreka R. Marak, both residents of Satekona village under Boko Police Station in Kamrup district.

They are the two surviving children of late Moinod D. Sangma and late Salje R. Marak, who were murdered by miscreants on the night of September 1, 2021.

Under the assistance given, the children will be provided with a monthly income scheme of Rs 3,500 per month, being the interest accrued on a Fixed Deposit of Rs 7.67 lakh deposited in their respective names.

The monthly income scheme will continue till they attain the age of 24 years when the principal amount will be deposited into their savings accounts.

Cultural Affairs Minister Bimal Bora, Rajya Sabha MP Pabitra Margherita, Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua and other senior officials were also present. (ANI)
Demanding the arrest of bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam, a certain section of devotees of the Church of South India (CSI) staged a protest march to Museum Police Station in Kerala on Sunday. After following the allegations of corruption on the pretext of offering admission at the Church-run medical college at Karakonam, the ED raids were conducted at the Mateer Memorial Church here on Monday. Earlier on Wednesday, the ED had interrogated Bishop for 9 hours in the alleged money laundering case, as a result of which, a group of devotees demanded the arrest of Bishop and permission for a protest march at the police station. However, the police had initially denied the permission to conduct the march, but they continued demanding Bishop's resignation. Later, by the end of the day, the protestors ended their march at Marty's square, where hundreds of other devotees had also joined their protest. The conducted protest march which was joined by hundreds of protestors ended at Marty's square in Palayam. It was aimed at demanding the arrest and resignation of bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam, T T Praveen and Dr Bennett ended at Marty's square in Palayam. It was also alleged by the protestors that as many as 65 of the protesters were currently in police custody and they had also baton-charged them. The police was also accused of having blocked the vehicles of the devotees on the outskirts of the city. The Democratic treasure incharge of the elected body, Renjith said, "Its been 11 years since Dharmaraj Rasalam (bishop) came into power. The corruption started when he joined hands with some business persons like T T Praveen and some of the unsocial elements." He further alleged, "the corruption started with the admission in Karakkonam medical college when crores of money were misused here." Stating that the church has lost its 'democracy", the treasurer said, "they are under ED surveillance, regular ED raids are conducted at three-four places." "They have removed democracy from our church. CSI Church had its own democratic constitution and supremacy for the priests. What the bishop has done has removed democracy with the support of certain political leaders and unwanted elements as he removed the elected secretary and body of the Church. Seeking a proper election at the Church, Renjith further said that "criminal T T Praveen and old politician Bennet should be removed from the Church." The allegation against the Bishop and the Church pertains to accepting capitation fees for admission to the medical college run by the church. The Bishop was among the ones booked by the Kerala Police for allegedly collecting huge amounts of money from students, promising them a medical seat in the Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College in Karakoram, which is run by the church. The ED also raided the headquarters of the CSI South Kerala diocese, which houses the office of Church supreme leader Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam. Simultaneous raids were also carried out at the residences of Church's secretary T T Praveen and the medical director of CSI Medical College, Karakonam Dr Bennet Abraham. "They want to do something against the church, they want to destroy the church. So they are filing cases one by one against different bodies. Let them do it we are happy to face it," Christian Education Board Director Fr. C R Godwin told ANI on Wednesday. "At 6.30 am on Monday, they came and started the raid. They did not inform us. Till now the questioning is going on and the Bishop has a conference to attend, if they leave we are happy," he added. The ED registered the case under money laundering offence later. (ANI)
A photo shows a room in Henry Dargers apartment at 815 W. Webster Ave. in Chicago and was taken when his works were discovered, shortly before his death in 1973. (U.S. District Court records / HANDOUT)

Recluse janitor Henry Darger spent more than 40 years in a tiny one-room apartment in Lincoln Park, writing, painting, sketching, collecting and fantasizing.

It wasnt until after his death in 1973 that his works, discovered by his landlords, trickled onto Chicagos art scene, with his fanciful stories and sometimes-violent imagery eventually gaining worldwide appreciation  and skyrocketing value.

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Now, nearly a half a century later, a brewing legal battle over the rights to Dargers legacy has landed in Chicagos federal court, where a lawsuit was filed this week by his estate accusing the landlords of copyright infringement.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday names Kiyoko Lerner as well as the estate of her husband, Nathan, who together rented the third-floor room of their walk-up on West Webster Avenue to Darger beginning in the 1930s.

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A piece by Henry Darger titled "93 At Jennie Richee, are chaced for long distance by Glandelinians with blood hounds" is from the collection of Marjorie and Harvey Freed. It's a watercolor, graphite, collage and carbon transfer on pierced paper. (Christies Inc.)

According to the suit, the Lerners have been illegally profiting from Dargers works for nearly five decades, including his massive 15,000-page illustrated manuscript In the Realms of the Unreal, despite having no claim as heirs. Nathan Lerner, a photographer and industrial designer who first promoted Dargers work, died in 1997.

The lawsuit comes six months after several of Dargers purported relatives, all first cousins several times removed, filed an action in Cook County Probate Court seeking to be declared heirs to his estate. That suit is still pending.

The Lerners have long maintained that Darger was clear before his death that he didnt care what happened to his work. An attorney who represents Kiyoko Lerner in the probate matter did not return calls seeking comment.

Dargers back story as a solitary and unknown artist who skyrocketed to posthumous fame bears striking resemblance to Vivian Maier, the Chicago-area nanny who became one of the worlds most acclaimed street photographers only after her discarded images were discovered in an old storage locker.

Personal belongings and artifacts from Henry Darger are on display at the Henry Darger Room at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, as pictured on Jan. 31, 2017. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

As in Dargers case, Maier, who died in 2009, was a pack rat and a recluse who never sought to publish her work in her lifetime. But the accidental discovery of tens of thousands of Maiers negatives led to a messy legal squabble over her suddenly lucrative estate, including an exhaustive search for a rightful heir.

The Cook County public administrator wound up taking over Maiers affairs and filed a similar copyright lawsuit at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse against some of those who profited off of the photographs.

Meanwhile, the copyright fight over Dargers estate has connections to the same Chicago collector, Ron Slattery, who was one of the first to buy Maiers photo negatives. Slattery told The New York Times in February that he took it upon himself to track down some of Dargers relatives and showed them a 2019 article in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property that questioned the rights to the Darger estate.

After all the research it just seemed like the right thing to do, Slattery told the Times. How can you let that just sit there?

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Slattery did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

By now, the story of Dargers unlikely rise to world acclaim is well known. After he was born in Chicago in 1892, his mother died when he was 4. His father, a tailor, struggled with health issues. After Darger had behavioral problems at school, he was sent to what was then known as the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in downstate Lincoln.

Personal belongings and artifacts from Henry Darger are on display at the Henry Darger Room at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, pictured on Jan. 31, 2017. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Darger would later incorporate many of his experiences at the asylum, including children being subjected to forced child labor and severe punishment, into his art. After his father died in 1908, Darger escaped from the facility and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, where he found work as a custodian at a Catholic hospital. Aside from a brief stint in the military during World War I, it would remain his profession for the next 50 years.

In 1930, Darger began renting a large, third-floor room in a brick home at 851 W. Webster Ave. Hed been living there for nearly 30 years when Nathan Lerner bought the building in the late 1950s. In the 2004 documentary The Realms of the Unreal, Kiyoko Lerner and others who had contact with Darger in his later years remembered him as quiet and idiosyncratic, detached from reality in many ways but not dangerous.

He was obsessed with the weather and was a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines, according to the documentary. He wore the same threadbare army coat and could often be seen prowling alleys near the apartment, looking for collectables in the trash. At night, when hed return home from work, neighbors would hear voices coming from his room, like a large group of people having a boisterous discussion. It was Darger, immersed in his world, talking to himself.

In the mid-1960s, after he was forced to leave his job due to declining health, Darger was spending virtually his entire life in the room. There, he continued working on his lifes opus, the fantasy story of the Vivian Girls, seven Christian princesses who join a bloody rebellion against child enslavers. The work, which ultimately filled some 15,145 typed pages, is illustrated with hundreds of painted scenes, drawings and stencils featuring tranquil landscapes and mystical creatures, coupled with terrifying images of young children being tortured and murdered.

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By early 1973, Darger was too sick to live alone and was moved to St. Augustines Home for the Aged, the same institution where his father had died. When the Lerners and some neighbors went into his room to begin clearing out his things, they couldnt believe their eyes.

I distinctly remember going up that narrow staircase and entering a totally new world, Lynne Warren, then a neighbor and art student, told the Tribune in 2000. I really felt like I had stepped inside Henrys mind.

At Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Henry Darger's apartment is recreated with personal belongings and artifacts in the Henry Darger Room, shown on Jan. 31, 2017. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Resting on an iron bed were the volumes making up In the Realms of the Unreal. Also found were Dargers detailed memoirs, a meticulously kept weather journal, and decades-old newspaper clippings of disasters and missing or slain children tacked to the wall.

We were stunned, Kiyoko Lerner told the Tribune. We didnt know what to make of it.

David Berglund, a tenant in the building, said he remembered visiting Darger in the hospital before he died and praising his old neighbors work.

He looked at me like Id sucker-punched him, Berglund remembered. He looked at me and said, Its too late now. It belongs to Mr. Lerner.

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Darger died on April 13, 1973. Hes buried at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, where his headstone is inscribed with the words, Protector of Children.

Nathan Lerner saw the potential in Dargers work and used his connections in Chicagos art world to try to drum up interest. They preserved Dargers room and invited artists and students to dive into the dense and mysterious creations.

Personal belongings and artifacts from Henry Darger are on display at the Henry Darger Room at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, pictured on Jan. 31, 2017. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Four years after Dargers death, his work was first featured in a show at the Hyde Park Art Center, but international acclaim wouldnt come until the 1990s with a show at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Since then, Darger has been recognized as one of the worlds premier outsider artists, and his work has inspired poems, an opera, even a rock band called the Vivian Girls.

With the notoriety, of course, came the inevitable dollar signs, and Dargers works, particularly the illustrations, began fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars in art house auctions.

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The value continues today. According to the lawsuit, Christies auction house estimated the sale price for one page from In the Realms of the Unreal to be between $200,000 to $400,000. The painting wound up selling for $675,000.

The lawsuit alleged that over the years, the Lerners have generated tens of hundreds of millions of dollars from the unauthorized exploitation of the Darger works.

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An untitled and undated piece by Henry Darger on display at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art on Jan. 31, 2017. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

But even if the Lerners are found to have violated the law, how much could be recouped for Dargers estate  and who would share the proceeds  is still a very murky picture. In Cook County Probate Court, Judge Kent Delgado has granted the petitioners an extension to prove up their claim as Dargers rightful heirs, which can be a lengthy process.

Meanwhile, many of the contents of Dargers old room on West Webster Avenue, which had been preserved by the Lerners, are now on display at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art on Chicagos Near West Side.

But the room itself is long gone. Back in 2000, Kiyoko Lerners stepson, Michael, told the Tribune he was gut rehabbing the building, with Dargers room serving as the master suite.

The building sold in 2006 for $2 million, records show.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh Narayan Singh on Sunday said that the legislature should discharge its duties in a proper manner and the Government should be mindful of its accountability to the Parliament. He was speaking on the concluding day of the Orientation Programme for newly elected/nominated MPs of Rajya Sabha. Advocating for constitutional balance and mutual cooperation between three organs of the State, he said that legislature is the most important organ and is considered the 'Light House' in a democracy. Expressing his concern over continuous disruption in the proceedings of the house, Deputy Chairman said that Parliament can abdicate its responsibility only at its own peril. Continued interruption in Parliament can give way to lack of executive accountability and judicial overreach. Apart from the expenses incurred in running the house, disruption in Parliament has an adverse impact on the life of the common man. He shared his thoughts with the new Members and urged them to behave in accordance with parliamentary decorum and obey the laid down rules. He also added that the Government as well as the opposition should run the House on the principle of "spirit of accommodation" and "consensus building". Self-introspection by the MPs and scrupulously follow the rules which are the collective expression of the House. Recollecting a piece of advice tendered by the former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee to him, he said that regular attendance of and sitting through the proceedings of the House can help Members to understand and master the rules and proceedings of the House. Harivansh advised the Members to do proper homework on the topic they want to speak on and also to note down the specific points to be raised in advance so that they are able to cover all the important points and suggestions within the specified time allotted to them. He quoted Dr BR Ambedkar, which says, "Unless we in Parliament realise our responsibilities and shoulder the task of looking after the welfare and good of the people within a reasonable time, I have not the slightest doubt in my own mind that this Parliament will be treated by the public outside with utter contempt. It would be a thing not wanted at all." Notably, a two-day Orientation Programme organised by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the newly elected/ nominated Members of Rajya Sabha concluded on Sunday. The second day of the programme began with a session on 'Parliamentary Privileges' delivered by Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Trinamool Congress' Derek O' Brien engaged the attention of the Members through his unique interaction full of practical tips as guidance on the subject 'Raising Matters of Public Importance'. Whereas, Prasanna Acharya spoke about 'Ethics in Politics: Do's and Don'ts for Members by citing examples of veteran parliamentarians of the present and the past. Besides, useful information was disseminated to the new Members on matters concerning IT facilities in Rajya Sabha, MPLADs and Member's salary, allowance and amenities. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday said that he met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and held a discussion regarding granting tribal status to the "Hatti Community" of Sirmour district. The Chief Minister said that Amit Shah had assured him that the Central government would soon take a final call in the larger interest of the Hatti community. He expected that the Union Government would soon accord tribal status to the Hatti community and meet the long pending demand of this community. The Hatti community is demographically spread in four Assembly constituencies of the Sirmour district - Shillai, Paonta, Renuka and Pachhad. The community has tribal status in Uttarakhand which shares a border with the Sirmour district. In April, Thakur met Shah and said the Union Minister has assured him that the Centre will give positive consideration to the state government's request for inclusion of the Hatti community in the Scheduled Tribes list. "The Hatti community in Himachal Pradesh has been demanding tribal status for a long time. I met Union Home Minister and discussed this. All technicalities will be fulfilled soon and the Hatti community will be given the status of the tribal community," Thakur told ANI back then. The Chief Minister referred to the long struggle for getting the tribal status during Congress governments and said it was turned down many times. However, he said, that BJP governments at the Centre and state always took a favourable stand for the cause of the Hatti Community and the present central government has understood the genuineness of the long-pending demand and struggle of the community. (ANI)
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today called for equitable opportunities for quality education for every student. Naidu emphasised that no student should be left behind because he or she is unable to afford their course books or tuition fees. "We must ensure that all barriers to equal access to education are dismantled," he added. Speaking at the inaugural of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Rajasthan Youth Association, Naidu described education as the most powerful agent of change which can lend an impetus to the pace of development of the nation. Naidu observed that there is a huge potential for India to become a world leader in various domains given the demographic advantage and the presence of highly talented youth. He said that the need of the hour is to impart quality education and to convert the vast pool of educated manpower into a highly skilled workforce in tune with the requirements of the digitally-driven, knowledge-based 21st century. "Harnessed to their full potential, the talent and creative energies of our young minds will power India into the league of the strongest nations," he added. Recalling the great values of Indian culture, Naidu said, "It is the duty of every Indian, who has achieved success, fame and wealth in life, to give back to society and the country." He said that it is not the responsibility of the government alone to work towards nation-building; all citizens must proactively come forward and do their bit for the welfare of their fellow citizens. Reminding people to be kind to everyone, Naidu urged all to treat everyone with compassion and help those in need. "As we take rapid steps to success, let us not leave any of our brothers and sisters behind, but seek to empower them in every way possible," he added. Recalling India's past glory, he called upon everyone to work for making the nation great again. Asking everyone to respect their mother tongue, the Vice President wanted the parents to talk in their mother tongue with their children at home. Advising the youngsters who aspire to go abroad, he said that they should 'learn, earn and return' to serve the motherland. "You should return to your matribhumi to serve society and to spend time with your parents and grandparents," he stressed. Naidu lauded the Rajasthan Youth Association, one of the oldest organisations of the Rajasthani community settled in Chennai, for its efforts towards the cause of education by making course books available to college students in need free of cost, under its 'RYA Book Bank Project'. Naidu expressed his happiness over several other initiatives undertaken by the Rajasthan Youth Association in areas such as healthcare and food security, among others. "We as a community must live up to our ancient philosophy of 'share and care' and Rajasthan Youth Association is a good role model," he added. Recognizing that in a vast country like India, everything can not be left to the governments alone, Naidu urged social service organizations and philanthropists to supplement governments' efforts in the fields of health and education. "Social service gives you joy and serving the poor is serving God," he added. PK Sekar Babu, Tamil Nadu Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Dinesh Mehta, President, Rajasthan Youth Association, Ashish Jain, Secretary, Rajasthan Youth Association, V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras and other dignitaries graced the occasion. (ANI)
Special Task Force of the Haryana Police has arrested six people for allegedly giving death threats and extortion calls to MLAs. Four MLAs from the state received death threats and extortion calls from multiple phone numbers which were traced to countries in the Middle East between June 24 and June 28, informed Police on Sunday. FIRs were lodged against these threats and had been assigned to STF(H) by DGP Haryana PK Agrawal, IPS, to investigate. "Technical analysis of these mobiles has confirmed that these numbers are registered in the Middle Eastern countries and were being operated from Pakistan. Some ex-MLAs of Punjab had also received similar threats from these numbers. Different tones and conversational styles, like Mumbaikar tone and Punjabi language, were used during these conversations with these MLAs," said the Punjab Police. The two-week-long operation was personally monitored and supervised by PK Agrawal IPS, DGP Haryana. In this context, central agencies have aided the Director General of Police (H). STF conducted a technical analysis of these mobile numbers and IP addresses. This involved five separate teams working on this technical analysis, informed the police. The STF(H) strategically crafted a plan and accordingly asked the account number and mobile numbers to complete the transaction with the extortionists. To track these account numbers, two parallel teams conducted raids across Mumbai and Mujjafarpur in Bihar. Two members of this gang -- Dulesh Alam from Bihar's Betia and Badre Alam from Uttar Pradesh's Basti -- were arrested from Mumbai. They were found in the possession of approximately 20 Passbooks, Cheque Books, 18 ATMs, 14 fake sim cards, one diary and five mobile phones. Similarly, from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, STF(H) arrested four people-- Amit Yadav alias Radheshyam Yadav of Bihar's Gopalgunj, Saddiq Anwar of Motihari, Sanoj Kumar from Mujjafarpur and Kash Alam from Betia. These culprits were found to be in possession of two Passbooks or cheques book, two diaries, one register, 42 sim cards, 19 mobile phones, and 37 ATMs. To date, a total of 55 ATM cards, 24 mobile phones, 56 sim cards, 22 Passbook/Cheque books, Rs. 3,97,000, one car TATA Punch, three diaries and one register have been found in the possession of the culprits. It was found that these culprits often enticed poor or common people by offering them 15-20 thousand rupees and convinced them to open bank accounts and would then keep all the documents (Passbook/Cheque book/ATM Card/ATM Pin) with themselves and would buy fake sim cards to operate these accounts. During these raids, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, STF Bihar and Bihar Police offered complete support to STF (H). While interrogation, the STF(H) found approximately 10 Pakistani residents through whom the threats and extortion were routed. "These accused do not belong to any criminal gang or terrorist organisation. This in fact is a gang of very sharp criminals who are involved in professional fraud, and money laundering and have their members across Pakistan, the Middle East and India. People sitting across these other countries would entice victims by naming "Kaun Banega Crorepati" or lotteries or by extortion calls and would make them transfer money to the account numbers given by Dulesh or Amit. Dulesh and Amit then either withdraw this money via ATMs or would transfer this amount to the Indian accounts of their Pakistan-based gang members," added the police. IGP STF(H) Satish Balan, IPS, had formed an SIT under the leadership of Sumit Kumar, IPS, SP STF(H) to investigate these cases. The SIT included STF Units which were led by Sandeep Dhankhar, DSP STF(H) and Surendra Kinha, DSP STF(H). (ANI)
The West Bengal Police on Sunday arrested five people, including three MLAs from Jharkhand Congress who were earlier nabbed with huge amount of money in West Bengal's Howrah. According to the Superintendent of Howrah Rural Police, these MLAs were earlier nabbed with huge amounts of cash and all these five people were presented in the coourt today. "Five people including 3 MLAs from Jharkhand Congress who were nabbed with huge amounts of cash, have been arrested. All the five people will be presented in the court today," Swati Bhangalia, SP, Howrah Rural told ANI. Meanwhile, Taragati Ghatak, Public Prosecutor on Jharkhand MLAs informed the mediapersons that after hearing both sides, the court rejected the bail plea, and their request for 10 days of police remand was considered. "CID has taken over the probe," Taragati Ghatak said. "CID has put charges against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act. We raised questions on the applicability of these charges, the court rejected the bail plea. They have been sent them to 10 days of police remand. We kept our arguments in the court," said MLAs' advocate Sayak Mitra. Earlier in the day, the Congress had suspended these three leaders from the party with immediate effect. Addressing a press conference today, the general secretary and party in-charge of Jharkhand Congress, Avinash Pande said, "The three MLAs, who were held with a mountain of cash yesterday, have been suspended from the party with immediate effect." The three MLAs, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari were travelling in an SUV on National Highway-16 at Ranihati in Bengal when the police intercepted their vehicle. The relatives of Congress MLA Irfan Ansari rebutted allegations that BJP is trying to destabilize the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand, making the surprising statement," the government cannot be brought down with just a meagre sum of Rs 40-50 lakh". Congress alleged that BJP attempted to destabilize the state government following the seizure of cash from three MLAs, BJP slammed the Congress for their allegations. Talking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said "Whenever Congress or leaders from the Jharkhand government land up in any difficulty they immediately start using the word 'destabilization' like Pakistan's government use Kashmir word. But they cannot escape by blaming BJP." Meanwhile, senior JMM leader Supriyo Bhattacharya took a dig at the BJP claiming that the 'script for the episode' was 'drafted' two years ago. "The script for the episode which unfolded yesterday was being drafted for the last two years. This is BJP's tactics to destabilise a government by hook or crook," he said. Further speaking on BJP trying to destabilize the JMM-Cong coalition government in Jharkhand, he said, "After 20 years, a pre-poll coalition was formed. In such a situation, if attempts are made to topple the government, it is like weakening democracy." "BJP's motto is that they will form the government where they win the elections, and they will definitely form the government where they did not win the elections," he added. Notably, JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha)-Congress alliance is in power in Jharkhand and BJP is in Opposition. (ANI)
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 31: With a commitment to safeguarding every life in Uttar Pradesh, the government, on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is bringing about radical changes in the health facilities of the state. In pursuit of the same, Rs 3000 crore will be spent by the government to provide free treatment for 48 hours to every person admitted to emergency care. The state government, under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, has worked in a planned and phased manner to improve the existing healthcare system, expand health infrastructure in the state and provide proper healthcare facilities to every needy in the state in the last five years. Through schemes like 'One District, One Medical College', the Adityanath government is addressing the issue of geographical disparity in the healthcare sector by building medical colleges in each of the 75 districts of the state. Now, Uttar Pradesh will be the first state in India to have a Live Emergency Monitoring System. To implement this scheme, an Integrated Trauma and Emergency Center will be set up on the lines of the COVID Command Center. Once implemented, the Live Emergency Monitoring System will facilitate easy admission at hospitals, especially in case of an emergency. Ambulance services will be available on a single call. Of the Rs 3000 crores proposed by the government, Rs 1614 crore will be spent to develop the basic health care facilities in five years. In addition, on average, Rs 550 crores will be spent every year to provide free treatment to trauma and non-trauma medicine patients. A total of Rs 300 crore will be spent on enhancing ambulance service and 750 ambulances with advanced life support systems will be purchased. Further, about Rs 165 crore will be allocated for the operation of ambulances, giving salary and training of staff. The annual expenditure on the call centre, command centre, operation and maintenance of software among others will be nearly Rs 125 crore, informed the government. According to Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Alok Kumar, "Planning is being done to implement Live Emergency Monitoring System in the state in a phased manner. The initial 48 hours are very important for the life of any emergency patient. Therefore, as per the resolution of the Chief Minister to safeguard every life in the state, it is proposed to provide free treatment to the patients of emergency care for the first 48 hours. "The scheme will benefit patients who are alone, or have relatives with them, but there is no immediate provision of adequate funds. Along with them, the general public will also be benefited," he added. (ANI)
Three Congress MLAs, who were nabbed with huge quantities of cash by the West Bengal police at Panchla in Howrah district on late Saturday evening, were remanded to 10 days Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody by a lower court on Sunday afternoon. The three MLAs are Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kacchap from Khijri (ST) and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira (ST). Besides the three MLAs, one more person travelling with them and driver of the vehicle where the cash was seized was also remanded to the CID custody for 10 days. The vehicle had the board of Jamtara MLA, Irfan Ansari. A little over Rs 49 lakh was seized from that vehicle. On Sunday morning, a special team of CID- West Bengal officials reached Panchla police station, where the three MLAs were interrogated throughout the day about the sources of this huge cash. After the court order, the CID team took the three MLAs, the driver and the fifth person travelling in the car to the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan in Kolkata. "They will be interrogated again by us tonight only," confirmed a CID official. However, all the three MLAs are sticking to their earlier point that they that they represent tribal-dominated constituencies in Jharkhand and they came to Kolkata to purchase sarees in large quantities from Burrabazar wholesale market for the purpose of distribution in their respective constituencies on the occasion of the forthcoming World Tribal Day on August 9, 2022. However, the police have not found their statements convincing as none of them could specify on the sources of the funds. Meanwhile, Congress has already suspended these three MLAs from the party. --IANS src/uk ( 292 Words) 2022-07-31-19:48:02 (IANS)
"The ceremony was held at HQ 10 Sect RR Hyderbaig, Pattan and was attended by Maj. Gen. S.S. Slaria, GOC Kilo Force, Officers and ranks of 10 sect RR and reps of JKP," army said.

"Wreaths were laid by the KILO force commander, Cdr 10 sect RR, CO 29 RR and reps of JKP."

In addition the Officer Commanding, 26 Army Dog Unit and Axel's handler also paid last respects to the fallen canine.

On Saturday, the army had launched an anti-terror operation in Baramulla.

Axel was sent inside a house to monitor the movement of terrorist. The dog was killed in terrorist firing. During the encounter one terrorist was killed and three security forces personnel were injured.

--IANS zi/pgh

( 176 Words)

2022-07-31-21:36:05 (IANS)
BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi remarked "will they (arrested Congress MLAs) not follow their masters and loot the nation".

"Three Jharkhand Congress MLAs were arrested with huge cash in their vehicles. When Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are 'accused on bail', can its MLAs be honest? Will they not follow the footsteps of their master and loot the nation?" Ravi tweeted.

On Saturday evening, three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand -- Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Vixal Kongadi -- were caught with bags of notes at Rani Haat in Howrah district of West Bengal.

When the notes were counted, the total amount was found to be Rs 48 lakh. These three MLAs were travelling in an SUV along with two other individuals.

On the basis of intelligence inputs, the West Bengal police caught them during checking. This SUV had the board of Jamtara MLA of Jharkhand.

It is reported that the three MLAs who were taken into police custody could not give clear information about the cash found from the vehicle.

The Congress on Sunday suspended those three Jharkhand MLAs.

--IANS ssb/pgh

( 234 Words)

2022-07-31-21:54:05 (IANS)
The BJP will contest 2024 Lok Sabha election and 2025 Assembly elections with its present alliance partners in Bihar, party General Secretary Arun Singh said on Sunday. "BJP respects its alliance partners. Hence, it will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election with the same alliance in Bihar. Even, the 2025 Vidhan Sabha election will be also contested in similar fashion," Singh said during the interaction with media persons after the end of two-day Joint National Executive Meeting (JNEM) of the party here. The BJP announced the election campaign for 2024 Lok Sabha from the soil of Bihar with the motive to make Narendra Modi Prime Minister for the third time. "During the inaugural session of JNEM, national President J.P. Nadda asked BJP leaders to reach at every booth of the state and add people of every caste and community," Singh said. During the Prawas programme in 200 Assembly constituencies of Bihar, party leaders will seek to make common people aware about the work done by the seven wings of BJP frontal organisations in the country, he said. "This was an important development which was discussed during the two day meeting. Besides, we also discussed about how we respect Dalit, marginalised, and tribal communities in the past and will do in future. The BJP workers also took the oath to host tricolour flags at every house and also respect the freedom fighters of the country under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav programme," Singh said. "We have also decided to publicly listen to Man Ki Baat of PM Narendra Modi at every booth and the party leaders will execute it," he added. --IANS ajk/sks/vd ( 287 Words) 2022-07-31-22:16:06 (IANS)
The 3M plant in Cordova, Illinois, on May 10, 2022. 3M is one of the chief manufacturers of PFAS and has known since 1975 that forever chemicals had been detected in blood banks around the United States, according to industry records uncovered during lawsuits. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Physicians should test millions of Americans for toxic forever chemicals, the nations leading scientific advisory body urges in a new report that reflects growing concerns about unregulated compounds added to clothing, food packaging and household products.

A panel of researchers organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded that pregnant women and other sensitive groups should be screened for breast cancer, unhealthy cholesterol levels and high blood pressure when the amount of forever chemicals in their blood exceeds 2 parts per billion  equivalent to a couple of drops of water in a swimming pool.

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Every American with more than 20 ppb in their blood should be checked for signs of other diseases as well, including thyroid disorders, kidney and testicular cancer and ulcerative colitis, panel members said Thursday in their recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New guidelines for the nations doctors came the same week another group of researchers estimated that exposure to forever chemicals  also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS  could cost the current U.S. population nearly $63 billion in hidden health costs.

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There are more than 9,000 PFAS, of which about 600 are in commerce today, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The chemicals have been widely used for decades in firefighting foam and to make products such as nonstick cookware, stain-repellent carpets, waterproof jackets and fast-food wrappers that repel oil and grease.

Blood tests are recommended for anyone exposed on the job or who has lived in communities with documented sources of PFAS contamination. Others are advised to get tested if they have lived near airports, military bases, sewage treatment plants or farms where sewage sludge may have been used as fertilizer. Living near a landfill or waste incinerator also increases the risk of exposure to forever chemicals, according to the national academies panel.

[ Sewage sludge contaminated with toxic forever chemicals spread on thousands of acres of Chicago-area farmland ]

Based on the latest human and animal research, we feel the closer to 2 (parts per billion) that people are the less likely they are to have adverse health effects, and the closer to 20 (ppb) the more likely, said Ned Calonge, the panels chairman and a physician, epidemiologist and associate professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado.

The CDC determined during the late 2000s that forever chemicals are in the blood of virtually every American. But routine testing is still rare. Most people dont know how much PFAS is coursing through their circulatory system unless they work for chemical manufacturers that routinely monitor employees.

Two of the mostly widely detected forever chemicals  perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)  are so dangerous there is effectively no safe level of exposure in drinking water, the EPA announced in June.

An ongoing Chicago Tribune investigation revealed this month that more than 8 million people in Illinois  6 out of every 10 people in the state  get their drinking water from a utility where at least one forever chemical has been detected. PFOA and PFOS are in the water of nearly every community where testing by the Illinois EPA found the chemicals.

[ Toxic forever chemicals detected at Illinois utilities that serve more than 8 million people ]

The entire U.S. population is likely overexposed to these toxic PFAS, said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization that has advocated for federal regulations since the early 2000s. Clinicians should advise their patients to reduce their exposure to these forever chemicals as much as possible  a difficult feat, since they are ubiquitous.

It almost assuredly will take time and considerable debate before testing people for PFAS becomes commonplace.

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Spokespeople for Northwestern Medicine and University of Chicago Medicine said they were unaware of any physicians in their networks who are testing patients for the chemicals. The Chicago-based American Medical Association did not respond to a request for comment.

During public forums the National Academy of Sciences held across the country last year, several participants said physicians scoffed when asked about PFAS testing.

Clearly they didnt have any information about environmental components (of disease), a Pennsylvania woman said at one of the forums. They made me feel small; they made me feel stupid and embarrassed for even asking the question.

One of the chief manufacturers of PFAS, Minnesota-based 3M, has known since 1975 that forever chemicals had been detected in blood banks around the United States, according to industry records uncovered during lawsuits.

[ The origin of these highly toxic man-made chemicals ]

Regulators and the public were kept in the dark until 1998, when a 3M executive informed the U.S. EPA for the first time that PFAS used to manufacture the companys Scotchgard coatings, and Teflon made by DuPont, build up in human blood, take years to leave the body and dont break down in the environment.

PFOA and PFOS no longer are made in the U.S. In a statement, a 3M spokesman said levels of PFAS found in the environment do not pose risks to humans.

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Based on what researchers are finding, though, the chemicals 3M, DuPont and other manufacturers released into air, water and land for more than 70 years could endanger public health for decades to come. Some of the replacements for PFOA and PFOS are just as dangerous, if not more so, studies have found.

A team of researchers at New York University estimated the costs of PFOA and PFOS exposure by plugging the most scientifically rigorous disease studies into a computer model that calculates the price of medical care and lost wages due to illness.

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

They based the low end of their estimates  $5.5 billion  on the strongest links between exposure and disease. When they added research suggesting other health damages caused by forever chemicals, the projected cost swelled to $62.6 billion.

This is a giant uncontrolled experiment on the public, Leo Trasande, a researcher at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the studys senior author, said about the spread of PFAS worldwide.

Left unanswered by both of the new studies is who pays for testing, treatment and cleanup.

Cincinnati attorney Rob Bilott already has won PFAS legal settlements against DuPont in Ohio and West Virginia. Now he is among a group of trial lawyers suing 3M, DuPont and other manufacturers in an effort to force the companies to pay for medical monitoring of every American exposed to forever chemicals.

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In March, a federal judge limited the case to Ohio residents with a specific amount of the chemicals in their blood, which alone could include up to 11 million people. Chemical companies are appealing the decision.

The public  those of us exposed to these poisons for decades without our knowledge and consent  should not bear the cost of the public health impacts when we already know exactly which companies caused this problem, Bilott said in an email. It is way past time to hold those responsible for the public health disaster they have caused.

mhawthorne@chicagotribune.com
Russia has invited experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to participate in the investigation into the Ukrainian military attack on a pre-trial detention centre near Olenivka in the Donbas region with HIMARS rocket systems which killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday. "In order to conduct an objective investigation of the attack on the pre-trial detention centre in Yelenovka, which led to the death of a large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation has officially invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross," Sputnik reported citing the Russian defence ministry. The Olenivka detention centre, hosting Ukrainian prisoners of war, was shelled by Ukrainian troops with US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) on Friday morning. "40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded. In addition, eight employees of the pre-trial detention centre received injuries of different severity," Sputnik reported citing the ministry on Friday. According to an update from the DPR territorial defence, the death toll from the strike has reached 53, and the number of wounded has surpassed 130. The ministry called the Ukrainian attack a "flagrant provocation" aimed at intimidating Ukrainian soldiers who think about surrendering. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offered its support in the evacuation of the wounded on Friday. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Saturday that the United Nations was ready to conduct an investigation into the Olenivka shelling. DPR head Denis Pushilin said on Friday that the shelling of the detention facility was premeditated and launched because the militants imprisoned there, particularly those from the nationalist Azov battalion, had started to give testimonies implicating the Kyiv regime. Recently, Ukraine shelled an important bridge in Kherson, closing it to traffic, and Ukraine President Zelenskyy promised to rebuild Antonivskyi bridge in the Russian-occupied Kherson region after it was struck by Ukrainian forces with what a Moscow-appointed local administrator said were US-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS). The Antonivskyi bridge is the city of Kherson's sole span across the river and Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-appointed city administration, told Russia's RIA news agency it had been closed to traffic after the attack. The Ukrainian army, emboldened by deliveries of Western-supplied long-range artillery has been clawing back territory in the southern Kherson region in recent weeks just a day after Ukraine and Russia agreed on a grain deal.At least two missiles hit the infrastructure of the port and two were shot down by Ukraine's air defence.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. On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden posted a video to give an update on his health soon after his physician confirmed that he has again tested positive for COVID-19. Biden shared a video on his Twitter handle where he was seen standing next to his dog, Commander. In the video, Biden said, "Hey folks, Joe Biden here. Tested positive this morning. Going to be working from home for the next couple of days." "And I'm feeling fine, everything's good. But Commander and I got a little work to do," US President added. Biden's physician, Kevin O'Connor, said in a letter to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier on Saturday that the president had tested positive for COVID-19 again after testing negative several times since Tuesday. White House Physician noted that it represents "rebound" positivity. "After testing negative on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning, the President tested positive late Saturday morning, by antigen testing," the letter read. Biden's physician said that the rebound in COVID-19 positivity is observed in a small percentage of patients treated with PAXLOVID. However, there is no need to initiate treatment as Biden has experienced no reemergence of symptoms and continues to feel quite well. "As described last week, acknowledging the potential for so-called "rebound" COVID positivity observed in a small percentage of patients treated with PAXLOVID, the President increased his testing cadence, both to protect people around him and to assure early detection of any return of viral replication," White House Physician said. "This in fact represents "rebound" positivity. The President has experienced no reemergence of symptoms and continues to feel quite well. This being the case, there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time, but we will obviously continue close observation," he added. The White House said that the US President will continue to follow the strict isolation procedures, given his antigen test. "However, given his positive antigen test, he will reinitiate strict isolation procedures. As I've stated previously, the President continues to be very specifically conscientious to protect any of the Executive Residence, White House, Secret Service and other staff whose duties require any (albeit socially distanced) proximity to him," the physician said. "As promised, I will keep your office updated with any changes in his condition or treatment plan," he added. Earlier, Biden, 79, tested positive for COVID-19 on July 21 and was under treatment for around a week. He tested negative for the virus on Wednesday and discontinued his strict isolation after he completed his five-day course of PAXLOVID. (ANI)
Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) staged a demonstration outside the Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) City office to protest against the registration of a case against the member of the Provincial Assembly Syed Abdul Rasheed, local media reported. The JI MPA Rasheed along with local leaders and other political activists gathered outside the SSP city office located at Baghdadi Complex, ARY News reported. The spokesperson of the SSP City said that three cases were filed against MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed. The JI protestors said that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) workers were not nominated in the FIR. Meanwhile, the JI Karachi Chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded the Inspector General (IG) of Sindh to take a notice of the registration of a fake FIR against the police officer. He also criticised the SSP for delivering media statements and said that he delivered the statements like a party instead of performing security duty. Rehman further said that JI workers were not afraid of fake cases, reported ARY News. The JI Karachi chief announced organising a city-wide protest if the police failed to register FIR against the attack on JI workers by Monday. He also demanded the withdrawal of the FIR against MPA Abdul Rasheed and other workers. Earlier, on Friday, the Karachi police arrested JI MPA from Lyari, Syed Abdul Rasheed and many others for staging a protest against the dilapidated sewerage system in Lyari Town. In a video message, MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed said that he was kept at the Chakiwara police station. He said that they established protest camps across Lyari to highlight the sewerage issues in the area when Pakistan People's Party (PPP) workers allegedly attacked their camp, according to ARY News. Rasheed said that four JI workers were injured in the attack carried out by PPP workers in Lyari who have been shifted to the hospital. The Sindh Assembly lawmaker said that he was kept in police lock-up and was tortured by the police officer. After the arrest, large numbers of JI workers reached the Chakiwara police station and started protesting against the police action. Meanwhile, JI's Ameer Sirajul Haq strongly condemned the arrest and demanded the authorities immediately release MPA Rasheed. The residents of several areas of Lyari Town have staged protests multiple times against the dilapidated sewerage system and other issues of drinking water, electricity and gas shortage, however, the concerned authorities did not address the issues. (ANI)
As many as 53 people have been killed in the recent flash floods that wreaked havoc across Iran following heavy rainfall. Mehdi Vallipour, head of the Relief and Rescue Organization of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, told the semi-official Fars News Agency that 16 people were still missing and 3000 people have been provided with emergency accommodation, Xinhua reported. Vallipour further said that another 1300 people were transferred to safe places. He further said that the rescue operations are being carried out by 687 rescue teams comprising 3,000 rescuers. Meanwhile, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday ordered the ministers, heads of organizations and governors-general across the country to mobilize all their facilities to manage the possible floods, according to the presidential website. "It is necessary for the governors-general to provide relief to the flooded areas in their provinces or to certain neighbouring provinces with all available facilities," he said as quoted by Xinhua. Last Saturday, Al Jazeera reported that at least 22 people were dead and one went missing in the flash floods in Southern Iran. The officials of the local Red Crescent Society Aid group on Saturday confirmed the deaths and further said that 150 emergency responders along with an aerial unit working at the town of Estahban, 174km (108 miles) east of the provincial capital, Shiraz. Estahban Governor, Yousef Kargar said that the heavy rains on Friday in the county had led to the flooding situation, according to state news agency IRNA. The videos posted on local and social media showed the cars caught in the rising waters and carried away while parents tried to rescue their children from the vehicles. The floods happened on a summer weekend in Iran, when families tend to head to cooler areas such as riversides, lakesides and valleys. According to Al Jazeera, Iran has endured repeated droughts over the past decade, but contrary, the country has also faced floods in the region. This phenomenon is made worse when torrential rain falls on sun-baked earth. Photos released by Iran's Red Crescent showed rescuers walking on cracked dry soil while others worked among reeds. Scientists said that climate change amplifies extreme weather, including droughts as well as the potential for the increased intensity of rain storms. Earlier, in 2019, 76 people were found dead in Southern Iran and causing damage estimated at more than USD 2 billion. In January, two people were initially reported killed in flash flooding in Fars province when heavy rains hit the area, but the toll rose to at least eight there and elsewhere in Iran's south. Demonstrations have occurred against the drying up of rivers, particularly in central and southwestern Iran. (ANI)
Former Nepal minister Janardan Sharma will be re-appointed to his previous post as the Finance Minister on Sunday. "Oath ceremony has been fixed for this evening," Ramesh Malla, Secretary of Maoist Center chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal confirmed to ANI over the phone. Notably, Sharma resigned from his post this month after the parliament formed a probe committee to investigate allegations of tax tweaking on the incumbent fiscal year's annual budget. Pressure mounted over Janardan Sharma since June 13 after a report in the local newspaper (Annapurna Daily) where two outsiders were brought to change some taxes just before the presentation of the budget in parliament on May 29. The House of Representatives, this month, formed an 11-member inquiry committee to probe Sharma. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota proposed the names of 11 members of the parliamentary inquiry committee received from the political parties. The probe committee includes four lawmakers including Khagaraj Adhikari, Pradip Gyawali, Bhanubhakta Dhakal and Bimala BK, as members of the main opposition CPN-UML. Likewise, the committee will have Pushpa Bhusal and Sitaram Mahato from the Nepali Congress, Dev Prasad Gurung and Shakti Bahadur Basnet from the Maoist Center. Sarala Kumari Yadav of Unified Socialist, Surendra Yadav of Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), and Laxman Lal Karna of Loktantrik Samajbadi Party are also included in the committee. The vernacular daily reported that Sharma had instructed four senior Finance Ministry officials to follow the suggestions of two individuals one named Raghunath Ghimire, a retired senior non-gazetted officer and an unnamed chartered accountant--on the night of May 28. The report stated that Sharma ordered to make some last moment changes in taxation which are claimed to be made with a view to benefiting some business groups and harming others. Ghimire who joined the government service as a secretary of a village development committee in Nuwakot in May 1996 was transferred to a tax office in Kathmandu just after eight months of serving as secretary. After serving in several revenue-related offices, he resigned on February 13, 2019, as a senior non-gazetted officer at the Department of Customs. Responding to the allegations that surfaced then Finance Minister Sharma on 14 June's parliamentary meeting denied the involvement of unofficial personnel during budget preparation. But, still, he has to resign from the post on July 6. However, the committee on Friday had given clean cheat to Sharma after it failed to establish and prove the allegations. (ANI)
Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pandey, who is on a visit to Bhutan, called on Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on Sunday and discussed aspects of enhancing the enduring bilateral relationship between the two nations. The Army Chief also received a Guard of Honour at Bhutan's capital Thimphu. "General Manoj Pande #COAS called on His Majesty the King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and discussed aspects of enhancing the enduring bilateral relationship between the two Nations. #COAS also received an impeccable Guard of Honour at #Thimphu," the Indian Army tweeted. A day earlier, Pande paid tribute to the third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, at the National Memorial Chhorten. The Army Chief also interacted with Lieutenant General Batoo Tshering, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Royal Bhutan Army. In a tweet, the Indian Army said, "Gen Manoj Pande Chief of Army Staff paid tribute to the third King of Bhutan, His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuk at National Memorial Chhorten and interacted with Lt Gen Batoo Tshering, COO, Royal Bhutan Army." The visit is to enhance the unique and time-tested bilateral relationship, characterised by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding. "General Manoj Pande #COAS proceeded on a visit to #Bhutan. The visit will further cement the historical bilateral ties and #DefenceCooperation between #India and #Bhutan," the Indian Army had posted earlier. "The Army Chief will also engage in extensive discussions with his counterpart in the Royal Bhutan Army to exchange views on taking forward the strong cultural and professional bonds between both the Armies," an official statement read. According to the statement, the Army Chief will conclude his visit by paying homage at the Druk Wangyal Khang Zhang Chortens at Dochula, which were established in honour of the fallen heroes of the Royal Bhutan Army who made the supreme sacrifice in operations against insurgents. India and Bhutan share a unique and time-tested bilateral relationship, characterised by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding. Compared to other bilateral ties in India's neighbourhood, the relationship with Bhutan is relatively trouble-free and cordial. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were formally established in 1968 with the appointment of a resident representative of India in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu. The India House (Embassy of India in Bhutan) was inaugurated on May 14, 1968, and Resident Representatives were exchanged in 1971. Ambassadorial level relations began with the upgrading of residents to embassies in 1978. The basis for bilateral relations between India and Bhutan is formed by the Indo-Bhutan Treaty of 1949, which provides for, among others, "perpetual peace and friendship, free trade and commerce and equal justice to each other's citizens." This relationship becomes even more important because four Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, and West Bengal - share a 699-kilometre-long boundary with Bhutan. India is important to Bhutan in multiple ways. It is Bhutan's largest trading partner - both as a source and a market for its goods. (ANI)
As Sri Lanka is gripped under a reeling economic crisis, numerous women in the country have changed their professions and turned to prostitution for daily meals. Sri Lanka is battling the worst economic crisis since its independence and this dire situation has resulted in the emergence of makeshift brothels in the country. The women of the textile industries who lost their jobs are now forced to become sex workers to earn a livelihood and support their families which are on the brink of starvation, according to Stand-up Movement Lanka (SUML), a group that works for the rights of sex workers. Sri Lanka is facing an acute shortage of fuel, food and foreign exchange and the people of the island nation are longing for IMF to give it a bailout package. 22 million Sri Lankans are facing enormous hardships and most of them are having a tough time running their households with daily struggles to procure food, fuel and essential items. Due to the unprecedented crisis, there has been an increase of 30 per cent in prostitution in the last few months and some of these establishments operate as spas and wellness centres. Many say this is the only way to provide their families with three meals a day. "Women working in the textile industry are resorting to 'sex work' after being fired due to the economic crisis," Ashila Dandeniya, Executive Director, SUML told ANI. "Due to the current crisis, we have noticed that many women are taking up prostitution. Most of them are from the textile industry. After Covid, the textiles industries were affected and many jobs were cut and now the current situation is forcing them into sex work for their livelihoods," she said. 21-year-old Rehana (name changed) shared her story with ANI about how she turned from an employee of the textile industry to a sex worker. Rehana lost her job seven months ago and after months and months of despair, she took up prostitution. "In December last year, I lost my job in a textile factory. Then, I got another job on a daily basis. Sometimes, when the manpower was less, I used to go and work. But I could not get the money as I did not get it regularly and it was too little to take care of my needs and that of the family. Then, a spa owner approached me and I decided to work as a sex worker due to the current crisis. My mind refused to accept the offer but I was in dire need of money to fend my family," she said while speaking to ANI. 42-year-old Rozy (name changed) is another one of the many who became a sex worker. A mother of a seven-year-old, she was divorced and she had to earn enough to pay for her daughter's education and rent. "Income is insufficient due to the economic crisis. Money is not enough for my family's domestic needs. That's why I chose this. I run a shop and I have to pay to keep it running. Because of this problem many prostitutes are now there," she told ANI. The major reason behind women opting for prostitution in Sri Lanka is that girls and women who used to earn LKR 20,000 to 30,000 a month, get about LKR 15,000-20,000 in a day. However, the practice has led to many problems, said the Executive Director of SUML. "Many sex workers started living with their partners but due to the crisis the partner had to leave many girls. Many of them have become pregnant also at present we have two girls who are pregnant and we need to take care of them and we are not getting help anywhere even from the government," she said. Sri Lanka's economy is bracing for a sharp contraction due to the unavailability of basic inputs for production, an 80 per cent depreciation of the currency since March 2022, coupled with a lack of foreign reserves, and the country's failure to meet its international debt obligations. (ANI)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region after a fight between Russia and Ukraine escalated in the DPR region on Saturday. In a television address late on Saturday, Zelenskyy also said the hundreds of thousands of people in combat zones in the larger Donbas region are at life-threatening risks and needed to leave, Al Jazeera reported. "The more people leave (the) Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation. Logistics and support operations were being handled by the authorities "from A to Z", he said. The governor of Donetsk, in a statement, said six civilians were killed and 15 others were wounded in the attacks on Friday. As the region's natural gas supplies had been destroyed due to the ongoing conflict, the evacuation was subjected to take place before winter, Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying. Ukraine's Donbas region which is one of the most powerful industrial centres in Europe is heavily devasted due to Russian strikes. In a further statement, Zelenskyy said that numerous people were still living in areas of Donbas where fighting was fierce. "Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done," Al Jazeera reported, quoting the president. Donetsk and Luhansk are the two regions that together form Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine where the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists started in 2014. Russian troops have already taken over almost all of the Luhansk region, the head of Luhansk's region military administration Serhiy Hayday said in a telegram post earlier, adding that some 300,000 people from the area have been forced to flee their homes. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US and its European allies introduced sanctions targeting several major Russian banks and high-rank Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, besides ousting Russia from the SWIFT financial system. A number of countries, including Japan, South Korea and Australia, have also slapped financial sanctions and travel bans on Russia. They are mulling new targeted penalties to freeze assets and restrict travel against Russia's most influential political and military officials. On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. (ANI)
The Pakistani currency depreciated by 14.5 per cent against the US dollar, registering its worst month in over 50 years as the country continues to struggle with high import payments, depleting foreign exchange reserves, and political uncertainty. The value of the Pakistani rupee was 204.85 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market at the start of July. Even though fewer trading sessions took place due to the Eid holidays, the currency closed at 239.37 against the US dollar on July 29, Business Recorder reported. Earlier, the Pakistani currency slumped by 57 per cent in May 1972. The government had termed the decision inevitable and its value reduced from PKR 4.77 to PKR 11 per US dollar. Several factors including escalating domestic political tension, low foreign exchange reserves, and speculative behaviour on part of stakeholders have contributed to the freefall of the currency, local media reported. The currency depreciated in 10 out of 17 sessions. The depreciation took place after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced its staff-level agreement with Pakistan authorities on July 14. Success with the IMF could lead to a depreciation break, IGI Securities Head of Research Saad Khan said. "If everything goes as per the plan, pertaining to the IMF, it could push the rupee down to 225-230. However, in the long-term, the rupee would remain lower," Khan said. Despite the agreement, the ongoing political and economic turmoil in the country has raised concerns among investors, it reported. This downfall of Pakistani rupees comes as Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings said they expect Pakistan to secure the USD 1.2 billion bailout from the IMF. Once the deal amount will be secured, it is expected that pressure on the country's currency and forex reserves will ease. "We assume IMF board approval of Pakistan's new staff-level agreement with the lender," Krisjanis Krustins, a Hong Kong-based director at Fitch, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on Wednesday. "This will unlock significant additional financing from the IMF and other multilateral and bilateral sources and may well provide a significant confidence boost to the markets." (ANI)
A contingent of the Royal Army of Oman arrived in India to participate in the 4th edition of joint training exercise Al NAJAH-IV, with a focus on counter-terrorism, regional security and peacekeeping operations, under the UN mandate. Taking to Twitter, the Indian Army said, "The contingent of Royal Army of Oman arrived in India to participate in India-Oman joint training Exercise #ExAlNajah. The Exercise would focus on Counter Terrorism, Regional Security and Peace Keeping operations, under the UN mandate." The 13-long day exercise will take place at the foreign training node of Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan, according to the statement released by Defence Ministry. The joint military exercise aims to enhance the level of defence cooperation between the Indian Army and the Royal Army of Oman and will further manifest in enhancing the bilateral relations between the two nations. According to the statement, the Royal Army of Oman contingent comprised of 60 personnel from the Sultan of Oman Parachute Regiment has reached the exercise location. "The Indian Army is represented by troops from the 18 merchandised infantry battalion. The previous edition of Ex AL NAJAH IV was organised at Muscat from 12 to 25 March 2019," according to the statement. It further stated that the scope of the exercise includes professional interaction, mutual understanding of drills & procedures, the establishment of joint command and control structures and elimination of terrorist threats. "The joint exercise would focus on Counter Terrorism Operations, Regional Security Operations and Peace Keeping Operations under the United Nations charter apart from organising joint physical training schedules, tactical drills, techniques and procedures," the statement reads. According to the statement, comprehensive training will culminate in a 48 hours long validation exercise involving the establishment of joint mobile vehicle check posts, joint cordon and search operations followed by joint room intervention drills in a built-up area has been worked out. (ANI)
Something as simple as drinking tap water is exposing millions of Illinoisans to toxic chemicals that build up in human blood, cause cancer and other diseases and take years to leave the body.

Scientists call the chemicals per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. They are commonly known as forever chemicals because they dont break down in the environment.

Despite plenty of warning signs, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency didnt begin testing the states water utilities for PFAS until August 2020. Then state and local officials downplayed the results, burying notices filled with technical jargon on government websites.

Until now the scope of PFAS problems in Illinois remained unknown. More than 8 million people in the state  6 out of every 10 Illinoisans  get their drinking water from a utility where at least one forever chemical has been detected, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation that included a computerized analysis of test results and a review of court documents, government records and scientific studies.

Part 1: More than 8 million Illinoisans get drinking water from a utility where forever chemicals have been detected, Tribune investigation finds

Tracy Lehr, who has lived at the Criswell Court mobile home park in Joliet for 21 years, said she drinks and cooks with bottled water because the park's well is unreliable. Lehr said she wasn't informed that 2021 testing of the well water found toxic PFAS chemicals at levels up to 1,800 times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest health advisory. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Its disgusting and overwhelming at the same time, said Ellen Meeks Rendulich, co-director of a grassroots environmental group in Will County, where the state found PFAS in a dozen communities, including the Criswell Court mobile home park in Joliet.

Tracy Lehr remembered that state officials came twice last year to test a well on the property. Lehr, who has lived in Criswell Court for 21 years, said she and her neighbors were never warned their water is contaminated with PFAS at levels up to 1,800 times higher than the latest federal health advisory.

Ive never trusted the water here, Lehr said as she pointed to shrink-wrapped packs of bottled water stacked throughout her trailer.

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Part 2: Sewage sludge contaminated with toxic forever chemicals has been spread on thousands of acres of Chicago-area farmland

Sludge from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is dumped and spread on farms field in Will County on June 15, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Farmers on the edges of suburbia are encouraged to spread sludge on their fields by local officials, farm bureaus, university extension agents  even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But despite assurances the practice is safe and legal, sewage sludge is contaminating thousands of acres of northeast Illinois farmland with toxic forever chemicals, a Chicago Tribune investigation has found.

Farmer Ray Dettmering checks on a sprayer outside his home in Peotone on July 22, 2022. Dettmering said he didnt know about toxic forever chemicals prior to a conversation with the Tribune. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

During the past six years, federal records show, more than 615,000 tons of sludge from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has been plowed into 29,000 acres near the nations third largest city. (All of that land combined is roughly the size of west suburban Aurora.)

Only the Greater Los Angeles area distributed more sludge to farmers during the period.

Meanwhile, researchers have concluded there is ample evidence that PFAS end up in crops and livestock.

Researchers and public health advocates are increasingly concerned because some PFAS build up in human blood, take years to leave the body and dont break down in the environment. Others transform over time into more hazardous compounds, increasing the risk that grains, beans, hay and produce grown in sludge-amended soil could be tainted for years to come.

>>> Read the full story here

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Forever chemicals found in drinking water throughout Illinois: Search the database

Water is pumped from the Harrison-Dever water intake crib in Lake Michigan through a tunnel that runs underneath the lake to the James W. Jardine Water Purification Plant. Worrisome concentrations of PFAS have been found in Chicago, which provides treated Lake Michigan water to more than 5 million people in the city and suburbs. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

The Tribune identified 1,654 potential sources of PFAS statewide through a national analysis of industry codes that designate the type of products manufactured or used at a particular factory. Only California, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida have more facilities on the list of suspected polluters.

>>> Read the full story here

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The origin of these highly toxic man-made chemicals

The DuPont Washington Works plant along Ohio River in Parkersburg, West Virginia, is shown in this undated photo. (The Marietta Times/AP)

The chemicals have been added to nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, stain-resistant fabrics and carpets, cosmetics, firefighting foams, food packaging and other products that resist grease, oil and water.

PFAS persist in the environment and accumulate in people, animals and aquatic life. These forever chemicals are in the blood of nearly every American, including newborn babies.

>>> Read the full story here

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Persistent farmer whose cows died from a mysterious disease helped unravel the origin of toxic chemicals

DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. (Maddie McGarvey/for the Washington Post)

If Wilbur Earl Tennants cows hadnt died from a mysterious wasting disease during the 1990s, the world might have never learned about the secret history of toxic forever chemicals.

>>> Read the full story here
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region. However, there has remained a defeaning silence over her possible visit to Taiwan. "Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm America's strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region," Pelosi said. "In Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance. Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe," as per the press release. Amid China's warning to her possible visit to Taiwan, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she never talk about her travel as this poses significant danger, media reports said. This statement by Pelosi comes after Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that there will be serious consequences if US goes ahead with Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Lijian in a press conference had said, "If the US side insists on making the visit and challenges China's red line, it will be met with resolute countermeasures. The US must assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising thereof." Pelosi said that after a fuel stop in Hawaii, there was a briefing from United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) Leadership, as well as a visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and the USS Arizona. "Our Members paid our respects to the valiant Service members who perished in the brutal attack on Pearl Harbor. Throughout our travels, we will continue to convey the endless gratitude of Congress and the Country for our brave U.S. Servicemembers stationed abroad, whose service makes the region and world more stable and safe." US House Speaker Pelosi pointed out, "It is my privilege as Speaker to lead this distinguished group of Members, which includes Chairs of Committees and Subcommittees of jurisdiction and champions of a strong U.S.-Asia Pacific partnership." "We look forward to productive meetings that will continue to inform Congress's work to advance our values and interests and strengthen our partnerships in the region," she added. Among the members of the delegation are Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Gregory Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Mark Takano, Chair of the House Committee on Veterans' AffairsCongresswoman Suzan DelBene, Vice Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and ReformCongressman Andy Kim, Member of the House Armed Services Committee; Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to meet 'face to face' in near future, as decided during the fifth phone call between the two leaders on Thursday, a senior White House administration official said.The phone call comes amid heightened tensions between the geopolitical rivals with Beijing issuing warnings against the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's scheduled visit to Taiwan in August.Addressing a media briefing, House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "The conversation was substantive, it was in-depth, and it was candid.""President Biden has continually emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to ensure that the United States and China manage our differences and work together on areas of shared interest. This call was part of our ongoing efforts to do that," she added."They also discussed the value of meeting face-to-face and agreed to have their teams follow up to find a mutually agreeable time to do so," the statement added.US President noted that US-China cooperation benefits not only the two peoples but also people of all countries.The official further said that it is important for the United States and China to work together on areas where our interests align, even when we have substantial differences or are engaged in competition in a number of different areas."But this is what responsible nations do. They manage areas where they have differences, and they find ways to work together for the good of their own people and for the common good of the people of the world, she added.The official further revealed that during the phone call, the two leaders held a detailed discussion of areas where the two countries can work together, with a particular focus on climate change and health security, as well as counternarcotics.Biden also raised the need to resolve the cases of American citizens who are wrongfully detained or subject to exit bans in China, as well as longstanding concerns about human rights. "The two leaders had an in-depth discussion about Taiwan. President Biden reaffirmed the United States' commitment to our One China Policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances." Jean-Pierre said.Biden underscored to President Xi the United States opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo by either side and commitment to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."He reiterated that the one-China policy of the US has not changed and will not change and that the US does not support "Taiwan independence", Jean-Pierre added.On contrary, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Biden, not to 'play with fire' over Taiwan and asked the US to abide by the One China principle."Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this. The US should honour the one-China principle and implement the three joint communique both in word and in deed."Xi stressed that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China and that China firmly opposes separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence".He said that the US should abide by the one-China principle, which is the political foundation for China-US relations, an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry quoted Xi."China firmly opposes separatist moves toward 'Taiwan independence' and interference by external forces, and never allows any room for 'Taiwan independence' forces in whatever form", Xi said, adding, "the position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent, and resolutely safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people."The phone call between the two leaders comes after their conversation on March 18 and a series of conversations between high-level US and PRC officials.Biden made the call from the Oval Office and in the room were the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan; Secretary of State Blinken; Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer; Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell; and Senior Director Laura Rosenberger.Xi Jinping held the phone conversation with Biden at the request of the latter. This was the second talk since they had a video call in March.Their fifth call since President Biden took office last year came amid heightened tensions among the geopolitical rivals.Pelosi possible visit to Taiwan during the congressional recess in August would make her the highest-ranking American politician since 1997 to visit the island.Even the US President cast doubt on Pelosi's trip to Taiwan. Biden said the US military believes it is not a good idea for Pelosi to travel to Taiwan as planned."The military thinks it's not a good idea right now," Biden said on Wednesday as quoted by the White House press pool. (ANI)
China Evergrande Group, one of the largest property developers in the country by sales has said that it will unveil the restructuring plan within 2022, amid the constantly drowning economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, the troubled property developer had promised to release an initial restructuring plan by the end of July, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sketching out the first contours of a long-awaited restructuring plan, Evergrande Group has stated that creditors could end up with debts directly backed by some of its most valuable assets outside of China. As of June 2021, Evergrande had more than USD 300 billion in debt and other liabilities, such as unpaid bills to suppliers. It defaulted on its dollar bonds in December, after months of liquidity problems, it reported further. On Friday, the group said that the sales of apartments have contracted totaled the equivalent of about USD 1.8 billion in the first half of this year--a roughly 97 per cent year-over-year drop, The Wall Street Journal reported. Citing sources, the media outlet reported that Evergrande is expected to reach an agreement in principle with key creditors before the Chinese Communist Party's 20th Party Congress later this year. China's ailing property market is one of its biggest economic headaches and Chinese authorities have been involved in trying to defuse risks at Evergrande. Ron Thompson, a Hong Kong-based managing director at Alvarez & Marsal as quoted by The Wall Street Journal said that the active role played by the Chinese government in debt restructurings, such as Evergrande's, could weigh on the sum bondholders ultimately recover, relative to the debt's face value. "The reality is when the Chinese government is involved in a big restructuring process like this, I generally trust that the process will be fair, but not necessarily 100 per cent commercial and the visibility of the process might not be as high," said Thompson, who leads the firm's Asia restructuring practice. Evergrande said it would take a relatively long time for its businesses and asset values to recover, due to property market turmoil in parts of China and the sheer size of its balance sheet. Recently, some of Evergrande's largest creditors has demanded further details on the episode, which had prompted the ouster of Evergrande's longstanding chief executive. Overseas bondholders will likely be placed at a lower priority when claiming assets in China, as is the case with many cross-border debt restructurings, said Dennis Kwok, a partner at New York-based Elliott Kwok Levine & Jaroslaw LLP. Kwok, a former Hong Kong lawmaker, is experienced in cross-border bankruptcy proceedings. He said as quoted by The Wall Street Journal: "Overseas bondholders will likely be placed at a lower priority when claiming assets in China, as is the case with many cross-border debt restructurings". In May, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang underlined the importance of implementing policies for stabilising the economy and supporting market entities to bring the situation back to the normal track in an unusually stark warning that comes as COVID curbs have adversely impacted the second-largest economy. Keqiang had painted a grim picture of the job market in the world's most populous nation due to COVID-19 lockdowns. He had called the employment situation "complex and grave." He instructed all levels of government to prioritize measures to boost jobs and maintain stability, CNN reported. (ANI)
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos died from COVID-19 complications on Sunday afternoon at the age of 94. He died at the Makati Medical Center reportedly due to complications of COVID-19, reported The Manila Times. Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles, Press Secretary of Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, confirmed Ramos' death. "It is with great sorrow that we learn (about) the passing of President Fidel V Ramos. He leaves behind a colorful legacy and a secure place in history for his participation in the great changes in our country, both as a military officer and chief executive," she said. "We deeply condole with his family, friends, classmates, and associates and keep him in our prayers," Angeles said. Ramos, the 12th president of the Republic of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, was said to be the driving force behind the renewed investor confidence in the country. It was during his time that the Philippines was recognized as a budding "tiger economy", reported The Manila Times. Ramos was a military man who rose from the ranks to become the chief of the Philippine Constabulary and then Vice Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the time of President Ferdinand E Marcos Sr. He was hailed as a hero during the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution when he broke away from the administration of President Marcos. He then aligned himself with the newly established government of then, President Corazon Aquino. Before becoming president, Ramos served under the administration of Aquino as the chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He then became the Defence Secretary before he ran for the highest position in the land. (ANI)
There is a high probability that the first ship with grain cargo will depart from Ukraine on Monday (August 1), Sputnik News Agency reported quoting Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Sunday. "The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain may depart tomorrow morning," Kalin said. Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that grain exports via the Black Sea will begin in the coming days. "With the beginning of maritime grain transportation in the coming days we will make an important contribution to the upcoming global food crisis," TASS news agency quoting Erdogan reported. Erdogan had also said that Turkey would continue its efforts to solve the Ukrainian crisis diplomatically. "We are resolved to continue diplomatic efforts until peace between Russia and Ukraine is ensured. In the near future, we hope to receive encouraging news at talks and with contacts at all levels, including leaders," the Turkish President said further. Meanwhile, 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. 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. 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)
UK's Prince Charles, the longest-serving heir apparent to the throne in British history, accepted a donation of 1 million pounds (USD 1.21 million) from the family of Osama bin Laden IN 2013. As first reported by The Sunday Times of London, The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund received the donation in 2013 from the brothers Bakr and Shafiq bin Laden, half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda and architect of the September 11 attacks, quoted The New York Times (NYT). Clarence House confirmed that the terrorist's brothers donated money to the royal charity, but denied reports that the prince had personally brokered the deal or made the decision to accept it. "The Prince of Wales' Charitable Fund has assured us that thorough due diligence was undertaken in accepting this donation," read a statement released by Clarence House. "The decision to accept was taken by the charity's trustees alone and any attempt to characterize it otherwise is false," the statement added. News of the payment follows a series of recent royal scandals, including a report in June that Prince Charles had accepted USD 3.1 million in cash donations from a Qatari billionaire between 2011 and 2015, some of which was received personally in a suitcase and shopping bags, reported NYT. The UK paper reported that Prince Charles had brokered the payment after a private meeting with Bakr bin Laden at Clarence House in London on October 30, 2013, two years after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. The paper also reported that the heir to the throne had agreed to accept the donation despite the vocal objections of his own advisers, reported NYT. Some of the prince's aides had warned Charles of the inevitable blowback should it become known that his charity had accepted money from the family of the man who orchestrated the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, including 67 Britons. A royal official, unauthorized to speak publicly, denied that the prince accepted the donation, negotiated the deal or was advised to return the money, reported NYT. Founded in 1979, The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund says that its mission is "to transform lives and build sustainable communities by awarding grants to a wide range of good causes within our core funding themes: heritage and conservation, education, health and well-being, social inclusion, environment and countryside." (ANI)
Uyghurs Rights Activists in Turkey, as part of a global campaign "Stand4Uyghurs" organized a protest to call out against the genocide being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan and chanted slogans against the Chinese policies. The demonstration was led by Abdusselam Teklimakan, head of East Turkestan New Generation Movement under East Turkishtan International NGOs at Sarachance Park, in Fatih, Istanbul, said a campaign press release. Approximately 100 Uyghur activists gathered at the spot and displayed banners and flags of East Turkishtan. Earlier, a worldwide appeal had been made by Uyghur NGOs to hold protests on July 31, 2022 against forced labour, concentration camps, cultural and ethnic cleansing, destruction of mosques and Islamic literature, rape and sterilization taking place in East Turkestan. Halis Ozdemir, a Turkish journalist and supporter of the Uyghur rights and Daniz Ibrahim, a student from South Africa also addressed the gathering. Similar protests are also planned by Uyghur NGOs in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Toronto, Washington DC, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Earlier, on July 26, in a programme on Turkistan TV, Abdusselam Teklimakan had criticized Chinese atrocities, appealed for collective efforts aimed at stopping genocide in East Turkestan and condemned the recent attack by Turkish police on one Mahmut Tohti Amin. Tohti, 81, hailing from Kasgar, was part of a peaceful protest by Uyghur near the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Fatih, Istanbul on July 22 against the genocidal practices being carried out by the Chinese authorities against Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan. In a scuffle of the local police with the protestors Mahmut Tohti Amin was stopped forcefully by the police from carrying the Sky flag of East Turkestan and sustained injuries on his head and fingers. Tohti lamented, "I cannot even hear the voices of my 5 children and 15 grandchildren who have been living in Kasgar since 2016. We went to our President to make our voices heard and to ask him to help us but the police said that the flag of East Turkestan is not allowed...I have been living in Turkiye for 31 years...I am a citizen of the Republic of Turkiye.....I went to ask our President for help, this happened..." The incident was widely condemned on social media, reacting on which by a group of Uyghurs gathered near the Eyup Sultan Mosque on July 24 demanding action against police brutality. Among others, the event was also attended by Ridvan Kaya, President of Turkish NGO Ozgur der. Under the banner "Stop The Genocide Now!" protestors gathered to make China accountable for its crimes against humanity and genocide in East Turkistan, Tibet and other occupied territories joining the Stand4Uyghurs international campaign which is being brought out by 100 plus Muslim organizations. Individuals, activists, academics and respected names of all communities joined the protests around the world with one voice and one stance. This campaign is to demonstrate clear protest against the Chinese genocide. "We are here with our brothers and sisters from different communities with the same aim and belief to make a definite, strong and comprehensive expression of rejection against Chinese genocide and to call on international communities, organizations, countries and every single person to take action to stop this genocide," as per the press release. The contemporary situations of East Turkistan are that East Turkistan people ore suffering from massacres, genocide and other human rights violations for more than 70 years under Chinese autocracy. "More than 3 million are detained in concentration camps for no reason. China is implementing, in name of the war on terrorism and extremism, systematic genocide which is the last form of Chinese occupation policy targeting Uyghur, Kazak, Kyrgyz and other Ethnic groups to eliminate them by mass killing, brainwashing, sinicization, sterilization, family separation, life-long imprisonment, organ harvesting, sexual harassment, forced labour and other countless crimes," it added. Those crimes are evidently genocide according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. "Xinjiang Police Files" have already demonstrated to the world with undeniable details that China is committing the Genocide in occupied East Turkistan. The Uyghur Tribunal which was held in London last year ruled that the Chinese Authority under Xi Jinping Administration is guilty of its Genocide and Crimes against Humanity in East Turkistan. All crimes beforementioned are based on Islamophobia and racism as the ideological roots. Being Muslim, being a Uygur, being a Kazak, or Kyrgyz, all of this is a guilty excuse for China to kill. (ANI)
In wake of surging extremist violence in Pakistan, the Shahbaz Sharif-led country's government has launched several operations to tackle it, among which the failed peace talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to the Pakistan government, the terrorists target security forces, state institutions, and civilians in the country. The Interior Ministry said that there have been 434 terrorist attacks in Pakistan within the last six months, The Nation reported. This comes in the backdrop of the peace talks with the TTP which has refused to budge from its hardline stance. 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 the 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. A high-level military huddle in Pakistan has discussed "peace talks" with the banned 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 July 22. The Nation News said that the details of the report presented in the Upper House of parliament stated that the highest number of 247 terrorist attacks were recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by 171 in Balochistan, 12 in Sindh and one in Punjab province. The impact of such terrorist activities has disproportionately affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and a stalemate in peace talks, The Nation reported. Recently, at least six terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire in the district of Kech, as per Pakistani media. The Ulema delegation was unable to convince the TTP to halt attacks and hold peace talks as both sides were skeptical of one another. (ANI)
Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pandey, who is on a visit to Bhutan, called on the fourth King of the country Jigme Singye Wangchuk on Sunday and discussed aspects of mutual interest. Earlier in the day, General Pandey called on Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and discussed aspects of enhancing the enduring bilateral relationship between the two nations. The Army Chief also received a Guard of Honour at Bhutan's capital Thimphu. "General Manoj Pande #COAS called on His Majesty the King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and discussed aspects of enhancing the enduring bilateral relationship between the two Nations. #COAS also received an impeccable Guard of Honour at #Thimphu," the Indian Army tweeted.A day earlier, Pande paid tribute to the third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, at the National Memorial Chhorten.The Army Chief also interacted with Lieutenant General Batoo Tshering, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Royal Bhutan Army.In a tweet, the Indian Army said, "Gen Manoj Pande Chief of Army Staff paid tribute to the third King of Bhutan, His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuk at National Memorial Chhorten and interacted with Lt Gen Batoo Tshering, COO, Royal Bhutan Army." The visit is to enhance the unique and time-tested bilateral relationship, characterised by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding."General Manoj Pande #COAS proceeded on a visit to #Bhutan. The visit will further cement the historical bilateral ties and #DefenceCooperation between #India and #Bhutan," the Indian Army had posted earlier."The Army Chief will also engage in extensive discussions with his counterpart in the Royal Bhutan Army to exchange views on taking forward the strong cultural and professional bonds between both the Armies," an official statement read. According to the statement, the Army Chief will conclude his visit by paying homage at the Druk Wangyal Khang Zhang Chortens at Dochula, which were established in honour of the fallen heroes of the Royal Bhutan Army who made the supreme sacrifice in operations against insurgents. India and Bhutan share a unique and time-tested bilateral relationship, characterised by utmost trust, goodwill and mutual understanding. Compared to other bilateral ties in India's neighbourhood, the relationship with Bhutan is relatively trouble-free and cordial.Diplomatic relations between the two countries were formally established in 1968 with the appointment of a resident representative of India in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu. The India House (Embassy of India in Bhutan) was inaugurated on May 14, 1968, and Resident Representatives were exchanged in 1971. Ambassadorial level relations began with the upgrading of residents to embassies in 1978. The basis for bilateral relations between India and Bhutan is formed by the Indo-Bhutan Treaty of 1949, which provides for, among others, "perpetual peace and friendship, free trade and commerce and equal justice to each other's citizens."This relationship becomes even more important because four Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, and West Bengal - share a 699-kilometre-long boundary with Bhutan. India is important to Bhutan in multiple ways. It is Bhutan's largest trading partner - both as a source and a market for its goods. (ANI)
Pakistan's Punjab Assembly on Sunday passed a resolution against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, and demanded his resignation as chief of the country's poll body. This comes after the PTI's reservations against the CEC's over the election process, The News International reported. PTI's Member Provincial Assembly Syed Abbas Ali Shah presented the resolution during a session. Following the proceedings on Sunday, the Punjab Assembly's session has been deferred until 1 pm (local time) on August 15, The News International reported. Notably, the PTI leadership held a high-level meeting on Saturday during which they decided to file a judicial reference against the Chief Election Commissioner. PTI Chief Imran Khan directed the party's legal experts to prepare a reference against him. The decision came after the party's repeated demands calling for CEC's resignation. Expressing concerns over the meeting between members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and a government delegation the PTI leadership said, "CEC Sikandar Raja Sultan violated the ECP's code of conduct," In addition to filing a judicial reference, the meeting also decided to bring no-confidence motion against the election commission in two provincial assemblies - Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. To intensify its protest against the alleged collusion between Election Commission and the PTI chairman, the PTI Chairman has directed the legal experts to start proceedings. Earlier on Saturday, former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry confirmed the same while addressing the media. He said that the PTI was mulling over bringing a reference against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja against meeting leaders from the ruling coalition. He said that leaders of the ruling coalition met CEC and discussed the prohibited funding case which is against the judges' code of conduct which also applies to Sikandar Sultan. The former Pakistani minister added that CEC and members of the ECP violated their code of conduct of the judiciary. "How members of the ECP could meet people who are party to a case," he said. (ANI)
Former Pakistan interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Sunday said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who decided to oust former premier Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence, is now considering the option of leaving the government, the media reported. "The decision on the no-confidence motion was made in London. The same Nawaz Sharif is now talking about leaving the government," Rasheed tweeted, once again turning his guns to the PML-N leadership, Geo News reported. He said that the country is in an "economic jam" and the people cannot pay bills of electricity and gas alongside a fixed tax. The politician went on to say that the coalition government "just keeps holding ineffective press conferences" while Imran Khan has "taken over" after a brief campaign. "The government is at zero, while he (Imran Khan) has become a hero," said Rasheed, a close aide of the former Prime Minister, Geo News reported. In a separate tweet, Rasheed further stated that "neither China, Dubai, Qatar nor Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan this time", nor has the country secured funds under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme. "China has extreme reservations regarding the US conditions for the aid, while (Pakistan is left with) reserves enough for only 45 days instead of 90 days," the Awami Muslim League leader wrote, Geo News reported. Rasheed then criticised JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying that he and outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) "have the same stance" on the integration of former Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. --IANS san/pgh ( 270 Words) 2022-07-31-19:52:02 (IANS)
Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez, right, talks on the House floor in Springfield on Jan. 29, 2020. She was elected as state Democratic chair. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

SPRINGFIELD -  State Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez was unanimously elected to lead the state Democratic Party on Saturday, a day after U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly dropped her bid for a full four-year term.

The vote by the Illinois Democratic State Central Committee at a plumbers union hall in Springfield took place quickly, but followed weeks of intense lobbying of the 34-member panel by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who backed Hernandez, and by allies of Kelly.

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With Hernandezs election as the partys first Latina chair, the first-term governor gained control of the state party apparatus after being rebuffed a year earlier when Kelly was elected over his preferred candidate.

Hernandez is a woman of integrity who cares deeply about fighting for working families, promoting diversity and inclusion, and helping all Illinoisans prosper, Pritzker said in a statement of his backing for the 15-year lawmaker from Cicero.

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I know she will maintain our party unity, and I am confident in her ability to work with the State Central Committee to elect Democrats at every level of governmentboth in this midterm election and beyond, the governor said.

Hernandez and her supporters sought to echo a theme of unity despite a hotly contested campaign that exposed racial divisions in the party before an important November election.

Democrats control all statewide offices and the state Supreme Court, hold supermajorities in the state House and Senate, and have a majority of the states U.S. House seats and both of its U.S. Senate seats.

The infighting over the leadership post came as Illinois Democrats seek a higher national profile, pushing Chicago as a host city for the 2024 Democratic national presidential nominating convention and trying to make Illinois one of the first five states in the partys 2024 primary calendar.

While the challenge to Kelly was motivated by her limited fundraising ability as a federal officeholder, race and ethnicity quickly came to play a role in the campaign.

Kelly, a five-term congresswoman from Matteson, was prohibited from raising money for state candidates  the bulk of the partys activity  because as a member of Congress she is subject to federal campaign finance laws that are more restrictive than state law on how much money can be contributed and what entities are allowed to donate.

Hernandezs election was assured Friday when four Latino committee members led by U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia announced their support for her over Kelly, who was elected in March of last year and became the state partys first Black chair.

The decision by the vote-rich Latino bloc led to Kellys withdrawal from the race on Friday. In her election a year ago to fill out the unexpired term of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, who resigned amid scandal, Kelly was supported by Garcia and state Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin over Pritzkers unsuccessful choice, Chicago Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th.

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Castro said one of the factors she considered in Saturdays election was the growth of the Latino community in Illinois, which led Democrats to create a second congressional seat with a large Latino population.

In the end, we chose the best candidate who we thought will move us forward as a state and obviously bring everyone together and unite everyone, as well as put in the resources that are necessary to get Democrats elected up and down the ticket, Castro said.

Pritzkers decision to back Hernandez revealed some animosity toward the reelection seeking governor from Black Democratic lawmakers.

You know, its all about working together but the walk into this wasnt about working together, unfortunately. But now that were here, weve got to figure out how to move forward, said state Rep. Will Davis of Homewood, a member of the committee and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus.

Davis noted there are concerns that Pritzker has not moved forward on some budgetary spending items that were pushed by the Legislative Black Caucus, and said Regardless of whatever happened here, I hope the governor is still committed to making sure that Black communities are taken care of.

Retired state Rep. Al Riley of Olympia Fields, who supported Kelly a year ago but was not on the committee this year, issued a Tweet referencing Kellys work to diversify party leadership after decades of Madigans one-man rule.

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The more some people claim to want change, the more they really want things to stay the same. Nonetheless, character still matters. Thank you, Robin, Riley wrote.

The battle for party leadership did not break completely along racial lines, with Hernandez getting support from the states first Black House Speaker, Emanuel Chris Welch of Hillside. Hernandez is a member of Welchs leadership team.

Former state Sen. John Cullerton of Chicago, a committee member who had expressed concerns about Kellys fundraising limitations a year ago, sought to downplay racial infighting within the party.

I think this was very harmonious today and I also have to tell you that these reports about racism are almost comical, said Cullerton, who backed Hernandez. It wasnt about race. It wasnt about personality. It came down to this law that says you cant raise any (state) money.

Hernandez and Kelly declined to answer questions from reporters, but each offered statements to the state central committee.

Hernandez said she planned to meet with the committee members and other party leaders to ensure your vision for our party is incorporated into the apparatus we will build to hold Republicans accountable and win in November.

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I vow to continue listening to voices of Democrats across the state and will focus on building a party as diverse as Illinois, she said.

Kelly won kudos nationally from Democratic National Committee members for modernizing Illinois organization and involving it in national affairs after decades when Madigan used the state party as an appendage to his fundraising activities for House Democrats who would support him as speaker.

She was approved for an open seat to continue serving on the DNC.

This past week has been a challenging one. Honestly, the past 16 months has been challenging in many ways. I know my vision for a new kind of DPI was shared by so many and obviously Im disappointed that I wasnt able to continue building this party, said Kelly, who retains her spot on the state central committee. But now its time to look forward.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

rap30@aol.com
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday said that it is ready to deploy specialists to the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) town of Olenivka in the Donbas region where 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed after the Ukrainian military attacked a pre-trial detention centre with HIMARS rocket systems on Friday. ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson said that the matter is being discussed with the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sputnik reported. "We are ready to deploy to Olenivka. We already have medical, forensic, and humanitarian teams working in the vicinity since we have been present in Donetsk since 2014. It is imperative that the ICRC be granted immediate access to the Olenivka facility, and other places where the wounded and dead might have been transferred in order to carry out its humanitarian mission," Ewan Watson said. "As of yet, we have received no official confirmation granting us access to visit the site or the PoWs affected by the attack, and, to date, our offer of material assistance has not been yet responded to. Though we are in contact with the Russian Ministry of Defense on the matter," Watson added. Russia on Saturday invited the experts of the United Nations and Red Cross to participate in the investigation into the Ukrainian military attack on a pre-trial detention centre near Olenivka in the Donbas region with HIMARS rocket systems which killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war. "In order to conduct an objective investigation of the attack on the pre-trial detention centre in Yelenovka, which led to the death of a large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation has officially invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross," Sputnik reported citing the Russian defence ministry. The Olenivka detention centre, hosting Ukrainian prisoners of war, was shelled by Ukrainian troops with US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) on Friday morning. According to DPR territorial defence 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and over 130 were wounded. In addition, eight employees of the pre-trial detention centre received injuries of different severity. The ministry called the Ukrainian attack a "flagrant provocation" aimed at intimidating Ukrainian soldiers who think about surrendering. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offered its support in the evacuation of the wounded on Friday. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Saturday that the United Nations was ready to conduct an investigation into the Olenivka shelling. (ANI)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed dismay over an incident that took place on Sunday morning when UN peacekeepers opened fire and killed two people on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. "Antonio Guterres is outraged by a serious incident that took place this morning in Kasindi, on the border of DR Congo and Uganda, in which @MONUSCO military personnel opened fire while returning to the DRC from leave in their home country," UN Spokesperson to the Secretary-General tweeted. The UN force, MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire "for unexplained reasons," and said that the arrests had been made. The head of the MONUSCO, Bitou Keita expressed dismay over the incident and confirmed, "The perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested after the findings of the investigation." Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Farhan Haq said, "The Secretary-General is both saddened and dismayed by the loss of life and serious injuries sustained during this incident." "He expresses his deepest condolences to the affected families, the people of the DRC and the Congolese government, and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured," the statement added. The Secretary-General stressed in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events. "He welcomes the decision of his special representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to detain the MONUSCO personnel involved in the incident and to immediately open an investigation," the statement added. As per a UN News report, military personnel of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) opened fire in Kasindi, North Kivu province while returning from leave in their home country. A video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing toward the U.N. convoy stopped behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid. News reports said that the UN peacekeepers killed two people and injured several others. "During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through," the U.N. mission in Kasindi said in a statement earlier Sunday. "This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries," it said. Soon after the incident on Sunday, the government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement that the Democratic Republic of Congo "strongly condemns and deplores this unfortunate incident in which two compatriots died and 15 others were injured according to a provisional roll." The government said it launched an investigation with MONUSCO to establish who was responsible, and why the shooting took place and would ensure "severe penalties" are given. Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor's representative in Kasindi, earlier said that "eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured" in the incident. (ANI)
(Adds detail from Russia's new naval doctrine. This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.)

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 31 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russia's main rival and set out Russia's global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.

Speaking on Russia's Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg founded by Tsar Peter the Great, Putin praised Peter for making Russia a great sea power and increasing the global standing of the Russian state.

After inspecting the navy, Putin made a short speech in which he promised that what he touted as Russia's unique Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, cautioning that Russia had the military clout to defeat any potential aggressors.

Shortly before the speech, he signed a new 55-page naval doctrine, which sets out the broad strategic aims of Russia's navy, including its ambitions as a "great maritime power" which extend over the entire world.

The main threat to Russia, the doctrine says, is "the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans" and the movement of the NATO military alliance closer towards Russia's borders.

Russia may use its military force appropriately to the situation in the world's oceans should other soft powers, such as diplomatic and economic tools, be exhausted, the doctrine says, acknowledging that Russia does not have enough navy bases globally.

Russia's priority was to develop strategic and naval cooperation with India as well as wider cooperation with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other states in the region, according to the doctrine.

"Guided by this doctrine, the Russian Federation will firmly and resolutely defend its national interests in the world's oceans, and having sufficient maritime power will guarantee their security and protection," the document said.

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Putin's speech did not mention the conflict in Ukraine, but the military doctrine envisages a "comprehensive strengthening of Russia's geopolitical position" in the Black and Azov seas.

Relations between Russia and the West have undergone deepening strain during the five months of the Ukraine conflict.

The doctrine also sets out the Arctic Ocean, which the United States has repeatedly said Russia is trying to militarise, as an area of particular importance for Russia.

Russia's vast 37,650 km (23,400 mile) coastline, which stretches from the Sea of Japan to the White Sea, also includes the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Putin said the delivery of Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles to the Admiral Gorshkov frigate would begin within months. The location of their deployment would depend on Russian interests, he said.

"The key thing here is the capability of the Russian navy... It is able to respond with lightning speed to all who decides to infringe on our sovereignty and freedom."

Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound, and Russia has conducted previous test-launches of the Zircon from warships and submarines over the past year.

In Crimea, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said Ukrainian forces struck the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Russian-held port city early on Sunday, wounding five members of staff. (Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, William Maclean)
KREW currently has 10 million YouTube subscribers across two channels. KREW

The La siblings, from Alberta, Canada, grew up helping their parents run a Vietnamese restaurant.

They began making YouTube videos playing Minecraft as a hobby when they got home after work.

Now they have 9 million subscribers and have been able to help their parents retire.

Before they became YouTube stars, Betty, Kim, Kat, Wenny, and Allen La spent much of their childhood helping their parents run the family's Vietnamese restaurant in Alberta, Canada.

The siblings, who ranged in age from around 13 to 18 when they began their YouTube journey, remember rushing to get get the bus back from school so they could start their shifts, with the older siblings helping grill food and bus tables while the youngest mainly ran around and shyly peeked at customers who were enjoying their meals.

Now all in their 20s, the Las told Insider the family struggled a lot in those early years, running several "failing" businesses one at a time to support themselves.

(From left to right): Allen, Kim, Kat, Betty, and Wenny. KREW

"It was stressful to juggle between school and work, especially when we didn't have enough money to pay the bills," said Wenny, 25, the second-youngest.

But everything changed after middle child Kat discovered YouTube and gradually introduced the others to her hobby. Now, they are the owners of the hugely successful gaming channel KREW which has grown to a loyal fanbase of 9 million subscribers, and have made enough money that their parents were able to retire.

Playing video games together became an escape that inspired the siblings to venture into content creation

When they were younger, the Las said they would use their tip money from the restaurant and pool their allowances to buy video games, which they played together as an "escape from reality."

A family picture taken during Allen's second birthday. KREW

The kids would stay up for hours playing games like "Mario Bros.," "Smash Bros," and the racing game "Kirby Air Ride.

Middle child Kat, the third-oldest La sibling, was particularly interested in cameras and filming, and in 2011 decided to launch a YouTube channel as her new hobby.

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"I didn't think much of it. The first video I uploaded was a 'Call of Duty Black Ops II' video, and it had no commentary whatsoever, because growing up, I was pretty shy and timid and didn't want to include my voice," Kat said.

Eventually, she asked her siblings to take part in her videos so they would be able to share the hobby together.

They became popular in the Minecraft community and changed their moniker to KREW

Within two years of Kat starting her channel, the siblings started to play more Minecraft, a popular game that involves building structures in a 3D virtual world, and Kat began writing comedic scripts that she thought the family could act out during their gaming videos.

"We thought if no one watches it then that's fine, but it would just be nice to have our little characters out there," the second-oldest sibling Kim, 28, told Insider. But a few weeks after they began posting as KREW, said Kim, "we noticed we were getting some traction. More people started to watch as we posted more videos, and eventually, we got comments asking us to keep doing them."

The siblings grew up playing video games together in between helping customers at their parent's restaurant. KREW

The siblings created a niche by asking commenters to tell them what to build so they could try to construct it together in their next video.

"I think people really appreciate watching our different personalities when we play together in videos. I guess we're really good at vibing with each other," Kat said.

Initially, the Las continued to work at their family business, which by this point was a bubble tea shop after their parents sold the restaurant, taking breaks during filming to serve customers at the store.

But, said Kat, "when our channel started taking off we realized that YouTube could be turned into a career. We were making way more money than what the bubble tea shop could make. We had money to pay our bills, rent, and groceries."

The siblings are now full-time YouTubers, and are able to financially support their parents. "They did a lot for us so we're pretty much just paying it back," Kim said.

The siblings' parents, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, told Insider they did struggle financially when they owned multiple businesses between 2008 and 2017, but are now retired and supported by their children.

"The reason we wanted to become business owners is because we thought it would be good for our children in the future," the Las' father said, adding, "We had no idea our kids' hobby would turn into their full-time jobs."

Looking back at their journey, the siblings still can't believe how much they've achieved

The Las continue to post gaming videos on Kat's YouTube channel, which has amassed 9 million subscribers, and to their official KREW channel, which has 1 million subscribers. They've also diversified their brand with a merchandise line and mobile app.

Oldest sibling Betty, 29, said that going through old family photos makes her reflect on how far her family has come. She recalled being 12 years old and feeling so on top of her responsibilities that she felt like the "manager" at the restaurant. Now she is the acting manager of the KREW YouTube channel, responding to emails and organizing business deals on behalf of her siblings.

"I wish I could go back and tell 12-year-old me how crazy her life would be," she said.

The siblings spend around eight to 10 hours on each video between filming and editing, and they said they enjoy being able to work together, even though there are sometimes small disputes that come with it.

The Las at Vidcon 2022. Warren James

"All siblings get into arguments. We've always been working together, even back in the restaurant, and we also argued then, so it's not so big a deal," said youngest sibling Allen, 24.

In June, they attended VidCon, a convention where they were able to meet and interact with their fans, which also stirred feelings of disbelief at their own success.

"We kind of feel speechless most of the time. We didn't think we'd end up here," said Kim.

"Most of us honestly thought we would just have normal jobs or continue with upkeeping our parents' business. None of us thought we would be here today, but we are really proud," she added.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
Gold medalist Alex Yee, Sophie Coldwell, Samuel Dickinson and Georgia Taylor-Brown of Team England (Getty Images)

Triathlons arent meant to be a walk in the park but England still strolled, almost leisurely, to Commonwealth Games team gold in the sunshine.

With mens champion Alex Yee and womens silver medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown in the line-up, this was the host teams race to lose and along with Sophie Coldwell and Sam Dickinson they were faultless from gun to tape for a 46 second victory.

No controversies here, just a slight post-race disagreement between Yee and girlfriend Olivia Matthias, who won silver for Wales. She believed that medal meant they could get a dog, Yee wasnt quite so sure.

We never shook on that, perhaps after Paris, he joked.

Birminghams leafy Sutton Park has not seen scenes like this since the World Scout Jamboree of 1957. Fans were several deep, their roar rolling around the undulating course as England took the lead and turned the screw on rivals.

(Getty Images)

Its never straightforward, so many things can go wrong and little mistakes can cost you decisive penalties, insisted Yee.

So much can happen in an hour of triathlon racing. We just wanted to keep things as clean as possible and stay positive through the race.

I just wanted to give the guys as much of a lead as I could and I knew we were in good hands after that.

The crowds were insane and they gave us a great push. Running down that hill with all the people screaming and the helicopter above us, it felt like I was in the Tour de France. It was really cool.

Weve just moved home and Liv and I can put our medals together in pride of place.

What about a dog? Not yet, he added.

Yees showdown with New Zealands Hayden Wilde went to the wire in the mens race on Friday, with talks of protests and legal letters.

However, he dominated him here, handing over to team-mate Coldwell with a massive 20-second gap.

She extended that by seven seconds as Wales, Scotland and New Zealand gave chase to Sam Dickinson on the third leg.

The lead was trimmed to 16 seconds when Taylor-Brown, the silver medallist in the womens event, took over. Determined to save every second, she decided not to race in her wetsuit, saving critical seconds in the bike transition. In truth, she could have raced in her pyjamas and still been too strong for rivals.

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Former world champion Non Stanford, one of triathlons most popular characters in what is set to be the final year of her career, held off Australia to take the silver for a jubilant Wales team in a sprint finish.

The team set me up perfectly for that final leg, said Taylor-Brown.

Ive enjoyed doing that final leg because everyone in front of me are so strong, they do all the hard work. Its a lot of pressure after theyve done everything right. I tried to enjoy it and I was smiling the whole way around.

I put my head down on the bike because my running hasnt been great, especially on Friday. I was taking all the noise in on the run, once I got over the hill, I knew wed got it, so I smiled my way to the finish line.

Gold medalist Guide Jessica Fullagar and Katie Crowhurst of Team England (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, England also struck double gold in the para triathlon races as Dave Ellis and Katie Crowhurst produced equally commanding wins.

One year ago Ellis was left in tears at the Paralympics where he arrived as red-hot favourite but saw his bike chain snap and his medal chances evaporate.

In contrast, 18-year-old Crowhurst - who only took up the sport as a lockdown project - hadnt even completed a race.

National Lottery players raise more than 30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport  from grassroots to elite. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at:www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes.
BRAINTREE  Like the uncle he is named for, Seth Bishop Anderson is a homicide victim.

Anderson, 20, died April 19 at a Huntsville, Alabama, hospital where he was brought with a gunshot wound. Vincent Harmon, 18, was charged with reckless murder in what police describe only as "a shooting incident."

Seth Bishop Anderson is the son of Braintree's Amy Bishop.

"The victim was shot during an action where Harmon was aware his actions could cause significant risk or bodily harm to another individual," Huntsville police said in a news release.

No further details were released.

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Anderson is the son of Amy Bishop, who is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after shooting six people, killing three, on Feb. 12, 2010, during a department meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Bishop, who grew up in Braintree, was an assistant biology professor at the school who had been denied tenure and about to lose her job.

Amy Bishop and her family lived at 46 Hollis Avenue in Braintree, off Washington Street, when the shooting of her brother occurred in 1986.

The Alabama shooting renewed attention of the shooting death of Bishop's 18-year-old brother, Seth, on Dec. 6, 1986, in their family home in Braintree. Police initially ruled the shooting was an accident, but a reopened investigation led a Norfolk County grand jury to return an indictment charging Amy Bishop with first-degree murder in her brother's death four months after the Alabama shooting.

Bishop has never been tried on the Massachusetts charge. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in 2012 his office will not seek Bishop's return.

"The penalty we would seek for a first-degree murder conviction is already in place," he said.

Shooting suspect Amy Bishop is third from left in this photo of members of the Braintree High School orchestra from the 1983 yearbook.

Left unanswered are questions lingering around the first investigation, which did not result in criminal charges against Bishop.

In this February 2010 file photo, Amy Bishop is detained by Huntsville, Ala., police on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus in Huntsville. A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, officials said.

"Jobs were not done. Responsibilities were not met. Justice was not served," said then-Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating, now a U.S. congressman. "We have evidence that there was a murder."

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Amy Bishop, of Braintree, has been serving a life sentence without parole in Alabama for the 2010 murder of three university colleagues and attempted murder of three others.

Amy Bishop pleaded guilty to the Alabama murder charges, avoiding a trial and a possible death penalty. Now 56 years old, she lives at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Alabama.

Seth Bishop Anderson was one of four children of Bishop and Jimmy Anderson. His obituary in the Huntsville Times said, "He will be remembered as a goofy, adventurous kid that loved taking hikes, watching old movies and borrowing books from his older sisters."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Braintree native Amy Bishop's son Seth shot to death in Alabama
Angela Klopf

I bet if I asked most people What does Habitat for Humanity do? theyd say, builds homes. Yet, Habitat does so much more than just build homes. We are building affordable homes for families who otherwise would not be able to own a home. Its more than that though. Habitat helps build stronger families, and stronger families make a stronger community.

Habitat for Humanity of Bay County recently closed on its 98th home. It was a home for a single mother who never told her children about what she was working toward. She knew she wanted to provide a stable home for her children. A home where they could create memories, set goals for their own future, and have a better chance to succeed. A home where her children could attend the same school each year instead of moving from one rental property to another and from one school to a new school each year.

Rising prices: Bay County housing prices have spiked as much as 30% in two years. How high could they rise in 2022?

Helping out: Bay real estate group teams with Habitat for Humanity to build home for local woman

Habitat is currently building homes 99 through 101. Soon, they too, will house families that can begin family traditions like backyard picnics, holidays, birthday celebrations, and family photographs next to the growing oak tree each year. Some of those simple things that many are blessed with that arent a reality for way too many families.

Individuals and families who partner with Habitat arent just provided with a new home. They are given tools and learning new skills through required classes like financial counseling. They are required to put in 500 hours of sweat equity and most of those hours are spent helping to build their home. Our partner families are given the opportunity to build relationships with community volunteers helping on build sites. This helps them to gain a strong sense of community. They also have a mortgage payment, but its affordable! They never pay more than 30% of their income with 0% interest. Plus, they are happy to pay their mortgage knowing that its being put toward building more affordable homes.

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While the foundation of a good home begins with love, we all need and deserve a safe, secure, and stable home life. Affordable housing provides that along with a greater sense of belonging. Its hard to feel a part of a community when youre regularly needing to move and lack the feeling of being safe and secure. You cant truly plant your roots anywhere and grow, like you can with the foundation of a home.

Partner families celebrate while helping frame a Habitat for Humanity home recently.

No one needs to look very far to see how much rent rates have increased. Some estimates have projected that individuals and families are paying as much as 60% to 80% of their income on rent. Add other day-to-day expenses like food, clothing, gas, and health care and its easy to see how some families greatly benefit from the work that Habitat for Humanity is doing.

To accomplish our mission, Habitat relies strongly on volunteers. This includes help on build sites, our board of directors, help in the ReStores, and several volunteers committees. The committees work to guide the construction projects, family selection process, managing The Restores (two), and procuring land on which to build homes. Volunteers are the heart of Habitat for Humanity and without them our work wouldnt be possible.

Over the years, Habitat homes also have been sponsored by many local businesses. Most recently this has included Central Panhandle Association of Realtors, Panama City Toyota, Panhandle Credit Union, St. Joe Hospitality, Bill Cramer Chevrolet, Wells Fargo, and Publix! Often these businesses also spend time volunteering in the homes they sponsor. Sometimes instead of a sponsorship its businesses donating materials for our homes or ReStores that helps us tremendously. Businesses like Lowes, Mid-South Lumber Co., Trane, Wyndham, PetSmart, Hanks Furniture, Panama City Beach and Panama City Walmart, Panama City Police Department, System Service & Engineering, and others regularly give us product and materials to support our work. Some is used for our build sites, and some is sold in our ReStores.

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Contributing to the cost reduction for building affordable homes, and a substantial portion of money raised by Habitat is generated by our two ReStores. This is another way that Habitat for Humanity serves our community, offering affordable merchandise for those in need. Although anyone loves a great deal, many shop our ReStores to find treasures and do DIY projects. The ReStores offer quality items that come to us as donations mainly from individuals, but we also get some items from businesses, building suppliers, and contractors.

The ReStore at 1636 Beck Ave. sells a variety of household goods, along with clothing and some furniture. This location was purchased and renovated after Hurricane Michael destroyed the location on 15th Street. The complex was recently painted the signature Habitat colors of blue and green by a volunteer church youth group from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ReStore at 1515 E. 11th St. has four buildings. This location sells more building supplies, but also offers gently used furniture and appliances. Household goods from the kitchen sink to the bathroom towel bars can be found here.

Habitat for Humanity of Bay County began in 1990. Habitat quickly became a recognized community asset and has been for more than 30 years. Today, our agency continues to play a vital role in safe, secure, and affordable housing. Surpassing our 100th home by the end of this year is a milestone that has been made possible only with the support of the entire Bay County community through volunteerism, monetary donations, in-kind materials and services, shopping at our ReStores, and sharing of talents. The list of supporters is too large to write out, but you know who you are! Its this entire community that makes it possible for Habitat to bring people together to build homes, community, and hope. We look forward to building 100 more homes for families that never thought the American dream was possible for them. We also look forward to the continued support and the new friends we will make along the way!

Angela Klopf is the executive director at Habitat for Humanity of Bay County. Shes a resident of Lynn Haven and also is active with the Rotary Club of Lynn Haven and Panhandle Runners & Triathletes Club.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Klopf: Bay Habitat builds community as it builds 100th home | Guestview
Sections of the Parthenon Marbles at the British Museum (Matthew Fearn/PA) (PA Archive)

The deputy director of the British Museum has called for a Parthenon partnership with Greece, which could see the contentious Elgin Marbles return to Athens after more than 200 years.

The sculptures  17 figures and part of a frieze that decorated the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis  were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and have since been the subject of a long-running dispute over where they should be displayed.

In an interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine, deputy director Jonathan Williams said the British Museum wants to change the temperature of the debate around the marble works of art.

(PA Archive)

Mr Williams said: What we are calling for is an active Parthenon partnership with our friends and colleagues in Greece.

I firmly believe there is space for a really dynamic and positive conversation within which new ways of working together can be found.

The British Museum has not said it will hand the sculptures back, with Mr Williams arguing they are an absolutely integral part of the collection.

However, he said they want to change the temperature of the debate, adding that all sides need to find a way forward around cultural exchange of a level, intensity and dynamism which has not been conceived hitherto.

He added: There are many wonderful things wed be delighted to borrow and lend. It is what we do.

(PA Archive)

The Greek prime minister has called for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned to Greece on many occasions, even offering to loan some of his countrys other treasures to the British Museum in exchange.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis has restated that Greece is open to negotiations but said baby steps are not enough. We want big steps.

The director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, also said there could be a basis for constructive talks with the positive Parthenon partnership offer.

He added: In the difficult days we are living in, returning them would be an act of history.

It would be as if the British were restoring democracy itself.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  The Minnesota Twins had a nice bounce-back win against the San Diego Padres, spurred by some big home runs and a big break.

All-Star Byron Buxton hit a tying homer in the fourth inning off Joe Musgrove, and Carlos Correa gave the AL Central leaders some breathing room with a two-run shot during a five-run eighth that helped them beat the San Diego Padres 7-4 on Saturday.

The Twins got a huge break in the seventh. With the Padres trailing 2-1 and rookie C.J. Abrams at second base on a one-out infield single and throwing error by Correa at shortstop, Jurickson Profars sharp grounder hit second base umpire Jerry Layne, rolled several feet away and was ruled a dead ball.

Abrams almost certainly would have scored had Profars ball gone through the infield, but he had to stay at second. Manny Machado struck out and Eric Hosmer popped up to end the inning.

That was great. He was our player of the game today, Correa joked about Layne. He got smoked and he was hurting after. He was telling me how much it was hurting. It was good to get that break, so I made sure I thanked him."

Correa then homered to straightaway center field with one out in the eighth off Adrian Morejon for a 4-1 lead. It was his 13th.

Minnesota added on with an RBI single by Jose Miranda, a run-scoring double by Nick Gordon and a throwing error by Abrams to make it 7-1.

That's a play that's completely out of our control, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. Did it end up being a meaningful play in the game? Yeah. He was obviously trying to get out of the way of the ball. Sometimes you can't get out of the way of the ball. I've coached first base and I know that there are times you just have to wear it and the ball's coming quick. I can understand the other side being frustrated, but that's part of the game."

The Twins certainly welcomed that break and the home runs after they were routed 10-1 Friday night, when the Padres hit five long balls.

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It may have gone our way but we also took advantage of an opportunity late in the game and piled on some runs and put the game to a point where it was going to be in our favor," Baldelli said. "We had to do something like that. Carlos had a big swing to create some separation, and we had other guys have some good at-bats. That's what I'm going to choose to focus on.

The Twins handed Musgrove (8-4) his fourth straight loss. Musgrove, who earned his first All-Star selection this year, and the Padres are on the cusp of finalizing a $100 million, five-year contract that would start next year.

San Diego's Jurickson Profar hit a three-run homer off Tyler Duffey with one out in the ninth, his 10th.

Sonny Gray (6-3) allowed a solo home run to Machado with two outs in the third, but otherwise kept the Padres in check through five innings. Gray allowed five hits while striking out five and walking one.

Buxton tied it at 1 when he homered off the brick warehouse in the left field corner at Petco Park with one out in the fourth. It was his 26th. The Twins took the lead on Gilberto Celestino's RBI single in the fifth.

Overall, it was well-played just in every aspect of the game, Gray said.

He would liked to have gone another inning, but at the same time we won today's game and the guys came in and did a good job and we added after that, Gray said.

Musgrove hasn't won since June 16 at the Chicago Cubs. He allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, struck out eight and walked two.

The Padres hold a slim lead for the NL's second wild card.

They're a good team. They're not any better than we are," Gray said. They got us last night, we got them today. They're a good team. We're on the road. We're a good team as well. The way I see it, we just have to get back to being that team we've shown sparks of and continue to just do us.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Twins: Placed OF Max Kepler (broken right toe) and INF Miguel Sano (left knee inflammation) on the 10-day injured list. Sano had returned just four days earlier after missing 75 games following surgery in May to repair torn meniscus in the knee. Kepler was hurt when he was hit by a pitch at Detroit last Sunday. To take their spots on the roster, the Twins recalled outfielder Mark Contreras and selected the contract of infielder Tim Beckham from Triple-A St. Paul.

UP NEXT

Twins RHP Dylan Bundy (6-4, 5.02 ERA) and Padres LHP Sean Manaea (5-5, 4.33) are scheduled to start Sunday's series finale.

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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Cincinnati police are investigating a Sunday afternoon shooting on Kings Run Drive.

Cincinnati police are investigating a shooting Sunday in Spring Grove Village.

Police said they responded around noon to the 400 block of Kings Run Drive for a report of a shooting victim.

Officers arrived on scene to find a male with a gunshot wound to the leg.

The victim was transported to University of Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center with injuries not considered life-threatening.

A suspect is still being sought, police said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: CPD reports shooting in Spring Grove Village
The Daily Beast

Tennessee Department of CorrectionA woman who shared a kiss with a prisoner during a visitation in Tennessee has been charged with murder after the inmate died shortly after their exchange.Rachel Dollard was taken into custody over the weekend by special agents from the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) and the Dickson County Sheriffs Department, the TDOC confirmed in a statement on Tuesday. She is accused of smuggling drugs into the Turney Center Industrial Complex.Dollard is facing ch
A Georgia man who shot at a family member in Cobb County has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

On April 1, 2021, Rico Laprince Southall fired multiple gunshots at a family member on a public road in Powder Springs. Southalls gunfire also struck another motorists vehicle.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Southalls illegal possession and dangerous use of these weapons are serious crimes that show how gun violence is a risk to all of us, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said. Keeping firearms out of the hands of convicted felons and individuals with violent criminal histories is essential to protecting the citizens of the district and reducing gun violence. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed because of this defendants egregious disregard for the safety of our community.

Southall followed a female family member as she drove in Powder Springs, Georgia, and shot at her multiple times.

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Several rounds struck the victims vehicle and entered the vehicles passenger compartment, with at least one round striking an unoccupied infant safety seat. Southall also struck another motorists vehicle, according to the release.

Cobb County Police Department found him with a stolen gun when they arrested him.

Southall pleaded guilty on April 13, 2022, and was sentenced to seven years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Jul. 30The Cullman County Fraternal Order of Police are ensuring that students are equipped to begin the school year through through donations to local school administrators.

During a special called board meeting Thursday, July 28, the CCFOP presented the Cullman County School Board with a check for $1,200.

"We will make sure it is in the proper hands and it goes where it's needed," CCS Superintendent Kyle Kalloff said.

One day prior, the CCFOP presented the Cullman County Board of Education with a check for $5,200 for the same intended purpose of providing children with school supplies.

In other business the CCS board:

Approved the 2022-2023 supplement schedule.

Approved a stipend for four Child Nutrition Program managers for performing supervisor duties during the 2022 Summer Curbside and Camp feedings.

Approved a stipend for the following employees who received Crisis Prevention Training for certification on July 14: McKenzie Kennedy, Jennifer Wray, April Jochum, Jamie Hampton, Leslie Pouliot, Lindsey Hill, Chris Quattlebaum, Renata Puckett and Brett Hazelrigs.

Approved a stipend for the following employees who attended the West Elementary Leadership Team Meeting: Kristy White, Kristie Noblett, Anglela Hall, Misty Waldrop, Kathy Thornhill, Misti Murphy, Mary Beth Cleveland and Miranda Gunter.

Approved a stipend for the following teachers who participated in creating the ELA pacing guides and grading parameters at Cullman Middle School: Lindsay Hill, Katie McGee, Kristen Walker and Courtney Waters.

Approved a stipend for the following employees who attended the Elementary Textbook Committee meeting: Tayler Daniel, Kristen Lang, Melony Edwards, Angela Hall, Candice Grobe, Nia Jones, Blakely Burns, Jennifer Hill, Kristi Jackson, Ashley Garrison, Cortney Peed and Amanda Stidham.

Approved a stipend for the following Cullman High School teachers to attend the ELA A+ training: Denise Burroughs, Molly Gambrill, Danna Putman, Tyler Pitzing, Robin Cook and Caroline Lunsford.

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Approved an advanced three-year TEAMS contract with Emilee Alexander valid through the 2025 school year.

Approved a preliminary TEAMS contract with Lauren Shelton valid for the 2022-2023 school year.

Approved a supplement contract with Linda Bean to provide Band Director services for the 2022-2023 school year.

Approved a contract with Michael Kelpatrick to provide systemwide lawn care beginning August 1.

Approved a contract with Emily Bussman to provide art education services for Head Start and Pre-k classrooms August 1-May 31, 2023.

Approved a Head Start policy revision for policy number PO-PMQI19.

Board member Joey Orr abstained from voting on the previous items. CCS Board President Amy Carter abstained from voting on the following items.

Approved to rescind preliminary TEAMS one-year contract with Heather Carter.

Approved an advanced three-year TEAMS contract with Heather Carter valid until the 2025 school year.

Approved to salvage a "Being a Writer Set" from East Elementary.

Approved to salvage four office desks and four hutches from Cullman City Head Start.

Revised the Cullman City Head Start and Cullman City Head Start Pre-K 2022-2023 calendar.

Accepted the following resignations: Pam Parks (PreK/Special Needs Teacher at Cullman City Primary School), Brianna Bauer (6th Grade Teacher at East Elementary School), Danielle Akridge (Part-time Art Teacher at Cullman City Primary School), Caleigh Anderson (Extended Day Program Teacher at East Elementary School) and Trinity Doss (Child Nutrition Program Worker at Cullman City Schools).

Accepted the following transfers: Laurel Waddle (from Reading Intervention Teacher at Cullman City Primary School to Classroom Teacher at East Elementary School), LeAnn West (from Instructional Assistant at West Elementary to Bookkeeper at East Elementary), Emily Hines (from ARI Reading Specialist at West Elementary School to Elementary Curriculum Coordinator/Federal Programs at the Central Office) and Misty Waldrop (from Library Media Specialist at West Elementary to Technology Integration Specialist at the Central Office).

Approved the conditional employment for the following: Emily Smallwood (Instructional Aide for Cullman City Schools), Anna Anderson (Part-time STEM Teacher at Cullman City Primary School), Paige Victoria Hamm (General Education Teacher at East Elementary), Brittany Bledsoe (Child Nutrition Program Worker), Lauren Robbins (Child Nutrition Program Worker), Mary Marinakis (Custodian at Cullman Middle School), Leigh Anne Combs (Extended Day Program Assistant at Cullman City Primary), Sophie Corliss (Extended Day Program Assistant at Cullman City Primary), Bella Wooten (Extended Day Program Assistant at Cullman City Primary), Valinda Green (Special Education Teacher at Cullman City Primary), Stacy DeSilvey (Speech Language Pathologist at West Elementary) and Tammie Dunkling (Part-time Speech Language Pathologist at Cullman City Schools).

Accepted the resignation of Brianna Bauer as Scholars Bowl Team Coach and Veterans Day Program.
DeLand police are looking for a man they said is connected to a murder.

READ: Coronavirus: President Biden tests positive again for COVID-19

Police are looking for 20-year-old Terrell Maddox.

Officers said he lives in New Smyrna Beach but is known to hang around the Daytona Beach area.

Investigators said Maddox and three other men shot and killed someone near Florida Technical College.

READ: Florida offers Dont Tread On Me license plate to benefit veterans

Police said they were trying to take the victims car.

The other three men are already in jail.

READ: Here are 9 things you should put in your hurricane supply kit

Police said Maddox is considered armed and dangerous.

If you see him, call 911.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, and click here to watch the latest news on your Smart TV.
Doug Mastriano has a secret. The Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor says hes chosen someone to serve as the commonwealths next secretary of state  a position that will hold enormous power over the 2024 presidential election. But he wont tell voters who it is.

In normal circumstances, that reticence to name a key appointment so early in a gubernatorial contest would hardly be notable. But secretary of state positions have attracted unprecedented attention since the 2020 election, as Republican candidates who have embraced the conspiracy theory that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump have lined up to run for positions that would give them the power to oversee future elections. And Mastriano is one of the nations foremost election skeptics: The state senator tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, then bused supporters to Washington, D.C., on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Because Pennsylvania is among the states in which the governor appoints the secretary of state, the 2022 gubernatorial race is essentially a Buy one, get one deal for Republican election deniers: A Mastriano victory all but ensures that the next secretary of the commonwealth will be someone who shares his anti-democratic zeal toward the 2020 election and who could work closely with Mastriano to roll back voting rights, overhaul Pennsylvanias election system or even refuse to certify future results, including in the 2024 presidential contest.

Mastriano understands the power he would hold as governor. He argued to Republican voters during the primary that he could decertify every voting machine were he elected, and he has openly hinted that he has already chosen a potential secretary of state who shares his views.

As governor, I get to appoint the secretary of state. And I have a voting-reform-minded individual whos been traveling the nation and knows voting reform extremely well, Mastriano said during an April appearance on ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannons podcast. That individual has agreed to be my secretary of state.

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He later told a local Pennsylvania news station that he has already assembled a team of people that would work for this individual.

Doug Mastriano has said that he's already chosen someone to become Pennsylvania's secretary of state should he win the governor's race this fall. But he hasn't told Pennsylvania voters who it'd be. (Photo: Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

Doug Mastriano has said that he's already chosen someone to become Pennsylvania's secretary of state should he win the governor's race this fall. But he hasn't told Pennsylvania voters who it'd be. (Photo: Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

Among Pennsylvania Democrats, there is little doubt that Mastriano intends to nominate an election skeptic. But given the implications of the race, especially as the big lie remains the animating force of Republican politics, they also say he owes it to Pennsylvania voters to come clean about whom hes considering  or has already chosen  to fill the position.

He absolutely should tell us right now, knowing how important of a topic spreading the big lie is for Doug, said state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D). The governor makes many appointments but this is one where Doug has made clear it is foremost in his mind and that his record has made it clear is foremost in his mind. And hes going to have to, as a campaign promise, pick somebody incredibly radical.

Mastrianos refusal to name his pick has fueled speculation about whom he might choose, and progressives in the state have listened closely for clues in order to develop a working list of contenders. Mastriano once referred to his choice as a her and said it would be one of the leading figures of the nation on voting integrity. He claims the team around her would include several people that are very knowledgeable of Pennsylvania, who are going to get the elections cleaned up in my first year.

Their best guesses  and they are just informed guesses  are Mastriano allies who share his fervor for the big lie. They include former Trump adviser Jenna Ellis, who is now advising the Mastriano campaign; Toni Shuppe, the co-founder of Audit the Vote PA, a group that sought to decertify the results of Trumps loss in Pennsylvania; and Ivan Raiklin, an associate of former Trump advisers who spread baseless conspiracy theories about the election in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Mastriano, a Christian nationalist who has made headlines in recent weeks for paying a well-known antisemite as a campaign consultant, does not engage with inquiries from mainstream news outlets and did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Ellis could certainly be considered a leading figure in the U.S. election denial movement. She joined the Trump White House as a senior legal adviser in 2019, later partnering with Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer, to form what she called an elite strike force team to overturn the fair results of the 2020 presidential election.

She and Giuliani toured the country together, appearing in key battleground states  including Pennsylvania, alongside Mastriano  to spread conspiracy theories about voter fraud and to try to persuade conservative state lawmakers that they had the legal authority to send their own Trump-supporting electors to the Electoral College.

Earlier this year, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection subpoenaed Ellis, in part over her direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes, according to a letter from committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). And earlier this month she received a subpoena from a special grand jury in Georgia regarding two legal memos she sent to Trump advising that Vice President Mike Pence should disregard certified electoral college votes from Georgia.

Ellis has claimed to be a constitutional law attorney, although a New York Times review of her career shows no such expertise. She is not licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania.

Some Pennsylvania progressives wonder if Jenna Ellis, a former Trump adviser who has been subpoenaed as part of multiple investigations into efforts to subvert the 2020 election, could be Mastriano's unnamed secretary of state pick. She is currently advising his campaign. (Photo: Rey Del Rio via Getty Images)

Some Pennsylvania progressives wonder if Jenna Ellis, a former Trump adviser who has been subpoenaed as part of multiple investigations into efforts to subvert the 2020 election, could be Mastriano's unnamed secretary of state pick. She is currently advising his campaign. (Photo: Rey Del Rio via Getty Images)

When a HuffPost reporter followed Ellis on Twitter in an attempt to request comment for this story, she tweeted at the reporter before he could ask her a question about the Pennsylvania secretary of state gig.

Heres my comment: Get a real job, she said, adding a clown-face emoji.

Shuppe, the co-founder of Audit the Vote PA, was another subject of speculation among Pennsylvania progressives who spoke with HuffPost. She emerged as a prominent member of Pennsylvanias election denial movement after her organization led a petition drive aimed at decertifying or nullifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Democrat Joe Biden won.

Shuppe and her organization also led the charge for an audit of Pennsylvanias election that would follow the contours of the conspiratorial Cyber Ninjas review of election results in Arizonas Maricopa County  a flawed process that nevertheless didnt unearth any real evidence of malfeasance in the states most populous county. Shuppe spread bogus claims that Pennsylvania voting machines had been hacked by China and has said that Biden is without a doubt an illegitimate, fraudulently installed, FAKE President.

She has also embraced other conspiracy theories popular on the far-right, including QAnon, Pizzagate and one that claimed Wayfair engaged in child sex trafficking via its popular furniture sales, according to Business Insider.

Audit the Vote PA conducted its own canvasses of several Pennsylvania counties after the election in an attempt to prove that widespread fraud and irregularity had occurred. But when it shared its data with LancasterOnline, a news outlet in one of the counties it canvassed, the newspaper found that Audit the Vote PAs process was rife with errors and speculation and that its methodology was deeply flawed, mistakes that undermine its conclusion and make its findings unreliable. (Shuppe and Audit the Vote PA disputed that characterization in a lengthy statement on the groups website.)

Mastriano, who traveled to Phoenix to witness the Cyber Ninjas process in person, endorsed Audit the Vote PAs efforts to bring an Arizona-style review to Pennsylvania. Shuppe backed Mastrianos candidacy in this springs GOP primary. She did not return a request for comment about whether she had spoken to Mastriano about the position or another election-related role.

Raiklin is an Army veteran who, like Ellis and Shuppe, sought to overturn the 2020 election. Working alongside retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser in the Trump White House, Raiklin used his military experience to suggest that he had the ability to suss out fraud during a pre-election forum. In December 2020, he crafted a plan called Operation Pence Card that called on Trump to have his vice president reject legitimate electoral votes, Reuters reported last year.

The plan was similar to the fake electors scheme Trump allies attempted to use to keep him in power, and although its unclear if Raiklin inspired it, Trump retweeted a version of it a month before the insurrection.

President Donald Trump's supporters gather outside of the Wyndham Hotel on Nov. 25, 2020, where the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee was scheduled to meet in Gettysburg. (Photo: Julio Cortez/Associated Press)

President Donald Trump's supporters gather outside of the Wyndham Hotel on Nov. 25, 2020, where the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee was scheduled to meet in Gettysburg. (Photo: Julio Cortez/Associated Press)

Raiklin attended Mastrianos primary victory party in May, and he left little doubt about what he took away from the victory. Twenty electoral votes as well, he told Mastriano, according to a video posted on Telegram and initially reported by The Washington Post. It was a clear allusion to Pennsylvanias Electoral College votes and Mastrianos newfound proximity to power over them.

Pennsylvania observers stressed that the list of potential contenders may be long. It could include any of the 20 people who signed on to Trumps fake electors scheme in Pennsylvania, county officials whove refused to certify results in this years primary contests, Mastriano allies in the state legislature or anyone else affiliated with the big lie movement nationwide.

There are no guardrails around his appointment except that they have to be confirmed, said J.J. Abbott, a former senior staffer for current Gov. Tom Wolf (D). So it doesnt have to be someone from PA. They could have never set foot in Pennsylvania.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, this week began airing television ads that hit Mastriano for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential vote. The ads accused him of wanting to pick the winner in future Pennsylvania contests and replayed his comments about decertifying election machines.

A June poll from Suffolk University showed Shapiro ahead, 44% to 40%. The close margin has caused Republicans who initially feared that Mastriano may cost them a winnable election to fall in line behind him.

But Mastrianos election denialism and other controversies  including campaign payments to Gab, the far-right social media site that has served as a haven for antisemitism and right-wing hate  may be denting his chances. Shapiro led Mastriano by 10 percentage points in a Fox News poll released on Friday, and he now holds an 8-point advantage in FiveThirtyEights polling average.

Victory for just one of the GOP election deniers who have already won primaries or are expected to in the next month could jeopardize the integrity of the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump may be on the ballot again. And because of the Pennsylvania governors appointment powers, a Mastriano win could be a double whammy for American democracy.

He could cause so much chaos in our elections, Abbott said, just by having someone there whos off the rails.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty

The government agency charged with helping Americans obtain treatment for monkeypox may once again be allowing red tape to stand between doctors and the treatment their patients need.

As the global monkeypox outbreak continues to grow across Europe and the United States, public health authorities have consistently been several steps behind an illness that has infected at least 5,000 Americans in the past three months. Now, with access to the nations vaccine supply finally loosened after months of bureaucratic back-and-forth kept hundreds of thousands of doses trapped overseas, epidemiologists, physicians, elected officials and advocates for LGBTQ communities say that red tape is still restricting their ability to actually treat the virus.

Tecovirimatalso known as TPOXXan antiviral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration four years ago for the treatment of smallpox, has quickly become one of the most important tools in treating monkeypox infections. The disease, which causes deeply painful blisters in addition to flu-like symptoms, is the same genus as smallpox, which has prompted physicians to prescribe it as an off-label treatment for severe cases.

But TPOXX was only approved to treat smallpox infections under animal studies rather than human trials, which are impossible to conduct, given its global extinction four decades ago. Without human trials for monkeypox, TPOXXs use must be conducted only by doctors who are part of a hospitals internal review board, each of whom is required to fill out dozens of pages of paperwork in order to secure TPOXX for their patients. With some cities seeing scores of new cases on a daily basis, doctors are facing an increasingly unmanageable patient backlog.

Only certain individuals are allowed to do consent that limits it to a small number of individuals, said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health and of Medicine. At UCLA, were trying to expand the number of people who have that authority, and Im sure other institutions are as well, but that clearly is the limiting factor.

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The labyrinthine process requires physicians to submit reams of information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state or local health departments, or sometimes all three. Until recently, paperwork required clinicians and patients to fill out a half-dozen forms, as well as to schedule multiple examinations, collect and ship specimens to the CDC and to provide photos of monkeypoxa near-impossible request for patients with internal lesions.

The requirements for prescribing this were incredibly onerous, said Dr. Jay Varma, a professor of public health and director of Cornell Universitys Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response.

World Health Organization Sounds Its Highest Alert Over Monkeypox

One week ago, CDC changed that process, allowing physicians to order the drug from the National Strategic Stockpile of medical supplies and begin treatment before submitting the paperwork. The number of forms was also reduced, and the required samples and lesion photos became optional. But continued enforcement of bureaucratic red tape by the Food and Drug Administration has blunted the changes, according to doctors, who are concerned that some providers may forgo prescribing TPOXX for all but the most serious cases rather than spend time sifting through paperwork.

Some clinicians and hospitals may not elect to use Tecovirimat because of these requirements given that patients arent dying, said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease researcher at Stanford University. The antiviral could reduce suffering and may reduce duration of viral shedding, both important effects, so making it more accessible would be an important step.

With the World Health Organizationas well as New York City and San Franciscodeclaring monkeypox a public health emergency, public health advocates say that the Department of Health and Human Services is dragging its feet on doing the same, which they say would allow doctors and health authorities to sidestep some of those hurdles. An emergency use authorization for TPOXX, physicians propose, would allow clinicians who are not members of an internal review board to prescribe TPOXX, and would eliminate requirements for informed consent prior to use and post-prescription reporting by patients and doctors.

It would allow clinicians to use this medication without the cumbersome barrier of putting together an IRB, said Karan, who called the requirement quite an involved process.

If a patient can get access, TPOXX is providing relief, said David C. Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. We understand that TPOXX is an investigational drug, but in a public health emergency, the federal government should use every option at its disposal to cut red tape and make this drug immediately available to clinicians to treat their patients. Its the right and moral thing to do.

To go the ordinary route for an emergency use authorization, said said Dr. David Freedman, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama and an expert in tropical diseases, would require TPOXXs manufacturer to submit reams of clinical data in real patients of efficacy in real people infected with the pathogen.

FDA has specific guidelines for an investigational new drug application in general, Freedman said. These would have to be changed in terms of documentation required, and I doubt that would be a quick process for a 50-year-old way of doing things.

Physicians have also suggested that doses of TPOXX could be preemptively shipped from the National Strategic Stockpile to regional stockpiles or local pharmacies in cities with high case numbers in order to expedite treatment.

If every time you need a treat and dosage has to be released from the National Stockpile, thats going to take more time and logistical hoops to jump through than if it were available at regional stockpiles, or, in the best-case scenario, at pharmacies and local pharmacies, said Brewer. Anything that delays getting the medicine, that is going to impact on its effect and on treatment.

The Department of Health and Human Services continued resistance to declaring monkeypox a public health emergency is part of a pattern of government inaction on an illness that has almost entirely affected gay and bisexual men, community advocates told The Daily Beast. They point to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierres apparent unfamiliarity with TPOXX when asked about lack of access in a press briefing on Wednesday, as well as HHS Secretary Xavier Becerras flippant response to a reporter on Thursday when asked if there was still a chance of preventing the illness from becoming endemic in the United States, a moment that some epidemiologists fear has already passed.

On a press call I asked @SecBecerra if he believed it was possible to end the monkeypox outbreak or if the virus would become endemic.



He replied: "Well, I almost turn that question back to you, Ariel and asked, how many vaccines do you think we need at this stage?"



...  Ariel Cohen (@ArielCohen37) July 28, 2022

Yet again, the FDA and their boss, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, seem to be living in la-la land, said Michael Donnelly, a data scientist and a prominent critic of the public health response to monkeypox. Listen: We ALREADY have a drug, TPOXX, that is highly effective at limiting symptoms and shortening disease duration. We ALREADY have supplies for well over a million doses. The European Medicines Agency has ALREADY approved it for treating monkeypox. And yet, the FDA refuses to approve it to treat people in the U.S. for monkeypox, even though they have ALREADY approved it for treating smallpox!

Hasnt the FDA ALREADY screwed up enough for one crisis?! Donnelly vented.

An HHS official, asked about plans to potentially follow the WHO in declaring monkeypox a public health emergency, or whether it was considering issuing an emergency use authorization for TPOXX, noted that an emergency use authorization for any medication would require the declaration of a public health emergency.

Some doctors defended the governments more recent response to the monkeypox outbreak, noting that until recently, no public health authority in the world could have expected the viruswhich has historically been almost entirely restricted to children in Central and West Africato become this widespread.

I understand the frustration, but in general, I think the government, public health agencies and the FDA have done an excellent job of trying to move things along, said Brewer. These are big bureaucratic systems and its hard to to move them, but I think, given that recognition, I actually would say, gee, were three months into it and we already have drugs available that you can get access to, we have two vaccines, potentially, we could use.

But the early missteps in addressing the outbreak, public health experts told The Daily Beast, echo the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The nations use of TPOXX as a monkeypox therapy has been chaotic and bureaucratic, said Lawrence Gostin, director of the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law Center. The U.S. is now repeating the catalog of missteps we took during COVID-19 in terms of accessing vaccines and therapeutics for monkeypox.

For the United States, which was perhaps best prepared of any nation to address a monkeypox outbreak, Varma said, the mistakes should have been entirely avoidable.

In the month of May, there was a very clear, albeit narrow, window to mobilize everything that the U.S. government has available for monkeypoxand the U.S. had more than any other country on Earth, Varma said. It had tests, it had vaccines, it had a drug, and it had pretty good epidemiology clinical data that have been funded by the U.S. government over the years.

Things have moved much better in the month of Julywe just really should have seen this level of action back in May, not now.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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ROMAN PETRENKO  SATURDAY, 30 JULY 2022, 21:08

In Transbaikalia (Russia), a criminal case was initiated due to the desecration of the graves of Russian servicemen who died in the war in Ukraine.

Source: "Meduza"; the local publication "Zabaikalsky rabochy"

Details: A "Memorial Complex" was damaged in the city of Borza  parts of a fence were torn off, wreaths were scattered, and the graves were smeared with paint.

The regional investigator initiated a criminal case under the legal provision dealing with damage to military graves.

Reminder: last month in Tambov Oblast, unknown persons vandalised the grave of a Russian guardsman killed in the war.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Become our patron, support our work!
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A power struggle in Iraq between the influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr and Iran-backed Shi'ite rivals has escalated with his supporters breaking into parliament and beginning an open-ended sit-in protest.

The tussle over who gets to form the next government has deepened a fissure in the Shi'ite community that has dominated Iraqi politics since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

What is the background to the rivalry, why has it escalated, what does this mean for Iraq and what are the risks of violence?

WHO ARE SADR AND HIS RIVALS?

Heir to a prominent clerical dynasty, Sadr is a populist with a fiercely loyal support base and a track record of radical action, including fighting U.S. forces after the invasion and clashing with Iraqi authorities.

He commanded a powerful militia, the Mehdi Army, in the years after the invasion, but officially disbanded it in 2008. Its successor, the Peace Brigades, retains thousands of armed fighters.

He exercises big sway in the state, where his supporters hold many positions. He has emphasised his credentials as an Iraqi nationalist in recent years, opposing the influence of both the United States and Iran.

His Shi'ite rivals form an alliance called the Coordination Framework, which includes Tehran-aligned politicians such as former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and paramilitary groups armed and trained by Iran.

Many of these groups' ties to Tehran date to the Iran-Iraq war, when Iran supported Shi'ite insurgents against Saddam.

Each side accuses the other of corruption.

WHY HAS THE STANDOFF ESCALATED?

Tensions have worsened since an October election in which Sadr's movement emerged as the biggest bloc with 74 of parliament's 329 seats and the Iran-backed factions' share slumped to 17 from a previous 48.

After failing to overturn the result in the courts, the Iran-backed factions set about stymying Sadr's efforts to form a government that would include his Kurdish and Sunni Arab allies but exclude groups he described as corrupt or loyal to Tehran.

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Despite their diminished numbers in parliament, the Iran-aligned groups managed to frustrate Sadr by denying the two-thirds quorum needed to elect a Kurdish head of state - the first step towards forming a government.

Frustrated at the deadlock, Sadr instructed his lawmakers to quit parliament in June. The move ceded dozens of seats to the Coordination Framework, meaning it could try to form a government of its choosing, though this would risk Sadr's wrath.

Eyeing a comeback, Sadr rival Maliki put himself forward to be prime minister - a post that must go to a Shi'ite in Iraq's political system - but retreated after Sadr criticised him on Twitter.

Sadr's rivals then floated another candidate, Mohammed Shiya al-Sudani, seen by Sadr's supporters as a Maliki loyalist. This step appears to have been the final straw for Sadr supporters, igniting the protests.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR IRAQ?

Iraq has now gone more than nine months without a new government - a record in the post-Saddam era.

The standoff adds to political dysfunction in a country suffering dire public services, high poverty and widespread unemployment despite huge oil wealth and no major conflict since Islamic State's defeat five years ago.

At a time when soaring crude prices have boosted Iraq's oil revenues to record highs, the government has no budget for 2022 and spending on much-needed infrastructure projects and economic reforms has been delayed.

Ordinary Iraqis meanwhile suffer power and water cuts. The World Food Programme says 2.4 million of the population of 39 million are in acute need of food and livelihood assistance.

The paralysis is diverting attention from problems including soaring global food prices, drought and the lingering threat posed by Islamic State.

Outgoing Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi continues in a caretaker role for now.

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF VIOLENCE?

A call by the Coordination Framework for its supporters to rally on Sunday gave rise to concerns of confrontation in the streets, but it then cancelled the demonstrations.

The United Nations has called for a de-escalation, saying "voices of reason and wisdom are critical to prevent further violence". Many Iraqi leaders have also called for the preservation of civil peace.

Sadr has vowed peaceful political action, but is backed up by the armed Peace Brigades and many of his civilian followers keep weapons, stoking fears of armed clashes if the standoff escalates.

Conflict among Iraqi Shi'ites would be bad news for Iran, which has carved out major influence in Iraq through its Shi'ite allies since the United States toppled its foe Saddam.

Iran, which has yet to comment on the latest developments, has previously intervened to quell internal unrest in Iraq.

(Writing by Tom Perry and John Davison; Editing by Nick Macfie)
At a leading paper factory in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a production line was running at full steam as orders from ASEAN countries surge this year.

"Nearly 90 containers filled with white cardboard produced by the factory are shipped through Qinzhou port every day to ASEAN markets and the number keeps increasing," said Zhou Ju, logistics department director of Guangxi Jingui Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd., owned by Indonesia's Asia Pulp & Paper Sinar Mas.

Since the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entered into force in January, trade costs have been further reduced among member countries and related companies have seen tangible benefits.

Customs data shows that, in the first half of this year, China's trade with ASEAN countries reached 2.95 trillion yuan (about 437.8 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent.

Zhou said that the raw materials like wood chips, wood pulp, and starch imported from ASEAN countries now enjoy preferential tariffs thanks to the RCEP agreements, and that has greatly saved the cost of the company.

The Indonesian company also established a branch in January in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, to manage the forestry affairs of the group in China, Laos, and Cambodia, and seek to expand industrial chains as the company eyes the giant economic cooperation potential among China and ASEAN countries.

Companies believe that the implementation of RCEP enables ASEAN and Chinese enterprises to conduct business in a more transparent and clear environment, simplify customs clearance procedures, and facilitate trade and economic exchanges.

"The implementation of RCEP has brought real benefits to our company and our partner companies in Malaysia," said Li Huihuan, deputy general manager of Guangxi Free Trade Zone Sing Nest International Trading Co., Ltd., a Singaporean-funded health food production and processing enterprise in Guangxi. The company has been importing raw materials like edible bird's nests from Malaysia.

Li added that thanks to the simplified customs clearance brought by RCEP, the production and operation efficiency of the enterprise have greatly improved. "The time span from ordering raw materials in Malaysia to receiving goods has been shortened from 15 days to five days, which has greatly reduced our warehousing costs," Li said.

For Chinese companies in Guangxi, RCEP also boosted their confidence to deepen cooperation with ASEAN countries. Liugong Machinery Co., Ltd. transported a large number of loaders to Thailand in January and signed a joint venture agreement with Thai distributor Yontrakarn in February.

Zeng Guang'an, chairman and CEO of the company, said that the two sides have been cooperating for 11 years, and they wish to serve Thai clients better with the joint venture.

Connected with ASEAN countries by land and sea, Guangxi becomes an important window for exchanges and cooperation between China and RCEP members. A total of 12 air cargo routes have been opened between Guangxi and ASEAN countries, covering almost all major ASEAN countries.
Something as simple as drinking tap water is exposing millions of Illinoisans to toxic chemicals that build up in human blood, cause cancer and other diseases and take years to leave the body.

Scientists call the chemicals per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. They are commonly known as forever chemicals because they dont break down in the environment.

Despite plenty of warning signs, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency didnt begin testing the states water utilities for PFAS until August 2020. Then state and local officials downplayed the results, burying notices filled with technical jargon on government websites.

Until now the scope of PFAS problems in Illinois remained unknown. More than 8 million people in the state  6 out of every 10 Illinoisans  get their drinking water from a utility where at least one forever chemical has been detected, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation that included a computerized analysis of test results and a review of court documents, government records and scientific studies.

Part 1: More than 8 million Illinoisans get drinking water from a utility where forever chemicals have been detected, Tribune investigation finds

Its disgusting and overwhelming at the same time, said Ellen Meeks Rendulich, co-director of a grassroots environmental group in Will County, where the state found PFAS in a dozen communities, including the Criswell Court mobile home park in Joliet.

Tracy Lehr remembered that state officials came twice last year to test a well on the property. Lehr, who has lived in Criswell Court for 21 years, said she and her neighbors were never warned their water is contaminated with PFAS at levels up to 1,800 times higher than the latest federal health advisory.

Ive never trusted the water here, Lehr said as she pointed to shrink-wrapped packs of bottled water stacked throughout her trailer.

>>> Read the full story here

Part 2: Sewage sludge contaminated with toxic forever chemicals has been spread on thousands of acres of Chicago-area farmland

Farmers on the edges of suburbia are encouraged to spread sludge on their fields by local officials, farm bureaus, university extension agents  even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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But despite assurances the practice is safe and legal, sewage sludge is contaminating thousands of acres of northeast Illinois farmland with toxic forever chemicals, a Chicago Tribune investigation has found.

During the past six years, federal records show, more than 615,000 tons of sludge from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has been plowed into 29,000 acres near the nations third largest city. (All of that land combined is roughly the size of west suburban Aurora.)

Only the Greater Los Angeles area distributed more sludge to farmers during the period.

Meanwhile, researchers have concluded there is ample evidence that PFAS end up in crops and livestock.

Researchers and public health advocates are increasingly concerned because some PFAS build up in human blood, take years to leave the body and dont break down in the environment. Others transform over time into more hazardous compounds, increasing the risk that grains, beans, hay and produce grown in sludge-amended soil could be tainted for years to come.

>>> Read the full story here

Forever chemicals found in drinking water throughout Illinois: Search the database

The Tribune identified 1,654 potential sources of PFAS statewide through a national analysis of industry codes that designate the type of products manufactured or used at a particular factory. Only California, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida have more facilities on the list of suspected polluters.

>>> Read the full story here

The origin of these highly toxic man-made chemicals

The chemicals have been added to nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, stain-resistant fabrics and carpets, cosmetics, firefighting foams, food packaging and other products that resist grease, oil and water.

PFAS persist in the environment and accumulate in people, animals and aquatic life. These forever chemicals are in the blood of nearly every American, including newborn babies.

>>> Read the full story here

Persistent farmer whose cows died from a mysterious disease helped unravel the origin of toxic chemicals

If Wilbur Earl Tennants cows hadnt died from a mysterious wasting disease during the 1990s, the world might have never learned about the secret history of toxic forever chemicals.

>>> Read the full story here
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal has reinstated its finance minister, the president's office announced on Sunday, after an internal investigation found no evidence to prove he was involved in making illegal changes to the budget.

Janardan Sharma resigned in early July after the speaker of parliament ordered investigations into allegations from opposition lawmakers that Sharma had allowed "unauthorised" changes in tax rates a day before presenting spending plans.

Details of the reported tax rate changes have not been made public but local media reports said the tweaks allegedly permitted by Sharma, a former Maoist commander, were aimed at favoring some businesses.

Sharma has denied any wrongdoing.

A presidential statement said Sharma was allowed to continue as finance minister on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who had run the finance ministry since July 6.

The Himalayan nation is experiencing its highest inflation in six years and foreign exchange reserves have been dwindling fast with soaring import costs for essential goods.

Lawmakers representing the main opposition party said the investigation was inadequate as details of phone calls by people who were allegedly allowed by Sharma to make last minute tweaks in the tax rates were not examined.

"The investigation seem to be aimed at clearing him (Sharma) of any wrongdoing" said Khagaraj Adhikari, an opposition lawmaker and member of the probe panel.

"Sharma's reappointment is not justified."

Lakshman Lal Karna, who headed the multi-party probe panel, said the report was adopted by a majority of its members democratically.

"They (the opposition) are free to keep their different views in a democracy," Karna told Reuters.

Elections to Nepal's federal parliament and provincial assemblies are expected to take place in a few months' time.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; editing by Rupam Jain and Philippa Fletcher)
A Georgia county is seeking help to identify people whom they say vandalized graves last weekend.

The Chattooga County Sheriffs Office is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The damage occurred in Alexander Cemetery off Spring Creek Road, deputies say.

The department says it would greatly appreciate any information, and callers may remain anonymous. Those with information are asked to contact an investigator at 706-857-3411.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
Carrollton Police Department/GoFundMe

A University of West Georgia professor fatally shot one of his own schools students in a parking lot in the early hours of Saturday, Carrollton Police said.

Richard Sigman, 47, is now facing a murder charge over the death of 18-year-old Anna Jones.

According to police in Carrollton, a college town located about 50 miles west of Atlanta, Sigman threatened to whip out his gun during a verbal fight with another man in the parking lot of a pizza joint at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

The man alerted a security guard and when the guard saw that Sigman was indeed armed, police say they asked him to leave. But Sigman walked away and began to shoot into a vehicle parked in the lot near Adamson Square, a busy nighttime district in downtown Carrollton.

One of the bullets hit Jones, though its unclear if she was the intended target or if she knew Sigman. Her friends drove her to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

The event has, according to Carrollton Police spokeswoman Sgt. Meredith Browning, shocked the town.

Its been a very big deal here, Brown told The Daily Beast. Carrollton is typically seen as a very safe place, so this was shocking and scary for a lot of people. Its just something that doesnt happen here.

In addition to murder, Sigman has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, police said. He is scheduled to appear before a judge for the first time on Monday afternoon.

In a GoFundMe organized to cover funeral expenses, Jones was described as a beautiful, sweet soul whose smile would light up a room.

This was a devastating and senseless crime that left a lot of hearts broken, a community mourning, and a family grieving, the fundraiser said.

Relatives and friends also took to social media to express their grief and shock, with one friend writing that to know Anna was to love Anna. Stephanie Hodges, one of Jones former teachers, wrote that the 18-year-old freshman was planning on becoming a teacher herself, having had a natural knack for working with children.

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Another friend, Emma Phillips, described Jones as endlessly kind, selfless, extremely loving, hilarious, and overall the life of every party. She was simply full of life and love. She had such a love for her family, friends, and her home mount zion.

I remember multiple times her buying me clothes, dinner, and even paying for me to get my nails done because I had no money and she wanted to me to feel included, Phillips wrote. Thats exactly how she was... Anything I needed, she was there to give it. I wish I could be half as selfless as she was.

A relative told The Daily Beast on Sunday afternoon that the family is not yet ready to speak publicly about Jones death.

Zoie Whitestone, who was one of Sigmans students last semester, told The Daily Beast Sigman taught upperclassmen management courses.

Many of us had him a few months ago and never wouldve suspected this, she said.

The University has since fired Sigman. On behalf of the university, we wish to convey our deepest condolences to Annas family and many friends, UWG President Dr. Brendan Kelly said in the statement. We know this news is difficult to process and affects many members of our university community. We ask that you keep Annas family, friends, and all who have been touched by this tragedy in your thoughts during this tremendously difficult time.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan during a hearing on the threat to individual freedoms in a post-Roe world. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Jordan says GOP senators shouldn't be working with Democrats to pass bipartisan Biden-backed bills.

"I wish they wouldn't," the Ohio lawmaker said of his Republican counterparts in the upper chamber.

Kevin McCarthy has taken a stand against much of the Biden agenda, to the delight of Jordan.

When President Joe Biden entered the Oval Office last year, he expressed a commitment to working across the aisle with Republicans to craft legislation  something he practiced in his 36-year career in the Senate.

From last year's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to a recent $52 billion chips-funding bill, the administration has notched some major successes in attracting support from Democrats and Republicans and breaking part of the filibuster logjam that has become an all-too-common form of blocking legislation in recent years.

However, the wave of consensus doesn't sit too well with Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative Ohio Republican and longtime ally of former President Donald Trump who could play a major role in Congress next year if Republicans win back control of the House.

Jordan recently told Politico that Senate Republicans who join their Democratic counterparts in supporting legislation backed by Biden are "wrong."

"I wish they wouldn't," the lawmaker said of his GOP counterparts in the upper chamber.

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky  known for employing sharply partisan maneuvering from Supreme Court nominations to GOP-led tax plans  has been a surprising supporter of some of the Biden-endorsed legislation, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California has led his caucus against most of the administration's agenda items.

Jordan praised McCarthy for taking such a position, telling Politico that the GOP leader was "on the side of the American people."

The Ohio Republican then contended that voters disliked the bipartisan legislation coming out of Congress.

"Look at all the pushback," he added.

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McCarthy opposed both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act of 2022 legislation.

However, some Senate Republicans are leery of taking McCarthy's approach as it relates to passing legislation, frustrated that he could be dismissing good bills and allowing Democrats to portray the party as intransigent.

GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who represents West Virginia alongside her Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Manchin, expressed such reservations.

"I wish [McCarthy] would take a deeper policy look at some of these issues that we've come together on, understanding they may want to make changes," she told Politico. "Just unilaterally being against? I'd rather get things done, put it that way."

Read the original article on Business Insider
ROMAN KRAVETS, ROMAN PETRENKO  SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2022, 10:39

Oleksii Vadaturskyi, a Hero of Ukraine and the owner of the major grain trading company Nibulon, was killed at the age of 74 during the shelling of Mykolaiv on the night of 30 July.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda source, close to Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration; Vitalii Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration

Details: It has been confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that a Russian shell had hit Vadaturskyi's house, and his wife was also killed.

Quote: "It's true.

Their house was hit. The wife's body has already been taken out."

Updated: This information was later confirmed by the head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration.

Quote from Kim: "Today our city has lost its Hero.

The Hero of Ukraine, Oleksii Vadaturskyi, general director of the Nibulon company, and his wife Raisa Mykhailivna, tragically died as a result of shelling of the city at night. Vadaturskyi has done a lot for Mykolaiv Oblast and for Ukraine. His contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry and the development of the region has been invaluable."

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's armed Hezbollah group issued a video on Sunday showing vessels involved in the Israeli offshore oil and gas industry and warned against "playing with time", underlining its threat of military escalation amid maritime border demarcation talks.

Lebanon and Israel are locked in U.S.-mediated negotiations to delineate their shared maritime border that would help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country and pave the way for more exploration.

Lebanese officials have said they are optimistic that this round of talks can result in a deal after years of on-and-off indirect negotiations, but Hezbollah has warned it is ready to prevent Israel from extracting hydrocarbons should Lebanon not be allowed to do so.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 and have traded fire on several occasions since but have avoided a large-scale confrontation.

Sunday's video, which also contains a rare glimpse of Hezbollah weaponry, was broadcast on the group's Al-Manar TV station hours before the U.S. official mediating the maritime dispute, Amos Hochstein, was scheduled to meet Lebanese officials in Beirut.

It was issued by Hezbollah's War Media that the group uses to broadcast footage of military operations and battles, and contains images of ships involved in drilling for and extracting hydrocarbons, along with what appear to be their coordinates.

The video begins with the words of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a recent speech in which he warned that "playing with time is not useful" on the maritime issue.

"The message is a serous threat," a top Al-Manar correspondent said on Twitter.

A statement on Saturday by the U.S. State Department said Hochstein's Beirut visit would aim to facilitate talks on the maritime boundary.

"Reaching a resolution is both necessary and possible, but can only be done through negotiations and diplomacy," it said.

Story continues

A senior Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Hochstein would represent a new Israeli proposal that "includes a solution that would allow the Lebanese to develop the gas reserves in the disputed area while preserving Israel's commercial rights".

If this reaches agreement, it would entail "some drilling there" by the Lebanese, the Israeli official said without elaborating.

"The offer that has been relayed is a serious proposal that can transform Lebanon from a country of economic ruin and energy crises to a natural gas-producing country, by enabling it to cultivate this resource," the official said.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Jon Stewart has been blasting Republicans for blocking a bill that would aid veterans exposed to burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The former Daily Show host has appeared on Fox News and Newsmax to speak to right-wing audiences to slam GOP senators for what he says is a disgrace.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz accused Mr Stewart of misrepresenting the bill, saying that Democrats were attempting a budgetary trick in the PACT Act. Mr Cruz voted against the bill despite having said he support its and having said he supports veterans.

What Ted Cruz is describing is inaccurate, not true, bulls***t, Mr Stewart said in a video posted on Twitter, mocking Mr Cruz for saying that the Democrats put discretionary funds in the legislation that they made mandatory.

Mr Cruz was speaking about a budget disagreement initially objected to by retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey. The Pennsylvanian claimed that the legislation would mean that $400bn in already decided spending on veterans wouldnt be controlled by annual congressional appropriations.

Mr Cruz was spotted fist-bumping Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines on the senate floor after the bill went down, enraging Democrats and veterans organisations.

Democrats and Mr Stewart have rejected the claims made by Republicans about the bill. The comedian asked Mr Cruz to specify the $400bn blank check or unrelated spending that was added/snuck in.

Now, Im not a big-city, Harvard-educated lawyer, but I can read, he said in a mocking Southern accent. Its always been mandatory spending, so the government cant just cut off their funding at any point. No trick, no gimmick, been there the whole  time.

Jon, youre a funny guy, and I appreciate your engaging on issues of public policy. Thats a good thing, Mr Cruz said in a video tweeted on Friday, still claiming that he strongly supports the bill and veterans across the country.

But if youre going to do so, the facts matter, he said.

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The bill passed the senate 84-14 on 16 June but was voted down after some changes were made to the legislation in the house, prompting 25 GOP Senators to vote against the bill when it came back to their chamber.

The most despicable part of this whole thing is watching on the Senate floor Ted Cruz fist-bumping and then patting each other on the back when they blocked this bill, Mr Stewart told MSNBC on Friday.

This is the fist bump everyone needs to be talking about.



Ted Cruz and fellow Republicans celebrating after blocking a bill to help toxin-exposed veterans survive. pic.twitter.com/wJvRseE7B4  MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 29, 2022

He said the Republicans who voted against the bill were celebrating their victory over veterans with cancer.

Hes talking about the PACT Act, which is a bill I support. Its a bill most senators support, Mr Cruz told TMZ about Mr Stewarts comments. He claimed the bill was part of the out-of-control spending from the left.

Theres nothing in the bill that is not related to veterans spending.  This is for veterans who suffered health effects from burn pits and other toxins. That is it! Mr Stewart said in his video on Twitter.

Youre wrong here. The bill gives a $400B blank checkseparate from vets carefor unrelated pork that will supercharge inflation. I support the PACT Act & the $679.4B it would dedicate to vets. Its ppl trying to use PACT to shovel more pork who are exploiting vets, Mr Cruz tweeted.

Im not going to blame Jon for not knowing all the facts, Fox News host Jesse Watters said on his programme on Friday. Going forward, lets do this  Ill do the research and Jon Stewart can handle the farming. Its better for everybody that way.

Ah dearest Theodore. I do appreciate you and @JesseBWatters trying to rally the forces of misinformation to try and kill more vetsbut not tonite sweetie. Ill go slow cuz I know you only went to Princeton and Harvard, Mr Stewart responded.

Show everyone what was added/snuck into the Pact Act that YOU voted for on June 16, that made you change to No in July. Be specific. Or were you for the bill before you were against it Senator KerryI mean Cruz. Next  Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) July 30, 2022

This isnt a game. Real peoples lives hang in the balancepeople that fought for your life. The PACT act you voted for, then inexplicably shot down is the same one Senators Tester and Moran posted online in MAY. Which you read cuz yer shmart.  Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) July 30, 2022

This isnt a game. Real peoples lives hang in the balancepeople that fought for your life. The PACT act you voted for, then inexplicably shot down is the same one Senators Tester and Moran posted online in MAY. Which you read cuz yer shmart, he added.
Federal legislation designed to help veterans exposed to toxic substances during military service has stalled in Congress after Republican senators blocked it.

The Kansas delegation split on the Wednesday vote.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Manhattan, pleaded with colleagues to support the legislation. Moran is the top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

"We should not let this moment pass," Moran said in a floor speech. "There are veterans who are dying every day. There are veterans who have died since this legislation was introduced."

The legislation is intended to make it easier for veterans sickened by burn pits used to incinerate waste to access health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Moran has long fought to address treatment for veterans exposed to toxins.

The bill is formally known as the Sergeant First Class (SFC) Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022. It previously passed the Senate last month on a bipartisan 84-14 vote. All nays were Republicans.

After undergoing technical corrections to drafting errors and a change in bill numbers, it passed the House in a 342-88 vote and was sent back to the Senate.

The Kansas delegation was split in the House. Sharice Davids, D-Shawnee, and Jake LaTurner, R-Topeka, voted for the bill. Ron Estes, R-Wichita, and Tracey Mann, R-Salina, voted against it.

The bill failed a procedural vote to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold when 41 Republicans opposed it.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, flipped after previously supporting the bill.

"As written, there is language in this bill that creates an opportunity for $400 billion to be spent on priorities totally unrelated to veterans," a Marshall spokesperson said Friday in an emailed statement.

"Senator Marshall is seeking to modify the legislation to remove that reckless spending in a way that would not reduce spending on veterans by even $1. At a time of record inflation and news we are in a recession, decreasing spending should be top of mind. Senator Marshall previously supported final passage and will work to ensure quick passage of the legislation with this budgetary issue addressed."

Story continues

Advocates push for action before Senate recess

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran talks with members of American Legion riders outside of the Kansas Statehouse at a December at a memorial service for Bob Dole. Moran has been a military veterans advocate and has fought for legislation on toxic burn pits.

Marshall wasn't alone in citing financial concerns, but some Democrats contend that veterans became collateral damage in Republican opposition to a unrelated budget reconciliation measure. That plan would include spending on energy, climate and health insurance.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana and the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, accused Republicans of robbing veterans of medical benefits. "More veterans will suffer and die as a result," he said in the statement.

"Dozens of Senate Republicans turned their backs on our nation's veterans and robbed them their hard-earned care and benefits," Tester said in a tweet. "This is a slap in the face of every member of our all-volunteer military."

Former "Daily Show" comedian Jon Stewart delivered an expletive-laden speech at a Thursday news conference putting public pressure on Congress. He was critical of Republicans who labeled it a $400 billion slush fund.

"That's nonsense," Stewart said.

He said politicians support the war machine, not the troops.

"They haven't met a war they won't sign up for and they haven't met a veteran they won't screw over," Stewart said.

Even if the PACT Act passes, veterans will continue to struggle, Stewart said.

"All it means is they won't have to decide between their cancer drugs and their house," he said.

Gov. Laura Kelly has backed the bill, noting her role as commander in chief of the Kansas National Guard.

"I stand with @JerryMoran and @RepDavids in supporting expanding essential health care for our veterans exposed to toxins," Kelly said in a Friday tweet. "Senators from both sides of the aisle need to work together to pass the PACT Act immediately  and not jeopardize the wellbeing of our country's bravest."

I stand with @JerryMoran and @RepDavids in supporting expanding essential health care for our veterans exposed to toxins. Senators from both sides of the aisle need to work together to pass the PACT Act immediately -- and not jeopardize the wellbeing of our country's bravest. https://t.co/ZQmdDjdB1W  Governor Laura Kelly (@GovLauraKelly) July 29, 2022

Moran urged his colleagues to resolve their differences so that the legislation could pass.

"The work that needs to be accomplished today, now, this week, is the passage of the PACT Act," he said, "so that our veterans who are encountering significant medical challenges have the care and benefits that come from being a veteran."

Advocates had been hopeful that Congress would send the legislation to President Joe Biden before the Senate starts a month-long recess Tuesday.

"You're not allowed to just leave your post when the mission isn't completed," Stewart said of soldiers, contrasting it with senators who may soon go on vacation.

Obligation to fund health care benefits

"This major piece of legislation that has been a long time coming," Moran said. "Way too long, in meeting the needs of those veterans who served now a long time ago in Vietnam, and in Southeast Asia, and our veterans who more recently served in Iraq and Afghanistan."

For the 21st century wars in the Middle East, burn pits have been identified as a source of toxic exposure. For Vietnam, it was Agent Orange.

Toxic exposures have presented difficulties for veterans in accessing health care because often the negative affects weren't immediate. The bill would expand VA health benefits to more than 3.5 million veterans.

"Veterans have waited for a long time," Moran said. "The process to date has been so slow. The legislative efforts, while they have occurred, were never sufficient to meet the needs of those who served our nation."

Further, he said, the Department of Veterans Affairs delayed helping people who "were not receiving the medical care that they deserved and not being able to acquire the financial benefits that come from being disabled as a result of military service."

Moran said military service members are owed the promises the country made.

"We then have an obligation not only to fund the military activities," he said, "but to fund the programs and benefits that are necessary to care for those who served, who as a result of their service, are damaged mentally, physically, socially and emotionally."

Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Senate, Kansans Jerry Moran, Roger Marshall on toxic burn pit bill
A total of 2,043.5 km of new railway lines were put into operation across China in the first half of 2022 (H1), according to the country's railway operator.

This includes some 995.9 km of new high-speed tracks, data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.

About 1,462.2 km of new railway lines were put into service in June alone, accounting for over 70 percent of the total new railways launched in the first six months of the year, the company said.

China plans to launch new rail lines totaling 3,300 kilometers this year, according to the Ministry of Transport. By the end of last year, the operating length of China's high-speed railway network exceeded 40,000 kilometers.
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - At least 32 people were killed in Madagascar in an area north of the capital on Friday after local bandits known as "dahalo" set homes on fire, according to statements by the defence ministry.

The killings occurred in Ankazobe district, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) north of the capital Antananarivo overnight into Friday.

"People here experienced a real tragedy ... many lives were lost. 32 people died. It is a crime perpetrated by ruthless dahalo (bandits) who burned alive even women and children," Defence Minister General Richard Rakotonirina said in a video posted on the ministry's Facebook page late on Saturday said.

The "dahalo" are organised criminal gangs in parts of Madagascar that steal cattle from community members and orchestrate other various forms of banditry.

"We will hunt down those who committed this crime and their accomplices," Rakotonirina said, adding security forces had been deployed to the area to hunt down the perpetrators.

He added the attack on the area was likely revenge by the "dahalo" against community members for providing information to security personnel during previous operations against them.

(Reporting by Lovasoa Rabary; writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Tuesday, Aug. 2 is the FDAs deadline for comments regarding its proposed rules to end the sale of all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. I encourage Indiana residents to speak up and comment in support of these rules.

Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Indiana, killing 11,070 residents each year. Menthol cigarettes make it easier to start smoking and harder to quit. That is why flavors, including menthol, are one of the primary reasons kids start using tobacco products. Close to half of all youth who smoke begin with menthol cigarettes. It is estimated that nationally, one-third of all people who smoke use menthol cigarettes.

For me, I remember family gatherings where the air would be filled with menthol smoke. As children, we had no say in breathing in the harmful secondhand smoke. Most of my cousins from my generation have dodged the menthol bullet, however, a handful picked up the deadly addiction.

We have a tremendous opportunity to save lives in Indiana. Join us to share your voice at Lung.org/ ActonMenthol .

Tiffany Nichols

Advocacy director, American Lung Association in Indiana

We were wrong

I have something to say about the many articles on the recent heat wave.I was president of the College Republicans club when I went to the University of Cincinnati, and I have been a loyal Republican ever since.We Republicans were wrong. Over the past two to three years, Ive come to believe in climate change. The politicians lied to us, the media lied to us, the talking heads on TV lied to us. The crops suffering from too much rain one season and then too little the next never lied to us. The snow pack never lied to us. Thermometers never lied to us.Its been hard to admit I was wrong, that climate change is real, and then think about what this will do to my granddaughters. But sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing. Or at least thats what my Dad told me, and he was usually right.I emailed my congressmen and told them that I want them to do something about climate change. I hope youll join me.

Story continues

Dan Anderson

Elkhart

Avert an accident

I recently traveled to South Bend to drop off my child for a program at the University of Notre Dame. I cannot help but notice the danger faced by motorists and pedestrians alike in the intersection of Vanessa Street and South Bend Avenue.

This intersection needs a traffic light. The town should not wait until there is a tragedy before taking action. The lives of students and residents of this great community are valuable. Please kindly avert an accident by taking prompt action.

Oladele OluwakuyideUnion, N.J.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Support the proposed rules to end the sale of all menthol cigarettes.
In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Howden Joinery Group Plc (LON:HWDN) by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for Howden Joinery Group

The Calculation

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 Levered FCF (, Millions) UK261.3m UK261.1m UK261.7m UK262.8m UK264.4m UK266.2m UK268.2m UK270.4m UK272.7m UK275.1m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x9 Analyst x8 Est @ 0.23% Est @ 0.44% Est @ 0.59% Est @ 0.69% Est @ 0.76% Est @ 0.81% Est @ 0.85% Est @ 0.87% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 6.4% UK246 UK231 UK217 UK205 UK194 UK184 UK174 UK165 UK156 UK148

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK1.9b

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The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 0.9%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 6.4%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2032  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK275m (1 + 0.9%)  (6.4% 0.9%) = UK5.1b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK5.1b ( 1 + 6.4%)10= UK2.7b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is UK4.7b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK6.8, the company appears about fair value at a 19% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

Important Assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Howden Joinery Group as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.4%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.126. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Looking Ahead:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Howden Joinery Group, there are three pertinent aspects you should explore:

Risks: Case in point, we've spotted 2 warning signs for Howden Joinery Group you should be aware of, and 1 of them shouldn't be ignored. Management:Have insiders been ramping up their shares to take advantage of the market's sentiment for HWDN's future outlook? Check out our management and board analysis with insights on CEO compensation and governance factors. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every British stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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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A man with an AK47 assault rifle was arrested outside the home of Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad, according to the New York Post.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday outside a Brooklyn, New York residence, court documents state.

Khalid Mehdiyev, 23, was detained outside the home with the rifle, a high-capacity magazine, and $1,000 in cash.

The federal complaint states that he was arrested after lingering outside the residence for two days.

The complaint doesnt outline any connection between the suspect and Ms Alinejad. It says that Mr Mehdiyev had been concentrating on an unidentified Brooklyn home.

Law enforcement watched the suspect sitting in a grey Subaru Forester SUV with an Illinois license plate for hours on Wednesday and Thursday.

The federal authorities said he ordered food to the vehicle, looked through the windows and tried to open the front door of the home.

He was stopped by the NYPD on Thursday after rolling through a stop sign. It was discovered that he was driving without a license and he was arrested.

Searching the car, police found the loaded rifle, several magazines, further rounds of ammo, a bag with cash, and two other license plates, according to the New York Post.

The suspect told police that he had been living in Yonkers, but that the rent was too high and that he was looking for a new place to live in Brooklyn.

He claimed to have tried to open the front door to knock on an inside door to ask if he could rent a room in the home.

At first, he told police that he had borrowed the vehicle and that he didnt know anything about the firearm, adding that the bag with cash wasnt his.

The complaint states that he later acknowledged that he was the owner of the rifle and that he had been in the area because he was looking for someone.

Ms Alinejad spoke out last year after she allegedly was the target of a wild, elaborate plot by Iran to use a speedboat to kidnap her in New York.

Federal prosecutors said at the time that they had charged four Iranians with plotting to kidnap the journalist and activist, who lives in Brooklyn and is an outspoken critic of the Iranian government. An American-Iranian who lives in California was arrested earlier in July 2021 and charged with providing funds to the plot.

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An indictment released by prosecutors said four Iranian agents had hired a New York-based private investigator, under false pretences, to film Ms Alinejad and other family. They said they also researched the option of spiriting her away from the city on a speedboat, and possibly taking her to Venezuela, a nation with friendly relations with Iran.

Ms Alinejad told the press last summer that she would not let the plot silence or intimidate her.

The Republic is that close to me  even here in Brooklyn, she said at the time, speaking to CBS News. And this is the nature of the Islamic Republic, kidnapping the dissidents and executing them.

Yet, she said she would not stop her work, which draws an enormous audience on social media.

Asked if she was going to continue writing, she said: Oh yeah, I am not going to give up.

Indeed, she suggested the fact that the authorities were keen to silence her, shows the government in Iran is scared of me. She added: It gives me hope that the government is scared of the voice of people, because Im the voice of people.

Prosecutors said the plot to snatch Ms Alinejad was part of a broader scheme to lure three individuals in Canada and a fifth person in the United Kingdom, along with individuals in the United Arab Emirates, to Iran.

It said the idea of using a speedboat only was raised after efforts to persuade Ms Alinejad to trick her to visit a third country, in the Middle East, had failed.

Even investigators appeared to concede there was something of a fantastical element to the plot, with William Sweeney, the head of New Yorks FBI office, telling The Guardian last year that the charges had the ring of some far-fetched movie plot.
VALENTYNA ROMANENKO  SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2022, 15:55

An anti-aircraft missile unit of the Ukrainian Air Force has shot down a Russian drone.

Source: Air Force Command Tsentr (Centre) on Facebook

Details: The anti-aircraft missile unit of the Ukrainian Air Force in central Ukraine has shot down and "grounded" a Russian drone (likely, a Ptero-type drone) while carrying out combat missions in an undisclosed location.

The Air Force notes that this drone looks similar to an Orlan-10 UAV; it is likely that the drone was conducting aerial reconnaissance in order to help Russian forces adjust their artillery fire.

The Ukrainian soldiers from the anti-aircraft missile unit captioned the video of the strike on the Russian drone as follows: "Forgive us, dear sunflowersWe must strike these bastards down in order to draw closer to our victory."

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda!




US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 29 Jul 22

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is beginning a tour of Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, her office says - with no mention of a possible visit to Taiwan.

There has been intense speculation that she may visit the self-ruled island.

Taiwan is claimed by China - which has warned of "serious consequences" if she goes there.

No high-ranking US elected official has visited Taiwan in 25 years.

Ms Pelosi, a California Democrat, tweeted that the six-person Congressional delegation tour would seek to "reaffirm America's unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region".

Her office said the tour was to the "Indo-Pacific region" - "including" visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must become a part of the country. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this in the future.

Chinese officials have expressed anger over what they view as growing diplomatic engagement between Taipei and Washington. There was a surprise visit to the island by six US lawmakers in April.

The US has formal diplomatic ties with China, and not Taiwan.

Ms Pelosi has long been a vocal critic of the Chinese leadership, denouncing its human rights record. She has met pro-democracy dissidents and visited Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre.

Her original plan was to visit Taiwan in April, but she postponed the trip after she tested positive for Covid-19.

Earlier this month she said it was "important for us to show support for Taiwan".

President Joe Biden has said the US military believes a Pelosi visit to Taiwan is "not a good idea right now".

The statement from her office on Sunday said the tour would "focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region".

Their talks will also cover trade, the climate crisis and human rights.

The delegates accompanying Ms Pelosi are leading members of the House of Representatives: Gregory Meeks, Mark Takano, Suzan DelBene, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Andy Kim.

The last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Republican Newt Gingrich, in 1997.
Octopus Energy

Octopus Energy is seeking 1bn in taxpayer funding to take over collapsed rival Bulb from the UK government.

Bulb has been bailed out by the state and is being run by an administrator since going bust last November.

The 1bn funding is part of a package being discussed where Octopus would also pay more than 100m for Bulb's customers as well as entering a profit-sharing deal with the government.

The government declined to comment "due to commercial sensitivity".

The state bailout of Bulb is already expected to cost the taxpayer around 2bn by next year. But the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government's independent forecaster, said in March: "Given the volatility in global energy markets, there remains uncertainty around the final cost."

It is understood that the additional 1bn being sought by Octopus, which was first reported by Sky News, would be paid back in full over time.

It would be used to purchase energy in advance through a practice known as hedging.

Octopus Energy declined to comment.

Since Bulb's collapse in November, the price of wholesale gas has jumped by 78%, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine and the Kremlin's decision to reduce energy supplies to Europe.

Since Ofgem took over the running of Bulb, it has not been hedging its purchases of wholesale energy which sources said has led to higher costs.

Millions of UK households are bracing for a further steep rise in energy bills later this year.

Ofgem had expected the typical household to see an 800 increase in energy bills to 2,800 a year. But it recently said it would be higher and energy industry analysts Cornwall Insight said the typical domestic customer was likely to pay 3,244 a year from October.

Bulb was one of more than 30 energy companies that collapsed last year following a spike in wholesale gas prices.

Bulb, with 1.6 million customers, was the biggest firm to go bust but Ofgem estimates that the cost of all the other energy companies which collapsed in 2021 could reach 2.7bn - or 94 per customer. It includes the cost of transferring customers from failed energy providers to new firms.

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The 2.7bn figure is in addition to the billions of pounds earmarked for Bulb which, according to the National Audit Office, has already seen the government spend 900m to keep the company running.

Octopus was the only bidder for Bulb, which filed for administration last year, and if a deal is agreed, it would significantly boost Octopus's 3.1 million customer base.

The government has announced that households in England, Scotland and Wales will receive 400 to help with rising fuel bills in autumn.

Tory leadership contenders Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have also promised to reduce household energy bills.

Foreign Secretary Ms Truss said she would temporarily axe green energy taxes, which would save around 153 per year, while former chancellor Mr Sunak pledged to cut VAT on bills, a saving of around 160 per year.
A woman who pleaded guilty to setting fire to police cars amid the 2020 racial justice protests in Philadelphia has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that since 35-year-old Lore-Elizabeth Blumenthal of Jenkintown has been in custody since her arrest two years ago, she could be released in a matter of months.

Blumenthal pleaded guilty to two counts of obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder related to throwing a piece of burning police barrier at a police car.

Police used photos from the protest and social media profiles to find her.

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As cases of monkeypox surge around the globe, four pioneers of the AIDS activist movement watch in awe and with a sense of nostalgia.

Some of the similarities between the two viruses speak for themselves. Like the HIV strain that started the AIDS pandemic in the late 1970s, the current monkeypox outbreak has emerged from sub-Saharan Africa and has been found overwhelmingly in men who have sex with men who live in the worlds metropolises. And while epidemiologists have not reached a complete understanding of how the current outbreak of monkeypox spreads, recent research points to sexual transmission.

Four pioneering AIDS activists of the 1980s and 90s contend that there are other, consequential yet less obvious parallels playing out in real-time.

Image: People hold up signs representing the numbers of AIDS victims in a demonstration in support of AIDS victims in Central Park in New York City on Aug. 8, 1983. (Allan Tannenbaum / Getty Images file)

As in the early days of the AIDS crisis, they argue, government messaging around the outbreak has been flawed, gay men have been blindsided and public health officials have failed to defeat a severe disease plaguing the LGBTQ community.

It feels like deja vu, said gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, who was a leading member of the Gay Liberation Front in the United Kingdom. The lessons from the AIDS crisis and Covid have clearly not been learned.

Public health officials around the world were slow to combat AIDS when it first began to emerge in men who have sex with men during the late 1970s. It wasnt until June 5, 1981, that the United States released the worlds first government report on the infectious disease in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a government bulletin on perplexing disease cases.

In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California, the report read. Two of the patients died.

Three years later, the U.S. government announced the development of an AIDS test, in addition to a vaccine, which never came to fruition. By 1985, an estimated 12,000 Americans had died of the disease.

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Similarly, activists argue that the global response to tame monkeypox has been too slow to curb ballooning case numbers  more than 20,500 cases of the current monkeypox outbreak have been reported globally across 77 countries and territories since the start of May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No one has died from monkeypox outside the 11 African nations where the infectious disease has become endemic since it was discovered in 1970. However, a substantial proportion of patients infected with monkeypox have been hospitalized for severe pain caused by pimple-like sores that commonly develop.

Since the first cases were discovered in May, the United States has distributed nearly 200,000 Jynneos vaccines  a two-dose vaccine to prevent smallpox and monkeypox  to the most at-risk population, which falls far short of its roughly 3.8 million gay men. In France, only an estimated 6,000 people have been vaccinated across more than 100 vaccine centers in recent weeks, French Minister of Social Affairs and Health Francois Braun said on Monday. And in the United Kingdom, health officials ordered an additional 100,000 vaccine doses last week to keep up with burgeoning demand.

Last Saturday, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, a designation reserved for the most threatening global disease outbreaks, after initially forgoing to do so last month. More than two months after the first U.S. case of monkeypox was detected in mid-May, on Thursday public health officials in New York City issued a declaration that the infectious disease posed an imminent threat to public health, and officials in San Francisco declared a state of emergency.

Whats interesting is that many of the scientists and clinicians who were trained during the AIDS epidemic or were there at the beginning, people like Tony Fauci, know this history, but the response to monkeypox has been alarmingly slow and chaotic, said Gregg Gonsalves, who joined Act Up  the leading group that fought for action to combat AIDS  in 1990 and is now a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. As an individual, its like, Three strikes youre out, man. HIV, Covid and now monkeypox? How many times can you make the same mistakes over and over again?

Representatives from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Dr. Anthony Fauci has directed since 1984, and officials from the White House, where Fauci serves as the chief medical adviser to the president, did not immediately respond to NBC News requests for comment.

Images of men waiting in long lines outside clinics around the world to get vaccinated, technical issues with online vaccine portals and reports that accused the U.S. government of developing a wait-and-see response to the outbreak  reportedly calling for shipments of vaccines only as cases surged in the last handful of weeks  have piled on to activists fears that the public health response to monkeypox is shaping up to be a repeat of its flawed strategy to combat AIDS.

People lined up outside of Department of Health & Mental Hygiene clinic on June 23, 2022 in New York, as NYC makes vaccines available to residents possibly exposed to monkeypox. (Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Although the virus started spreading in May, the U.S. didnt order more doses of the monkeypox vaccine to add to its stockpile until June. Regulators also had not finished inspecting a key Denmark facility manufacturing monkeypox vaccines until July, leaving 1.1 million ready-to-distribute doses stuck in Europe.

Just like during the AIDS pandemic, it seems that some governments care very little so long as monkeypox is just affecting men who have sex with men, said Tatchell, who was turned away from a hospital in London that had run out of monkeypox vaccine last Sunday. What other explanation can there be? Governments should have been rolling out emergency vaccination programs for gay and bisexual men two or three weeks ago.

Some veteran AIDS activists also argue that as during the AIDS crisis, the messaging to combat monkeypox has not been tailored enough to reach the LGBTQ community.

Ron Goldberg, an early AIDS activist who joined Act Up in 1987, points to the America Responds to AIDS public service announcement campaign, which the government launched at the height of the crisis in the late 1980s. Many of the commercials featured heterosexual couples and displayed messages including AIDS Is Everyones Problem.

At that time, they were so afraid of talking about gay sex, or anything like that, they had to bland out the message when they were trying to give some information, Goldberg said. If its happening within a certain population, you have to direct your messaging to that certain population.

Activists have largely applauded public health officials efforts to not link monkeypox directly to the LGBTQ community  as many believe they did with AIDS  and thereby create stigma. However, some argue that repeated statements from public health officials that anyone can get monkeypox mirrors AIDS messaging that anyone can get the AIDS virus and also circumvents efforts to alert the demographic most at risk.

Research overwhelmingly suggests that the current outbreak of monkeypox is being driven overwhelmingly by men who have sex with men. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine published last week found that of the 528 cases of monkeypox researchers analyzed, 98% were found in men who identified as gay or bisexual. Another recent report by the the British Health Security Agency finding that of the 699 monkeypox cases for which there was available information, 97% were in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men.

The numbers are there, said Didier Lastrade, who founded the first French chapter of Act Up in 1989. We shouldnt shy away from this.  Were big people, were grown-ups, we can take it. The stigmatization is happening either way.

On Thursday, the WHO recommended that gay and bisexual men limit their number of sexual partners to protect themselves from monkeypox and contain its spread.

But compiled with two years of pandemic isolation and big summer events, such as last weekends annual Pines Party on Fire Island, some activists fear it will be difficult to get gay and bisexual men to curtail their sexual behaviors.

You want to be able to reach people in their 20s and 30s and say, Look, this is no joke. Youve all seen the pictures. Youve all had friends who have had monkeypox. You dont want it, Gonsalves said.

More broadly speaking, Lastrade argued, the advent of pre-exposure prophylaxis, the HIV prevention pill (also known as PrEP), along with scientific proof over the past decade that treating HIV can prevent transmission, have caused gay and bisexual men to fall asleep at the wheel when it comes to their sexual health.

The new generation totally forgot about the story of AIDS. I keep on writing books about AIDS but nobody reads them, said Lastrade. When s happens, they forget their reflexes that we used to have because it was a question of life or death.

Regardless of the messaging, with a lackluster global vaccine rollout, the activists fear the virus will become an infectious disease the LGBTQ community has to permanently live with, as it did with AIDS decades ago.

Many people are saying were past the point of containment, that we already missed our chance, Gonsalves said. If thats true, that is incredibly serious because this disease doesnt necessarily kill, but the enormous suffering and expense of all of this is going to put a burden on many, many people, many, many health systems and many, many communities who have been already plagued.

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Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said: 'We've got ourselves involved in stuff which is just not a policing matter' - Heathcliff O'Malley for The Telegraph

Police should stop wasting time investigating when people are offended, a senior police chief has said.

Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester, admitted police had been overzealous in recording trivial online spats and legitimate debate as hate incidents at the expense of tackling mainstream crimes.

I do think that the balance has got somewhere out of kilter, said Mr Watson, who last week revealed how his back to basics approach to crime-fighting had turned his failing force into the most improved in Britain.

Weve become too assiduous at interpreting some of the rules to mean that if anybody at any time for whatever reason is offended, there somehow needs to be a police record.

Weve got ourselves involved in stuff which is just not a policing matter, weve wasted our time as a result and weve caused people to question whether, frankly, we know what were doing.

He added: In certain circumstances, there are actually first-class examples of where weve just completely got this wrong.

One case involved a Bedfordshire man who ended up with a police file for whistling the theme tune to Bob the Builder at his neighbour, who perceived racial hatred.

Earlier this year Harry Miller, a retired policeman who was visited by his local force after tweeting about transgender rights, won a battle over free speech with the College of Policing. The Court of Appeal ruled the guidance breached Mr Millers human rights.

Harry MIller at the Court of Appeal, where he won a free speech battle with the College of Policing - John Nguyen/JNVisuals

Mr Watson welcomed revised guidance by the College of Policing, the national standards body, as a move in the right direction. It has decreed that police officers should no longer investigate legitimate debate or treat trivial online spats as hate incidents.

The guidance, hailed as a victory for free speech, said people contributing to political and social debate must not be stigmatised simply because someone is offended.

Mr Watson warned that without changes, police credibility would be undermined. He said: As with all things in life, theres a careful calibration required, because I do understand why people will say: Well, if its not a crime, then why are you bothering recording it, because surely thats nothing to do with police?

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He said he hoped officers could be empowered to apply their own common sense. It is, I think, the function of leadership to give our people the confidence that it is still okay, from time to time to say to people: its just not a police matter, that is nonsense, he said.

Thats called being a grown-up in a democracy where we sometimes have vigorous discourse, and you just need to get with the programme or stop using social media. We need to encourage our people to have the confidence to do that.

But Mr Watson also accepted police needed to be wary that there could be a grey area  citing the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled daughter, Francecca, after police failed to take action on 10 years of harassment by local youths.

Fiona Pilkington, left, killed herself and her daughter Francecca, right, after police failed to take action on 10 years of harassment by local youths - Leicestershire Constabulary/PA wire

It can be the case that these things arent always clear cut, he said, adding that the Pilkington case is an example where the problem was that we had no record of what was happening in that dynamic, and we did not intervene. He also said: Eventually, there was a dreadful outcome to that particular case.
China's Qinghai has generated nearly 9.98 billion kWh of electricity using clean energy during a 35-day "green power" campaign, equivalent to saving over 4.53 million tonnes of raw coal or slashing 8.16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.







Produced by Xinhua Global Service
President Xi Jinping has stressed promoting the unity and hard work of Chinese people at home and abroad to pool strength for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.



Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a central conference on the united front work held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing.

Xi emphasized following the guidance of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and upholding the CPC leadership and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Xi underscored holding high the banner of patriotism and socialism, balancing commonality and diversity, concentrating on the central task, serving the overall interests of the country, keeping pace with the times, and innovating on the basis of what has worked in the past.

He also emphasized giving full play to the united front's political role in rallying the people's support and pooling their strength to promote harmony in relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religious sectors, social strata, and compatriots at home and abroad.

Li Keqiang presided over the conference, which was also attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Yang delivered concluding remarks.

The united front is an important component of the Party's general line and policy, said Xi, noting that the CPC has made historic achievements in the united front work since the 18th CPC National Congress.

We have formed the thought on the Party's united front work in the new era through practice. It serves as the fundamental guideline for the united front work in the new era and must be fully and faithfully applied by the whole Party, Xi stressed.

As an important way to unite Chinese people at home and abroad to achieve national rejuvenation, the united front must be upheld on a long-term basis, he said.

Xi pointed out that the essential requirement of the united front work is to achieve great unity and solidarity, and the key lies in seeking common ground while shelving differences and seeking commonality while respecting diversity.

Xi also underscored the importance of ensuring the Party's overall leadership over the united front work.

Noting that profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly across the world, Xi said the united front is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security, and development interests.

It is also playing a more important role in serving the overall interests in efforts to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects, and in strengthening the Party's class foundation and expanding its mass base, he added.

Xi stressed efforts to truly unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation from different political parties, ethnic groups, social strata and groups, as well as those with different beliefs and living in different social systems.

The relationship between unity and struggle in the united front work must be properly handled, so as to reach a real, impregnable unity, Xi said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has always been attaching great importance to the united front work from an overall and strategic perspective.

Xi called for upholding and improving the system of the CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, uniting non-CPC intellectuals and people of new social groups, facilitating the healthy growth of the non-public sector and encouraging those working in this sector to achieve success.

He also called for fostering overseas patriotic elements and enhancing cyberspace united front work.

The fundamental requirement in strengthening the united front work in the new era is to uphold the Party's leadership, Xi said, calling on all relevant authorities and departments to form a strong synergy.

He also asked personnel in this regard to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation and carry out the united front work with better methods.

Presiding over the conference, Li Keqiang called for efforts to earnestly study Xi's important speech, and think and act in line with its guiding principles. Li also called for completing various tasks based on actual conditions.

In his concluding remarks at the conference, Wang Yang called for full and faithful understanding of Xi's important thought on the Party's united front work in the new era. Wang urged concerted efforts to serve the Party's central task in the new era and write a new chapter in the cause of the united front.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  Jurickson Profar wasn't biting.

Shortly after helping San Diego beat the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins 3-2, the Padres' leadoff hitter was peppered with questions about Tuesday's trade deadline.

The Padres are reportedly among the handful of teams making a strong bid for Washington Nationals superstar Juan Soto, and have expressed interest Willson Contreras and Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs. The Padres expect star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. back sometime in the next several weeks, but their inconsistent offense can use help as they try to hang on in the NL wild-card race.

What's the vibe in the clubhouse with the trade deadline approaching?

Just go out there and play baseball. That's what they pay us to do, Profar said. I love playing baseball and I always come here ready to play baseball.

Could the Padres use an infusion of good players?

I just play baseball, thats it, Profar said with a laugh. I pay a little attention, but at the end of the day I come here ready to help this team win.

That, he did. Profar homered for the second straight game and had a hand in the go-ahead rally in the sixth inning.

That rally backed Sean Manaea (6-5), who overcame home runs by Luis Arraez and Jose Miranda to get the win. Luis Garcia pitched a perfect ninth for his first save. The Padres are giving Taylor Rogers a break from the closer role after he blew consecutive saves last week against Detroit.

The Padres won a series against a division leader for the second time since the All-Star break. They won two of three at the New York Mets before losing two of three at Detroit.

We came out of the break playing very good baseball, Profar said. We played very good against the Mets and we let some games slip away from us in Detroit, but we played against a really good team this series and we took two games out of three. Its pretty good."

Profar homered off Dylan Bundy (6-5) with two outs in the third for a 1-0 lead. It was his 11th.

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The Twins came back with homers by Arraez leading off the fifth, his sixth, and Miranda with one out in the sixth, his 10th.

The Padres took the lead while chasing Bundy during a sixth-inning rally. Trent Grisham and Profar opened the inning with consecutive singles to run Bundy, who was replaced by former Padres reliever Emilio Pagan. After Manny Machado lined out to center, Jake Cronenworth singled in the tying run and Luke Voit singled in the go-ahead run.

Thats the way we should be playing every night," Profar said. "Thats what I expect out of this team.

Manaea allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, struck out seven and walked three.

Bundy gave up three runs and four hits in five-plus innings, struck out three and walked none.

Padres manager Bob Melvin was ejected for arguing with first base umpire Jerry Layne in the fifth inning after a call was overturned after video review. Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer caught Byron Buxton's foul ball up against the netting, but the Twins challenged and the call was overturned, with the ruling that the ball hit the netting on the way down.

Buxton eventually struck out and Carlos Correa was intentionally walked to load the bases before Jorge Polanco hit into a force to end the inning.

I don't know what happened there, Melvin said. It looked like he caught it so I was just asking for clarification. I've been given clarification before, I've been thrown out before doing that."

It was a good win for us, a good series win, said Hosmer, who might be on the trade block. It's a good team over there. Anytime from this point on that we can win series is kind of our goal, it's where we want to be. We knew this one was going to be a big one today.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Padres: Melvin said OF Wil Myers is expected to be back Monday after being sidelined since early June with right knee inflammation, although he might not be activated until Tuesday.

UP NEXT

Twins: Haven't named a starter for Monday night's opener of a home series against Detroit.

Padres: RHP Mike Clevinger (2-3, 3.38) is scheduled to start Monday night in the opener of a five-game home series against the Rockies, who will counter with Antonio Senzatela (3-5, 4.90).

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
A professor shot and killed an 18-year-old student following an argument with another man at a restaurant in Georgia, police said.

Richard Sigman, 47, of Carrollton was arrested and charged with murder on Saturday, July 30, after police say he fatally shot Anna Jones. The University of West Georgia, where news outlets report Sigman was a professor, said in a statement to CBS46 that Sigman has been terminated.

Sigman is also charged with three counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and was booked into the Carroll County Jail, the Carrollton Police Department said in a news release.

Just before 12:30 a.m. July 30, police said officers were called to a hospital in regards to a woman who had been shot in the courthouse parking deck in Carrollton.

Police said preliminary information indicated Sigman and another man got into a verbal altercation at the restaurant in Carrollton and the man told security Sigman had threatened to shoot him. Security told Sigman to leave after seeing he had a weapon, according to police.

Sigman then walked into the parking deck and started shooting into a parked vehicle, hitting Jones, police said.

Friends rushed Jones to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.

The University of West Georgia told 11Alive that Jones, who was from Carrollton, was a freshman at the school.

Dr. Brendan Kelly, president of the University of West Georgia, said in a statement to WSBTV that on behalf of the university, we wish to convey our deepest condolences to Annas family and many friends.

We know this news is difficult to process and affects many members of our university community, Kelly said, according to the outlet. We ask that you keep Annas family, friends, and all who have been touched by this tragedy in your thoughts during this tremendously difficult time.

Jones was also a recent graduate of Mount Zion High School.

Anna loved this school and this community and she will be missed dearly by many, the school said in a Facebook post. Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this difficult time.

Story continues

The university said in its statement to CBS46 that it is working with the police department on its investigation.

Police ask anyone with information to call 770-834-4451.

Carrollton is about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta.

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The Daily Beast

NewsmaxNewsmax host Eric Bolling pounced on Laura Ingrahams apparent skepticism of former President Donald Trumps potential run for office, using the opportunity to knock his former Fox News colleague and the network itself.Regarding another Trump presidential campaign, Ingraham said on a podcast Monday that well see whether thats what the country wants.The country, I think, is so exhausted, theyre exhausted by the battle, the constant battle, that they may believe that, well, maybe its
Relatives of Ukrainian PoWs killed in Olenivka, protest in Kyiv on July 30

To be clear, our request to access the POWs from Olenivka penal facility yesterday has not been granted, the message said.

Granting ICRC access to POWs is an obligation of parties to conflict under the Geneva Conventions.

Read also: Russia may have used thermobaric weapons in Olenivka to burn Ukrainian POWs in their sleep, says InformNapalm

ICRC reiterated it will continue demanding access to the site of the tragedy.

Earlier on July 31, the Russian Defense Ministry agreed to let UN and ICRC experts examine the Olenivka holding facility.

Russian media claimed on July 29 that Ukraine shelled the penitentiary colony in Olenivka, where Ukrainian POWs  including service members from the Azov Battalion  were being held. According to Moscow, the alleged attack was carried out with U.S.-supplies HIMARS rocket artillery.

At least 53 Ukrainians were killed in the explosion, according to the Kremlin. Ukrainian law enforcement estimates the casualties to be around 40 dead and 130 wounded.

Ukraines General Staff denied Ukrainian responsibility for the attack, suggesting instead that Russia staged a false flag operation in order to conceal the torture and executions of POWs at the facility.

Volunteer media collective InformNapalm says that according to their independent investigation, the impacted site shows no evidence of HIMARS activity, but could have been carried out with a Russian thermobaric weapon instead.

Ukrainian military intelligence said that Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner Group was behind the atrocity, acting on direct orders from its owner Yevgeny Prigozhin  a close ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. According to the report, the explosions occurred at the recently-erected building, two days after Ukrainian POWs from Mariupol were transferred there.

Read also: Relatives of Azovstal defenders call on world community to declare Russia terrorism sponsor after Olenivka attack

Ukraines SBU security service published an intercept of a conversation between Russian military service members, which suggests Moscows forces were indeed behind the act of terror in Olenivka.

ICRC was an intermediary to Mariupol defenders laying down their arms and surrendering to Russian forces in May.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
VALENTYNA ROMANENKO  SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2022, 09:57

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian military has already killed 40,830 Russian invaders, with 160 invaders killed over the past day.

Source: General Staff on Facebook

Details: Total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February and 31 July 2022 are estimated to be [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses - ed.]:

Approximately 40,830 (+160) military personnel

1,763 (+4) tanks

4,0004 (+9) armoured combat vehicles

916 (+10) artillery systems

259 (+1) multiple-launch rocket systems

117 (+0) air defence systems

223 (+1) aircraft

190 (+0) helicopters

735 (+2) operational-tactical UAVs

174 (+0) cruise missiles

15 (+0) ships/boats

2,902 (+13) vehicles and tankers

80 (+2) special vehicles

The General Staff noted that the occupiers suffered their heaviest losses on the Donetsk front. The data is constantly being updated.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Become our patron, support our work!
Russians hit the Myropil community in Sumy Oblast this morning

At around 05:30 a.m., Russian forces opened mortar and artillery fire at our Myropillia, said Zhyvytskyi.

Over 50 hits; a local farm was struck and is currently on fire.

Read also: Russia fired more than 150 shells and rocket at Sumy Oblast

Zhyvytskyi added that further casualty and damage reports are pending.

A previous Russian artillery strike against Sumy Oblast killed one person and left at least two injured on July 30.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Senator Tammy Duckworth in 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth has told Insider that "we cannot rest" as wheelchairs are damaged in travel chaos.

The wheelchair-using senator has said it represents "a complete loss of mobility and independence."

Department of Transportation data shows an average of up to 35.8 wheelchairs are "mishandled" on US flights daily.

Senator Tammy Duckworth has told Insider that "we cannot rest" as many wheelchairs are being broken every day amid the airline chaos.

The Democratic senator from Illinois, who uses a wheelchair, was commenting on the numerous reports of wheelchairs being broken and damaged as airlines struggle to cope with the summer demand.

In an email to Insider, Duckworth said: "We would never accept airlines breaking the legs of 1 in 65 passengers, and yet, that is essentially what is happening when 1 out of 65 wheelchairs are being broken by airlines.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., speaks on Capitol Hill, in Washington. AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

"I know from personal experience that when an airline damages a wheelchair, it's more than a simple inconvenienceit's a complete loss of mobility and independence."

Senator Duckworth has used a wheelchair ever since she lost her legs fighting in the Iraq war when the Blackhawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by an RPG.

Yesterday, Insider reported that American Airlines had been accused of breaking a man's wheelchair and then severely damaging his replacement less than three weeks later.

Earlier this week, Delta forgot to put a passenger's wheelchair onto a flight from New York to Ireland, then broke it on the way home.

"We cannot rest until every airline finally treats our wheelchairs as what they are: complex medical devices, not just suitcases to be tossed around," Senator Duckworth told Insider.

It's not just that wheelchairs are being broken, but the people who use them are being forgotten, too.

An 85-year-old woman was almost hospitalized after she was stranded for 14 hours at the Orlando Airport when no one helped with her wheelchair.

Victoria Brignell, 45, waited over 90 minutes at Gatwick Airport to be assisted off her British Airways flight Victoria Brignell

The problem is prevalent in the UK, too. A disabled woman told Insider was stranded on a plane for a 'demeaning' 95 minutes at London Gatwick airport after staff meant to help her off the flight were a no-show.

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Department of Transportation data shows an average of 35.8 wheelchairs (and scooters) were "mishandled" on US flights daily, a total of 1,110 for the month of May. A year ago, the figure was 601.

The latest figures are for May 2022 and thus don't yet show the full extent of the damages caused by the recent travel chaos.

Senator Duckworth enacted a law that meant that air carriers have to report these figures to the Department of Transportation, with Duckworth telling Insider the public data is important "so we can work to hold them accountable."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Matthew Moczygemba knew something was wrong when he lost his thirst. It was midafternoon on a 103-degree day in Fort Worth, Texas, and the UPS driver had been delivering packages for several hours. Soon he felt dizzy, then he pulled his truck over and vomited onto the curb.

I stopped sweating and was starting to get cold, said Moczygemba, 35, who has worked for UPS for five years. It was a bad feeling.

Moczygemba wound up at a hospital emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with dehydration and heat exhaustion, and gave him several bags of IV fluid, according to medical records.

He was released a few hours later, but he has not returned to work in the nearly three weeks since.

Im nervous about going back, Moczygemba said.

With heat waves rolling out across the country, and states like Texas and Oklahoma experiencing record hot summers, workers exposed to the elements are increasingly struggling under the heat.

More than a dozen UPS employees and union leaders say this year more workers seem to be getting sick and have been hospitalized because of the heat than ever before. In response, they are demanding that the company put more safety measures in place.

Left and right people are falling out, said Jeff Schenfeld, a union steward in Dallas and UPS veteran of 25 years. Something is different this year. Its a lot more people."

UPS workers protest near a company warehouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 28, 2022. (Adiel Kaplan / NBC News)

UPS is the worlds largest package delivery company, and its ubiquitous brown trucks and warehouses are largely without air conditioning. After record earnings last year, the company installed cameras in its delivery trucks but did not change its heat safety protocols, according to the union, compounding long-held grievances about the companys priorities.

The majority of UPS workers, some 350,000 people, are covered by the biggest union contract in North America, which expires next year. Heat protections will be one of the key issues in the upcoming negotiations, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the workers.

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UPS hasnt been proactive at all on the topic of heat, and thats going to have to change, said Sean M. OBrien, general president of the union.

The Teamsters issued a public letter last week outlining a series of steps it says UPS should take immediately to improve the safety of its drivers, given the weather. They include providing fans in every truck (rather than by request), cooling neck towels, consistent supplies of water and ice, more breathable uniforms and hiring more drivers to reduce workload.

By refusing to implement these safety measures, the company is literally sending drivers out to die in the heat, said OBrien.

Video: How climate change is unfolding in real time

In a statement, UPS said its drivers are trained to work outdoors and to manage the effects of hot weather, and that the company provides regular heat illness and injury prevention training for employees, as well as water and ice, as part of its cool solutions program developed with regulators. The company has weekly safety meetings between workers and management, and said it promptly addresses issues when they are brought to its attention.

The health and safety of our employees is our highest priority, said spokesperson Matt OConnor. We never want our employees to continue working to the point that they risk their health or work in an unsafe manner.

Tensions rising

Heat illness, which in severe cases can lead to locked muscles, kidney failure and death, has long been a risk for UPS workers in the summer and a point of contention between the company and its workers, as NBC News has reported. The company's iconic trucks do not have air conditioning, and some are without fans in the front. The warehouse floors and docks, where the companys loaders work, can also get dangerously hot.

The company has previously stated it does not air-condition its fleet of package trucks because frequent stops and the size of the vehicles would render air conditioning ineffective. The same goes for large warehouses with loading-dock doors that are usually left open.

How many of its workers are injured by heat in a given year is difficult to know, worker safety experts say. While workplace safety regulators track severe heat-related injuries, those numbers are generally underreported and only include in-patient hospitalizations. Many workers who go to emergency rooms for heat illness, as Moczygemba did, are never fully admitted and leave the hospital after a few hours, though they may take weeks to recover and return to work.

Some UPS workers say the back of the trucks, which they must go in and out of to retrieve packages, can feel like saunas. Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors have documented heat indexes of 126, and temperature readings taken by workers in their trucks in Arizona and Florida and provided to NBC News show temperatures above 150 degrees.

UPS has taken steps to lessen the heat in its trucks. The company says it has installed venting systems to increase airflow, optimized the roofs for heat reduction and insulation, and provided fans to drivers on request.

This job is physically demanding even without the sun beating down, said Hector Medina, who has delivered UPS packages in the Tampa area for more than 20 years. Theres times you go home and youre brain dead because of the heat.

Medina said this summer feels hotter, but the company does not adjust its workload based on high temperatures.

A temperature reading taken by a driver in the cargo area of a UPS delivery truck on a mid-July afternoon in Florida. (Obtained by NBC News)

The risks for UPS workers and their fight for more protections from the company are emblematic of what workers everywhere  including others in the delivery industry  face with rising temperatures, said Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization that pushes for national heat protections.

But UPS is unique, she said, in its size and extremely detailed procedures for its workers.

Theyre in a uniquely positive position to actually do something about this, because they are so structured, she said.

Many of UPS main competitors employ large numbers of contractors, and have far less union representation, giving UPS thousands of union employees more opportunities to speak out about worker safety issues. This year, tensions between the company and union have been rising amid a steady stream of headlines about UPS drivers collapsing in the heat.

In New York City, the local Teamsters union held a rally Thursday after they said four UPS employees in Long Island and Manhattan went to emergency rooms in two days. Local union president Vincent Perrone announced he was taking the unusual step of pulling all union representatives from weekly safety meetings with the company.

If and when the Company decides to take the safety of our people seriously, I will consider reinstating the committee, he wrote in a public letter.

Some 1,500 miles away, as Oklahoma was pummeled by several weeks straight of record 100-plus degree days, a group of drivers from one UPS center distributed thermometers in early July to collect temperature readings from the front and back of several dozen trucks. On one 103-degree afternoon, they logged 12 different readings between 110 and 127 degrees, according to an NBC review of their data.

There are living animals in the back of my package car, and I dont know that all of those lizards are alive by the time they get to somebodys house, said one of the drivers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

A thermometer on a box of crickets in an Oklahoma UPS truck reads 117 F. (Obtained by NBC News)

Heat deaths

Last August, Jorja Rodriguez lost her son, Jose Cruz Rodriguez, 23, just weeks after he started working for UPS.

On his second day of driving a truck after finishing training in Waco, Texas, Jose Rodriguez texted a supervisor that he was not feeling well. He spoke to his mother around 7:30 p.m., telling her his shift was almost over, but he never clocked out. He was found hours later, lying in a concrete culvert by the facility parking lot. He was pronounced dead at around 2 a.m.

OSHA later ruled that he had died from a heat-related illness, and issued a $14,502 fine, which UPS is contesting.

This could have been prevented, said Rodriguez. My son could still be here. Maybe he could have ended up at the hospital for a few days for dehydration or something, but other than that, I could still have him.

She and her husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against UPS, settling with the company a few months later.

Jorja Rodriguez with her son Jose Cruz Rodriguez (Courtesy Jorja Rodriguez)

David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University who ran OSHA under President Obama, said that heat can lead to fatal conditions, including heart attacks, but an autopsy might not make any mention of its effect. The number of worker heat deaths is severely undercounted, Michaels said.

With its current regulations, OSHAs hands are tied, said Michaels. Only in the most extreme situations, when workers are killed or badly hurt, can OSHA issue a citation because of heat exposure. The agencys fines are rarely more than $15,000, and many are ultimately dropped after companies contest them.

OSHA has begun an effort to inspect more often for heat-related dangers and is working on creating heat-specific worker protections, but those will take years to institute.

With the climate crisis, the summers are getting hotter, and if employers dont better protect workers, were going to see more deaths, he said. Certainly UPS knows how to make sure workers are safe and can afford to protect them.

The issue gained a burst of attention earlier this summer following the death of a young UPS employee.

In June, Esteban Stevie Chavez Jr., died after he passed out in his UPS vehicle on a residential street in Pasadena, California, a day after his 24th birthday.

The official cause of Chavezs death is still unknown. The family is waiting for the autopsy results, but his father, Esteban Chavez Sr., told NBC News, I strongly believe it was the heat.

UPS issued a statement after Chavez's death, saying that we are deeply saddened and are cooperating with the investigating authorities and are respectfully deferring questions about this incident to them.

Maybe if he hadnt gone to work that day he would still be here, his stepmother, Dominique Chavez, said shortly after the funeral.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Just over half of Japanese oppose plans for a state funeral for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister whose assassination this month shocked the nation, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

The cabinet decided to hold a state funeral for Abe, Japan's longest-serving but divisive premier, on Sept. 27 at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan.

About 53% of respondents to a Saturday-Sunday Kyodo news agency survey expressed opposition to a state funeral for Abe, exceeding the 45% who favoured a state funeral.

The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege, decided his funeral will be paid by state funds. The last fully state-financed funeral for an ex-prime minister was in 1967, with later ones funded jointly by the state and the Liberal Democratic Party, of which Abe remained an influential member.

The poll found support for Kishida's cabinet dropped 12.2 points to 51.0%, its lowest in Kyodo polling since its inauguration in October.

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by William Mallard)
hapabapa / iStock.com

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps provide food security for more than 41 million people (about one in eight Americans), according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although its a federal program, SNAP is administered by the states, which means benefits are distributed inconsistently across the country.

While eligibility requirements and benefit levels are uniform across all states except Alaska and Hawaii, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the way benefits are calculated can vary considerably from one state to the next.

Learn: 5 Things Americans Should Know About SNAP Benefits in 2022

SNAP Benefits Increase in 2022: What It Could Mean for the Immediate and Long-Term Future

In New Hampshire, for example, just 6% of the population participates in SNAP, and they receive a relatively low $110 monthly payment. In Louisiana, a full 17% of the population receives SNAP, and they average a fairly high payment of $135. Naturally, states with bigger populations have more SNAP recipients, and states with higher poverty rates have a greater percentage of their residents in the program.

Even the name of the program can change from state to state. In Wisconsin, its called FoodShare. In California, its called CalFresh. In Utah, its still called Food Stamps.

No matter the name, SNAP is a vital part of the social safety net. Heres a look at how the states distribute SNAP.

Household and Individual Allotments Have Gone Up for 2022

In 2021, the USDA announced a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for SNAP in 2022. Heres what you need to know:

For the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the maximum allotment for a family of four has been raised to $835 per month.

In Alaska, a family of four can now receive between $1,074 and $1,667 per month, depending on their rural/urban designation.

In Hawaii, the COLA raised the monthly limit to $1,573 for a family of four.

The minimum benefit increased to $20 in D.C. and the Lower 48, $26 to $40 in Alaska and $38 in Hawaii.

Benefits were also raised for Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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SNAP Benefits By States

Heres an alphabetical look at each states number of SNAP participation, according to the most recent data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Alabama

Average benefit per household member per month: $129

Number of recipients: 727,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 15%

Alaska

Average benefit per household member per month: $181

Number of recipients: 85,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Arizona

Average benefit per household member per month: $130

Number of recipients: 797,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Arkansas

Average benefit per household member per month: $108

Number of recipients: 355,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

California

Average benefit per household member per month: $141

Number of recipients: 3.79 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 10%

Colorado

Average benefit per household member per month: $128

Number of recipients: 450,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 8%

Connecticut

Average benefit per household member per month: $143

Number of recipients: 368,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 10%

Delaware

Average benefit per household member per month: $124

Number of recipients: 129,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

District of Columbia

Average benefit per household member per month: $142

Number of recipients: 94,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

Florida

Average benefit per household member per month: $127

Number of recipients: 2.85 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

Georgia

Average benefit per household member per month: $132

Number of recipients: 1.42 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

Hawaii

Average benefit per household member per month: $258

Number of recipients: 157,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Idaho

Average benefit per household member per month: $118

Number of recipients: 146,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 8%

Illinois

Average benefit per household member per month: $135

Number of recipients: 1.77 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

Indiana

Average benefit per household member per month: $129

Number of recipients: 574,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 9%

Iowa

Average benefit per household member per month: $121

Number of recipients: 320,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 10%

Kansas

Average benefit per household member per month: $119

Number of recipients: 201,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 7%

Kentucky

Average benefit per household member per month: $123

Number of recipients: 541,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Louisiana

Average benefit per household member per month: $135

Number of recipients: 810,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 17%

Maine

Average benefit per household member per month: $117

Number of recipients: 157,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Maryland

Average benefit per household member per month: $128

Number of recipients: 619,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 10%

Massachusetts

Average benefit per household member per month: $134

Number of recipients: 760,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Michigan

Average benefit per household member per month: $120

Number of recipients: 1.18 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Minnesota

Average benefit per household member per month: $111

Number of recipients: 409

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 7%

Mississippi

Average benefit per household member per month: $120

Number of recipients: 455,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 15%

Missouri

Average benefit per household member per month: $130

Number of recipients: 692,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Montana

Average benefit per household member per month: $123

Number of recipients: 107,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 10%

Nebraska

Average benefit per household member per month: $124

Number of recipients: 161,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 8%

Nevada

Average benefit per household member per month: $125

Number of recipients: 423,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

New Hampshire

Average benefit per household member per month: $110

Number of recipients: 76,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 6%

New Jersey

Average benefit per household member per month: $122

Number of recipients: 705,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 8%

New Mexico

Average benefit per household member per month: $127

Number of recipients: 448,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 21%

New York

Average benefit per household member per month: $136

Number of recipients: 2.66 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

North Carolina

Average benefit per household member per month: $126

Number of recipients: 1.33 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

North Dakota

Average benefit per household member per month: $126

Number of recipients: 49,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 6%

Ohio

Average benefit per household member per month: $132

Number of recipients: 1.38 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Oklahoma

Average benefit per household member per month: $128

Number of recipients: 574,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

Oregon

Average benefit per household member per month: $133

Number of recipients: 599,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

Pennsylvania

Average benefit per household member per month: $129

Number of recipients: 1.76 million

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

Rhode Island

Average benefit per household member per month: $144

Number of recipients: 152,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 14%

South Carolina

Average benefit per household member per month: $127

Number of recipients: 601,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

South Dakota

Average benefit per household member per month: $136

Number of recipients: 81,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 9%

Tennessee

Average benefit per household member per month: $131

Number of recipients: 903,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 13%

Texas

Average benefit per household member per month: $125

Number of recipients: 3.41

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 12%

Utah

Average benefit per household member per month: $122

Number of recipients: 172,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 5%

Vermont

Average benefit per household member per month: $122

Number of recipients: 69,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Virginia

Average benefit per household member per month: $128

Number of recipients: 705,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 8%

Washington

Average benefit per household member per month: $119

Number of recipients: 825,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

West Virginia

Average benefit per household member per month: $117

Number of recipients: 305,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 17%

Wisconsin

Average benefit per household member per month: $113

Number of recipients: 617

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 11%

Wyoming

Average benefit per household member per month: $124

Number of recipients: 26,000

Percentage of the population receiving SNAP: 5%

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: SNAP Benefits Available in Your State in 2022
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Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Saturday called for building "normal relations" between Morocco and Algeria.

"I look forward to cooperating with the Algerian presidency so that Morocco and Algeria may work hand in hand and enjoy normal relations between the two brotherly peoples," he said in a speech on the occasion of the Throne Day.

"The borders separating the two brotherly Moroccan and Algerian peoples will never stand in the way of the interaction and understanding between the two peoples," he added.

The king also asked Moroccans to preserve the brotherhood, solidarity and good neighborliness toward Algerian people.

Relations between the two North African countries have been marred by several conflicts over territorial disputes.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has offered North Macedonia his countrys full support for integration into the 27-nation European Union.

Sanchez held talks Sunday with North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski in the capital of Skopje, ahead of the last stop on his Western Balkan tour, visiting Albania on Monday. He has also visited Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The Balkan nations are all in different stages of the EU accession process. EU officials have recently sought to encourage governments in the region to move on with reforms amid concerns over Russias efforts to boost its influence in the Balkans.

Sanchez said the war in Ukraine has prompted the EU to rethink its enlargement policies and open its doors to countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

We are more united now than ever before. You can count on me on your European perspective, Sanchez said at a joint press conference with Kovachevski.

The EU started membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia two weeks ago, a long-delayed step in the Balkan nations paths toward EU membership that gained momentum amid the war in Ukraine.

The decision came after North Macedonias parliament approved an agreement overcoming Bulgarias objections and cleared the way for the negotiations to start. Bulgaria had held up progress on North Macedonia's accession talks, accusing that government of disrespecting shared cultural, linguistic and historic ties.

Any expansion beyond the 27 current EU members is likely to still be years off. Despite the delay, the Western Balkan nations have maintained their ambition to become part of the worlds most important trading bloc.

For North Macedonia, the past years have been challenging. Disputes with EU members Greece and then Bulgaria prevented the countrys bid from moving forward because any move by the EU to add new members requires unanimous agreement.
(Reuters) -Sri Lanka's new president Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday it was not the right time for former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to return to the country as it could inflame political tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"I don't believe it's the time for him to return," Wickremesinghe said in an interview with the Journal. "I have no indication of him returning soon."

Rajapaksa, after facing calls to resign over his handling of the country, fled on July 13 and stepped down from his position.

Days later, Wickremesinghe won a vote in parliament to become the new president.

Wickremesinghe has remained in contact with Rajapaksa to deal with administrative handover issues and other government business, the Journal said.

The crisis-hit country has been in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package. In April, Sri Lanka had suspended repayments on about $12 billion of foreign debt and has payments of nearly $21 billion due by the end of 2025.

Wickremesinghe expected the IMF staff-level agreement to be reached by the end of August, the report said, adding that Sri Lanka will have to secure upwards of $3 billion from other sources next year to support essential imports including fuel, food and fertilisers.

He also told the newspaper it would be months before Sri Lankans would see any marked improvement in their economic circumstances.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Barbara Lewis)
Nichelle Nichols, the actor who became a Star Trek legend and broke ground for Black women onscreen with her portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura, has died. She was 89.

She had been treated for dementia in her 80s, and in an Instagram post on Sunday, her son, Kyle Johnson, wrote that she died of natural causes.

"Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration," Johnson wrote. "Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all."

A beloved icon of the science-fiction franchise, Nicholss casting as a prominent character in a position of authority was unprecedented and radical for a TV show that first aired in 1966. Her characters kiss with William Shatners Captain James Kirk also broke ground for being one of the first interracial kisses ever aired on television. After the original series ended, Nichols worked with NASA to recruit women and people of color as astronauts and continued to act, appearing onstage and in films like Snow Dogs and the TV series The Young and the Restless. Still, throughout her life, she remained devoted to Star Trek and was a fixture at fan conventions well into her 80s.

Every time I sat down at my console on the bridge of the Enterprise, I felt that I was in the twenty-third century, that I was Uhura. The promise of that imaginary universe was real to me, Nichols wrote in her 1994 autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. I am still very proud of Uhura: proud of who she was (or will be) and what she represented, not only in her time but in ours, and in those of people who will discover Star Trek decades from now.

Born Grace Nichols in 1932 in the Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois, Nichols knew at a young age that she wanted to be onstage. Even before I could walk, I could sing, she wrote in Beyond Uhura. She started taking ballet classes at age 7. As a teenager, she danced at the College Inn, a famous venue in downtown Chicago, where she caught the eye of Duke Ellington. She later toured with the jazz legend.

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Her first break in Hollywood came through a small part as a dancer in the 1959 musical Porgy and Bess starring Sidney Poitier. Five years later, she made her television debut playing the fiance of a Black Marine in an episode of The Lieutenant, the first show produced by Gene Roddenberry, who went on to create Star Trek.

According to her autobiography, when Nichols first auditioned for Star Trek, her character had not yet been created, so she read for the part of Spock. It was only after she signed on to the show that Nichols and Roddenberry conceived Uhura. Her name was derived from Uhuru, the Swahili word for freedom and the title of the book Nichols was reading when she auditioned.

I said well why dont you do an alliteration of it and soften the end with an a and it will be Uhura, Nichols recalled in an interview years later. [Roddenberry] said, Thats it. Thats your name.

Initially frustrated with her lines getting cut and the racism she faced on the studio lot, she famously almost quit the series after one season to pursue theater jobs. But she decided to stick with it after a chance encounter with Martin Luther King Jr., who convinced Nichols of the significance of her role to the Black community.

He said, For the first time on television we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people, she recalled. And he said,  Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the world to see us. If you leave, that door can be closed.

And at that moment the world tilted for me, Nichols said.

Still, she had to continue fighting for lines and for her characters integrity. In her autobiography, she recalled one new director who insisted that Uhura do something cutesy that she simply would not do. She held her ground and  after Roddenberry backed her up  the director relented.

This was not a female role, she recalled, using her hands to make air quotes, in Woman in Motion, a 2021 documentary about her life and work with NASA. And I refused to treat it that way.

Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, the son of Gene Roddenberry and an executive producer of several franchise series, reacted to her death on Sunday.

It is with great sorrow that we report the passing on the legendary icon Nichelle Nichols. No words. #roddenberry #RIPNichelle #StarTrek 06:41 PM - 31 Jul 2022

Though the original series only aired for three seasons, Lt. Uhuras impact was far-reaching. Nichols portrayal inspired other actors, like Whoopi Goldberg, who was in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and real-life space explorers, like Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel into space. It wasnt until Lt. Uhura did I realize that I was in the future, Goldberg said later. In the late 1970s, as NASA struggled to attract women and people of color to apply to its Space Shuttle program, the agency hired Nichols to lead a campaign to recruit the first women and people of color to travel to space. She was awarded the agencys public service award in 1984.

NASA via Reuters, NASA/PhotoQuest via Getty Images

Nichols and her costars eventually returned to the Enterprise to reprise their roles in six Star Trek films. She also returned to one of her first loves: the musical stage. In a 1990 one-woman show called Reflections, Nichols paid tribute to more than a dozen iconic performers, including Josephine Baker and Ma Rainey. Although people know me best as Uhura, Ive always considered acting the other thing I do, she wrote in Beyond Uhura. While months, sometimes years, passed without my setting foot before a camera, music filled every day of my life.

She often spoke of not ever wanting to retire. But after a stroke and a dementia diagnosis, she stepped away from public life in 2021. In 2018, due to fears that she was susceptible to exploitation, her son petitioned the Los Angeles County Superior Court to place her in a conservatorship and later moved her to New Mexico, where he lives. The legal arrangement drew scrutiny from some of Nicholss friends and the Britney Spears fans who rallied in the #FreeBritney movement against potential conservatorship abuse.

Nichols had been one of four of the original Star Trek cast who were still alive. Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig are now the only surviving members of the group.

In tweets, Takei described Nichols as trailblazing and incomparable, adding that he'd have more to say about her legacy.

"For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend," he wrote. "We lived long and prospered together."

The diversity of that cast made them stand out on 60s TV, and it continued to be a hallmark of Star Trek through spinoff series and films following the crews of other starships. On one current series, Star Trek: Discovery, a Black woman named Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, is not just a member of the bridge crew like Nichols, but the captain.

Everyone has her own idea about why Star Trek has endured, Nichols wrote in her autobiography. I firmly believe in the power of vision, and Gene Roddenberrys Star Trek raised the prospect that space offered humankind the opportunity to start anew.  He believed, as do I and many others, that this was not simply one possible version of the future, but the only viable one.
Rescued turtle who pooped plastic for six days Taronga Zoo

A tiny turtle who was rescued by the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, pooped plastic for six days.

When he started to defecate, "No feces came out, just pure plastic."

The WWF estimates half of all marine turtles have eaten plastic.

A tiny turtle who was rescued by the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, pooped plastic for six days.

In a video on the Zoo's Twitter page, the veterinary nurse Sarah Male explains that the little turtle was rescued from a nearby beach with a back flipper "chomped" off.

Rescued turtle who pooped plastic for six days Taronga Zoo

But when he started to defecate, "he defecated six days of plastic. No feces came out, just pure plastic," she said.

"Luck was on his side," she said, and he has now passed all the plastic in his system.

Male said most injuries they see are caused by ingesting plastics and fishing lines.

According to the Taronga Zoo website, the hospital rehabilitates and releases over 80 marine turtles every year.

They also treat other native animals and have released over 50,000 animals back into the wild since they opened in the 1970s.

Humans dump roughly eight million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year, with the WWF saying that the amount of plastic in the world's oceans is projected to outweigh fish by 2050.

The WWF also states that 90% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs, and half of marine turtles have eaten plastic.

A watchdog report by Oceana found that, in 2020, Amazon alone dumped 23.5 million pounds of plastic into the world's oceans.

At the end of 2021, a non-profit launched called The Ocean Cleanup, an organization dedicated to cleaning our seas from plastics.

Their two-and-a-half-month mission brought back 64,000 pounds of trash, which included a mannequin and a refrigerator.

Read the original article on Business Insider
I traveled throughout the course of my pregnancy before giving birth at home in Colorado. Evie Carrick

As a travel writer, I've visited over 50 countries and have lived in five.

It's a passion I continued throughout my first pregnancy, and one that I wasn't willing to give up.

I'm glad my unborn baby experienced special travel moments with me, but I wish I'd relaxed more.

I've spent a good chunk of my life traveling and living in other countries. I've even made a career out of it.

As a travel writer, I've visited over 50 countries and have lived in five. Evie Carrick

I've traveled to well over 50 countries and lived in five. I do it because I love it  but also because it's part of my job and my husband's job. I'm a travel writer and he works for Make Life Skate Life, a company that builds skate parks in countries around the world.

So in early 2021, when I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I made a point to continue doing the things I love, namely, traveling.

I knew I would never give up my nomadic lifestyle once I had a child. Evie Carrick

When I first started telling people I was pregnant, many people reacted by saying things like "Well, it's a good thing you traveled when you did," or "Wow, your life is about to change."

And while I understand that sentiment, I knew I would never give up my nomadic lifestyle entirely for an SUV and a home in suburbia. My love for navigating new places and adapting to new cultures runs deep; travel is my happy place.

But before I made any travel plans, I talked to my doctor.

I planned all of my travels with my doctor's approval. Evie Carrick

I wanted to continue traveling while pregnant, but I also didn't want to put my unborn child in any danger. So before I did anything, I sat down with my doctor.

She gave me a rundown of what I should and shouldn't do, and a list of appointments I'd need to be at over the next several months, though many of the appointments could be done via video call due to COVID-19. She also loaned me a fetal doppler heart monitor so I could check for my baby's heartbeat anytime I wanted.

It's worth noting, however, that everyone's circumstances are different, so what was appropriate for me, won't be for everyone and anyone considering travel while pregnant should first talk to their own doctor.

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After receiving her blessing, I started traveling. Over the course of my pregnancy I spent time in Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Lebanon, and France.

I traveled during months five, seven, and eight of pregnancy. Evie Carrick

My experience traveling internationally while pregnant started with a last-minute opportunity to go to the Galapagos Islands for work. I was five months pregnant and my husband and I spent 10 days exploring the western Galapagos Islands on a luxury cruise and got to swing with sea lion pups, watch the blue-footed boobie courtship dance, and observe baby sharks feed. After the cruise, we spent a week exploring Ecuador.

At seven months pregnant, we left for Beirut, Lebanon, for four weeks and our experience was the polar opposite of the Galapagos trip. My husband and I spent our time lugging skateboards in and out of cabs and helping out at his skate park build, though I spent more time trying to escape the heat under the shade of a tree than working.

Then, at eight months pregnant, we arrived in Paris, France, which felt like coming home. I lived there for a period of time in 2016, and again for the year of 2019. This time, we weren't traveling for work, but for ourselves. We hit our old haunts, saw friends, and ate at our favorite grab-and-go falafel spot, L'As du Fallafel.

I loved that my unborn daughter was experiencing the world with me, through me.

I swam with hundreds of baby sea lions in the Galapagos. Evie Carrick

All of these experiences were ones I felt I was sharing with my daughter.

When I was five months pregnant, my daughter and I swam with hundreds of baby sea lions in the Galapagos. And I like to think she felt my fear-turn-to-courage when a shark glided by below us and my joy when a sea turtle swam over to say hi.

Traveling while pregnant set a tone of adventure for our life going forward.

Traveling while pregnant showed me the many paths of parenthood. Evie Carrick

From the start of my pregnancy, I struggled with the idea that as a mom, I should meet a handful of stereotypes put forth by mainstream society  a three-bedroom house, an SUV, and a gaggle of stroller-pushing friends.

Traveling while pregnant showed me that parenthood has many paths. I didn't take the one expected of me by society, and I don't plan to take the path expected of me now that I'm a mom.

That mentality, combined with my passion for travel, pushed me to get my daughter's passport just a few months after she was born. It is also why we took her on her first international trip at just five months, and why we plan to take her on a three-month trip to France this fall.

Traveling also exposed me to parents all over the world who are birthing and raising children in vastly different ways.

While it's easier to stay home during pregnancy, I was inspired by parents all over the world who birth and raise children in different ways. Evie Carrick

I admit that it is significantly easier and more comfortable to stay home during your pregnancy, to remain in a place where you know the language and the quality of the hospitals.

But, I think it's easy to forget that people all over the world give birth every day, often in circumstances that are different from we're used to in our home country. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to witness other parenting perspectives around the globe.

In Paris, I rode the metro alongside mothers who carried happy babies on their backs, attached with a scarf. It was a reminder to me that all that stuff we're told we need by society, companies, and other moms like high-end strollers, heart-rate tracking baby monitors, and expensive carriers are often just clever marketing.

I also personally felt safer in Beirut at seven months pregnant than I would have at home in Colorado because in Beirut, I lived only one block from a hospital. At home, the nearest hospital is a 30 minute drive away.

One of my favorite parts of traveling while pregnant was being able to eat some of the best food in the world at a time when my body really needed it.

I ate some of the best food I've ever tasted while pregnant. Evie Carrick

Growing a baby takes a lot of energy, and access to good nutrition and plenty of food is more important than ever.

As a result, food played a central role in my time abroad. I ate well onboard the Galapagos cruise, and during our time in Paris, but for me, nothing topped the food in Beirut.

I thought the herbs and veggies I ate tasted extra fresh and I particularly enjoyed the hand-rolled pita coated in za'atar, which is a special blend of spices and seasonings. And if you've never had labneh, a super-thick yogurt I often ate for breakfast, you're missing out on one of the great joys in life, in my opinion.

I think people were kinder to me while pregnant, and I was able to skip a lot of lines.

I think people were nice to me because I was pregnant while traveling. Evie Carrick

Usually when I travel, I find people don't pay me much attention. That was not the case while I was pregnant.

In Beirut, shop owners offered me a cold drink from their personal stash, no payment required. In Paris, people gave up their seats on the metro and paused to hold open the door for me, and in all airports, I was constantly ushered to the front of the line.

Traveling while pregnant made me realize the way I want to parent, and helped me conquer fears.

I made the conscious choice to let go of my fears as best I could. Evie Carrick

It may sound like I skipped around the globe worry-free, but every trip came with struggles.

I was scared I would get COVID-19, that I might push myself or the baby too far, have to give birth in a foreign country, or not have quality medical care if something went wrong.

But another part of me knew that if I gave into those fears before my daughter was born, my journey as a parent would become overrun by them. I made the conscious choice to let go of control from the start because I didn't want to be a fearful, scared person. And I don't want my daughter to be a fearful, scared person, either.

That said, there were definitely some things that I wish I did differently, like giving myself more time to relax and enjoy my pregnancy.

I wish I took time to relax more. Evie Carrick

From the beginning of my pregnancy, it felt like I was racing to get in every child-free experience I could before I gave birth. It wasn't until the final month of my pregnancy that I returned home and gave myself permission to put up my feet and take naps with my cat.

If I could go back in time, I would've done more relaxing from the start. I wish I gave myself the space to marvel at my changing figure, get pampered by others, and nap more.

Toward the end of my pregnancy, I should have acknowledged more that traveling became uncomfortable.

My discomfort grew as my pregnancy progressed. Evie Carrick

Traveling while pregnant was painless  until it wasn't. Near the end of my travels my economy airline seat felt like a slab of concrete and I couldn't tie my shoes.

At seven months pregnant, I thought the heat and humidity of Beirut felt oppressive. And on my return flight to the US, I knew I was pushing the envelope in regard to the recommended cutoff date for flying internationally while pregnant, but did it anyway.

I dealt with constant anxiety during my time abroad and I wish I would've found a better middle ground.

I experienced a lot of anxiety. Evie Carrick

I'm glad I traveled internationally while I was pregnant and I'm proud that I battled my fears, but I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't hyper vigilant about me and my baby's safety.

Before I arrived in each country, I looked up the nearest top-rated hospitals, planning out what would happen if something went wrong. I was hyper aware of everything from busy roads to stray cats who might be carrying diseases.

In retrospect, I wish I would've found a better middle ground between my desire to carry on as normal while also accommodating the biological changes telling me that I needed to slow down.

In the end, everything worked out just fine. My daughter was born in Colorado, as planned, in October 2021

My daughter was born in Colorado in October 2021 and is already a traveler in training. Evie Carrick

After all the ups and downs of traveling while pregnant, I ended up having my daughter in Colorado, as planned. She arrived one week early and is absolutely perfect.

I'm already on a quest to show her the world.

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Jul. 31BEMIDJI  Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji is celebrating its 100th anniversary on Sunday, Aug. 28. Worship services will be held at 10 a.m. with a picnic lunch and celebration for all to enjoy.

"A celebration choir will be participating in the service along with LCMS Minnesota North District President Pastor Brady Finnern giving a sermon and Pastor Robert Wentzel presiding," a release said. "Former Trinity pastors, their spouses and special invitees are planning to attend and everyone in the community is welcome to join us."

The history of Trinity Lutheran Church dates back to the fall of 1922 when the church was formally organized. The constitution was adopted under the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. In 1923 the first church building was completed at 1300 Beltrami Avenue, the release said.

By the late 1950s, the church was too small and plans began for building a larger church. The present-day church located at 123rd 29th Street NE was dedicated on May 10, 1964, when a procession moved from the old to the new church during a Sunday service, the release said.

"There have been many changes and numerous dedicated pastors throughout the 100 years of Trinity Lutheran Church," the release added. "Each was special and greatly contributed, spreading the word and the gospel of Jesus Christ to its congregation.

"Their dedication has been very much appreciated by the church. There have also been many people and organizations that have worked hard within the congregation and in the community. Each has contributed to the progress and special history of Trinity Lutheran Church. We look forward to our next hundred years living under our Lord's grace and mercy."
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a ban on semi-automatic guns.

The historic vote happened on Friday as a direct reaction to the tragic mass shootings across the country, from Uvalde, Texas to Highland Park, Ill. The legislation, titled the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022, cleared in a 217-213 vote, The Hill reported.

Republican Reps. Chris Jacobs (N.Y.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) supported the measure, while Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Kurt Schrader (Ore.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) voted against it.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks to repoorters minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion, in the Capitol Visitors Center on June 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. The court ruled 6-3 in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health, overturning a 50-year precedent and sending abortion regulation back to the states. "Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOPs dark and extreme goal of ripping away womens right to make their own reproductive health decisions," Pelosi said

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

RELATED: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Praises Modest Bipartisan Gun Agreement as 'Progress for the Country'

The U.S. has banned high-powered firearms once before in 1994, although the ruling expired 10 years later in 2004. Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed the vote in the House, arguing that the earlier ban had "saved lives," according to The Guardian.

If passed by the Senate, H.R. 1808 will criminalize the known sale, manufacture, transfer, possession or importation of many types of semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines.

US-POLITICS-GUNS-SCHOOLS-PROTEST

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty

President Joe Biden, who was a senator at the time the first ban was passed, encouraged the action in a statement, promising to sign the bill if it reached his desk.

"Today, House Democrats acted by unifying to pass an assault weapons ban to keep weapons of war off our streets, save lives in this country, and reduce crime in our communities," he wrote.

"The majority of the American people agree with this common sense action. The Senate should move quickly to get this bill to my desk, and I will not stop fighting until it does," Biden, 79, added. "There can be no greater responsibility than to do all we can to ensure the safety of our families, our children, our homes, our communities, and our nation."

RELATED: Justin Trudeau Points to U.S. Gun Violence in Vow to Freeze Handgun Sales in Canada: 'This Is About Freedom'

During Friday's vote, Republicans stood firmly against limits on ownership of the high-powered firearms amid an often emotional debate ahead of voting.

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"It's a gun-grab, pure and simple," said Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania, The Guardian reported. "An armed America is a safe and free America," said Andrew Clyde of Georgia.

President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House

Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty

Last month, Biden signed the S. 2938, otherwise known as the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," which enacts commonsense gun laws and provides funding for mental health support and anti-violence programs.

"I'm about to sign into law a bipartisan gun safety legislation. And time is of the essence. Lives will be saved," Biden told reporters before putting his signature on the bill in the White House's Roosevelt Room.

He recalled his many visits with survivors and families of gun violence victims from the ongoing mass shooting epidemic that has swept the United States over the years.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.

"Their message to us was: 'Do something.' How many times we heard that? 'Just do something. For God's sake, just do something,'" he said. "Well, today, we did. While this bill doesn't do everything I want, it does include actions I've long called for that are going to save lives."

The bill "enhances certain restrictions and penalties on firearms purchases; promotes evidence-based best practices for school safety; authorizes grants to expand access to mental health services; and appropriates emergency funding for mental health resources and school safety measures," according to a White House briefing.

RELATED VIDEO: Powerful Moments During the House Committee On Oversight And Reform's Gun Violence Hearing

It includes red-flag laws that keep guns from those who are dangers to themselves and others, including closing the "boyfriend loophole," meaning people who assault their significant other cannot buy or own a gun.

Additionally, the legislation requires people ages 18 to 21 to undergo thorough background checks to obtain a gun and classifies gun trafficking and straw purchases as federal crimes. It also clarifies who is required to register as a federally licensed gun dealer and run background checks before selling a weapon.

"I know there's much more work to do, and I'm never going to give up. But this is a monumental day," Biden said. "God bless us with the strength to continue to work to get the work that's left undone done, and the lives lost that can't be saved that obviously are gone but will be an inspiration for us to do more."
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit four Asian countries from Sunday, her office said, without mentioning Taiwan amid intense speculation she might visit the self-ruled island claimed by China.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan," her office said in a press release https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/73122.

"The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region."

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by William Mallard)
A stock image of a police crime scene. Milan Markovic/Getty Images

A Uber driver was taken into custody in connection with the death of a beloved Houston pastor.

Deshawn Longmire was charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Rev. Ronald Mouton.

Witnesses told police that the shooting was a result of a road rage confrontation.

A Uber driver was arrested and charged after being accused of fatally shooting a beloved Houston, Texas pastor, police and local outlets reported.

Deshawn Longmire, 23, was charged with murder in connection to the death of 58-year-old Rev. Ronald Mouton, according to Houston Police and KTRK.

Police said in their statement released on Friday that that incident occurred at 6400 Gulf Freeway on June 24. The location is just minutes away from East Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, where Mouton served as a pastor for more than three decades, KTRK reported.

According to the police, when officers responded to the scene, they were told by first responders that "Mouton was pronounced deceased from a gunshot wound."

Per the statement, witnesses told police that they believed that the incident was a result of a road rage incident with a person in a black sedan. The statement said that an investigation led to officials linking Longmire to the case.

Longmire allegedly informed police that he was an Uber driver but was not near the freeway during the time of the incident, KTRK reported citing court documents. However, a phone search reportedly disputed those claims and revealed that he was near the scene.

Uber told KHOU that Longmire's access to Uber was revoked after receiving information relating to the investigation and added, "Our thoughts are with Rev. Mouton Sr.'s family and friends during this difficult time."

Mouton's family called the incident a "senseless tragedy" and asked for privacy.

"We want the man who took his life to understand the seriousness of his crime. He took the life of a husband, a father," the family said in a statement shared with KTRK. "Our confidence and hope are in the proficient work of the police. We also hope the work of the entire criminal justice system is done thoroughly and that justice is duly served."

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Low water levels at Colliford Lake near Bodmin

Yorkshire has become the latest area in England to be declared a drought zone.

According to the Environment Agency, the region recorded below long-term average rainfall for the fifth month in a row in July.

It says "essential supplies of water are safe", but water companies in the affected areas can now introduce further restrictions on water use.

Where are the drought zones?

The Environment Agency (EA) says nine areas of England are now in drought:

Devon and Cornwall

East Anglia

Herts and North London

Kent and South London

Lincolnshire

Northamptonshire and East Midlands

Solent and South Downs

Thames

Yorkshire

The West Midlands could also be declared a drought area in the near future.

Map showing declared drought areas in England

Separately, Northern Ireland Water has asked the UK government to put Drought Order measures in place to block water in the reservoirs in Spelga and Altnahinch from running into local rivers. It also wants to take more water from the well at Blacksprings near Cookstown.

The Wales Drought Liaison group is also looking at the effect of the dry weather.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency temporarily banned farmers in parts of Fife from using water from the River Eden on their fields.

What is a drought?

A drought relates to a lack of water, but there are different types. For example, there can be agricultural droughts where there isn't enough water to grow particular crops.

The Environment Agency decides whether to declare a drought after consultation with water companies, government officials and groups including famers' representatives.

It says the latest drought announcements were based on data including rainfall, river flows, groundwater levels, reservoir levels, and the dryness of soils.

The EA's latest water situation report shows some river levels are the lowest ever recorded.

Graphic showing four ways to save water at home

What happens when a drought is declared?

Declaring a drought in a specific area does not oblige water companies to restrict water use,

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However, it does allow them to put into operation pre-arranged drought plans, which may include temporary use bans on hosepipes and lawn sprinklers.

Map showing areas with hosepipe bans, as of 17 August

Other possible options include:

taking more water than usual from rivers

using a desalination plant in London which could make water from the River Thames drinkable

cutting non-essential use of water beyond hosepipe bans

The EA is also urging water companies to act to reduce leakage from pipes as quickly as possible.

Why are there droughts in Britain this year?

In the first three months of the year, England's rainfall was down 26% while in Wales it was down 22%.

This meant that even before the summer started, that average river flows were "below normal" or "exceptionally low".

Chart plotting the top ten hottest UK days on record since 1900

July saw temperature records broken multiple times while rainfall was down 76%.

These conditions have been made worse by the overconsumption of water. More than 28% of underground water sources are overused, the government says.

What problems do droughts cause?

The effects of drought can include:

killing fish and creating water pollution

crop failure

wildfires

The National Farmers' Union is watching the situation closely. Berry farmers have already reported losing some of their crop.

Vegetables such as potatoes are at particular risk due to their high-water content.

The effects could be felt into next year, as farmers delay planting crops such as rapeseed because the soil is too dry.

There have also been multiple fires, with significant damage to homes and grasslands.

Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Smith of the London Fire Brigade said: "Last year, in the first week of August, we attended 42 grassland fires in London. This year, for the first week in August, we've attended 340. So, an eightfold increase."

The Met Office is warning there is an "exceptional" risk of fires spreading. Some shops have removed disposable barbecues from shelves.

Map showing areas of the UK at risk of fires because of the dry weather

The Environment Agency also oversees the management of the UK's aquatic life, and is moving fish from the River Mole in Surrey to deeper and cooler pools because rivers levels have dropped so low. It did the same in Yorkshire in July.

What happened in the 1976 and 2018 droughts?

In 1976 and 2018 the UK had severe droughts lasting months, caused by a prolonged period of dry weather through the spring, and then an unusually warm summer.

In 1976, the Drought Act created emergency powers to turn off domestic and industrial water supplies.

In 2018, the widespread drought led to crop failures, which raised food prices. Multiple water restrictions were put in place.

Could we see more droughts in the future?

Outside of the UK, places such as northern Italy and Portugal declared drought emergencies earlier in the summer and put water restrictions in place.

France, Spain and Portugal have also faced significant wildfires due to the dry conditions.

The National Infrastructure Commission - which provides advice to the UK government - recently said there could be more water shortages in the future, because of population growth and climate change.

It called for changes to water consumption and reductions in water losses.

In the UK, it's thought up to three billion litres of water are lost each day.

The government's 25-year Environment Plan aims to tackle these issues by investing in existing infrastructure and improving efficiency in homes and businesses.
Ukraine denies attacking Russian navy HQ

The message suggests that Russian forces in occupied Ukrainian territories are getting paranoid about the growing reach of Kyivs armed forces.

The enemy would have you believe that an unidentified flying device flew to Russian Black Sea Fleet HQ (in Sevastopol) and injured five people this morning, the message said.

Read also: Russias Black Sea Fleet HQ in Crimea under attack, Kremlin-backed Sevastopol 'official' says

What actually happened was they decided to eschew celebrating their Navy Day, and decided to conjure up this phantom of a Ukrainian attack, in order to save face and cancel their festivities.

Moreover, these Russian claims further undermine the perceived effectiveness of Moscows anti-air defenses, raising concerns about the security of the Kerch Strait Bridge, which links the peninsula to the Russian mainland, according to Kyiv.

Ukrainian defense forces are proceeding to liberate our lands, by the means, we have at our disposal, the message noted.

We aim for legitimate Russian military targets. We do not attack inside Russian territory. Crimea is Ukraine.

Read also: Medvedev has another tantrum, threatens Ukraine over Crimea

Russia accused Ukraine of using a drone to attack Russian Black Sea Fleet HQ in Sevastopol on July 31, claiming that five people were left injured.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lead a congressional delegation to the Asia-Pacific region, her office confirmed on Sunday, with stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

The statement made no mention of whether the six-member delegation would visit Taiwan, a flashpoint in conversations between China and the United States in the run-up to the trip.

"The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region," Pelosi's office said in a statement.

The all-Democrat delegation includes Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee.

"Our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance," said Pelosi in the statement.

Singapore's foreign ministry confirmed Pelosi's delegation would visit the city-state August 1-2, with meetings scheduled with President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

- Tensions over Taiwan -

For weeks, US-China tensions had heightened over reports that Pelosi may visit the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China sees as part of its territory to be reunited by force if necessary.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a tense phone call.

The two leaders agreed to schedule their first in-person summit but disagreements over Taiwan clouded the conversation, with Xi making an oblique warning to the United States not to "play with fire" over the island.

The United States maintains a policy of "strategic ambiguity" over whether it would intervene militarily were China to invade Taiwan, and while it recognises Beijing's claim to the island, it also backs the democratic Taiwanese government.

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In the latest warning from Beijing, Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke on Sunday said defending China's territory was the military's "sacred mission".

"The air force has firm determination, full confidence and sufficient capabilities to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Shen said, according to the state-run People's Daily.

Over the last two years, China has ramped up flights by fighter jets, bombers and other aircraft into Taiwan's air defence identification zone as a way to signal displeasure and keep Taipei's own military stretched.

"The air force's multi-type fighter jets fly around the motherland's Taiwan, practicing to enhance its ability to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Shen said.

bur-aha/mtp
She is now making up for lost time and has recently embarked on a high-profile US visit before hosting an international summit in Kyiv. While these initiatives have generated considerable publicity, Zelenskas most eye-catching appearance has been in a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.

Zelenskas Vogue portraits were taken by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz, with the First Lady captured alone and together with her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Leibovitzs photos of Ukraines presidential couple are instantly iconic and have proved a viral sensation on social media. Zelenskas appearance in Vogue has also sparked controversy, with some critics branding the decision tone-deaf at a time when the entire Ukrainian nation is fighting for survival.

Predictably, much of this criticism has come from Russia itself and from pro-Kremlin voices in the West, with numerous commentators pointing to Zelenskas Vogue appearance as evidence that the scale of the war in Ukraine has been somehow exaggerated.

Nor has the backlash been limited to Ukraines geopolitical adversaries. Many Ukrainians have also voiced their unease over the images, with some accusing their countrys First Lady of engaging in inappropriate PR.

These negative responses to Zelenskas Vogue interview are understandable but short-sighted. Crucially, they fail to recognize the importance of keeping Ukraine in the international headlines and misunderstand the nature of Olena Zelenskas role as the First Lady of a country that finds itself at war with a superpower.

An attention-grabbing photo shoot with a global media brand is a smart move by Zelenska that plays to Ukraines strengths and enhances the countrys ability to punch well above its weight in the information war against Russia. At a time when scenes of death and destruction in Ukraine have lost the power to shock, she offers a compelling personal perspective that brings home the reality of the war to outside observers.

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The battle for global opinion is one of the most important fronts in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Ukraines ability to defend itself depends heavily on the continued flow of Western arms and money, which in turn can only be assured as long as public opinion throughout the democratic world remains firmly on Ukraines side. This cannot be taken for granted.

With Russias invasion now in its sixth month, a degree of Ukraine fatigue has already begun to set in and international media coverage of the war has noticeably declined. As attention turns elsewhere, Western leaders will find it more and more challenging to prioritize support for Ukraine or enforce sanctions measures that call for sacrifices from their own electorates.

Russia is well aware of this and is actively working on the information front to undermine Western resolve. Moscows clumsy initial efforts to portray the invasion as an anti-Nazi crusade have now been largely abandoned in favor of a subtler narrative that highlights the supposed futility of arming Ukraine while stressing the need to end the fighting. The Kremlin hopes this seemingly sensible message will resonate with jaded Western audiences and lead to mounting pressure on Kyiv to accept a compromise peace.

The consequences for Ukraine could be calamitous. Ukrainians are well aware that any ceasefire at this point would allow the Kremlin to consolidate its grip over regions in the south and east of the country that has been occupied since February 2022, while also potentially paving the way for the next stage of Russias campaign to extinguish Ukrainian statehood. This is why it is so important to keep the invasion in the news and underline the maximalist nature of Russias war aims. Zelenskas Vogue appearance succeeded on both counts.

Even the most vocal of critics would have to concede that the Ukrainian First Ladys Vogue portraits have attracted a lot of attention. This was achieved without resorting to sensationalism. On the contrary, Annie Leibovitzs images are stunning yet authentic, capturing the emotional bond between Zelenska and her husband in a manner that also reflects the gravity of the circumstances and the life-changing experiences of the past five months.

Perhaps the most striking image of all features Zelenska seated alone on some steps inside an anonymous government building against a backdrop of sandbags that serves as a jarring reminder of the war. With elbows resting on her knees, she stares straight ahead into the camera with an unaffected intensity that suggests both strength and exhaustion. It is a superb portrait that goes beyond traditional war reporting in its ability to communicate Ukraines deep trauma and the countrys remarkable resilience.

Read also: Olena Zelenska photographed by Annie Leibovitz in Kyiv makes cover of American Vogue

Zelenska is undeniably photogenic but her recent public appearances have allowed her to demonstrate that she is much more than just a pretty face. The Ukrainian First Lady clearly has much to say and uses her Vogue interview effectively to put the horrors of the Russian invasion into a relatable human context.

The first weeks after the war broke out we were just shocked, she recounts at one point. After Bucha we understood it was a war intended to exterminate us all. A war of extermination.

As a wife and mother who has never courted publicity and famously preferred to remain backstage during her husbands showbiz career, Zelenska enjoys a degree of authenticity that few politicians can match. This makes it possible for her to reach audiences that would be unlikely to engage with more traditional political messaging. She is now taking full advantage of this credibility to share Ukraines story with the outside world.

Ukraine is hopelessly outgunned on the information front and cannot hope to match Russias resources. But while the Kremlin can count on multi-billion dollar budgets along with extensive networks of contacts and sympathizers throughout the ranks of the Western establishment, Ukraine has the priceless advantage of truth on its side. The key task now facing Kyiv is to keep Ukraine in the global spotlight and continue communicating with as wide an audience as possible.

If Ukraine can maintain current levels of public engagement and support, the country has a good chance of achieving an historic victory over Russia. In the potentially decisive battle to shape international opinion, First Lady Olena Zelenska may well be Ukraines secret weapon.

This story was first published by the Atlantic Council.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Whilst the chances of being attacked on safari are slim, being attacked by a man in London is a real possibility (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A few weeks ago, I was on a walking safari in the Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia, flinching at the rustle of nearby bushes and clamming for a gin and tonic.

Yikes, you might think. I thought that too. Because although Im lucky enough to have been on safari a few times (I worked in the industry for three years and perks still apply), whenever I am out of a vehicle in the African bush, I cant help but feel death is upon me.

Perhaps the last thing I will ever see is the inside of a lions mouth before my head is chomped off like a cartoon burger. Maybe I will fall victim to the short fuse of an elephant in must, or perhaps a hippo furiously charging for water. Or could I be the first person ever to die from a kick to the head by a warthog? That would certainly be apt.

The stupid thing is, I know the risk of any of these things actually happening is very low. Whilst statistics are hard to come by, millions of people go on safari every year and only once in a blue moon does an incident occur with a wild animal. In fact, so few people die whilst on safari that these deaths do not even feature on country statistics for safari destinations.

The reality is that although it sounds adventurous, walking safaris are actually very controlled. Its not like the people-wildlife conflicts you hear about on the edges of safari parks, where tragically many local people do die every year.

Quite the contrary: as a tourist on a walking safari, you are always accompanied by an experienced guide who says things like lions are nearby with a hungry grin on his face, expecting his guests to be equally delighted. The biggest comfort is the (always fairly serious looking) scout from the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) who is licensed to carry a gun as a precaution.

Even without the gun, these guys know what theyre doing: they sometimes even track poachers for 10 days, sleeping underneath the stars, totally exposed to the eerie dark wilderness and whatever may be prowling within it. The fact they return unscathed each time is testament to their expertise. If youve ever heard the distant echoing yipee of a hyena on a still evening, youll know what I mean. Lets just say, if I were to attempt a similar adventure, I doubt Id make it 10 minutes.

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But thats a whole other kettle of madness. In the daylight hours the action dies down. Whilst youre walking, the predators are enjoying a catnap and the hippos have already waddled back to their pods. But even with all these precautions in place, and armed with a gun and the knowledge that Im almost certainly going to return unscathed, I get that feeling.

Its the same one  as I realised when my head turned and my heart pounded at every little sound  that I get when walking alone in London at night.

And the sad thing is that although I could rationalise away the fear on a walking safari, I cant do that in London. Because whilst the chances of being attacked by an animal on safari are very slim, being intimidated, harassed and attacked by a man in London is a real possibility.

Dont believe me? Over half of women in London have been victim to unwanted sexual behaviour. In fact, in 2021, the number of rapes in the capital was at an all-time high of 8,873. Thats an average of 24 rapes a day.

So what are my odds? Well, theyre not great when you also consider that across the rest of the country, one in four UK women have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult. Rapes saw an all-time high of almost 70,000 reported cases across the country. Of these, only 1,557 lead to prosecutions.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

But naturally, these are just the ones we hear about, as only one in 100 rapes were reported to the police in 2021. So add a few zeros to 70,000 and we get a better picture of how scared I should really be walking alone at night in this abysmal country.

At this rate, I probably have more of a chance of being eaten by a zebra than a victim does successfully prosecuting a rapist.

So its really no surprise that when women walk alone in London at night they arm themselves with makeshift weapons. They clutch their keys tight, digging into their palms, a little point sticking out between the index and middle finger.

We become what I imagine the ZAWA scout to be at night: crossing the road to avoid the man sitting in his car, speeding up to see if the potential predator behind follows, slowing down and sinking into a bush so the figure in front of me doesnt know Im there.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone free of charge over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK) or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch
The Volusia County chair is calling on the governor and the state Department of Transportation to investigate a controversial interchange project.

A proposed interchange at Pioneer Trail and Interstate 95 in Port Orange would help with traffic and growth, but the project is near Spruce Creek, a key watershed for the area.

Read: Volusia deputy finds dagger hidden in mans shoe during courthouse security screening

Volusia County Chairman Jeff Brower said the county needs to conduct more environmental testing.

We have to stop it while we can, he said. We have to be able to grow and develop responsibly and this is not it.

Read: Orlando installs new crosswalk on Corrine Drive to help with pedestrian, cyclist safety

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Volusia County chair calls for state investigation into controversial interchange project.

Brower said the exclusion that was granted for the project went against court opinions and environmental legislation. He said most citizens in Volusia County want the land preserved.

Channel 9 has sent emails to Gov. Ron DeSantis office and the Florida Department of Transportation about the objections to the project and if it will grant the inquiry.

Read: Gunman at large after 7 hurt in downtown Orlando shooting

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.
A West Haven man was arrested in Wallingford on Saturday after police say he swung a hatchet at two people in a road rage incident.

According to a news release from Wallingford police, Charles P. Smith, 33, of 171 Second Avenue in West Haven, was backing his car into traffic on South Turnpike Road just after noon at the Redwood Flea Market. Another driver honked his horn at Smith.

Smith then drove his car around the victims car, slammed on the brakes, exited his car, ran toward the victim and pulled the victim out of his car leading to a physical altercation, the police report states. The victim was able to gain control of Smith to stop the fight. Smith then went into the trunk of his car and retrieved a hatchet and started to swing it at the victim.

Another person tried to disarm Smith, and police said Smith swung the hatchet at that person, too. Smith got into his car and drove off but then returned. Police arrived at that time, and found Smith in the road.

The officer immediately ordered Smith to drop the hatchet and to get on the ground. Police said Smith dropped the hatchet but refused to listen to other commands. The officer then placed Smith into handcuffs without incident, the report states.

Smith has been charged with one count of third-degree assault, two counts of second-degree breach of peace, two counts of reckless endangerment and one count of illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle. His bond was set at $2,500. He is scheduled to appear Sept. 9 at Meriden Superior Court.

The police report included a caution against confronting other motorists. If you see someone committing multiple traffic violations, or trying to engage you or others in a road rage incident, its safer to call police and to let us handle it rather than trying to handle the situation on your own, the report states.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
A firefighter runs towards the flames of a wildfire in Slovenia on July 22, 2022. Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A wildfire in Slovenia has set off many unexploded WW1-era ordnances, per reports.

There have been more than 500 detonations of unexploded ordnances, according to local media.

In one incident, a detonation sent shrapnel hurling toward firefighters.

The summer's unusually hot temperatures have led to several wildfires across Europe and, according to Vice World News, they are setting off unexploded World War 1 bombs in the process.

A wildfire in the southwest Kras region of Slovenia, which officials told The Washington Post was the biggest since the country's independence in 1991, has destroyed more than 8,000 acres of farmland.

It's also led to the explosion of countless WWI-era bombs, which had laid dormant for more than 100 years, per reports.

A large wildfire burns near the village of Novelo in the Karst region of Slovenia in July, 2022. Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Darko Zonjic, the commander of Slovenia's explosive ordnance disposal unit, told Slovenian media that they've stopped counting the number of detonations of these historic ordnances because there have been so many. Officials are now only taking note of explosions taking place near roads, Zonjic said.

It is estimated that, as of Thursday, there had been more than 500 detonations, according to local media.

The unexploded ordnances, mostly underground, explode when they overheat due to the extreme rising of temperatures as a result of the fires.

An incident on July 22 saw the heat from the raging fire set off an unexploded WWI-era bomb, launching shrapnel at nearby firefighters, per local media. Nobody was injured.

Igor Boh, the deputy commander of the state explosive ordnance disposal unit, told Insider that six members of the team were present at the scene of the fire. They were directing firefighters on how to avoid accidents due to explosions, he said.

"The EOD State Unit was successful in this, as there were no injuries or casualties among the firefighters," Boh said.

The unit has so far removed 821 pieces of explosive remnants of war, weighing 4,630 lbs, according to Boh.

The danger of the fire setting off further unexploded bombs remains an issue and people are warned against walking on the land near the wildfire, said Slovenia's defense minister Marjan Sarec, according to local media.

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The site of the wildfire was where the Battles of the Isonzo, a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in WWI, took place. More than 200,000 people died there between 1915 and 1917.

Leftover unexploded ordnances cause problems for countries for a long time after the wars come to an end, as is the case in Slovenia, Task & Purpose reported.

Guy Momper, a bomb clearance specialist, told Reuters that it could take more than 100 years to clear all WWI-era munitions from former European battlefields.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Wolves said Hwang Hee-chan was the target of discriminatory abuse (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

Wolves have called for an investigation after reporting forward Hwang Hee-chan suffered discriminatory abuse in a friendly with Farense.

Wolves closed their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw against the Portuguese side, but it was marred by Hwang being targeted by racist gestures from home supporters.

The Premier League club said in a statement: We are very disappointed to report that one of our players was the target of discriminatory abuse from opposition fans during this evenings game with SC Farense.

We will be reporting the incident to UEFA and asking our opponent and relevant authorities to investigate. We are offering our full support to the player involved.

Racism in any form is completely unacceptable and should never be left unchallenged.

Hwangs penalty earned a draw for Bruno Lages side after they went behind to Christian Pondes early opener.
Deborah Ashenhurst

The Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Ohio Committee of Employers Support of the Guard and Reserve to launch this years Statement of Support Drive.

On Aug. 18 from 5-7 p.m. at the Wayne County Fair Event Center, the Chamber will host a Statement of Support Ceremony alongside ESGR to demonstrate the support of service members.

ESGR strives to foster a culture in which all employers support and value the employment and military service of members of the National Guard and Reserve in the United States. The intent of the Statement of Support program is to increase employer support by encouraging employers to act as advocates for employee participation in the military. Supportive employers are critical to maintaining the strength and readiness of the Nations Guard and Reserve units.

Employers signing a statement of support pledge that: We fully recognize, honor, and comply with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act; We will provide our managers and supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve; We appreciate the values, leadership, and unique skills Service members bring to the workforce and will encourage opportunities to hire Guardsmen, Guardswomen, Reservists, and Veterans; We will continually recognize and support our countrys Service members and their families, in peace, in crises, and in war.

Two major generals are featured speakers

Keynote speakers for the event will be Maj. Gen. Deborah A. Ashenhurst, director, Ohio Department of Veterans Services, and Maj. Gen. Steve Stivers, CEO, Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

In her over 37 years of service, Ashenhurst served at all levels of command and in 2011 was appointed to the gubernatorial-level cabinet position of adjunct general of Ohio. She commanded the 17,000 service members of the Ohio National Guard, the Ohio Naval Militia and the Ohio Military Reserve until January 2015.

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Before her appointment as the adjunct general, Ashenhurst was a 25-year federal employee in various positions of increasing responsibility with the United States Property and Fiscal Office with the Ohio National Guard. Her career culminated in service as a special assistant to the vice chief, National Guard Bureau in Washington, DC.

Upon her retirement from the military in October 2015, General Ashenhurst served as the senior vice president, military strategy with R2 Associates. She has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (with one Silver and one Bronze Oak Leaf cluster) and the Joint Service Commendation Medal.

Stivers leads Ohio Chamber of Commerce

Steve Stivers

In May 2021, Stivers was selected as president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. As the states leading business organization, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce champions free enterprise, economic competitiveness and growth for the benefit of all Ohioans.

Before joining the Ohio Chamber, Stivers represented Ohios 15th Congressional District where he served on the Financial Services Committee and was the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance. In 2003, he was appointed to the Ohio Senate and successfully ran for a full term in 2004.

He served over 30 years in the Ohio Army National Guard and holds the rank of Major General. He served the United States overseas during Operation Iraqi Freedom where he led 400 soldiers and contractors and is proud that each one returned home safely. Stivers received a Bronze Star for his leadership throughout the deployment.

Companies that pre-register for the event at woosterchamber.com/business-after-hours will receive a Statement of Support, a press release announcement with a Social Media Tag (if applicable), opportunity to nominate two C-Suite or HR Managers to participate in the Ohio BossLift Program, and an ESGR swag bag.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Chamber hosts Statement of Support Drive for military personnel
Healthcare workers in New York help people register for the monkeypox vaccine. (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

Officials in New York declared a public health emergency Saturday over the spread of the monkeypox virus, calling the city the epicenter of the outbreak.

The announcement by Mayor Eric Adams and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said as many as 150,000 residents could be at risk of infection. The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread.

In the last two days, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency declaration and the state health department called monkeypox an imminent threat to public health.

New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second most, with 799 cases.

We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more [vaccine] doses as soon as they become available, Adams and Vasan said in the statement. "This outbreak must be met with urgency, action and resources, both nationally and globally, and this declaration of a public health emergency reflects the seriousness of the moment.

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on July 23.

The disease has been established in parts of central and west Africa for decades, but was not known to spark large outbreaks beyond the continent or to spread widely among people until May, when authorities detected dozens of cases in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. Spain reported a second monkeypox death Saturday.

The virus spreads through prolonged and close skin-to-skin contact as well as sharing bedding, towels and clothing. In Europe and North America, it has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, though health officials emphasize that the virus can infect anyone.

The type of monkeypox virus identified in this outbreak is rarely fatal, and people usually recover within weeks. But the lesions and blisters caused by the virus are painful.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

LaGuardia Airport's remodeling is nearly complete after six years of construction and millions of hours of work.

Terminals B and C have been revamped to include new departure halls, arrival halls, gates, and security.

Delta Air Lines is the sole operator at Terminal C and has invested $4 billion into the project.

New York's LaGuardia Airport is one step closer to completing its full renovation and becoming one of the nicest airports in the US.

Delta Air Lines

On Wednesday, the final two gates at the new Terminal B opened, and a section of the taxiway was completed.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

Source: Metropolitan Airport News

This means the facility is almost done after six years of construction, over 17 million hours of work, and 40,000 tons of steel used. The terminal will be fully complete by 2023.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

Source: Aviation Pros

Also under construction at LaGuardia is the new Terminal C, which houses Delta Air Lines' flights. The airline is funding the $4 billion project.

Touring Delta Air Lines' new terminal at LaGuardia Airport. Thomas Pallini/Insider

While Terminal B is nearly complete, Terminal C still has at least a year's worth of work to do. Specifically, Delta is still working on gates 80-89 and 61-69, which are scheduled to open in 2024.

Touring Delta Air Lines' new terminal at LaGuardia Airport. Thomas Pallini/Insider

I toured Delta's brand new $4 billion Terminal C at New York's LaGuardia Airport and now I can't wait to fly out of it as a passenger

However, gates 70-79 opened on June 4, and gates 90-98 opened in 2019, so passengers are able to experience the new Terminal C.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Source: Insider

I toured both terminals on two recent trips to see the new concourses, gates, shops, and restaurants  take a look.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The new Terminal B, which also cost $4 billion, opened to passengers in June 2020.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

LaGuardia Airport's newest concourse is fully open with a brand-new section for American Airlines, 4 more gates, and a premium lounge see inside

The terminal is split into two concourses. Air Canada, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines will operate out of the Eastern Concourse, while Northeast Alliance partners American Airlines and JetBlue Airways will operate out of the Western Concourse.

Story continues

Taylor Rains/Insider

Source: LaGuardia Airport

Improvements include a new departures hall

Taylor Rains/Insider

arrivals hall

Thomas Pallini/Insider

gates

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

a 3,000-car parking garage

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Source: NY 1 News

a 20,000-square-foot American Airlines Admirals Club

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

and two skybridges. The western skybridge was the second to open in January 2022.

Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

For a year and a half, American customers heading to the western concourse checked in at the headhouse but then had to walk to their gate via the 60-year-old Central Terminal Building, which was known for its low ceilings and dated infrastructure.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

The trek was long and inconvenient for travelers, but the new 482-foot pedestrian bridge will more easily connect travelers to the gates in the western concourse.

LaGuardia Gateway Partners.

The terminal's eastern skybridge opened in June 2020. In total, the walkways connect check-in and baggage claim to 35 new gates.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Aircraft will be able to taxi underneath both bridges, alleviating the congestion LaGuardia's old Terminal B was infamously known for. Southwest was the first to use the new taxiway in May 2021.

LaGuardia Gateway Partners

During my walkthrough of Terminal B, I found the check-in area spacious and modern. There were plenty of kiosks at each airline counter.

Taylor Rains/Insider

After a quick check-in, I headed to security, which was easy to find because of the giant, illuminated sign.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The checkpoint was split into two sections  one with lines for standard TSA and priority, and a second for TSA PreCheck and B-Fast, which is an expedited line that costs travelers $15.

Taylor Rains/Insider

There were approximate wait times displayed above each line.

Taylor Rains/Insider

From security, passengers will climb an escalator to access the concourses.

Taylor Rains/Insider

To get to the gates, I first had to pass through a large shopping area called the Bowery Bay Shops

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

and a food court.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

Restaurants include places like Wendy's, Green Leaf's, and Tony's + Benny's pizza shop.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

The food court had a large fountain and plenty of sitting areas.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Also in the food court is an informative departures board that told passengers if they should head to their gate or sit and relax.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The updated gate areas in both concourses were extremely spacious with 55-foot ceilings and plenty of seating. The new facility is a relief for travelers who had to fight for space in the old terminal.

United departure gate. Taylor Rains/Insider

Passengers traveling through may notice the unique lighting fixtures, artwork, and concessions in the terminal, which are intended to replicate a hotel, rather than an airport.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

The carpeted floors also help keep the noise level down, making the experience more peaceful for travelers.

American departure gate. Taylor Rains/Insider

Several restaurants and shops are located throughout the concourse, like Bar Veloce, Sweetleaf Coffee, Gotham News, and The Scoop, which will use Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology that allows shoppers to check out via cameras rather than cashiers.

Touring LaGuardia Airport's new Western Concourse at Terminal B. Thomas Pallini/Insider

Whole Foods opens first store with Amazon's 'Just Walk Out' technology that allows shoppers to skip the register altogether

Terminal C also proved to be impressive. Delta has invested thousands of work hours over five years, resulting in a nice, modern new facility.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The terminal opened on June 4 and is the project's "biggest milestone" because it marks the completion of 80% of the facility, Ryan Marzullo, Delta's managing director of design and construction, told media at the opening.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Like Terminal B, Delta has a new departures hall

Taylor Rains/Insider

arrivals hall

Taylor Rains/Insider

security checkpoint

Taylor Rains/Insider

and gates.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The carrier also opened a brand new 30,000-square-foot SkyClub lounge, which has seating for up to 600 people and a nice view of the airfield.

Taylor Rains/Insider

See inside the new 30,000-square-foot Sky Club lounge Delta is opening at LaGuardia, which seats 600 and will have an outdoor 'sky deck'

Passengers will start their journey in the departures hall, which features 49 self-service kiosks...

Taylor Rains/Insider

...nice, modern bathrooms...

Taylor Rains/Insider

and a long 228-foot screen above 36 check-in counters that will display things like TSA wait times and SkyClub capacity.

Taylor Rains/Insider

There is also a separate check-in area for Sky Priority passengers.

Taylor Rains/Insider

According to Marzullo, the space was designed with the New Yorker in mind, meaning Delta focused on speed and efficiency.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Specifically, he said the roadway outside the terminal has been split into two lanes to increase curb space and decrease traffic

Taylor Rains/Insider

while the check-in area has been designed as a "transient space" without much decor because LaGuardia is a main business hub for Delta, and those passengers do not typically check luggage.

Taylor Rains/Insider

While the space was designed to be less extravagant, there are marble walls and several beautiful murals created by local artists throughout the facility.

Taylor Rains/Insider

To get to security, travelers will take the escalator up to the third level. Here, there is a giant digital art installation created by ESI Design, an NBBJ Studio.

Taylor Rains/Insider

According to a Delta spokesperson, the scene on the screen, which features things like waterfalls and mountains, changes when a delta flight takes off. The new image will be the destination of that flight.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Snaking security lines filled the large space during my recent trip. Several illuminated signs designate where each passenger should go, like Clear, TSA PreCheck, disabled, and the regular line.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Fortunately, I have TSA PreCheck so I was through in about five minutes. According to Delta, there are 11 lanes open, but the checkpoint has 16 total available for use.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Once you exit security, passengers will turn either left or right. Left is for gates 61-79

Taylor Rains/Insider

and right is for gates 80-98. Passengers will walk anywhere from five to 12 minutes from the security checkpoint to their gate.

Taylor Rains/Insider

A total of 37 gates will be open when the terminal is complete, and Terminal C and D will be consolidated into one huge 1.3-million-square-foot facility.

Taylor Rains/Insider

There are several places for travelers to eat on both sides of the terminal.

Taylor Rains/Insider

On the side with gates 60-70, passengers will find both quick-service and sit-down restaurants, like Bubby's, CIBO Express, and Essex Burger...

Taylor Rains/Insider

as well as Starbucks. According to Mazullo, there are four Starbucks throughout the new Terminal C, but no Dunkin' Donuts, which is unfortunate for New Englanders.

Taylor Rains/Insider

I enjoyed a burger and fries from Bubby's. While the meal was tasty, it was expensive at $21.99, so I'll probably just rely on snacks next time.

Taylor Rains/Insider

On the side with gates 80-98 are restaurants and shops like Flatiron Tavern, Juicepress, and Fiorello Market.

Taylor Rains/Insider

When descending into the gate areas, passengers will see a large Delta logo.

Taylor Rains/Insider

At the bottom of the escalator on the righthand side of the terminal, passengers will either head straight for gates 90-98 or left for gates 80-89.

Taylor Rains/Insider

There is a long passageway to get to the 80s gates, which are under construction but still open for use.

Taylor Rains/Insider

The space is clearly not as nice as the updated terminal, but still has some concessions, like quick-service market Bisoux.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Touring the 90s gates, it was easy to see the upgrades to the seats and space. There was more than enough room for everyone in the boarding area...

Taylor Rains/Insider

...and the seats had power ports.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Meanwhile, the bathrooms were modern and had mosaic artwork representing New York City  complimenting the art in the departures hall restrooms.

Taylor Rains/Insider

When exiting the terminal, passengers will find five new carousels at bag claim that will disperse luggage within 20 minutes of arrival, according to the airline.

Taylor Rains/Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that even "as China becomes more assertive in the pursuit of its interests", there are still shared interests that the two countries can and should co-operate on.

New Zealand has toughened its tone recently on both security and Beijing's growing presence in the South Pacific, in part due to the signing of a security pact between China and Solomon Islands earlier in the year. But at the same time New Zealand remains dependent on trade with China.

Ardern said in a speech at the China Business Summit in Auckland that while there were areas that mattered deeply to New Zealand and where the country's view differed from that of China, New Zealand was willing to engage.

"We will also advocate for approaches and outcomes that reflect New Zealand's interests and values, and speak out on issues that do not," she said.

"Our differences need not define us. But we cannot ignore them," she said.

New Zealand has consistently expressed concerns about economic coercion, human rights infringement and particularly the treatment of Uyghur in Xinjiang, and democracy advocates in Hong Kong and most recently about the potential militarisation of the Pacific. On a number of occasions New Zealand has been part of joint statements on these concerns.

Ardern added managing the differences in the relationship between the two countries would not always be easy and "there were no guarantees."

She added that she looked forward to in-person ministerial visits and planned to lead a business delegation there when COVID measures allowed and that there was the potential for foreign minister visits between the two countries as well.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Volodymyr Zelensky Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday announced a mandatory evacuation order for parts of war-torn Donetsk Oblast. Ukraine's forces are holding the line against the invaders in Donetsk, but Russian artillery strikes on towns and villages behind Ukrainian lines continue to kill civilians and destroy critical infrastructure.

"The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," Zelensky said, promising material and financial support to evacuees. Zelensky's evacuation order, the largest his government has issued since the beginning of the war, affects hundreds of thousands of people.

Russian shelling has also continued in other parts of the country. Ukrainian grain magnate Oleksiy Vadatursky, whose net worth was estimated at $450 million in 2020, was killed Saturday night when a Russian missile struck his home in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. His wife, Raisa, was also killed. Gov. Vitaliy Kim praised Vadatursky's contributions "to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry" in the region. Vadatursky, who died at the age of 74, was a co-founder of the agricultural company Nibulon and a recipient of the "Hero of Ukraine" award.

Russia has suffered losses as well. Six people were injured on Sunday when an explosive device carried by a drone detonated at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, officials said. The fleet said the explosive device was "low-power" and that the drone carrying it appeared to be homemade.

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Zelensky orders evacuation of Donetsk
KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO  SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2022, 21:58

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia is transferring some of its troops from eastern Ukraine to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, but in vain  it wont help Russia secure victory over Ukraine.

Source: Zelenskyys video address

Quote: "Now the Russian army is trying to strengthen its positions in the occupied areas in the south of our country, and is ramping up activity there.

Some units of Russian forces are being transferred from their positions in eastern Ukraine to its southern regions  to Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast But in vain. This will not help them.

None of the Russian strikes go unanswered by our military and our intelligence officers. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are prepared to respond to any new actions the occupiers might carry out."

Details: Zelenskyy also stressed that from a strategic point of view, "Russia has no chance of winning this war".

"And it is necessary to hold on, so that the terrorist state is defeated tactically, too," Zelenskyy said.

Earlier: On the evening of Sunday, 31 July, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia has transferred several units of its troops from the Sloviansk front to the Zaporizhzhia front.

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In this photo taken from video a view of a destroyed barrack at a prison in Olenivka, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces, eastern Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2022. AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Russia to be recognized as a terrorist state.

Ukraine blamed Russia for shelling in Donetsk that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attack, claiming it was carried out with American-made artillery.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Russia to be recognized as a terrorist state after attacks in separatist Donetsk killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The shelling in Olenivka in the eastern Donetsk region on Friday left "more than fifty dead," Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

"The occupiers' attack on Olenivka is a deliberate war crime by the Russians, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war," Zelenskyy said. "There should be a clear legal recognition of Russia as a terrorist state. Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today's world."

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the strike. At least 53 died in the attack, according to a spokesperson for Russian-backed separatists, who claimed Ukraine carried out the strike with American-made HIMARS rockets, Reuters reported. On Sunday, Russia invited the Red Cross and the United Nations to investigate the attack, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has launched an investigation and stated that the "occupying state struck the territory," CNN reported.

"Every occupier, who abuses Ukrainians, who tortures and kills, should know that there will be punishment for this. If some of the Russian killers hope that they will not be brought to justice, that they will hide somewhere, let them know: they will be held accountable in any case. Geography, time, borders and walls will not stop a just retribution," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Read the original article on Business Insider
FOREST  The name of the farm winery off Cottontown Road  Burnbrae Vineyards  is Scottish and means little rolling hill to a creek.

The name suits the property, as the vineyard sits up on a hill that slopes down to Ivy Creek, which runs along the bottom of the 270-acre property right outside Lynchburg.

Brothers Paul and Ed Gerhardt purchased the property from family members about 15 years ago, and the vineyard is operated on the Gerhardt farm, which has been in their family since the early 1940s.

What was once a cattle and horse farm now is a working vineyard with about six and a half acres of vines.

The Gerhardt brothers grew up in Lynchburg. Paul now lives in Williamsburg, while Ed moved from Greensboro into a renovated farmhouse on the property in April after working 35 years as a cardiac surgeon.

I tell people I didnt actually retire, I just changed jobs, Ed Gerhardt laughed. Im working more sometimes, but I get fewer nighttime calls to the ER.

Just a short 1,200 feet from Cottontown Road, the quaint winery is located on pasture land and feels like stepping back in time.

Unlike some of the larger wineries, its a small family winery farmland, Paul Gerhardt said. Were trying to create more of an intimate experience with people to come out and enjoy and see what were doing. We could have developed the land, but we want people to enjoy the wine and enjoy other people. Were very low key.

The brothers put their heads together to find a way to preserve the property as well as share it with others.

I sort of jokingly said, Well we have this piece of property and we need to do something with it other than raise pine trees and ticks, Ed Gerhardt said.

What was intended to be a small vineyard suddenly became suddenly became much larger. With the help of their spouses and friends, they planted about 14,000 grape vines in 2019.

We planted a few grapes and thought wed see how that goes, and it got a little bit out of control, Ed Gerhardt laughed. You cant do it part way; youre either in it or youre not. Theres got to be a commitment for paying attention to it every day.

As all vignerons will know, maintaining a vineyard and growing grapes comes with its challenges in Virginia, and the Gerhardts are no exception.

They found obstacles including unpredictable weather, weeds, mildew and critters.

They brought in a soil scientist to dig test pits and analyze the soil composition. They had another consultant educate them about the different grapes that would be successful in the Forest climate, which as locals know is humid and can get extremely hot in the summer but frigid in the spring and winter.

They have planted Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin and Petit Manseng grapes.

Burnbrae has 14 wines for sale, including Rose, Merlot, Cabernet franc, Chardonnay, Traminette, Viognier, Petit Verdot and a Meritage red wine  a Bordeaux-style blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot.

You can go to the grocery store and buy a bottle of wine from New Zealand thats $10 and not very good. And you really have no idea what they did with it, Ed Gerhardt said. You dont know who made it. You dont know where it was. And theres not much connection to it. Everything we make is local and is grown and processed here.

The Burnbrae tasting room sits inside the renovated two-story log cabin  one of three on the property  where the Gerhardt family would spend time enjoying on the weekends. The ground-floor has a cozy living room, kitchen, bathroom and tasting room in the foyer. The second floor still has two bedrooms.

The tasting room opened about a month ago and is open by appointment on the weekends.

Visitors much have access to nearly the entire property around the tasting room, inside and out, which includes a porch and picnic tables on the lawn.

This is what we enjoy and we want to share it with people and want them to enjoy the oasis, Paul Gerhardt said.

Janet and Terry Chalker are Lake Vista residents who said they could walk to the vineyard if they wanted to and love that its so close to their neighborhood.

We came and tasted wine with a group and we love supporting a local business, Janet Chalker said. We now give wine away as gifts, we love it so much.

Terry Chalker, who has had a hard time finding a Virginia red wine he enjoyed, said those at Burnbrae are excellent.

We have friends coming in from out of town and are looking forward to bringing them here, Janet Chalker said.

Ed Gerhardt said its not uncommon for people to come to the winery and meet others who are there and realize they are neighbors.

Its partly about the wine, but I think its partly about just connecting with other people, whether thats the people you come with or those that are already here Ed Gerhardt said. I usually say if we dont get people to sit down, they wont come back. You know if its just a bar that you walk in, drink two glasses of wine and leave, thats not really the point.
Its not like in the movies, is good advice for almost any field or endeavor, from war to Wall Street. But perhaps nowhere is it more true than in politics.

At the end of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Claude Raines admits he was the villain all along. Lonesome Rhodes, the populist demagogue played to perfection by Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd, has a hot-mic moment on TV and the audience gets cathartic release seeing his schemes fall apart.

Six years ago, I predicted that many conservatives would, like Alec Guinness Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai, have an epiphany about their misguided role in abetting Trump. I dont know whether Trump will win the nomination or the presidency, I wrote. But I am fairly certain that if he does, a great many people will one day say, My God, what have I done? 

I wasnt entirely wrong, but I was wrong in the ways that matter.

It was Gen. Douglas MacArthur who popularized the British saying, Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. Whats true of old soldiers is also true of most demagogues. Sen. Joseph McCarthy served more than two years after his censure, a broken morphine addict, but with ample supporters nonetheless. Father Coughlin, the antisemitic radio priest, remained a parish pastor for another quarter century after he lost his microphone in 1940.

Political movements have a half-life; its impossible to predict how long they will last. Whats clear is that Donald Trumps has kicked in.

A month ago, the Washington Examiner editorialized that Trump was unfit for office. The Examiners owners shuttered the Weekly Standard at least in part because of its opposition to Donald Trump. Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, both owned by Rupert Murdoch, declared Trump should fade away. The Post wrote in an editorial that as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this countrys chief executive again. The Journal echoed the sentiment: Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.

Some would argue it shouldnt have taken Jan. 6 to grasp Trumps character, but that misses the point. Trumps hold on the right is in the process of terminal decay. On Friday night, when Trump was haranguing rallygoers about the House Jan. 6 committee, Murdoch-controlled Fox News was running an interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Trumps endorsements can still matter, particularly in crowded primaries. But they often fail to make the difference, as in Georgia, where some of Trumps most hated Republicans  Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger  won handily. In other cases, his endorsements are lagging indicators; he picks the inevitable winner because they are inevitable.

A recent New York Times-Siena College poll sent shockwaves throughout Washington, showing Joe Bidens presidency to be on life-support. It was brutal in every regard save one: Despite being wildly unpopular with Democrats, Biden still beat Donald Trump in a head-to-head match-up.

Theres a lot of handwringing over whether Trump will announce his candidacy for another presidential run before the 2022 midterms. This is no trivial thing  Trump could still win the 2024 GOP nomination. But it is worth recognizing that this gambit is not a sign of strength, but of growing weakness. Trump sees the tide going out as his former loyalists depart without him and is desperate to raise sail before it is too late. Polls of Republicans can be misleading. Yes, he still has diehard supporters, but a lot of Republicans  voters and politicians  would rather just move on than admit they were wrong.

One explanation for Murdoch and others turning on Trump is that they recognize he could cost the GOP dearly in the midterms. Another explanation: to signal to Trump he cant expect a coronation and to donors and Republican politicians that there is room to break from him. A lot of White House hopefuls have gotten that message.

Whats missing from all of this is any meaningful admission  never mind atonement  for the role many played in creating Trump in the first place. Passionate opponents of Trump want that satisfaction, but they will never get it. Instead, the most likely scenario is that in a few years, many of Trumps former accomplices, apologists and abettors will simply marvel at the strange chapter they helped author and pretend they had nothing to do with it. Because politics doesnt work like it does in the movies.
A Japanese man in his 20s has been detained by security forces in Myanmar, where the military has been in power since a coup in 2021. Sources say the detained man is a journalist who was covering a demonstration.

The Japanese embassy in Myanmar said security officials in the largest city of Yangon took a Japanese national into custody on Saturday at a rally against the military. The embassy said police are questioning him.

The embassy quoted police as saying the man was filming the rally.

Multiple sources say he is believed to be journalist Kubota Toru. He is said to have entered Myanmar in mid-July to make a documentary. ...continue reading
FRIDAY, July 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children with ADHD may have less flexibility in the brain circuitry that allows for seamless "multitasking," a new study suggests.

Research has shown that kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often have more difficulty with so-called cognitive flexibility than their peers without the disorder.

That refers to people's ability to switch their attention from one task to another, then back again, in daily life: Can you put some soup on the stove, then send an email and chat with your kids, without forgetting about the soup?

Such mental deftness is also key in communicating, said Weili Lin, senior researcher on the new study. People have very different ways of speaking to a friend, a child or a co-worker, and they need to be able to seamlessly shift among those styles.

In short, "cognitive flexibility is crucial to everyday life," said Lin, a professor of neurological medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

When children with ADHD lack that flexibility, they can have trouble with schoolwork, relationships and general "executive functioning" -- abilities like planning, organizing and completing tasks.

For the new study, Lin's team looked at a related question: Do children with ADHD show objective evidence of less neural flexibility? That is: Do they have less agility in the brain wiring that allows flexible thinking and multitasking?

To find out, the researchers recruited 180 children and teenagers diagnosed with ADHD and 180 without the disorder, and had each undergo functional MRI. That's a type of imaging that measures brain activity by charting blood flow throughout the brain.

At any given time, Lin explained, different brain "networks" are working together to allow people to perform their day-to-day activities. Some of that teamwork is stable over time, while certain other brain network relationships are more flexible -- coming online depending on the task at hand.

Based on the fMRI scans, kids with ADHD generally showed less of that neural flexibility than their peers. And those differences, the study found, showed up in a wide range of brain areas -- including those involved in attention, executive functioning and processing visual and sensory information.

That finding supports the belief that ADHD involves dysfunction in multiple brain networks, according to Dr. Eric Hollander, director of the Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Program at Montefiore Health System in New York City. He was not part of the study.

It's not clear whether neural inflexibility is the root cause of ADHD. But Hollander said it's likely one cause, rather than an effect of having ADHD.

"This neural inflexibility occurs early in brain development, and differs from the pattern seen in typically developing [children]," he said.

Hollander also pointed to another study finding: When Lin's team focused on 46 participants who were on ADHD medication, those kids showed no clear deficits in neural agility.

Hollander called that finding "interesting," since it suggests ADHD medication might correct neural inflexibility.

The study -- recently published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry -- was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and foundation grants. It received no industry funding, Lin said.

About 10% of U.S. children and teenagers have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to government figures. That diagnosis is based on a clinical evaluation -- where a health care provider gathers information about a child's behavior from parents, teachers and caregivers.

Lin raised the possibility of using neural inflexibility, detected on fMRI, as an objective "biomarker" of ADHD.

"It could potentially be used for diagnosing ADHD, monitoring its progression and seeing whether treatment is working," he said.

More research is needed, however, he stressed. The next step, Lin said, is a longer-term study that tracks kids over time, to test whether neural flexibility is a good marker of ADHD and its progression.

Hollander, though, doubted that monitoring neural flexibility would be practical in everyday practice.

"I don't think this is feasible in the real world, since functional MRI is expensive and hard to obtain," he said.

It's also unclear whether signs of neural inflexibility on brain imaging would pinpoint ADHD, specifically. Inflexible thinking, Hollander noted, can also show up in other conditions, such as autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more on ADHD.

SOURCES: Weili Lin, PhD, professor, neurological medicine, director, Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Eric Hollander, MD, director, Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Program, Montefiore Health System, New York City; Molecular Psychiatry, July 22, 2022, online
DES MOINES  It had been roughly two decades since he was allowed to vote, and Eric Harris felt it was important that he cast a ballot again.

The Iowa City man, now in his 40s, lost his right to vote in Iowa when he was convicted of three felony offenses between 1998 and 2014. He regained it in 2020 when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued an executive order that automatically reinstated the right to vote of Iowans like Harris, who had been convicted of felonies but completed their sentences.

So Harris, his rights restored, voted in the 2020 election.

I spent almost 20 years not being able to vote because of felony convictions, Harris said. I just wanted to vote, and I was able to vote, and it was an important vote. The 2020 vote was a very important vote.

Before Reynolds executive order, Iowans who had been convicted of felonies were required to individually petition the governor to restore their voting rights. At the time, Iowa was the only state with a requirement that restrictive.

After Reynolds issued her executive order, 3,955 Iowans who had previously been made ineligible to vote due to felony convictions re-registered to vote before that years November election, according to data from the state elections office.

Of those 3,955 newly re-registered voters, 3,041  which is 77 percent, or nearly 4 out of every 5 who re-registered  followed through and voted in the 2020 general election, according to the state data.

That state data covers only those Iowans who had the right to vote, lost it upon conviction, and then re-registered to vote after having that right restored by Reynolds executive order.

A spokesman said the state elections office does not have broader data on how many Iowans became eligible to vote with the executive order even if they had not registered before, constraining the ability to determine what percentage of all Iowans who became newly eligible to register under the executive order.

Various reports in 2020, including one from the issue advocacy group The Sentencing Project, estimated Reynolds executive order as restored the voting rights of 35,000 to 45,000 Iowans.

Harris believes so strongly that Iowans convicted of felonies should have the right to vote and should exercise that right, that he has spent the past three-plus years encouraging others to register and vote.

People right now, with things thats going on in the country right now, people might not be happy, Harris said. But when I was able to vote in 2020, that was important to me.

When Reynolds issued the executive order, she called it a matter of second chances and acknowledging inequalities in the justice system.

The right to vote is the cornerstone of society and the free republic in which we live. When someone serves their sentence, they should have their right to vote restored automatically, Reynolds said in a statement accompanying her executive order.

The journey to that executive order, however, started on a different path. Reynolds originally called for state lawmakers to propose an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would state that Iowans convicted of a felony would regain the right to vote upon completion of their sentences.

Reynolds favored the constitutional amendment because it is a more permanent solution. Executive orders, in contrast, can be undone by the next governor.

Thats exactly what has happened with the issue of voting rights for Iowans convicted of felonies: Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2005 issued an executive order automatically reinstating the voting rights of Iowans who have completed their sentences for felony convictions. But in 2011, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad issued his own executive order, which required Iowans who have completed their sentences for felony convictions to individually petition the governor to have their voting rights restored.

But while a constitutional amendment was Reynolds preferred path, proposals bogged down in the Iowa Legislature, which is controlled by her fellow Republicans. In particular, Republicans in the Iowa Senate could not agree on what requirements should be added before a convicted voter had his or her rights restored.

After failed attempts in the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions, Reynolds resorted to the executive order just before the 2020 general election.

Reynolds said at the time that she would continue to advocate for a constitutional amendment, but the issue received little to no discussion from majority, agenda-setting Republicans in the 2021 or 2022 legislative sessions. Republican statehouse leaders said Reynolds executive order removed the urgency from the issue.

As to the proportionately low number of Iowans who re-registered and voted in 2020 after having that right restored, Harris said there can be many hurdles to persuading that population to vote again, including a distrust in government institutions.

Harris also said he believes the state could do more to inform and educate those Iowans about their restored voting rights, especially by meeting those Iowans where they are at community events.

The bottom line for Harris, and why he also supports a more permanent solution, is that voting rights should be automatically granted to those who have completed their sentences. He said that right should not be left to the whims of only the governor.

If, Harris said, you live in this country and pay taxes and you paid your debt to society, you should be able to vote. Thats it.
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King Mohammed VI of Morocco called for the full and active participation of women in the development process and in all sectors.

Ever since my accession to the throne, I have been keen to improve the status of women, open up prospects for their advancement and enable them to hold their rightful place in society, said the King in a speech on Throne Day.

The King has spurred reforms in the family code that fostered equality in rights and obligations between men and women and strengthened gender parity. He noted, however, that experience has revealed many obstacles in achieving the family codes goals.

I therefore insist on the need for everyone to commit to the proper and full implementation of the provisions of the Family Law, said the King, noting that the code was designed for the entire family.

In this respect, he emphasized the need to address the deficiencies and negative aspects and to revisit the laws provisions where deviations from the original goals have been noted.

While expressing attachment to the spirit of the Quranic principles, the King stressed the need to abide by a moderate, balanced approach, on open-minded interpretation as well as on consultation, dialogue and the engagement of all stakeholders concerned in the process of addressing the deficiencies in enforcing the code.

Progress in Morocco hinges on womens status in society and their effective participation in all development sectors, he said.
Zakaria Moumni was arrested Saturday night by Montreal police after he broke into a festival organized by members of the Moroccan community to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the accession of King Mohammed VI to the Throne.

He got into a violent altercation with Moroccan youtuber Mohamed Touhfa from Florida, who was invited to the event by the organizers.

Moumni, who was in a state of hysteria, struck the victim, several times, along with two other women attending the event and accused the audience of being traitors.

Moumni and the victims he assaulted, Touhfa and the two women, were taken to the police station wherein four complaints were filed against him.

Several factors stand against Moumni who claims to be persecuted: he broke into a peaceful artistic event to disrupt public order; he violently assaulted several people because he is a boxer and he insulted the audience and the organizers of a concert held by the Moroccan community.

Several people wonder how comes Canada grants asylum to such a violent person.
A new study examining TIF eligibility south of Interstate 80 and a block-grant application to help upgrade West Ninth Street lead the rest of a lengthy North Platte City Council agenda Tuesday.

Wilkinson Development of North Platte wants a vacant 22.06-acre tract and part of a nearby neighborhood declared substandard and blighted for purposes of tax increment financing.

Council members will be asked Tuesday to refer the study by David Citys Marvin Planning Associates to the Planning Commission. That panel would hold a public hearing and decide whether to recommend council approval at a later date.

Wilkinson owns the vacant tract north of Hackberry Road and west of Russian Olive Road. Its west and just south of North Plattes main I-80 interchange at U.S. Highway 83.

The area to be studied for TIF eligibility also takes in an adjoining block bounded by Hackberry, Russian Olive, South Oak Street and Lynn Court.

Wilkinson commissioned Marvins study to determine if possible future development of the area is feasible, Planning Administrator Judy Clark said in a council memorandum.

The draft study document says 24 of the 26 buildings in the study area are at least 40 years old, one of several contributing factors laid out in state law to qualify for TIF eligibility.

Other qualifying factors evident in the area include average to poor conditions for existing streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, the Marvin study says.

Council members also will hold public hearings and vote on applying to the state for two federal Community Development Block Grants, one of which would help improve West Ninth and an adjacent stretch of North Carr Avenue.

Modernizing West Ninth from Sherman to Buffalo Bill avenues has been on the citys one- and six-year road plan for several decades. Design work for the project is part of the current one-year 2022-23 road plan.

The council had endorsed an unsuccessful CDBG application in August 2020 that sought $400,000 toward the West Ninth project. The Nebraska Department of Economic Development awards the grants.

This years application asks for $425,000 in CDBG funds to aid with water and storm sewer installation, sidewalks and Americans With Disabilities Act improvements on both the West Ninth stretch and Carr between that street and Rodeo Road.

The city would cover the rest of the work on or along both streets, estimated to cost $2.9 million.

City officials also have discussed using part of North Plattes $4 million share of American Rescue Plan Act funds for West Ninth utilities work.

The other CDBG application on Tuesdays agenda will seek $73,000 to help both the city and Lincoln County update their respective comprehensive plans and the most recent city-county housing study completed in 2018.

The city and county are jointly applying for the grant, which also would help create an affordable housing action plan and a strategic safe streets action plan. County commissioners will consider the application Monday.

Clark, who serves as planning administrator for both entities, said in a council memo that the CDBG funds would cover about one-third of the $220,000 estimated cost of the new and updated planning documents.

The city, county, North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp. and private grants and donations would cover the rest of the costs, she said.

In other business, the council will hold hearings on and consider the following items endorsed by the Planning Commission last Tuesday:

Requests by Jim and Lorra Carlson to amend the citys land-use plan and rezone their property at 1801 E. Second St. from R-2 residential to B-2 highway commercial.

The couple wants to store construction materials and equipment for their drywall business on the property, which sits among other commercial businesses.

Requests by Joe Shown for rezoning and a conditional use permit so he can install a 10-by-24-foot electronic advertising billboard on his land at 3022 E. Philip Ave.

Showns land would be rezoned from transitional agricultural to I-1 light industrial to enable the billboard between Philips intersections with Bicentennial Avenue and Newberry Access.

Separate requests to vacate alleys between West 13th and 14th streets, north of Rodeo Road, and between East Second and Johnson streets east of Welch Avenue.

Adjoining property owners seeking the vacations want to consolidate lots so they can each build an accessory building, Clark said.

Both of the alley vacations and the Carlson and Shown rezoning requests require the council to pass ordinances. Each will need three yes votes unless members vote to waive one or two of them.
Analysts and officials blamed traders for exploiting the situation, suggesting they were hoarding coal and waiting on prices to rise.

Kazakhstan plans to ban the export of coal via road transportation for six months to avoid a repeat occurrence of the rush-buying-provoked shortage during last years heating season. The Industry and Infrastructure Development Ministry has said in a decree that the ban on taking coal out of the country in trucks and cars will begin on August 1. Other forms of fuel used for heating homes, such as briquettes and pellets, are also covered by the ban.

In introducing the ban, the ministry specifically harked back to events in September, when a sharp unseasonal cooling in temperatures sparked a sudden spike in demands for coal and caused a deficit.

Unscrupulous traders exploited this situation during the peak period of coal purchases and topped up their prices. They bought at 13,000 tenge ($27) per ton and resold at up to 30,000 tenge per ton. That had a negative impact on the population, an explanatory note attached to the decree read.

The cold conditions of September drove many to desperate acts. People waited in line for hours on end in the hope of getting enough supplies to keep their families warm. In October, a local resident in the eastern city of Oskemen threatened to set himself on fire after failing to buy any coal for days on end. Two weeks later, again in the same city, a man attempted to ram-raid the gates of a coal sale depot.

It remains to be seen whether the export restriction will be enough to avoid a repeat though, since there is no consensus on what caused the problem in the first place.

In November, then-Industry Minister Beibut Atamkulov insisted to reporters that coal shipments to the regions were proceeding according to plan. He said that any shortages being observed were created artificially, although he refrained from suggesting who might have been behind it.

Economist Petr Svoik took a similar line, suggesting in an interview to Tengri news website that someone is deliberately holding back coal deliveries to the market and waiting for prices to rise [on the domestic market].

Related: Green Hydrogen Can Help Latin Americas Energy Transition

Others blame producers for selling abroad. Even though coal production in January-July 2021 was about the same as in the year before, exports went up by 30 percent, according to the economic monitoring agency Energyprom.

As the Industry Ministry has noted, sales of coal to Uzbekistan in 2021 increased by 30 percent on the previous year. More than 1 million tons were sent to Kyrgyzstan, an increase of 19 percent compared to 2020. Of that total amount delivered to Kyrgyzstan, 89 percent was carried by rail, while the remainder was transported by road. Similar figures were not provided for Uzbekistan.

But nobody buys as much as Russia. Of the 16 million tons of coal that Kazakhstan exported in January-July last year, more than 10 million went there.

And the suspicion is that even more made it to the north by means of undeclared road freight. Farmers recently asked the government to ban the import of cheaper Russian wheat by road as that is a common way for that and other kinds of sought-after commodities to be smuggled into Kazakhstan. Growers worry that their crop is unable to compete against cheaper and lower-quality Russian grain.

By Eurasianet.org

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Steel prices have waxed and waned more than usual this past year. MetalMiner has reported extensively on all of the various factors contributing to this unpredictability. Of course, you cant ignore Chinas rolling COVID lockdowns or the year-long supply chain hangups. However, we feel one of the biggest X factors for the global steel supply has been Putins disastrous war on Ukraine.

The War Limps Past the Five-Month Mark, Steel Supply Suffers

Back on February 24th, few analysts could have predicted the path the Russian invasion of Ukraine would take. For instance, Russian state news has largely played down the significant casualties suffered in the countrys recovery of the Donbas region. Meanwhile, foreign correspondents have repeatedly published reports about confused Russian troops, jury-rigged weaponry, and the embarrassing loss of the countrys flagship, the Moskva. Despite these setbacks, Putin seems utterly committed to achieving his goals in Ukraine. This means the world at large cannot expect a return to normalcy anytime soon, particularly when it comes to economics. From sanctions to pipeline problems to commodities hangups, the war in Ukraine has made itself figurative wrench in the global trade machine. One of the most affected commodities, of course, is steel.

A Dramatic Impact on Prices and Production

Ukraine stands as the worlds eighth largest producer and third largest steel exporter. Iron ore and other mineral resources are also abundant in Ukrainian soils. As a result, when the invasion first took place, steel prices took a significant leap upward. HRC, for instance, jumped from $974 a ton to $1185 in just over a week. Steel rebar followed suit, reaching $753 on March 7 after closing at $694 the day the war began.

Back in April, the CEO of Kyiv-based commodities site GMK Center, Stanislav Zinchencko, published his thoughts on the matter. Specifically, he mentioned how the war has significantly affected supply chains, leaving 90% of steel capacities non-operational. He went on to detail how the conflict had reduced export opportunities due to Russian warships blocking the Black Sea.

Related: The G20 Summit Could Finally Bring Biden And Xi Face To Face

About 1/3 of Ukrainian steel capacities are located in Mariupol  Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, Zinhencko said. At the time, this was the hottest area of the war. As most of us know from the heavy news coverage, Azovstal has since been completely destroyed in a weeks-long siege. Ilyich was also heavily damaged. However, since Mariupol fell securely in Russian hands, its ability to produce or not produce remains a moot point.

A Two-Sided Problem for Global Steel Supply

Against all odds, Ukraine is still producing steel, but at a reduced capacity. For example, at the end of April, we reported on Zaporizhstal, the countrys fourth largest steelmaker, as well as Kamet Steel in Dnipro. Both of these facilities have seen little, if any, impact from the war as of yet. For that reason, they are still producing much as they would in peacetime. In fact, in an effort to boost the countrys economy, the Biden administration lifted tariffs on Ukrainian steel exports in early May.

But all the (completely understandable) focus on Ukraine, its important to remember that there are two sides to the problem. Firstly, Russia remains the worlds third-largest steel exporter, shipping around 33.3 million metric tons in 2018. Secondly, as part of their sanction packages, the US and Europe have banned steel imports from the country in an effort to deal Putin an economic blow.

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of buyers for Russian steel. Still, as Bloomberg has reported, many of these nations demand huge discounts that dramatically reduce profitability. The Asian market, in particular, has developed a particularly strong appetite for cheap Russian metals, and beleaguered metals traders have been forced take what they can get.

Still, China Remains the Biggest Factor in Steel Prices

Well-informed readers may have been taken aback by the steel prices reported earlier in this article. After all, HRC just closed at $855 after a stark decline from March highs. Meanwhile, Rebar has been on the decline since May and only started ascending again as of last week. Of course, the main reason for this has little to do with the war. Instead, it has to do with China.

Chinas construction industry has been contracting for years now, savaging demand for homemade steel goods and imports alike. To add fuel to the fire, the country currently has a massive surplus of the metal. After all, the country produces around 56% of the worlds crude steel. With Beijing rejecting calls to curb production and minimal demand at home or abroad, suppliers are sitting on a growing mountain of crude.

And heres where it all ties together  with the war affecting trade so dramatically, normal metrics for evaluating the steel market no longer apply. As we stated several months ago, the steel market seems to have moved away from traditional supply-and-demand-based predictability. Instead, economists are rushing to produce new models that better reflect the 2022 marketplace.

For now, its a waiting game being played by some very stubborn participants.

By AG Metal Miner

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Internal Medicine Physician Returns to OneWorld Carlos Giraldo Vanegas, MD, has returned to OneWorld Community Health Centers as an Internal Medicine Physician. Dr. Giraldo previously worked for OneWorld from 2014-2017 before returning to Colombia, his home country, to practice internal medicine at a university hospital in Bogot from 2017-2022. After earning his medical license in Colombia, Dr. Giraldo moved to New York to complete an internal medicine residency. In 2000, Dr. Giraldo began his medical career in humanitarian assistance with Doctors Without Borders. Over the course of 10 years, he provided medical services in 10 countries across Asia and Africa. "During my time with Doctors Without Borders, I learned that social problems are invisible," said Dr. Giraldo. "You can live somewhere for many years and not know there is severe malnutrition or an opioid crisis unless your reality is directly affected by these things. It's the same with poverty, domestic violence and all other social issues." Dr. Giraldo is fluent in English, Spanish and French. He can also perform basic medical interviews in Persian. Dr. Giraldo said OneWorld's commitment to provide culturally respectful, quality health care takes his position beyond medicine and into the heart of the South Omaha community. "Being at OneWorld gives you the possibility to get to know many realities, especially the realities of immigrants, refugees and people of low-income," said Dr. Giraldo. "We have a big team of people to help our patients get care and support programs to help other needs. At OneWorld, the work is complete." About OneWorld: Established in 1970, OneWorld, in partnership with the community, provides culturally respectful, quality health care with special attention to the underserved. OneWorld is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) and provides comprehensive primary health care, dental care, mental health/substance abuse services, affordable medications and supportive services. For more information, visit us at www.OneWorldOmaha.org.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Monday against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers.

The suit, filed in federal court in Maryland, names Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, along with a data consulting company known as Webber, Meng, Sahl and Co. and its president.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleges the companies have been engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to exchange information about the wages and benefits of workers at poultry processing plants to drive down employee competition in the marketplace. The companies did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The government contends the data consulting firm helped to share the information about the workers compensation with the companies and their executives. By carrying out the scheme, officials allege, the companies were able to compete less intensely for workers and reduce the amount of money and benefits they had to offer their employees, suppressing competition for poultry processing workers across the board, according to court papers.

The defendants and unnamed co-conspirators in the lawsuit account for hiring about 90% of all chicken processing jobs in the nation.

The suit is the latest example of the Justice Departments antitrust enforcement targeting companies the government believes engage in anticompetitive behavior to stifle workers or harm consumers. It also comes as the department continues a broader investigation into labor abuses in the poultry industry.

"Through a brazen scheme to exchange wage and benefit information, these poultry processors stifled competition and harmed a generation of plant workers who face demanding and sometimes dangerous conditions to earn a living, said Doha Mekki, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The suit against the companies was filed with a proposed consent decree  a settlement that would require the companies to pay $84.8 million in restitution for workers who were harmed by the unlawful information sharing network.

The settlement would also put in place a federal monitor selected by the Justice Department who would ensure compliance for the next decade. The consent decree also would permit Justice Department lawyers and investigators to inspect the poultry processors facilities and interview their employees to ensure they are complying with the terms, according to court documents.

The suit comes as Cargill and Continental Grain, of which Wayne Farms is a subsidiary, formed a joint venture to acquire Sanderson Farms, paying $203 per share in cash for a company that last year processed more than 4.8 billion pounds (2.2 billion kilograms) of meat.

The companies plan to combine Sanderson Farms with Wayne Farms to form a new, privately held poultry business. Operations will include poultry processing plants and prepared foods plants across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.

Wayne Farms has more than 9,000 employees. It makes products under brand names including Wayne Farms fresh and prepared chicken, Platinum Harvest premium fresh chicken, Chefs Craft gourmet chicken, Naked Truth premium chicken and Ladybird premium chicken.

Laurel, Mississippi-based Sanderson Farms has 17,000 employees and 12 plants. It processes 13.6 million chickens per week.

The proposed consent decree would also resolve allegations that Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms treated chicken farmers unfairly by using a system that reduced their pay for low performance.

The farmers sign contracts to raise the chickens, and the processing companies provide the birds and the feed. The farmers' pay is then determined by how well they perform compared with other chicken growers. The Justice Department alleges that the companies use of that compensation method, known as the tournament system, resulted in their failure to provide information for farmers to evaluate and manage their financial risk.

Generally, chicken producers enter long-term contracts with meat companies that farmers say lock them into deals that fix their compensation at unprofitably low levels.

As part of that settlement, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms would be prohibited from reducing the base payments to chicken growers as a way to penalize them for under-performance. The consent decree would, though, allow the companies to offer incentives and bonuses to growers.

The proposed consent decree with the poultry companies and one with the data company were filed in court on Monday. Under federal law, the proposals would also be published in the Federal Register and there would be a 60-day period for people to send comments to the Justice Department before a court could accept and finalize the agreements.

This story has been corrected to show the settlement calls for restitution of $84.8 million, not $84.4 million.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A Russian operative under the supervision of one of the Kremlin's main intelligence services has been charged with recruiting political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine, the Justice Department said Friday.

The indictment of Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov reflects what U.S. officials say are ongoing Russian government efforts to meddle in the American political process, to shape public opinion and to sow discord and dissent on hot-button social issues.

In this case, the authorities say, Ionov for roughly the last decade recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and directed them to spread pro-Russia talking points. He also paid for group members to attend government-funded conferences in Russia, as well as a protest in the U.S. against social media efforts to suppress online support for Moscow's Ukraine invasion, the indictment says.

As court documents show, Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Departments national security division, said in a statement.

Ionov worked under the supervision of the Russias Federal Security Service, or FSB  which conducts domestic intelligence and counterintelligence activities  and reported his activities back to contacts in the agency, prosecutors say. He is the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, a Moscow-based group that prosecutors say is funded by the Russian government and that advocates for a fully sovereign Russia.

The indictment, in federal court in Tampa, charges him with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Ionov is not currently in custody and appears unlikely to ever stand trial in the U.S., but the indictment is nonetheless intended to warn Americans about the reach of foreign influence operations and to send a signal to Russia that the U.S. government is aware of its actions.

Separately on Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Ionov, accusing him of efforts to manipulate and destabilize the United States and its allies and partners.

The indictment does not identify by name any of the organizations Ionov recruited, but it does describe one of them as a St. Petersburg, Florida group whose leaders were aware that Ionov and his group were agents of a foreign government.

Prosecutors say Ionov in 2015 directed the group to write a petition alleging that the U.S. had committed genocide against African people in America, and to send it to the United Nations, the White House and to change.org.

The document, titled Petition to the United Nations on the Crime of Genocide against African People in the United States," notes Americas history of slavery and denial of civil rights for Black people. It argues the U.S. government still fails to protect our health and well-being as expected under full citizenship and inflicts state or state-supported violence and terror on us.

The petition, which is still available online, is labeled as being from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, a Black international socialist organization. Representatives from the group said the FBI raided their center in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Akile Anai, who describes herself as director of agitation and propaganda for the African Peoples Socialist Party, said agents searched her car and took her cellphone and laptop computer on Friday in addition to raiding the Uhuru House.

Anai said her organization had never received money from Ionov or any other members of the Russian intelligence service.

Members of the Uhuru movement first met Ionov in Russia when they were invited to an anti-globalization conference, and Anai said she also had been in contact with Ionov via email and also a webinar after Russia invaded Ukraine since we were getting one side of the story on Russian and Ukraine.

Officials alleged Friday that Ionov sought to inject himself into local politics in by supporting members of the group for office. In 2017, the group put forth candidates for mayor and city council, and again in 2019 for a city council race. The candidates lost. Any money the campaigns received outside the U.S. was returned, Anai said.

Their premise is these were Russian campaigns. Its a really insulting statement, Anai said. It was the Black community that ran the campaigns in our own interests. Its an insulting notion that Black people cant do anything for ourselves.

Prosecutors say Ionov also exercised control of a separate organization in California that promoted secession by the state from the rest of the U.S, and helped fund a 2018 demonstration at the state capitol building. According to the indictment, he sent news coverage about the California secession movement to one of his FSB contacts and said that the officer had asked for turmoil and there you go.

More recently, prosecutors say, Ionov paid for the travel of members of an unnamed Georgia group to fly from Atlanta to San Francisco to join a protest outside a social media company in California that had placed content restrictions on posts supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The case is part of a much broader Justice Department crackdown on foreign influence operations aimed at shaping public opinion in the U.S. In 2018, for instance, the Justice Department charged 13 Russian nationals with participating in a huge but hidden social media campaign designed to sow discord during the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump.

Russian government officials, and state-run media, often highlight anti-government protests in the U.S. and other Western countries, prominently commenting on political and social discord, racial riots, labor demonstrations, and mass shootings. The officials contrast the happenings in the U.S. with what they claim is the lack of such unrest in Russia.

FBI Special Agent in Charge David Walker in Tampa called the latest Russian efforts some of the most egregious and blatant violations weve seen.

The Russian intelligence threat is continuous and unrelenting, Walker said. Todays actions should serve as a deterrent.

Schneider reported from Orlando. Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.
The owner and operator of North Dakotas lone abortion clinic says a judges ruling that will delay the closing of the state's lone abortion clinic should provide more than enough time for her to move it a few miles away to Minnesota. Red River Womens Clinic director Tammi Kromenaker said Thursday that she was prepared to reopen her Fargo clinic in neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, next week if the states abortion ban had taken effect Thursday. She says now, she'll have more time to ensure everything goes smoothly when she reopens in Moorhead, likely within the next month. Minnesota has become an island of legal abortion in the Upper Midwest.
Long before North to Alaska was a hit song and a movie in 1960, Addie Braxton and Ruth Wilson went that way and made pioneering journeys.

Braxton went there to prospect several years after the Klondike gold rush. There hadnt been many women in the Alaska gold fields and Black prospectors were said to be few. Such a combination was news in Omaha in 1905.

Wilson went there to regain her mental health. She was said to have been the first White woman to visit Mount McKinley (now Denali) National Park and certainly the first to attempt a climb to the summit. Her story in 1920 went coast-to-coast in newspapers.

With Johnny Hortons song stuck in my head (and now maybe yours), we shall mush on to learn about these two exploring women from the Omaha area.

Braxton followed her aunt, a Mrs. Shepard, to the Klondike. Talk about a pioneer. The aunt was said to have been the first Black woman in the gold fields, having walked from Seattle. She offered Braxton and her husband, James, a dining car porter, two mine claims near Skagway in 1904. The Braxtons left their 10-year-old daughter, Hazel, in the care of her grandmother in Blair. When the Braxtons got there, Addie Braxton and the aunt were the only Black women in the British Columbia hamlet of Atlin.

She told her story to The World-Herald upon her return in December 1905.

I walked over the Chilcoot pass (likely the Chilkoot, and she said she fainted several times on the arduous trek) and carried my bundle on my back like the rest of them, she said. There are not many colored people up there and everybody was surprised to see me going with my husband. I only weighed 90 pounds when I went up there and you see how well I am now. I never had better health.

She worked her own claim, wearing heavy sheepskin trousers. She cut timber to build sluice boxes, for a piece of lumber was $4. In snowshoes, she claimed, she walked 90 miles at one time over an unbroken trail to prospect.

The Braxtons, she said, named a small creek Abe Lincoln Creek. She said, It was at the end of a long trail and when one of the miners asked us why we had named it that, we told them him because we were so glad to find the end of our trail and the prospect of gold in sight that we felt we were out of bondage, and so we named it for Abe Lincoln.

The couple had interests in four mines  Lucky Dog, Last Chance, Little Spruce and Carmenita. The aunt found a nugget worth $180 while digging where her old cabin had been. Addie brought home several large nuggets, including one that she said was worth $65  about $2,300 today.

She told of the hardships and sufferings on the mining frontier. Forest fires, howling gray wolves, death.

One becomes accustomed to the cold and the stories of suffering. The trouble is that so many people do not realize the necessities one must have and go out entirely unprepared for the things one must face out there. It takes plenty of money if you expect to stay. While we have four gold mines and things look very promising, indeed, yet it takes a large sum of money to work the mines properly.

The machinery and help are expensive. In our first cleanup we got over $1,100 (more than $37,000 today) but all of that and more had to go back into the ground.

While seeking validation for her account, as one must do for any old tale, I found mention in the Aug. 16, 1905, edition of the Daily Alaskan in Skagway that James Braxton was one of four miners who made a new placer gold strike on  Lincoln Creek.

While Addie Braxton apparently never returned to the gold fields, James apparently stayed. An item in the Omaha Monitor in June 1920 said he had recently died in Alaska. And she apparently had lost track of him. She was listed as a widow in the last Omaha city directory before her death at 41 in 1915. She is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Addie Braxton went to Alaska to find wealth. Ruth Wilsons trip came because she was wealthy. And as previously mentioned, to get healthy.

Wilson told her story to the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times in the spring of 1920. The former Ruth Campbell, a 1913 graduate of Council Bluffs High School, married Frank Wilson, a wire chief with the Nebraska Telephone Company, in 1916. Less than two years later, he died from a diving accident at Morse Park in Fremont, where the couple had moved from Omaha.

She was selected for overseas assignment in the Red Cross in World War I, but the war ended. She suffered a nervous breakdown. To recover, in April 1919, she chose to make the 5,000-mile trek to visit her brother William, a prominent mining man in Fairbanks since the start of the gold rush.

It was a dream trip for a sportswoman of that era. She rode the first steamer to arrive in Roosevelt City, a deserted mining camp. From there, in the company of the last couple left in the area, Joe and Fannie Quigley, who lived 5,000 feet up a mountainside, she hiked, fished  and bagged a caribou on her first shot at big game.

But it was the scenic beauty that enrapt her. Her first glance at Mount McKinley, she screamed when its magnificence appeared from behind the clouds.

I had several other interesting side trips to all the mining camps out of Fairbanks and up to Fort Yukon, but the trip to Wonder Lake and Mount McKinley was the most wonderful experience of my life. I mushed 12 to 20 miles a day right with the men and they said I was a real sour-dough.

It was they, she said, who told her she was the first White woman to visit the national park, which received its designation in 1917. She told the Times she entered districts where White women had never before been seen, where Indians came from miles around to see her and visit with the first White woman they had ever seen.

Unlike Addie Braxton, Ruth Wilson returned to Alaska. On her original trip she met James Barrack, a hardware man from Fairbanks, in Seattle. He was a close friend to her brother. Their friendship continued during the steamship ride and ripened, as the Lincoln Star termed it, in Alaska. They were married for 33 years and active in civic affairs, before his death in 1954. She donated a carillon to the University of Alaska as a memorial.

Ruth Barrack, who died in Seattle in 1980 at 86, had another claim to fame: she possessed the granddaddy of all sourdough starters, dating to 1898 in Dawson, British Columbia, that her husband obtained from another miner.

Acknowledgement to History Nebraska researcher Matt Piersol for his blog post in March about the Klondike gold rush and Addie Braxton.
One man died and two other men were wounded in a shooting early Sunday near 22nd and Lake Streets in North Omaha.

Davonta J. Williams, 31, of Hastings, Nebraska, was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center with CPR in progress, an Omaha police spokesman said. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Vincent Nelson, 35, and Madison Hill, 28, both of Omaha, were taken to the Nebraska Medical Center with injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening, the spokesman said. Officers found the shooting victims when they were called to a vacant lot at 2235 Lake St. at 2:36 a.m.

The shooting death is Omahas 11th homicide of 2022. That compares with 19 homicides recorded as of the same date last year.

Anyone with information about this incident may contact the Omaha Police Departments homicide unit at 402-444-5656 or Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP, at www.omahacrimestoppers.org or on the P3 Tips mobile app. Tips leading to an arrest in a homicide are eligible for a $25,000 reward.
At least 35 fire departments battled multiple wildfires in western Nebraska over the weekend in the Cedar Canyon Wildlife Management Area south of Gering.

Gering Fire Chief and Incident Commander Nathan Flowers said Sunday that the fires have already burned at least 13,051 acres of land, and further burning is expected. Three homes were destroyed, and seven were damaged, according to Region 21 Emergency Management Director Tim Newman.

Newman told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald on Saturday that the fires may have been caused by lightning strikes. Flowers said Sunday that it is now "100% confirmed" that lightning was the cause.

"The lightning started three fires within a five-mile area, and two ended up combining into one large fire," Flowers said. "The third one, we were able to extinguish."

The combined fire was about 30% contained as of Sunday afternoon, Flowers said.

"We are anticipating for the fire to be fully contained around Aug. 8," he said.

The Nebraska State Patrol advised people to stay away from the area. Cody Thomas, a patrol spokesman, said earlier Sunday that troopers were assisting by blocking off roads into the area.

"There have been some evacuations, but the fires are mostly in canyon areas," Thomas said.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission announced Sunday that it was closing several areas in the Panhandle southwest of Gering to help firefighters. Cedar Canyon Wildlife Management Area, Montz Point Wildlife Management Area and Carter Canyon were closed so firefighters would not be hindered by vehicular traffic.

"The public is asked to stay away as area residents may be using the roads to evacuate personal belongings or move livestock to safety," the announcement said.

According to the Region 21 Emergency Management Facebook page, firefighters from Gering, Scottsbluff, Minatare-Melba, Lyman, Banner, Bayard, Bridgeport, Sidney, Potter, Bushnell and Dix were among those responding to the emergency.
GOREVILLE  Brian Elias and Kyle McAdams werent looking for a handout, but they did get a helping hand. And theyre thankful for it.

The Chicago transplants are pursuing their dream of running their own farm. Though they came armed with some experience, they needed some help getting started.

Thats where Food Works came in. The nonprofit organizations Southern Illinois Farm Beginnings program was just the thing to help them get started on their dream.

Though he had never farmed, Elias has ample experience marketing agricultural goods. He ran a number of farmers markets in the Chicago area and worked with a small farm in Wisconsin. He also headed up a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program offering home delivery to 1,300 customers.

McAdams works as a ticket broker. When that business dried up during the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined Elias working in customer service. The couple moved to southern Illinois and started their farm about a year ago.

Their agricultural enterprise is highly diversified. They grow herbs and spices for value-added products. They also produce grapes, vegetables and  in the future  hazelnuts. While they plan to frequent farmers markets once their business is up and running, the most promising venue is the internet.

Our main thing is value-added stuff, Elias said. Were growing spices, chilis, ginger, turmeric, cumin and fennel to make jarred products. Also, figs and grapes, and we bought 100 hazelnut trees for an orchard.

They consider herbs and chili peppers their main crops.

Elias has a connection to southern Illinois. His aunt and uncle graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and settled in the region. Elias came often to visit them.

Elias and McAdams had a plan for their niche farm, but sought out expertise. Elias got acquainted with a staffer at Food Works and learned about its beginning farmers program. The year-long program offers seminars, on-farm educational visits and mentorships. He and McAdams secured a scholarship and began the program about a year ago.

The scholarships are for underserved communities, Elias said. One is LGBT, so we fit into that category.

The program provided the couple with specifics on a broad range of topics, including agronomy and marketing.

We had a pretty solid idea of what we wanted to do, but it got much sharper and cleaner, he said. Our first mission statement was a paragraph that finally got simplified to five words.

That was super helpful for me.

They cover everything from dealing with pests to coming up with a business plan. That was the best thing for me personally, that they had us write out these holistic goals and business plans. It really made us drill everything down, such as what is our price point, what is this going to cost us to make, how much electricity it will take to run a dehydrator.

A valuable part of the program was interaction with other farmers and supporting agencies.

Im aware of NRCS and Extension. But we got to interface with those people one on one, Elias said. That demystified some of that for us.

The interaction with others operating fledgling farms may be as valuable as the education.

They really helped crystalize everything and some things we hadnt thought of, Elias said. We learned from everyone else in the class  theyre all beginning farmers. Building that breakfast club has been really helpful.

For Elias and McAdams, support is a text or email away. It comes from experts in certain fields but also fellow farmers who have discovered something that benefits all. One resource specialist provided advice on hazelnuts and another is proficient in plant identification.
Bloomington-Normal

Galleries, museums

Some cultural institutions are open or making plans to reopen under current COVID restrictions. Check with each facility for indoor, online or outdoor programming. Open facilities have face covering, distancing and other guidelines in effect; see websites or call for details.

Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio; 101 W. Monroe St. Suite 201, Bloomington; Open First Fridays 5-8 p.m. and by appointment; 309-825-4655; angelambrose.com.

David Davis Mansion; 1000 Monroe Drive, Bloomington; open for tours, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; groups of 10 or less; $10 per person; $100 minimum; daviddavismansion.org; 309-828-1084.

Eaton Studio Gallery; 411 N. Center St., Bloomington; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays; 5-8 p.m. First Fridays, or by appointment or ring bell; eatonstudiogallery.com; 309-828-1575.

Illinois Art Station; 101 E. Vernon Ave., Normal; Gallery open Saturdays 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; illinoisartstation.org; 309-386-1019.

Inside Out: Accessible Art Gallery & Cooperative; 200 W. Monroe St., Bloomington; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; Saturday 8 a.m.-2 p.m.; by appointment Sunday-Tuesday; and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. First Friday; insideoutartcoop.org; 309-838-2160.

Jan Brandt Gallery; Normandy Village, 1100 Beach St., Building 8, Normal; by appointment; janbrandtgallery.com; 309-287-4700.

Joann Goetzinger Studio and Gallery; 313 N. Main St. Suite A, Bloomington; open first Fridays 5-8 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m.-4 p.m., also by appointment; masks and social distancing required; 309-826-1193.

Main Gallery 404; 404 N. Main St., Bloomington; 12-5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays; 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturdays; By chance or appointment at 309-590-6779.

McLean County Arts Center; 601 N. East St., Bloomington; open; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, 12-4 p.m. Saturday; masks and social distancing required; mcac.org; 309-829-0011.

McLean County Museum of History; 200 N. Main St., Bloomington; 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sundays, until further notice; reservations at education@mchistory.org or 309-827-0428; mchistory.org; 309-827-0428.

Merwin and Wakeley Galleries; Illinois Wesleyan University; Bloomington; open; 12-4 p.m., Monday through Friday; 7-9 p.m., Tuesday evening; 1-4 p.m., Saturday through Sunday; iwu.edu/art/galleries; 309-556-3391.

Prairie Aviation Museum; 2929 E. Empire St., Bloomington; opens April 2; hours 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; prairieaviationmuseum.org; 309-663-7632.

University Galleries of Illinois State University, Normal; open; 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday; 309-438-5487; galleries.illinoisstate.edu/about/visit/.

Central Illinois

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, 212 N. Sixth St., Springfield; advance reservation required; adults $15, seniors $12, under 5 free; presidentlincoln.illinois.gov; 217-558-8844.

Art Center at Greater Livingston County Arts Council; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday; noon-4 p.m. Sunday; 209 W. Madison St., Pontiac; pcartcenter.com; 815-419-2472.

Contemporary Art Center of Peoria; Riverfront Arts Center, 305 S.W. Water St., Peoria; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; peoriacac.org; 309-674-6822.

Dickson Mounds Museum; 10956 N. Dickson Mounds Road, Lewistown; open, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; free; illinoisstatemuseum.org; 309-547-3721.

Illinois State Museum; 502 S. Spring St., Springfield; open, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Monday-Friday, free; illinoisstatemuseum.org; 217-782-7386.

Lincoln Heritage Museum; Lincoln Center at Lincoln College, 300 Keokuk St., Lincoln; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 1-4 p.m. Saturday, closed Sundays, Mondays and on Lincoln College breaks; $4-7; museum.lincolncollege.edu; 217-735-7399.

Peoria Art Guild; 203 Harrison St., Peoria; open; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday or by appointment; peoriaartguild.org; 309-637-2787.

Peoria Riverfront Museum; downtown riverfront Peoria; open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday and Friday; 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday; and closed Sunday; adults $11, seniors, students $10, ages 3-17 $9; peoriariverfrontmuseum.org; 309-686-7000.

Simpkins Military History Museum; 605 E. Cole St., Heyworth; Open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 1-5 p.m.; Free admission (donations accepted); Private tours, call first; 309-319-3413; Open House, 1-5 p.m., March 19, marking 63 years of collecting military items.

Time Gallery; 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Saturday; Closed Sunday; Clock Tower Place Building, 201 Clock Tower Drive, East Peoria; 309-467-2331.

U of I Krannert Art Museum; 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign; open; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Thursdays until 8 p.m. when classes are in session; closed Sunday and Monday; kam.illinois.edu; 217-333-1861.

Exhibits

"Design & Duplication: Treasures of the Peoria Riverfront Museum Collection; Gallery 2, through Fall 2022; "Archibald Motley's Bronzeville at Night"; through March 2023; "Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence"; through Sept. 5, Experience Gallery; "Modern Masters: Modern Masters from the Heintzman Collection"; through Sept. 11"; Peoria Riverfront Museum.

"Stories of Survival; Object. Image. Memory."; through Jan. 22, 2023; Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

"To Know The Fire: Pueblo Women Potters and The Shaping of History"; through Sept. 3; U of I Krannert Art Museum.

"2022 Honoring the Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans"; through Nov. 12; Simpkins Military History Museum.

"Edgewise"; second floor gallery; through Sept. 3; "Climate Change in Your Back Yard"; first floor Hot Science Gallery; through April 22, 2023; "NOIR II: The Migration"; second floor gallery; through Sept. 6; Illinois State Museum.

"In Living Color"; Curated by Teen Art Group; through Aug. 10; University Galleries.

"Inscapes: Robert Lee Mejer & Jason Dillard Mejer"; through Aug. 13; "Jessica McGhee: You Can Rest Here"; through Aug. 13; Contemporary Art Center of Peoria.

"Harold Gregor: The Painter's Pedagogy"; Brandt/Armstrong/Dolan Galleries; through Aug. 26; McLean County Arts Center.

"We Didn't Know"; through Aug. 6; Erin Eveland; Lincoln Arts Institute.
The Police have arrested Safina Mohammed Adizatu, a student and Michael Fiifi Ampofo Arku, a Technical Officer for their involvement in the murder of one Frank Kofi Osei at Ashalley Botwe School Junction in Accra.



Osei, a Ghanaian domiciled in Canada was in the country for a vacation.



Safina also known as Safina Diamond on social media and Arku are said to have stabbed the deceased several times on his chin, jaw, back and strangled him to death.



Charged with conspiracy and murder, the Adenta District Court presided over by Nana Aba Quaiba Nunoo preserved their pleas and remanded them into Police custody to reappear on August 12.



Prosecution led by Chief Inspector Jacob Nyarko declined a bail application put in by the defence team as the case was under investigations and efforts were underway to nab other accomplices currently at large.



The court turned down the bail application.



Narrating the facts, Prosecution led by Chief Inspector Jacob Nyarko said Safina is a 23-year-old level 100 student of the University of Ghana and Arku is a Technical Officer of the Crop Research Institute, Kumasi.



Chief Inspector Nyarko said Osei, now deceased is a Ghanaian domiciled in Canada, but has been in the country a few weeks ago.



On July 24, 2022, Prosecution said Osei visited Safina, his fiance who resides at Ashalley Botwe School Junction and decided to spend the night there.



Prosecution said at night, Safina and Arku together with others yet to be identified stabbed Osei several times with a knife on his chin, jaw, back and strangled him to death.



It said Safina and Arku cleaned up the blood, while the deceased was in the room for a 24-hour period.



According to prosecution, accused persons later dragged the deceased from first floor of the storey building through the staircase and dumped him at the gate of the house near where the deceased had parked his Toyota Tundra and washed the blood stains off the staircase.



On July 26, this year, at about 0400 hours,Safina called a police officer saying that her boyfriend visited her, and he had died in her room.



Prosecution said the Police Officer called the Police Patrol Team who rushed to the scene and found the body of the deceased lying at the gate of Safina's house, but (she) Safina and Arku were nowhere to be found.



It said the Police later traced Safina to Ashalley Botwe School Junction and nabbed her.



Prosecution said Arku after committing the act, absconded to Kumasi.



It said efforts were underway to apprehend other accomplices on the run.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The United Kingdom (UK) and Ghana will go further and faster to combat terrorism, organised migration crime, drug trafficking and other global threats following a summit in London.



A statement issued by the British High Commission in Accra, copied to the Ghana News Agency said the UK Government hosted the second UK-Ghana security dialogue between July 25 and 27, to discuss the countries shared interests in tackling global issues.



Madam Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary and Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Minister for National Security of Ghana agreed to strengthen law enforcement agency collaboration, strengthen engagement on border security, work together to enhance cyber security in Ghana and support regional solutions to instability in Ghanas neighbouring states.



Madam Patel said: The UK and Ghana have a deep and long-standing relationship, and we are powerful allies when confronting the scourge of organised criminal gangs that operate across our borders.



Ghana is the beacon of freedom and democracy in West Africa and through our joint work we are tackling global threats and cracking down on the threats to our mutual security.



Mr Kan-Dapaah said: The UK is a primary and reliable partner to Ghana; therefore, we welcome essential security initiatives from the UK towards building Ghanas resilience to address national and regional threats.



The Home Secretary visited Ghana last year in the first round of talks, opening a new Home Office-funded immigration taskforce office in the process.



The statement said because of the joint working, since January 2022, 14 organised crime groups had been disrupted preventing the facilitation of 56 individuals from entering the UK illegally, saving the UK over 812,000 in the process.



It said through the New Plan for Immigration, that the UK Government was working with countries around the world to tackle the heinous people traffickers who work across borders and bring misery to vulnerable people.



It said the Home Secretary hosted a reception with Ghanaian delegation at Lancaster House on July 25 before counterparts discussed topics including, serious and organised crime, border management, security, countering terrorism and violent extremism, conflict prevention and military over the course of two-day event.



It noted that the Defence staff met to discuss peacekeeping, regional stability, counter-terrorism and maritime security.



Mr James Heappey, the UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces, said: The UK is committed to expanding defence cooperation with the Ghanaian Armed Forces and we will continue to work together in frameworks such as the Accra Initiative to counter violent attacks and insurgency in West Africa and the Sahel.





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The brother of the former Chief of Staff in the erstwhile John Mahama government, Julius Debrah, has passed on.



According to sources he died on Friday July 29 at the 37 Military Hospital.



The deceased, Isaac Nkansah Debrah alias Cambodia was a retired soldier from the Ghana Armed Forces and a businessman.



The former Chief of Staff is expected to be leading his family to announce preparations for the final funeral rights and burial of the late brother in line with Akan tradition.



This will come after the Debrahs have received clearance from their Kwahu and Oda family heads.



Meanwhile, the family will gather to welcome visitors on Monday 1st August, 2022 at the residence of the deceased at K Boat Junction, at Dome Pillar 2, Accra.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghanaian Cardinal-designate, Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr, has been elected the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).



Vatican News reports that the Bishop of Ghanas Catholic Diocese of Wa who was named Cardinal on May 29 was elected Saturday, July 30, the eve of the Eucharistic celebration to mark the conclusion of the 19th Plenary Assembly of SECAM in Ghanas capital city, Accra.



Bishop Baawobr, 63, takes over from Philippe Cardinal Ouedraogo who has led SECAM since July 2019.



Also elected with Bishop Baawobr were two vice presidents, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of the Diocese of Xai-Xai, Mozambique.



The Ghanaian Bishop, ordained a Priest in July 1987 is among 21 new Cardinals to be created in the next Consistory scheduled for August 27.



Security and migration - good starting points



Following his election, Bishop Baawobr said his election as SECAM President came as a total surprise.



"I was surprised that they elected me because this is my first time participating at a SECAM meeting. At the same time, I am grateful that they have elected me. I see it as trust that they are showing in me  for now, I cannot say these are my priorities," he said.



"It is important that we first listen to the regional Episcopal Conferences, and it is good that our SECAM standing committee is comprised of regional conferences. I also find that the theme we discussed at this Plenary, Ownership of SECAM; Security and Migration in Africa and the Islands, is a good starting point".



Called to serve and to listen



On May 29, 2022, Pope Francis announced that at a consistory scheduled for 27 August, he would create new cardinals for the Church. Among those will be the Cardinal-designate, Bishop Baawobr. Asked by Vatican News what all these new appointments mean to him personally, Bishop Baawobr said the bottom line was that they are all a call to serve.



"What all this means for me as Cardinal-elect and President of SECAM, I think, is that both are a call to serve God through my brothers and sisters and by listening to them," said the Ghanaian prelate.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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Artisanal and inshore fishing activities along the coast which took a month-long break are expected to resume on August 1.



The closed season, enforced by the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD), in collaboration with the Fisheries Commission on June 1, this year was to replenish the fish stock.



At the Ussher Fort Beach in Accra, most of the fishermen were seen working on their canoes while others were mending their nets to resume work next Monday.



A fisherman, Samuel Quartey, told the Daily Graphic that he thanked God that the closed season would end soon. He said they went through some financial difficulties and said the items given to them by MoFAD were not enough to feed their families.



The intervention is to avoid over-exploitation of the fish resource and to ensure acceptable fishing practices.



The ultimate aim of the closed season is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder fishers, other users of the marine resource and the interest of people in communities that depend on fishing.



The closed season concept was introduced by the government in 2016 to help replenish the fish stock following the slapping of a yellow card on Ghana for unsustainable fishing practices.



With research establishing that one pregnant fish had the potential to drop over 25,000 eggs, the players in the sector believe it was better to allow the pregnant fish to breed (spawn) rather than fishers going to sea and returning with no catch.

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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Three thousand two hundred and twenty-four police recruits have passed out from five police training schools in the country. They are made up of 1,953 males and 1,020 females who constitute the first batch of recruits for 2022 who have successfully completed the Basic Police Training programme.



The graduation ceremonies were held simultaneously in the national capital - Accra, Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital; Ho in the Volta Region, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region and Pwalugu in the Upper East. In all, 847, 416, 361, 612 and 725 of the recruits were trained in the regions in that order.



During the six-month training, the recruits acquired skills in riding, driving, swimming, crowd control, incident, disaster, crime scene and traffic management, radio communication, intelligence gathering and community-based patrols.



Other programmes included charge office management, access control, arrest and search procedures, use of force procedures and human rights, client care and professional police ethics, tactical progression, weapon handling and high-risk operation.



Also, deserving recruits were honoured for their sterling performances in the fields they were adjudged in.



Largest intake



Mary Anane-Amponsah reports from the National Police Training School at Tesano, Accra that the 847 recruits who were the largest intake, displayed parade formations such as Nkabom, (Unity) Dwennimmen and Nteasee (Understanding) to the admiration of all present.



The Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, who was the reviewing officer for the parade, said the service under the new administration had positioned itself to ensure that personnel exhibited international best practices in consonance with the vision of the service.



He said that would enhance the way the police controlled crowd and maintained law and order in the country.



This is the first batch of recruit intake since the government gave clearance for recruitment of 5,000 men and women into the service, COP Yeboah said, adding that the second and third batches were still in training.



At the senior officer level, the Police Academy, for the first time in history is running Cadet Officers Courses for 308 personnel at a session, which is the biggest number witnessed at the academy, the Director-General of CID indicated.



All-male recruits



Intakes at the training schools in Koforidua and Ho were all males. From Koforidua, Pacome Emmanuel Damalie reports that an all-male 416 new recruits at the Koforidua Police Training School passed out as General Constables and General Sergeants.



The number also included 50 under cadets (graduates) who passed out as General Sergeants at the event held at the Jubilee Park to officially admit the new police officers into the Ghana Police Service. Addressing the parade, the Director-General of Police Administration, COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, who was the reviewing officer, charged the new recruits to serve as good examples in order not to drag the reputation of the service into disrepute.



He said the Police Administration had taken a stance to weed out miscreants and criminals that were parading themselves as police officers, thus, contributing to the destruction of the hard-earned reputation of the police service.



COP Yohuno said emerging crimes, terrorism, cyber-related crimes and changes in modus operandi of criminals were some of the issues that impinged on the police every day.



That translated into increased demand for police personnel to deliver services that were more diverse, complex, skilled and specialized in order to deal with current crime trends.



It is to equip police personnel with the requisite knowledge and the skill sets needed to effectively deal with these challenges of modern policing that the IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, introduced a paradigm shift in recruit training modules and a changing focus in policing in the country as a whole, he said.



That the IGP did this by standardizing recruit training modules and curriculum, and restructuring of recruit training activities with expanded improved facilities, the Director-General of Police Administration said.



COP Yohonu indicated that equal emphasis was now placed on-field training with practical attachment to gain field experience under close supervision of cadet officers. Hitherto, the emphasis was mainly on enhancement of recruits knowledge on the laws they are expected to enforce when they pass out, he explained.

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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GLENS FALLS  The Glens Falls Planning Board has a full agenda for its upcoming meeting on Tuesday night.

The citys Arts District has three murals for review for the buildings located at 20 Warren St., 103 Warren St., and 144 Glen St.

Chad Rabinovitz, member of the Arts District, said one of the murals is undergoing revisions, but he indicated that this was only to make the artwork fit the Adirondack theme.

The initial one was simply the artists submission, he said. We responded and said some of those animals dont exist in Glens Falls. We want to try to at least have wildlife that represented our community.

Local artist Hannah Williams would paint a mural of a bear in a nature scene on the building at 20 Warren St. Jesse Melanson, an artist from Louisiana, is set to paint a mural featuring hot air balloons on the building at 144 Glen St.

Toni Ardizzone, an artist from Texas, will be painting the wildlife mural currently undergoing revisions on the building at 103 Warren St.

Rabinovitz said the three artists are incredibly talented and will produce great murals.

Were at the point where we are just waiting on final approval so we can execute, he said.

If the murals are approved by the Planning Board on Tuesday, Rabinovitz said that the plan is to have people getting things ready to go for the murals in about a months time.

Downtown redevelopment

The Spring City Development Groups Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects are once again up for a site plan review. Last month, the board indicated that more information needed to be added to the drawings before proceeding further.

Libby Coreno, general counsel at Bonacio Construction, said there have been no changes to the project since last months Planning Board meeting.

She said that this months submission serves as a supplementation to the previously submitted drawings that were reviewed at the previous meeting.

This was shoring up a lighting plan, garbage removal. Some of the things that we needed to pin down based upon the Zoning Boards determination around first-floor residential, Coreno said.

The citys Zoning Board of Appeals approved the zoning variance for commercial use of the first floor of the building planned for the corner of South and Elm streets.

The variance allows for 4,166 square feet of apartments on the ground floor instead of commercial space.

Coreno said the variance that was approved at the zoning boards meeting on July 18 was the right decision, both economically and land-use wise for such a large site.

It keeps the commercial at the South Street corridor, and as it steps back down on Elm (Street) towards Pine (Street), like most urban development, it begins to step towards residential, she said

Coreno said her experience working with the Planning Board throughout this process has been a good one.

She said that the board members ask the right questions: about traffic flow, pedestrian access and scale of the project.

She anticipates a substantive conversation at Tuesdays meeting.

I find them to be involved and privy in asking the right kinds of questions, Coreno said.

Tuesdays meeting is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall and will be livestreamed on the citys YouTube page.
Many of them had a rough year, skipping school and falling behind their peers in classes.

After wracking up 70 absences and arriving late 30 times, Joel Suazo-Cruz, 17, accepted his summer school fate. He said he primarily missed school because he overslept after staying up late. He said he failed science, English and math.

I need a better work ethic, he said, adding that graduating from high school is probably the most important thing I do in my life.

In Camden, its credit recovery program offers a second chance for students to make up work in four core classes and get back on track for the 2022-23 school year with an abbreviated summer schedule. Younger students are attending enrichment programs. Suazo-Cruz is making up three classes to stay on schedule as a senior at Big Picture Learning Academy.

This just gives them a chance to be able to get caught up, said Kandace Butler, who runs an alternative program at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden known as SOAR, or Students on Academic Rise.

Faced with the possibility of being held back, students say they are highly motivated. They credit a more relaxed environment, too, and classes that run about an hour. The program also has tough discipline: no more than three absences. Middle school students can also make up classes in order to get promoted.

Atlantic City man arrested after running from officers, police say ATLANTIC CITY  A city man was arrested Thursday after he ran from officers investigating gu

I just think it suits me. Its better for me than regular school, said Trinity Gray, 16, a rising sophomore at Camden High School who is taking three courses. I know I need this to get to my next grade.

This year, nearly 1,000 students enrolled in summer school, which began July 5 at four sites across the city, and ends Thursday.

Under state takeover since 2013, the Camden district, with about 5,800 students in its traditional public schools, has struggled to improve its four-year graduation rate. The pandemic disrupted learning in 2020-21, when the rate dropped 11.4 percentage points to 58.5%, the lowest in the region. The state average is 91%.

Butler said there are various reasons why some students fall behind academically, including difficult home situations and personal challenges. Some students suffered learning losses when schools were closed during the pandemic. Camden schools were among the last in the region to fully reopen.

During a recent science class, veteran teacher Tracy Freeman covered biology, chemistry and physics lessons with about two dozen students scattered around her lab at Camden High. They used 3-D microscopes to examine insects eaten by Lizzy, a lizard. Another day they learned how to measure liquids and solids and how to use a graphing calculator.

Im pulling a lot of hat tricks to keep them interested, said Freeman.

Carnegie Library lease, illegal ATV use up for Atlantic City Council vote ATLANTIC CITY  City Council will hold public hearings Wednesday on ordinances to lease the 

She said some of her students failed classes during the school year after being tardy because they had to ready younger siblings for school. Freeman said others who spent two years learning remotely had difficulty transitioning to in-person.

I blame COVID, Freeman said. Hopefully, were getting past that.

According to the district, 271 students are taking credit recovery classes at Camden High and Eastside High, including almost two dozen seniors from the 2021-22 school year who need a few credits to get their diploma. Summer school was also open to students from the citys charter and Renaissance schools.

Mahaaj Jones, 17, a senior at the Camden Big Picture Learning Academy, said he was not surprised when he received a notice that he had failed three classes. He had to pick up his siblings after school and then head to a part-time job to help support the family.

I dont think about school when I leave school, Jones said. I am thinking about life.

Jones, who hopes to attend trade school and become a carpenter, said he is back on track. He wants to be a role model for his siblings, especially his 6-month-old brother, Muzik.

Surfing lessons for young people with epilepsy return to Sea Isle City SEA ISLE CITY  One South Jersey teenager is making waves in building a statewide community 

I have to pave the way for them, said Jones. I feel like Im going to be great.

Staying focused

Across the hall in Tiffany Smiths math class, students were studying algebra and geometry. After reviewing formulas on a screen, she walked around the room to give personal attention.

Graciela Martinez, 14, a rising sophomore at Charles Brimm Medical Arts High School, said she slacked off during the last school year, and she failed algebra.

I put in less effort, and now Im here, she said.

Martinez, who is also making up a health class, said she was learning a lot and was happy to have a fresh start. She said she plans to be more focused in the fall.

Im glad I got this opportunity to make up my wrongs, Martinez said.

Gray, an aspiring fashion designer, said she learned important lessons, too, about not succumbing to peer pressure. She said her freshman year was just crazy.

I know what I have to do in order to accomplish my goals. I have to be focused, she said.

In another wing of the sprawling campus, incoming freshmen at Brimm were getting help with the transition from eighth grade from teacher Greg Gasparovic. They were given a QR code with symptoms to diagnose a disease or disorder.

Im learning a lot of new stuff, said Katelyn Garcia, 14. It will just give me a good head start with school.
ATLANTIC CITY  People looking to maintain their health and well-being in a different way this summer took part in a belly dancing class in ODonnell Memorial Park on Tuesday evening for AtlantiCares Summer Fitness in the Park classes.

Its one of many ways residents get a healthy dose of exercise and movement at the park  Latin dancing, Tai Chi and walks in the park are also among the summer offerings.

AtlantiCare, in conjunction with the Atlantic City Development Corp. and Chelsea Economic Development Corp., is offering six options during its second year of the summer fitness classes aimed at promoting a healthy community.

The daily classes at ODonnell Park on Atlantic Avenue and Browns Park on Bacharach Boulevard come with incentives. Attending 10 fitness classes at ODonnell Park comes with a $20 voucher to Boom Market, while attending five fitness classes at Browns Park comes with a $15 gift card, while supplies last.

Physical and mental health are important to maintaining a healthy community, said Audrey Heist, director of health engagement, health and wellness, and fitness for AtlantiCare. We have a variety of classes that people of different ages and fitness abilities can choose from.

Chelsea EDC President Elizabeth Terenik said bringing the classes to ODonnell Park was a big priority, as they contribute to many opportunities that can benefit the community, including more health and wellness classes.

Stockton beam signing marks another milestone in Atlantic City campus growth ATLANTIC CITY  More than 100 Stockton, elected and local school officials celebrated a mile

Wellness is one of our initiatives, said Terenik, who was also present and actively participating in Tuesday evenings belly dancing class. Exercise fixes everything. By having these classes, were seeing more positive things in the park. Weve had people from different neighborhoods, making it that we can get different cultures together, too.

All of the classes are taught by local instructors. Every week, Arlin Padilla from Arlins Dance Spot in Ventnor teaches Latin dancing, and Diane Ramftl from Chi Flow for Health based in Atlantic County teaches Tai Chi and qigong. Instructors from Tilton Fitness conduct the walk in the park, while health instructors from AtlantiCare do the circuits, and Diane Miller, a former belly dancing teacher with more than 47 years of experience, puts on the belly dancing class.

Diana is excellent. She knows I have two left feet, but shes always helping me, said Jaime Friedenberg, of Atlantic City, about Miller and her belly dancing class, which works for all ages and abilities.

Friedenberg, 58, said the summer fitness classes were the best thing that ever happened to her after she had foot surgery last year. She started doing the belly dancing fitness classes in the park last summer as an alternative exercise.

Its increased my standing duration, flexibility and motivation most of all. It changed my mindset, said Friedenberg, who said the class inspired her to get better, work through her post-surgery pain and start exercising again. The little tassels are a plus, too.

Friedenberg said the belly dancing class was a positive, judgment-free zone where Miller tells the weekly group of about seven participants to do what they can at their own pace, which is a plus for her considering she could barely stand when she first started the classes last year.

Stockton to host Atlantic City walking tours in July Stockton University is bringing back its A.C. Walking Tour Series after going on a two-year 

Michelle Green, another Atlantic City resident, said she wasnt sure what activities she would be able to do after recovering from a back injury she sustained in February, but the fitness classes helped her remain active.

I like that you can go at your own pace, and they account for your injuries, said Green, 56, who usually does the walks and circuit training. She said the class has made her feel more energetic and gives her a workout routine to get back into, which is also good.

Going to the gym isnt always a possibility in Greens case.

Im getting older, so I got to keep moving, she said.

Green participates with a group of friends that got her to start attending the classes in August of last year. She said the class was fun, on top of the health benefits, and gave her the opportunity to share the experience with friends.

Stockton hosts Atlantic City Community Cleanup Day ATLANTIC CITY  Hundreds of volunteers were in ODonnell Park Saturday morning with trash ba

Its like a little outing, so it makes it fun, said Green. Its another way to hang out besides going to the beach, or the bar.

For being fairly new to Atlantic City after moving from Philadelphia a couple of years ago, Friedenberg said the summer fitness classes show there are positive, healthy, community-based activities in a gambling town that sometimes has a bad reputation.

You dont hear about events like this often, but this shows that greater things are happening in Atlantic City, and theres a willingness from the community for events like this, said Friedenberg. She believes the more people know about these classes and other community-centered events, the more participation thered be. This is something that could bring pride to the city.

AtlantiCares Summer Fitness in the Park classes happen daily at various times, but all who are willing to participate are welcome.

Im going to try to drag my friends out next week, Green said.
For three decades, climate campaigners have fought to make fossil fuels so expensive that people would be forced to abandon them. Their dream is becoming a reality: Energy prices are spiraling out of control and will soon get worse. Yet, we are no closer to solving climate change.

Energy costs increased 26 percent across industrialized economies last year and will rise globally by an additional 50 percent this year. While Western governments are blaming Russias war on Ukraine, prices were already rising because of climate policies that choke fossil fuel investment. Since the 2015 Paris climate agreement was inked, the worlds 1,200 biggest energy corporations have slashed capital investment in oil and gas by more than two-thirds. Huge price rises are the inevitable result of forcing more energy out of an increasingly starved system.

The climate policy approach of pushing consumers and businesses away from fossil fuels with price spikes is causing pain with little climate pay-off for two reasons.

First, solar and wind can meet only a fraction of global electricity needs. Even with massive subsidies and political support, solar and wind delivered just 9 percent of global electricity in 2020. Heating, transport and vital industrial processes account for much more energy use than electricity. This means solar and wind deliver just 1.8 percent of the global energy supply. And electricity is the easiest of these components to decarbonize: we havent made meaningful progress in greening the remaining four-fifths of global energy.

Second, even in the rich world it is clear that few people are willing to pay the phenomenal price of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. Soaring prices are hiking energy poverty in industrialized economies, and prices climb even further. Germany is on track to spend more than half a trillion dollars on climate policies by 2025, yet has managed to reduce fossil fuel dependency only from 84 percent in 2000 to 77 percent today. McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm, estimates that getting to zero carbon will cost Europe 5.3 percent of its GDP in low-emission assets every year, or for Germany more than $200 billion annually. That is more than Germany spends annually on education and police, courts and prisons combined.

Policymakers in Western countries cant continue to push expensive policies without a backlash. As energy prices soar, risks grow of resentment and strife, as France saw with the yellow vest protest movement.

Rising energy prices are even more serious for the poorest billions because they block the pathway out of poverty and make fertilizer unaffordable for farmers, imperiling food production. The well-off in rich countries might be able to withstand the pain of some climate policies, but emerging economies like India or low-income countries in Africa cannot afford to sacrifice poverty eradication and economic development to tackle climate change.

Globally, the inability of green energy to compete means the world is on track to remain dependent on fossil fuels. Analyzing all current and promised climate policies, the International Energy Agency finds fossil fuels will still provide two-thirds of global energy use by 2050, only a modest drop from 79 percent today.

And green energys failings are why carbon emissions are still increasing. Last year saw the highest global emissions ever. This year is likely to be higher again. Climate policy is broken. By forcing up the price of fossil fuels, policymakers have put the cart in front of the horse. Instead, we need to make green energy much cheaper and more effective.

Humanity has relied on innovation to fix other big challenges. We didnt solve air pollution by forcing everyone to stop driving but by inventing the catalytic converter that drastically lowers pollution. We didnt slash hunger by telling everyone to eat less but through the Green Revolution that enabled farmers to produce much more food.

Yet, innovation in green energy has been neglected for three decades. In 1980, the rich world spent more than 8 cents of every $100 of GDP on low-carbon technologies. As climate policies focused on making fossil fuels more expensive, green research spending halved to less than 4 cents on every $100.

Researchers for Copenhagen Consensus, including three Nobel laureate economists, have shown the most effective climate policy possible is to increase green R&D spending fivefold to $100 billion per year. This would still be much less than the $755 billion the world spent just last year on often ineffective, current green technology.

We dont know where the breakthroughs will happen. They could come in nuclear energy, which can provide reliable power around-the-clock unlike the intermittency of solar or wind, but remains much more expensive than fossil fuels. With more R&D, fourth generation nuclear could provide much cheaper, safer power. But we need to look for breakthroughs across all areas of energy technology, from cheaper solar and wind with massive and very cheap storage to carbon-dioxide extraction, fusion, second-generation biofuels and many other potential solutions.

Climate change will not be solved by making fossil energy unaffordable but by innovating down the price of green technologies so everyone will be able to switch.

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
SPRINGFIELD  The vote for state Rep. Elizabeth Lisa Hernandez as the Democratic Party of Illinois first Latino chairwoman was unanimous and uneventful Saturday morning. The drama had occurred in the days prior in a power struggle of some of the states most prominent Democrats.

Hernandez was backed Gov. J.B. Pritzker and House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch. She served with Welch on a special investigating committee of House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2020, which chose to take no action against the speaker for his alleged role in a yearslong bribery scheme with a public utility. Several months later, Madigan was indicted.

The new DPI chair also played prominently in the redistricting process last year in the General Assembly, chairing the House committee on redistricting and frequently stonewalling inquiries as to what data was used to draw new maps. Ultimately, Democrats passed the new maps on partisan lines.

The 34 members of the Democratic State Central Committee  one man and one woman for each of the states 17 congressional districts  elected her by voice vote over outgoing chair Robin Kelly, who was backed by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

Kelly, a congresswoman from suburban Matteson, pulled herself from the running less than 24 hours earlier after it became apparent Hernandez had secured the requisite number of votes to replace her.

Kelly was elected chair just more than 16 months ago in what was also a tight and contentious race between her and Pritzkers chosen candidate, Chicago Ald. Michelle Harris. She maintained strong support this year among some members of the state central committee and drew high praise from its downstate members.

Hernandez offered praise for Kelly in a statement, and the pair shared a brief embrace before the meeting began. But the fact that neither Kelly nor Hernandez took questions from the media underscored the fact that the wounds of the fight might still be fresh.

I have deep respect and admiration for Congresswoman Robin Kelly and appreciate everything she has done to support Illinois Democrats. I've spoken with Congresswoman Kelly and we are both ready to move forward in a united fashion. Hernandez said, reading aloud from a prepared written statement before leaving without answering any questions from the media.

Kelly read from a prepared statement as well in running her final meeting as DPI chair.

When I was elected to this position last year, one of the first things I did was get in my car and drive south for a listening tour, she said. I heard a lot of things that first listening tour, but the thing that stuck out the most to me was how many people came up to me and said things to the effect that I've never seen anyone from the state party here before, let alone the chair. People were so excited just to feel like their party saw them, heard them and cared enough to show up for them.

Kelly took over after former Speaker Madigan, who led the party from 1998 until February last year. Madigan frequently faced criticism for the partys lack of outreach and the fact that he mostly used the party to elect state House Democrats. He stepped down after failing to gain reelection as speaker in January 2021.

Some of the committeemen serving downstate congressional districts said Friday once Kelly became chair, it was the first time they felt involved in the party.

Peter Janko, a committeeman from McHenry County in the 11th congressional district, said Kellys leadership was like a brand new day. Terry Redman, of DeWitt County in the 15th congressional district, had similar sentiments.

Finally, downstate Illinois got some attention, and that's all because of you, he said in thanking Kelly for her effort as chair. And I certainly hope that continues.

After the meeting, Redman said he spoke to Hernandez who told him she was committed to paying continued attention to downstate.

It's too big of an area to write off, lets put it that way, Redman said. So I think we'll do just fine under the new leadership.

State Rep. Will Davis, a Hazel Crest Democrat and member of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, said he didnt like how the race played out on racial lines, and how the governor worked so hard to sway support to oust Kelly, the partys first Black woman chair.

Of course Im still concerned about where it takes the party, and I shared this with the new chair, that you know, theres still some race issues that need to be addressed and shes going to have to work hard and figure out how to mend those fences, he said.

Pritzkers camp maintained throughout the race that his opposition to Kellys re-election centered on the fact that she was a federal officeholder, which meant she wasnt legally allowed to raise funds to directly support state candidates.

Look, what we're looking to accomplish, I think all of us who care about the Democratic Party, is to make sure that we have representation from all the diverse constituencies, and making sure that we have leadership that can accomplish the goals that we want to set out to do, which is to beat Republicans and make sure that the party is doing what it needs to do, Pritzker said at a news conference Friday morning.

Davis accused the governor of twisting arms, saying that while money and politics reared its ugly head, Democrats now must work to unify to support candidates in November.

Its something Hernandez promised to do in her brief statement.

I plan to sit down with every member of the State Central Committee, our executive branch candidates, Democratic caucus leaders, committees for the two Democratic Supreme Court candidates, members of DPI staff and other stakeholders to ensure their vision for our party is incorporated into the apparatus we will build to hold Republicans accountable and win in November, she said.

State Sen. Cristina Castro, a Democrat from Elgin and the committeewoman who nominated Hernandez for chair at the party meeting Saturday, compared the fight to a contentious primary election.

She and three other Latino central committee members pledged their support for Hernandez on Friday afternoon which appeared to seal the race for Hernandez at the time.

We were hearing both candidates out, she said. We looked at the vision for the party, and our colleague, Lisa Hernandez, had the vision of the big tent for everyone.  So in the end, that's where we decided and we didn't take your decision lightly.

Pritzker congratulated Hernandez in a statement Saturday afternoon and thanked Kelly for serving.

Leader Hernandez is a woman of integrity who cares deeply about fighting for working families, promoting diversity and inclusion, and helping all Illinoisans prosper, he said. I know she will maintain our party unity, and I am confident in her ability to work with the State Central Committee to elect Democrats at every level of government  both in this midterm election and beyond.
Just days before his trial was to begin, the third and final man accused in the March 5, 2017, killing of 18-year-old Demetrius Jerome Gregory Allen Jr. has made a plea agreement with Scott County prosecutors.

Darryl Merritt, 25, of Cahokia, Ill., was to go on trial Monday on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in connection with the shooting death and robbery of Allen, whose body was found in the parking lot of Brady Street Stadium.

On Friday during a hearing in Scott County District Court, Merritt entered into an agreement whereby he pleaded guilty to the lesser included charge of voluntary manslaughter and first-degree robbery.

Voluntary manslaughter is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years.

Usually, first-degree robbery is a Class B felony that carries a prison sentence of 25 years, 70% of which must be served before parole can be granted. However, Merritts plea agreement stipulates that he will have to serve only 50% of the 25-year-sentence before he will be eligible for parole.

It will be up to the sentencing judge to determine if the sentences shall be served concurrently (at the same time) or if the sentences will be consecutive (back-to-back).

Merritt is being held in the Scott County Jail pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for Sept. 30 in district court.

Also charged in the death of Allen was Dyon Armongelo Thomas, now 24, of East St. Louis, Mo., and Chontez Lamont Graham, 26, of Jefferson City, Mo.

On Nov. 17, 2021, Thomas pleaded guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact in connection with Allens death. The charge is an aggravated misdemeanor that carries a prison sentence of two years. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 10.

Both Merritt and Thomas already are incarcerated in the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Thomas and Merritt both pleaded guilty to charges of distributing a drug near a school. On March 4, 2017, at about 11:30 p.m. Davenport police said the pair sold marijuana to a 14-year-old across the street from Monroe Elementary School.

Thomas was sentenced March 7, 2018, to 25 years in prison with a five-year mandatory minimum, according to Scott County District Court electronic records. He is serving his sentence in the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Thomas tentative discharge date in the drug case is Sept. 10, 2028, according to Iowa Department of Corrections electronic records.

Merritt was sentenced June 13, 2018, to 25 years in prison with no mandatory minimum, according to Scott County District Court electronic records. He is serving his sentence in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Merritts tentative discharge date in the drug case is Oct. 17, 2028, according to Iowa Department of Corrections electronic records.

On Oct. 15, 2021, during a hearing in Scott County District Court, Graham pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and flight to avoid prosecution.

During a sentencing hearing March 24, Scott County District Court Judge Mark Lawson sentenced Graham to 50 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge, 70% of which, or 35 years, must be served before parole can be granted.

Lawson also sentenced Graham to a concurrent term of 25 years on the first-degree robbery charge, 70% of which, or 17  years, must be served, a concurrent term of five years on the flight to avoid prosecution charge.

According to Iowa Department of Corrections electronic records, Graham is serving his sentence in the Iowa State Penitentiary. His mandatory minimum discharge date is Oct. 16, 2055, and he has a tentative discharge date of April 30, 2063, according to Iowa Department of Corrections electronic records.
Western Illinois University's Geographic Information Center is partnering with Silvis to evaluate and inventory of lead water service lines that exist in the community.

A news release says the project is headed by the WIU GIS Director Chad Sperry and that university students will go door-to-door, asking residents to examine their home from the streets, photographing the pipes and collecting data. The data is entered into a project database to keep track of the existence of lead pipes that need to be replaced with copper pipes.

The work began over WIU's spring break week. Graduate students went to homes checking, photographing the pipes and adding information into the database. Students returned to the community earlier this summer and are putting together a plan for a third visit.

"As a small community, with limited staff resources, gathering material inventory for our entire community's water distribution system is quite challenging," Nevada Lemke, city administrator, said.

Sperry said the project helped build student's interpersonal and GIS skills. Students wore city shirts with Silvis on them to alleviate concerns any residents might have had regarding students coming home-to-home for the project.

Graduate student Marcus Baptiste said he had made two trips to Silvis to work on the project.

"I learned communication skills as we dealt with a variety of people on a day-to-day basis," Baptiste said.

The center has built a manual so once the work is completed, public works staff can access the data online to make changes and gather information about homes. Residents can also self-report the status of their water pipes.

Sperry said a project presentation was delivered at the recent Illinois Public Works Association's conference.

Enacted in 2021, the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act requires cities to gather an inventory of lead water service lines and develop and implement plans to identify and remove them.
DES MOINES  For the second time this week, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced the state and others have reached a preliminary billion-dollar settlement with a drug company to address the opioid crisis.

Millers office announced former opioid-maker Allergan has agreed to pay up to $2.37 billion to participating states and local governments to settle lawsuits.

The Attorney Generals office announced Wednesday that drugmaker Teva has agreed to contribute more than $4.2 billion in cash and medications to settle lawsuits in various states, including Iowa, that claimed the company contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic.

If finalized, the settlements announced this week would provide as much as $6.6 billion nationwide, including to abate and help Iowans and other Americans recover from addiction through prevention and treatment.

AbbVie, which acquired Allergan in 2020, disclosed the agreement in its earnings announcement Friday.

Details of the settlements remain subject to ongoing negotiations, according to Millers office, including terms requiring business practice changes and transparency.

"We continue to make it a priority to hold manufacturers responsible, while ensuring victims of this epidemic receive the help they need, Miller said in a statement.

Ireland-based Allergan formerly made Norco- and Kadian-branded and generic opioids. The company sold its opioid products to Teva in 2016.

Iowa and more than a dozen other states allege Allergan downplayed the addiction risks and overstated the benefits of its former Norco- and Kadian-branded and generic opioids; encouraged doctors to treat patients showing signs addiction by prescribing them more opioids; and failed to maintain effective controls to prevent diversion of opioids.

The $2.37 billion figure includes money that Allergan has already agreed to pay under settlements with individual states.

Earlier this week, Miller announced his office is suing tobacco companies to recover $133 million in withheld payments stemming from a 1998 settlement.

LOTTERY BOOM: The Iowa Lotterys financial numbers will finish near the previous years record highs, the lottery said.

According to preliminary figures for the state budget year that ended June 30, the Iowa Lottery generated $433 million in total sales, $274 million in prizes were paid to players, and $98 million in proceeds went to state causes.

Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn in a news release said June 30 closed the books on the most successful two-year period of sales, proceeds and prizes in Iowa Lottery history. Total sales in the previous state budget year reached a record $453 million.

Combined with last years more than 20 percent increase in sales and proceeds, the Iowa Lottery continues to responsibly generate significant revenues for important Iowa causes  even in the face of increasingly challenging economic conditions, Strawn said.

Gazette Des Moines Bureau
One of the ways Roanokers know theyre home after a spell out of town is the sight of three beloved neon beacons gleaming on the downtowns skyline, and viewable from southbound Interstate 81 when approaching downtown.

The biggest, of course, is the Mill Mountain Star, which is working just fine. The problem is the other two, which arent.

One is the the formerly animated H & C Coffee sign. It no longer moves, while the H, ampersand and parts of the saucer remain dim. The 2 appears missing from the famous Dr Pepper bottle-cap clock sign, featuring a 10, 2 and 4. And the signs 3 oclock position is dimmer than the rest.

Those neon odes to American mercantilism date back at least 60 years, perhaps longer, and each needs some tender loving care that they havent been getting. But its in the works, people in the know assure me.

This was brought to our attention by Bonnie Darlene Clark, a reader who turns 82 this week. Clark called into our reader hotline recently.

Im a citizen of Roanoke. Ive lived here all my life, she began.

And I was really astonished at how yall do take care of the Roanoke Star, but the Dr Pepper sign and the coffee sign are in terrible shape, theyre not lit up at night like they should be, part of the Dr Pepper sign is broke.

And were supposed to be the Dr Pepper capital of the world and yet these are just terrible looking. it would be smart for yall to print something about.

In a subsequent phone conversation, Clark told me shed also called Roanoke City Council about this outrage.

I just think it looks bad, Clark said. If we want tourists, we should fix those signs. Otherwise it could leave an impression of downtown neglect.

She was unaware who owns the signs and so was I. So I started making some phone calls.

The first was to a different Clark  Jaime Clark, a vice president at Downtown Roanoke Inc. She said her organizations been hearing complaints, too.

Neither one apparently lights all the way up, Jaime Clark said. I know people feel very strongly about those signs, she added. DRI has been getting a couple calls a month about them since theyve been out.

Some years ago, during an earlier period when when the H & C sign was taking a neon coffee break, DRIs related Foundation for Downtown Roanoke Inc. raised money to fix and restore it, as well as an additional sum for upkeep.

After it was rehabbed, ownership of the sign and the excess maintenance funds were turned over to Center in The Square, Jaime Clark said.

The Dr Pepper sign is owned by Pepsi, she added. (She meant Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. of Roanoke, which distributes both Pepsi and Dr Pepper in the Roanoke Valley.)

Next I called Pepsis bottling operation in Hollins and spoke to plant manager Mark Sakash.

Its probably a stretch to say the Pepsi bottler owns the sign. Sakash told me Pepsi distributes Dr Pepper here in the Roanoke Valley. He said an associate named Troy who works for Keurig Dr Pepper (or KPD) has been trying to find somebody to fix those lights for three years.

Unfortunately, Troy was on vacation when Sakash and I talked Friday morning.

Sakash called me back Friday afternoon and said the lights on the Dr Pepper sign have been fixed but not all the necessary work has been completed.

What theyre working on now is a facelift. Theyre trying to find a company in Bristol or Richmond, not only to do the Dr Pepper sign but also the H & C sign, Sakash said. He knew no other details, such as when both signs might be shining once again.

So it appears KPD may be teaming up with Center in the Square to rehab the coffee sign, too. I never heard back from a Center in the Square spokeswoman about that.

Hunting through some news clips, it appears the signs going dim or partially dim have been a regular topic of news articles, as well as in the local history column Looking Back. (Sadly, the newspaper pulled the plug on that weekly feature in April 2021.)

For example, on Nov. 13, 2014, my colleague, Mike Allen, wrote a short story noting the H & C Coffee sign had been lighted but static for a number of days, rather than moving and pouring java into a cup like its supposed to.

At the time, the gizmo that animated the sign had broken. Allens story also ran down a bit of the H & C signs history:

Built in 1948, the sign began its neon life atop the old Woods Brothers Coffee Co. building on Campbell Avenue Southeast. In 1964 it moved to the old Billys Ritz building on the Roanoke City Market, where it stood for decades.

After a fundraising campaign in 2004 and 2005 that raised more than $150,000 for repairs and maintenance, the sign migrated to the Mill Mountain Theatre Atelier, the former Shenandoah Hotel building owned by Center in the Square. The sign was moved so that it could still be seen from Interstate 581 once the Taubman Museum of Art was constructed.

In 2015, Allen published another story that noted the Dr Pepper sign was owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The Dr Pepper sign was last rehabbed in 2013. We know this from a February 2013 photo, by Don Petersen, of workers using a cherry picker to give the sign a face-lift.

The accompanying photo caption noted the Dr Pepper sign was first installed downtown in the 1950s.

The parent company, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, sells more Dr. Pepper in the Roanoke Valley area of Virginia than any other metropolitan area east of the Mississippi River, the caption notes. In the past, the city has been named the Dr. Pepper Capital of the World, and broke world records for its mass consumption of the beverage in the late 1950s.

The soft drinks origins have been debated for decades. According to a 2010 article by my ex-colleague, Duncan Adams, in the 1960s the soda was known as Americas most misunderstood soft drink.

Some of the available information suggests it might have been named for a Dr. Pepper here in Southwest Virginia. But there were two different physicians with that surname, which is where things, like the drink when spilled, get a little sticky. And aside from that, neither doctor invented the elixir.

The creator was Charles Alderton, a New York-born pharmacist who worked at a drug store in Waco, Texas.

Dr Pepper debuted in 1885, about a year before the invention and first sale of Coca-Cola by another pharmacist in Atlanta.

Alderton worked for Morrisons Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, which was owned by Wade Morrison. He named the drink and was reputed to be the first person other than Alderton to taste it.

Morrison had earlier lived in Christiansburg and worked as a pharmacy clerk there. That was documented in some U.S. Census papers from the 19th Century later examined by the Dr Pepper Museum in Dublin, Texas. (Yes, Dr Pepper has its own museum!)

Those records suggest Morrison and Dr. William Alexander Reed Pepper lived close to each other in Christiansburg at one time. Census takers went door-to-door back then, and Dr. Pepper the physician was recorded on the page immediately following the page upon which Morrisons name was found.

Other parts of the legend say Morrison married Peppers daughter, and named the drink in honor of her dad. Her name was Mary Ann Pepper, and she went by Minnie. She was 16 at the time Morrison lived in Christiansburg, which was before he moved to north Texas.

Others have Long believed the drink was named after a different Dr. Pepper  a Dr. Charles T. Pepper of Rural Retreat. But the museum noted that, at best, Morrison and Charles Pepper lived at least 40 miles apart in the 1800s, a not inconsiderable distance at the time. No record of them ever crossing paths has been found.

And Charles T. Peppers only daughter was barely 8 years old at the time Morrison lived in Christiansburg, which makes any marriage between them unlikely.

Hopefully, that article will be updated to reflect the refurbished Roanoke icon, once its lighted again.
Major wildfires in California and Montana have grown substantially as firefighters protected remote communities amid hot, windy weather across the U.S. West that has created the potential for even more spread
FLORENCE  The Florence Regional Airport is vital to the growth of Florence and the surrounding area.

Growth is coming in September in the form of a 75-passenger aircraft with dual class service. American Airlines recently announced it will be replacing the Embraer 145s with CRJ 700s in the Florence market in September.

This is just the beginning of seeing all our efforts come to fruition, Connie Anderson said. Anderson is executive director of the Florence Regional Airport. Our partnership with American Airlines remains a priority, and we are looking forward to a bright future full of growth. We are excited to welcome the larger, dual class jets into FLO in September.

Anderson said the airport has two inbound and two outbound commercial flights a day at the airport. American Airlines is the only commercial service at the airport.

In June, the Morning News reported the airport was one of 20 airports in South Carolina to receive a share of nearly $19 million in federal grants to help pay for terminal upgrades, runway repairs and other improvement projects.

Florence Regional Airport received a grant for $233,590 to rehabilitate taxi ways. It will be used for the design phase of pavement rehabilitation of Taxiways B, B-3, B-4 and D.

This grant comes from the FAA entitlement money that the airport receives yearly, Anderson said. We apply for it and received it in May 2022. The design phase is where all the research and specifics are determined by our engineers. The next phase will be next year and is when the rehabilitation of the taxiways will be done.

The South Carolina grants are among $518 million total the Federal Aviation Administration is awarding to airports across the U.S. for repairs, maintenance, improvements and new equipment.

Our maintenance crew handles the day-to-day maintenance requirements, Anderson said. The FAA entitlement grants are in place for any major projects.

The grants are the second round this year of funding through the agencys Airport Improvement Program.

Anderson said COVID-19 had a profound impact on the airport industry.

Pre-pandemic Florence had three to four inbound/outbound flights a day, Anderson said. American Airlines suspended flights for three months in the onset of the pandemic. January of 2021 they returned with one flight. We are currently at two flights a day. I am optimistic in our relationship with American Airlines that in time we will see the number of pre-pandemic flights restored.

The airport has hired an Air Service Consultant to aid them in this process of recruiting another airline to the airport.

We are always seeking opportunities to add air service to Florence, Anderson said. For us to grow we have to get the flights we have full to 80 percent,

She said an average of 80 percent load factor is the goal as determined by AA. In 2021, she said the airport saw 25,125 passengers fly out of Florence.

There were 727 flights with only three canceled and 118 delayed.

President of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce Mike Miller, said, Our area healthcare and educational Institutions, along with the regions top 15 industries, total more than 20,000 employees, many of which require access to private and commercial air services to be competitive. The Florence Regional Airport allows for that through support of the Fixed Base Operations for private air travel and provides facilities and support for the areas commercial air service through Piedmont/American Airlines. Having this type of transportation access enhances our ability to attract new industries to the County and the Pee Dee Region. It also helps provision much of the business and industry expansions we have already seen over the last 5-10 years.

The airport itself has 17 employees, Anderson said. This does not include the employees of the concessions offered on airport property.

The airport has six open hangars, 30 T-Hangars (hangars that are closed in for aircraft storage) and three corporate hangars.

We are adding eight additional T-Hangars and two additional corporate hangars by the end of 2023, Anderson said.

She said a new badging system will be in place within the next couple weeks.

This system has allowed us to move from a Category 4 to a Category 3 airport, which will allow larger aircraft to fly into our airport, she said.

There are 47 general aviation aircraft; one large or turbine-powered aircraft.

The airport has parking for 500 vehicles, including handicap-accessible spaces. The parking lot is located in front of the airport terminal.

The Airport District has a nine-member board that governs the actions of the executive director and the Florence Regional Airport. Members are Joe Powell, Chairman; Rene Josey; Dr. Daniel M. Ervin; Kerstin Nemec; Dr. Stephen Bridges; Tommy Parham; Glenn Greene; Lee Nettles. They are waiting on an appointment for Marion County.

Anderson said her primary function is to manage the 1,483 acres of land with its 15 facilities, two active runways, and 10 active taxiways, Precision Air (fixed base operator) and Avis/Budget and Enterprise/National.

We hired Influence Digital Agency to manage our marketing campaign and our new website, Anderson said. It has been a fun process and is going great.

The Florence Regional Airport was started in 1928 with the purchase of 300 acres of land. At the onset of World War II, the war department acquired an additional 1,400 acres and the site became the Army Air Corps training base  Florence Army Airfield.

In 1945, the property was deeded back to the city of Florence and later split with Florence County and was governed by City-County Airport Commission. In 1999, the state legislature created the Pee Dee Regional Airport District that includes the city of Florence and counties of Florence, Dillon and Marion.
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Meetings and events

Bruguier's Cabin Tours, the second Sunday of the month from June to October, from 2 to 4 p.m. Special group tours can be arranged by calling 712-490-6506.

Dakota County Historical Society meets at 7:30 p.m. on third Thursday of the month, Dakota City Library. Contact Dennis Reinert at 712-253-1609 for more information.

Top O' Morning Toastmasters Club, Mondays, noon to 1 p.m. Contact LeAnn Blankenburg, 712-870-1120, for meeting information.

The Siouxland Ostomy Support Group, find us on Facebook. For more information and meeting times contact Dick Lindblom at 712-251-2453.

Southside "South Bottoms" former residents, 6 p.m. potluck, second Wednesday of the month at Goodwill Industries cafeteria, 3100 Fourth St. Gert, 258-2227.

Siouxland Metal Detecting and Archeology Club, 6:30 p.m., first Tuesday of the month in the Gleeson Room at 4510 Buckwalter Drive. Visitors welcome. Ray Turner, 712-899-2114.

American Legion Post 64, 7 p.m. last Thursday of the month at 4021 Floyd Blvd. 712-258-3986.

Marine Corps League, 6 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at Elks Club on TriView Ave. All marines welcome. For more information, call Cathy Moreno, 712-899-8441.

Sioux City Chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 7 p.m. fourth Tuesday of the month at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. 712-203-2052.

Sioux City Duplicate Bridge Club, 12:30 p.m. Mondays (open); at the Senior Center. Mary 605-670-9613.

Siouxland Fly-Fishing Club, 10 a.m. last Saturday of the month at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center on Hwy 12. All interested in fly fishing; beginners welcome. Monthly programs provided. For more information, call Bob Gillespie, 712-251-9463, or Diana, 402-987-3945.

Siouxland Coin Club, 7 p.m. first Tuesday of each month at First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 1915 Nebraska St. Bob, 255-4829.

The Siouxland Pride Alliance, peer support group, 5:30 p.m. Fridays; Youth Pride group, 1:30 p.m. second Sunday of the month; potluck, 5:30 p.m. third Sunday of the month. First Unitarian Church, 2508 Jackson. Call 712-223-0931

Siouxland Samplers Quilt Guild, 7 p.m. second Monday of the month at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport St, door #2. Visitors and new members welcome.

Siouxland Sewing Guild, 6:30-8 p.m. first Thursday of the month at South Sioux Public Library, 2121 Dakota Ave., South Sioux City. For anyone interested in sewing. Denise, 402-922-1822.

Sooland RC Modelers, 7 p.m. second Thursday of the month at Morningside Lutheran Church. Non-profit club that flies remote control aircraft. Anyone interested in RC is welcome.

Retired Educators, 10:30 a.m. third Tuesday of the month, at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport St., door #6.

Mid-Step Services for Handicapped, meal at 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport St., door #6.

Confirmation Instruction and Midweek Lessons, 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3204 S. Lakeport St., door #6. Open to all kids 5 years old through 8th grade.

Primetime (Potluck), 12 p.m., second Thursday of each month, at Whitfield United Methodist Church, 1319 W 5th. For more information call 252-3261 Tuesday-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.

Abundant Life Fellowship, 809 S. Alice St., in Sioux City will distribute food boxes after their 11 a.m. Sunday services. For additional information contact Pastor Bob at 605-205-0718 or Donna at 605-205-0719.
LOS ANGELES  Pandemic-related shutdowns in 2020 gave many people who believed they didn't have time for pets the push they needed to adopt.

But with many offices haltingly bringing employees back and vacations in full swing, pet owners and people who work with dogs are starting to grapple with animals' separation anxiety and other problems.

Nihcole Adams, a dog walker and sitter in Castaic, Calif., has had an uptick in new clients who are also new to dog ownership. She's been fielding requests for walks, feedings and boardings. But some pets she's taking in are struggling with being alone or socializing with other dogs.

Adams recently boarded a 5-month-old Lhasa Apso, Brody, for a week. The owners were worried Adams would call them to pick up their dog because he wouldn't do well with the other pets. But when they picked the puppy up at the end of the week, they were surprised at his progress  Brody just needed to practice being in a social setting.

"Dogs who are isolated or not socialized prior to 16 weeks of age are more likely to develop behavior problems later on," Rachel Malamed, a veterinary behavioral specialist, said.

The stakes are serious. Malamed said behavior problems are a leading cause of relinquishment and euthanasia.

But the new pet owners Adams works with are passionate about getting help for their dogs. It's just that many don't know where to start or what resources are available.

Seeking help from a qualified professional early on can help keep pets in the home, improve pet welfare and repair the human-animal bond, Malamed said.

Depending on your pup's situation, you can seek help from certified dog trainers, a veterinarian or pet sitters.

Understanding your pet

Malamed said she's seeing a lot of pets with separation anxiety as well as other fears and phobias  including the fears of people, noises, walks and other animals.

These fears, she said, can be due to a lack of early socialization caused by the pandemic.

Ingrid Komisar said they also can result from a lack of training as well as genetic predisposition. Komisar  a certified trainer for Calm Canine Academy, a virtual dog-training service  said the coronavirus lockdowns halted in-person trainings for many dogs and their owners. It also stopped many pets from simply seeing and interacting with other humans and dogs.

Anxiety in pets can manifest itself in a number of ways. Physical changes can look like loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea or house-soiling. Behavioral changes to be aware of may include hiding and avoidance, shaking, tail tucking, ears back, licking the lips and yawning, not taking treats readily and not following commands. In some cases pets will become aggressive to household members, unfamiliar people or other animals.

Don't wait to see if the problem will go away. Most behavior problems worsen if left unaddressed.

"The first thing that people should do when they notice any behavioral or physical signs or change, especially those that are sudden or uncharacteristic for their pet, is to consult with their vet to make sure that there are no underlying medical reasons for these behaviors," Malamed said.

How can a veterinarian help?

Karen Sueda, a veterinary specialist in the behavior department at VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital, said illness can affect your pet's behavior, so it's important to rule out physical causes first.

"For example, many diseases can cause house-soiling, and a dog that is in pain may pant, vocalize and appear anxious," Sueda said.

A vet visit allows the doctor to ask specific questions to make an accurate behavioral diagnosis and create a treatment plan if a physical cause has been ruled out, she said.

If the problem behavior is mild, your veterinarian may refer you to a trainer who uses positive-reinforcement training techniques. Sueda said that if the problem is more concerning, the doctor might refer you to a veterinary behaviorist, a specialist in treating behavioral issues in pets.

Veterinarians also may prescribe medications that reduce anxiety. Lowering anxiety, Sueda said, allows the pet to learn new behaviors and coping strategies through positive reinforcement.

Training techniques

If your veterinarian recommends a trainer for your dog's separation anxiety, Komisar advises finding a certified professional. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior has tips on how to choose a trainer based on specialty.

Komisar acknowledges that a dog dealing with separation anxiety can be incredibly distressing for the owner too.

But separation anxiety is treatable.

"If we put in the time, if we put in the effort, it is possible to see success and to see (your pet) start to be comfortable with alone time," she said.

How much time and effort? Komisar said she usually tells clients that the process can take months.

Through Calm Canine Academy, she starts with suspending absences  so if you have to go to work or school and don't have someone who can stay with your dog, hire a pet sitter.

Next, Komisar works with the owner to understand at what point the dog begins to panic. If it's within 10 minutes of the owner leaving home, then they'll start by training the dog to be comfortable being alone for less than 10 minutes and work their way up.

What you can do at home

If your dog is showing mild signs of separation anxiety or if you're waiting for your scheduled veterinarian appointment, Ralf Weber, a certified dog trainer, shared tips on what you can do at home.

 For five minutes a day, have everyone in the home ignore the dog. The animal may whine or bark but eventually will entertain itself or lie down. Once the dog is comfortable at five minutes, gradually increase the time.

 Having your dog crate-trained is valuable. A crate is a dog's own comfortable space, away from the owner. It's also needed when transporting your pet, leaving them at a kennel or if they have to stay at the veterinarian's office.

 Similar to Komisar's technique of leaving your pet alone for however long the pet is comfortable with, Weber recommends gradually increasing the dog's alone time. But don't rush the process; go at your dog's pace.
British musician Sting has interrupted a concert in Warsaw to warn his audience that democracy is under attack worldwide. He also denounced the war in Ukraine as an absurdity based upon a lie. Sting asked a popular Polish actor to join him onstage to translate his appeal that democracy is worth fighting for despite it being messy and frustrating at times because the alternative to democracy is a nightmare. The 70-year-old musician delivered his message in a country that borders Ukraine, where Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. He called the war in Ukraine an absurdity based upon a lie.
Vietnam keen to boost defence, security ties with US, UN

A delegation of the National Assemblys Committee for National Defence and Security paid a working visit to the United States and the United Nations from July 26 to July 30.









At the meeting between the Vietnamese delegation and the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee (Photo: VNA)







The delegation, led by Chairman of the committee Maj. Gen. Le Tan Toi, held talks with Chairman Adam Smith and Ranking Member Mike Rogers of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

The delegation had meetings with the assistants to President Pro Tempore of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Jack Reed, and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Jim Inhofe.



In his speech, Toi affirmed that Vietnam consistently regards the US as a leading partner and greatly values the USs support for an independent and prosperous Vietnam.



Vietnam always desires to develop the comprehensive partnership with the US in an increasingly substantive, stable, and long-term manner on the basis of respect for each others independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political regimes.



The US officials highlighted the Southeast Asian nation as an important partner of their country, and that the US parliament strongly supports the two countries relations and hopes bilateral ties will record new strides.



They pledged to continue supporting Vietnams economic development and enhance defence and security cooperation, with a major focus on helping Vietnam address war consequences, including environmental remediation of dioxin contamination and unexploded ordnance clearance, assist the disabled, search for Vietnamese soldiers remains, and improve maritime capacity.



The US side also showed their readiness to assist Vietnam in UN peacekeeping operations and other fields that suit both sides conditions and demand.



The Vietnamese and US officials also discussed a score of measures for further reinforcing parliamentary ties, shared information and experience in legislative and supervisory activities and transnational crime fight, and exchanged views on international and regional issues of shared concern.



At the meeting with UN Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support Atul Khare, Toi thanked his host and the UN for actively assisting Vietnam to engage in UN peacekeeping operations and improve the countrys stature and capacity in the settlement of international affairs.



He called on the UN and the Under-Secretary-General to continue helping Vietnam contribute more to the UNs noble goal of resolving conflicts and maintaining peace and stability for all people around the world.



The official asked the UN to create conditions for Vietnam to further take part in peacekeeping operations, help with training for Vietnamese forces, and pay attention to compensation for Vietnams contributions and losses when performing peacekeeping duties. He also suggested stronger trilateral cooperation and that the UN consider organising training courses for countries peacekeeping forces in Vietnam.



For his part, Khare was appreciative of Vietnams active support, participation and contributions to UN peacekeeping operations, affirming continued assistance for the country in training.



He said he hopes that Vietnam will share its experience in training peacekeeping personnel with other countries, especially those in its region.
Followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr head toward the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr started on Saturday an open sit-in inside the Iraqi parliament building in central Baghdad, while his political opponents called on their supporters to prepare for a counter-protest.

"The people choose the open sit-in in the parliament," Ibrahim al-Jaberi, head of al-Sadr's office, wrote on his Facebook page.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of al-Sadr's followers broke into the Green Zone, which houses the main government headquarters, residencies of some top political leaders and some foreign embassies, and entered the Iraqi parliament building for the second time in three days.



A protester raises the Iraqi flag during protests by followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

A statement by the Iraqi Health Ministry said up to 100 people and 25 security personnel were wounded when security forces tried to prevent the demonstrators from entering the Green Zone.

Videos aired by TV channels and circulated on social media showed dozens of demonstrators inside the parliament building waving Iraqi flags and hailing their leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

In a statement, Iraqi President Barham Salih urged everyone to keep calm and resort to dialogue to ensure the country's security and stability and consolidate its civil and social peace.

In a televised speech, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called on everyone "to be calm, patient, and rational, and not to be drawn into confrontation."

"We must all cooperate to stop those who accelerate this sedition, and everyone must know that the fire of sedition will burn everyone, so the political blocs must resort to negotiation for the sake of Iraq and the Iraqis," he said.

Later in the day, dozens of al-Sadr's followers continued to enter the Green Zone to participate in the public sit-in inside the parliament building.

Followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr remove concrete barriers to enter the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

Meanwhile, a statement issued by al-Sadr's opponents in the Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, called on "the people who believe in the law and constitutional legitimacy to demonstrate peacefully in defense of the state, its legitimacy, and its institutions."

For his part, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi announced in a statement the suspension of the parliament sessions "until further notice," calling on all leaders and political blocs to gather for an urgent national meeting.

In the evening, another statement by the Coordination Framework said that it was decided to postpone the date of the counter-demonstrations until further notice and to give time for dialogue and positive political solutions after some CF leaders, tribal, and religious leaders tried to ease the tension.

A man was injured during protests by followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, Iraq, on July 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

On Wednesday, hundreds of al-Sadr followers broke into the parliament building after the Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, nominated Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Monday for the post of prime minister.

The Coordination Framework became the largest alliance in the Iraqi parliament after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the elections held on Oct. 10, 2021 with 73 seats, to withdraw from the parliament.

During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, as the parliament has been unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.

The president, if elected, will appoint the prime minister nominated by the largest alliance in the parliament, the Coordination Framework, to form a new government that would rule the country for the coming four years. 
CARROLTON, Ga. (AP)  A university instructor in Georgia has been charged with killing an 18-year-old student who was fatally shot while sitting in a car.

The Carrollton Police Department said in a news release that Richard Sigman, 47, is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the shooting death of Anna Jones, 18. Police said they believe Jones was killed when Sigman shot into a parked car following an argument with a man at a pizza restaurant. The shooting happened shortly after midnight Saturday.

Police said a man told security that Sigman had threatened to shoot him during an argument, and security then asked Sigman to leave. Investigators believe when Sigman left, he walked to the parking deck and started shooting into a parked vehicle, hitting Jones. Friends drove Jones to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

It is not immediately clear if Sigman has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

The University of West Georgia told news outlets in a statement that Sigmans employment has been terminated. A current course catalog listed Sigman as a lecturer in business administration.

The university said Jones was a student at the university.

On behalf of the university, we wish to convey our deepest condolences to Annas family and many friends. We know this news is difficult to process and affects many members of our university community. We ask that you keep Annas family, friends, and all who have been touched by this tragedy in your thoughts during this tremendously difficult time, University of West Georgia President Dr. Brendan Kelly said in the statement.
This coming mid-term election could be a hinge in our countrys history.

If, as many anticipate, the Republican Party takes control, not only of Congress but of several states voting systems, it would begin a decisive swing from democracy to some form of autocracy. With the resultant control of the electoral process, It would almost guarantee a Republican president in 2024.

That would close the lid on participatory democracy and usher in an age of corporate control, a Kochian dream come true. It would take the country back to the Age of the Robber Barons with little chance of recovery.

Its not set in stone. While confidence runs high in G.O.P. circles, one cannot be certain that party members outside the MAGA crowd will once again be their reliable voters of the past.

It has often seemed that one of the important differences between our two major parties is that Republicans always turn out and vote; Democrats often must to be rounded up and persuaded. I cannot be certain that is absolutely true today; only that it was the case in politics some 40 years ago.

One sign of a possible change surfaced in these pages midweek, when former Congressman Jim Leach, one of the stellar figures in the Republican establishment, announced that he intends to vote for Democrats this year. Thats not an easy position to take, but Jim has always been a thoughtful and conscientious statesman. He is not a partisan, but a careful judge of the facts. I suspect he is absolutely right; it will take the desertion of responsible Republican voters to preserve our democratic republic.

It may seem graceless for a former Democratic office-holder to urge the core of the G.O.P. to take a pass on their candidates even this once, but something has to be done to bring Republicans back to their conservative principles. In search of a quick route to power, its current leaders are catering to some of the worst elements in the body politic: neo-Nazis, White nationalists, armed citizens ready for violent revolt, and fundamentalist ministers eager for secular power - and tax dollars. (They assume normal Republicans will fall in line.)

Corrective cleansing is never a pleasant undertaking, but it has happened in the past. In the early 19th Century, conservatives were caught between Whigs, Republicans, and Know-Nothings before settling into the party that nominated Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic Party splintered in the 20th Century over Civil Rights. Such drastic action is worth the effort; and we could really use an honestly Republican Party just now, freed of the violent and intolerant impulses brewing within it.

I have often said that I am conservative in thought and behavior. My only difference with the G.O.P., which is not quite the party I knew as a young man down South, is that government has an essential role to play in the regulation of capitalism. There is no morality in capitalism, only profit; and the steady stripping away of reasonable limits on it have led to the grotesque inequality that is tearing the country apart today. Its upsetting, but a condition we have seen before.

Back around 1900, a small group of wealthy men dominated the economy, leading extravagant lives with the bulk of the country living in the shadow of their control. Progressive Republican voters, led by the accidental presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, began a slow, halting process of trust-busting which effected limited change. It took the Great Depression to jolt the country, under a second Roosevelts New Deal, to place individual citizens, rather than big business, at the focus of government action.

The monied center of the G.O.P. has been working steadily to serve financial interests ever since, even when those concerns run counter to the nations best interests. But however sharply parties were divided, their differences were settled through mutual respect and negotiation. That system of compromise lasted until Newt Gingrich demonstrated that unyielding opposition and compelling propaganda could win a temporary majority. Why compromise when you can win by refusing even to listen?

I am emboldened to discuss these matters primarily because of Leachs comments. I have followed his career since his first election and, with one exception, consider his voting record exemplary. During the few trips I made to Washington some decades ago, he and Joe Biden were the only two politicians I visited. (That discounts a fifteen-minute chat with John Kerry at an NPR meeting, not knowing who he was at the time.)

That kind of personal, almost casual contact gives one an opportunity to appreciate the person occupying the office. I am not surprised by his statement. It has undoubtedly upset some Iowa officials who understand the situation, but cant risk speaking up. Long out of office, Jim Leach is still willing to serve its function: to make the hard decisions and tell his constituents the truth.
Events surrounding the Jan. 6th committee and elsewhere have raised the relevance of public oaths. I served for 30 years in the U.S. military and 16 years in the state Legislature. Those positions caused me to take the oath to the Constitution several times, giving it special meaning to me.

One definition of an oath is a solemn attestation of the truth or inviolability of ones words.

Most citizens usually only take an oath if testifying in a court of law. Taking that oath is part of the Constitutions goal to establish justice. In fact, there are legal penalties for knowingly violating that oath.

Joseph Jones, a U.S. Supreme Court justice for over 30 years in the first half of the 1800s, connected this oath with the oath taken by public officials. He said that if such oaths are required who give testimony, surely like guards ought to be interposed in the administration of high public trusts, and especially in such, as may concern the welfare and safety of the whole community.

It is important to know that the oaths taken by federal legislators and military officers are the same. The oath, in part, is to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States. The United States is distinctive in that oath is to the constitution, not to other people.

Those taking the oath take this obligation freely and pledge to well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. The words obligation and duties make it clear that taking this oath is not a reward. It is not just the point at which one assumes office. I think the solemnity of the occasion has been diminished with photo opportunities with smiling office holders.

A phrase that was repeatedly emphasized during my time as a cadet is that a public office is a public responsibility. Thomas Jefferson said, When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

Those who serve in the armed forces know that there are risks associated with the oath. It puts them at risk to their lives. Despite these risks, Americans continue to serve. Other oath takers face lower threats, but their obligation is no less.

Taking a public office should mean that the office holder serves all people. All people should mean just that. Not just those members of the public with whom they agree.The Constitution applies to everyone subject to it.

The Constitution also requires that state leaders take an oath to the U.S. Constitution. State-level leaders also take an oath to their state constitutions. Approximately 18 months ago, federal leaders pressured state officials to take illegal actions. Arizona Speaker of the House Russell Bowers rejected that pressure, telling Rudy Giuliani, You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath.

Speaker Bowers comments are very much in accordance with Justice Joseph Storys statement that Oaths have a solemn obligation upon the minds of all reflecting men, and especially upon those, who feel a deep sense of accountability to a Supreme being.

Public officials must face competing loyalties. As retired Judge Michael Luttig has written, Todays politicians believe that they never have to choose between partisan party politics and country, when in fact they are obliged by oath to choose between the two every day.

There is no guarantee that office holders will honor their oaths. However, citizens can make assessments as to an individuals character when voting for candidates. A record of honoring ones word, or not, is one indicator. So are patterns of breaking from party influence and welcoming different viewpoints. Institutions are only as strong as the people who work in them. That is why we need leaders who will take their oaths seriously.

A Sioux City resident, Steve Warnstadt is government affairs coordinator for Western Iowa Tech Community College. He is a former Democratic state senator and retired Army National Guard brigadier general. He and his wife, Mary, are the parents of one son and one daughter.
A new state law allows all-terrain and off-road utility vehicles to legally travel on more roadways in Iowa. Giving ATV and UTV operators greater freedom in rural areas makes perfect sense, but we hope the Sioux City Council slams the brakes on requests to permit the recreational vehicles on city streets.

Under the new law, which took effect July 1, ATVs and UTVs are now allowed on all county roads in Iowa if they abide by a speed limit of 35 miles per hour. The vehicles are still prohibited on state highways or any roadway with more than 2 lanes. They can now cross non-interstate two-lane highways that serve as the most direct and accessible route between the operator's home and a secondary road of city street in which vehicles are authorized or an ATV park or trail.

Cities have the option of allowing ATVs or UTVs on their streets.

The new state law immediately allowed ATVs and UTVs on three county roads within the city of Sioux City -- K29 (Old Lakeport Road, south of Derocher Path), county road D18 (Correctionville Road, east of Camp High Hopes), and county road D25 (Old Highway 141, southeast of the entrance to the cemetery), according to police. The vehicles will remain prohibited elsewhere in the city, as long as the City Council doesn't pass an ordinance with more exceptions.

Four-lane city streets like Hamilton Boulevard, Morningside Avenue, South Lakeport Street and Floyd Boulevard remain ATV and UTV-free under provisions in the new law. But some owners are pushing to drive their vehicles on at least some other city streets.

"I would just like to ride from my residence to basically where I have a part-time job, which is over in South Dakota," Gerald Collins, who lives in the Riverside neighborhood, told the City Council at a recent meeting. "I'm talking six to eight blocks in a residential area, not running on and tearing up city parks."

While we understand the desire by owners like Collins to make it easier to get around town on their recreational vehicles, we agree with Mayor Bob Scott that it would be a mistake to allow ATVs and UTVs on most every eligible streets.

We come down on the side of safety, both for the ATVs and UTVs riders and occupants of other vehicles they would encounter on streets. There seemingly would be a greater chance of accidents in construction zones (which are abundant in number again this summer), as well as in neighborhoods where many residents park their vehicles on one or both sides of the street.

Though we would expect the vast majority of ATV and UTV owners would act responsiblity, we also would worry about the few miscreats who would take their vehicles off road, potentially tearing up grassy areas in public parks and other areas.

Overall, allowing ATVs and UTVs in more areas likely would create an enforcement headache for police, something Scott alluded to at the recent council meeting. The mayor mentioned he recently returned from South Dakota's Black Hills, where he said ATVs and UTVs "are running everywhere."

"The problem I've got is half of them didn't appear to have licenses on them, which would be illegal. That's going to be a bigger enforcement issue."

To legally drive on approved roadways, drivers must be at least 18 and have financial liability coverage in effect for the vehicle and carry proof of insurance. We fear many drivers younger than the minimum age would hop on a recreational vehicle if

We think police have higher priorities than to check legions of ATVs and UTVs to see if they're properly licensed and the drivers are old enough.

Taking a ride on an ATV or UTV is undoubtedly a fun-filled activity. But it'd be better if it took place on roadways more suited for them.
Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group.

Dear Care and Feeding,

My boyfriend wont encourage his kids to be nice to me. Weve been together for about five years. He grew up in an abusive household and is a member of a minority community in which patriarchy is highly ingrained, though he seems to have mostly rejected that element of his culture and is a liberal, pro-queer, union activist. The biggest issue we have, honestly, is about his kids. There are five of them from his previous marriage. He puts them first, as of course he should (Id have a problem if he didnt!). I get along great with the older ones. Theyre awesome people. And, sad to say, they want nothing to do with their mom.

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The youngest boys, however, who are 12 and 14, are mostly with their mom, who hates meso they do, too. To be clear, I did not know my boyfriend or his then-wife when they were married; I had nothing to do with their divorce. Even so, after my boyfriend and I started dating, I had to get a restraining order against her after she showed up at my house and would not leave (the police came; it was a big mess).

I can deal with them not liking me. I mean, it sucks, but Im a big girl, and I can live with that. But my boyfriend doesnt even try to make them show me basic respect. He disappears with them when they come over for their time with him, and, if I do see the kids, they wont even respond to a basic hi or how are you? from me, and he says nothing about this. I had a chat myself with the older one once, telling him he doesnt have to like me, but people deserve basic respect, regardless of how you feel about them. It went nowhere. I need my boyfriend to back me up on this. Am I wrong for wanting him to ask his kids to act like decent people? And, for the record, he also doesnt make them do any chores when theyre with him. Im not a parent but I know kids crave rules and boundaries. I also know we raise our children to have our values, even if they may choose a different ethical system when theyre grown. At a minimum, kids should be taught basic politeness and respect for all humans, right? Or am I totally meddling in something where I should steer clear? What should I do?

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Im Just Tired

Dear IJT,

Kids should be taught to be kind, yes. But demanding that they be kind to Dads new(ish) girlfriend, whom Mom despises, is more complicated than that, as Im sure you must know.

So I have a variety of thoughts about what youre asking me. If what youre suggesting is that your boyfriends failure to insist that his two youngest kids be nicer to youor to do chores when they are with him, for that matteris a sign that his values are shaky (we raise our children to have our values), and asking me what you should do about that, Id say that you might want to look at the big picture and ask yourself if these things are indications that he isnt quite the person you had hoped/believed he was. Maybe he isnt. And maybe that means what you should do is break up with him.

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But if youre asking me if he should demand that his 12- and 14-year-old sons (such a hard age! and one at which basic respect for elders, especially parents and parent-substitutes, is at its lowest pointand at which sullenness and complicatedness are at a high point) interact with you pleasantly, Im going to go with dont meddle. It isnt clear to me if these kids have been refusing to say hi to you for the whole of the five years youve been dating their dad, or if he has brought you into the kids lives only recently. Its also not clear how harrowing the divorce was for these kids. I am guessing pretty harrowing (if their mom was turning up at your place later)? If youre going to stay with the boyfriendand the kids are, as you say, mostly with their mom, and thus only visiting when they see their fatherId suggest you stay well out of his relationship with them. I would certainly advise you otherwise if they lived with you, even part time. But demanding that their dad defend your honor is not going to get you anywhere, I am pretty sure. Better to work on your own zen about it.

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Slate Plus Members Get More Advice from Michelle Each Week

From this weeks letter, My Kid Is on a Mission to Ruin My Relationship With My Best Friend: Honestly, I feel like she is testing me. But I still dont know how to react!

Dear Care and Feeding,

Im a 36-year-old man and come from a Ghanaian family, though I was born and raised in the U.S. While I appreciate many elements of Ghanaian culture, there are some elements that I do not appreciate, namely the corporal punishment of children for misbehavior. My mother, however, is Ghanaian to her roots and views corporal punishment as a necessity for a stable household. My son is currently 7 years old, so of course he gets into mischief from time to time (something that is not aided by his ADHD). Its nothing too serious, but that doesnt seem to matter to my mother. She has pinched, spanked, and slapped him on multiple occasions for his behavior.

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While my son should definitely learn to not do certain things, I emphatically disagree with her methods and this has been the source of many arguments between us. I finally reached my breaking point when I was driving to her house to pick him up after work one day. As I pulled up, I saw him crying and my mom gripping his arm, yelling that she was going to beat him. I saw a knocked-over trash can, meaning he had probably (either intentionally or unintentionally) knocked it over while he was playing. I did not care whether he had done this on purpose or by accident. I immediately got out of the car and yelled at her to let him go.

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We had a shouting match, and I told her that until she changed her ways, she would not be seeing her grandson. Now it has been about a month and a half. Multiple family members have messaged me to tell me that I overreacted, that she wouldnt hit him unless she loved him and wanted him to learn, to know better than to misbehave. I want to hold my ground, but this is my sons grandmother and I want my extended family to be involved in his life. I dont know what to do.

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Lost in Translation

Dear Lost,

I agree entirely with you about not leaving your child in your mothers care anymore if she is unwilling or unable to abide by your guidelines. And it seems clear that you have other options for his care while you are at work, since you have done without her looking after him for the last month and a half. I do think it may be draconian for you to refuse to allow her to see her grandson altogether. Why not talk to her (without shouting, without arguing) one more time about your disavowal of the Ghanaian custom of corporal punishment for children? And let her know that you love and respect her (you do, dont you?) even though you disagree strongly with her childrearing methodsand that this is why she wont be providing childcare anymore.

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But why cant you visit her with your son? (Especially if you make it very clear that if she attempts to override you and punish him for what she considers misbehavior in your presence, the two of you will have to leave?) If this compromise is not acceptable to her, you have your answer: you will have to stay away. If I were you, Id offer up this compromise more than once. Dont give up so easily on having your extended family involved in your sons life. There may be a long learning curve for her and othersbut that doesnt mean they cant, or wont, learn.

Catch Up on Care and Feeding

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 If you missed Fridays column, read it here.

 Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group!

Dear Care and Feeding,

My 17-year-old daughter just came out as asexual and biromantic to my husband and me. This did not come as a huge surprise to us, and we are fine with it. But she also informed us of her decision not tell her extended family, which I understand in terms of not wanting to create any potential conflict with her very conservative grandparents. Whats been bugging me, though, is the main reason she gave us for staying in the closet.

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My parents have always given her large gifts for Christmas and her birthday, especially as compared to her brother and (all male) cousins. We attribute this to her being the oldest and the only girl, and while most often the difference between the size of their gifts to her and to the others is not huge, it is enough to be noticeable to all of us. Now she has explained that she is banking on this preferential treatment to get a laptop from them before she leaves for college in a year, and she doesnt want to risk losing it by coming out to them.

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And its very likely she will get what she wants if she doesnt rock the boat. But to me, this seems like a very selfish reason not to come out. She has made it fairly clear that this is the main thing keeping her from coming out to them (she has expressed amusement at their potential reactions). Should I tell her how I feel about that justification, or go along with it?

Selfish Secret Keeping

Dear SSK,

I think its none of your business how and when and to whom your daughter comes out. But I also think that if its really troubling you, if you think this is a moral failing on your childs part (and you are still in the process of raising her, after all, even if shes almost out the door) or if its affecting your relationship with your parentsor anything else that is your businessthen, sure, go ahead and tell her how you feel. But under no circumstances should you out her to her grandparents against her wishes or demand that she come out to them. If by going along with it you mean refraining from such actions, then yeah, Id say go along with it. Letting people know how we feelif talking about those feelings will not cause them pain (and I encourage you to think about this, too)is one thing. Countermanding them is another. And keep this in mind: there may be plenty of reasons, besides the one she owns up to, she is choosing to come out only to you.

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Submit your questions about parenting and family life here. Its anonymous! (Questions may be edited for publication.)

Dear Care and Feeding,

Is the whole attachment style thing pseudoscience? And if not, what do you do if your child has an attachment style other than secure? I have two kids, 11 and 8. According to all the parenting info about attachment styles, which seems to be everywhere, my daughter (the older one) is securely attached. My son, though, seems to be anxiously attached. I learned this because I was worried about himworried about how he gets really upset about being separated from me for anything but school, and how he has nine gazillion friends and yet believes that people dont like him, and also how he just generally never seems secure in any of his relationships and never seems at ease. Concerned about a future of codependency and self-esteem issues, I looked to Google for some answers about whats going on. What kept coming up was, This person is anxiously attached.

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The problem is that nothing I found had any tips for how to help a child who is anxiously attached feel more secure in their relationships. There were tips for adults who are anxiously attached, but they all seemed geared toward romantic relationships and certainly werent applicable for a third grader. There were tips for parents on how to avoid giving your child an anxious attachment style. This seems to suggest that if your child has an anxious attachment style, its your fault (which, maybe? But in so many ways he was like this practically from birth so IDK, and also my daughter is fine). Anyway, is there anything I can do short of getting him into therapy? (Would that even be helpful for an 8-year- old not in crisis?) Or is this attachment style business a silly fad that has some root in science but has been taken to an extreme, and hes not doomed to a life of toxic, codependent relationships if I just try to keep loving him and reassuring him that his friends care about him and that even if hes not touching me at all times I still care deeply about him?

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Anxious about Attachment

Dear Anxious,

Attachment theory is one of the foundational theories of developmental psychology. But as often happens with foundational theories (of any discipline), its been co-opted, oversimplified, and widely disseminated in a pop-psych user-friendly way. More to the point, really: your son is unhappy. Whatever you name this unhappiness, it should not be waited out. Youve loved him since the day he was born, youve been reassuring him that everythings OK, and hes still struggling. People who are much smarter than I am regularly note that the time to get a child into therapy is when whats troubling them is interfering with their daily lifeand this is. An 8-year-old should see a therapist who specializes in working with children (here is a good place to start, both to find one and to learn more about how it can work). The answer to whether it would even be helpful for an 8-year-old is yes.

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Ive said this before, but Ill say it again (and again): therapy should not be thought of as a dreaded last resort. Instead, where your son is concerned, think of it as a crucial part of your toolkita part that you dont have the experience or expertise to manage on your own.

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Michelle

More Advice From Slate

My wife and I divorced when my daughter was 6 years old and I was 43. I love my daughter to death, marveling as she grew up, basking in her love, and returning in kind. I still love her so much, but there is something wrong in our relationship. She has no difficulty in ignoring my texts to her, never mind my calls. It hurts me very much when she blows me off. Shell say, I never respond to texts from anyone, but will immediately respond to anybodys texts during those infrequent times we are together. Ive tried to take the approach that kids can be like this at her age, but Im having serious doubts and am beginning to think there is something seriously wrong. Please help!
Fedor Simkovic was awarded the ESET Science Award in 2020.

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"Thousands of billions of neutrinos stream through our bodies each second," says nuclear physicist Fedor Simkovic from the Department of Nuclear Physics and Biophysics at Comenius University in Bratislava.

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Although the existence of the neutrino was postulated almost a century ago, and its existence confirmed 66 years ago, there are still many underlying mysteries surrounding it. Together with a team of young physicists, scientist Fedor Simkovic is seeking answers to these nagging questions and, by extension, hoping to learn new things about the nature of the universe.

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Neutrinos remain the most mysterious of fundamental particles. What is it we still do not know?

We still do not know the answers to several basic questions, such as the absolute neutrino mass scale [i.e. how much neutrinos weigh], their spatial and charge symmetry properties, and the possible existence of additional sterile neutrinos. One of the leading unanswered questions about neutrinos is whether they are Majorana particles  i.e. whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles  or Dirac particles  i.e. if neutrinos have antiparticles like most other particles in the Standard Model.

This problem is closely related to the origin of neutrino masses. The evidence for tiny neutrino masses from observation of neutrino oscillation is the first proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. A complete reconstruction of the neutrino mass spectrum may point to the theoretical structures underlying the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, string theory, extra space dimensions, etc.

What is a neutrino?

According to the Standard Model of particle physics, the universe is built from 12 fundamental particles: three families of leptons  electron, muon and tau, and their corresponding neutrinos  and quarks. Neutrinos are the most abundant, and come in three types or flavours  electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino.

They can change from one flavour to another as they travel. This unusual process is called neutrino oscillation and is a consequence of the quantum mechanical origin of the micro world. Neutrinos play a crucial role in understanding the evolution of the universe, the processes within it, and the fundamental laws of nature.

To stay up to date with what scientists in Slovakia or Slovak scientists around the world are doing, subscribe to the Slovak Science newsletter, which will be sent to readers free of charge four times a year.

What do you mean by that?

Today, scientists are opening a new window into the universe through neutrinos, one that tells us a lot about its make-up and the history of the stars and galaxies. This new field, called neutrino astronomy, might reveal new, unknown phenomena and help us answer several of the questions we have today. In particular, why does matter dominate over antimatter  something which we practically do not observe?

Relic neutrinos, a remnant of the Big Bang, can explain the origin of dark matter in the universe. Neutrinos are generally accepted as unique probes for the interior of stars, the Earth and nuclear reactors. There are some suggestions that neutrinos could be used to discover oil and other mineral deposits, for global communication, or to communicate with extraterrestrial life. Todays utopia is tomorrows reality.

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The neutrino was postulated in 1930. Why is it that we know so little about a particle that has been studied for so long?

There are several reasons that, until now, we know relatively little about neutrinos. Studying them requires exploring their natural sources, such as stars or artificial sources like reactors and accelerators, constructing sophisticated detectors to register the products of neutrino reactions via detection mediums, suppressing background events in the detector that mimic signal events  and also having a good basis for the research.

The main problem with studying neutrinos is that they are elusive subatomic particles that rarely interact with anything. Of the four fundamental forces in the universe, they do not interact via the two strongest of these, namely the strong force, which holds the atomic nucleus together, nor through the electromagnetic force, which requires the presence of an electrical charge and binds the electrons in an atom. Neutrinos possess no electric charge and interact through the weak force that is responsible for the radioactive decay of atoms and the significantly weaker gravitational force, whose interaction is even further suppressed due to the tiny mass of neutrinos compared to other subatomic particles.

After they were postulated, it took 26 years until we got experimental evidence. For that we must thank the construction of nuclear power plants. In 1962, when a neutrino beam was made with the help of a particle accelerator, the second kind of neutrino  the muon neutrino  was discovered. The tau neutrino, a cousin to the other two neutrinos, was detected with a more powerful neutrino beam produced using accelerated protons in 2000. In all these cases, physicists detected neutrinos only after creating them with devices that they had constructed themselves.

For a long time, a majority of the physics community believed neutrinos had zero mass, as postulated in the Standard Model. The discovery of neutrino oscillation, which is tangible proof of non-zero neutrino masses, has changed the situation. We are following a boom in neutrino physics that combines cosmology with astrophysics, elementary particle physics, and the study of the atomic nucleus. More and more new experiments are being built worldwide.

Fedor Simkovic. (Source: ESET Science Award/Linda Kiskova Bohusova)

Where do neutrinos come from?

The most abundant neutrinos were created in the universes first second, just after the Big Bang, when there was enough energy to make all the particles and antiparticles. Since they cannot decay into anything, they should still be here. Due to their very, very low energy, which is a result of the universes expansion, they have not been experimentally confirmed yet. Low-energy neutrinos are produced mainly from nuclear reactions. In particular, they are continually being created in the nuclear fusion processes of stars.

They are also produced by the decay of radioactive uranium and thorium inside the Earth, and by the nuclear reactions governing the explosion of supernovae. Cosmic-ray interactions with atmospheric molecules produce a flux of neutrinos in all directions. Ultra high-energy neutrinos are assumed to be produced in cosmic accelerators, such as nearby magnetized neutron stars or in the region of the accretion disks of black holes. Low- and high-energy neutrinos can also be produced in manmade atomic reactors and particle accelerators on Earth.

How do they interact with the environment?

Neutrinos are tough to catch because they rarely interact with anything in existence due to their zero charges and nearly zero mass. They flow through matter like light rays passing through a transparent window.

Even our bodies?

Thousands of billions of neutrinos are streaming through our bodies each second. The probability is that each of us will interact with a cosmic neutrino only once in our lifetime  and will be unaware of it even when we do.

What do the experiments designed to capture neutrinos look like?

The detection method depends on the neutrinos energy and its flavour. The energy of a neutrino hinges on the process that formed it. For low-energy neutrinos, all matter, including stars, is transparent. By contrast, the Earth is not fully transparent to ultra-high-energy neutrinos from galactic and extragalactic sources. We detect neutrinos only indirectly via different modes of weak interaction with matter. That is, when a neutrino transfers some of its momentum to another particle, and then that particle is detected, or when a neutrino is transformed into an electron, muon or tau. But again, the main problem is that these reactions happen rarely, especially for low-energy neutrinos.

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Experiments designed to capture neutrinos are carried out deep underground. Why?

As these reactions happen only rarely, detectors must always be gigantic to allow enough neutrinos to pass through enough matter and make as much of it as possible available for an interaction to occur. The experiments are located deep underground or underwater  in the case of neutrino telescopes  to suppress background processes, primarily those originating in cosmic rays. Otherwise, muons produced in cosmic ray interactions in the Earths atmosphere could reach the detector and thus mimic neutrino events directly or through secondary processes.

A reduced muon flux allows the probing of rare neutrino events, even dark matter particle interactions. Deep-underground laboratories are research infrastructures built under a rock overburden greater than about 1,000 metres. The larger the overburden, the more significant the reduction in the muon flux. Some underground laboratories are located in deep mines, and some of them are in highway tunnels.

How many such laboratories are there?

Currently, 14 deep-underground laboratories are in operation worldwide, and three are under construction, with a timescale of one to seven years. Neutrino telescopes, the primary task of which is to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos from local sources, have been built or are under construction in the ice of the South Pole, in the Mediterranean, and in Lake Baikal.

You had a chance to directly participate in the construction of the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern hemisphere, in Lake Baikal. What does that experiment look like?

It is a structure located four kilometres from the shore that extends one-and-a-half kilometres down to the bottom of the lake. The neutrino telescope consists of optical modules mounted on ropes, plus the necessary accompanying cables. Eight such strings form a cluster with a circular base.

Today we already have ten operating. The detection medium is water: the water in Baikal is very clean, suitable even for drinking. Optical modules collect light from processes with neutrinos and cosmic rays. The signals accumulate at the lake shore station and are sent to the town of Baykalsk, 40 kilometres away, from where they travel via fibre to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, or JINR*, in Dubna [near Moscow] for further processing and storage. The detector is being expanded further.

Two expeditions are organized each year. In summer, work is done to prepare for the winter expedition, when the telescope is built from the lakes frozen surface. We cut a hole in the ice, run the ropes with optical modules into it and connect them with cables to the coastal centre. Our group helps in building the telescope and especially in processing data, due to the particle physics processes in it.

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When can we expect results? What will these bring to people?

Neutrino telescopes, particularly the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope, allow us to search for something interesting happening in the distant universe. Of particular interest are neutrinos that fly into the detector after travelling through the Earth, which other cosmic particles cannot. The goal is to locate and understand the point sources of cosmic neutrinos in space. One of these could be a black hole at the centre of our galaxy.

There is also an interest in obtaining information about high-energy neutrinos from outside our galaxy and relating these to cosmic phenomena that we do not yet know about. Exciting events from the neutrino telescope can appear at any time, of which there are already some indications. Recently, to verify and understand the processes in the depths of the universe, so-called multi-messenger astronomy was created, which is based on the coordinated observation and interpretation of diverse signals from space. It includes registering electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays.

Although we dont know much about neutrinos, they have already contributed significantly to our understanding of nature. Four Nobel Prizes have been awarded for neutrino physics so far and there is potential for more. It is hard to predict the future importance of neutrino physics technologies for humanity. One idea is that beams of neutrinos could serve as a vehicle for direct point-to-point global communications, secure means of communication, and even interstellar communication. Neutrino beam communication could even enable continuous communication with Mars without relying on satellites or the need to deploy antennas.

What does research in this area look like in Slovakia?

The neutrino physics research in Slovakia is realized at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at Comenius University in Bratislava. I established a team of young physicists who work on problems of three prominent neutrino physics experiments. First, as mentioned, we are members of the Baikal-GVD collaboration and participate in data analysis and construction of the detector.

Second, we collaborate on the SuperNEMO project, which aims to observe the neutrino-less double beta decay signal in a detector at the Modane underground laboratory in France. The subjects of our interest are background processes and physical interpretation of data. The third experiment is JUNO, which is being built in China. It will observe neutrino oscillations from two reactors, 53 kilometres apart. The priority is to discover something about the mass spectrum of neutrinos. Among other things, we have also developed a neutrino-less double beta nuclear decay theory, which is of great interest to the scientific community.

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You mentioned that there is potential for further Nobel Prizes in neutrino physics. People in Slovakia hope that one of their scientists will one day become a Nobel laureate, and that one of the most probable fields is physics. Do you think this could happen based on research related to neutrinos?

I dont know about other fields, but I dont see the potential yet regarding particle and nuclear physics. The position of our universities in the World University Rankings is not the best. We profit from scientific contacts with excellent scientific institutes in Europe and worldwide, and the situation is slowly improving.

Realistically speaking, I do not think there will be a Nobel Prize in the near future. But there is still a chance a miracle like Peter Sagan or Petra Vlhova might appear, if I can draw a parallel with the situation in sport. Of course, I would be happy if it did happen.

Why do you focus on neutrinos?

Neutrino physics is exciting and full of thrilling discoveries. Neutrinos remain the most mysterious fundamental particles, and we still do not know the answers to basic questions. It might also be that I am ambitious. I hope to contribute to or solve the problem of neutrino masses  mass spectrum, the origin of neutrino masses  and determine the nature of neutrinos.

*Slovakias cooperation with the JINR has been suspended following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This article is supported by the ESET Foundation, which awards the ESET Science Award to exceptional scientists every year.
BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- "In this vast world, I may be just like a small feather. But even so, I want this feather to carry the wish for peace."

These are not lines of a beautifully written prose poem about the lightness of being. They are excerpts from the diary of He Zhihong, a female Chinese peacekeeper who died in the line of duty while serving in a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Haiti in 2010. She was just 35 when she died.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shared He's story at the UN Peacekeeping Summit in New York in 2015.

"This was her wish, and it is also China's commitment to peace," Xi said at the summit.

Since first dispatching five military observers to the UN Truce Supervision Organization in 1990, China's armed forces have stood fast as a disciplined force for peace and justice and become a crucial part of UN peacekeeping operations.

He Zhihong, from the southwestern province of Yunnan, lost her life while serving the peacekeeping mission when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake ravaged Haiti. She left behind a four-year-old son and elderly parents.

She was posthumously honored with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal for her contributions to world peace. The award was named after the former UN secretary-general who died on a peace mission to the Congo in 1961.

She is far from the only Chinese peacekeeper to have sacrificed her life in the name of world peace. Over the past three decades, of the nearly 50,000 members of Chinese men and women in uniform to have served in 25 UN peacekeeping missions, 16 never came home.

"Peace is the common aspiration and lofty goal shared by all of humanity," President Xi said at the UN Peacekeeping Summit.

At the same summit where Xi shared He's story, the president announced a raft of measures China would take to support UN peacekeeping. From building a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops, to training peacekeepers from other countries, and sending its first peacekeeping helicopter squad to the UN peacekeeping operations in Africa, these commitments show China to be a champion of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order.

China honors its promises. It completed the registration of a UN peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops in 2017. In the following five years since the summit, China provided 20 training programs to over 1,500 peacekeepers from more than 60 countries.

As the largest troop-contributing country among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has sent peacekeepers to over 20 countries and regions, including Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sudan, playing a vital role in facilitating the peaceful settlement of disputes, safeguarding regional security and stability, and promoting economic and social development in host nations.

They erected a hospital in the scorching heat in Mali, repaired a bridge that floods in the DRC had damaged, rebuilt a village primary school in South Sudan, fought the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, one of the hardest hit countries, and offered free medical treatment to locals in Lebanon.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, a total of 2,240 Chinese peacekeepers are currently serving on seven peacekeeping missions and at the UN headquarters.

Such support for UN peacekeeping operations has earned China recognition from the UN and the international community.

"China is one of our main supporters, really both in terms of the financial contributions, also in terms of the contributions in the field with more than 2,000 peacekeepers," UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said ahead of this year's International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers in May. 
JERUSALEM, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Israel decided on Sunday to withhold 600 million shekels (176 million U.S. dollars) in tax revenues it has collected for the Palestinian Authority to offset the latter's compensation for "attackers" against Israelis.

The Israeli security cabinet voted to deduct in phases the same amount from the tax revenues as the Palestinian Authority has paid to the families of killed or wounded attackers, the state-owned Kan TV news reported.

Israel sees the stipends as "indirect support of terrorism" and charges they "encourage" Palestinians' attacks against Israelis. However, Palestinians say the stipends are welfare payments for families in need.

Israel collects a large proportion of tax revenues on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and transfers them to the latter on a regular basis.

In July 2018, the Israeli parliament passed a law to deduct from tax revenues an amount equal to what the Palestinian Authority pays to families of prisoners.

The move is expected to increase tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Israel seized the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and has since controlled or blockaded the two regions despite international criticism. 
This wouldnt be the first time Kristen Green became curious about a piece of Virginia history that led her to write a book.

In 2011, Green was a reporter with the Richmond Times-Dispatch and writing about a graveyard for free and enslaved people, discovered buried under a parking lot. During her research, she learned of the remnants of a nearby slave jail also hidden under a layer of asphalt, along East Broad Street behind the Main Street Amtrak Station.

Green is Virginia born and knew that Richmond was in the thick of trafficking the enslaved before the Civil War. But Robert Lumpkins jail was notorious throughout the South.

It housed thousands of children, men and women who were shipped to busy ports, including Norfolk and New Orleans. Owners could also bring their enslaved to Lumpkins to have them whipped for a fee when owners didnt want to bloody themselves.

The jail earned the name The Devils Half Acre.

Green read a Smithsonian magazine article about Lumpkin and how hed fathered children with an enslaved woman named Mary and that Mary acted as his wife.

I know she couldnt be his wife, because she was enslaved, she couldnt consent, and interracial marriage was against the law, Green said. So I was like, What in the world? This is crazy.

Green couldnt stop thinking about Mary and kept digging. This spring she released the book, The Devils Half Acre: The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the Souths Most Notorious Slave Jail.

She learned of a woman who used her predicament to advantage: She freed her children and got them educated.

Mary also played a role in the founding of Virginia Union University, a historically Black college that still exists in Richmond.

Green found little in public records about Mary but tracked down descendants; some now identify as white and others Black. Several had never heard of Mary. Some seemed to be ashamed of the connection and left Marys name out of their family Bibles genealogical chart; others muddied the family story by referring to her as a distant relative with an Indigenous background.

But Green found Mary Lumpkins great-great-granddaughter, Carolivia Herron, an author and educator who grew up with an oral history of Mary that was told with pride. The family history is that Mary told her enslaver that he could do anything to her but he couldnt hurt the children and that they had to be emancipated. The five children Mary bore to Robert were sent to free states, where they lived. Mary was also allowed to buy property in her name, Green said, a rarity.

Mary, Green said, was negotiating and using that agency and determining what her kids lives would look like, and what her life would look like with the limited power she had.

To understand Robert Lumpkins business, Green read through fragile court documents, his will, property records and newspaper ads. She studied census records; traveled to Massachusetts where Marys two daughters went to school; Pennsylvania, where Mary owned a home; and Ohio, Marys final resting place.

She read stories of other enslaved women in similar circumstances. Harriet Jacobs, for example, hid in her grandmothers attic in Edenton for seven years to escape the sexual advances of her enslaver. Green read of women who killed themselves or chewed cotton root to induce abortions when they got pregnant after rape.

She felt it necessary to tell Marys story.

Its easier to chronicle well-documented cases, such as that of Harriet Tubman, who escaped and returned to slave states several times to free others. Green said Tubmans story is often highlighted for its daredevil attributes, such as how she carried a gun and waded through dangerous waters to avoid capture. But Tubman did not have children.

That is a very masculine story and most women could not escape, would not escape, because they had children and most had to endure, Green said. Im not saying that Mary Lumpkins story is the typical enslaved woman story. But I think the more kinds of stories of enslaved women that we can tell, the more breadth and depth we bring to Americans understanding of the enslaved experience.



Mary Lumpkin was born around 1832 on a Virginia plantation whose identity Green wasnt able to determine.

She was described as nearly white, a sign that her mother, and perhaps her grandmother, were also victims of rape by white men.

Lumpkin bought the jail in 1844 and lived on the complex as the slave industry prospered in Richmond. It isnt clear when he bought Mary, but he was about 40 when she gave birth to their first child in 1845. Mary was 13.

Because she was enslaved, her children were enslaved. During the next 12 years she would have four more who lived into adulthood; two others died when they were young.

Greens book details the network of jail operators in Richmond who regularly kept enslaved women. Others were sold as fancy girls at high prices for white men wanting sexual partners.

Several of the women helped run the boarding houses that were connected to the jails and housed traveling slave dealers; the women also cooked and made clothes for those kept in the slave pens. The women were often taught to read, which was against the law. If they outlived their owners, they were often freed.

In the book, Green wonders what type of life Mary and the children had. Did they get better food than the other enslaved people? What was their housing like? Did Mary feel a sense of security in being the mother of Lumpkins children, even as other mixed and nearly white offspring were being sold at the jail?

Was Mary scared that her daughters would be sold and raped as she had been?

Lumpkin appeared to claim his children, however. The two oldest, daughters Martha and Annie, were sent to Massachusetts for school in the mid-1850s. The girls were described as being able to pass for white.

Green writes that while the girls were away, Mary solidified plans with Lumpkin to set herself and the children free. Green said the Herron oral history states that the three sonsthe oldest boy named after his fatherwere likely also sent away to be educated, too.

It appeared Mary was allowed to travel freely and she did, to Massachusetts and Ohio; she befriended and wrote letters to other women who had children with jail owners and had been sent to live free elsewhere.

In 1857, Mary traveled to Philadelphia and bought a home under a pseudonym. Green speculates it might have been a calculated move to give Mary autonomy and that Lumpkin had to sign off on it as the most efficient way to protect the asset for her and their children.

By 1860, Mary and the children were living in Philadelphia. In 1861, she is listed in the city directory as Robert Lumpkins widow, which Green supposes might have been the line Mary told people.

After the war ended, Mary returned to Richmond. When Lumpkin died the following year, he left the jail property, a home he owned in Alabama and all the cash he had to the woman who resides with meMary.

He stipulated that if she married, the inheritance would go to their children. His property wasnt worth much after the war and Mary had to work to pay the tax bills.

In 1867, she met a minister who mentioned he was looking for a building to open a theological school for Black men; white business owners were not interested in supporting his proposition. Mary offered to lease the jail. It became known as the Colver Institute. It later relocated and became Virginia Union.

Mary moved to New Richmond, Ohio, and died in 1905.

Green quoted a man whod met Mary and saw the school prosper:

The old slave pen was no longer the devils half acre but Gods half acre.



In 2001, Green was a reporter in San Diego when she read a Washington Post article about her hometown, Farmville. Farmville is the county seat of Prince Edward Countywhich, in 1959, closed its public schools rather than follow the Supreme Courts order to integrate them.

The county established a private school for white students. African American students were on their own; to go to school, they had to move in with relatives in other parts of the state or out of state.

The public schools were closed for five years.

Green had grown up with a skinny version of the story but didnt realize the depth of lingering pain until she read the Post article. As she started digging, she learned how much her family had been involved in founding the segregationist academy; her grandfather was active in the group that called for closing the schools. Her mother worked at the academy, as did one of her brothers; she herself had graduated from the school.

In 2015, she wrote the New York Times bestseller, Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County.

As the story of Prince Edward has become an often told story, she hopes the same will come of Mary.

I dont see my story as being the final story.  Hopefully it leads other researchers to find out more about her, Green said. We dont really know anything about her day-to-day life, or how she felt about any of this, but we might know more of her timeline. This was important to me and I feel like this all of our history. This isnt just Black history; this is our countrys history.
The other week, Ann McLean, Gov. Glenn Youngkins new appointee to the Virginia Board of Historic Resources, gave an interview to conservative radio talk-show host John Reid. During that interview, McLean likened Abraham Lincolns response to the secession of Southern states to Vladimir Putins unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Guess she forgot about the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter.

McLean did admit to Reid that slavery was not good, an understatement that might be unrivaled in American history. But she also wanted to make sure listeners knew that slave-holding states had the right to secede and unite into a separate country. Secession was not treason, McLean said. So Lincoln had no right to invade the South.

Besides, she added, Southern states would have outlawed slavery in five to 10 years anyway. They just wanted to do it on their own schedule, she said.

McLeans defense of The Lost Cause carried this newspapers septuagenarian editorial-page editor back to old Virginny and the history lessons he learned during his days in the racially segregated public classrooms of the Old Dominion. Those lessons accounted beautifully for the theory of states rights. What they never accounted for was why White children sat in one school and Black children in another nearly a century after the enslaved were supposedly freed.

McLean complained of a flattened history that did not reflect nuances. Such an approach, she said, oversimplified the need to reconsider Robert E. Lees legacy because he fought to maintain slavery.

The notion of nuance was not lost on those who minutes earlier listened to Reid dismiss the coalition of Virginians who fought to remove statues of Confederate war heroes from Richmonds Monument Boulevard in 2020 as nothing more than uninformed Virginia Commonwealth University students, violent anti-fascists from Antifa, and members of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Speaking of flattened history, Reids talk-show invective missed a crucial point about who supports Civil War statues. Discussions of removing statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Charlottesville led neo-Nazi White supremacists to bloody the citys streets in 2017 defending those pieces of public art.

Let us be crystal clear: The 2017 violence that scarred the community was not the fault of descendants of the enslaved or people of color or anybody else who saw the Lee and Jackson statues as defending the institution of human chattel.

The violence was the fault of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American thugs with whose cause no decent person should want to associate.

McLean is also a member of The Jefferson Council. She spoke recently at a Charlottesville hearing about changing the name of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. She opposed the name change, politely making fair points. The council, made up of UVa alumni, describes itself as dedicated to preserving the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, the Lawn, the Honor Code, and the intellectual diversity one would expect from Mr. Jeffersons university.

Lately, however, council members have taken that to mean supporting the racial wedge Glenn Youngkin drove into this state to get elected governor, the wedge he thinks can carry him to the White House.

The wedge depends on convincing Whites that they now lose out because Blacks get special treatment they dont deserve. It is a cynical game, and it is working. The governor, and by extension his appointees, now including Ann McLean, descend down a racially divisive slope so slippery that they have convinced many Whites to demonize what should be the fundamental American values of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Striving for diversity, equity and inclusion does not dumb down UVa, as many on The Jefferson Council now charge. It does not dilute quality. Diversity, equity and inclusion mean accounting for and addressing institutional biases that make opportunities unequal.

The most ironic thing about McLeans Historic Resources Board appointment is that her call for a full airing of Civil War history likely would not be allowed in todays diverse public schools because it violates Youngkins first executive order. That order forbids teaching divisive concepts, including the role of institutionalized racism in the countrys history.

Meanwhile, Ann McLeans comparison of Abraham Lincoln to Vladimir Putin insults every American who believes this countrys greatness springs from its defense of freedom.
A VIRGINIA Cooperative Extension program, Graze 300 VA has reached another milestone in its progress with producers adoption of extended grazing practices.

The Graze 300 team is concluding its grant commitment with Virginia Techs College of Agriculture and the Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture. This grant funded our work to develop and deliver training, educational resources and technical applications supporting advances in grazing livestock management.

And now, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation is rolling out pilot testing of Graze 300 practices in two Virginia soil and water conservation districtsCulpeper and Headwaters.

Grazing management advocated by Graze 300 will become part of the departments SL10E cost-share practice, an upgrade to the existing SL 10. In addition, measures of Soil Test Biological Activity (STBA), based on research by Dr. Alan Franzluebbers of USDA ARS at N.C. State, and implementation of bale grazing based on work by Dr. Greg Halich of the University of Kentucky, will be incentives added to the new practice.

Adding grazing days to livestock production increases profitability to a point, when compared to a long winter of hay feeding.

Reaching 300 days of grazing can be the sweet spot economically for many producers. Case studies developed by extension agents across Virginia show this. Our examples point to profit increases when stocking rate is reduced because the extra grass grown is carried forward for use during drought and as a primary feedstuff in winter.

In the end, less hay feeding will improve the bottom line as our budgets show hay is responsible for at least 50% of cow calf production costs.

Adding STBA to the new SL10E practice offers the potential to limit another cost related to stockpiled fescuenitrogen fertilizer. Testing soil reveals the potential for plant-available nitrogen to be released from decomposing organic matter. Soils under long-term pasture and in no-till cropping often have an active nitrogen cycle involving organic-matter decay, which is responsible for releasing stored nitrogen.

Old sods are expected to contain organic matter sufficient to release nitrogen at levels supporting adequate stockpiled fescue production. Work by Chris Teutsch in Virginia suggests that these sods contain sufficient concentrations of organic matter to release enough nitrogen to stockpile 2500 pounds of hay equivalent fescue per acre. Adding more nitrogen to these soils is not expected to result in an economic response in fescue production. Current nitrogen and hay costs further support the value of using of this practice.

The bale grazing practice offers a chance to strategically spread out fed hay and animal waste across a landscape capable of absorbing most of the nutrients introduced from hay.

When compared to centralized feeding areas, bale grazing will result in fewer nutrients being lost in runoff during wet winter conditions, while spreading out impacts to pasture sods. Some reseeding may be required on these feeding sites, but nutrients from fed hay can be recycled for future production, while improving water quality.
DALIAN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A new mail shipping route has been launched between Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, and Sydney in Australia, to meet the demand for international mail and cross-border e-commerce.

On Thursday, a consignment of parcels left Shenyang for Liaoning's port city of Dalian, from where it will be shipped to Sydney via sea, marking the launch of the service, according to the Liaoning branch of China Post.

Multiple international postal routes were disrupted due to the impact of COVID-19, with numerous parcels and cross-border e-commerce packages sent from China to Australia encountering delivery issues, the China Post branch said.

It added that in the past, parcels shipped from northeast China to Australia would transit via Shanghai, Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, and the opening of the shipping route will effectively save the transportation time and cost. 
Several area fire departments spent Saturday evening fighting a fire south of Gering in the Cedar Canyon Wildlife Management Area.

Region 21 Emergency Management Director Tim Newman told the Star-Herald that the wildfire is zero percent contained and had four separate start sites. A cause has not yet been determined, he said, but because of the number or start sites and the distance between them, it is presumed that the fire was caused by lightning.

An estimate of the size of the fire is difficult, he said, but it is large with four sites. At one of the sites, he estimated 1,000 acres has already been burned. One SEAT plane has made three to four drops before being grounded for the night.

As of publication, some homes in the area had been threatened by the fire, but winds shifted, helping keep the blaze at bay. At about 9:40 p.m., officials were starting notifying residents that mandatory evacuations on Carter Canyon Road, south of Summit Road to County Road 17, had been ordered.

Firefighters have been hampered by people in vehicles who are driving on roadways or parking to "sightsee." Newman said that law enforcement are on scene and will be ticketing driver's for obstruction of government operations. He urged people to stay away from the fire scenes unless part of the response.

Departments responding to the fire are Gering, Scotts Bluff Rural, Scottsbluff, Minatare-Melbeta, Lyman, Banner and Bayard. Newman said there may be others on site and other departments have plans to respond to the fire tonight or Sunday.
The only thing that can be agreed on after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States is that the ruling changes the lives of women and others in the country, as well as in Iredell County, as the court said the decision was to be left up to states themselves.

In North Carolina, it is still legal, but for Rep. Jeff McNeely and Republicans in the General Assembly, it is merely a matter of time before they introduce legislation to curtail or eliminate what was considered a right under Roe v. Wade.

Its going to come up, its just not going to come up right now. We dont have the time to do it right now, and dont have the votes to get it done right now, McNeely said.

McNeely said that with a Democrat as governor, and no super majority in the state house and senate, as well as the current makeup of the states supreme court, the odds would be against a bill passing and not being vetoed or thrown out by the courts. He said if that changes, the states Republicans are expected to act as its been an issue theyve looked at tackling for some time. With the SCOTUS ruling, the decision no longer is considered a right, but at the discretion of state legislatures.

For pro-life Republicans, it was a win that allows them to consider passing a law that they couldnt for decades.

I was delighted. Something I prayed for and hoped for many, many years. Im a pro-life Christian and waited for many years to tackle this issue, McNeely said. It breaks my heart waiting.

But with that waiting also comes a chance to campaign on it, something he expects both sides to do.

One side wants to kill babies and the other side wants to save them. Weve been waiting for this moment, now its time to do something, McNeely said.

Language like that highlights the divide in the battle going on in the state right now. While Republicans position themselves pro-life, Democrats in the state will run on it as a choice for women to make as they rally their voters behind womens rights, healthcare, and well-being.

While that ends up being the framing of the debate  womens rights versus that of a baby or fetus  for many women in the state it isnt just a political debate, but one that can affect their lives now and well into the future.

Abortion in North Carolina

For someone in Statesville, it is a 45-minute or longer drive to begin the process of an abortion. That may be less of a hurdle for those with the money or support network, it is one for lower-income residents of the county. According to Tara Romano, the executive director of Pro-Choice North Carolina, there are nine counties in the state with abortion clinics, typically clustered in the states metro areas. Romano noted telemedicine appointments are banned in the case of seeking a medical abortion, so the challenges of travel are a hurdle for one seeking an abortion, as well as a 72-hour wait period before the procedure.

Those, as well as required counseling, are laws passed that make the procedure more difficult for women seeking it, Romano said, not for her health or well-being.

That was written by anti-abortion politicians before able to get the procedure and then there are limits on who is able to provide abortion and where it can be provided, Romano said. These limits dont have anything to do with like the medical or the safety of abortion. It has to do with like just politicians wanting to make it harder to access for women.

Romano said due to the organizations previous efforts advocating for the state not to have trigger laws that would have come into effect with Roe v. Wade being overruled, nothing has changed yet for her or their work in the state. However, she knows that could change whenever lawmakers take it up in the General Assembly in the future.

Weve always been a grassroots advocacy organization. We work small, we work statewide, helping people understand like the harm of having these restrictions, not just on abortion access but all reproductive health care. So what we see now is helping people understand that abortion is still legal in North Carolina, helping them access, and what has changed, Romano said. She said that part of that information they share is that elections, and the people they vote for, can change the law in the state. She said it doesnt help that much of the discourse focuses on the debate at the federal level when now the laws surrounding abortion will be settled at the state level.

Things could change in the legislature after the November election, which means that potentially we could see more anti-abortion restrictions or even a complete ban in North Carolina, Romano said. Its a very political issue but we know that people of all backgrounds, access abortion and support abortion access.

While politics overshadows the subject, in the end, Romano said their goal is to make sure that choice is available to those that need it.

Politics of abortion

The political side of it, at least in Iredell County, falls to elected officials like McNeely, and those on the other side of the aisle looking to as they see it, allow women to have a choice.

Abortion is more complicated than just choosing whether or not to have a pregnancy, Beth Kendall said. She is the chair of the Democratic party in Iredell County.

Kendall said the first few days after the ruling were filled with phone calls  both personal and political  as she and others discussed what was next.

It was talking to people, whats happening next, what can we do to help, what can we do to fix this, essentially, Kendall said. We have to make people vote. When its such a big thing to so many people, youve got to make that correlation between yes, this has happened, yes it is a big deal, and encourage people to vote and work toward people who have similar positions into office.

Kendall said the issue affects every woman, and even though it is still legal in North Carolina, the knowledge that it could change with one bill in the state house means that the previously granted right is now at the discretion of state legislatures.

Weve been made second-class citizens. If you look at it strictly from a matter of what I can do with my body, corpses have more rights than women do at this point because people at least have to sign off before death what people do with their body, Kendall said. It affects so many people on so many levels and is just such a personal choice.

Its hard to express how hard it is having a right you were born having taken away, Kendall said.

The local head of the Democratic party noted that laws passed in other states and the reluctance of health care providers to risk legal issues have already had a chilling effect. While there hasnt been a clear indication of how strict any laws in North Carolina would be if Republicans gain enough in the General Assembly or win the governorship, what is happening in states around North Carolina gives her and others an idea of what could come.

The debate on abortion often centers around when life begins and at what stage of development the law should grant fetus personhood. Kendall said that there is an understandable gulf between the two sides, depending on peoples personal stances, opinions on science, and religion. In the end, she argues it comes down to a womans health, and her choice. She said with the impact that having a child has on a woman and her life, it isnt something that politicians should decide.

Thats not something that should be left up to the government, in any way, shape, or form, Kendall said.

The politics of abortion  with the right arguing pro-life and the left arguing pro-choice  hasnt changed since Roe v. Wade was overturned earlier this year.

Both sides talking points remain the same.

What has changed is the reality that the future of abortion in North Carolina is in the hands of the legislature and the voters who elect them.
Trinity Episcopal is hosting a vacation Bible school that includes the biblical lessons, games, snacks, and fun expected of the churchs summertime event.

What perhaps sets it apart this year is that it is teaming up with Shiloh AME Zion, Grace Baptist, and Lighthouse Deliverance churches behind the theme of Made by God: Celebrating Gods Gloriously Diverse World, which will put a focus on racial justice both in the community and beyond.

Gods dream for creation is a beloved community where no one is left out, no one is hungry. God dreams of a creation where we can all flourish and reflect the image of God in which we are made. Too often we have not honored the image of God in each other, and sometimes for reasons of race or tribe or class. Like the Good Samaritan in a parable, we will read in VBS, God calls us to reach across those boundaries to love those who are different from us, remembering that we are all Gods children, Brad Mullis, rector at Trinity, said. Im so grateful to see so many more hearts in the right place about racial reconciliation in our country. But the residual effects of sin  slavery, Jim Crow, etc.  remain, and one of our calls in letting justice roll down as Amos says is to do the work of dismantling those systems which can prevent all of Gods children from flourishing and Gods dream from being realized.

The clergy involved understand the balancing act of Gods word and the events in the world, but one worth bridging.

The balance of biblical and justice can be a slippery slope because Bible justice and world justice do not always stand side by side. However, we can start to make our way towards connecting the two by our study of the word of God contextually first and our correct application of the word to our daily lives, the Rev. Dr. Patricia A Gainer of Shiloh said.

The VBS itself will take place at Trinity Episcopal on Henkel Road, running from 5:30-8:15 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday. The organizers plan on roughly 75 children taking part from the four churches.

Each night includes dinner, music, a lesson from one of the pastors, or an appointee by the church in charge that evening. Each night also has a Racism Moment where a person from the community will talk about how racism affected their life, with Skip McCall and Todd Scott being two of the scheduled speakers. After that, breakout classes by age/grade where a lesson on the nights particular theme and a couple of hands-on activities will take place before a few fun-filled activities as the night comes to a close.

The goal is to instill biblical principles while also bringing the community together.

A key tenet of the message of Jesus Christ is community. Community is not community if it is only relegated to those who look, think, speak, or act as we do. We can only bridge that gap in the community by being willing to sit down and have some of the real conversations and race relations is at the top of this list, Gainer said.

Mullis said while racial reconciliation has been a greater goal of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, to which Trinity belongs, it is something that the church has done and plans to continue to do.

Our Bishop speaks often of Gods dream of Beloved Community and leads us in striving to make that a reality. But racial reconciliation is more personal for Trinity Church. In 1968, when we constructed our current facility on Henkel Road, our congregation and the Church of the Holy Cross, an African-American Episcopal congregation, joined in worship and have served God and neighbor together for over 50 years. We are blessed to continue that work here begun. We are excited to work with new neighbors and glorify God together, Mullis said.
A Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute resident accused of the attempted rape and aggravated sexual battery of another facility resident has been found incompetent to stand trial, according to a court order filed July 13.

Ahmed Mohammed Deria underwent the competency evaluation conducted by Central State Hospital staff earlier this year. According to the order, the Smyth County General District Court found that the 51-year-old is unrestorably incompetent to stand trial and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Deria was charged in late January following an investigation by the Virginia State Police. In a criminal complaint filed in the matter, a special agent wrote that security footage showed Deria trying to have sex with a heavily sedated woman inside an Open Quiet Room at the facility.

According to the order, Deria has been remanded to Central State, which was ordered to seek an involuntary commitment order for him. Additionally, he is to be screened for commitment as a sexually violent predator.

The court has retained criminal jurisdiction in the matter, and has requested that Deria not be housed at SWVMHI. He is also prohibited from having any contact with or from coming within 1,000 feet of woman he is accused of assaulting.

Deria has spent time in state psychiatric facilities since at least 2002 when he was charged in the stabbing death of his brother in Fairfax County. A murder charge in that case was later dropped. A Fairfax County court clerk was unable to view court records in January to determine why that charge was dropped.

A 2004 news report did shed light on Derias mental state at the time of those proceedings, reporting that a clinical psychologist had found Derias psychiatric and medical history appeared consistent with schizophrenia. Competency hearings were ordered in that case, as well, and Deria was ordered to undergo treatment to restore him to competency. At one point, he was deemed competent to stand trial, but was later returned to Central State for further treatment.

Deria has been scheduled for a disposition hearing for the Smyth County charges in January 2027, at which time they will be dismissed in accordance with current state law.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Bulgaria is heading to a new parliamentary election this fall after the three largest parties in parliament failed to find common ground for a coalition government.

Socialist Party floor leader, Georgi Svilenski, told reporters on Wednesday that efforts to form a viable coalition failed as a proposed governing strategy did not muster the needed approval in the National Assembly.

In this situation, tomorrow well return the mandate to the president unfulfilled, said Svilenski.

Earlier, the two main groups in parliament  the reformist We Continue the Change party and the center right GERB party  failed to end the European Union and NATO members latest political crisis amid soaring tensions with Russia.

The ouster of the pro-Western Cabinet of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who took office last December pledging zero tolerance for corruption, helped pave the way toward a new election, which analysts expect will bring a stronger presence of nationalist and pro-Russia groups into parliament.

Last month, Bulgaria ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff from Bulgaria, exacerbating tensions between the two historically close nations.

Petkov, who took a strong stance against Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, has claimed Moscow used hybrid war tactics to bring down his government.

In April, Russia cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria after officials refused a Moscow demand to pay gas bills in rubles, Russias currency.

Bulgarias defense minister was ousted in early March for referring to Russias war as a special military operation, the Kremlin-preferred description.

One of Petkovs main goals was to halt Moscows almost total energy grip by diversifying sources of supplies.

In one of his last moves as prime minister, Petkov on Wednesday discussed with experts from U.S. company Westinghouse possibilities to receive nuclear fuel for one of its two Russian-designed reactors.

I am concerned about what is happening in Europe and my forecast is that the war (in Ukraine) will continue for five more years, which is why I hope we will manage to continue (on) our path to diversification, Petkov said.

Political analysts expect that the new vote, likely to be held in October, could again produce a fragmented parliament, and deepen the political impasse that has gripped the EUs poorest member for months.

The country's president must now dissolve parliament, appoint a caretaker government, and set a date for Bulgarias fourth parliamentary vote since April 2021.
This month, Cowlitz County and its cities received millions of dollars in federal pandemic recovery money, which most jurisdictions have begun spending on a variety of projects.

In total, the county, Longview, Kelso, Woodland, Kalama and Castle Rock received about $36.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, with the first half arriving in mid-2021.

Cowlitz County has so far allocated more than half of its $21.48 million, spending or setting aside about $12.8 million, said Traci Jackson, finance manager. Along with pandemic-related costs, the county commissioners plan to use the money for projects with a longterm benefit to the community.

I dont know if we can use ARPA money to square things up. The lockdown did a lot of damage to our economy, to our people, Commissioner Arne Mortensen told The Daily News. But maybe we can use that money to improve the opportunity for the county to do something useful.

Counties and cities can use the money to support public health expenditures, address negative economic effects from the pandemic, replace lost public-sector revenue, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, according to the Municipal Research Services Center of Washington. The money can cover qualifying costs through 2024, and must be spent by the end of 2026.

Longview received a total of $8.1 million, Kelso $3.47 million, Woodland $1.8 million, Kalama $781,820, Castle Rock $642,110 and Rainier $446,450.

Infrastructure upgrades

Over the past year, the commissioners have heard proposals from cities, fire districts, county departments and other local agencies requesting funding.

A lot of people have voiced concerns about the feds spending money they dont have, Commissioner John Jabusch said. But for the county, the ARPA money has been a lifesaver for us. Its given us funds to help out some of the cities with projects.

The largest amount set aside so far was $6.3 million for county public works to repair or upgrade the countys water and sewer systems. The upgrades total more than $16 million and include improvements to the Toutle, Ryderwood, Camelot, Woodbrook and Shadow Mountain systems, Jackson said. The commissioners support the improvements but hope to use other available funding before using the ARPA allocation for these projects, she said.

The board also approved granting $200,000 to the Carrolls Water Association for a new well to improve the drinking water system. The association serves residents in the Carrolls area south of Kelso.

Earlier this year, the commissioners allocated $2.6 million to Woodland for exit 21, the largest amount to a single project so far.

We greatly appreciate their help on getting started on this regional intersection that desperately needs help, said Pete Boyce, Woodland city administrator.

The interchange at the south end of town handles traffic entering and exiting Interstate 5 at state Route 503, which is heavily congested, especially during the weekday rush hour. The most recent cost estimate for the new traffic light design was at least $13 to $15 million. Woodland has received other state and federal funding, as well as money from the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Council of Governments for the project.

The city is in the process of going out to bid for engineering of the new traffic signal design approved by the City Council, Boyce said.

Mortensen said the project meets his goal of looking at a greater picture rather than helping specific groups.

Parks projects

The commissioners have considered spending American Rescue Plan Act money on a variety of parks and recreation projects to ensure a long-lasting benefit.

Some projects weve identified are designed to be enjoyed by future generations because all these money is borrowed federal dollars, future generations will be paying for it, Commissioner Dennis Weber said. We feel strongly that we dont spend it all up on stuff that disappears. Thats only fair for younger generations.

The commissioners allocated $1 million to help match grants for the Kelso areas Riverside Park improvements, including plans for an all-inclusive playground with sensory stimulating stations and accessible paths.

The board also set aside about $47,000 for other park projects, including upgrading the Coweeman River Park in Rose Valley. The undeveloped site is the only county-owned access to the river, Jabsuch said. Upgrades will include adding a restroom, garbage bin, picnic tables and expanding the parking area, he said.

Weber said staff are pursuing grants for the parks and other projects, using ARPA money as matching funds to maximize this one time opportunity to do some improvements.

Fire districts and county departments

The commissioners approved a joint request from the fire districts for $600,000 to split with Cowlitz fire districts 1, 3, 5 and 6 receiving $100,000 and Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue getting $200,000.

Cowlitz 2 received an additional $50,000 total for laptops and setup costs for remote work, supplies to meet COVID-19 requirements and video conferencing equipment.

Cowlitz Fire District 6, which serves the Castle Rock area, received $52,650 for powered stretchers to help load patients without heavy lifting.

The commissioners granted Castle Rock Senior Center $5,150 to help pay for costs when the center was closed because of COVID-19. During the closure, the center couldnt hold fundraisers typically used to pay its bills, according to a letter from the center to the commissioners.

Other allocations and spending on county departments include personal protective equipment, front-counter remodels to minimize exposure, clerk staff to help digitize and scan documents, laptops to allow District Court staff to work remotely, and IT upgrades.

While the commissioners received some requests for bonus pay for essential workers, an eligible use, theyve turned those down because building salaries on one-time only money is difficult to continue, Weber said.

The county has about $8.7 million in ARPA funds unallocated. The commissioners said they are open to hearing more requests and proposals from the public and local agencies, and will likely further discuss county projects that could be eligible.

We have some work yet to do, Jabusch said. And we have the money in the bank.
by Xinhua writer Shi Xiaomeng

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- For many years, commuters, merchants and tourists had to spend endless hours to travel by land from the Croatian mainland to the southern part of the eastern European country. A bridge recently inaugurated has made those exhausting experiences a thing of the past.

Opening for traffic earlier this week, the 2.4-km-long bridge finally connects two parts of the nation facing each other across the blue waves. Now it just takes a breezy three-minute drive for local residents and travelers to cross the strait for their trips to Dubrovnik, a medieval city known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic."

Connectivity matters, not only for tourism, but also for the movement of goods and access to services. A much smoother flow of trade is expected to create thousands of local jobs. Another piece of good news for people living in the southernmost part of Croatia is that they now can enjoy easier access to educational and health facilities on the country's mainland.

In the long run, this flagship project of Belt and Road cooperation, along with others of its kind, is expected to help revive growth in the region and spark new possibilities for common development in other parts of the world. This is precious against the backdrop of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, a tottering global economy and mounting geopolitical uncertainties.

SHARED BENEFITS

Initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) envisions trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

Over the past 10 years or so, the BRI has followed the guiding principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. It has made impressive headway in delivering tangible benefits to local residents through such connectivity projects as the Peljesac Bridge, the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Africa, and the new Haifa port in Israel, among others.

"We are seeing connectivity, we are seeing airports remodeling, and we are seeing ports remodeling," said Charles Onunaiju, director of the Nigeria-based Center for China Studies, when speaking of China's infrastructure investment in Africa.

When describing the economic benefits of Belt and Road cooperation, Onunaiju invoked Lekki Deep Sea Port, Nigeria's first deep seaport under construction by China Harbour Engineering Company in Lagos.

Official data show the project will create up to 170,000 jobs and bring revenues totaling 201 billion U.S. dollars to the state and federal government through taxes, royalties and duties.

"What is really happening is that this connectivity is aiding the future and long-term growth of Africa, so that Africa can begin to participate in global supply chains," said Beatrice Matiri-Maisori, a senior economics lecturer at Kenya's Riara University, who shares similar views with Onunaiju on Africa's infrastructure development.

Besides high expectations for growth, connectivity brings certainty to a world of uncertainties.

Connectivity is at the heart of supply chain resilience, said Josephine Teo, Singapore's minister for communications and information and second minister for home affairs.

When logistic woes caused by the pandemic frustrated businesses worldwide, the China-Europe Railway Express managed to help sustain supply chains, and maintain trade transactions across the Eurasian landmass. In 2021, the total number of China-Europe freight train trips reached 15,183, and registered a yearly increase of 55 percent on average from 2016 to last year.

The railway service has also yielded gains for all countries involved. In the last year alone, trade in goods with countries along the Belt and Road stood at 11.6 trillion yuan (about 1.84 trillion dollars).

HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT

At a symposium marking the fifth anniversary of the BRI back in 2018, Xi called for high-quality development of the initiative, and compared such an endeavor to a "meticulous painting," a traditional Chinese drawing technique that pays great attention to details.

He understood that after years of efforts to finish its general layout, the BRI should aim for high-standard, sustainable and people-centered progress.

The BRI's high-quality development is branching out and bearing fruits. The construction of the Peljesac Bridge has illustrated the economic, social and environmental benefits the BRI can bring its partners.

"When building the bridge, Chinese engineers and workers applied the highest environmental standards," said Kreso Beljak, member of the Croatian Parliament and president of the Croatian Peasant Party.

Local oyster producers at the nearby Ston Bay once worried that the project might have a possible negative impact on the quality and the volume of their oyster production.

However, this didn't happen thanks to the highest environmental protection standards. On the contrary, the bridge has opened up new sales routes.

The Peljesac Bridge is a miniature of the Belt and Road construction in a new stage. Under the BRI framework, the building of a health Silk Road, a digital Silk Road and a green Silk Road have added new dimensions to the initiative.

To push for green and low-carbon development, China has promised last year not to build new coal-fired power projects abroad, and it has help constructed hydro, solar, and wind power stations in Pakistan, Laos and Argentina, among others.

In terms of innovation-driven programs, China is helping its BRI partners, many in Africa like Mozambique, to develop modern and smart agriculture with the help of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System; it is also joining forces with others in boosting cooperation in e-commerce, outer-space and deep ocean. For example, China and Portugal have set up late last year the STARLab under the BRI, which is a joint laboratory focusing on integrated scientific and technological cooperation in space and sea.

Highlighting openness and inclusiveness is also how China seeks to work with its partners worldwide for high-quality achievements. The BRI family has some 180 members so far, and more are welcome to join.

PUBLIC GOOD FOR SHARED FUTURE

In his speech at the opening ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, Xi said "the BRI is a public road open to all, not a private path owned by one single party. All interested countries are welcome aboard to take part in the cooperation and share in its benefits."

Having proposed the BRI, China is thinking how to facilitate global development for all mankind, and through these years, the BRI has brought people closer as well as boosted international trade, said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

"It's transnational," he said. "It's not thinking of the single country of China. It's thinking of the whole area of the world, maybe more focused at the moment on Asia and Africa and Latin America, but it's a world project."

According to a World Bank report, BRI transport projects could, by 2030, help lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million people out of moderate poverty globally. Trade will grow from between 2.8 and 9.7 percent for economies along economic corridors and between 1.7 and 6.2 percent for the world.

"The reason why the BRI can maintain such a vitality is because infrastructure construction and supply chain inter-connectivity feed the needs of economic globalization," said Huang Renwei, executive vice dean of the Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance.

"The initiative is investing in the real economy," said Huang. "It is helping build infrastructure in world emerging economies and facilitate their industrial- and supply- chain participation."

More importantly, as protectionism and isolationism are rising, the BRI can also serve as an open platform of multilateralism for all participating countries to work together in slashing the deficits of peace, development, trust and governance.

In Huang's view, an urgent problem facing the global community's drive to reform global governance is a "recession of growth," saying that the BRI, which focuses on development in the developing world, and advocates for a fair and open world marketplace, will play a positive role in reforming the current structure of global economic governance.

"BRI is like a bridge. It connects what China can offer with what the rest of the world needs," he said. 
At least five local law enforcement agencies are hosting celebrations Tuesday as part of a national annual event to bring law enforcement and citizens together.

Events in Longview, Kelso, Woodland and Castle Rock will be hosted by the citys officers in honor of National Night Out. The Castle Rock event will also include the Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office.

For more than three decades, millions across the country have participated in National Night Out where officers throw gatherings  from minor cookouts to large festivals  on the first Tuesday in August to promote local police programs, like neighborhood watches and drug prevention efforts.

If you go What: Police departments host National Night Out celebrations. Day: Tuesday. Time and place: 6-8 p.m., Archie Anderson Park, Longview; 6-8 p.m., Castle Rock Middle School, Castle Rock; 6-8 p.m. Horseshoe Lake, Woodland; and 6-8:30 p.m., Tam O'Shanter Park, Kelso. Cost: Free. Info: natw.org

Grab free snacks and watch a police K-9 demonstration and bike rodeo from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, at Archie Anderson Park in the Highlands neighborhood with the Longview Police Department. The event is co-hosted by the Highlands Neighborhood Association.

From 6 to 8 p.m., the sheriffs office and Castle Rock Police Department are scheduled to host a gathering at the Castle Rock Middle School featuring a rock wall and reptile show. The Castle Rock fire department and a youth and family organization called the Castle Rock CARE Coalition will also be at the event. Organizers say attendees will have a chance to dunk our first responders.

The Woodland Police Departments event is 6 to 8 p.m. at the shelter at Horseshoe Lake and will include food and local organizations like the Veterans of Foreign War and chamber of commerce.

The Kelso Police Departments event runs 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Tam OShanter Park in Kelso. The celebration will include free food and prizes for children, according to organizers.

The Kalama Police Department says staff will host its National Night Out event on Oct. 4 instead of Tuesday.
HONOLULU  A U.S. defense contractor and his wife charged with fraudulently living for decades under the stolen identities of two dead infants told family they were going into the witness protection program before abruptly abandoning their house and leaving Texas about 40 years ago, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.

At some point, Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison reemerged with new names and other explanations for lives cloaked in mystery.

The couple told people they were dodging legal and financial trouble, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Myers said. Primrose told someone he was a government agent who couldnt be photographed.

Intriguing details that emerged during a bail hearing in a Honolulu court were enough to get Primrose detained without bail, but provided little clarity why the couple shed their past and whether the criminal case against them is more serious than identity theft.

Myers successfully sought to have Primrose detained because his life has been a fraud for the last several decades, including more than 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard where he earned a secret-level security clearance. After retiring in 2016, he used the secret clearance for his defense job.

A search of the couples Hawaii home turned up Polaroids of the couple wearing jackets that appear to be authentic Russian KGB uniforms, Myers said. An expert determined the snapshots were taken in the 1980s.

The search also yielded an invisible ink kit, documents with coded language and maps showing military bases, Myers said.

When the couple were left in a room together, they were recorded saying things consistent with espionage, Myers said.

We think the defendant is obviously quite adept at impersonating other people, obtaining government ID documents, fraud, avoiding detection, Myers said. He may  were not saying for sure  but he may have some troubling foreign connections. And if he does, he might be able to use those to enlist help.

Federal defender Craig Jerome said the government only provided speculation and innuendo that the couple was involved in something more nefarious than purely white-collar nonviolent offenses.

If it wasnt for the speculation that the governments injected into these proceedings without providing any real evidence ... he would certainly be released, Jerome said.

Morrison faces a bail hearing Tuesday.

Her lawyer said the couple  regardless of their names  had lived law-abiding lives. Attorney Megan Kau told The Associated Press the couple posed for photos in the purported KGB jacket for fun.

She wants everyone to know shes not a spy, Kau said. This has all been blown way out of proportion. Its government overreach.

The couple, who were arrested Friday at their Kapolei home, are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., false statement in passport application and aggravated identity theft. They face up to 17 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

Inside their house, investigators discovered correspondence in which an associate believed Primrose had joined the CIA or had become a terrorist, Myers said.

When they left Texas in the early 1980s and claimed they were protected witnesses, they handed over the keys to their Nacogdoches house and told family members to take anything they wanted. The house was later foreclosed on.

In 1987, Primrose took on the identity of Bobby Edward Fort, an infant who died in 1967 in Burnet, Texas. Morrison took the identity of Julie Lyn Montague, who died in 1968 at the same hospital as Fort. Primrose and Morrison, both born in 1955, were more than a decade older than the birth dates listed on their new IDs.

The defendant and his wife reportedly told yet other associates that they needed to change their names because of legal and financial reasons, Myers said. And that going forward they can be contacted using their new names, Fort and Montague.

They remarried under their assumed names in 1988, according to court records.

Morrison used her real name to open a post office box, where she told family to contact her. When her father died, her family couldnt reach her and enlisted local law enforcement to track her down.

Even the defendants family cannot find him when they need to, Myers said.

Prosecutors feared Primrose would flee if freed. They noted in court papers that he was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard and was highly skilled to communicate secretly if released.

The judge said he based his detention order on the alleged fraud over multiple occasions spanning a long period of time.
USDA issuing payments for Spot Market Hog Pandemic ProgramWASHINGTON  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is increasing the amount of funding available for the Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program and started to issue approximately $62.8 million in pandemic assistance payments to hog producers earlier this month.

SMHPP assists eligible producers who sold hogs through a spot market sale from April 16, 2020, through Sept. 1, 2020. USDAs Farm Service Agency accepted SMHPP applications through April 29.

In order to provide more targeted support to hog producers affected by the pandemic, FSA was able to increase funding for SMHPP to provide full payments to producers instead of applying a payment factor, said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux. We are pleased to be able to provide more equitable opportunities for hog producers who were hard-hit by the pandemic.

SMHPP payments will be calculated by multiplying the number of head of eligible hogs, not to exceed 10,000 head, by the payment rate of $54 per head.

FSA originally planned to apply a payment factor if calculated payments exceeded the allocated $50 million in pandemic assistance funds for SMHPP. Payments are not expected to be factored due to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsacks decision to increase funding enabling producers to receive 100% of the calculated SMHPP payment.

There is no per person or legal entity payment limitation on SMHPP payments.

USDA offered SMHPP in response to a reduction in packer production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in fewer negotiated hogs being procured and subsequent lower market prices. The program is part of USDAs broader Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative and addresses gaps in previous assistance for hog producers.

Corn Board to meet in Kearney

LINCOLN  The Nebraska Corn Board plans to meet August 9 at Younes Conference Center, 416 W. Talmadge Road in Kearney

The Board will conduct regular board business. The meeting is open to the public and will provide an opportunity for public discussion. A copy of the agenda is available by writing to the Nebraska Corn Board, 245 Fallbrook Blvd. Suite 204, Lincoln, NE 68521, sending an email to renee.tichota@nebraska.gov or by calling 402-471-2676.

The Nebraska Corn Board is funded through a producer checkoff investment of -cent-per-bushel checkoff on all corn marketed in the state and is managed by nine farmer directors. The mission of the Nebraska Corn Board is to promote the value of corn by creating opportunities.

Nebraska corn joins call-to-action to protect atrazine

LINCOLN  The Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Corn Growers Association are urging farmers to submit comments to the Environmental Protection Agency.

On June 30, the EPA announced an upcoming revision of atrazines registration. This new level of concern for atrazine will vastly reduce the herbicides effectiveness, hindering farmers ability to utilize this critical tool.

Farmers need to relay to the EPA that atrazine is a valuable weed control product on their operation. The EPAs proposed rule would lower the level of concern to 3.4 ppb. To continue to apply this herbicide, farmers would need to adopt various mitigation strategies.

Farmers need tools in their toolbox to continue providing safe feed, food and fuel for the world, explained Andy Jobman, chairman of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association and farmer from Gothenburg. The EPA needs to hear from any and all farmers about how detrimental this proposal would be to our operations.

Atrazine is a safe and effective tool for corn farmers that benefits the environment from unnecessary tillage, added Jay Reiners, chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board and farmer from Juniata. We need to take the time as farmers to share with the Environmental Protection Agency the vitality of this product on our farms.

Comments can be submitted to EPA, and advocates are encouraged to include information about how the proposed level of concern and required mitigation strategies would impact their individual operations. The public comment period is now open, and farmers can voice their support for atrazine at ncga.ws/atrazine. Farmers have until September 6, 2022, to submit their comments.

The Nebraska Corn Growers Association is a grassroots commodity organization that works to enhance the profitability of corn producers. NeCGA has more than 2,500 dues-paying members in Nebraska. NeCGA is affiliated with the National Corn Growers Association, which has more than 40,000 dues-paying members nationwide.
LINCOLN  The future of soy in Southeast Asia was the focus of the annual Asia Soy Excellence and Protein Summit on June 21-22 in Bali, Indonesia, organized by the U.S. Soybean Export Council and U.S. soy industry partners.

Greg Greving, a soybean farmer from Chapman, was on hand for the event and noted the value of spending time together with customers in person.

Meetings with buyers are vital to our industry, Greving said. We need to have the contact for the contracts to follow. Getting together face-to-face is like me performing maintenance on my tractor. You have to take care of it for performance and longevity.

Stakeholders from regional soy food and beverage industries convened for the annual two-day event along with senior food science and nutrition managers, leaders in R&D and quality assurance, health professionals, and university and government officials.

Dialogues and presentations around the sustainable practices of U.S. soybean production helped differentiate and elevate the benefits of soybeans in food use and show their potential to help bring a lower carbon footprint for soy in the Southeast Asia region. Nearly 300 participants joined either in person or virtually to learn about U.S. food soybean production and perspectives on trends, forecasts, policy, trade and sustainability.

Southeast Asia is an important trade partner for Nebraska farmers, with more than $781 million worth of Nebraska soybean exports sold to Indonesia alone over the past 10 years. At the conference, product and ingredient innovation was a key topic of discussion, covering new plant-based beverages, soy in both animal and plant-based meats, and bioprocesses, cultured and alternative protein development.

The presentation and discussion started from traditional soy products, which is rooted to our culture, up to the sophisticated innovative products such as Ominimeat and cultivated protein or lab grown meat, said Yunawati Gandasasmita, head of Corporate Regulatory Affairs for Nutrition & Beverage at PT Kalbe Farma.

Attendees were given a demo of the Specialty U.S. Soy Database, which features nearly 300 soybean varieties, qualitative attributes and information on how to source U.S. identity preserved soybeans and supplier contact information.

Sustainability was an important subject, with discussions around how U.S soy can be part of a more sustainable food system in Southeast Asia. Presentations covered everything from how soy can help accomplish The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to food security and sustainability challenges to soys role in new agri-food innovations.

The event concluded with Taste Tempe-tion, a hands-on Tempe making and tasting session that demonstrated soys use in the popular Indonesian food.

The chefs recipes demonstrated how delicious and versatile soy protein is, said Linda Funk, president of Flavorful Insight, USA.

The nine-member Nebraska Soybean Board collects and disburses the Nebraska share of funds generated by the one-half of 1% times the net sales price per bushel of soybeans sold. Nebraska soybean checkoff funds are invested in research, education, domestic and foreign markets, including new uses for soybeans and soybean products.
TEHRAN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A top Iranian military commander said on Sunday that the reach of U.S. global political influence is shrinking, semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami made the remarks in an address to a conference attended by the IRGC's political directors.

All U.S. attempts to form governments in regional countries are ending in failure "in a domino fashion" as is manifest in Washington's escape from Afghanistan and other defeats, Salami said.

"These are all the signs heralding a major event, which is the U.S. failure," he noted.

Commenting on the U.S. president's recent Middle East tour, the Iranian commander said Joe Biden returned home empty-handed without any achievements. 
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Some sunshine with a thunderstorm or two possible this afternoon. High 98F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low near 70F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

You voted:
Scientists at Clemson University have joined a national research effort focused on developing solutions that will make the use of phosphorus  a finite element essential to food production  more sustainable.

Science and Technology for Phosphorus Sustainability, or STEPS, is a research enterprise consisting of scientists and engineers from universities spanning the country that addresses the challenges in phosphorus sustainability by integrating contributions across scientific disciplines.

Eric McLamore and Vidya Suseela, associate and assistant professors, respectively, in Clemsons College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, and Hai Xiao, Samuel Lewis Bell Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Clemsons College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, form the core of a team that will include postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students and laboratory staff.

McLamore and Xiao will contribute their expertise in the development of sensors and intelligent infrastructure to the design of a handheld device that can measure phosphorus content in soil and water. Suseela, a soil ecologist, will use her understanding of the biological pathways plants use to extract nutrients from soil to help plants mine existing soil phosphorus more efficiently.

McLamore is co-director of the centers team focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Together with Dean Sherine Obare at the University of North Carolina A&T, this team focuses on creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive research team and workforce. In addition, this group focuses on making research data about phosphorus accessible to non-scientists and people with disabilities.

Together these scientists will contribute to STEPS goal of 25% reduction in human dependence on mined Phosphorus within 25 years. Phosphorous is mined mainly in the U.S. (Florida), Kazakhstan, China, Morocco and Tunisia.

Clemson brings vast experience on sensing biological signals and chemistry in complex soil systems that enable STEPS to better access legacy phosphorus in soils and optimize addition of recovered phosphorus, said Paul Westerhoff, STEPS co-deputy director, and professor of environmental engineering in the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built Environment at Arizona State University.

More sustainable phosphorus use could lead to enhanced resilience of food systems, less environmental damage, lower costs for food producers and a reduced dependence on a global fertilizer market that is subject to the whims of international markets and relations.

Phosphorus is an extracted material that has a finite lifespan. As we mine it, we deplete the resource, so we must change our practices and behaviors on the agricultural side. And on the resource allocation side we must figure out ways to recover the phosphorous that we have already used, McLamore said.

The aim of the research by McLamore and Xiao is to identify materials that can be used in sensors to make handheld devices that can be used by industry, citizen scientists, researchers, growers or Extension agents to take physical measurements of phosphorus in soil and water.

There is a lack of reliable commercial technology for measuring phosphorus in a way that tells us where it is and what type it is. We need to be able to figure out what type of compound it is, where it is and where its moving to. These sensors will help us do that in soil, water and plant material, McLamore said.

Xiao, who is chair of the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said the team is well positioned for success.

We are working collaboratively across disciplines to create more resilient food systems and reduce environmental damage, he said. The sensors we are developing could prove transformational, and I am excited to be part of this project.

Suseelas research aims to enhance the ability of plants to access phosphorous that already exists in the soil by tapping into the capability of mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizal fungi are beneficial fungi growing in association with plant roots. Mycorrhiza describes a symbiotic association between a green plant and a fungus. The plant makes organic molecules such as sugars by photosynthesis and supplies them to the fungus, and the fungus supplies to the plant water and mineral nutrients, such as phosphorus, taken from the soil.

Farmers use a lot of phosphorus because it is not readily available in soil for plants. Mycorrhizal fungi are very efficient fungi that can mine the phosphorus from the soil and provide it to the plants. So, if we can tap into this capability, then we can reduce the need to add phosphorus to soil, help farmers produce more food with less cost and reduce the pollution caused when phosphorous applications end up in the groundwater and water bodies, Suseela said.

To enhance the DEI goals of the center, the Clemson research team will contribute to an effort to aggregate the research, Extension documents and other information about phosphorus in a Google-like platform that allows non-scientists to search for information using non-scientific language.

Its sort of like taking all the extension documents, as much of the peer-reviewed literature as we can, also as much information from companies as we can and put into a simple series of apps and software that people can tap into using natural spoken language just like we can use Google search, but it would be very specific to phosphorus, McLamore said.

STEPS is also prioritizing the development of a diverse group of scientists that, according to its website, promotes diversity in thought, culture, experience and approach toward problem solving required to address a societal issue that no single discipline or group can solve on its own.

A sustainable solution needs ideas from a diverse group of scientists and students. So, we work with K-12 youth all the way to faculty in terms of trying to create hiring programs, and we have a network for students who come from underrepresented groups across the universities. The next generation of scientists will likely be different than the previous generation in many ways, and we want to provide an inclusive infrastructure, McLamore said. Other STEPS members include North Carolina State University, Appalachian State University, Arizona State University, Marquette University, RTI International, University of Florida and University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.
A Santee man is serving a term in prison after he pleaded guilty to first-degree domestic violence, second-degree domestic violence and second or subsequent offense failure to stop for blue lights.

Derek Garod Shaw, 38, of 126 Elephant Road, entered the guilty pleas before Circuit Judge Thomas Hughston during a recent term of court in Orangeburg County.

Hughston sentenced Shaw to 10 years in prison, suspended to five years in prison instead.

Hughston gave Shaw credit for having already served 140 days at the Orangeburg County Detention Center.

Prosecutors dismissed charges of stalking and child endangerment.

In other guilty pleas:

 Christopher Jaylen Grice, 21, of 131 Rumph Road, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to unlawful carrying of a pistol and first-offense possession with intent to distribute a scheduled drug.

Hughston sentenced him under the Youthful Offender Act not to exceed three years, suspended to two years of probation.

He ordered Grice to complete substance abuse counseling, undergo random drug/alcohol testing and forfeit his gun.

 Courtney Ambrose Hall, 27, of 1120 Wolfe Trail Apt. 297, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence.

A warrant charged Hall with second-degree domestic violence, but he pleaded guilty to third-degree domestic violence instead.

Hughston sentenced him to jail for 30 days and gave him credit for having already served one day there.

 Leon Edward Hudson Jr., 50, of 124 Marshside Drive, Summerville, pleaded guilty to second-offense driving under suspension, license not suspended for DUI, and first-offense failure to stop for blue lights.

Hughston sentenced him to 173 days in prison and gave him credit for having already spent that time in jail.

 Gershon TyQuawn Robinson, 22, of 121 Otto Street, Holly Hill, pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic violence.

He was originally charged with first-degree domestic violence, but pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic violence instead.

Hughston sentenced him under the Youthful Offender Act not to exceed one year, suspended to two years of probation.

He gave Robinson credit for having already served one day in jail.

 Amanda B. Severance, 43, of 534 Whitman St., Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to malicious injury to personal property valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000.

Hughston sentenced her to two years in prison, suspended to 114 days.

He gave her credit for having already spent 114 days in jail.

 Johnathan Starks, 40, of 1134 Marlboro St., Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to first-offense trafficking in at least 10 grams but less than 28 grams of cocaine.

He was originally charged with first-offense trafficking in at least 28 grams but less than 100 grams of cocaine, but pleaded guilty to first-offense trafficking in at least 10 grams but less than 28 grams of cocaine instead.

Hughston sentenced him to three years in prison and gave him credit for having already served one day.

Prosecutors dismissed his charge of first-offense distribution of cocaine base.

 Eric Whitehorn, 24, of 7145 Hummingbird Drive, Glen Burnie, Maryland, pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle valued at $2,000 or less.

He was originally charged with possession of a stolen vehicle valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000, however, he pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle valued at $2,000 or less instead.

Hughston sentenced him to jail for 30 days and gave him credit for having already spent time there.

He also noted that Whitehorn already paid restitution.
Hurricane Matthews rampage across the Atlantic and up the coast toward South Carolina in 2016 followed massive tropical-related flooding in 2015 and began a pattern of big storms threatening South Carolina yearly until 2020.

Hurricanes and tropical storms have been a way of life for the Palmetto State since the first settlers set foot on its rich soil.

Orangeburg, which is roughly 125 miles from the coast, has not seen as much damage as its coastal neighbors, but it has not been exempt from the devastation caused by these powerful storms.

Hugo, a Category 4 hurricane known as South Carolinas Storm of the Century, hit the state in 1989, and is probably the one that lingers most in peoples memories.

Hugo damaged 246 homes and caused estimated real estate damage of $40 million in Orangeburg County alone. Neighboring Calhoun County saw more than $20 million in damages, and was declared a disaster area. Statewide, the damages were estimated to be $7 billion.

Hurricane Floyd landed in North Carolina in 1999, but on the way, it dumped torrents of rain on South Carolina from Orangeburg to Columbia. The storm proved to be a a lesson for the state in how to more efficiency evacuate the population when facing future storms. Residents being evacuated from the Grand Strand sat for as long as 20 hours in traffic jams on the states roadways. Then-Gov. Jim Hodges was criticized for waiting too long to order lane reversals. Officials would later take action more quickly to speed up evacuations.

Another vast storm that lingers in the memory of older inhabitants is Hurricane Gracie, which made landfall at Beaufort on Sept. 22, 1959. It boasted winds up to 140 miles per hour, causing 22 deaths and $14 million in damages.

Gracie passed through Orangeburg before turning north and moving on to North Carolina, Virginia and New England.

While in Orangeburg, Gracie had winds as high as 75 mph and poured out an estimated 10-12 inches of rain, according to a report in The Times and Democrat.

Landing and diving platforms on the Edisto River near the Pavilion were under several feet of water by midnight. Houses were damaged by falling trees, chimneys were toppled and roofing was torn off.

Only a few people ventured outside and those who did were forced to move cautiously around trees and branches or retrace their paths, The T&D reported.

Stores and businesses opened as usual, but closed early during the day as the downpour of rain increased and the gusts of wind grew steadily stronger, blowing water under doorways and windowsills.

The National Weather Service has recorded hundreds of hurricanes and tropical storms that have hit North America since Colonial times.

But at least one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the state brought a benefit along with it.

The Spanish Repulse Hurricane was the first recorded hurricane to hit North America. It made landfall just below Charleston on Sept. 4, 1686 and lasted two days.

The storm came just in time to repulse an attack by the Spanish on the lower Carolina settlements, probably near modern day Folly Beach.

Unfortunately, it also caused much damage to the settlement, driving ships onto land, destroying crops and houses and killing many people.

The second recorded hurricane, known as the Rising Sun Hurricane, also made landfall near Charleston. It hit on Sept. 14, 1700. It flooded the streets of the city, ruined crops and property and caused at least 70 deaths.

The storm damaged numerous ships, including a Scottish vessel called the Rising Sun, killing all sailors on board.

The National Weather Service lists several hundred hurricanes and tropical storms that hit the United States from 1686 to the present. Some did minor damage while others were devastating.

The Great Carolina Hurricane, a Category 3 storm, made landfall just below Savannah on Sept. 7, 1854. It lasted two days and caused great property damage from high winds and storm surge in Charleston.

On Aug. 25, 1885, an unnamed Category 2 hurricane hit Charleston. It destroyed all except one of the citys wharves and damaged 90 percent of its buildings, causing damage totaling $2 million. Many lives were lost in the storm.

For more than 300 years, South Carolina and its neighboring states have faced major and minor hurricanes and tropical storms. In the early days, the community had little or no warning that the disastrous storms were about to strike.

Today, people facing Matthew's wrath are in a much better position than their ancestors were.

Following the havoc wreaked by Hugo across the state, officials updated the technology for dealing with the huge storms. Today, hurricanes are tracked and mapped for days or even weeks, making it possible to predict the potential tracks of the storms, along with wind speeds, storm surge and the impact on inland areas.

Evacuation routes are planned out for different areas along the coast and emergency shelters are set up across the state. In addition, lanes on interstates and major highways are reversed, allowing residents of threatened areas to evacuate more efficiently.

Contributing sources for this story were: History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast by Laylon Wayne Jordan, South Carolina Hurricanes by John C. Purvis, S.C. Department of Natural Resources and T&D Reporter Gene Zaleski.
When tropical storm or hurricane impacts to the state and The T&D Region become more certain, local emergency-response agencies make certain evacuees from coastal areas and locally are sheltered.

Area emergency-response agencies have detailed and structured plans in place to handle the influx of coastal residents if and when mandatory evacuations are ordered along the state's coastal areas. Shelters are also open for local residents who need to be sheltered from the stormy blast.

Evacuation routes are predetermined and traffic along certain sections of major evacuation routes may be adjusted to flow in one direction away from the coast. For example lane reversals on Interstate 26 coming out from the coast are not uncommon.

State and local law enforcement officers station themselves at traffic-control points along these evacuation routes.

Orangeburg County

Orangeburg County partners with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division and, before a storm threatens the coast, the county is on call with the agency.

Once a decision is made to evacuate the coast, the county opens shelters, Emergency Services Director Billy Staley said.

Staley said the state usually makes an evacuation order about three days before a storm is to strike the coast.

Orangeburg County also provides about 24 to 36-hour notice for the county's at-risk population to locate to a shelter. The at-risk residents will mean people who live in mobile homes or for people who live in homes that are not structurally sound.

"We want to make sure they have a full day of fair weather to get to the shelter before the storm hits," Staley said.

The county's sheltering plan has two tiers -- primary shelters and secondary shelters.

"Just because it is on the list does not mean it is going to be opened," Staley said, noting shelters are opened depending on the threat to the county and can vary with storm intensities and tracks.

The county's primary shelters are Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, Lake Marion High School, Hunter-Kinard Tyler High School and Branchville High School.

Individuals with special conditions (such as requiring electricity for their medical needs) can also contact a special phone number where they will get triaged to go to a special shelter.

The county also participates in the state's mass transportation plan in which charter buses are used to help evacuate coastal residents without a means of transportation. The buses are typically staged at the Orangeburg County Fairgrounds before they are deployed to the coast.

"We have the ability in our plans to open up a specific shelter for charter buses for people evacuating by bus," Staley said.

At any given time the county has sheltered about 150 individuals in recent storms and has a capacity to house 1,000 individuals in its four primary shelters.

Staley said the shelters are open as needed and are available to anyone, noting in the past there have been evacuations across several states. Staley noted the county has five evacuation routes running through it.

The county opens shelters for evacuees in what is called the central conglomerate and most likely for the southern conglomerate of the coast. These would include counties such as Georgetown. Charleston, Colleton, Beaufort and Jasper.

Staley said generally the trend is that evacuees tend to want to go further inland than Orangeburg County.

"They will go inland as far as they can go until they run out of room," Staley said. "We end up sheltering people who are either late getting out and can't get somewhere further inland to a safer place."

"They will book all the way to up into Charlotte and into the Upstate," Staley said. "People remember Hugo and they remember how bad Orangeburg got hit during Hugo, so they don't stop here."

Staley said while people prefer to stay in hotels, the county is seeing a large trend of emergency-response and recovery crews such as power crews filling up hotels before evacuees.

"They (recovery crews) want to get as close to the coast as they can get without being impacted severely; they fill up the hotel rooms," Staley said, noting crews can book the hotels five or six days before a storm hits. "Hotel space in Orangeburg County is prime whenever we have a hurricane because everybody is wanting to book it."

One challenge Orangeburg County faces is shelter staffing.

"Our ability to open shelters is directly related to the amount of staff we have to staff it," Staley said. "We have a need for volunteers."

The American Red Cross supplies and staffs along with the Salvation Army. The Department of Social Services also helps staff shelters, and the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office provides security.

Staley said the county is always looking for shelter volunteers. He encourages individuals to contact organizations about volunteering.

Churches interested in becoming shelter teams can reach out to Orangeburg County Emergency Services to adopt and help staff a shelter.

Calhoun County

Calhoun County Director of Emergency Management David Chojnacki said the process of opening shelters in Calhoun County is based on the severity of the local forecast.

He said in the 11 years he has served as director of the county's emergency management, only a few people from outside the county have stayed at a county shelter.

He said because the county is so small and resources are limited, the primary purpose for the county opening shelters is for local residents.

"We have never had more than 30 people at one time in the shelter," Chojnacki said, explaining that typically the county will set up for about 50 people.

When the forecast warrants it, Chojnacki said he will call the American Red Cross and the Department of Social Services, usually about two or three days before a storm to enable the agencies to get ready to supply and staff the shelter.

The Red Cross supplies the shelter with cots, food, blankets, and DSS staffs the shelter. Chojnacki said typically the county has about 100 cots available from the Red Cross.

The county also will also provide the shelters security, radios and a generator.

The main shelter in Calhoun County is the Calhoun County High School in St. Matthews.

A backup shelter, if needed, would be the Sandy Run K-8 building. If schools are in session, they are also notified of the need to use the school as a shelter, though Chojnacki said most times schools will be closed when there is an incoming severe weather event.

Though evacuees have seldom stayed in a Calhoun County shelter, Chojnacki said generally the mindset of an evacuee is to to "get as far away as possible" from the coast.

He said those who can afford it will prefer to stay in a hotel and not a shelter and since Calhoun County does not have a hotel, most who do stay at hotels typically will go to Columbia or even further inland such as the Greenville and Spartanburg areas.

Calhoun County High School at 150 Saints Ave. in St. Matthews and Sandy Run school and St. Matthews K-8 all serve as shelters.

Bamberg County

Bamberg County Emergency Services Director Tiffany Kemmerlin said when a coastal evacuation is issued, the county will have several traffic control points set up at major intersections and high-traffic areas throughout the county in an effort to keep traffic flowing on the evacuation route.

The traffic-control points are manned by local law enforcement or highway patrol.

Sheltering is a significant component of storm preparedness for the county.

The county's primary shelter is Voorhees University, which supports both Bamberg and Barnwell counties. The shelter also supports both general population and medical-needs citizens, Kemmerlin said.

"There are a few different components that are key in deciding if or when to open our shelter at Voorhees University," she said. "We always ensure the citizens' safety is our primary focus."

"As always, its a team conversation and discussion with our local government officials and supporting agencies including Red Cross, DHEC, DSS and SC Emergency Management Division," she said.

Kemmerlin said the county's shelter is open to anyone no matter from where they are evacuating.

"Over the last few shelter activations, we have had several citizens utilize the shelter at Voorhees University," Kemmerlin said. "We cant underscore enough our gratitude to Voorhees and their staff in helping us in our efforts to provide our citizens a haven during natural disasters and emergencies."Kemmerlin said.

American Red Cross

American Red Cross Regional Communications Director Mandy McWherter said in order to prepare for both evacuees and local sheltering needs, the Red Cross has been working with its partners, including local emergency managers to identify shelter locations, have refreshed supply stocks, and trained volunteer teams to support communities.

"When requested by local emergency managers, the Red Cross opens shelters during an emergency to provide a safe place to stay for people who are under evacuation orders, are unable to reach their homes, or have homes that are unlivable," she said. "Red Cross shelters are open to everyone in need."

McWherter said the the Red Cross and other organizations may open general-population shelters.

While Red Cross-managed shelters are staffed by Red Cross volunteers and staff, general-population shelters are also staffed by S.C. Department of Social Services.

"Red Cross of SC volunteers support any shelter in any county, so volunteers may be from other counties or, in the case of larger events, from outside of our state," she said.

What can or can't be brought to a shelter?

Individuals are encouraged to bring personal items for each family member to a shelter, including prescription and emergency medications, extra clothing, pillows, blankets, hygiene supplies, important documents and other comfort items.

Items for children, such as diapers, formula and toys, and other items for family members with unique needs should also be taken.

People cannot bring alcoholic beverages, illegal drugs and weapons.

Pets are not allowed in shelters, though service animals are.

"The Red Cross partners with animal welfare groups, including RedRover, to ensure that shelter residents have a place for their pets during disasters," McWherter said. "Depending on the situation, pets may be housed in a different location where their owners can visit them. Shelter workers will do all they can to accommodate service animals comfortably."

McWherter said as part of an emergency plan, families should know which hotels will accept pets and should call ahead for reservations.

"Ask if no-pet policies could be waived in an emergency," she said. "Identify which friends, relatives, animal boarding facilities, and veterinarians can care for your pets in an emergency," she said.

Orangeburg County specifically directs animals to its animal-control facility but also houses pets at the Orangeburg County Fairgrounds, where a special trailer is set up.

Sheltering in times of COVID

McWherter said the Red Cross continues to support shelters during COVID by following safety guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"Ensuring people have a safe place to stay during a disaster is a critical part of the Red Cross mission, but how we support sheltering efforts may be different in each community, depending on local emergency plans and the scale of the disaster," she said. "For most emergencies, we will open group shelters, but in some cases, hotels are more appropriate."

"To help keep our workforce and the people we serve safe, we are using safety precautions, including masks, health screenings, enhanced cleaning procedures, and encouraging social distancing," she said.

While both Orangeburg and Calhoun counties say that COVID has impacted sheltering operations by having to observe proper spacing between individuals in the shelter, the amount of capacity per shelter varies.

Kemmerlin said Bamberg County has only slightly been impacted by COVID in its sheltering operations.

"Luckily, at Voorhees University, the area provided allows us to safely space families out," she said. "We use all CDC protocols."
Want to start restoring confidence in the South Carolina system of justice? Disregard both banks of lawyers in the murder case against Alex Murdaugh and demand that the business of the court remain public, not gagged.

At a bond hearing July 20 in the historic Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian asked Judge Clifton Newman to seal all the evidence in the case.

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

Prosecutor Creighton Waters of the South Carolina Attorney Generals office agreed with Harpootlians motion.

But at this point, youd have to knock on the door of an igloo deeper in the wilds of Alaska than the Iditarod dogs can go to find anyone not already suffering from Murdaugh pollution.

Judge Newman denied bond for the 54-year-old disbarred attorney from Hampton County in the latest of scores of indictments against him  indictments that accuse him of killing his wife and son.

Murdaugh pleaded not guilty as a flank of reporters looked on, as did a portrait on the wall of his grandfather, who ruled all justice in this area for almost 50 years as the 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor.

The oil portrait helps explain why Newmans decision on this motion is so important.

The overriding question since Murdaughs now-deceased son was accused of driving a boat into a bridge piling three years ago, killing a young woman from Hampton County, is whether the so-called elites have a different justice system than the rest of us. Its a question of whether the criminal justice system does more to protect its own than the rule of law.

A gag order in the murder case would only make that public doubt worse. The people have a right to know what authorities think happened on the night of June 7, 2021, when Murdaughs wife, Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22, were found brutally shot at a family estate near Hampton.

Murdaughs lawyers have already unsuccessfully tried to block the publics access to Murdaughs phone calls from the Richland County jail where he resides under a $7 million bond and a mountain of charges that allege he pilfered millions of dollars through his legal practice.

A judge shot down that attempt for secrecy.

Judge Newman needs to quash this latest move to shield the legal elites from public scrutiny. Its encouraging that Newman immediately told the lawyers that the court is a public place where public matters are to remain public, not hidden.

He said he would consider the request.

I just want it clearly understood its a public matter, a public trial. Matters that need to be sealed can be sealed. I want it clear we will not have any private motion hearings. Public matters will be public.

South Carolina needs public matters to be public for everyone  equally. In fact, that is what is on trial here with Alex Murdaugh.
BEIRUT  Hours ahead of visit to Lebanon by United States mediator in the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border negotiations, Amos Hochstein, Hezbollah released a video purportedly of footage from surveillance drones the party sent to the disputed Karish gas field. The footage appears to show the ships Israel has deployed to the offshore field in the party's crosshairs.

Here's what we know:

 The US State Department issued a statement on Saturday announcing Hochstein's visit, saying, "Following visits to Paris, Brussels, and Athens to discuss European energy security  Amos Hochstein will travel to Beirut July 31 to discuss sustainable solutions to Lebanons energy crisis, including the Biden Administrations commitment to facilitating negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on the maritime boundary." The statement added, "Reaching a resolution is both necessary and possible, but can only be done through negotiations and diplomacy."

 Hochstein last visited Lebanon in June, when he held two days of meetings with Lebanese officials in the aftermath of a spike in tensions between Lebanon and Israel, following the latter's deployment of a floating production, storage and offloading unit from the power company Energean in the disputed Karish offshore gas field.

 Since that visit, tensions have continued to simmer, with Hezbollah repeatedly indicating its readiness to defend Lebanon's offshore territory rights and Israel making clear it will respond to any act of perceived aggression.

 The video released by Hezbollah opens with the words playing with time is useless, delivered by the party's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and appearing on screen in both Arabic and Hebrew. Then drone images follow one another, showing a series of ships with their descriptions. The video displays images and alleged information about the Energean vessel, whose arrival on the Karish field in early June revived debate on the border dispute, and the Arendal Spirit, a floating platform flying the flag of the Bahamas and whose last known position, according to the site marinetraffic.com, was off the coast of Naqoura.
WINDHOEK, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Sunday said for Africa to realise Agenda 2063, human capital must be developed to end hunger, domestic and gender based violence, conflicts and war in the continent.

Speaking at the Africa's women's day commemoration and 60th anniversary of the Pan-African Women Organisation (PAWO) in Windhoek, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the above mentioned are threats and the biggest enemies of Africa's development that must be dealt with decisively as they are undermining the mental capacity of Africans.

"We all know peace is a prerequisite for development therefore, as women we must have interest in the peace agenda. Peace is necessary for Africa to take advantage of our enabling instruments such the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement to address the challenges facing us in order to ensure that the wealth of the continent is used in the best interest of our people," she said.

She said that African Women have always played an integral role in the struggle of African people to attain independence and human dignity at the National and Continental levels.

"It must also be mentioned that your participation here serves as a reminder of our shared commitment to making sure that women empowerment in Africa gains momentum and is accepted as normal in all areas, including politics, economy, education, and human rights," she said, adding that PAWO was formed with a specific task to "unite all African Women's Organizations into a single platform to share good practice, promote human rights with a view to eliminating any form of discrimination against women, support Africa's liberation and to promote the full integration of African women in the economic, social and political development of the continent.

The theme of 2022 Celebration of the African Women's Day is -- Towards Advancing Women's Human Capital through accelerated social and economic development: addressing the scourge of violence while enhancing the food security and good nutrition in Africa. 
The 3D platform is available for everyone.

Effective policies should ideally be based on concrete data. One place where policy makers can find that data, for instance, is geoportail.lu. The platform, which previously only provided two-dimensional maps, now also offers three-dimensional maps and remains available not just to ministries and local administrations but also to private individuals.

In order to create a 3D model of Luxembourg, the country was meticulously measured from above. In total, 82 billion reference points were recorded and every single one of them was clearly defined as a tree, building, or street.

Jeff Konnen from Geoportail.lu explains that a lot of data had to be collected to produce the 3D model, including an aerial photograph of the terrain, which Geoportail takes every year in summer, the height of the ground, the facades and shapes of all buildings, and even every single tree in the Grand Duchy.

On geoportail.lu, users can find a wide variety of subject areas, such as water, agriculture, or energy. A new subject area is titled Our Nature Park. According to Eva Rabold from the organisation, knowing where the country's nature reserves are is important for the work of the biological station.

In the future, the Our Nature Park will use Geoportail.lu during negotiations of management contracts. Rabold explains that farmers can use the nature park's tab on geoportail.lu to find all the data that they need, thus reducing excessively long wait periods for both sides.

Minister for Spatial Planning Claude Turmes stresses that Geoportail.lu is a platform that is meant to make life easier. In the context of increasingly frequent heatwaves, for instance, Turmes points out that municipalities can use the data available on Geoportail.lu to determine where they can plant new trees.

On average, about 5,000 people use Geoportail.lu every day.

Audio in Luxembourgish:
The Luxembourg City section of the Left has issued a statement to criticise the lack of trees and plants on the new boulevard connecting Gare and Bonnevoie.

On Sunday, the new N3 in Luxembourg City, which is to be known as 'Boulevard de Kyiv', is set to be officially inaugurated.

The Luxembourg City section of the Left has now issued a statement to criticise the lack of trees on the boulevard connecting the capital's Gare and Bonnevoie districts. Pedestrians in particular will be exposed to extreme heat in summer, with not a single plant in sight on the entire stretch. The small grass patches on the tram rails cannot be expected to provide any sort of relief, the statement notes.

In light of climate change and increasingly hot summers, the Left thus questions the planning of the municipality and the Bridges and Roads Authority. In conclusion, the party invites Minister for Mobility and Public Works Francois Bausch to take action as soon as possible.
Last Monday, Luxembourg's meteorological service Meteolux launched a new app for weather forecasts and alerts.

The new Meteolux app will show detailed information about the current weather conditions and forecast for the coming days. In the case of severe conditions, users can opt to be warned via push notifications. The application also has an interactive side that allows users to directly communicate their observations about meteorological events.

Overall, the app can therefore be divided into three sections, the first of which is the forecast, explained spokesman Luca Mathias: "Users find the forecast for the day itself and for the five that follow. Predictions will be updated every six hours, showing precipitation, temperature, the predominant weather, what is being forecast, so all important phenomena summarised in one place."

Mathias explained that in general, weather forecasts are only reliable for five days. Predictions going further in time have a more tentative nature. With the help of radar and satellites, conditions can finally be observed and recorded in real time.

The second section of the app is concerned with weather alerts. Users are able to choose being notified about storms and potential flooding via push notifications.

Mathias elaborated: "Warnings can be activated for individual regions, like the north or the south, or for the entire country. You can then still decided on the level of warning that you want to receive, for instance yellow, orange, and red, or only red. You can also adapt the settings to only show alerts for specific weather events and the nature of the warning itself."

The final section of the app is the interactive one, according to Mathias: "Users can themselves provide information on current weather events and conditions with the help of a list of options. ... This input will stay in the app for half an hour. The data can help us get a better glimpse of what is happening in the country and allow us to react more quickly."

The new Meteolux app will be available in four languages: Luxembourgish, German, French, and English. Mathias noted that a lot of resources were channelled to make the application as accessible as possible.

Further features will be added to the app in the future.
Tom Radosevich, Democrat

Q: What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

A: Although a political neophyte, I have a lot of past board experience with Central Wyoming Hospice, Wyoming Medicaid Physicians Advisory Board, Casper/Natrona County Board of Health, St. Anthony Tri Parish School and St. Anthony Parish Council. I currently serve as vice chair for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation board. I am a family medicine physician and I understand both the strengths and weakness of our health care systems. I currently work in addiction medicine, and that experience has given me another important viewpoint on life in Natrona County.

Q: How will your service on the board of County Commissioners improve life for Natrona County residents?

A: I will advocate for a cleaner, quieter and safer Natrona County. Economic diversification and development can then follow as byproducts of a commitment to support quality of life for all residents. In particular, I will focus on the expansion of our primary care, public health and geriatric care capabilities. Natrona County currently is not meeting the need in these areas.

Q: When adopting a budget for Natrona County, what will you prioritize and why?

A: I will prioritize maintenance and development of infrastructure, expansion and improvement of our parks and trails, and investment in our public health and elder-care facilities.

Q: What legislation would you support, if any, to offer relief to taxpayers in Natrona County?

A: I would support legislation to refund surplus revenues to taxpayers.
Law enforcement officers shot and killed a man who fired at them Friday night, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said Sunday.

A WHP officer stopped a man walking along Interstate 90 on Friday near mile marker 184. The officer learned the man had an active arrest warrant and asked for assistance from the Crook County Sheriff's Department.

As officers attempted to arrest him, the man began walking away. He pulled a handgun and fired at the office before fleeing.

Law enforcement searched for the suspect, finding him Saturday morning near mile marker 185. The man fired at law enforcement again. Officers returned fire and injured the man. He was taken into custody and received medical attention but died a short time later.

No officers were injured during the altercation.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation is handling the investigation.
The first sentence on the campaign website of Alan Sheldon, a Republican candidate for the House District 9 race, states: I am running because I dont like the way Landon Brown has been voting since taking office in 2017.

Someone needs to stand up for Conservatives in Wyoming House District 9, he continues.

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, the incumbent candidate and three-term representative of the district, is a moderate Republican. Hes a Trump critic and an outspoken supporter of Rep. Liz Cheney, whom the Wyoming GOP symbolically ousted from the party in November. Hes a member of the Cheney campaigns state leadership team. Brown condemned Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathornes January 2021 comment saying that western states were keeping an eye on secession efforts in Texas.

Cheney loses leadership post after House Republicans vote to remove her The decision to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from leadership comes after she repeatedly criticized former President Trump for undermining democracy.

Ive certainly alienated myself as an outsider and someone who recognizes when to stand up and speak out about things, Brown said. Im going to have people who vote against a bill just because my name is at the top of it.

His voting record is also too moderate for more conservative party members: hes a proponent of expanding Medicaid, a jointly-funded federal-state health insurance program, so that more people are eligible. He co-sponsored a bill to legalize marijuana. He voted against a bill that would have barred employers from requiring COVID-19 vaccines in most situations.

I think Landon became a politician, in the worst sense, and he needs to go, said Michael Gallagher, a district resident who plans to vote for Sheldon.

Browns actions have resulted in backlash from his party, which has become increasingly conservative over the years. And its made a possible opening for a more conservative candidate to unseat him.

Theres been more competition in Wyoming Republican primary races in recent years, according to Dr. James King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming. But the number of incumbents who are reelected in the end hasnt really dropped.

Its rare for incumbents to lose, King said.

Brown didnt have any Republican challengers for two of the three times that he successfully ran for representative of his district, and only one challenger the other time.

This year, two candidates  Sheldon, a self-described genuine Conservative who has worked in the IT and aerospace industries, and Dean Petersen, an army veteran and Cheyenne-based videographer  have jumped on the opportunity to try and unseat Brown.

An iconoclast in the Wyoming Legislature faces a pair of challengers A state lawmaker who's irked many in his own party is gearing up for a tough primary. His opponents say he's out of step with the GOP.

Rise of incivility

Growing incivility among Republican party members both inside and outside of the Legislature made Brown think twice about running again.

That incivility didnt start to get really bad until Browns second term, he said. It went completely, way over the line during the coronavirus pandemic. Brown previously told the Star-Tribune that he received death threats and between 10 and 20 vile, hateful emails during the last legislative session.

Thats what this Republican party has gotten into, and Im not there, he said.

But he decided to pursue another term because theres still a lot of work to be done, especially when it comes to education.

I think there are very few people in this state who would say that education is in a good place, Brown said.

The incivility that Brown has experienced doesnt seem to have extended into the districts House race.

I dont really bring up Landons name, its not really necessary, Petersen said. I dont really want to be doing that as a candidate.

Dean has not attacked me at all, hes been very cordial, Brown said.

Things have been a little more heated between Brown and Sheldon.

He seems nice enough, Sheldon said of Brown. Ive emailed him several times over the course of his tenure, and he usually gets back with you pretty quickly and is willing to have a conversation, but the conversation usually ends with him telling you why hes going to vote the way he does, and it really hasnt been conservative in a lot of ways.

On Facebook, Sheldon, who has endorsements from Gun Owners of America and Wyoming Right to Life, called Brown out for his support of Cheney and said hes oddly tight-lipped about his support for Liz when going door to door.

Im beyond transparent when I talk to people, especially about my support for Liz because they can google my name at [any time] and see it, Brown said in a text to the Star-Tribune. Why would I want to hide that?

What I appreciate about him is that hes very transparent about where he does stand, even though he doesnt win a popularity award for that, said Angel Decker, a teacher from the district whos friends with Browns wife.

Rep. Landon Brown to announce reelection bid after tough term Landon Brown, a moderate Cheyenne Republican, says he had second thoughts about running again after receiving a slew of vile and sometimes threatening messages.

Not a real conservative

Sheldon and Petersens main grievance with Brown comes down to what some other Republican legislators have said of the incumbent candidate.

Hes not a real conservative, Petersen said.

Petersen and Sheldon both said they believe their district is more conservative than how Brown has represented it. Neither is happy with Browns voting record.

Sheldons list of disagreements with Brown is particularly long. During his interview with the Star-Tribune, he listed 18 bills that he would have voted on differently than the incumbent: House Bill 31, which created Wyomings tomorrow scholarship program (Brown voted yes), House Bill 96, which increased salaries for state elected officials (yes), Senate File 62, which would have required schools to publish a list of all teaching materials used in classrooms (no).

There are more, but I think you get the idea, Sheldon said.

As a representative, I think that he is moderate at best and hasnt been representing the majority of the district.

But Brown said he doesnt agree that its right to always vote along strict party lines or that doing so would represent his constituents. As an example, he pointed out that he ran on expanding Medicaid for his first term. (He won the Republican primary that time with about 63% of the vote, according to Ballotpedia).

I think this purity test is garbage and its junk, Brown said.

Some people in the district like Browns willingness to diverge from the party.

Hes not a true right-winger, he works with both parties to make sure he does whats right for his constituents, said Nick Gronski, a resident of the district who went to high school with Brown and plans to vote for him. I like that he does the research. Hes not so fixed in his own beliefs.

What the candidates stand for

All three Republican candidates said theyre going door-to-door talking with constituents.

I knock on peoples doors and most of them are really mad about rising gas prices, most of them are really mad about property tax increases, some of the moral issues about marijuana, boys and girls restrooms have come up, all of that make people mad too, Petersen said. I think most people, especially in our district, I get the impression that theyre sort of people like me, who are wondering what the heck happened to our state.

Petersens campaign website doesnt give too many details about his platform. It says that hes pro-second amendment, pro-family and conservative (underlined) government and pro-job creation. Hes against state income taxes and legalizing recreational marijuana. (He and Sheldon were both opposed to Browns yes vote on a bill that would have done that. When you look at what marijuana is doing to the state in terms of the cost of incarceration, it just doesnt make sense, Brown said.) Petersen also told the Star-Tribune that he wants to support tourism and would be interested to see if he could help people in small farming industries through tax breaks.

For the most part, I kind of just want adults to be left alone to be adults, he said.

All three candidates support second-amendment rights; Petersen has a short video posted on his website that shows him holding a gun.

None of us are happy about some of the things bad people have chosen to do to innocent people in this country, he says. However, I promise you that the answer is not taking away guns from good people.

His published platform isnt really detailed, but based on his bullet points, I believe that we have a lot of overlap, Sheldon said of Petersen. I think the main difference really is that I have detailed my stance to a greater degree and I believe I am a little bit better prepared for office.

Sheldon opposes all unnecessary taxation and Corporate Welfare spending. He wants limited government. He believes marriage is between a biological man and a biological woman.

Brown said he thinks neither is really prepared for office and that theyre just running with national trends and using scare tactics rather than paying attention to issues that concern the district. He pointed to Sheldons website, which says he opposes both MEDICAID and MEDICARE expansion, even though only Medicaid is under discussion for expansion. Brown said in a text that, in his mind, this proves that Sheldon isnt ready to take these issues seriously enough to be educated on the issue

We have to stay focused on the issues we can affect, he said.

Brown also criticized Sheldon and Petersens talk around bloated government.

I think government spending is being wasted on administration, Sheldon said, pointing in particular to the Department of Education.

But Brown said there are a good number of constituents who rely on the government for employment.

This is a government town, Cheyenne is very government centric, he said.

He definitely supports state employees, Gronski, whos a state employee, said of Brown. He doesnt believe in overspending, but he also believes that the state employees should be taken care of.

Others in the district arent happy with that.

I find him to be a little bit too fiscally liberal, Sheri Smith, a stay-at-home mom who plans to vote for Sheldon, said of Brown. Hes had an opportunity to cut spending and to help with things that would help with the budget, and I just didnt like how things were handled.
It was the parks most violent flood in at least a century. A disaster that eclipsed any flood there since modern record-keeping began. A confluence of worst-case scenarios so unlikely that theyve occurred together as infrequently as once every thousand years.

The next historic flood event in Yellowstone National Park is probably less than a millennium away.

If, until a few decades ago, it had a 0.1% chance of happening during any given year, those odds are higher now  maybe 0.2%, or 0.5%, or 1%. Whatever the number, it still isnt high. But climate change is pushing it higher.

Theres been floods throughout history, said Cathy Whitlock, a paleoecology professor at Montana State University. Theyre natural. They recur. And so its difficult to take any one and describe it to long-term climate change. But nonetheless, this type of flood is well-predicted by climate change, and quite likely to happen again in the future.

Whitlock co-authored the Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment, an analysis published last year of the myriad ways that rising global temperatures will reshape the roughly 34,000-square-mile ecosystem, including the 3,472-square-mile national park.

Already, temperatures across the ecosystem have risen 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, the assessment found. The rate of increase is expected to accelerate over the coming decades.

From climate models, the projections are that it will be 5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2040, Whitlock said. And possibly 10 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit warmer at the end of the century.

The iconic landscape could look very different by then.

***

Wyoming earned more than $1 billion last year from tourism at its two national parks. Both counted a record number of recreational visits in 2021, according to the National Park Service: Yellowstone with close to 5 million and Grand Teton National Park, also in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with nearly 4 million.

Before June of this year, the countrys first national park looked like it might set another record as park staff commemorated Yellowstones 150th birthday. Year-to-date visitation at the end of May was up 6.5% from 2021.

Then, on the night of June 12, an unseasonably strong atmospheric river  a column of water vapor that traveled from the Pacific Ocean to Yellowstone  dumped several inches of rain on the northern reaches of the park and on the neighboring Montana towns. The rain washed snow that had accumulated during an unusually cool, damp spring into rivers already swollen with seasonal runoff. Elevated temperatures that weekend stayed above freezing, even at night. The snowmelt was unrelenting.

Officials evacuated more than 10,000 people and closed all five gates to tourists as the floodwaters churned upward, cleaving through roads and tearing bridges from their banks. It was the first natural disaster to shut down the entire park since 1988, when strong winds propelled flames across more than one-third of the drought-parched park and ignited the largest wildfire in its history.

Despite the devastation the flood left in its wake, no one died. But it soon became clear that repairs would be necessary, even in the largely intact southern half, to keep sightseers safe.

These park roadways  they were constructed for horses and buggies, said Stephanie Kodish, senior director of the clean air program at the National Parks Conservation Association.

With rising popularity straining its existing infrastructure, even before the flooding, she said, the park has already been overburdened with a $929 million backlog of deferred repairs.

Funds authorized by the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 and the trillion-dollar infrastructure law passed last year have helped Yellowstone and the rest of the countrys national parks start to catch up.

All of our deferred maintenance projects, whether they are parking lots or seawalls or new guardrails  all of those projects are being addressed and designed and conceived with climate resilience in mind, Shannon Estenoz, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks in the Department of the Interior, said during a July 8 press event at Yellowstone.

For Yellowstone, though, the costs of rebuilding after the flood  a price tag that is still unknown  could derail other, less-urgent projects. Ongoing repairs near the northern entrances are being paid for by $65 million in emergency relief from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The park will likely need much, much more.

***

Yellowstone remained off-limits for nine days after the flood. During the closure, while construction was underway but before officials knew the extent of the damage, cancellations poured in.

Some plans were rebooked over the next few weeks as the park restored public access, first to the south loop and then to 93% of roads and 94% of the backcountry. Many plans, however, were not, especially in June: Monthly attendance dropped by almost half compared with the year before.

A National Parks Conservation Association poll conducted in January found that 88% of Americans  including 95% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans  feel climate change is having a negative impact on national parks.

The parks, Kodish said, are located in some of the countrys most sensitive ecosystems.

Thats why they were protected  and what makes them especially vulnerable, on the whole, to the effects of climate change.

Fires and floods deter people from visiting, Kodish said.

Tourism is bouncing back now in Cody and Jackson, and West Yellowstone, Montana, where the park entrances opened along with the south loop on June 22.

Gardiner and Cooke City, on the parks northern border with Montana, are still cut off except for bicyclists and pedestrians traveling short distances into the park. As highway repairs continue, Yellowstone has also begun upgrading and expanding an existing dirt road into Gardiner. Officials hope to restore access to both communities, particularly for commercial operators, before the end of the tourist season.

Temporary measures should be in place by winter, Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly told reporters on July 8, but rebuilding fully could take three to five years. The northern highways are not only badly damaged but more susceptible to flooding than previously thought. So the park might move them to higher ground.

Any investment that we make has to be looked at through the lens of whats in the future, Sholly said. Should we build back where we were? Is there a better solution?

Funding and staffing are important, Kodish said, but theres only so much adaptation can do in the face of climate change.

There is no question that if we are solely in reactive mode, she said, what well see is increasing devastation to our parks and our communities and our resources.

Instead, she said, there needs to be comprehensive and systemic shifts that move us away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gases, towards clean energy that can support and sustain a sustainable climate.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland emphasized during the press event that adaptation is only one part of a broader solution.

Fire resilience, adaptation, all of these things, go to the larger piece, Haaland said, that the Department of the Interior is working very hard to address the climate crisis, because that isnt going away.

***

Climate change has been quietly transforming Yellowstone for years in ways that are imperceptible to most visitors but apparent to those who study the park.

Were seeing that winters and summers are getting drier, Whitlock said. And springs are getting wetter.

As temperatures rise, snow is falling less and melting sooner. It becomes rain before it should and at progressively higher elevations. The mountain snowpack that releases snow gradually through the hottest months is shrinking, causing streamflow to peak earlier and decline faster.

Climate change is the long-term trend, Whitlock said. The weather is more fickle. A given day, month or year wont necessarily adhere to that trend. There can still be hot, dry springs and cold, drizzly summers. But the averages are shifting.

Flood risk wont rise uniformly, either, according to Yang Hong, a hydrology professor at the University of Oklahoma. It will still depend on the weather. The rain-on-snow phenomenon was a recipe for flooding, he said. Climate change makes bigger, faster floods more likely.

Were looking at the extreme years, Hong said. Its not going to happen every year.

Yellowstone wasnt built to withstand flooding that intense. Power lines were damaged. Water and wastewater systems failed. A park service house collapsed into the Yellowstone River.

The infrastructure and the natural landscapes are kind of fragile, Hong said. Unless the park can shore up its structures, he added, the mounting flood risk will cause similar, if not larger, damages.

Many of the parks native species are similarly ill-equipped for climate change.

At least 40 animal species, from eagles to otters to grizzlies, eat the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, according to Bob Gresswell, an emeritus research biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. Populations of cutthroat, the most abundant native trout in the park, plummeted after the invasive lake trout was introduced in the 1980s or 1990s and began eating the cutthroat.

Lake trout have no natural predators in Yellowstone. They live deeper in the water, too far for the animals that eat cutthroat trout to reach. Park staff hang miles of gillnets and remove hundreds of thousands of lake trout as part of a multimillion-dollar yearly effort to restore cutthroat populations.

The non-native lake trout have been reduced, Gresswell said. Cutthroat are rebounding. But climate change, he said, means that well have to continue that suppression program essentially forever.

Lake trout spawn in lakes, which are buffered by their size against rising temperatures. Cutthroat, however, spawn in the parks rivers and streams, where the flow will be lower and warmer when their eggs hatch.

The young fish, he said, will have to move out very, very quickly in order to make it downstream before water levels drop too far.

***

Hotter, drier summers are causing fires across the West to ignite more frequently, burn more intensely and reach higher altitudes. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the vegetation that grows during the increasingly cool, wet springs will dry out in summer and turn to fuel.

The mean fire return interval is getting shorter and shorter and shorter, said Trevor Bloom, a community ecologist at the Nature Conservancy. If you get reburn that happens too frequently, the trees arent going to regenerate, and its actually going to be converted to a grassland.

More fires will start in those grasslands, then move into the remaining forest, accelerating their decline.

Theres actually a lot of projections that even as soon as 2050, were going to lose the majority of forests in Yellowstone, and its going to become more of a grassland, which in many ways, might be a less desirable place to visit. There might be less wildlife because of that, Bloom said.

Invasive annual grasses, like cheatgrass, that have infiltrated parts of the park are also contributing to the reburning. The grasses are quick to move into injured ecosystems, including areas that have recently burned.

Cheatgrass is very flammable, Bloom said. Its arrival becomes cyclical, he added: Where you then see more fires, you see more cheatgrass coming in those disturbances.

Fires arent the only thing harming Yellowstones forests. Climate change has exacerbated the damage caused even by some native species, including the mountain pine beetle, which preys on Yellowstones whitebark pines.

Whats happening now is, because its warmer, the beetles can go through two life cycles in a year, Whitlock said. They dont get killed off by cold winter temperatures like they used to. And so as a result of that, theyre more persistent, and they also have moved to higher elevations.

Whitebark pine seeds, a staple food for grizzly bears, are quickly disappearing. The trees are dying by the thousands to beetles, a non-native fungus, drought and wildfires. They live so high on the mountains that, unlike most plants in Yellowstone, theyre not adapted to fire. Because of climate change, the flames are reaching them, too.

***

The same conditions that give rise to fires and floods can wreak all sorts of havoc in Yellowstone. Landslides. Avalanches. Severe snowstorms. Structure damage. Mass die-offs of plants and wildlife. Proliferation of species that shouldnt live there.

Yellowstone is not creating climate change, but youre seeing the effects of climate change, Bloom said. From a management standpoint, I think theyre doing the best they can with all the pressures that theyre facing.

Bloom owns Guides of Jackson Hole, a tour service that offers private trips in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Yellowstone is his top seller, and June was tough. But he was stunned by how quickly the park reopened.

Closures arent his only worry, though. Hes already confronting impacts that are not only beyond Yellowstones control, but originating outside its borders.

There were days last summer, as wildfires raged in the Pacific Northwest, when even staring out at Old Faithful was obscured by smoke, he said. We would have clients, you know, complaining about that. And there were even days that we canceled trips.

Blooms business, like many others, is still recovering from the drop-off, and this summers inflated travel costs arent helping. July was another slow month.

The closures that occurred in Yellowstone could have potentially been a net positive for the ecosystem itself, seeing less traffic, seeing less people, he said. The wildlife probably had a little bit of a chance to recover. But from an economic standpoint, it feels like a disaster.

He doubts it will be the last.

I think having more park closures, due to extreme weather events that you can attribute to climate change, are going to become more and more common, Bloom said. Its going to become a more volatile industry for everyone.

For the communities that depend on the park, the short summer tourist season makes interruptions especially hard.

I think everybody just kind of hopes it doesnt happen this year, Bloom said.

This year, it did.

This story was updated to correct the name of the tour company owned by Trevor Bloom. It is Guides of Jackson Hole.
The Supreme Courts decision in Korematsu v. United States (1944), upholding the forced evacuation of American citizens of Japanese descent from their homes for no reason other than their ancestry was, as scholars have characterized it, a national disaster  one that will live in infamy.

For the first time in our nations history, the Court, in one swift blow, significantly undermined the writ of habeas corpus, a civil right fundamental to American Constitutionalism. President Franklin D. Roosevelts Executive Order No. 9066, issued on Feb. 19, 1942, and the congressional enactment of an authorizing statute a month later, utilized ethnic differences of Japanese Americans as a basis for racial discrimination. The government did not similarly force German Americans or Italian Americans from their homes, even though Congress had declared war on Germany and Italy, as it had on Japan.

The Supreme Courts decision to uphold a military policy devoid of a factual record demonstrating any acts of sabotage or espionage by Japanese Americans converted the racial prejudices of a few officers into a doctrine of law. It altered the relationship between the military and civilian government, a sensitive matter for a democracy. It provided a precedent for attacks on the civil rights of ethnic groups and, overall, the unequal treatment of citizens and aliens in times of crises, real or imagined.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert H. Jackson captured the essence of the threat of the Korematsu principle when he wrote that it lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need. The ruling was based less on the assertion of military necessity  for there was no evidence of disloyalty among this group of citizens  but rather on what Dean Rostow of the Yale Law School described as ignorant race prejudice.

The Korematsu case has lived on in American law, politics and morality. It has been the object of enduring condemnation. In 1976, as part of the Bicentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence, President Gerald Ford rightly stated that we need to recognize our national mistakes as well as our national achievements.

February 19, 1942, he added, is the anniversary of a sad day in American history. The evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans, he said, was wrong.

In 1983, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to review Executive Order No. 9066 declared that the internment decision reflected race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership, and not military necessity.

The Commission recommended passage by Congress of a resolution, signed by the president, apologizing for the grave injustice inflicted on Japanese Americans.

In 1984, U.S. Federal District Judge Marilyn Patel granted Fred Korematsus petition for a rarely sought and rarely granted writ of error coram nobis to set aside his conviction for manifest injustice. Patel wrote in her opinion that the government had knowingly and intentionally failed to disclose information and details that directly contradicted the military report, grounded in racial prejudice, on which the Supreme Court had relied.

Patel wrote that Korematsu stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity our institutions must be vigilant in protecting constitutional guarantees.

The assertion of military necessity should not avoid rigorous judicial scrutiny and the court must be prepared to exercise its authority to protect all citizens from petty fears and prejudices that are so easily aroused.

In 1988, America finally formally apologized for the grave injustice the government had inflicted on Japanese Americans. Congress enacted and President Ronald Reagan signed The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which declared that the internment program had been motivated largely by racial prejudice and wartime hysteria. In addition to the apology, the act provided for reparations $20,000to each of the internees for the governments deprivation of their liberty and property, and the humiliation they suffered.

Two distinguished public servants led the charge for passage of the legislation: the widely admired former Wyoming senator Alan Simpson and his childhood friend, Norman Mineta. Mineta had been interned in the Heart Mountain relocation camp near Cody, Wyoming, and later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and appointed to cabinet posts by two presidents  Bill Clinton and George W. Bush  provided the critical energy and leadership necessary to secure passage of the historic act. Simpson and Mineta were boy scouts and became lifelong friends. A form of justice for Korematsu and the other 120,000 Japanese American citizens, long denied, was finally delivered, not by the Supreme Court, but ironically by the two elective branches.

The Courts ruling in Korematsu serves as a reminder that Americans cannot always depend on the judiciary to protect the rights and liberties of the citizenry. The Court, as Justice William O. Douglas, wrote, is vulnerable to the state of public opinion, which will often make the Court cautious when it should be bold. Douglas, like several members of the Korematsu Court, regretted in later life that they had not boldly defended the rights and liberties of Japanese Americans whose very freedom depended on the Justices. On those occasions when governmental officials lose their compass, it is of paramount importance that we citizens do not lose ours.
Think back to how you felt on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol and temporarily stopped Congress from fulfilling its duty to certify the presidential election. At the time, Americans were near uniform in their outrage and their disgust. The seat of government power had been attacked. People had been injured. And a process that we have long taken for granted  the peaceful transfer of power  had buckled but not broken.

Now, the attack on the Capitol  and the responsibility for the mob  has become as contentious a topic as anything else in our national political discourse. Politicians who decried the attack, including Wyomings senators, want to talk about anything else. Its not a surprise as to why. Republicans whove delved too deeply into the question of responsibility for the riot have found themselves criticized and cast out.

This summer, weve witnessed an extraordinary set of congressional hearings designed to understand the how and why of Jan. 6. Theyve featured testimony from a host of witnesses, from Ivanka Trump and former White House aides to the rioters themselves and the police who attempted to stop them.

The hearing may be occurring 1,700 miles from here, but there are multiple Wyoming connections. Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne was a lot closer to the Capitol than what he said at the time. We know he was pictured with Wyoming Senate candidate Bob Ide. We also know that two advisers to House candidate Harriet Hageman  who has likened the hearings to a show trial  were either critical of former President Donald Trumps attempts to declare victory before all the votes were counted or Trumps lack of response to the death of a Capitol police officer.

And then there is Rep. Liz Cheney, whos lost favor among many Republicans for her steady criticism of Trump and her decision to serve as the committees vice chair. Cheney has lost her leadership position in the GOP and considerable support here, but has not faltered when it comes to her belief that Trump is responsible for the attack, both through his unfounded insistence on a stolen election and in his encouragement of his supporters to walk on the Capitol.

A Star-Tribune poll shows Cheney is trailing Hageman badly and that Republican voters are punishing her for participating in the Jan. 6 committee. But the survey shows around half of them are not paying much attention  if any  to the hearings. Weve also heard from readers whove watched snippets of reporting on the panel, but havent sat through an entire hearing.

If you havent paid much attention, youve missed many serious revelations about what happened that day. Rather than summarize a few points here, wed ask that you find the complete and unaltered hearings online and watch them for yourself. Keep an open mind. But just watch them.

For 18 months, the echoes from that day have reverberated across Wyoming. Theyve altered our politics and drawn unprecedented attention on our upcoming election. You owe it to yourself to digest whats been investigated before making your decision at the polls. Think back to how you felt on Jan. 6, 2021. Its worth the time to understand the how and the why.
Editor:

Having served the state of Wyoming for Secretary of State for 8 years, I feel confident that Tara Nethercott is the right candidate for this important office.

Do you want a Secretary of State with the expertise and experience to successfully conduct all the responsibilities of the office? I do. There is no better candidate than Tara Nethercott. The varied responsibilities of the SOS require a broad base of experience which Tara Nethercott has. The office requires professional leadership for all the many responsibilities included in the office of Secretary of State.

Tara has served on varied boards and commissions including Corporations, Political Subdivisions and Elections. As a Wyoming State Senator, she serves as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Tara Nethercott has gained the knowledge and expertise to successfully serve the Cowboy State as your next Secretary of State.

Tara is true Wyoming. She was born here, raised and chose to build her life here. Her family has deep roots in the state having homesteaded here. She is accountable to the people of Wyoming.

Again, I urge my fellow Wyoming residents to go to the polls on Aug. 16 and cast their ballot for the candidate most experienced for the job. The people of Wyoming deserve Tara Nethercott as their next Secretary of State.
MANILA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos died from COVID-19 complications on Sunday afternoon at the age of 94.

Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles, Press Secretary of Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, confirmed Ramos' death.

"It is with great sorrow that we learn (about) the passing of President Fidel V. Ramos. He leaves behind a colorful legacy and a secure place in history for his participation in the great changes in our country as (a) military officer and chief executive," she said.

"We deeply condole with his family, friends, classmates, and associates and keep him in our prayers."

The Ramos family also issued an official statement on the former leader's death.

"We thank you all for respecting our privacy, as the family takes some time to grieve together," the statement said.

Philippine National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong also confirmed Ramos' demise.

"The Department of National Defense is one with the nation in mourning the passing of the former President Ramos," Andolong said, crediting Ramos for starting "the modernization and professionalization" of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Andolong said that Ramos had "a sterling career" from being a decorated soldier, a diplomat, and the secretary of national defense before becoming president.

Born on March 18, 1928, in Pangasinan province, north of Manila, Ramos was a military leader and politician who was the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998.

Ramos studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York and the University of Illinois in the United States before entering the Philippine army. He has served as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

As president, he encouraged reforms on tax and economy, helping revitalize the economy in the Southeast Asian country. 
Dalton Banks, Republican

Q: What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

A: No response.

Q: What, if anything, would you support to improve reasonable access to health care in Wyoming?

A: No response.

Q: What, if any, specific measures would you propose to generate future state revenue?

A: No response.

Q: Current school funding is adequate.

A: No response.

Q: Please explain your answer on school funding.

A: No response.

Tim J. Beck, Republican

Q: What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

A: The remains of Lt. Ray Krogman, who was killed in action in Vietnam were returned home to the Bighorn Basin in the summer of 2021. As I stood watching the procession move through Lovells main street, en route to take him home to Worland, I was in awe of the public display of patriotism. Embracing the emotional expressions of love for freedoms won, I realized the unique nature of our great nation, e.g,. service and gratitude.

These values were fundamental cultural components in my childhood, practiced regularly in Sunday School, summer Bible camps, and mid-week church youth activities. Examples I had seen throughout life and especially with the many family members who had served in the Armed Forces. The first example in my memory was my u

Q: What, if anything, would you support to improve reasonable access to health care in Wyoming?

A: It seems to me that primary care is the first avenue of service. But in visiting with doctors, and primary care nurses in my associations, it's more a matter of affordability and patient financial strengths and/or weakness. Health care litigation is certainly an issue as well, and of course we need to keep in mind individual responsibilities and choices. Age of the patient is an important issue, so in short I believe that health care is a very complex issue to tackle. Continued efforts for public education on health care risk factors is important, insurance education is vitally important, financial education is important, primary and urgent care facilities and staff is important. I believe that our regional - large facilities can carry t

Q: What, if any, specific measures would you propose to generate future state revenue?

A: My view is that ALL revenue starts at the solar and soil level. How we harvest "solar dollars" in the form of plant life/chlorophyll and then convert that resource to a marketable product is the avenue of greatest revenue. Responsible development of our renewable agricultural resources is imperative for the state of Wyoming. Forestry is a resource that we have allowed to be manipulated to the point where we now pay huge amounts of money to fight forest fires and witness deforestation due to insect damage where we should and could produce revenue to the state in the form of jobs and resources. I believe that we need to work with nature, not against nature, in the development of revenue for our prosperity.

Q: Current school funding is adequate.

A: No response.

Q: Please explain your answer on school funding.

A: Whether we want to admit it or not, resources are finite. There is a limit to the amount of money that is available at any given point in time. The nature of the human condition is that we believe that our interests are the highest of priority. With a finite amount of money we finance schools, highways, prisons, health care and much more. Decisions have to be made concerning the allocation of financial resources and all entities need to understand that there will never be ENOUGH to meet the wish list of everyone, but we will continue to fund everything to maximum level that can be afforded. I value education, I place a high priority on highways, and hospitals, and I want our communities to be safe in response to the criminal element.

Timothy Mills, Republican

Q: What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

A: No response.

Q: What, if anything, would you support to improve reasonable access to health care in Wyoming?

A: No response.

Q: What, if any, specific measures would you propose to generate future state revenue?

A: No response.

Q: Current school funding is adequate.

A: No response.

Q: Please explain your answer on school funding.

A: No response.

Gary Welch, Republican

Q: What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

A: No response.

Q: What, if anything, would you support to improve reasonable access to health care in Wyoming?

A: No response.

Q: What, if any, specific measures would you propose to generate future state revenue?

A: No response.

Q: Current school funding is adequate.

A: No response.

Q: Please explain your answer on school funding.

A: No response.
Bear with us. We will deal with this challenging situation in Trinidad and Tobago. We will deal with this scourge.

That was the plea to the public yesterday from acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob, as murders and serious crime continue unabated.

Moving to address the crisis, Jacob said leave has been restricted for all police officers, while 60 have been pulled from their vacation to increase foot and mobile patrols in high traffic and public areas.
QALAT, Afghanistan, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and 11 others sustained injuries in two road accidents in war-torn Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said.

In the first crash, which took place at 6:30 a.m. local time in Norak area outside Qalat, the provincial capital of the southern Zabul province, four were killed, including women and children, and another child was injured, provincial police spokesman Zabihullah Jawhar said.

Blaming reckless driving for the deadly mishap, the spokesman said that a truck collided with a car and the truck driver escaped from the crash site.

In a similar accident which took place at 9:00 a.m. local time in Sang-e-Sorakh area of the northern Baghlan province, a car collided with another car coming from the opposite direction, leaving 10 travelers injured, some in critical condition, traffic police official Qari Nazir Abidi said.

Reckless driving and congested roads often lead to deadly traffic accidents in the impoverished country. 
The magical charm of the Manzanilla-to-Mayaro vista is not the only gift of nature that could be lost to future generations. Natural phenomena combined with the human-induced impacts of climate change are already altering our lives, and are projected to do so in even more drastic and dramatic ways within the lifetimes of most people alive today.
Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation: Golder Ranch Fire District unveiled its newest piece of lifesaving equipment  a Hurst Cutter, Spreader and Ram Accessory Kit, made possible through a $33,200 grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. The tools will assist first responders by reducing the time it takes to safely and efficiently extricate victims involved in motor vehicle crashes. The equipment will also give the department the capability to respond to complex incidents involving heavy trucks, as well as cut and spread ultra-hardened steels found in newer vehicles.

Mister Car Wash: Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Mister Car Wash CEO John Lai are partnering to raise a quarter of a million dollars to fund the next chapter of the Tucson Million Trees program. Mister Car Wash is committing an initial $100,000 to kickstart the fund and is committed to matching an additional $50,000. The City of Tucson has set a goal of planting 1 million trees by 2030 to help address extreme heat and advance the citys climate goals.
Election Day for Arizonas primary election is today, Aug. 2, and voters will decide which candidates will advance to several key races in Novembers general election.

Voters will elect a new governor, attorney general and secretary of state this year, and all 90 seats in the Legislature are up for election. In Southern Arizona, voters will decide who moves onto the general election in three state Senate seats and three Arizona House seats.

In-person voting will look different this year with the countys debut of e-pollbooks and voting centers, where poll workers check in voters with an iPad, or e-pollbook, that scans voters IDs and confirms their eligibility to vote. The e-pollbook then sends a ballot specific to each voter to a ballot-on-demand printer.

The new voting model also replaces the precinct-based polling system where voters were required to vote at the location assigned to them based on their residence. Pima County voters can show up at any of 129 vote centers across the county to cast a ballot on Aug. 2 regardless of the precinct they live in.

Constance Hargrove, the countys elections director, said at a news conference Thursday that the county has received and tested all the equipment needed to operate the vote centers. Elections workers have tested internet connections at all centers and added antennas to increase connectivity in rural areas, Hargrove said.

The Pima County Recorders office has transferred more than 147,000 early ballots to the Elections Department as of Thursday. The last recommended day to mail-in ballots was July 26, but early ballots can still be dropped off at any vote center on Aug. 2.

To be prepared on Election Day, Hargrove said voters should bring proper identification and patience for the new process.

I just want to make sure that voters are patient with the poll workers as they get used to the new process. And as they get used to it, it will go a lot quicker, she said. I just do not want voters to go in thinking that this is going to be a really super quick process  These poll workers are voters just like the rest of us. Basically, they are volunteers. And so I just really want them to be nice to them so that they will come back for the general election in November.

All ballots must be received by the Recorders Office by 7 p.m. today to be counted in the election.

To find a vote center near you, visit: web1.pima.gov/applications/votingcenters/
Tucson Unified School District will lease-purchase 17 new buses under a plan approved Tuesday by its governing board.

There will be three 72-passenger buses and 14 buses for students with special needs, said the districts purchasing director, Diana Kerfoot.

The decision to lease-purchase instead of make an outright purchase will save the district money in the long run, said TUSD Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez. Current buses will be traded in for the new fleet, which will cost about $635,000 annually for six years, he said.

By the time of the sixth payment to contractors, TUSD would then own the titles to all 17 buses, Hernandez said. The district had previously allocated $650,000 in preparation for this purchase.

The new buses will have air conditioning and will better accommodate special needs students and students in wheelchairs, said district transportation director Martha Zamora.

This is another big step in making sure that we have a fully modernized fleet, said Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.

Three TUSD students receive national scholarship

Jisue Choi, Rebecca Flach and Michael Wang of Tucson Unifieds University High are winners of the National Merit Scholarship.

They are among more than 1,200 national winners of this award, which is financed by colleges and universities. The students were selected by an official from a sponsor college.

Choi received her scholarship from Claremont McKenna College, Flach was awarded a scholarship from Olin College of Engineering, and Wang received his award from the University of Southern California.

The college-sponsored awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

Teacher supply drive

Tucson Supplies Teachers, an annual supply drive hosted by Tucson Values Teachers, is now open to preK-12 teachers. It is the largest school supply drive in the region.

Teachers can sign up for a chance to receive a $100 gift certificate to Jonathans Educational Resources by visiting www.TucsonValuesTeachers.org. Registration closes Sept. 30.

Tucson Values Teachers partnered with several local businesses to help support the drive.

ELL Group is donating $50 for every home sold between now and Sept. 30. Each referral it receives within this time period will double its donation. Unscrewed Theater collected donations for the drive throughout July.
The vote to name an Interstate 10 overpass in Tucson in honor of an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper who was killed in the line of duty was deferred last week pending support from the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson City Council, despite the naming receiving overwhelming community support.

On Dec. 9, 1998, Trooper Juan Cruz, along with two other DPS officers, was blocking the high speed traffic lane of I-10 with his patrol vehicle while investigating a prior collision near Ruthrauff Road, the Arizona Daily Star previously reported. A vehicle traveling west then crashed into the patrol vehicle with Cruz inside.

Cruz died due from his injuries. The driver was later sentenced to 11 years in prison for manslaughter.

About 22 years later, Jim Sayre, a family friend of Cruz, noticed the overpass being built at the I-10-Ruthrauff interchange, the same place the crash took place, inspiring him to start a petition for the Trooper Juan Cruz Memorial Overpass. The petition has since received over 7,000 signatures.

This was a police officer who was working in his office, as I like to say, which is the freeway and this police car, supporting those of us and protecting those of us in the state of Arizona, Sayre said. So what is a better way to honor him than to name that bridge that his employer just built at the place where he died on the job?

Sayre started asking officials in 2020 what the process would be to get the overpass named in Cruzs honor, speaking to the project manger of the actual overpass and the governors office. He later learned he needed to submit an application to the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names.

However, the official review board within the State Board of Geographic and Historic Names was not refunded before the previous state legislative session ended, causing Sayre to have to wait and see if a new house bill would be introduced.

In 2021, House Bill 2058 passed to re-establish the board and Sayre had one less obstacle in his way. A year later, the board was established and it had its first meeting on July 26, where Sayres request would finally be discussed.

We packed the house with supporters, both physically in person and then also on the virtual option, Sayre said. One of the board members that has been on this board for some time made a comment along the lines of wow, this is more support than weve ever seen for a naming. So, it was pretty cool.

Despite having the support of 25 state lawmakers and the general public, the board decided to defer the vote since the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson City Council had not answered the board about whether they support the naming of the overpass in Cruzs honor.

The Trooper Juan Cruz Memorial Overpass Facebook page said they have already written a brief note to both the Pima County Board of Supervisors and Tucson City Council, asking for their formal support.

The good thing is they didnt say no, but they also didnt approve it, Sayre said. I totally respect that the board is interested in hearing from the local governments. Im a little disappointed that the research staff that that reaches out to those government entities only did so within the last like six weeks or so, even though our application has been in for 19 months.

Sayre said the board hasnt made any commitments for when the naming request will be back on its agenda, but its next meeting will be in October.

Photos: Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, died after vehicle collsion in 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 DPS Officer Juan Cruz Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998 Arizona DPS Officer Juan Cruz, death, 1998
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

My heart sank when I heard witnesses at the Jan. 6 hearings say the attack on the Capitol didnt really begin until the Proud Boys from Arizona  the ones in the orange hats  led the charge up the steps.

Oh no, not again! Arizonans were already playing a variety of ignominious roles in the events surrounding the insurrection: The QAnon Shaman hails from Phoenix. Three of the states nine members of Congress, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko, were deeply involved with the fake electors and other schemes to Stop the Steal. The state Legislature spent at least $3 million in taxpayer dollars on the Cyber Ninjas and other futile attempts to find fraud in the 2020 election results.

Its not the first time the states been a national embarrassment. Gov. Ed Mechams 1987 repeal of the MLK holiday cost the state the Super Bowl and millions of dollars in lost business. The holiday wasnt reinstated by the voters until 1992, making Arizona the last state to enact it.

But this time, President Bidens razor-thin victory and an evenly-split electorate have made Arizona more than a punch line. Its a crucial battleground in the upcoming midterms. With control of the U.S. Senate potentially at stake, the states political landscape is now representative of our national divide.

Although other states have their wackos and wing nuts, their Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Arizona does seem to have a disproportionate share. This may go back to the states beginnings as the last of the lower 48 to enter the union. Indian wars and other conflicts along its nearly 380-mile-long border with Mexico continued well into the 20th century, giving it a reputation as the last of the wild frontier. The border continues to attract far-right vigilantes and militia-types to this day.

While these people get a lot of attention, they are actually not typical of the states political geography. Generally speaking, Tucson and the border (except Yuma and Cochise County) are liberal, and metro Phoenix and places north of it (except Flagstaff and the reservations) are conservative.

We have Biggs, Gosar and Lesko (representing Gilbert, Bullhead City and Peoria, respectively), but we also have Ruben Gallego and Raul Grijalva, two of the more progressive members of Congress. (Gallego is from Phoenix, but well forgive him that.)

Republicans in Arizona, like those in many other states, are currently engaged in a battle for the soul of their party. State House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who bravely testified against Trump at the Jan. 6 hearings, was censured by the Arizona Republican Party and said he expects to lose his race for a state Senate seat from east Mesa for refusing to buy into the Big Lie.

The Aug. 2 primary will also be a referendum on the legacy of outgoing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who attracted Trumps ire when he certified the states election results for Biden. Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared in Peoria and Tucson last week on behalf of Duceys choice for governor, the same day Trump held a rally for his preferred candidates in Prescott Valley.

In the fall, the Republican candidate for Senate will face centrist Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who won a special election two years ago to finish the term of the late John McCain. Along with his beleaguered Democratic colleague Kyrsten Sinema  who fortunately for her does not have to face the voters this cycle  Kelly is trying to appeal to the third of the states electorate who are Independent and who will decide the election.

In this red state turning blue, Kelly and Sinema are testing the political wisdom of former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, who said of the Lone Star State: Theres nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP)  A Virginia judge has entered a default judgment against a Libyan military commander after he repeatedly failed to show up for depositions in a federal lawsuit in which he is accused of war crimes.

The exact amount of the judgment against Khalifa Hifter, who spent decades living in the U.S., will be determined at a future date. Because Hifter and his family own extensive property in northern Virginia from his time in the country, according to the plaintiffs, they are optimistic they will be able to collect any judgment that is awarded.

At a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge Leonie Brinkema adopted the recommendations of a magistrate who said the plaintiffs should be granted default judgment.

The magistrate's report cited Hifter's repeated refusal to sit for scheduled depositions about his role in the fighting that has plagued the country over the last decade.

Three separate lawsuits were filed against Hifter by different plaintiffs. Some say family members were killed by military bombardments conducted by Hifter's army in civilian areas. Others accuse Hifter's forces of capturing, torturing and killing family members.

In court papers, Hifter tried to claim immunity from suit as a head of state. After Hifter failed to show up in May for his most recent scheduled deposition, his lawyers filed a motion to withdraw from the case, saying he had stopping communicating with them and stopped paying his legal fees.

Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. according to the lawsuits. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.

He returned to Libya to support the anti-Gadhafi forces that revolted against the dictator and killed him in 2011. Over the last decade, he led the self-styled Libyan National Army, which has controlled much of the eastern half of the country, with support from countries including Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

A U.N.-supported government has controlled the capital in Tripoli, with extensive support from Turkey. A cease-fire between the warring sides in 2020 was supposed to lead to elections in December 2021, but they never occurred. Negotiations to set a new election have been unsuccessful. One sticking point has been whether to ban military personnel as well as dual citizens from running for the countrys top post, conditions that would eliminate Hifter as a candidate.

The lawsuits were put on pause last year after Brinkema expressed concerns they would be used to interfere with the country's presidential elections, in which Hifter was a candidate.

She reinstated the lawsuits when the elections were postponed with no foreseeable rescheduling.

Esam Omeish, president of the Libyan American Alliance, which supports one group of plaintiffs, praised Brinkema's ruling and said it should send a clear message to the international community to stop supporting a war criminal and a would-be dictator in any proposed Libyan political settlement.
The Turtle Creek Chorale, the Dallas-based vocal ensemble led by Tulsa native Sean Baugh, will perform Let Us March On! a concert program of music by contemporary Black composers, including a specially commissioned piece about the Tulsa Race Massacre, Dreamland: Tulsa 1921.

The concert will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 501 S. Cincinnati Ave. Admission is through suggested donation, and a collection will be taken at the concert. To reserve tickets: turtlecreekchorale.com.

Dreamland: Tulsa 1921 was written by playwright and librettist Sandra Seaton and composer Marques Garrett. Inspired by Mary E. Jones Parrishs memoir, Events of the Tulsa Disaster, the work takes its title from the Dreamland Theater, which was one of the first buildings destroyed during the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Baugh, the chorales artistic director, said, Growing up in Tulsa and attending primary school there, I never learned about the horrific Tulsa Race Massacre. It was hidden from us. It wasnt until the massacre was depicted in HBOs Watchmen that I fully understand the importance and power of the story of this horrific piece of Oklahoma history.

The concert will also feature choral anthems by Black composers, including the premiere of Where Are the Bodies? by Dallas-based composer Reginal S. White.

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GENEVA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Four Chinese listed companies have sought to expand their ways of raising capitals overseas by listing Global Depository Receipts (GDR) on Zurich-based SIX Swiss Exchange, Switzerland's principal stock exchange, on Thursday.

A global depositary receipt (GDR) is a bank certificate issued in more than one country for shares in a foreign company. GDRs are most commonly used when the issuer is raising capital in the local market as well as in the international markets, either through private placement or public stock offerings.

A press release of the SIX Swiss Exchange on Thursday showed that the capital raised by the four companies (aggregated placement volume in USD) with their GDRs from investors totaled 1.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Dong Minyue, director of Department of Accounting and Control at Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) at the University of Lausanne, told Xinhua on Sunday that Chinese Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBEs) is accepted by SIX Swiss Exchange, which is a major advantage for Chinese companies seeking to raise capital abroad.

Listing GDRs on the SIX Swiss Exchange will help broaden the shareholder structure and optimize the internationalization strategy of Chinese companies, said Dong, adding that it also offers a mutually beneficial opportunity of cooperation: Switzerland has attracted the world's largest offshore funds, international investors can invest in some of China's fast growing industry, meanwhile Chinese companies can cultivate a group of loyal long-term professional shareholders.

Wang Shihting, China's ambassador to Switzerland, said on Thursday at the ceremony that the listing will help Chinese companies improve their overseas financing capabilities and expand their brand awareness and influence.

It also showed that Chinese companies attach great importance to the Swiss capital market and its status as an international financial center, and are confident in the Swiss economy and the prospect of deepening cooperation between China and Switzerland, Wang said.

Gong Weiyun, General Manager of China Construction Bank's Zurich Branch, told Xinhua the successful listing means that the Chinese companies can raise more funds for global expansion and seek new overseas partners. For international investors, the listing offers them an opportunity to invest in China's fast-growing industries.

Thomas Zeeb, a member of Executive Board of SIX Swiss Exchange, said on Thursday that the practical regulations and the access to a huge pool of international investors are factors attracting Chinese firms.

For Chinese firms looking to expand into Europe and establish local production facilities, the listing made a perfect gateway by "getting local investors to understand better what they're doing", Zeeb said.

The four Chinese companies are GEM, a Shenzhen Stock Exchange listed company active in the urban mining and new energy materials industry; Gotion High-tech, a Shenzhen Stock Exchange listed company focusing on battery power technology research, development and innovation; Keda Industrial Group, a Shanghai Stock Exchange listed building materials machinery manufacturer; and Ningbo Shanshan, a Shanghai Stock Exchange listed company engaged in the research and development, manufacture and distribution of lithium battery materials. 
The resort, spread over 64 acres near Lake Fort Gibson a couple of miles southeast of Wagoner, is now taking reservations for everything from yoga classes and spa treatments to meals in its restaurant, which is now overseen by executive chef Bryan Sadler.
Dots and dashes: The Water Resources Development Act, which includes provisions related to rebuilding area Arkansas River levees and deepening the McClellen-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, passed the Senate 92-2.  While leading an America First Summit panel discussion on immigration, U.S. Sen. James Lankford criticized major television networks for not giving the issue more attention.  Sen. Jim Inhofe was among Republicans asking the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Human services to investigate the administrations $10 billion COVID-19 public education campaign.  The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed a 4-year-old lawsuit challenging Oklahomas fly ash disposal regulations. ... Second District Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Markwayne Mullin panned cancelling student loans, saying only 12% are held by low-income households, and that farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and teachers in Oklahoma (should not be) paying the debts of Ivy League lawyers and doctors.  Lankford was among the Republicans complaining that the administration is not cooperating with Argentinian officials investigating suspected Iranian gun-runners and spies apprehended in the South American country last month.
Fourth District Congressman Tom Cole was the only member of Oklahomas congressional delegation to vote for the Chips and Science Act passed by both the House and Senate last week.

The states other four House members and both U.S. senators voted no on the measure, which authorizes roughly $172 billion in subsidies, tax credits and federal programs to promote semiconductor chip manufacturing in this country.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said the bill all but ignores the expertise resident in the Department of Defense; U.S. Sen. James Lankford attributed his vote to the narrow concentration on semiconductors and what he said is a lack of oversight.

Hours after the Senate passed the bill with substantial Republican support, Democrats announced agreement within their caucus on a budget reconciliation bill. That angered some in the GOP, who had voted for the Chips and Science bill in the expectation that no such agreement would be forthcoming.

According to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget, the reconciliation bill would lower the federal budget deficit by $50-$100 billion a year. It would do so, however, by offsetting incentives for green energy by reducing the amount the federal government pays for prescription drugs and eliminating some tax advantages for corporations and hedge fund managers.

Many Republicans are skeptical at best.

First District Congressman Kevin Hern was among the Republicans urging a no vote on the Chips and Science Act as a result, telling them, Now is the time to fight.

Third District Congressman Frank Lucas, who as the top Republican on the House Science, Space and Technology committee, had put years of time and effort into the bill, reluctantly agreed.

Cole, however, said the two measures should not be connected.

You dont vote against something you support because something happens that you dont support  separate items that need to be dealt with separately, he told Politico.

Although this is not a perfect bill and not the one I would have written, it is a step in the right direction toward keeping Communist China at bay and protecting our nations economic and security interests, said Cole. At a time when China is becoming increasingly aggressive and dangerously trying to command the world order, the CHIPS and Science Act importantly strengthens Americas global competitiveness.

This bill also authorizes substantial funding for our nations scientific research and development enterprise to ensure American leadership in key fields such as aerospace and energy, Cole said. Moreover, it prioritizes the workforce of tomorrow by investing in STEM education and workforce development programs to train Americans for new jobs in these fields.

Just a day earlier, Lucas told a Republican group that some sort of science bill that includes semiconductors is a must.

The need to make fundamental investments in the capacity to produce the chips, the microprocessors, and the resources we need in this country is important, he said. Many of my Republican colleagues get super-juiced about the national defense angle. Thats entirely right. Ive been in briefings where theyve described the number of processors that go into some of the most basic, fundamental weapons systems that we use.

Lucas said a shortage of the components is felt in every area of the economy.

I can tell you that its not just the inability to buy automobiles, farm trucks, or cars and trucks, he said. You also cant buy a tractor. Theyre full of processors, too. You cant buy anything. So the need is there.

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Two Republicans are seeking the nomination for state treasurer in the Aug. 23 primary runoff.

Meanwhile, Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn is hoping to fend off a Republican challenge from state Rep. Sean Roberts, who is term limited.

The seat for state treasurer came open when Republican Randy McDaniel, a former House member, decided not to seek another term.

Clark Jolley and Todd Russ were the top two vote-getters in the primary that featured three candidates.

Jolley termed out of the Senate after serving as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is a former chairman of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and served as finance secretary during former Gov. Mary Fallins last year in office.

Jolley graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University with bachelors degrees in political science and music education. He earned a law degree from the University of Oklahoma and is a former teacher.

It is a job I am very well-suited for, Jolley said. My background uniquely prepares me for the treasurers role.

He said the job involves government fiscal policy, for which he has a passion.

Jolley said he wants to improve access to the Unclaimed Property Fund, which the office oversees. He said the office could be more proactive in trying to find those who have unclaimed property.

Russ holds a bachelors degree in finance from Oklahoma State University and a graduate degree in bank management from the University of Colorado.

He has been in the banking industry more than 25 years. He has owned and managed banks and currently has a land and title company.

He is term limiting out of the Oklahoma House after serving 12 years.

The treasurers position is essentially the bank CEO for the state of Oklahoma, he said. Having a career on the other side of politics as a bank CEO and then being a senior member in the Legislature, it seemed like the perfect resume.

Like Jolley, he would like to make improvements to the unclaimed property fund. He would like to look into streamlining the claims process.

The runoff winner faces Libertarian Gregory J. Sadler and Democrat Charles De Coune on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Osborn and Roberts were the top vote-getters in a labor commissioner primary that featured three candidates.

Osborn has a bachelors in business administration from Oklahoma State University.

She owned an agricultural sales business for 20 years before running for the Legislature. She spent 10 years in the Oklahoma House before running for labor commissioner.

I would like to continue working on some of the initiatives we have taken on at Labor, she said. We have about 75 employees.

Those initiatives include regulating people who work on natural gas conversion and checking all the compressed natural gas pumps across the state.

She would also like to continue working on an initiative to get more people into jobs the state has a shortage in and increase the number of shop classes offered.

Roberts declined a request for a phone interview.

The winner will face Libertarian Will Daugherty and Democrat Jack Henderson.

Featured video: Improving the status of women in Oklahoma
Holding a certificate proving swimming ability is among the requirements for people who are in charge of floating lanterns in Ho Chi Minh City as Buddhist followers are to celebrate Vu Lan Festival next month.

Vu Lan, a festival honoring deceased ancestors and filial piety, is observed by Buddhist followers every year on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, which falls on August 12 this year.

It is an occasion for many Vietnamese to make offerings to their ancestors and pay homage to their parents by visiting pagodas on this day.

One of the most important customs during the festival is floating lanterns, usually made of paper and in the shape of a lotus flower, on the river.

In Ho Chi Minh City, this ritual often takes place at Dieu Phap Pagoda in Binh Thanh District for every Vu Lan Festival.

The municipal Department of Transport has given the approval to the plan on organizing the activity this year from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm on August 11 with a number of stipulations.

This photo shows flower lanterns floating on the river beside Dieu Phap Pagoda in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City in 2021.

Accordingly, lanterns must only be floated on the river area spanning 200 meters in length and 50 meters in width from the riverbank dock.

Buddhist followers must have a person holding a swimming certificate release the lanterns onto the water.

Boats used during the activity must be fully equipped with life jackets and lifebuoys, and only craft with registration certificates that meet technical safety and environmental protection requirements can be employed.

Crewmen operating the boats are required to possess all related certificates proving their professional aptitude.

In order to attend the floating of the lanterns, Buddhist followers will have to register with the organizer before August 10 or until the number of attendees reaches 600.

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A young man slipped and fell into a stream at a tourist area in Phu Yen Province, south-central Vietnam, prompting his two friends to jump into the stream to save him, but the man and one of the rescuers drowned eventually.

Local authorities have handed over the bodies of the two victims to their families for funeral rites, after examining the scene and the corpses, Phan Tran Van Huy, chairman of the provinces Song Cau Town administration, said on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon, three men, all aged 20, were on a sightseeing tour at the Binh Nin dam in the town when one of them, H.V.T., slipped and fell into the stream under the dam while taking photos on the embankment.

The two others jumped into the water to attempt to rescue T., hailing from Gia Lai Province, but all the three could not get to the shore because of exhaustion amid the swift-flowing stream.

Some local residents nearby tried to rescue the three victims out of the stream, but only one of them, N.V.Ch., survived, while T. and another, N.H.C., a native of Binh Dinh Province, died later despite being given artificial respiration.

Located about nine kilometers from National Highway 1, the Binh Nin dam area is a tourist site in Xuan Binh Commune of Song Cau Town.

This area has many large rocks, under which a stream flows all year round, with some sections being quite deep, local authorities said.

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The project of a four-member Vietnamese team has landed in the top three positions at the Google Solution Challenge 2022 contest, which attracted over 800 candidate projects of university students from many countries around the world.

In the tournaments final round on Thursday, the Gateway project of the team, from Ho Chi Minh City-based Hoa Sen University, surpassed seven other finalists to become one of the three best projects at the event, which had no first, second, or third ranking.

The two other winners are the Xtrinsic project from the University of Freiburg in Germany and the Blossom project of the University of Waterloo in Canada.

The four members of the Vietnamese team are Nguyen Dang Khuong, Truong Hoang Duy, Nguyen Vo Dang Cao, and Nguyen Manh Hung.

Every solution was graded on a 100-point scale and on two criteria, including impact (60 percent) and technology (40 percent).

Each member of the top three teams received a prize of US$3,000 and a certificate from Google.

The overall goal of the competition is to find solutions to problems facing local communities by using one or more Google technology platform products.

This years contest focused on how to help address issues related to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, gender equality, and clean water and sanitation, among others.

Among the 835 projects competing in the contest, 74 were from Southeast Asia, including 16 from Vietnam.

Gateway is a technological solution that creates an open-source system intended for digital COVID-19 medical declarations at checkpoints without human assistance or intervention.

The projects main goal is to reduce pressure on health workers, communities, and businesses in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, which started hitting Vietnam in early 2020.

Gateway is a useful and appropriate solution to be applied at the entrances of all buildings and schools, helping to control the COVID-19 pandemic more effectively and minimize cross-contamination, Vietnamese team member Khuong said.

This is the first time that a Vietnamese team has been among the top three winners of the Solution Challenge, an annual contest organized by the Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) community.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Cao Nguyen Vu, a 39-year-old photographer from Quang Ngai Province, central Vietnam has recently won the first prize in the General-Color category at the HIPA International Photography Awards with his work Matrix of Boats.

The HIPA is a photography award headed directly by Dubai's Crown Prince, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to honor the creativity of photographers worldwide.

The annual prize was launched in 2011 with a total value of US$400,000.

The first award in the General-Color category is worth $15,000.

The award's 11th edition, themed Nature, attracted thousands of entries from around the world competing in different categories.

Cao Nguyen Vus photo 'Ma Tran Cua Nhung Chiec Thuyen' (Matrix of Boats). Photo: Alex Cao

Speaking with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday, Vu said that he was shocked to win the top place in the 'General-Color' category, despite having clinched many international photography prizes.

This photograph shows fishermen's boats neatly lined up when anchored to avoid Typhoon Molave in 2020, Vu elaborated on his photo.

Typhoon Molave was the strongest to strike my hometown of Quang Ngai in 30 years, causing havoc with 325 buildings completely demolished and over 140,000 houses unroofed or damaged.

Vu is best known as Alex Cao in the photographic community.

Numerous others were surprised to learn that Vu is not a professional photographer, but instead works in the medical field.

Aside from photography, Vu also spends his free time volunteering with FQng Quang Ngai, a charitable organization that assists the low-income residents, particularly children, in remote areas of Quang Ngai Province.

Besides, he is in charge of a community project -- the Victoria Public Library and the Victoria-Alex Cao Scholarship Foundation -- to assist underprivileged children in learning English.

Vu has also participated in a campaign to clean up tons of garbage at local seaports, restoring the nearby marine environment.

After receiving the award, Vu will donate a sum of money to FQng Quang Ngai and the campagin.

Below are Vu's photos, which were taken in Vietnam:

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
New freight train service links eastern Chinese city, Vietnam

People's Daily Online) 16:37, July 30, 2022

A freight train left the city of Xuzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province on Friday for Vietnam's Hanoi, marking the launch of a new freight train route between China and Vietnam.

The freight train, loading 72 TEUs of glass bottles, plastic products, and maternal and childcare facilities, is expected to arrive in Hanoi within seven days after a journey of about 2,985 km, nearly half the time of traditional waterway transportation.

As an important country along the Belt and Road and a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Vietnam is the third country to which Xuzhou opened international freight train services this year, following Belarus and Mongolia.

You Xingjun, deputy head of Xuzhou Customs, said that local customs authorities will give full play to the logistics advantages of such trains, and promote stability and quality of foreign trade.

The China-Vietnam freight train service operated 173 trips in the first half of 2022, up 19.3 percent year on year, according to China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd.

(Web editor: Liu Ning, Bianji)
Giant panda Ding Ding enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

Giant panda Ding Ding plays with a toy at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

Giant panda Ding Ding enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Meng Jing)

Visitors look at giant panda Ding Ding at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ding Ding feeds on bamboos at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ru Yi enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ru Yi at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ru Yi enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ding Ding at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ding Ding feeds on bamboos at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ru Yi enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ru Yi at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ru Yi at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ding Ding at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Visitors look at giant panda Ru Yi at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ding Ding enjoys a birthday meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

Giant panda Ru Yi enjoys a meal at the Moscow Zoo in Moscow, capital of Russia, on July 31, 2022. The Moscow Zoo on Sunday celebrated the birthdays of two giant pandas Ding Ding and Ru Yi. Six-year-old male Ru Yi was born on July 31, 2016 whereas five-year-old female Ding Ding was born on July 30, 2017. The pair arrived in Moscow in 2019 from China's southwestern province of Sichuan for a 15-year joint research program. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)
Paige Thorne and Adam Collard have been dumped from the Love Island villa a day before the finale of the ITV reality show.

On Sundays episode, the contestants discovered who the public had decided to save from elimination after four couples were put at risk following the islanders vote for who they felt were the least compatible couples.

Paige and Adam received the fewest votes from the public meaning they just missed out on making the grand final on August 1.

This leaves Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti, Gemma Owen and Luca Bish, Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page, and Indiyah Pollack and Dami Hope to battle it out to be crowned the winners of Love Island 2022 and take home the 50,000 prize.

Following their departure, Paige said she was not disappointed in missing out on the final and that she was routing for Dami and Indiyah to win.

She added: I went in there wanting to find friendships and a great connection and I came out with both.

Reflecting on her previous partner Jacques ONeills shock exit, she said it had been really hard hearing that he wanted to go but that she fully supported his decision.

The paramedic admitted it had crossed her mind to leave with him but feels that staying and finding someone more suited for her makes her feel that everything happens for a reason.

While Adam said it was nerve wrecking being the first bombshell to return to the villa after being a contestant in 2018.

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He added that he gave the show another chance due to how good his experience was the first time, and that it would be amazing if he found a strong connection, which he feels he has got with Paige.

She entered as an OG, he returned as the OG bombshell, and now they're leaving together  Let's hear it for Paige and Adam  #LoveIsland pic.twitter.com/3QJ8yrXA8I  Love Island (@LoveIsland) July 31, 2022

Elsewhere in the episode, the contestants were briefly reunited with some of their friends and family as they visited the villa.

Former England striker Michael Owen did not come to see his daughter Gemma, but his wife Louise did reveal his thoughts about her time on the show.

After Gemma asked what her father felt about how she had handled herself, Louise told her: Honestly, he is really proud of you, really proud.

Her mother also admitted she had voted for Luca to be paired up with her on the first day.

However, her friend Sarah, who also came to visit, admitted that there was a photo circulating on social media where Luca had a striking similarity to Michael Owen.

When the families met, Lucas mother Maria said that she loves Gemmas values and morals and that the pair had the same banter.

While fishmonger Lucas father Michael, who arrived wearing his own fish style flip flops, told his son that Gemma puts you straight.

When Tashas parents entered, they admitted they had thought she would be well suited with Andrew from the beginning, adding: You can see it in your eyes, youre sparkling. First time Ive seen that with a boy.

And after an emotional reunion, Andrews mother said of Tasha: I can tell youre totally besotted with her, jokingly adding: You didnt ask her to marry you then?

Dami had to be greeted virtually by his sister Femi and cousin Alicia who let him know that his grandmother had been watching.

Meanwhile, Indiyahs mother Dee and her sister Shak made it clear that they were not impressed with Damis behaviour in Casa Amor.

Her mother said: The behaviour, and Im sure Shak will tell Dami, hes not been cleared yet. Hes not cleared in my eyes yet either

When Dami finally met her mother, he immediately apologised for his behaviour and recognised some of his actions were immature.

Home is where the Davide is  #LoveIsland pic.twitter.com/r7YEQrI1JL  Love Island (@LoveIsland) July 31, 2022

Ekin-Sus mother Sezer and brother Arda also arrived alongside Davides mother Nadia and sister Valeria.

Speaking in Italian, Nadia told her son that she can tell Ekin-Su was being sincere with her emotions, adding: The way she looks at you, she is head over heels.

Ekin-Sus brother also confessed that he had never seen my sister look at a guy the way she looks at you.

When Paiges mother Samantha came to visit she admitted that she was not buying it with her daughters relationship with Adam and felt she seemed to get on better with her previous partner in the villa, Jacques.

However, Adams father Billy said he thought Paige was amazing and a nice grounded girl.

Actress and comedian Amy Schumer also made an appearance during Love Island: After Sun show via video link to play a game with the remaining finalists.

She gave impressions of Davide, Paige and Luca and the After Sun panel went head to head against the islanders to see who could guess the most correctly.

The final of Love Island airs on ITV2 and ITV Hub at 9pm on August 1.
Archie Battersbee, who is on life support, is set to have treatment withdrawn at 2pm on Monday unless the government complies with an injunction from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Barts Health NHS Trust, which is treating the 12-year-old, said in a letter to his parents that "no supplemental oxygen will be given" after the endotracheal tube of the mechanical ventilator is removed.

Archie has relied on the machine to breathe since being admitted to hospital on 7 April after being found unconscious at home by his mother.

"The time it takes for the heart to stop beating is often a matter of minutes, but in some cases, this can take longer," the letter continued.

"A doctor will assess Archie regularly to confirm that the heart has stopped beating but with consideration of the family's need not to have too much intrusion at such a difficult time."

Archie's parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee will be told on Monday morning how the withdrawal process is to be performed, with the aim to "preserve Archie's dignity", the letter read.

It went on: "You or any of the family may wish to lie on Archie's bed with him or have him in your arms, if that should be practically possible."

A High Court judge had ruled that ending treatment is in Archie's best interests, after reviewing evidence from clinicians and said the boy's prognosis was "bleak".

The family says doctors should give Archie a chance to recover and have made an application to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, citing Articles 10 and 12 of the Convention (UNCRPD) which call on nations to ensure the right to life and equal rights for disabled people.

In a letter to Ms Dance and her barrister Mr Bruno Quintavalle, the committee writes it has "requested the state party [the UK] to refrain from withdrawing life-preserving medical treatment, including medical ventilation and artificial nutrition and hydration from the alleged victim while the case is under consideration by the committee".

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Read more:

Archie Battersbee's mother appeals for help from health secretary

Supreme Court refuses to intervene in life-support battle for brain-damaged boy

On Saturday the government told Sky News it has received correspondence from the UN which it is carefully considering.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We recognise this is an exceptionally difficult time for Archie Battersbee's family and our thoughts are with them.

"We have received the letter and will respond in due course."

Ms Dance told Sky News she is waiting anxiously for the British government to comply with the UN request.

Barts Health NHS Trust said delaying the start of palliative care would "not be appropriate without an order of the court."

The family said the assertions were misleading, adding: "We as a family are very disappointed that the Trust's management has chosen to hide behind euphemisms and to mislead the public.

"It is hard to see any reason for that behaviour except knowing that what they are doing is cruel and wrong."
Boris and Carrie Johnson host wedding party at Cotswolds Daylesford estate

Boris and Carrie Johnsons held their wedding bash at the grand Cotswolds estate of a major Tory donor yesterday.

The outgoing Prime Minister and his wife hosted family and friends at 18th-century Daylesford House to celebrate their nuptials with a wider circle, after the pandemic forced them to scale back festivities last year.

The grooms 81-year-old father Stanley Johnson was seen pulling into the estate in a car on Saturday afternoon.

Other guests included staunch loyalists Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries.

The thrice-wed grooms sister Rachel Johnson was there to mark his latest marriage, while Australian actor Holly Valance was also seen pulling into the estate.

Political allies who were also pictured arriving included Conservative Lord Zac Goldsmith and Tory MP John Whittingdale.

There were questions over whether defectors from Mr Johnsons Government would be culled from the guest list, with former health secretary Sajid Javid one of those notably not spotted arriving.

A likely less welcome guest was anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray, who pitched up on a road near the wedding venue with a giant banner reading corrupt Tory government.

Oxford Mail:

All eyes were on the guest list for the event, and whether defectors from Mr Johnsons Government had bagged an invite.

His former chancellor Rishi Sunak and current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss were sure to miss the party as they are on the campaign trail in a bid to replace the Prime Minister.

Ms Truss, at a campaign visit in Bromley, defended Mr Johnson for holding the lavish celebrations at a time when millions are struggling with ballooning bills.

Oxford Mail:

Asked whether the Prime Minister should concentrate on such crises facing the country instead of partying, she told reporters: I think hes entitled to enjoy his wedding day, and I wish the best to him and Carrie and all the family.

The event was held in a huge white marquee on the expansive landscaped grounds of Daylesford House in Gloucestershire.

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The Grade I-listed mansion is owned by Lord Bamford, chairman of construction equipment manufacturer JCB, who has donated millions to the Conservatives.

Staff were this week seen going in and out of the bunting-topped tent amid apparent party preparations.

Guests relaxed on hay bales and benches placed outside the marquee and ate and drank at casks and small tables as they enjoyed views across vast meadows and orchards.

Oxford Mail:

Mr and Mrs Johnson had originally been planning to throw their wedding party at the Prime Ministers official country residence, Chequers, in Buckinghamshire.

Those plans led to suggestions that Mr Johnson wanted to stay on as a caretaker prime minister in part to see this through, although this was denied by Downing Street.

They were said to have sent out save-the-date cards for a celebration on July 30, before deciding to change location.

The couple married in a low-key private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral last year, organised in secret, in front of a small group of family and friends.

This was followed by a reception in the gardens of 10 Downing Street with a limited number of guests due to coronavirus restrictions.

It was known Mr and Mrs Johnson planned to have a larger celebration this year after the restrictions had been relaxed.

Billionaire Lord Bamford is covering at least some of the cost of the party, the Mirror reported, quoting unnamed sources.

It is not the first time Mr Johnson, who has been married twice before, has benefited from the JCB chairmans backing.

Oxford Mail:

The Tory peer supported his 2019 leadership bid, with Mr Johnson knocking down a wall with a JCB digger at the Staffordshire factory in a stunt to demonstrate he could get Brexit done.

Lord Bamfords wife, Lady Carole Bamford, set up the upmarket Daylesford Organic Farm, with a chain of shops selling its produce across London.

Oxford Mail:

Mr Johnson reportedly received food from the Daylesford farm shop worth an estimated 12,500 during the pandemic, though Downing Street said he paid for the cost of all food for personal consumption.

When asked about the wedding celebrations, No 10 declined to comment on the private matter.

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Englands highly-anticipated clash against Germany is expected to draw in the biggest home TV audience on record for a womens football match.

Some 90,000 fans are due to fill Wembley Stadium  most hoping to watch the Lionesses secure the first major tournament title for an England team since 1966  while millions more watch from homes, pubs and fan zones.

The record number of UK viewers for a womens game is nine million, which was set during Englands semi-final defeat by the United States in the 2019 World Cup, according to the ratings organisation Barb.

Ahead of the 5pm kick-off on Sunday, an all-female RAF flypast will take to the skies.

Flanked by two Typhoon fighter jets, a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft crewed by three women will soar over the north-west London arena.

Hoping to bring back the Championship silverware for the first time, the Lionesses are the underdogs against their eight-time Euro winning opponent, but will have huge support from the home crowd.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tweeted his support for the team, as has Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who watched Englands 4-0 win over Sweden in the semi-final.

My letter to the @Lionesses. Best of luck in the final this evening. #WEURO2022 pic.twitter.com/7RoejFynN7  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 31, 2022

Mr Johnson urged the Lionesses to bring it home alongside a photograph of England flags adorning Number 10.

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He also told the team in a letter that they had inspired girls and women to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that football is not just for boys.

Sir Keir said his daughter was among those inspired by the team.

England fans in the stands ahead of the Uefa Womens Euro 2022 semi-final match at Bramall Lane (Danny Lawson/PA)

He said: As a parent, I know how vital it is to see strong, successful role models in sport.

What you and your team have accomplished this summer will not just be celebrated as a great moment for English football but as one that encouraged and inspired young women like my own daughter.

Good luck @Lionesses ! The whole country is behind you so go get that win!  pic.twitter.com/XJ0046KbcT  Harry Kane (@HKane) July 31, 2022

For those watching at Wembley, the main road up to the stadium will be a no-drinking zone due to the chaos which overshadowed last years mens final.

Thousands of ticketless fans forced their way into the stadium ahead of England v Italy in summer 2021  though this years final is expected to attract a different audience.
Roberto Firmino does not want to leave Liverpool, seemingly dispelling any suggestion he could join Juventus.

Serie A giants Juve had been linked with making a move for Firmino, who has just one year remaining on his deal at Anfield.

Previously a guaranteed starter for Jurgen Klopp, Firmino's place in Liverpool's starting XI is no longer assured, with Diogo Jota having excelled since his arrival from Wolves and Darwin Nunez signing from Benfica.

Sadio Mane also filled in centrally for much of last season, with Luis Diaz having taken up a place on the left, but the Senegal forward has now departed for Bayern Munich.

With Jota sidelined through injury, Firmino  who scored just five league goals last season  started in Liverpool's Community Shield clash with Manchester City on Saturday, which the Reds went on to win 3-1.

Roberto Firmino scored five league goals last season

Afterwards, Firmino told TNT Brazil he has no intention of leaving Liverpool.

"I love this team, city and [the] fans," the 30-year-old said. "I'm here at Liverpool, and I want to stay, of course."

Firmino played 59 minutes against City at the King Power Stadium, having one shot and creating one chance.

He was replaced by Nunez, who played a pivotal role in Liverpool's victory, winning a penalty that Mohamed Salah converted to put the Reds back in front after Julian Alvarez's equaliser, before scoring late in stoppage time.

Nunez became the fourth player under Klopp to net on his Liverpool debut  after Mane, Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

Klopp had previously emphasised Firmino's importance, saying on Thursday that the former Hoffenheim attacker was "the heart and soul of this team".
A retweet by Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, showing Rishi Sunak stabbing Boris Johnson in the back, has been branded "dangerous" by a fellow Conservative MP.

The picture has the prime minister and the former chancellor's faces imposed onto those of Roman leader Julius Caesar and one of the men who conspired against and killed him, Brutus.

Greg Hands, who is backing the former chancellor in the Tory leadership race, told Sky News the social media post was "appalling", especially after the fatal stabbing of Southend MP Sir David Amess in his constituency last year.

"It is not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David... so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even," he said.

"I do find it distasteful and I do find it, less than a year after the stabbing of our colleague, in very, very poor taste, even verging on dangerous."

But an unnamed ally of Ms Dorries, who is backing Liz Truss in the leadership race, said: "It's quite obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar which has been clearly photoshopped to provide political commentary.

"There were similar cartoons involving [Michael] Gove in 2016. Some people of course will want to be wilfully offended."

The culture secretary has been a staunch defender of the prime minister, and a fierce critic of those who contributed to his downfall.

It is not the first time she has caused controversy on social media, tweeting last week about the price of Mr Sunak's suits, compared to the foreign secretary's earrings from Claire's Accessories.

She also wrote a damning piece in Saturday's Daily Mail, accusing Mr Sunak of "planning a coup for a very long time" and saying she commented on his dress sense to "alert Tory members not to be taken in by appearances in the way that happened to many of us who served with the chancellor in Cabinet".

Ms Dorries added: "The assassin's gleaming smile, his gentle voice and even his diminutive stature had many of us well and truly fooled."

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But Mr Hands said the increasingly bitter contest to become the next Tory leader - and prime minister of the UK - needed to be "fought on the issues and on the leadership qualities" of the two candidates, rather than insults.

Former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis, who is backing Ms Truss in the campaign, said the post did not represent the foreign secretary's views, adding: "It's certainly not the sort of thing I would tweet."

He told Sky News that Ms Dorries is "well-known for having strong views on things" and "speaks for herself", but said: "I think we have all got to make sure that we remember we are one party, we come back together, we work together.

"We will have different views and the whole point of the leadership campaign is that both the candidates and their teams outline their differences of opinion so that the members can then choose who they think is the best person to lead our party and to lead our country."

Fellow Sunak supporter and Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland also condemned the retweet, telling BBC Radio Wales: "I think that sort of imagery and narrative is not just incendiary, it's wrong.

"I think it's time for those who think that an argument about Prada shoes or earrings is more important, for instance, should wind their neck in and let people talk about the issues rather than the personality."

Meanwhile, the candidates are continuing to make their policy pitches to the Conservative Party membership, who will begin voting this week.

Mr Sunak has pledged to introduce a temporary 10 fine for NHS patients who fail to attend a GP appointment, while Ms Truss described herself as the "education prime minister" with a plan that includes replacing failing academies with "a new wave of free schools".

The pair will campaign over the summer, with a number of hustings and a head-to-head debate on Sky News, hosted by Kay Burley.

The winner will then be announced on 5 September, and is expected to move into Number 10 the day after.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will take part in a head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday 4 August at 8pm hosted by Kay Burley.

If you would like to be a member of the live studio audience and be in with a chance of asking a question, please apply here.
The pope has said he would be ready to resign one day if serious health problems prevented him from running the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis said his advancing age and difficulty walking have ushered in a new, slower phase of his papacy.

"I don't think I can continue doing trips with the same rhythm as before," the 85-year-old told reporters aboard the plane returning to Rome from a week-long trip in Canada.

The pontiff had visited Canada to apologise for the Catholic Church's role in schools where indigenous children were abused.

For the past few months, he has been using a wheelchair, cane, or walker because of knee pain caused by a fracture and inflamed ligament.

"I think that at my age and with this limitation I have to preserve myself a bit in order to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside," Francis said.

He has previously said he could follow in the footsteps of Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign instead of rule for life.

"It's not strange. It's not a catastrophe. You can change the pope," he said.

"The door is open. It is one of the normal options. Up until today, I did not use that door. I did not think it was necessary to think of this possibility but that does not mean that the day after tomorrow I don't start thinking about it."

He added: "This trip was a bit of a test. It is true that I can't make trips in this condition. Maybe the style has to change, make fewer trips, make the trips I have promised to make, re-jig things. But it will be the Lord who decides. The door is open."

During his trip to Canada, the pope donned an indigenous feathered headdress before going on to say the forced assimilation of native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures and severed their families.

He apologised for Christian support of the "colonising mentality" of the times" and added: "With shame and unambiguously, I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples."

More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and cultures in an effort to "Christianise" and assimilate them into mainstream society.
In this rural part of Kentucky, it's easy to see how so much rain in such a short time could be so devastating.

The topography is perfect for flash floods. Steep hillsides, narrow valleys. And some of America's poorest communities living in this stunning part of the central United States.

From the air, Kentucky's governor, Andy Beshear absorbed the damage below - he looked down at one community of many where they will have to start again, if they survived.

The number known not to have made it continues to rise - victims of flash floods which swamped these small Appalachian towns in minutes. And from everyone, the same reaction: they have never seen anything like this before.

The rain had fallen through the night.

So much, so fast, that there was little or no time to escape.

Entire homes, not built to withstand anything like this, were lifted and moved.

"It's bad. It really is," local firefighter Glenn Caudil, said.

"I've been a fireman almost 27 years and this is the worst I've ever seen. People unaccounted for, probably 95% of the people in this area here's lost everything. Houses, cars, animals. It's heart-breaking. It really is."

Scores have been airlifted from homes cut off. And it's not just floods, but mudslides too. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed.

It is another unprecedented. catastrophic weather event. Again, whole communities have been wiped out. And its feared entire families too.

"We had to swim out. And it was cold, it was over my head, so, it was scary," local resident Rachel Patton said.

Roads have been washed away, power lines are down, water supply is off and the mobile signal, in places, has been cut. All of it makes the rescue effort that much harder.

President Biden has now declared this a major disaster, unlocking federal funding and personnel. It is only seven months since he did the same for the same state after tornadoes ripped across this place.

For now, the focus is on rescuing, they hope more will be found alive, but the number of dead may double. And more rain is expected on Sunday.
Hundreds of firefighters are continuing their efforts to tackle a wildfire that has been burning in the Czech Republic's Bohemia Switzerland National Park for a week. So far around 1100 hectares have been destroyed.

Some 700 emergency service workers are on the scene, including Swedish firefighters who arrived in the Czech Republic on Friday to help using firefighting aircraft. Slovakia, Poland and Italy have also been assisting.

A firefighter was seriously injured while working at the fire on Saturday afternoon after he fell off a cliff. A helicopter transported him to the hospital. He is not in life-threatening danger. Two other firefighters were also injured the same day and taken to seek medical attention.

According to Martina Gotzova, the spokesperson for the Hradec Kralove region's fire brigade, they have deployed all the aviation equipment they have to tackle the fires. This includes six helicopters and five aeroplanes.

However, there is some optimism. A few areas have been given the all clear and the 500 people who had to evacuate Vysoka Lipa have been allowed to return. The local fire brigade is also making progress in reducing the blazes.

In Germany's nearby Saxon Switzerland natural reserve, authorities are also dealing with fires. Numerous new sources were reported on Sunday.

In Bernsdorf, in Upper Lusatia, police are investigating whether a fire in a forest, that has now been extinguished, may be arson.
MEXICO CITY, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican Caribbean is facing an ecological catastrophe due to a contagious disease that has damaged up to 50 percent of marine coral species, said Lorenzo Alvarez Filip, a researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"This is a disease of tissue loss in hard corals, whose pathogen is still unknown, but it is associated with intense human activity in the region, with hotels, docks, wastewater and its poor treatment," Alvarez, who is a marine scientist at the Reef Systems Unit in Puerto Morelos in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, told Xinhua recently.

The disease, which is highly contagious and can kill coral colonies in days or weeks, was first detected off the coast of Miami, Florida in the United States in 2014, Alvarez said.

"At the moment, the disease has spread throughout the Mexican Caribbean. In the Caribbean Sea, there are approximately 50 species of coral; this disease has attacked half of them -- that is, from 20 to 25. It is lethal, it is changing ecology," he added.

Among the most affected species are pillar, labyrinth, and brain coral, whose mortality rate is greater than 90 percent.

Over the course of two months, the disease spread from the Mexican island of Cozumel to places such as Belize, Honduras, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and Alvarez said it could continue to spread throughout the Caribbean Sea or even farther.

"What is known is that locally, it is very easy for each organism to become infected through water, since that same liquid is carrying the disease from one place to another at an accelerated rate," he said.

Corals are organisms that serve as natural barriers against the impact of hurricanes and storms, protecting beaches.

They are also an important source of food for communities along the coasts and could generate income in tourism and fishing industries.

To avoid mass extinction, Alvarez recommended efforts to recover the coral population that has already been lost. "We can keep genetic material frozen to prevent its loss and, after environmental conditions improve, replant it," he said.

In addition, the scientist called on people who visit coral reefs to "be responsible for every action they take on the beaches and in the Caribbean Sea" and to take care of the planet's flora and fauna.

Mexico is one of the 12 most biologically diverse countries due to the large number of terrestrial, aquatic, and marine species that live within its territory, according to a study by Mexican National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity. 
HCM CITY  Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank  ticker code HDB) has announced its business results for the first half of 2022, with profit before tax reaching VN5.304 trillion (US$227.4 million), up 26.5 per cent year-over-year, and meeting 54 per cent of its full-year plan.

The parent banks fee income rose 113 per cent year-on-year and separate non-performing loan ratio was only 0.93 per cent.

Building on the encouraging results of the first quarter, in the second quarter all key performance indicators of HDBank, including quantitative and qualitative indicators, rose significantly.

Consolidated total operating income and profit before tax reached VN5.582 trillion ($239.16 million) and VN2.776 trillion ($118.94 million) in Q2, up 31.2 per cent and 32.6 per cent year-over-year, respectively.

Cumulatively, for the first half of 2022, total operating income reached VN10.704 trillion, up 27.1per cent year-on-year, in which net interest income rose by 25.8 per cent year-on-year, non-interest income rose by 32.6 per cent year-on-year.

The bancassurance and other cashless payment services achieved robust growth with net fee income doubling that of the same period last year.

HDBank has well-managed expenses and implemented technologies to improve productivity and enhance risk management, resulting in the modest increase of just 19.4 per cent year-over-year in operating expenses.

Cost-income ratio improved to 37 per cent from 39.4 per cent a year earlier. Profitability ratios including ROAE and ROAA were 25.6 per cent and 2.24 per cent respectively, which are higher than those of last year.

Prudential ratios are at healthy levels with CAR (under Basel II) reached 14.9 per cent - the market-leading level.

The parent banks NPL ratio was 0.93 per cent and loan loss reserve ratio reached the comfortable level of 109 per cent.

HDBank is implementing the plan to raise charter capital as approved by AGM by issuing about 503 million shares to distribute its 2021 dividend by stocks, at the payout ratio of 25 per cent.

Upon completion, charter capital will increase to VN25.303 trilion from VN20.273 trillion. The re-investment of retained earnings into the banks business activities will further strengthen its financial capability, making it ready for strong business growth and profit generation according to the strategy approved by shareholders.

As of June 30, total mobilised funds exceeded VN340 trillion. Total consolidated lending reached over VN245 trillion, up 14.8 per cent from that of the end of last year. Customers, including those in rural areas, exporters, supply chain clients, household businesses, micro-businesses and those eligible for green finance programmes, all enjoyed HDBanks favourable lending programmes.

In addition to strong business performance, HDBank is also paying great attention to its corporate social responsibility. The bank collaborated with Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper to launch the cashless payment fair for workers in industrial zones to provide them with the chance to experience cashless payment solutions and online account opening.

HDBank also contributed in the financing for house construction to honour and show appreciation of families who made great contribution to national revolution, supported localities vulnerable to floods and storms in central provinces, awarded scholarships to underprivileged students who achieved good performance at universities.

Positive operating results achieved in the first six months of 2022 showcased HDBanks capability to effectively implement business plans and digitial transformation to further improve productivity, customer experience and create synergy effects among all members within the large ecosystem of the group.

This is also a sign that the strategy to achieve strong growth both in business scale and quality in a new development period is gradually being realised and has resulted in good value to shareholders and investors.  VNS
Investors watch stock indices at a trading floor in Ha Noi. VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  The stock market ended the week on a negative note as increased selling pressure made indices reverse to fall in the final minutes of trading.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index lost 0.15 per cent to end at 1,206.33 points.

The market's breadth stood negative with 189 advancers and 239 decliners.

The market's liquidity was low with 590.3 million shares traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to roughly VN15 trillion (US$642.6 million).

Following the gain of the previous day, the market opened with positive movements. The uptrend lasted but reversed strongly at the end of the session when selling pressure broke the buying force in the market, said BIDV Securities Co.

Market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers. Liquidity exceeded the average trading threshold of VN10 trillion, showing that the cash flow is returning to the market when the news of Q2 business results creates a positive psychological effect on investors.

Foreign investors were net sellers on the HSX and net buyers on the HNX. VN-Index is expected to maintain its trading trend in the range of 1,200-1,250 points in the next trading sessions, the company said.

The VN30-Index echoed the market pattern but with much larger losses. It dropped 0.33 per cent to stay at 1,232.00 points. In the basket, 15 stocks climbed and 15 slid.

In the VN-30 basket, Vingroup (VIC), Masan Group (MSN) and Tien Phong Bank (TPB) were the three companies that had the worst impact on the VN-Index, dropping 4.5 per cent, 3.5 per and 2.2 per cent, respectively. The counterweights were Vinhomes (VHM), Sabeco (SAB) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID), gaining 1.9 per cent, 4 per cent and 2 per cent.

The HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) lost 0.42 per cent to reach 288.61 points.

More than 62 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VN1.22 trillion. VNS
The Consulate General of Indonesia in Ho Chi Minh City will hold a dedicated business forum event titled Remarkable Business Indonesia-Vietnam on July 29, in a bid to help companies from both nations to explore investment possibilities in their respective markets.

This year offers great momentum for economic recovery, said the Consulate General in a statement released last week. Therefore, it is imperative to encourage more Indonesian investors interest to further contribute to the economic recovery by giving recognition to those existing and growing companies.

Chairman of the HCMC Peoples Committee Phan Van Mai (R) receives Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Denny Abdi./ photo: sggpnews

Last week, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son paid an official visit to Indonesia and hosted the fourth Vietnam-Indonesia Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation. The event aimed to assess the overall outcomes of cooperation in all sectors, from politics, defence, investment, and trade to culture and social affairs.

Both sides agreed on new plans to facilitate the two nations enterprises to conduct trade and business activities, and seek investment opportunities to expand and diversify investment, especially in the sectors of fishery, infrastucture construction, renewable energy, high technology, and digital transformation. Both sides will also soon sign an MoU on rice cooperation for the next four years. Indonesia will also facilitate Vietnamese Halal products in its market. The pair will also consider opening new air routes in service of their tourism, trade, and investment ties.

According to the Indonesian Embassy to Vietnam, many businesses are targeting Vietnam as an attractive business destination. They operate in a raft of industries such as coal, education, automobile components, infrastructure, property, consumer products, and agriculture.

Coal miner Intra Asia Indonesia is reported to be working with Vietnamese agencies about a plan to construct a $1 billion coal port in Vietnams central region. A few years ago, this group inked an MoU on forging cooperation in coal trading and seaport investment with Hong Phat Group. The delay in implementation of this project is ascribed to some difficulties in procedures. The port, with a designed capacity of 15-20 million tonnes of coal per year, will be largely used for cargo and logistics that will serve export and import between both nations, especially coal.

Meanwhile, Indonesian animal feed producer Japfa Comfeed Vietnam is expected to continue pumping money into this country. At the end of 2020, the group was granted an investment certificate to invest more than $40 million into an animal livestock production project worth $230 million in the southern province of Binh Phuoc.

In addition to this, the company is working with the worlds leading companies in breed genetic technology, building and developing a system of breeding farms for great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents to create sources suitable for local conditions with competitive price in Binh Phuoc, with the number of employees by 2025 set to be over 1,000.

Arif Widjaja, general director of Japfa Comfeed Vietnam, told VIR, This $230 million project demonstrates our long-term commitment in business and investment in Vietnam. Being one of Japfas three key markets in Asia, Vietnam is always our prime priority in the groups expansion strategy.

According to the Consulate General of Indonesia, there are around 40 Indonesian companies in Vietnam, with most located in the southern region. The sectors range from spare parts, manufacturing products, fast-moving consumer goods, chemicals, plastic and aluminium, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics to transportation, travel, and logistics. These companies produce goods and services for the Vietnamese market, as well as for exports.

As one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, driven by export-oriented manufacturing, foreign direct investment, and increasingly strong domestic demand, Vietnam is attracting the attention of investors worldwide, the Consulate General said. Despite the disruptions over the past couple of years, many Indonesian companies are still eager to expand their footprint in Vietnam, primarily through mergers and acquisitions.

Many groups have been successfully operating in Vietnam, including Thang Long Cement, Ciputra Group, Dynaplast Vietnam, Japfa Comfeed, Akebono Brake Astra Vietnam, and Vietmindo Energitama. As of June 20, Vietnam had 101 valid projects by Indonesian investors registered at $618 million. Vietnam also has 17 valid ventures registered at $59 million in Indonesia, operating in commerce, IT, and agriculture.
Taking samples for SARS-CoV-2 testing in Vientiane (Photo: VNA)

Vientiane  Lao health authorities are concerned about a new wave of COVID-19 after 86 new cases were recorded on July 27 alone, 70 of which were in the capital Vientiane.

The Ministry of Health's Centre for Information, Education & Health said the daily number of COVID-19 cases is rising, from 23 on July 24 to 26 on July 25, 62 on July 26 and 86 on July 27.

Health authorities warned that the cases would continue to surge if people do not follow COVID-19 prevention measures.

The centre called on people to continue strictly following prevention measures and getting vaccinated.

Laos has so far logged 210,963 cases of COVID-19, with 662 deaths.
Illustrative image. (Photo: Bangkokpost.com)

Bangkok  The Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) projects exports of Thai electronic products will rise by a modest 4.1pc this year from 4.22 billion USD earned in 2021.

The SCBs Economic Intelligence Centre (EIC) said export growth for electronic products this year has slowed from the 16.5pc increase seen in 2021.

According to the centre, the 2021 export growth was driven by demand for electronic parts and computer parts in response to work-from-home and online education trends.

Demand for electronic parts from Thailand was still high but exports would be hampered by the global economic slowdown and semiconductor shortage, it said.
Wignaraja commended the province for their unwavering commitment to adapting to the effects of a changing climate through various resilience-building initiatives.

UN assistant secretary-general and UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific Kanni Wignaraja met with local people in Thanh Hoa to advance cooperation to build community resilience

Since 2017, the Vietnamese government, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and the UNDP have regenerated and planted more than 337 hectares of mangroves and constructed 1,403 resilient houses for poor, near-poor, and women-headed households. This project, "Improving the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities to climate change-related impacts", has benefited more than 8,000 people in Thanh Hoa province.

Le Duc Giang, Vice Chairman of Thanh Hoa Peoples Committee, expressed his gratitude for the support of the UNDP in enhancing the resilience and livelihoods of local communities.

Both the leaders emphasised the shared desire for further cooperation between the UNDP and the province to build more resilient houses; regenerate mangrove forests in ways that engage local communities with livelihoods; as well as increase local knowledge in disaster risk management.

"Mangroves are among the most effective nature-based solutions, said UNDP resident representative in Vietnam Caitlin Wiesen, who joined the mangrove plantation. They are a source of sustainable livelihoods such as aquaculture and beekeeping, while contributing to carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, protect lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. They create a common benefit, both for reducing global climate change impacts and helping people to improve their livelihoods and income, as well as increasing the forest cover rate in Vietnam. They help Vietnam to achieve its climate and development ambitions in a resilient and sustainable way."

To identify safe locations for building resilient homes, the project has also conducted a series of community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) activities, including risk assessments. To date, over 8,000 people (with over 50 percent women) have benefited from these trainings across the province, thus being able to assess the risks posed by disasters and climate change and develop location-specific disaster risk maps and risk reduction plans.

"According to a recent study by the UNDP and the Ministry of Construction, there is a need to provide resilient housing for an additional 110,000 households in 28 coastal provinces across the country, including over 10,000 in Thanh Hoa province, Wignaraja noted in her meeting with the Thanh Hoa Peoples Committee. More than 8 per cent of the 25,000 resilient houses urgently needed in Vietnam are located in Thanh Hoa's coastal districts. The resilient houses supported by the GCF-funded coastal resilience project have withstood a series of record-level floods and storms in 2020. Given their efficacy together with the tremendous demand for more climate- and disaster-resilient housing, an additional 100 resilient houses will be constructed in Thanh Hoa province during the project extension period.

Meanwhile, Global Environment Facility-funded projects implemented by the UNDP are promoting the sustainable use of the indigenous bamboo forest in Nguyet An commune of Ngoc Lac district, and revitalising traditional lac production for indigenous people in Muong Lat district. These projects serve as examples of a combination of selecting a tree species with high economic value and an open market, using indigenous knowledge with modern farming technologies, and focusing on breeding and intensive farming, with the participation and approval of the people.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (Photo: VNA)

It is expected that this week the US will hold a meeting with representatives from seven ASEAN member states, including Vietnam, on its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.

Whether Vietnam will make up its mind about joining the framework (IPEF) could depend on the outcomes of the meeting, which is set to discuss concrete plans to implement the agreement, including how to boost investment and trade ties between the US and the other 12 nations involved.

US President Joe Biden in May launched the IPEF with a dozen initial partners including Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and others. Together, the countries represent 40 per cent of global GDP.

The IPEF, which focuses on the key pillars of trade, supply chains, clean energy, infrastructure, and tax, is considered an alternative to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the US dropped out of in 2017.

All sides want to see a new cooperation framework featured with benefits for people and enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized ones, said Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, vice director of the Department for Multilateral Economy at the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 14. Vietnam and other ASEAN nations have been meeting on the IPEF. We want to see a framework built up based on principles of openness, inclusiveness, transparency, and suitableness to international laws and the central role of ASEAN, and ensuring the best interests of Vietnam.

At the US-ASEAN Special Summit held in May in Washington, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh described the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the US as special, while President Biden reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to cooperate with Vietnam across many sectors including economy and trade, investment, sustainable development, and climate change.

During meetings on the sidelines of the summit with leaders of major US technology corporations, PM Chinh expected that tech group Intel would continue expanding investment in localities outside Ho Chi Minh City. Last year, Intel invested an additional $475 million in Vietnam, raising the total investment in the country to over $1.5 billion. This is the US largest high-tech investment in Vietnam. Intel has also committed to pumping an additional $2.6 billion in Saigon Hi-Tech Park.

While meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, PM Chinh suggested that Apple focus on investing in business activities in Vietnam. Apples main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, has invested $270 million in the northern province of Bac Giang.

According to Vietnams General Statistics Office, in the first half months of 2022, Vietnams export turnover from the US was estimated to be $55.9 billion, up 22.5 per cent on-year. Accumulatively as of June 20, total US registered investment capital in Vietnam reached $10.87 billion for nearly 1,170 valid projects, making the US the 11th biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. From January-June 20, newly-registered US capital here was $37.8 million or 10.9 per cent of the latters total newly-registered investment.
Foreign tourists at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Vietnam has welcomed 954,600 foreign visitors so far this year, 10 times higher than the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The office reported that in July alone, the country received 352,600 foreign arrivals, up 49% over the previous month and 47.2 times higher than the figure recorded last year, after Vietnam fully reopened its tourism sector and resumed international air routes.

However, the number of international tourists in the January-July period was down 90.3% compared to the same period in 2019 before COVID-19 broke out.

In the period, revenue generated from tourism hit 11.9 trillion VND (509.85 million USD).

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) cited statistics from Google showing that searches for Vietnamese tourism from other countries has risen. Searches for tourist accommodation in Vietnam surged from 25 points in March to 78 points in May, 98 points in June and 100 points in early July. Meanwhile, searches for international fights to Vietnam in early July also tripled that in early March.

Along with making good preparations for a national tourism conference that is slated for early 2023, the VNAT has been asked to strengthen tourism promotion activities abroad, complete the national tourism planning for the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2045, and build new tourism development models.
A new pro choice group is asking Waco officials to instruct local law enforcement to make enforcing state abortion laws their lowest priority, a possibility the Waco City Council plans to discuss at a future meeting.

Waco City Council Member Kelly Palmer said she knew she was breaking with precedent when she called for the council to consider an ordinance deprioritizing local enforcement of abortion limits, but that the issue has a tangible effect on the lives of her constituents in District 4 as well as her own life.

There has been such an outpouring of gratitude from residents, whether those are health care professionals or social service professionals or students or teachers that feel grateful that someone is engaging on this local level, Palmer said.

The Austin City Council recently passed the Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone Act, or Grace Act. Since then the city of Denton has adopted a similar resolution and Dallass city council is discussing the possibility. Discussion of a potential local version of the act, or other type of limit on local enforcement of abortion restrictions, will be placed on a city council agenda.

Waco Mayor Dillon Meek said the council will thoughtfully consider peoples concerns during the hearing of visitors portion of council meetings, but he does not think discussing abortion law is under the citys purview. Meek did not give specific reasons why.

One of Pro-Choice Wacos organizers, Jessica Macias, said the group has been organizing demonstrations and is pushing measures including a local version of the Grace Act in the short term. In the long term, the groups 500 or so McLennan County members may vote on whether to become a political action committee, providing financial backing to Texas political candidates who support legal access to abortions in the state.

One of the groups organizers, Cassie Robertson, a disabled veteran, said she was prohibited from protesting until recently, when she ended a seven-year Army career as a combat medic that included nine months in Afghanistan, and moved from Fort Hood to Waco.

Many in my friend group felt similarly, had strong feelings about losing what we consider to be a human right, Robertson said.

She said her biggest priority is to get the city council to consider measures like the Grace Act or other measures that deprioritize enforcement of the states abortion ban against people seeking abortions and against doctors looking to prescribe medications that can be used to induce abortions in certain circumstances, including the methotrexate she takes for arthritis, or prescribe medically necessary abortions.

Its torture, Robertson said. Thats psychological, mental, emotional, physical torture. These women are being held to the brink of death, before theyre allowed to have a medically necessary abortion.

Pro-Life Waco Director John Pisciotta said he expects the community to react strongly and attend the next council meeting in larger numbers.

There are many people like myself that find it an abomination that this is even mentioned at the city council, Pisciotta said. And of course were a divided country, were a divided city. There are people in our city that love it, that just think its great that we can maybe defend abortion by such a maneuver.

Emma Church, a local clinical psychologist who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder, spoke at the July 19 city council meeting. She warned listeners she would be discussing sexual assault and domestic violence. Church said abortion is a mental health issue, and she is especially worried for patients suffering intimate partner violence, and for transgender and nonbinary people and others who have already suffered chronic abuse.

Im a single mother, survivor of domestic violence and a rape survivor, Church said. If pregnancy had been used by my abuser to exert control, I may never have gotten free of the cycle of abuse.

Church said she has already seen the effect of abortion limits on her patients mental health.

Ive observed that for many white women, the overturn of Roe v. Wade has opened their eyes to their own lived experiences. Things like spousal rape, sexual assault, spiritual abuse, chronic trauma, control and coercion are only now being processed in light of this historic removal of human rights, Church said.

She said women in minority groups, on the other hand, have known their rights were in danger for much longer.

Megan Thornhill, who called herself a pro-choice advocate, asked how much of the citys public safety funding would be dedicated to enforcing state abortion laws. She also cited a 2022 study published in American Law and Economics Review, The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two Decades, which estimates crime fell 17.5% from 1998 to 2014 due to legalized abortion.

There is an inversely proportional relationship between access to abortion and criminal activity, and the changes are expected to occur incrementally and increase over time, she said. Its clear that criminalizing abortion without reducing unwanted pregnancies has an immense social cost that will necessitate allocating more taxpayer funds toward dealing with the consequences of violent crimes that will inevitably result in future decades.

Cheryl Foster said Waco has a time-honored tradition of sweeping uncomfortable issues under the rug and that she was not surprised by the councils neutrality.

If you want to keep it neutral, watch your data, Foster said. Watch your funding, watch your police, watch your (District Attorney), and well be watching you.
The pace of new COVID-19 cases is picking up again in the Waco area, and the dashboard the public and media have relied on for more than two years of the pandemic indicates 11 local deaths for July, the most since the tail end of the omicron winter wave.

However, just four of those 11 deaths happened this month, said Dr. Farley Verner, health authority for the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District. Since early in the pandemic, the health district has been listing deaths of McLennan County residents by the month they are reported to the health district, not the month the person died.

This means a person may have passed away in June, but processing of their report could take weeks, pushing the countys notification of the fatality to July or even later. Rather than going back and changing Junes numbers, the county records the new report as part of Julys death toll on its dashboard.

While the reporting of fatalities timing may be unclear at first glance, the number points to experts expectation that the current wave of cases will be less deadly than previous waves because of greater community immunity, better treatment options, and a less virulent strain fueling the surge. Officials also said the majority of the McLennan County residents who have died recently of COVID-19 were older than 65, almost all had conditions that complicated their illness, and about two-thirds had no vaccination record.

The county was seeing a case rate comparable to todays in late 2020, with around 150 new cases per day. However it received reports of 44 deaths of residents that November, 86 that December and 76 in January of last year. These numbers suggest a less fatal wave hitting now than previously.

Verner said he does not think the average person would discern the difference in reports of fatalities versus fatalities within the month, and the usefulness of the data is in identifying trends rather than using it as an early warning system.

If anything, a correct title for the deaths by month graph would be to say deaths reported by month, Verner said.

Vaidehi Shah, the health districts senior epidemiologist, said officials chose to present deaths by when the report was received to avoid confusion and lack of trust. Changing a previous months total based on a newly received death report could have created the perception the health district was tampering with historical data. Officials also did clarify their approach at the time they implemented it.

Although the dashboard is updated daily, and weekly reports may show different data sets relating to similar concepts, Shah assures both accounts are accurate.

However, a couple recent weekly reports posed issues of their own.

Although the reports are released weekly, the most recent two were not available until Thursday when Verner noticed their absence on the countys site.

As of Thursday, the weekly reports also were inconsistent in places, showing numbers of new cases and fatalities for one week that change in the next weeks report.

For example, the weekly report for July 2 through July 8 showed 952 new cases, a seven-day average of COVID-19 hospital admissions of 13 and zero fatalities for the week.

In contrast, the next weekly report for July 9 through July 15 recorded the previous weeks new case count as just 717, with an average of 20 hospital admissions and one fatality.

Shah said Friday that the discrepancies were because of typos and errors in formula calculations, but they have been corrected.

It wont happen again going forward, Shah said.

Outside the local health districts numbers, the Texas Department of State Health Services website reports a different total number of fatalities in McLennan County.

Shah said the difference is because of how each entity collects reports of fatalities. She said the state tallies fatalities based on the county listed on death certificates, which creates a lag in reporting.

The local health district is generally able to give a quicker report, with fatalities being recorded by hospitals, nursing homes and mortuaries, she said.

Another layer in the issue of accurately reporting COVID-19 comes along with the use of at-home tests.

Dr. Benjamin Wilson, internal medicine specialist at Waco Family Medicine, said with people testing at home, those positive and negative results are not reported and added to the countys number.

The confounder again is the usage of the home tests because were not aware how often people are doing a test at their home then going to their provider to confirm, Wilson said. Theres no one metric we can look at right now to give us a highly accurate snapshot of how COVID is in our community currently.

Despite limitations with specifics of some data, health officials still anticipate a smaller and less deadly wave of COVID-19 than seen previously.

The ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases may be larger than the community has been used to seeing in recent months, but not as large as the spike last winter, according to Shah.

With little or no restrictions regarding masking or distancing, open travel and the start of a new school year are both threats likely to increase the spread of the virus, Shah said. Although these factors can increase cases, Wilson said he does not expect the start of classes to be the sole cause of a COVID-19 wave.

Wilson said the BA.5 strain, a subvariant of the omicron strain that drove last winters wave, is responsible for the current wave of COVID-19. BA.5 is the predominant variant in the United States today.

Like omicron, the BA.5 variant is more easily transmissible than the delta variant.

Estimates are that roughly, for every one person that gets the BA.5 strain, 10 people will get it from them, Wilson said.

Shah said, while contagious, BA.5 tends to cause less severe illness than other strains, leading to fewer hospitalizations and hopefully fewer deaths.

Lower hospitalizations compared to delta and omicron waves may also be a result of immunity built up from immunizations and prior infection, Wilson said.

Verner echoed this and said new variants are likely to cause milder illness because a larger percentage of the population is protected by vaccination or previous infection.

Shah said the majority of people who have died from COVID-19 in Waco recently were over the age of 65, an age group that has been at a greater risk than others over the last two years of the pandemic. She also said almost all of them had preexisting conditions, leading to more complications and a higher risk of fatality.

Verner said from the 12 fatalities he has recorded in the last two months, eight people had no vaccination record, meaning they were either unvaccinated or were vaccinated in another state.

The best we can tell, two-thirds of deaths are in unvaccinated people, at least locally, Verner said.

Vaccination is still an important preventive measure people should take, Shah said. Vaccination often decreases the severity of symptoms in infected people and can improve the outlook of recovery.

Wilson said he encourages masking when in large groups and keeping up with vaccinations. Wilson also said new oral medications Paxlovid and Molnupiravir seem to be effective for people who test positive for the virus, especially those who are unvaccinated.

I recommend that anyone, particularly unvaccinated people, that has a positive test be in touch with their health care provider to ask about the possibility of the new oral medications for COVID, Wilson said.

Even with a growing base of information, Shah said it is hard to predict what surges will look like going forward. Conditions like the flu or other seasonal diseases have undergone years of research, making it easier to pinpoint fluctuations in cases and strain mutations. With COVID-19, there is still much to learn.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.

Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula told The Associated Press on Saturday. He was 98.

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.

The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists and is credited with helping the U.S. win the war.

Samuel Sandoval was on Okinawa when got word from another Navajo Code Talker that the Japanese had surrendered and relayed the message to higher-ups. He had a close call on the island, which brought back painful memories that he kept to himself, Malula Sandoval said.

The Navajo men are celebrated annually on Aug. 14. Samuel Sandoval was looking forward to that date and seeing a museum built near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock to honor the Code Talkers, she said.

Sam always said, I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world," she said Saturday. That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy.

Sandoval was born in Nageezi near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after attending a Methodist school where he was discouraged from speaking Navajo. He helped recruit other Navajos from the school to serve as Code Talkers, expanding on words and an alphabet that an original group of 29 Navajos created.

Sandoval served in five combat tours and was honorably discharged in 1946. The Code Talkers had orders not to discuss their roles  not during the war and not until their mission was declassified in 1968.

The roles later became an immense source of pride for Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, who also was a Code Talker. The two became talented speakers who always hailed their fellow Marines still in action as the heroes, not themselves, said Merrill Sandoval's daughter, Jeannie Sandoval.

We were kids, all growing up and we started to hear about the stories, she said. We were so proud of them, and there weren't very many brothers together.

Sandoval was curious, always reading the local newspapers, and attending community, veterans, Code Talker and legislative meetings. He enjoyed traveling and sharing what he learned, grounded in his Dine beliefs and the Navajo way of life, said one of his daughters, Karen John.

It was engrained early in me, to be part of the community," she said. He was really involved in a lot, some of which I couldn't comprehend as a kid.

Samuel Sandoval often told his story, chronicled in a book and documentary of the same name  Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior  at the Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez, Colorado. He had a favorite folding chair there with vinyl padding and took coffee black, said executive director Rebecca Levy.

Levy said Sandoval's talks drew dozens of people, some of whom had to be turned away because of space limitations.

It was a great opportunity for people who understood how important the Navajo Code Talkers were to the outcome of the war, in our favor ... to thank him in person, Levy said.

Sandoval's health had been declining in recent years, including a fall in which he fractured a hip, Malula Sandoval said. His last trip was to New Orleans in June where he received the American Spirit Award from the National World War II Museum, she said. MacDonald, Kinsel and Begay also were honored.

Sandoval and his wife met while he was running a substance abuse counseling clinic, and she was a secretary, she said. They were married 33 years. Sandoval raised 11 children from previous marriages and in blended families, John said.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Sandoval will be remembered as a loving and courageous person who defended his homeland using his sacred language.

We are saddened by his passing, but his legacy will always live on in our hearts and minds, Nez said in a statement.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon said Sandoval's life was guided by character, courage, honor and integrity, and his impact will forever be remembered.

May he rest among our most resilient warriors, Damon said in a statement.

Funeral services are pending.

This story was first published on July 31, 2022. It was updated on July 31, 2022 to correct the name of Sandovals book and documentary. Its Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior, not Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrier.
WATERLOO  Police continue to investigate an early Sunday shooting that damaged at least two homes and led police to cordon off a block while they waited to search a house.

Officers were called to a report of gunshots on Leavitt Street around 5:40 a.m., and police found a hole in a window at 1208 Leavitt and damage to siding at 1214 Leavitt. Several vehicles were also damaged.

No injuries were reported.

Authorities turned their attention to a home at 1126 Leavitt St., and they were able to get a group of people to exit the home.

Officers were concerned others were still inside, and the departments tactical team entered around 11 a.m. and found no one else at the house.

Crime scene officers photographed damage to the homes and collected spent shell casings and bullets from the scene.

No further information was immediately available on any charges.
CEDAR FALLS  Forensic experts are re-examining unidentified fingerprints in the 1975 slaying of a Cedar Falls family.

Jerry Allen Mark, 79, is serving a life prison sentence for murder in the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law, Les and Jorjean Mark, and their two children, Julie, 5, and Jeff, 18 months.

Prosecutors allege Jerry Mark shot and killed the family in their sleep because of a disagreement over inheritance of the family farm.

Jerry Mark has always said he is innocent of the crime, and over the years some of the evidence presented to the jury at his original trial has been debunked. The case even came close to a retrial in 2006.

Efforts to re-examine the case resumed in 2018 when the State Public Defenders Office asked the court to review evidence as part of a U.S. Department of Justice grant to review convictions in cases that involved hair microscopy.

Then in 2021, the office sought to duplicate 8 mm film of Jerry Mark walking that was in evidence. The film had been used with testimony about his gait as it related to footprints found at the scene.

The defense team is now reviewing chrome cupboard drawer pulls, bullets, a basement electrical panel and a note about the will found in a coat in the bedroom that investigators seized to check for fingerprints. They are also taking another look at lifts of a palm or glove print found on a stairway wall at the home and prints on doors to the master bedroom.

Several latent finger or palm prints from the crime scene have never been identified and have not been searched using modern technology in greatly expanded national databases, Assistant Public Defender Erica Nichols Cook wrote in a motion seeking testing.

She wrote that three prints didnt come from the victims, Jerry Mark, investigators or others documented at the scene. No matches for those prints could be found in Automated Fingerprint Identification System database searches in 1990 and 1994.

A fingerprint examiner from Illinois was tapped to make digital reproductions of the print evidence and compare it with Next Generation Identification, the FBIs current fingerprint database, according to court filings.

FBI NGI also now contains more than 60 million civil (non-arrest) fingerprint records non-existent in the FBIs AFIS before July 2001, Nichols Cook wrote. Besides the additional prints on file, the new database has three times greater accuracy, according to court records.

More recently, defense attorneys asked to review evidence locked in a courthouse cabinet.

At the time of the crime, Cedar Falls native Jerry Mark lived in Berkeley, Calif.

Authorities allege he rode his motorcycle back to Iowa, killed the family with a revolver Nov. 1, 1975, and then hit the road to return to California.

Witnesses at trial in 1976 included a Paso Robles, Calif., gun store employee who testified he sold .38 Long Colt ammunition to Jerry Mark before the murders. Experts claimed trace elements in the lead in other .38 Long Colt bullets at the shop matched the lead found at the crime scene.

People testified they saw a person matching Jerry Marks description along the route between California and Iowa, and investigators said Jerry Mark gave different accounts of where he went on his motorcycle trip.

Forensic DNA testing wasnt used at the time, but an expert testified that cigarette butts found at the crime scene had saliva with the same blood type  Type O  as Jerry Mark. Les and Jorjean Mark didnt smoke.

Since the conviction, developments in science have cast doubt on the practice of linking bullets by lead testing.

And subsequent examination of the cigarette butts with the advent of DNA testing ruled out Jerry Mark as the smoker.

With those pieces of evidence eliminated, and partly because prosecutors allegedly failed to disclose exculpatory evidence before the trial, a U.S. District Court judge overturned the murder conviction in a 2006 ruling and set the case for retrial.

The following year, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, allowing the guilty verdict to stand.
CEDAR FALLS  The Board of Regents on Wednesday approved two personnel appointments for the University of Northern Iowa.

Gabriela Olivares was named interim associate vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College of Education and Special Programs effective June 10. She has an annual salary of $151,095.

Peter J. Moris was named director of university relations effective July 1 with an annual salary of $155,000. Both appointments were made without discussion as part of the board's consent agenda.

The regents meeting was held at Iowa State University in Ames.
CEDAR FALLS  The search for a new Central Rivers Area Education Agency chief administrator has begun after the board of directors approved a search firm.

The board heard from four recruitment agencies on Wednesday: Grundmeyer Leader Services, GR Recruitment, Grieves/Richardson Consulting, and EDWise Consulting. The board chose GR Recruitment of Council Bluffs to lead the search  although Grundmeyer was a close second choice.

GR Recruitment listed its cost estimate at $15,200. Other proposals were around $19,800 for Grundmeyer, $10,100 for Grieves/Richardson and $9,500 for EDWise. Board officials said Grundmeyers expense was higher because all the costs were known, whereas the others could increase as time went on.

A board member put a motion on the floor to accept Grundmeyer Leader Services as its search firm. But others said they may have been moving too quickly and board president Deb Rich wasnt quite ready to make the approval.

The folks (at Grundmeyer) have been principals and a board member and Im wondering if theyve got the administrative chops to look deeply at a chief administrator, Rich said. Theres a jump in experience in what a principal is expected to handle than a superintendent in a district and the chief in multiple districts and Im wondering if they know what to look for.

A motion was later made and unanimously approved to hire GR Recruitment.

GRs presentation was led by Dick Christie, a former superintendent for Council Bluffs Community Schools, and Lane Plugge, the former administrator for Green Hills AEA in southwest Iowa. Plugge is also a former Iowa City Community Schools superintendent.

The duo said Christie alone has done 130 searches, and their team has done significant searches in Iowa and across the country. They said they conducted chief administrator searches in Green Hills AEA four times as well as for the Grant Wood, Northwest and Mississippi Bend area education agencies.

The Iowa associates, along with Christie and Plugge, include GRs president, Gary Ray; Linda Brock, a former superintendent for Fort Dodge and Fort Madison; Beverly Smith, the former Waterloo Community Schools associate superintendent for human resources and equity; and Dale Monroe, who has held a number of roles in education in the Cedar Valley and across eastern Iowa.

The search will begin Monday and is set to conclude in late December.

The current chief administrator of Central Rivers AEA, Sam Miller, announced his retirement in June. He has led the agency for seven years and will retire at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Central Rivers has more than 500 staff members who provide special education and school improvement services, as well as technology support for the 18 counties in north central and northeastern Iowa. The agency serves over 62,000 students and 5,000 educators.
CEDAR FALLS  Officials have seen increased usage of the public electric vehicle charger on West Second Street since it was installed in late 2019.

According to a memo from City Clerk Jacque Danielsen, that observation will play into a policy decision before the City Council at its 7 p.m. Monday meeting inside the Community Center, 528 Main St.

As part of a pilot program adopted in 2019, only one space had been designated for charging in the downtown area just north of City Hall, despite the unit having two charging cables, said Danielsen.

Danielsen described how signs were posted to indicate its use for charging only, and other vehicles warnings were given in monitoring the space.

She also noted the second cable has been pulled over to other parking areas and even pulled across the sidewalk, creating potential hazards.

As the usage continues to increase, CFU and city staff feel that designation of a second charging space is needed to safely accommodate the additional vehicles wanting to use both charging spaces at this location, she wrote.

Evansdale police chief voices concerns over hiring, staffing issues for his department If 'we lose one more officer, which is very likely,' Police Chief Mike Dean said Evansdale will not be capable of operating a 24/7 department.

On the first of three readings will be a proposed ordinance outlining the enforcement of proper use of the spaces in light of city staff now recommending that a second parking space, adjacent to the first one, be designated for charging.

The new proposal would outlaw anyone from stopping or parking a vehicle in those spots except for the purpose of using one of the electric cords.

Anyone found in violation of the ordinance would be a subject to a $10 fine.

If not paid within 30 days from the date of the violation notice, the fine would increase to $15.

In other business, the council will consider approving:

A $2.69 million construction contract to Reinbeck-based Peterson Contractors, the lone bidder for the project to remove a bridge on Olive Street and expand the adjacent Pettersen Plaza on College Street. That would be done by extending the box culvert to Olive Street. The engineers estimate was $2.2 million.

Plans for a sidewalk assessment project, meant to replace deficient sidewalks and then bill the replacement cost to the owners of the property adjacent to them. Estimated construction cost is $40,591.

A contract with Waterloo-based Ritland+Kuiper Landscape Architects for up to $35,100 in design consultant work for the Seerley Park improvements project.

A site plan for a new 3,666 square foot Veridian Credit Union branch on 1000 Brandilynn Blvd.

Revisions to its public meeting procedures.
Andrew Yang, losing candidate for president and New York City mayor, is one of the founders of the Forward Party. Rob Kim/Getty Images

In June 2022, Gallup asked participants in a U.S. survey about their party membership. In politics, pollsters asked, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat or an independent?

The largest segment of participants  43%  said they were independent. Republicans and Democrats represented 27% each.

Note the lower case i in independent. That means its not a party, as the Democrats and Republicans are. Actual political parties have policies, they have big bank accounts, they have organizations in every state, and they have a place on the ballot in elections.

But if the leaders of a new, centrist political party whose formation was announced on July 28, 2022, accomplish their goal, the Forward Party will attract many voters who no longer identify as Democrats or Republicans and it will become a force for moderation - and an institution - in U.S. electoral politics.

How will we solve the big issues facing America? the founders said at a news conference. Not Left. Not Right. Forward.

Here are three stories from The Conversations archives that analyze the chances of third-party success at changing the U.S. political system.

The Founding Fathers didnt think highly of political parties, with Alexander Hamilton, second from right, saying they were a most fatal disease. Stock Montage/Getty Images

1. Dont count on it

Political scientist Alexander Cohen of Clarkson University acknowledges that the U.S. two-party system has long been besieged. Critics of party politics in general date to the countrys founding.

Alexander Hamilton called political parties a most fatal disease, Cohen writes. James Madison renounced the violence of faction, and George Washington feared that an overly successful party would create frightful despotism.

Still, parties persisted as the vehicles of electoral politics in the country, evolving into the current two-party system from a variety of parties that emerged and died over the past 200 years. An upstart third party is unlikely to dislodge the status quo, Cohen says.

The modern Republicans and Democrats are unlikely to go the way of the Whigs, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, regardless of recent political earthquakes.

2. Its hard to end the party

The American electoral system is the primary reason why the U.S. is the sole major democracy with only two parties consistently capable of electing public officials, writes Hershey. Votes are counted in most American elections using plurality rules, or winner take all. Whoever gets the most votes wins the single seat up for election.

But in many other democracies, Hershey says, multiple political parties can thrive because of a different system of electing representatives. For example, Hershey writes, there are widely used systems that award seats proportionally to the percentage of votes a party wins.

The 1852 Whig Party presidential campaign poster. Within 10 years, the party was no more. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

In the Netherlands, for instance, writes Hershey, even a small third party called the Party for the Animals  composed of animal rights supporters, not dogs and cats  won 3.2% of the legislative vote in 2017 and earned five seats, out of 150, in the national legislature.

If that system existed in the U.S., that would mean even a small party would be smart to run Congressional candidates, because even if the party only got 5% of the vote, they could win 5% of the states U.S. House seats.

But a caveat: Those voters who call themselves independent, or say theyre disappointed by or disillusioned with political parties, are still influenced by vestigial party sentiment. Pollsters find, writes Hershey, that most of these independents actually lean toward either the Democrats or the Republicans, and their voting choices are almost as intensely partisan as those who do claim a party affiliation.

Read more: Why Trump is more likely to win in the GOP than to take his followers to a new third party

3. Winning isnt everything

Not everyone sees failure at the ballot box as the final judgment on U.S. third parties. Winning elections isnt necessarily the goal.

The most successful third parties in U.S. politics dont typically rise to dominance but instead challenge the major parties enough to force them to change course, writes political scientist Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University.

Tamas, who has written a book on U.S. third parties, says that they tend to emerge when Democrats and Republicans are politically polarized  something that has happened periodically since the Civil War. That polarization between parties means larger groups of voters end up being not represented by either one, and the intense contention between them also increases political dissatisfaction.

For the 50 years after the Civil War, the two parties were very polarized. Third parties were aggressive and strong during that period, Tamas writes.

But their aim wasnt to make themselves an institution in a new, multiparty democracy  as the Forward Partys leaders hope now.

For example, the Greenback Party in the 1870s and the Populist Party in the 1890s both aimed, via electoral victories, to force the major parties to adopt policies supporting poor farmers and opposing business monopolies. The Populist Party was especially successful in pressing the Democrats to embrace those positions.

Tamas predicted in 2021 that a new, centrist third party would emerge  very much like the party that made its debut on July 28. He noted that challenging the Trump-influenced GOP would be a main focus of such a party.

The new party could gain strategic advantages by fielding candidates in local and state elections in more moderate places where some Republican candidates have nevertheless chosen to follow their party to the extreme, he writes.

But even if the Forward Party raises money and fields successful candidates, it may not be long in the U.S. political landscape.

The Progressive Party existed for less than a decade, for example, Tamas writes. But by strategically winning the votes of moderate conservatives and thereby undermining Republicans electoral goals, even if briefly, a new third party could stop the GOP from hurtling farther down an extreme and undemocratic path.
BOSTON (AP)  Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story likely will be out a bit longer than expected after manager Alex Cora said a second-opinion exam revealed a a little hairline fracture close to his right wrist.

Story has been on the injured list with a bruise since July 14 after getting hit on the right hand with a pitch during a game on July 12 from Tampa Bay right-hander Corey Kluber. He'll be shut down for roughly another 10 days.

The bone bruise is good, Cora said before Boston hosted Milwaukee at Fenway Park on Saturday. The treatment doesnt change. We treat it the same way were doing it now, kind of like a strain. The only thing we have to do now is shut him down (from swinging) for like a week-and-a-half and see where were at.

The 29-year-old Story signed a $140-million, six-year deal with the Red Sox during spring training after spending his first six big-league seasons with Colorado.

Batting just .221, but with good production (15 homers and a team-leading 58 RBIs) Story has been streaky at the plate in his first season with Boston.

Now, his return to the lineup may be slowed a bit longer.

The doctor feels that we have to keep doing what were doing treatment-wise and we to have shut him down for the 10 days and well see where were at, Cora said.

Cora explained that Story had been feeling discomfort when he swung and wanted the second opinion.

The fading Red Sox enter Saturdays game against Milwaukee having lost 12 of their last 15 games, dropping them to 3  games behind the ALs last wild-card spot and trailing two other teams currently out of playoff position, too.

In addition to Story, Boston has been missing All-Star third baseman Rafael Devers, who has been on the IL since July 23 with right hamstring inflammation.

Cora said he expects him to join the team when it opens a series in Houston next week.

Devers leads the team with a .324 average and and 22 homers along with 55 RBIs.

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Each of my parents had an unwritten list of essentials to take when our family  of, holy cow, eight  left the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth on our annual August vacation.

For example, my mother never crossed the state line without a wide-mouth quart jar filled with soapy water and a washcloth so she could keep her children presentable, presumably in case of a car crash.

I cant count the number of times my face was scrubbed with a soapy, cold washcloth from an upcycled mayonnaise jar.

Also, Mom always packed an oilcloth tablecloth just in case we stopped to eat in the middle of nowhere after leaving home in the middle of the night to arrive in the middle of Missouri or Kentucky or Tennessee two hours early.

But there was never really any just in case. Every year on the first morning of vacation, wed stop at some park for a light breakfast packed by Mom. Light meant everything but the fattened calf: two kinds of breakfast rolls and coffee cake, hard boiled eggs, summer sausage, cheese, a thermos of coffee, a jar of milk, jelly, butter, and silverware.

What, you never took your silverware on vacation?

Every year it happened in the same way: Before the car even came to a complete stop, Mom would pop out of the cars front seat with the tablecloth in one hand and the quart jar of soapy water in the other.

Since we often vacationed with my grandparents, Grandma usually arrived a few minutes later to perform the same tablecloth-mayonnaise jar move within seconds of Moms.

For his part, Dad never left for vacation without his fishing tackle in top condition. Hed spend one night the week before slowly clearing his tackle box of dried minnows from the year before and rewrapping  putting new fishing line on  his best spinning reels.

It was a religious experience to him because, like baptism, this singular immersion in all things fish foretold of salvation  a weeks reprieve, anyway  from 100 Holsteins, three hired men, and endless acres of tall corn, weedy soybeans, and unmowed set-aside.

Almost as spiritual was Dad reacquainting himself with his most sacred possession, an early 1950s, 5 h.p. Johnson outboard motor that would putt-putt him in a sodden, 16-foot wooden fishing boat around some state park lake in search of his great white whale, a bucketful of black crappie.

Getting it ready meant attaching it to a 55-gallon oil drum that he had cut the top out and filled with water. After fiddling with this knob and that valve, hed pull the rope and  blub, blub, blub  it would fire and his wide Im a kid again smile would appear.

My four brothers and I had a ritual, too; wed fight over what clothes to take because we five had to share one suitcase. Mom often settled the civil war by reminding us that whatever we packed had to be washed in the lake because she was not doing laundry on vacation. That limited our already limited wardrobe to cut-off jeans and flip-flops.

I dont remember packing any cooler other than the flimsy styrofoam ones that had a lifespan shorter than a mosquito. I do remember Dad buying blocks of ice for some cooler  maybe it was a tub  that carried the weeks necessities like milk for us, butter for Mom, and Busch Bavarian for himself.

The very best part of every vacation, however, was the evening of the final day. About an hour before arriving home, Dad would pull into some drive-in diner and order hamburgers, french fries, and chocolate milkshakes for everyone. What a treat.

Maybe the most remarkable ritual of all was the fact that we  eight of us in one stuffed, stuffy station wagon  even went on a weeks vacation every August. I had few farm friends that could make the same claim. How did Mom and Dad do it?

If you asked them, Im pretty sure the answer would begin with, Well, get yourself a wide-mouth mayonnaise jar 
Reference: The Courier's July 22 article, Legislature urged by AG to stem tide of overdoses. In the press conference, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said, "State lawmakers should legalize fentanyl test strips and expand availability of naloxone which can reverse the effects of opioid overdose. In 2021 fentanyl was present in 83% of the 470 opioid overdose deaths in Iowa.

Miller doesnt mention that according to U.S. government reports the dominant source of illegally sourced fentanyl has been Mexico and is trafficked principally by land into the U.S. In a recent 12-month period 100,000 Americans have died of fentanyl and similar drugs. This crisis claims more lives than firearms, suicide, homicide, or motor vehicle accidents.

In 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures now show that more than 2 million unauthorized migrants came across the Mexican border. With opioid overdose crisis now claiming 100,000 American lives a year, Miller should immediately demand the Biden administration follow federal law and close our Southern border to unauthorized individuals in order to save about 100,000 American lives a year. Is this too much to ask of Miller?

Theodore Lederman, Waterloo
With approximately 94% of American workers covered by Social Security and 65 million people currently receiving benefits, keeping Social Security healthy is a major concern. Social Security isn't in danger of going broke  it's financed primarily through payroll taxes  but its financial health is declining, and benefits may eventually be reduced unless Congress acts.

Each year, the Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds release a detailed report to Congress that assesses the financial health and outlook of this program. The most recent report, released on June 2, 2022, shows that the effects of the pandemic were not as significant as projected in last year's report  a bit of good news this year.

The Social Security program consists of two programs, each with its own financial account (trust fund) that holds the payroll taxes that are collected to pay Social Security benefits. Retired workers, their families, and survivors of workers receive monthly benefits under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program; disabled workers and their families receive monthly benefits under the Disability Insurance (DI) program. Other income (reimbursements from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury and income tax revenue from benefit taxation) is also deposited in these accounts.

Money that's not needed in the current year to pay benefits and administrative costs is invested (by law) in special government-guaranteed Treasury bonds that earn interest. Over time, the Social Security Trust Funds have built up reserves that can be used to cover benefit obligations if payroll tax income is insufficient to pay full benefits, and these reserves are now being drawn down. Due to the aging population and other demographic factors, contributions from workers are no longer enough to fund current benefits.

In the latest report, the Trustees estimate that Social Security will have funds to pay full retirement and survivor benefits until 2034, one year later than in last year's report. At that point, reserves will be used up, and payroll tax revenue alone would be enough to pay only 77% of scheduled OASI benefits, declining to 72% through 2096, the end of the 75-year, long-range projection period.

The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is projected to be much healthier over the long term than last year's report predicted. The Trustees now estimate that it will be able to pay full benefits through the end of 2096. Last year's report projected that it would be able to pay scheduled benefits only until 2057. Applications for disability benefits have been declining substantially since 2010, and the number of workers receiving disability benefits has been falling since 2014, a trend that continues to affect the long-term outlook.

According to the Trustees report, the combined reserves (OASDI) will be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2035, one year later than in last year's report. After that, payroll tax revenue alone should be sufficient to pay 80% of scheduled benefits, declining to 74% by 2096. OASDI projections are hypothetical, because the OASI and DI Trust Funds are separate, and generally one program's taxes and reserves cannot be used to fund the other program. However, this could be changed by Congress, and combining these trust funds in the report is a way to illustrate the financial outlook for Social Security as a whole.

All projections are based on current conditions and best estimates of likely future demographic, economic, and program-specific conditions, and the Trustees acknowledge that the course of the pandemic and future events may affect Social Security's financial status.

You can view a copy of the 2022 Trustees report at ssa.gov.

What about Medicare?

Like Social Security, Medicare faces a significant funding shortfall. Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund currently has a surplus due to higher income and lower expenditures in the short term, but is expected to be depleted in 2028, two years later than in last year's report. Once this fund is depleted, tax and premium income would be enough to pay 90% of scheduled benefits, declining to 80% in 2046, then gradually increasing to 93% by 2096.

Many options for improving the health of Social Security

The last 10 Trustees Reports have projected that the combined OASDI reserves will become depleted between 2033 and 2035. The Trustees continue to urge Congress to address the financial challenges facing these programs so that solutions will be less drastic and may be implemented gradually, lessening the impact on the public. Many options have been proposed, including the ones below. Combining some of these may help soften the impact of any one solution.

Raising the current Social Security payroll tax rate (currently 12.4%). Half is paid by the employee and half by the employer (self-employed individuals pay the full 12.4%). An immediate and permanent payroll tax increase of 3.24 percentage points to 15.64% would be needed to cover the long-range revenue shortfall.

Raising or eliminating the ceiling on wages subject to Social Security payroll taxes ($147,000 in 2022).

Raising the full retirement age beyond the currently scheduled age of 67 (for anyone born in 1960 or later).

Raising the early retirement age beyond the current age of 62

Reducing future benefits. To address the long-term revenue shortfall, scheduled benefits would have to be immediately and permanently reduced by about 20.3% for all current and future beneficiaries, or by about 24.1% if reductions were applied only to those who initially become eligible for benefits in 2022 or later.

Changing the benefit formula that is used to calculate benefits.

Calculating the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for benefits differently.

A comprehensive list of potential solutions can be found at ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/provisions.
Weather Alert

...Thunderstorm Chances Through Thursday... * Monsoon moisture will bring thunderstorms to the region this week, with the best chances extending through Thursday before diminishing into the weekend. * A few light showers are occurring early this morning, with thunderstorms developing again this afternoon. Most areas will see a 25-50% chance of storms in the afternoon and early evening hours today and Thursday. Nocturnal showers and thunderstorms are expected tonight as well. * 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. If you live in a flash flood prone area, especially near a burn scar, be ready to act quickly if heavy rainfall occurs.
Im a second-year medical student, and most of my days for the past 10 months have been spent learning about basic human physiology, anatomy and biochemistry. Once a week, my class learns something much more important: We learn from physicians about caring for real patients. We learn about how to communicate in ways patients will understand, how to talk to patients about their options for their care and make shared decisions, and how to protect their privacy during these interactions. These sessions have sometimes been uncomfortable, awkward and challenging for me and my classmates; we have to take all of our new knowledge and communicate it in a clear and empathetic way. These sessions are important though, because clear communication builds trust and confidence, as well as improves patient compliance.

We spend a lot of time focused on the importance of consent for any interaction with a patient  which means informing patients of all their options, talking about all the risks and benefits, and letting the patient decide what is best for their health and care. Informed consent is the basis of autonomy in the health care system. Patients need all the information regarding treatments, medicine or procedures to make decisions for themselves or those they are guardians for.

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade interferes with patient privacy and autonomy to make their own decisions about what is best for their health and care in any clinic. We go to great lengths in medicine to ensure that unless a patient is a danger to themselves, others, elders or children, what happens in a patient encounter remains private. Early in our medical education, we have already learned the importance of letting our patients make the best choices for themselves and to support them in those choices. Our job is not to judge a patient of the decisions they have made, or why they have come in to see a health care provider. Abortion access restriction limits physicians abilities to support their patients. The criminalization of abortion will lead to more fear in patients and may lead to patients seeking care outside of the health care system. Abortion restrictions will also disproportionately affect people with fewer resources who cannot afford to travel to another state for care.

The decision to allow the states to make their own laws regarding abortion access is dangerous for patients and limits the ability of physicians to provide a full spectrum of reproductive health care.

Patients deserve access to the best care available and autonomy regarding their health care, no matter where they live or the resources available to them.

New Mexicos leaders protecting a full spectrum reproductive care, and abortion access, is important in supporting patients in our state. Nationwide, patients should be able to make decisions about if, or when, they become parents, be provided with care in the event of emergencies, have access to medically accurate information, and have access to abortion throughout their pregnancy. We should trust medical providers to use all the medical knowledge and communication skills they spend years learning to help patients make the best decisions they can in any circumstance.

I call on New Mexicos elected officials to codify Roe v. Wade to protect patients access to full spectrum reproductive health care. Abortion is simply a part of health care.

This op-ed was part of a point/counterpoint feature. To read an opposing viewpoint, click here.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary a volunteer is noun: a person who does something, especially helping other people, willingly and without being forced or paid to do it and verb: to offer to do something that you do not have to do, often without having been asked to do it and/or without expecting payment.

Volunteering is not free time. It is valuable to the giver and the receiver. According to multiple sources that track volunteer contributions, approximately 63 million Americans give more than 8 billion hours of volunteer service annually, valued in excess of $200 billion. Those who volunteer are usually involved with one organization; some volunteer with two or more organizations.

Benefits of volunteering

Most people do not volunteer for what they will get from the experience, and yet there are rewards. Much has been written about the benefits of volunteering.

 We are social beings. Volunteering connects you to others. You can make new friends or strengthen relationships through volunteering. There are common interests that generally go beyond the work you do together. In the volunteer setting you can increase your social and relationship skills.

 It is good for your mind and body. Volunteering can increase your self-confidence, providing a sense of accomplishment. Volunteering helps combat depression by keeping you in regular contact with others. It also helps keep you physically active.

 Learning a new skill or introduction to a new career. Whether new to the job market or an experienced worker, skills can be honed in teamwork, communication, problem-solving, organization and more. If thinking about a new career, volunteering can provide a sample of the new career and/or connections for entry into the job. Additionally, organizations may offer training that is readily available for anyone in their organizations, job related or not.

 Volunteering can be fun. You may find a way to use your hobby in a giving way. If you cannot have a pet full time, perhaps volunteering to exercise dogs at the shelter is a fit.

Volunteering as a family

It is a great lesson to observe how good it feels to help other people. When people volunteer at a young age, it can become a lifelong habit. A friend told me that as a child when she told her mother she was bored, her mother would tell her she must have time and energy to help someone. They then set about finding good to do for others.

While it may be a challenge to find an organization that has mastered the art of family volunteering, those that do clearly know the long-term value for the organization and the family.

Schools may offer service-learning credits for volunteering in the community. Students can bring a new perspective to the organization and leave with valuable lessons.

Finding the right fit

First make some decisions about how you want volunteering to fit into your life.

 How many hours do you want to volunteer per week or month?

 Is this a long-term commitment, a period of time such as three months or a one-time event?

 Are you able to go to a location, do you want to volunteer from home, or does a mix of locations work?

 Are you interested in volunteering for a cause or an interest? Is it a need you read about in the Albuquerque Journal -something that affected you, a family member or friend or maybe you know someone who is doing volunteer work and you want to join them?

 How do you want to help? From the office to the field, think about what you want to do and be flexible to the need.

 Is this volunteer opportunity for you, a group, or your family?

And think about the questions you want to ask when talking with the organization.

 What do volunteers do in their organization?

 Is there a job description for what you will be doing?

 Who will be your boss?

 What training is provided?

Once you decide on the area of interest to volunteer in, find the organization. Be patient in establishing the relationship. Remember they may be adjusting to the effects of the pandemic with staff working in the office or home and perhaps their volunteers are not to prepandemic levels. Some nonprofits have no paid staff or few staff. If it takes a little time to get started, do not lose your enthusiasm.

Volunteer Match has a list of volunteer opportunities at volunteermatch.org/search/index.jsp, as does One Albuquerque ABQ Volunteers oneabqvolunteers.com/need/. There are many opportunities to volunteer. Find a fit for you to make a difference.

Sources: wcsu.edu/community-engagement/benefits-of-volunteering/
It is a flip-flop. But its a welcome one.

Earlier this summer, Mayor Tim Keller admitted the city for years surrendered Coronado Park to lawlessness, despair and decay to save other parts of the city.

Just a month ago, the Keller administration argued the lesser evil was to allow the homeless to camp in the park near Third Street and Interstate 40  it meant a more efficient offering of services to the unhoused and limited the dispersal of violence, drugs and filth.

But a spike in crime helped prompt Kellers announcement Coronado will be closed next month.

The deplorable, unsanitary and dangerous living conditions at the park have existed for years but certainly grew during the pandemic and under Kellers watch. It finally became too much to bear. That situation is absolutely unacceptable, so were going to stop it, the mayor told local business professionals Monday.

It is the right decision. The park, with its unsanctioned homeless encampments, has become, as the mayor said, the most dangerous place in the state of New Mexico. There have been four homicides at the park and another nearby since April 2018, plus 16 stabbings in the past two years, including one last week. In the past 30 days, law enforcement has seized 4,500 fentanyl pills, more than 5 pounds of methamphetamine, 24 grams of heroin, 29 grams of cocaine and $10,000 cash from a suspect they say was distributing drugs at the park.

Safety is our top priority, and Coronado Park has become a location for criminals to prey on our most vulnerable, said Albuquerque Police Lt. Nick Wheeler.

Brandy Page, 39, says she has lived on and off at the park for six months and last week told a reporter that even though all of her stuff was stolen recently for the 20th time, she doesnt want the park closed. Yeah, this place is dangerous. Theres drugs, alcohol, there are fights here constantly and something should be done to control all that, she said.

But the mayor decided enough was enough. While his announcement caught some stakeholders by surprise, city leaders correctly note discussions about the park have gone on for years with key constituencies, and closure has always been on the table. In a moment of refreshingly raw honesty, Keller conceded the city had been looking the other way at violence, at homicide, at rampant drug use. Residents and businesses nearby have been voicing that complaint for years, so big picture, the parks closure should be good news for many.

Whats next is a bit murky. The city has suggested using the park to expand and upgrade the Albuquerque Fire Rescue station next door; turning it into an urban park adults and children can actually use; or piloting a safe outdoor space with rules where people can legally camp with access to toilets, showers and more.

We believe area residents and businesses have shouldered the burden of hosting the homeless too long. Take the safe outdoor spaces option off the table for Coronado.

At this point, the closure date is still to be determined, as is what will happen to campers who reject offers of a shelter bed or hotel voucher, where the Westside shelter pickup/dropoff site(s) will be relocated to, and how long the park will be shuttered.

At the human level, Carol Pierce, director of the citys Family and Community Services Department, told the Editorial Board on Friday there are a total of 165 beds available at the citys low-barrier 24/7 Westside emergency shelter and the privately run Joy Junction and Good Shepherd homeless centers to accommodate the estimated 75-120 people who camp nightly at Coronado Park. There are also hotel vouchers and dozens of housing vouchers available. Hundreds more housing vouchers are in the new budget, Pierce said, and were going to work intensively with people to get them services.

That would seem to answer the legal concern you cant roust illegal campers without a shelter bed available.

However, many campers like Page told the Journal they have zero interest in staying at a shelter. These chronically homeless will continue to be the most difficult people to help. A major concern is how many Coronado dwellers will spill into nearby lots and alleys, an unacceptable scenario.

Pierce and City Chief Administrative Officer Lawrence Rael said Friday the city will use both intensive outreach and more assertive policing to help the unhoused and address crime in the area.

But despite the unanswered questions and looming challenges, it is past time to do something that serves the majority of neighbors, businesses, taxpayers and the unhoused rather than continue to cater to the criminal element that has taken over the park and the campers struggling with mental health and addiction who have become criminals prey.

Pierce and Rael also raised the concern park landscaping poses a danger. Rael says the cottonwoods are severely stressed and must be cut down/significantly trimmed, while the grass is gone and the irrigation system has been uprooted and twisted into makeshift tent plumbing.

The City Council worked with the mayoral administration to get $14 million approved by voters for the Gateway Center, which has been mired in zoning fights but is set to open later this year. The city already provides beds at the West Side shelter, hotel and housing vouchers and connections to service providers. Councilors have also explored allowing short- and long-term sanctioned camping. Now its incumbent the Council work with the administration on a plan to re-invent Coronado Park and further address needs of the unhoused.

The homeless who are willing need a safe, sanitary place to rest their heads while they get services. Those involved in human and drug trafficking and other criminal activity need a bunk at the jail. And with Coronado Park finally closing, we need our leaders to pull together for a better way to address homelessness that allows us to hold our heads high as One Albuquerque.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department is reminding businesses to adjust their Gross Receipts Tax rate following a decrease in the rate implemented on July 1, according to a department spokesman.

The GRT rate decreased from 5.125% to 5% effective July 1, department spokesman Charlie Moore wrote in an email announcing the reminder.

It is the first decrease in the GRT rate in 40 years, he said.

Along with the decrease is a new GRT deduction that will benefit certain professional services sold to manufacturers by reducing taxation multiple times throughout production otherwise known as pyramiding, Moore said.

Businesses need to update the rates being imposed so that they and their consumers can benefit from this critical tax relief, Stephanie Schardin Clarke, department cabinet secretary, wrote in a statement. We want to ensure that the tax relief reaches all New Mexicans statewide, and that businesses are correctly complying with the law.

In addition to the reduction and deduction, the statewide tax rate is also scheduled to be reduced by one-eighth of a percent on July 1, 2023.

To find the GRT rate, visit www.tax.newmexico.gov/governments/gross-receipts-location-code-and-tax-rate-map/
In 1938, Mexico nationalized its energy sector, putting Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) firmly under centralized government control where it remained for decades.

During this time, PEMEX developed the reputation of a bloated bureaucracy, inefficient and incapable of keeping up with the nations energy needs. Although Mexico is one of the largest oil producers in the world, it is forced to import most of its refined fuels.

As a cornerstone of his administration, former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (2012 to 2018) led the reform of Mexicos energy industry. This allowed more badly needed foreign investment in this sector in order to modernize PEMEX and to allow for more growth in renewable energy.

Pena Nietos successor and current Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), a strong nationalist, has made it a cornerstone of his presidency to roll back energy reform with the objective of Mexico becoming energy self-sufficient. This has resulted in increasing restrictions on foreign companies participating in PEMEX-related projects. Last year, Mexico moved to provide preference to the nationalized Comision Federal de Electricidad (Mexicos electricity company) over foreign companies in renewable energy projects. Mexicos actions under AMLO have frustrated American companies who saw promise in participating in the countrys energy sector.

For the better part of the last two years, U.S. officials have been voicing their concerns to Mexico about American companies being shut out. With no resolution at hand and the level of frustration rising, on July 19, the Biden administration, via the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, announced that it believed Mexicos actions violated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Most likely a contributing factor to this complaint was the meeting between President Joe Biden and President AMLO on July 12 in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, which had its awkward moments, AMLO suggested that the U.S. pass laws to lower gas prices, stating that Americans were crossing the border to gas up in Mexico, where gas can be up to one dollar cheaper. He didnt mention that Mexico subsidizes gas prices.

Per the USMCA dispute resolution process, the U.S. and Mexico will have 30 days to negotiate in order to try to resolve the dispute. If no resolution is reached, the U.S. can petition a USMCA panel to investigate the matter. If it finds that Mexico has violated the terms of the USMCA, it can grant the ability to the U.S. of imposing tariffs on Mexican products equal to the estimated amount that U.S. companies have lost. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai made it clear that the U.S. would prefer to negotiate a resolution rather than go down the road of tariffs.

Since the day he took office, AMLOs attempts at the rolling back of Mexicos recently opened energy policies have been on a head-on collision with the former North American Free Trade Agreement and its successor, the USMCA. Disagreements among trading partners are common, and dispute resolution mechanisms are almost always set in place before problems occur. However, AMLOs actions are testing the limits of nationalism when faced with the obligations of being a signatory to a multi-lateral trade agreement.

Since both have been in office, AMLO and Biden have never had what one could call a cozy relationship. When Biden was elected, it took some time for AMLO to recognize his election. He was roundly criticized for this. The current energy dispute could further frost relations, as AMLO continues to define himself as a Mexican nationalist and Biden as a president who is apt to lean heavily on diplomacy rather than a sledgehammer to get things done.

It is clear that in order for Mexico to continue to provide energy for its growing population, it will need foreign investment and technology to modernize its energy sector. Like all other responsible nations committed to battling climate change, it will also need to focus on and invest in renewable energy. Mexico, with its abundant sunshine, winds and geothermal capabilities, could become the model for renewable energy in Latin America.

Disputes aside, it is imperative that both countries continue to have dialogue to prevent problems before they occur and to work through them when they do. Working through the energy dispute amicably and efficiently will demonstrate to the world that the U.S. and Mexico are good neighbors, adhering to a trade agreement that is working. At the end of their July 12 meeting, AMLO stated, President Biden, we trust you because you respect our sovereignty. Biden replied that AMLO brought up a lot of pertinent points at the meeting. Both should agree that their respective nations need each other to compete economically in the world. This should be a good starting point for a future productive relationship.

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  Samuel Sandoval, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages in World War II using a code based on their native language, has died.

Sandoval died late Friday at a hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, his wife, Malula, said on Saturday. He was 98.

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited from the vast Navajo Nation to serve as Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps. Only three are still alive today: Peter MacDonald, John Kinsel Sr. and Thomas H. Begay.

The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war's ultimate outcome. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists and is credited with helping the U.S. win the war.

Samuel Sandoval was on Okinawa when he got word from another Navajo Code Talker that the Japanese had surrendered and relayed the message to higher-ups.

The Navajo men are celebrated annually on Aug. 14. Samuel Sandoval was looking forward to that date and seeing a museum built near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock to honor the Code Talkers, Malula Sandoval said.

Sam always said, 'I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world,' she said Saturday. That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy.

Sandoval was born in Nageezi near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after attending a Methodist school where he was discouraged from speaking Navajo. He helped recruit other Navajos from the school to serve as Code Talkers, expanding on words and an alphabet that an original group of 29 Navajos created.

Sandoval served in five combat tours and was honorably discharged in 1946. The Code Talkers had orders not to discuss their roles  not during the war and not until their mission was declassified in 1968.

The roles later became an immense source of pride for Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, who also was a Code Talker. The two became talented speakers who always hailed their fellow Marines still in action as the heroes, not themselves, said Merrill Sandoval's daughter, Jeannie Sandoval.

We were kids, all growing up and we started to hear about the stories, she said. We were so proud of them.

Samuel Sandoval often told his story, chronicled in the documentary Naz Bah Ei Bijei: Heart of a Warrior at the Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez, Colorado. He had a favorite folding chair there with vinyl padding and took coffee black, said executive director Rebecca Levy.

It was a great opportunity for people who understood how important the Navajo Code Talkers were to the outcome of the war, in our favor  to thank him in person, Levy said.

Sandoval's health had been declining in recent years, including a fall in which he fractured a hip, Malula Sandoval said. His last trip was to New Orleans in June where he received the American Spirit Award from the National World War II Museum, she said. MacDonald, Kinsel and Begay also were honored.

Sandoval and his wife met while he was running a substance abuse counseling clinic, and she was a secretary, she said. They were married 33 years. Sandoval has six children from previous marriages.

Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Sandoval will be remembered as a loving and courageous person who defended his homeland using his sacred language.

We are saddened by his passing, but his legacy will always live on in our hearts and minds, Nez said in a statement.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon said Sandoval's life was guided by character, courage, honor and integrity, and his impact will forever be remembered.

May he rest among our most resilient warriors, Damon said in a statement.

Funeral services are pending.
FILENavajo Presidential candidate Jonathan Nez speaks during a Presidential Forum at Arizona State University, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Phoenix. Nez is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S (AP Photo/Matt York, File) Ethel Branch poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Branch is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) Frank Dayish poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Dayish is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) Buu Van Nygren poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation Presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Nygren is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) Justin Jones poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Jones is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) Greg Bigman poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Bigman is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) FILENavajo Presidential candidate Frankie Davis speaks during a Presidential Forum at Arizona State University, Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Phoenix. Davis is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Matt York, File) Dineh Benally poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Benally is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) FILENavajo Presidential candidate Leslie Tsosie speaks during a Presidential Forum at Arizona State University, Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Phoenix. Tsosie is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S (AP Photo/Matt York, File) FILE Navajo Presidential candidate Dolly Manson listens during a Presidential Forum at Arizona State University, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Phoenix. Mason is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S (AP Photo/Matt York, File) Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch poses for a photograph before a Navajo Nation presidential forum at a tribal casino outside Flagstaff Arizona, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Jumbo-Fitch is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca) FILENavajo Presidential candidate Emily Ellison speaks during a Presidential Forum at Arizona State University, Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Phoenix. Ellison is among 15 candidates seeking the top leadership post on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S (AP Photo/Matt York, File) Prev 1 of 12 Next

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP)  Natalia Sells has a list of qualities she wants to see in the next Navajo Nation president: Approachable. Adaptable. Inspiring. Someone who upholds traditional values but also is progressive.

Shell join thousands of other tribal members on Tuesday in casting their vote for one of 15 presidential hopefuls in the nonpartisan race. The field includes incumbent Jonathan Nez, former Navajo Vice President Frank Dayish Jr., former tribal Attorney General Ethel Branch, attorney Justin Jones, and Buu Van Nygren, the vice presidential candidate from 2018.

Im trying to go into this with an open mind, said Sells. Its a very hot topic in my family. Everyone is voting differently. I think its going to be an interesting election season.

The Navajo Nation is largest Native American reservation in the U.S., spanning 27,000 square miles (69,930 square kilometers) of high desert, forests, wind-swept mesas and mountains bordering New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Its population of 406,000 is second to only the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, which has 420,000 enrolled members.

The top two vote-getters in the Navajo primary will move on to the November general election. More than 122,000 Navajos are registered to vote, and the tribe generally sees around a 50% turnout for the primaries. Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mountain time.

Nezs term has been dominated by response to the coronavirus pandemic in which he enacted some of the strictest measures in the U.S. to help slow the virus. The tribe at one point had one of the highest infection rates in the country. A mask mandate on the reservation remains in place.

Nez recently approved legislation to spend more than $1 billion in federal pandemic relief funding to improve water, sanitation, housing and communications infrastructure where many residents live without basic necessities. It came after months of wrangling between the tribes executive and legislative branches about what should be prioritized.

Continuity is very important, Im sure to our Navajo people, because the learning curve is going to be high, Nez told The Associated Press. We offer in our administration, that continuity, no on-the-job training. We are just going to continue to move forward and implement these projects.

Sells, a law student at Arizona State University, said shes struggling with experience over change. Whoever wins, she wants to be assured they will find ways to bring the younger generation back to the reservation.

They want people to come home, but the pay doesnt always match the skillset, said Sells, who votes in Teec Nos Pos. And on top of that, theres no housing, really.

Branch is among six candidates hoping to become the first woman to become Navajo Nation president. Only one woman, Lynda Lovejoy, has made it past the tribes primary even as some Navajos warned that a woman as president portends an ominous future for the tribe. That notion isnt as prevalent now, at least not publicly.

Branch has been critical of what she says was the Navajo Nations slow response to the pandemic under Nezs administration. She co-founded a relief fund, raising millions of dollars to provide food, water and other supplies to Navajo and Hopi families.

Theres a lot of resources that get to Window Rock, theres a lot of money that gets to Window Rock and it doesnt make it to the people, she said at a recent rally in Kayenta.

The other women in the race are: educator Dolly Mason; scholar Leslie Tsosie; Chinle Chapter President Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch; Frankie Davis, who has advocated for extracting natural resources; former New Mexico state legislator Sandra Jeff, and Emily Ellison, who says she will push the federal government to give the Navajo Nation title to its land if elected.

All the candidates speak Navajo but to varying degrees.

Nygren sees himself as a young, energetic diplomat set on running the government more efficiently and partnering with tribal lawmakers on initiatives. He said the Navajo Nations internal regulations have stalled economic development, and the tribe hasnt honed in on tourism as a major revenue source.

If you come in very hard-headed and my way or the highway, the Navajo Nation Council will put you in check just as quick as you can, said Nygren who has a background in construction management.

Jones said he already knows what the problems are with the tribal government as an attorney who has sued over elections, the Navajo preference in employment law and other things. Hes staking his platform on supporting small business like vendors at flea markets, janitorial services, waste management companies and contractors.

Once the Navajo-owned businesses get on their feet, theyre going to start hiring Navajo people, he said. That means the Navajo dollar is going to stay around.

Dayish is one of the only veteran politicians in the group and has work experience in the housing, mining, aeronautical, and health care industries. He ran for president in 2006 but came in third behind Lovejoy. He has set a goal to boost the number of homes with electricity and running water, high school and college graduates and the tribal budget by 5 percentage points.

At least we have a target, he said. Obviously we want to go 100%, but based on all of the regulations, all the funding limitations, thats what we would be confronted with.

The other candidates are: Greg Bigman, chairman of the Dine College Board of Regents; Tsah Bii Kin Chapter manager Earl Sombrero; and Dineh Benally and Kevin Cody, both of whom sought the tribal presidency in 2018.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

The year was 2005 and detective Ida Lopez  recovering from surgery for kidney cancer and the birth of her youngest son  had just transferred to the Albuquerque Police Departments missing persons unit.

Lopez had been with the department for 10 years at that point and had built up a rapport with some of the women who worked the streets. She would talk to them about their lives and understood that they were doing things that only a person who was really desperate would do.

So when she was assigned to investigate several cases of women who had been reported missing, she felt something about the cases was off.

My supervisor says, Heres three girls. Theyve got a history of drug addiction and prostitution, but prostitutes go missing,' she recalls. And Im like, Yeah, they do. But they get found.'

So the search began.

Before long Lopez started to believe that if you find one youre going to find them all.

Thats exactly what happened.

Less than four years later, 11 women were found buried in 100-acre dirt lot on the far west side of town. They are believed to have been victims of a serial killer.

All but one, who was not from Albuquerque, had been on Lopezs list.

From the time she got the call telling her one of her girls had been identified  remembering that moment she trails off, her hand over her heart  Lopez, now 55, has made the investigation her lifes work.

She and Elizabeth Thomson, a 63-year-old retired homicide sergeant who returned to APD on a contract basis in 2021  are still searching for eight other women who have never been found. They want the womens families to know they havent been forgotten.

The investigators dont know for certain, but they believe they may have met a similar fate as the women buried on the West Mesa.

Theyre our drive to keep going, Lopez said. If we find them, theyll give us answers as to who the suspect is, or more about the whole case, in general.

Searching for leads

In February of 2009, the skeletons of 11 women  one of whom had been four months pregnant  were found buried in a vacant plot of land on the corner of Amole Mesa and 118th Street SW. A subdivision was planned for the lot but it had not been developed when a Shar-Pei mix named Ruca on a walk with her owner found the first bone.

The women, many of whom struggled with drug addiction and trauma and had been working as prostitutes on East Central, had all been reported missing between 2003 and 2004. Because they had been dead and buried for years their cause of death could not be determined.

But there were other women who were living similar lifestyles  many of whom had been reported missing in the following two years  whose bodies were not found on the mesa.

That leads investigators to believe there is a second burial site. Perhaps whoever was responsible for killing the women was forced to move to another location as subdivisions began springing up on Albuquerques West Side.

Lopez has compiled a list of eight women  one who was reported missing in 2003 and seven who were reported missing in 2005 and 2006  who she believes could have been killed by the same suspect.

I always think there was so much dirt placed on the original graves when they were getting ready to set it up as a residential community that I just think chances are we would never have found them, she said. I dont know where these other girls are. Are they in the East Mountains? Are they on the West Side? Or somewhere completely outside of Albuquerque?

Over the past several years, APD has done three digs, but each time it struck out.

In 2018, bones that were discovered not far from the original site were later determined to have been from ancient Native Americans. Later that year, a tipster pointed to a spot where there appeared to be indentations in the ground in the shape of a square. Investigators dug by hand and then brought in heavy equipment but the marks that had once looked to be graves turned out to just be full of hard clay.

Last year, someone who worked with mapping systems suggested another site, but that too turned up empty.

Two persons of interest have been publicly identified over the years but the investigators say they dont have enough information to conclusively point to  or rule out  either one. One was killed in 2006, after the last woman was reported missing. The other was sentenced to 90 years in prison for an unrelated rape case.

The crimes also could have been committed by a completely different person.

We have to go back to what we know about this person, Thomson said. So we know this person had the ability, and the resources, to dig very precise graves and that this was a thought-out thing. (The women) didnt have clothing, they didnt have personal items, the graves were deep enough that apparently this person meant to conceal them for a very long time.

The department gets tips on the case almost daily and even more when the case is mentioned in local media, podcasts or true crime shows. Lopez said they chase every one down.

Some they are able to quickly determine are baseless. But others have seemed promising.

Thomson urged anyone who hung around Central during that time to try to remember any clues. Did they see a car in the area that they thought was suspicious or any other small detail that now seems significant?

This included, for example, an anonymous person actually giving names and very specific details, Thomson said. Tips like that are wonderful  we really would like that person or persons to reach out to us again. And if they have that kind of information, keep reaching out to us if theres anything more that you can think of and give  please.

She said in some ways the investigation has gotten easier over time as technology advanced.

Weve been going and reviewing evidence, Thomson said. Is there something new technology wise that could test this piece of evidence and tell us something important? And weve been looking at what do we know about this person of interest? And is there technology available to us now, that could actually analyze that in a better way?

One day closer

Lopez and Thomson met with the Journal on the corner of Central and Grove, in front of what is now the shiny, new International District Library.

It was one of the summers hottest days, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, and yet there was still plenty of commotion as people walked up and down the sidewalks, shouting to one another, pushing shopping carts or trying to catch a bus.

Gesturing to the dilapidated sign for the now-demolished Caravan East nightclub, Lopez said this was a corner she knew well. On her shifts she would drive up and down this stretch of Central, pulling over to talk to the women she saw standing on the street corners. Often she would tell her husband  an APD officer who worked in the Southeast Area Command on an opposite shift  where she was if she didnt have time to call in her location.

I would just pull up, I had a slick top, I would just show her my badge and then I would say Im not going to run you. But I need to ask some questions ,' the soft-spoken Lopez said. For the most part they were willing to talk and so I would ask them for any rumors. The younger they were the more they didnt know the girls. The older ones did.

Lopez herself grew up near Downtown, near Lomas and 9th, and was raised by her grandparents. She remembers coming up to the area near East Central to go swimming or, when she was older, to go cruising. She always knew she wanted to be a police officer and studying psychology in school she was fascinated by profiles of serial killers, pedophiles and domestic violence.

Lopez retired from APD in 2014 and moved with her husband, two sons and two dogs, to California, where her family lives. In 2015 she was given a contract with the department to continue investigating the case and when she comes back to Albuquerque a couple of times a year shes eager to eat at Dions and Blakes Lotaburger.

The familys house has an office dedicated to the investigation  a map of Albuquerque on the wall has markers designating where the women were last seen and other points of interest. Lopez still speaks regularly with many of the mothers whose daughters are still missing. Some will call her whenever they hear anything they think might be a clue.

The parents were tired, she said. Its not any fault of their own. At the time, it was just what came with this horrible cycle of addiction  they were tired but they loved their daughters. They would hope they would get better.

She said she will never lose hope that the mystery of what happened to the women buried on the West Mesa  and to those who have never been found  will be solved and she hopes shes still around to see it.

As long as I know Ive done everything, weve done everything, its out of my control , she said. I used to tell the families, Were one day closer to finding your daughters, and my thing to get me through this is were one day closer to finding the answers.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Over the years, the list of possible additional victims of the West Mesa serial killer has changed.

Some of the missing women were found alive, or discovered to have died some other way, and were removed from the list. Two women were added in recent years as investigators recognized similarities in their circumstances to those of the 11 women who were found buried in the barren plot of land on the outskirts of town.

Here are the women investigators are searching for now. The dates they were last seen and the information about their lives and the situations leading up to them going missing are drawn from interviews with their families, investigator Ida Lopezs notes and incident reports released to the Journal.

September 2003: Martha Jo Lucher, 32, was reported missing by her mother after she hadnt been in contact with her family or children. Witnesses said she and a friend were coming and going from a street corner and Lucher never returned, according to Lopezs notes.

In 2009, after women were found buried on the West Mesa site, Luchers friend told investigators about a possible suspect and said she was worried about Lucher, who she hadnt seen in years.

Lucher knew at least two of the women found at the West Mesa site. She went missing in 2003  in between the disappearance of two of the victims  but, Lopez said, it is unknown if she was a victim of the same killer and perhaps due to circumstances the killer decided to or was forced to dispose of her body elsewhere.

The Journal did not hear back from her family.

January 2005: Anna Love Vigil, 20, had been arrested for prostitution for the first time during a vice sting, according to Lopezs notes. When she was released from jail, dropped off Downtown around midnight, she called her father for a ride. By the time he arrived, she was no longer there.

Anna Vigils boyfriend said that a couple days later she went to Taco Bell to apply for a job, but he never heard from her again.

Anna Vigils mother, Stacy Love Vigil, spoke with the Journal from her home in Arkansas and said her daughter had moved to Los Lunas to live with her father as a teenager because she had met a boy.

She was at that age  16  when thats the most important thing in the world, Stacy Vigil said. And to my chagrin, I said, OK, you know, well, if thats what you want to try, then you could do the school year out there. But from that point on, literally, things I think started spiraling.

Anna Vigil had a son who was 4 months old when she went missing; her son is now 16.

Remembering her daughter as an absolutely gorgeous baby who loved dressing up for Halloween as she grew older, Stacy Vigil said she has no idea what happened to her but she cant believe shes alive and hasnt contacted her or her son.

I just dont think shed do this, Stacy Vigil said. My youngest daughter and I  shes 32 now  we talk sometimes and will say what would you do if Anna walked through the door? Id smack her in the face and kiss her at the same time. Id say How dare you? Come here. I love you.'

May 4, 2005: Felipa Gonzales, 22, was released from jail and her mother picked her up. As soon as they got home Gonzales said she was going for a walk, left and was never seen again.

Her mother reported her missing.

Gonzales did not have any arrests for prostitution but, according to Lopezs notes, friends and family said she would do that sometimes to pay for a heroin addiction. She frequented the area near West Central.

Gonzales had a 2-year-old daughter who was staying with the childs father. She was struggling with post-partum depression.

Gonzaless mother declined to speak with the Journal, saying she doesnt like talking about it and its hard enough carrying it in my heart, mind and life. She said Lopez was the only one she feels comfortable talking to.

May 2005: When Nina Herron, 21, didnt visit her parents house to check on her 4-year-old son for three days they got worried and reported her missing.

She lived in Southeast Albuquerque and, Lopez said, it was known that on a few occasions Nina did prostitute to support her drug and alcohol addiction.

Growing up, Herron was a really good kid and had a heart of gold, said her mother, Theresa Fresquez.

She went to middle school and she was a cheerleader, Fresquez said. She wanted to graduate but the drugs got in her way.

About three years after Herron went missing, Fresquez, her husband, and their grandson moved to Edgewood to get the boy out of Albuquerque.

I want him to live peaceful and without any worries because, you know, we worried all our lives, Fresquez said. We give our worries to him you know?

Now she said she keeps up with the news about the West Mesa case, and frequently calls Lopez.

The women that were found, you know, it brings them closure, Fresquez said. I want to be them too, you know, I want to get closure and I want them to find whoever did this to these women.

March 1, 2006: Shawntell Monique Waites, 29, was reported missing by her grandfather who  along with his wife  were raising her four children, ages 4, 8, 12 and 14.

Her 74-year-old grandfather was recuperating from knee surgery when he reported that he had not seen his granddaughter in seven months  an unusually long period of time.

He was quoted in an incident report as saying: Shawntell had had a difficult life and had been involved in drugs, and was currently living as a transient.

Waites was removed from NCIC because it was thought  mistakenly  that she had been found at the West Mesa site. She was re-entered in 2013.

In 2012, Waites grandfather filed a petition to have her presumed dead so he could receive funds from a small life insurance policy in order to care for her children. The petition and an attached affidavit from Lopez cite the fact that his granddaughter has a background similar to those of the 11 women whose bodies were discovered in 2009 on Albuquerques West Mesa.

Waitess grandfather died in 2017. The Journal did not hear back from her other family members.

March 2006: Jillian Henderson Ortiz, 19, was reported missing out of Moriarty by her mother, but she lived and was last seen in Albuquerque. She was added to the list of missing women more recently.

Shortly before her mother reported her missing, police were dispatched to a domestic disturbance call between Ortiz and her boyfriend.

Ortizs friends and family told police they worried about her because they said she worked the streets to support her heroin addiction. according to Lopezs notes.

The incident report for the case was not available and the Journal could not reach her family.

June 2006: Vanessa Reed, 24, and her sister were living in a motel off East Central and were both involved in drugs and prostitution, according to an incident report.

Reed was last seen leaving the room after an argument with her sister and after that her sister often used her information when she came into contact with the police, according to the report.

Her sister reported her missing after the skeletons of 11 women were found on the West Mesa; Reed was not among them.

The Journal could not reach her family.

August 2006: Leah Peebles, 23, grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to Albuquerque in 2006 looking for a fresh start.

In early June of that year she told her family she had a job interview at Flying Star Cafe and was going on a date, but she never went to the interview. Her father reported her missing a short time later.

Lopez, the investigator, believes she saw Peebles walking on Fourth Street not long after that.

Her mother, Sharon Peebles, still lives in Texas. She told the Journal that her daughter was very outgoing and was into cheerleading and drama.

But, she said, her daughter had been molested by a relative as a child and then by a schoolmate in high school.

Her behavior started changing when she started hanging around different people that would smoke pot, and then she got into the drugs, Sharon Peebles said. But, I mean, she was a wonderful child.

Sharon Peebles said Leah Peebles had spent several weeks in jail in Texas and when she got out she wanted to move to Albuquerque where her friends  a couple who had been music ministers at the familys church  lived. Her father helped her move and everyone felt hopeful.

Then, they lost touch with her. Sharon Peebles remembers the panic and feeling like they didnt know what to do or how to help. The couple came to Albuquerque multiple times to try to find their daughter, passing out fliers Downtown and at truck stops.

In 2013, Leah Peebles father died in a motorcycle crash. Her two younger brothers are doing well  one is married and has children, the other is about to get married.

Sharon Peebles holds out hope that her daughter is still alive. She thinks maybe she is the victim of trafficking.

God knows where shes at, I dont, she said. I do believe shes still out there. She will surface. So I wont say she has been killed or anything. Its like I choose to not take that view until I have absolute proof that she has been so I continue to have hope.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Legislators hear plenty about what is not working in New Mexico.

But they got a peek at something unusual this month during a meeting of the influential Legislative Finance Committee: examples of what works to combat violent crime.

Jennifer Doleac, an economics professor at Texas A&M University and director of the Justice Tech Lab, outlined to legislators a host of crime-fighting strategies backed by academic research.

The ideas range from hiring more police officers to offering leniency to first-time offenders. Streetlights, parks and summer jobs for teenagers all came up.

Doleac also touched on strategies that she said have little deterrent effect  such as lengthening prison sentences  and she acknowledged policy trade-offs for some options.

The challenges in New Mexico are, of course, immense. The state had the nations second-highest violent crime rate and third-highest poverty rate in 2020, according to state and federal data.

But state lawmakers are evaluating the ideas offered by experts.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, a Gallup Democrat who leads the key budget-writing committee in the House, said the policy research presented this month certainly will influence her decision-making on crime going forward.

Its obviously a systemic issue, Lundstrom said in an interview. You cannot fund just one piece of the system and expect that youre going to see success.

Republican Rep. Gail Armstrong of Magdalena said she, too, was struck by the need to embrace a combination of strategies to address crime. But the evidence, she said, supports lawmakers push to increase salaries, and enhance the recruitment and retention of police officers.

People who commit crimes just dont want to get caught, Armstrong said. I honestly think accountability is a huge issue, whether its a minor crime or a major crime. These darned thieves and the bad guys need to be held accountable.

Rep. Meredith Dixon, an Albuquerque Democrat who has sponsored anti-crime legislation, said she wasnt necessarily convinced by every idea presented to lawmakers, but appreciated the nonpartisan explanation of whats been shown to work.

She was struck, she said, by research on the impact of streetlights, cameras and access to health care.

These are other ways we can move the needle without creating new crimes or locking more people up, Dixon said.

The presentation came as lawmakers prepare to hear new revenue estimates next month and begin laying the groundwork for the next budget.

A revenue boom driven by oil and gas income is giving lawmakers much more financial flexibility than usual, making it possible to pay for new investments in crime-fighting strategies.

Our job is to be gathering information, and then deploying the best solutions and strategies here in New Mexico, said Rep. Nathan Small, a Las Cruces Democrat and vice chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

More officers? Yes. Longer sentences? No.

Theres strong evidence, Doleac said, that increasing the police presence in a community  hiring more officers  reduces violent crime, especially homicides.

Furthermore, the swiftness and certainty of punishment matter more, she said, than the punishment itself.

Most would-be offenders simply arent thinking that far in the future, Doleac told lawmakers. We simply dont get much deterrent effect from longer sentences.

But increasing the probability of getting caught, she said, reduces violent crime.

New Mexico has tried both strategies, at least to some extent.

Enhanced criminal sentences have won support from Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; her Republican predecessor, Susana Martinez; and lawmakers of both parties. A sweeping crime measure passed this year, House Bill 68, stiffens potential penalties for fleeing from an officer or using a gun during a drug transaction or serious violent offense.

But some Democrats  in the state Senate, especially  have pushed back on many other proposals to lengthen criminal sentences and kept them from becoming law. Republican-backed measures to expand New Mexicos three-strikes law  to impose a life sentence after a third violent offense  have failed repeatedly.

Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the data on longer sentences demonstrates that it isnt particularly effective to stiffen penalties, despite its popularity as a political sound bite.

We ought to talk about whats real and not real, he said in a recent legislative hearing.

Lawmakers this year poured extra money into efforts to hire more officers, authorizing 15.9% raises for State Police officers and retention pay for officers throughout the state.

Cities and counties also have pushed for years to expand their law enforcement ranks. But the size of police forces throughout the state hasnt changed much.

The number of law enforcement officers working for city, county and state governments grew just 1.8% in the 10-year period ending in June 2021, legislative analysts say.

New Mexico had fewer officers per capita last year than the national average and would need to add roughly 400 more officers to reach the national rate, according to analysts for the Legislative Finance Committee.

Training, accountability

Hiring more officers, Doleac said, can have social costs. Increasing the police presence can result in unnecessary arrests and use of force.

Better training and accountability for officers are options to address these costs, she said, though the topic is at the center of new research.

Over the past five years, New Mexico has had the second-highest rate of people killed by police in the country, according to LFC research.

From 2016 to 2020, 108 individuals were killed by police, a rate triple the national average, legislative analysts wrote in a report to lawmakers.

The U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 investigated Albuquerque police and found a pattern of excessive force that violated peoples constitutional rights. The city of Albuquerque and federal government agreed to a settlement agreement  still in place and overseen by a judge  intended to reform policing in the city.

Technology

Adding people to law enforcement DNA databases can help solve and deter crimes, Doleac said, citing data from the United States and Denmark.

People may clean up their act, she said, if they know their DNA is on file.

Putting cameras in public places, even if theyre not monitored in real time, also increases the likelihood that an offender will be identified and caught, Doleac said.

Start with leniency

For first-time nonviolent offenders, Doleac said, giving them a second chance can actually reduce crime, compared with pulling them into the criminal justice system immediately.

Dropping charges at arraignment for first-time defendants accused of nonviolent misdemeanors reduced the likelihood of future charges compared with those whose cases were prosecuted, she said.

For nonviolent felonies, deferred adjudications  dropping charges after a probationary period  for first-time defendants reduced their future crimes, and increased employment and earnings, compared to those who were convicted and punished as usual.

Giving people a second chance to avoid a first conviction has big public safety benefits, Doleac said. It also allows the court system to focus on more serious offenders.

Health care, drug treatment

Expanding Medicaid to low-income adults without children reduces violent crime, according to Doleac, who cited studies in several states. New Mexico opted into the Medicaid expansion offered under the Affordable Care Act about 10 years ago and about half of New Mexicos population is already enrolled in Medicaid.

Each additional substance-use treatment center that opens in a county, she said, reduces homicide.

In Missouri, connecting people with mental health needs to local health care services reduced their likelihood of future arrests.

Legislators this year authorized $72.3 million in one-time spending and $2.4 million in ongoing spending aimed at boosting the states behavioral health workforce, expanding resources and establishing the new 988 Crisis Now response system, according to LFC analysts.

But it remains to be seen, the analysts said, whether the increased spending will result in the desired outcome.

Even as the state tripled its spending on core substance use services between 2014 and 2020, legislative analysts noted, its violent crime rate rose 30%.

Summertime work

Finding summer jobs for teens helps reduce violent crime, Doleac said. Minimum-wage, part-time jobs have been shown to reduce violent crime arrests substantially in Chicago and Boston for teens who received a job compared with those who didnt, according to her presentation.

She described the findings on summer jobs as particularly powerful because of the random lotteries used to allocate slots in the programs, allowing for a control group.

Its one of the places we have the most evidence, Doleac said.

The jobs seem to work, she said, by giving teens access to informal mentors  their supervisors  and experience handling workplace arguments.

The effect might also be driven, Doleac said, by giving teens a glimpse of a different path and something to aspire to.

Public assistance, infrastructure

Food stamps and housing, Doleac said, also have an impact on crime.

Access to food stamps reduces recidivism; housing reduces future criminal charges, especially among those with prior involvement in the criminal justice system; and Supplemental Security Income for young adults reduces future charges. The effect is typically larger for such income-generating crimes as robbery, according to Doleacs presentation.

In some cases, she said, public assistance has particularly long-lasting or generational effects. Access to food stamps early in life, for example, reduces criminal justice involvement later in life.

Streetlights, turning vacant lots into parks and reducing air-pollution exposure have all been shown to help reduce certain kinds of crime, Doleac said.

Better lighting can make it easier for people to avoid danger, and increase the probability that an offender will be identified and caught.

Greening vacant lots is connected with reduced street crime, perhaps because of increased foot traffic, lower temperatures and improved air quality, according to Doleacs presentation.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

He played trumpet with big names like Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Dizzy Gillespie in front of thousands of people. Those who knew Saul Tony Lujan called him one of the best God-given talents in the trumpet world.

The music ended abruptly when, according to Bernalillo County deputies, the Albuquerque native killed himself during a lengthy standoff Wednesday at his home in the East Mountains.

The 65-year-old, a father of three, had allegedly pointed a gun at some neighbors earlier in the day and fired rounds into their ATV before deputies responded. Authorities said Lujan had been exhibiting increasingly erratic behavior in recent years.

Lujans family declined to comment Friday.

Mark Padilla, president of the New Mexico Music Hall of Fame, said Lujan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020 but his legacy had long been established.

Padilla called Lujan one of the small-town artists who made it.

I dont consider myself a jack of all trades, I just want to be a master of one  but Im still working, Lujan said in a 2020 interview.

Born in Albuquerque, Lujan began playing trumpet at the age of 10 and studied at New Mexico State University and the University of New Mexico before being tutored by master trumpet player Clark Terry. Lujan went on to produce four studio albums, played with a laundry list of famous musicians and taught at universities and in local communities.

Abe Torres said Lujan tutored him after Torres graduated from Rio Grande High and the pair became friends for life. One of Lujans first students, Torres said Lujan changed his world as a trumpeter.

He wasnt much older than me, maybe a couple of years. But in trumpet years, he was miles beyond my abilities, Torres said. Musically, he said, Lujan was a monster who played with the best in the world  he had Arturo Sandovals number on speed dial and considered Doc Severinsen one of his best friends.

Torres said Lujan used parts of his brain that most people dont even tap and studied his craft diligently. He said Lujan was a master at circular breathing, a rare talent where you dont pull the trumpet off your face, breathing through your nose while still producing sound.

Torres said Lujan was an exception in a world where people are making millions in the music industry but couldnt punch their way out of an improv situation.

At one point, Torres said, Lujan was in a car crash that literally blanked his mind.

The New Mexico Music Awards said on Facebook that the crash left Lujan in a monthslong coma, and he had to be convinced by his friends that he was indeed, a trumpet player.

After viewing some videos of himself, he picked up his instrument and re-learned everything that was taken away from him in the accident, NMMA posted on Facebook.

The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office had responded to numerous calls at Lujans home in recent years, according to court records. The agencys Crisis Intervention Team, utilized in mental health related calls, noted Lujan complained of being hacked and attacked by a local gang.

Tuesdays incident began with a call from a neighbor.

According to an arrest warrant filed in Metropolitan Court:

Deputies responded around 6:15 p.m. to 12 Camino Oro Drive for reports of an armed subject. A 29-year-old man told deputies he and a teenage girl were riding an ATV when it stalled near their home.

He said he then saw Lujan running toward them with a revolver and yelling they robbed him and stole his dog. The man told deputies he knew Lujan had recently lost a dog but was confused at the random accusation.

The man told deputies he had a gun on his hip and Lujan told him he would kill him if he went for it. He said Lujan shot the ATV three times, and he tackled Lujan.

The man told deputies Lujan disarmed him of his gun and began pistol whipping him. He said Lujan fired at the ATV again, drew a second revolver and pointed it at him before running off.

The teenaged girl and a neighbor corroborated the mans story to deputies, who found bullet holes in the ATV and bruises on the mans face. Deputies said they went to Lujans home and made contact with him through a window but he refused to come out.

At 2 a.m., according to court records, deputies were still trying to get Lujan to surrender.

BCSO spokeswoman Jayme Fuller said Lujan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She did not give any other details about the standoff.

In the hours before deputies were called, Lujan had posted a photo to Facebook of his son playing trumpet, captioned tearing it up!! Since his death, social media has been flooded by hundreds of friends, musicians and fans mourning the loss.

Many expressed disbelief at the circumstances.

One man said the incident underscores the absolute (expletive) of mental healthcare in the USA. Poor guy must have needed some help and couldnt get it. Another wrote, Wow. What a dark, tragic ending for anybody, much less a respected musician.

Torres said the whole situation is just too weird. The loss, he said, is devastating.

Torres said he has a trumpet, set to be displayed in the hall of fame, signed by the greats: Brian Lynch, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Shew and Arturo Sandoval. One signature was missing.

Im so sad that I never got Tony Lujans autograph on that trumpet, because those were my intentions, he said. I just missed that opportunity when we lost him.

Torres went on, You want to know what Tony meant to people? He meant to me everything that Ive become and will ever be in music. Because of Tony.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Think of it as zoo school  a way for animal keepers and aquarists at the ABQ BioPark to acquire additional knowledge and skills in animal care and maintenance, move into new and higher job classifications, and earn higher pay.

The recently launched Animal Care Excellence program, or ACE, consists of workshops, seminars, online courses and hands-on training, explained Brandon Gibson, deputy director of the city Department of Arts and Culture.

Up until now, there were just two job levels available to each of the BioParks 65 zookeepers and aquarists. With the implementation of ACE, two additional classifications for each job have been added, Gibson said.

Keepers often stayed in lower classification jobs for protracted periods and, if there wasnt an opening, and if they wanted to advance their careers, theyd move on to other AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) institutions, he said. Now, they have four levels, and if they work hard and complete the education and training, and demonstrate their skills, theyre going to get promoted.

The starting salary for zookeepers and aquarists is $37,190 a year. Through ACE, they can move up and, on reaching level four, earn $46,384 a year, Gibson said.

ACE was put together with the assistance of the San Diego Zoos Global Academy and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; it was sanctioned by the city of Albuquerque and Local 624 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing zookeepers and aquarists, Gibson said.

The city has allocated $328,000 toward the cost of upgrading the classifications and pay of zookeepers and aquarists, he said.

Over the past year, the BioPark Zoo has had to deal with the deaths from a shigella bacteria outbreak of three siamangs, a western lowland gorilla and a chimpanzee, as well as the deaths of two elephants from elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus.

The ACE program was, however, not a response to that; rather, it has been more than two years in the making, Gibson said.

Weve been planning this for a long time and were in talks with the union, the administration and the (City) Council to make this happen, he said.

The program demonstrates that we have the highest level of standards, practices and philosophies when it comes to providing care for the animals here at the Albuquerque BioPark, he said.

Valarie Thietten, the BioParks senior zookeeper for carnivores, said a program such as ACE has been needed for years.

We had entry-level positions and senior positions, she said. A lot of folks came in at that entry level, but we rarely had senior positions available and, when a senior position did open up, all those people stuck at entry level applied.

Now, even if people cant land one of the few senior positions, they can still move up in job classifications, said Thietten, who also serves as the local union steward and is on a working group helping to develop the ACE curriculum.

We have a skill that doesnt allow us to move around the city like plumbers and electricians, and so forth. Were zookeepers and this is the only zoo for the city, she said. If you wanted to advance, youd have to leave the state, so we had a high turnover and were losing great people.

The ACE program is a win-win for everybody, Thietten said. The BioPark retains more people who get more training as they move into higher job classifications and earn more money.

It makes them feel more appreciated, she said, which ultimately benefits the animals and is the reason were all here.
Albuquerque police said homicide detectives are investigating after a man was dropped off at a local hospital with serious injuries on Saturday and died on Sunday.

Gilbert Gallegos, a police spokesman, said that Michael Sherwood, 39, was dropped of the Presbyterian Hospital, 1100 Central SE, around 4:15 p.m. Saturday with unknown injuries. He died Sunday afternoon, Gallegos said.

Gallegos said police are still investigating the suspicious death.
After a barrage of criticism over its failure to deal with the surge of anti-Zionist Jew-hatred, the ADL -- the Jewish peoples defense agency -- finally chose to respond to charges that it had embraced partisanship over its nonpartisan mission. It took a column by North Carolina parent Kathryn Wolf published in the left-leaning Forward, whose audience the ADL cannot afford to ignore, laying out an instance where ADL erroneously warned of parents' statements at school board meetings (on COVID measures and other irrelevances) to elicit a refutation by the ADLs senior vice president for policy, Eileen Hershenov.

Ironically, every one of Hershenovs responses lends credence to Wolfs critiques.

In her letter to the Forward, Hershenov claims that Wolf distorts the ADLs record, and that in fact the ADL is committed to an unambiguously nonpartisan mission to fight antisemitism, regardless of whether the source is the political right or left -- or anywhere else. She makes her case by listing the few instances where ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called out Democratic Party politicians for anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric. She boasts that in November 2021, Greenblatt issued a clarion call against antisemitism from the far left in his annual state of hate remarks. And she points all the way back to 2017 when he wrote Anti-Semitism Is Creeping Into Progressivism in TIME magazine.

This is meaningless. The scandal that Wolf points to is ADLs failure for almost 30 years to understand anti-Zionism as the new antisemitism, let alone to combat it. A few tweets and long-overdue, yet toothless, statements just wont do.

It was in 1989 that the ADL first turned down a key chance to address the issue of anti-Zionism. That was the year we were involved in forming the Boston branch of CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) as a grassroots effort to combat the mainstream medias incessant assault on Israel. We were surprised to learn that two of Bostons establishment Jewish leaders -- Lenny Zaikim, ADLs chief in the Hub, and Steve Grossman, one time head of AIPAC -- wanted the ADL and not CAMERA to spearhead the effort against media bias, arguing that ADL speaks in the voice of American Jews so we should Let the ADL be the ADL for Israel.

But ADL CEO Abe Foxman declined. This was a significant, historic error. It meant that neither the American public nor the Jews were told by the defense agency of the Jewish people that the media systematically promotes Palestinian propaganda about Israel as news. Even today, after decades of media poison that falsely paints American Jews as supporters of a cruel apartheid nation -- and inevitably drums up violence against American Jews -- the ADL offers no analysis of media bias, let alone a strategy to correct it.

Whats more, since the start of the campus assault against Zionist students, dating roughly to the year 2000, the ADL has refused to support Jewish college students intimidated and harassed first by anti-Israel professors, and then by a panoply of leftist groups. As with the media problem, Jewish students were helped by newer, grassroots organizations which came into existence when -- and because! -- the Jewish establishment failed them. (The ZOA is the exception, being the only legacy organization which always fought anti-Zionism and was always there for Jewish students.) The David Project, StandWithUs, Hasbara Fellows, SPME, CAMERA on Campus, manned the gap created by ADLs reluctance.

Then anti-Israelism came to the high schools. In Newton, Massachusetts, after grassroots groups organized to fight horrific, deceptive lesson plans, some funded by Saudi Arabia, the ADL told the Jewish community that there was no big problem in Newton schools.

Finally, the ADL has yet to deal with Islamic Jew-hatred, much of it promoted in the guise of criticism of Israel. Radical imams in mosques across America can be seen cursing Jews and radicalizing the historically moderate Muslim community. In Boston, when we gave the ADL incontrovertible documentation that the largest mosque on the East Coast was run by the Muslim Brotherhood; they turned away.

Hershenov writes that ADL fights antisemitism whatever the source. This claim is risible. On April 9, 2019, Hershenov testified before a congressional hearing on racism and hate crimes and the rise of the White Nationalism. Both her formal written statement, and her oral remarks focused almost exclusively on white supremacism, with no mention of Muslim antisemitism. On the contrary, Muslims only appear in her testimony as victims of hate. Earlier that day, the ZOAs Mort Klein had testified to the same committee that Islamic Jew-hatred is a major problem, citing the ADLs very own data showing that 34% of American Muslims and 49% of Muslims worldwide hate Jews. Hershenov explained why the ADL did not act on its own alarming findings. She said:

Um, one of the witnesses [Mort Klein] talked about global -- the global attitudes that we look at. Thats non-violent -- looking at attitudes -- and the ADL does track that. We feel it is incumbent -- vulnerable, marginalized -- marginalized, ah, communities have bigotry within them. It is incumbent first for members of those communities to call that out. There are members of the Jewish community that are bigoted, that are Islamophobic, and we need to call that out

It is ADL policy then, expressed by Hershenov herself, that Muslims are vulnerable and marginalized, that they need to call out Jew-hatred in their community on their own, theres nothing for the ADL to do about it, and that Jewish Islamophobia is a parallel phenomenon. She then cites rises in hate crimes against Muslims (third highest year) but not the much greater rise of hate crimes against Jews (68% of all religious hate crimes), many committed by Muslims.

ADL has been fixated on threats from the right because they are clinging to an outdated paradigm that supposes victim groups with a leftist orientation welcome Jews as allies, and they do not want to alienate those groups by criticizing them. ADL seems paralyzed by the lefts shift to woke-think which casts Jews as undeservedly privileged and white adjacent oppressors who support racism and genocide against the darker skinned Palestinians. Indeed, it signed a petition supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement, (which accuses Israel of genocide in its platform), a petition signed by violently anti-Israel (and hence antisemitic) groups like JVP and Anti-Zionist Shabbat.

Generals tend to fight the last war. Here the ADL has shown an adamant reluctance to analyze leftist Jew-hatred like they do, should do, and have always done with white supremacist bigotry. Recently, Jonathan Greenblatt has announced some dramatic changes in the ADLs attitude towards left antisemitism. But will Greenblatt walk the walk?

We need to see that ADL is developing a genuine strategy to combat modern antisemitism in all its forms, not just creating some catchy buzzwords. Will Greenblatt re-educate ADL staff about leftist, Islamist and black supremacist antisemitism? Will he revamp ADL workshops to include these forms of Jew-hatred, instead of focusing almost exclusively on the threat from white supremacists? Will he take action based on his newer understanding about the left? Will ADL, for example, seek to have frank discussions with black pastors about black antisemitism and urge them to educate their congregations? There is so much to do, and so much ADL can do.

But until the ADL alters its strategy and begins to educate the Jewish community, and the black, gay, trans, feminist, Muslim, and Hispanic communities, about the rise and dangerous nature of modern-day Jew-hatred, they deserve all the criticism they are getting, and more.

Charles Jacobs is co-founder of The Jewish Leadership Project.

Image: ADL logo, via Wikimedia Commons // public domain
A new study by Lifeway Research found that more than half (54%) of the 1,005 Americans surveyed believe that religious freedom is eroding in the United States. Even more, 59%, said the treatment of Christians and intolerance for their beliefs is getting worse.

"Intolerance is about cultural pushback," Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, explained. "In the American marketplace of ideas, not all systems of thought are welcomed. The majority of all religions notice this pushback against Christians today."

What does one make of these statistics? Relevant Magazine  a Christian publication, the tagline of which is "God, lifestyle, and progressive culture"  is a good place to start. Responding to these findings in a recent article, it gets it right by arguing that, whatever Christians in America may be experiencing, they are certainly not being persecuted the way their counterparts are in other nations and parts of the world:

[C]onservative Christian groups [in America] have a lot to celebrate. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and delivered a big win to Christians who want to pray in public schools. These are big, historic decisions and they don't square with a narrative of diminishing religious liberty for Christians. This is especially true on the global scale. Open Doors USA's World Watch List keeps track of the countries where it's most dangerous to be a Christian, and the stories on their meticulously detailed database are heartbreaking. Christians in places like Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia can be imprisoned, tortured and even killed for their faith. ... Persecution against Christians is real and we should be talking more about it. But it's not what the American Church is facing, and conflating what's happening in other countries with online backlash and political spats in the U.S. does a disservice to that conversation.

It is, indeed, especially silly to argue that Christians in America have it anywhere near as bad as Christians in, say, the Muslim world, where the overwhelming majority of persecution against Christians take place. The same World Watch List referenced above found that the "extreme persecution" meted out to Christians in nine of the top 11 worst nations in the world comes from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim-majority nations. Moreover, the persecution Christians experience in 39 of the 50 worst nations on the World Watch List is also from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim-majority nations.

That said, the Relevant article gets it wrong, very wrong, by minimizing what is happening in America. It argues that what Christians in America are experiencing

isn't so much about actually losing religious freedom as it is losing the war for vibes. ... Christians may not like being confronted with different opinions or having to make space for others in a diverse environment, but that does not necessarily mean they're being met with outright intolerance. It simply means giving others the same freedom you want them to give you.

Such reasoning makes sense only in a vacuum, for it fails to take into account that  unlike all of those other non-Christian nations around the world where Christian minorities are being persecuted  America was founded as a Christian nation. The fact that it is where it is today  where Christians, who still form the majority of the citizenry, are experiencing any kind of intolerance, harassment, or discrimination  is suggestive of a gradual but slippery slope that bodes ill for the future.

It is, for example, rather silly to argue, as Relevant does, that it is a "big win to Christians" that Roe v. Wade was overturned, or that Christians can pray in public schools. Actually, that Roe v. Wade was ever a thing, or that there was ever any question about Christians praying in public, is indicative of the big loss Christians have experienced in this nation.

Put differently, if American Christianity were as influential as the Relevant article implies, there never would have been a Roe v. Wade or questions over public prayer, or any of those many other cultural "values" that currently supersede and directly contradict Christian principles, in the first place  just as principles that directly contradict Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist values have little impact on Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist nations, where their values reign supreme and uncontested.

Imagine a line, a continuum, from 1 to 10. The number 1 represents nations that prioritize their religious principles, and 10 represents nations that have completely abandoned their faith. Most of the non-Western  especially Muslim  world, I would argue, is probably between 1 and 2. Where is the U.S. on this scale with regard to its founding faith? I would guess somewhere between 6 and 7. Maybe worse?

Such a placement is hardly a "big win" for Christianity in America, nor does it suggest that "conservative Christian groups have a lot to celebrate," as Relevant claims. Rather, it shows just how irrelevant Christianity has become.

More to the point, as America gets closer to 10  and as the number of actual Christians continues to dwindle  prepare to see a concomitant rise in real and actual persecution, the sort experienced in the non-Western world.

The story of America, as I fear history will eventually teach, is the story of one long slippery slope  the individual bumps of which are subtle, gradual, and thus imperceptible  into destruction.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Image via Pexels.
Both Scottish (Highland) and Irish legends speak of an ancient homeland of mythic lore. From thence, these Gaels claim to have wandered around the Mediterranean Sea, until they landed in Ireland, with some clans later on moving up to the Highlands of Scotland. Legend or history, this mythic origin has come up from time to time in very important documents. For example, The Declaration of Arbroath, which states:

[W]e know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous.

The Declaration of Arbroath is not some arcane document of interest only to obsessive students of Scottish history. Rather, it is a detailed list of grievances the Scots had against the English.

[F]or, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours [sic] that we are fighting, but for freedom ... for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

These words inspired our American Declaration of Independence.

But I ask you to notice something. The Declaration of Arbroath makes reference to an original homeland in Greater Scythia.

Do not let that name fool you. Pronounce it with a hard c, like it was a k  Skythia. The -ia means land of.... hence, land of the Skyths. Of course, over a few thousand years of dialectal changes. Skyth became Scot. By extension, using a German suffix (English is a Germanic language), -ia would become -land, and we have Skythland, or Scotland.

So who were the Scythians? The ancient Greeks described them as red-haired.

According to legend, they departed from the Scythian region, navigated the Mediterranean, and eventually landed in Spain  from there, they went on to Ireland.

Along that journey some intermingling occurred, and the highly recessive red-haired gene apparently gave away to the dominant genes. Yet, even to this day, Ireland and Highland Scotland have the highest rate of red-haired people in the world  the trait maxes out at around 10% of the Irish population, though 40% of the Irish still carry the gene, even if it is not expressed. Hence, the very common experience of brown-haired Gaels with red beards.

In Ireland, an estimated 10 percent of the population has red hair, though about 40 percent of the Irish carry the recessive gene. In Scotland and England, 13 percent and 6 percent, respectively, are redheaded, according to the Daily Mail.

But now, here is the kicker. As this Guardian map shows, after Ireland and Scotland, the next highest concentration of redheads is not that far from the Ukraine.

Are the legends true? Did the Insular Celts come from Scythia?

Along the way, the Scythians picked up other names: Gaels  supposedly from an ancestor named Goidel Glas  and Scotti, which is an obvious reference to Scythia. The Romans turned the moniker Scotti into a synonym for thief  a result of their raids into Roman territory. Around the 3rd  5th century A.D., some of these Gaels (Scotti) landed in Alba (Scotland) and established a kingdom. The Irish and the Highland Scots coexisted peacefully for most of the time  the Battle of Moira being a major exception, but it determined the separation of Ireland and Scotland, with Ulster going to the Irish for a thousand years  at least until the English sent settlers in the 17th century. But the English were not Celts, and neither were the Lowlanders who accompanied them.

The Lowland Scots  do not let the name fool you, it referred to geography, not ancestry  were chiefly of English, Norman, Viking, and Danish extraction, and were as Germanic as the English, and felt hostility to the Highlanders whom they called the Wild Irish. To a certain extent this was true. The Highlanders spoke Gaelic, and were an Irish/Pictish mix. The Lowlanders might as well have been English, while the Highlanders might as well have been Irish.

Things may have worsened during the Reformation, but the Highlanders would still dispatch soldiers to help the Irish fight the English, while the Irish reciprocated  most notably during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The wars were not so much Protestant vs. Catholic as the English claim, but rather Anglo vs. Celt.

In the most base of historical propaganda, the English liked to say that the Highlanders were Catholic; but the majority of them were Protestant by 1745, often Presbyterian. Yet, the Catholic Irish still helped the Highland rebellion out of Gaelic unity. Bonnie Prince Charles was no prize, but the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland detested the Germanic Hanovers of London, and Charles would concede a clannish and tribal religious freedom that London would not. The Celts lost at Culloden in 1746.

Yes, there were some exceptions, but the general rule holds. Intermarriage between the Highlanders and Lowlanders did not really take off until the 19th century. Prior to industrialization and migration to the cities, the Highlanders remained a distinct people.

So what happened?

The vast majority of Highlanders experienced ethnic cleansing during the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries, while the potato famine drove out a good portion of the Irish. The truth is that English land policies aggravated both flights, and the London government was not displeased to see the troublesome Celts leave. Some have even asked if the Highland Clearances and the Potato Famine had genocidal aspects to them.

So what has this got to do with today?

It turns out that some of the Ukrainian refugees have been sent to Ireland and Highland Scotland (yes, there are some Highlanders still left), where they are receiving a warm welcome. Two branches of the same greater family that separated a few thousand years ago have been reunited, albeit under tragic circumstances  but just look at them here and here. Tell the truth, without a scorecard, some of those Ukrainians and Gaels are all but indistinguishable.

Over the millenia, some members of the Western branch (the Gaels) have picked up black hair from their ancient Mediterranean meanderings, while some of the Eastern branch mixed with Islamic peoples  but they still have similar rates of blue eyes. But through it all, they remained Christian. The Irish are Catholic, the Highlanders are Presbyterian, and the Ukrainians are Orthodox Christian/Catholic.

The Ukrainian temperament is like the Gaels  and all of them like to drink. Putin can expect centuries of trouble from them, just as the Irish and Highlanders gave to England.

These are the same people, ancient Scythians regathered. Ideally, this is how immigration should work. Bring in people who assimilate well.

What you are seeing is a family reunion in hard times. We here in America should pay attention. Sometimes, in the midst of awful events, God can use tragic circumstances for good. I suspect He is doing that now.
The U.S.'s latest arms sale to Taiwan, announced on July 15, is the fourth one this year. In contrast, there was only one sale in 2021. As Taiwan faces growing pressure from China's diplomatic, economic, and military coercion, the accelerated U.S. arms sale manifests the U.S.'s commitment to Taiwan's defense against China, consistent with the passing in the U.S. Congress of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which includes provisions aimed at strengthening Taiwan's defense capability, and President Biden's repeated pledge to defending Taiwan (militarily if necessary).

Taiwan, meanwhile, is readying itself for a full-scale China invasion through various measures: showcasing missile strike ability, deploying asymmetric weaponries, performing drills reminiscent of the Blitz (the bombing of London by Nazi Germany), etc.

These measures are essential to deter and counter China's attacks, but they are not sufficient to defeat China. Taiwan, and the U.S. as well, must psychologically be ready to encounter battlefield casualties at a scale that no one else but the army of Communist China would be willing to inflict without hesitance.

History still holds its value for today's high techsavvy and humanitarian-nurtured citizens of Taiwan. The proceedings and endings of the Korean War are the seminal textbook that Taiwan can learn from.

I

The Korean War started when the communist North Korea burst through the N. 38th Parallel with the ambition of putting the entire Korean Peninsula under communist control, an intention similar to what China has for Taiwan today.

Although North Korea failed to achieve its political goal, its de facto backer China succeeded in preventing the U.S.-led U.N. Command from achieving its objectives, under U.N. approval, of unifying Korea and eradicating communism from the peninsula.

China, with inferiorly equipped armies, achieved its strategic and political goal through tactics that inflicted massive casualties not only on the opponents, but mostly on its own. This is a trap Taiwan should be very cautious to not fall into when the time comes to fight for its survival.

II

From the beginning of the Korean War, China understood that American society, recovering from World War II, did not want to engage in another bloody war, and the U.S. politicians' mandates were given by the people. Throughout the entire Korean War, China carried out a military strategy to exhaust U.S. public support, effectively chipping away its military strength through massive, often suicidal, "human wave attacks."

Take the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (27 November13 December 1950) as an example. In this first major engagement between the U.S. and China in the Korean War, China lost 25,000 soldiers in exchange for the lives of 718 U.S. soldiers in a failed encirclement attempt.

Although this battle has been dubbed as one of the U.S. Marines' greatest accomplishments, China's political calculation about the U.S.'s resolve proved correct. The U.S. public initially cheered for the bitter, happy conclusion of the battle, but anti-war sentiment was also sown, partially by the massive deaths of Chinese soldiers in battles.

The U.N. forces retreated to the south of the 38th Parallel after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and abandoned its initial objectives.

When the war was reaching the final months of its second year in 1952, the U.S.-led U.N. forces could hardly sustain the mounting losses inflicted by the Chinese tactics of gradual but constant attrition. Back in the U.S., the overall public sentiment had turned from support to resentment, and "End the War" became the loudest campaign slogan during the presidential election in that year.

The then-president-elect, Eisenhower, subsequently chose an armistice with the communists over liberating the peninsula from them, even though he had been strongly opposing his predecessor Truman's policy of containment toward Communist China.

It would be an overstatement to attribute the shelving of the U.N.'s political plan entirely to the anti-war pressure. The decision nevertheless was the first sign that the Korean War would not end favorably for the defending side.

Would Taiwan (and the U.S.) be able to steer clear of this kind of retreat from its military and political stance in the event of an invasion of Taiwan by China?

III

The Korean War concluded with the establishment of China's hold on the peninsula through North Korea, a more solidified and aggressive communist state than it was before the war. The U.S. swallowed its humiliation.

During the Korean War, the determinant difference between the U.S.-led U.N. command and Communist China's forces was not military strength, but the value of life. The U.S. and its allies treated life as one of the most sacred presents a human being could receive, whereas in the eye of Communist China, life was (and still is) the most worthless disposable.

This fundamental difference dictated the contrasting difference in response to the loss of lives in the Korean War. The U.S. was disarmed psychologically and morally after losing nearly 36,500 of its own soldiers in the war, let alone the loss of another 197,500 on the communist China side (as estimated by Chinese sources; the true number could be several times higher). China, in contrast, was ready to lose 200,000 more lives if necessary to achieve its above-mentioned strategic and political goals.

In a war fought between these two ideological camps, leaders of democratic nations face far greater obstacles than their counterparts, having to achieve seemingly paradoxical missions to win the war: subdue the bloodthirsty opponents through decisive destruction, and submit to humanitarian pressure by minimizing battleground casualties. When these opposing goals cannot be reconciled, the latter often prevails.

The U.S. chose an armistice instead of a decisive victory to end the Korean War. Whether the subsequent suffering of tens of millions of North Koreans and hundreds of millions of Chinese under communist repression justifies that armistice-for-peace approach warrants a conscientious answer from all who genuinely advocate peace.

Today, China would to apply the same suicidal tactics if it chose to invade Taiwan, only at a much larger scale, after successfully propagating nationalist ideas among the Chinese people for 70 years.

At a certain point, Taiwan would have to face the same tough choice as the US did seven decades ago: Accept a humiliating armistice with China after blood has already been shed, or pursue a harder but complete victory to ensure a long-lasting and true peace.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Kurt Vonneguts Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories, many reflecting Vonneguts 1960s belief that the earth was becoming dangerously overpopulated. The eponymous short story anchoring the book imagines America as a place in which old people are encouraged to commit suicide, helped along by beautiful, virginal women. I couldnt help thinking of that story when I read about the guidebook the Canadian Virtual Hospice has prepared for children aged 6-12. Ostensibly to help children understand a loved ones death, the book seems to encourage euthanasia as a great life option.

Wesley J. Smith, at National Review, describes whats happening in Canada:

Children are being indoctrinated into everything that subverts traditional values these days, and in Canada that includes bringing children along when a loved one is being euthanized  which goes by the euphemism MAID for medical assistance in dying. Children are introduced into the medical killing fields by Canadian Virtual Hospice with its Medical Assistance in Dying Activity Book, described as being for children ages 612.

Using simple language, the book walks the child through the peaceful, painless process: First, the person is made to relax, then the person is knocked out, and then the person is painlessly executed.

The children are warned that, once someone commits to MAID, theres no going back. That person has committed to dying and its tacky to stop them. Smith begs to differ:

That isnt true, of course. Palliative care and appropriate emotional and psychological interventions can overcome suicide ideation in the seriously ill and disabled. But those asking for euthanasia are denied this essential hospice service. Moreover, only 15 percent of Canadians have adequate access to palliative care  a true scandal in a country that pushes euthanasia.

The book even has activities, so the child can plan his role in the other persons euthanasia and, perhaps, already start thinking about his own euthanasia choices when the time comes.

Grandpa, can I be with you when youre injected? Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.

Years ago, when I was still a Democrat listening to NPR, I remember a Dutch man boasting about the Netherlands newly created euthanasia program. He said that nothing like that should ever be tried in America. His reasoning was that, because America didnt have socialized medicine, people would bully sick relatives to end it all to save money.

Even then, I knew that the Dutchman was dead wrong. People will do anything to save the one they love. To the state, however, were all widgets and line items in budgetsand so it is that, in Canada, its a lot cheaper to kill people than to give them the palliative care that will allow them to face down a terminal disease without suffering.

Canada, like all countries with socialized medicine, cannot afford to have older people (the ones who once funded the system) continue to use the system after theyve stopped paying in. In addition, Canada, by buying into the whole anthropogenic climate change shtick, views humans as parasites on earth, thereby according to the earth more value than a human being. Whats lost on these lefties is the irony that the earth is not self-aware and that any value we assign to it comes courtesy of human sensibilities.

With those two ideologies at work, killing sick citizens is an optimal use of resources and for the greater good. I know with absolute certainty, though, that Justin Trudeau will never believe that hes worth more to his country dead than alive or that Mother Gaia would be happier without him imposing on her unsullied natural beauty. When the government pushes it, euthanasia is always for the little peopleand, in Canada, for the very young little people.
On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, a heartbreaking video spread rapidly on Irans social media. A middle-aged mother stood in front of the white and green Guidance Patrol van, desperately trying to stop it from driving away. At the same time, she screamed dont take my daughter; she is sick. Her efforts failed. The patrol van driver, who was taking orders from his superior through CB Radio, continued to drive until she was forced away from the car, ignoring her request, and taking her sick daughter away:

This painful and hateful scene met with a lot of reactions on Iranian social media. Somebody wrote, Make no mistake this is not in Afghanistan; the Taliban have been in our country for years. Another user wrote, ISIS is new to many, but it has attacked our country for more than forty years.

The guidance, patrol, and suppression of women in Iran are often initiated under the claim that a womans hijab is bad. This is a misogynistic technique that is as old as the Iranian Revolution itself.

In February 1979, while speaking to a gathering of seminary students in Qom, Khomeini said, Women must go out with Islamic hijab. This was a message to motivate some vigilantes with clubs to attack women under the color of the slogan either a scarf or a smack on the head.

On March 7, 1979, on Khomeinis order, women who were not wearing the hijab were prohibited from entering government offices. Following this order, Jundullahs patrols started suppressing women under the pretext of bad hijab.

In November 1983, parliament officially passed a law punishing women for appearing in public without a hijab. The new law held that any woman appearing in public without a hijab would be sentenced to up to seventy-four lashes.

Image: A frantic mother trying to stop Irans hijab police.

From 1985 to 1996, motorcycliststhe Hezbollahiconsistently assaulted women in the streets under the pretext of bad hijab.

On January 3, 2006, on Ayatollah Khameneis order, the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution announced that one of the duties of police officers was to deal with women who refused to wear the hijab. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched this plan, which was carried out by ominous green patrol vans, in cooperation with the judiciary, the Revolutionary Guards, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Basij.

In 2013, the Ministry of the Interior formed the Social Council for Chastity, Hijab and Moral Security was formed in the Ministry of Interior. In this new plan, a significant part of the duties of the police force was transferred to the Council for Chastity and Hijab. In other words, the government continued to be focused on subduing women. By 2015, though, the parliament Research Center announced that this project was unsuccessful and caused hypocrisy in society.

In 2016, the plan for invisible guidance patrol was approved. According to this plan, seven thousand invisible agents will report to the police problems of moral insecurity, including bad hijab.

In 2021, the government again went to war against moral insecurity and bad hijab, this time by patrolling cyberspace. According to this plan, the police force and FTA (Cyberspace) police have reviewed footage online to punish violators.

In March 2022, Ebrahim Raisis government strengthened the guidance patrol and added the Red Crescent Organization to the guidance patrol. This marks a change from what parallel organizations (e.g., the Red Cross, Magen David Adom) do, which is to provide relief and help evacuate the injured in times of crises such as floods and earthquakes!

On July 11, 2022, Raisi harked back to the 2005 resolution of the Supreme Cultural Council to justify focusing on bad hijab. Annisseh Khazali, Raisis deputy of womens affairs, also described the hijab as the first bastion of the regime and said: If we lose it, we must expect to lose the other bastions.

Following Raisis appeal, the guidance patrols, equipped with security devices and big vans, and repressive teams, poured into the streets. The agents of these patrols insult, harass and beat and detain women on the pretext of not wearing hijab, which is how we ended up with the video you saw at the top of this post.

Therefore, the Irshad patrol that attacks women in public is the result of Irans patriarchal and misogynist regime of Velayat-e-Faqih (religious fascism), which has been in control since the 1979 Revolution. The policy creates an atmosphere of terror and oppression, psychological pressure, suicide, and a lack of security for Iranian women.

But in the face of this flagrant oppression, as that mother showed, Iranian women have not been silent and have not given in to these pressures. They have resisted as well as they can the bad hijab regime and stood up against the repressive Irshad patrols with unity and integrity.

Hassan.Mahmoudi is an Iran & Middle East Political and Economic researcher.
Biden, 79, got diagnosed with COVID, took Paxlovid and, miracle of miracles, recovered at warp speed. Now, though, hes been diagnosed a second time with COVID, and it turns out that the Paxlovid is anything but a miracle pill. It seems to be yet another in a long line now of medicines that dont live up to the hype. Whats so funny is that Biden snarked at Trump, who made vaccines and treatments possible, only for Biden to fall prey to COVID again, something Trump hasnt done.

Joe initially seemed to recover very quickly from COVIDquickly and ungraciously. Weve been lectured for a long time about mean tweets, but Joes right up there with Obama when it comes to sheer nastiness. In Joes case, the most recent example of his vicious personality meant taking a nasty dig at Trump, who went to the hospital for his COVID, while the multi-vaxxed and boosted Joe took Pfizers Paxlovid and recovered in the comfort of the White House:

My symptoms were mild, my recovery was quick, and Im feeling great, he said. The entire time I was in isolation, I was able to work. ... Its a real statement about where we are in the fight against COVID-19. He took a shot at his predecessor, Donald Trump, by noting that the former president had to be transferred to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center when he got the coronavirus in 2020, whereas Biden continued working from the upper floor of the White House.

What Biden claims saved him was Paxlovid, a drug that wouldnt have happened if Trump hadnt cut the regulations for drug testing, thereby enabling a drug to get to the market in a year, rather than a decade. Heres Biden boasting about the medicine:

BIDEN: "Paxla-void. Pax-lavid, excuse me. Paxlovid. I tell you what, I think it's  I used it. Ha ha ha." pic.twitter.com/6MEZfST4aE  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 27, 2022

Whats ironically possible about all this is that the same Paxlovid Biden boasted about may have been his undoing. According to The Daily Mail, although Paxlovid claims a 2% reinfection rate, the actual number is closer to 40% because the drug, even as it kills the virus, also suppresses the patients immune system:

When Paxlovid came to market in December 2021, studies from Pfizer indicated that only 1-2 percent of patients who took the drug tested positive for Covid again shortly after finishing their dosage. But other experts say the rapid reinfection rate is closer to 40 per cent, and that Paxlovid can cause this issue by suppressing patients immune systems too early, meaning their own bodies are unable to get a handle on COVID.

Given that actual data, it shouldnt be any type of surprise that Biden has again tested positive for COVID:

JUST IN - Biden tests positive for COVID again. pic.twitter.com/GCAZ3zXsgl  Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 30, 2022

The official word is that, while Biden is technically sick, hes not really sick. Yesterday, after the second COVID diagnosis, Bidens staff was able to get him upright and competent enough to do a 12-second video touting his apparent good health:

Having recently had COVID and having discussed my symptoms with others, I wonder. Many to whom I spoke said that COVID came with a reboundyou think youre recovering, only to be plunged back into it again. In my case, rather than a re-do of a relatively mild first go-round with COVID, I got a terrible rash and (thankfully short-lived) neurological problems. Everyone I know who had COVID and is over 50 also complains about a serious diminution in energy and stamina. Lets just say that Im getting my work done, but my house is a mess....

So, even though Joes getting the best medical care, I question how well his already obviously failing 79-year-old body is handling the stress of vaccinations, boosters, COVID, Paxlovid, and rebound COVID. And keep in mind that Biden is already someone who works less than any president since Calvin Coolidgealthough Coolidge, to his tremendous credit, believed that the government should not control everything, which is the opposite of Bidens (and his handlers) urge to elevate government to socialist-style centrality in America life. Given Bidens already minimalist approach to his real responsibilities, one must wonder whos running the country right now.

Image: Twitter screen grab.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, wanted birth control to build a cleaner race. She believed that she should pick who should live and who should die.

Kamala Harris to the Disabled: Abortion Is Good for You Her grotesque comments ignore the countless unborn killed under Roe for imperfections.

Here are some of the views of Margaret Sanger:

Eugenics part of Sanger legacy Sanger began publishing the Birth Control Review in 1917 and served as its editor until 1938. The May 1919 Review proclaimed, "More children for the fit, less for the unfit." By unfit, Sanger meant the mentally retarded or physically handicapped; later her definition expanded. In November 1921 the review issued a clarion call: "Birth control, to create a race of thoroughbreds." Sanger suggested that parents should "apply for babies as immigrants have to apply for visas." By 1925, she was a true convert to eugenics, setting up birth control clinics in poor neighborhoods populated by "Latins" and "Slavs" (both groups heavily Catholic) and "Hebrews" - groups she had targeted as threats because of their increasing numbers. She spoke of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among them those "whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers." In the October 1926 Review, Sanger announced her idea for eugenic sterilization.

Democrats say they want to get rid of everything remotely associated with racism like statues or schools named after Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington. Yet they demand massive funding for Planned Parenthood, which was founded by a racist in the 20th century.

Democrats demand quotas for everything in the name of equity, yet they in effect cheer the killing of black and brown babies at a rate much higher than their percentage of the population. Isn't that racist? Do they want a whiter America?

Democrats demand no limits on abortion no matter how far along and how viable the baby is -- just like North Korea and China? isn't that infanticide?

Democrats won't even vote to provide health care to children born in a botched abortion. That is definitely infanticide. How can anyone with a conscience just let babies die without lifting a finger to save them? Why do Democrats pretend that they are the party of empathy?

If a woman (birthing person to Democrats) had a baby at home and just left it to die or be disposed of it in the garbage she would be charged with murder, yet Planned Parenthood opposes the Born Alive Act that protects babies that survive an abortion attempt.

Kamala Hararis speaks to disability activists at the White House

White House photo (cropped) via TAS
On July 28, 2022, the Moscow district court began discussing the claim of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to ban the Jewish Agency for Israel from the territory of the country. What does this agency do all over the world? It assists Jews to emigrate to Israel.

In the USSR, there was state antisemitism. The Jews were second-class citizens, and they did not have the Jewish Agency. For a long time, Soviet Jews felt like outcasts, with no right to escape the deadlock of state antisemitism and outsiders unable to emigrate from the USSR.

From 1881 until the outbreak of World War I, some two million Russian Jews fled to the United States from pogroms. Unlike the Jews of the Russian Empire, Soviet Jews did not have the right to emigrate for a long time, as it was seen by the authorities as the appearance of signs of freedom in a totalitarian Soviet state. After the elimination of state antisemitism, the Jews of the Russian Federation received the Jewish Agency  i.e., ceased to be second-class citizens and were equated with the Jews of the United States, Argentina, France, and all other countries in which the Jewish Agency exists, intended for repatriation to Israel.

The liquidation of the Jewish Agency in the Russian Federation once again transfers Jews from the category of normal citizens into the category of "foreign agents" in the Russian Federation. "Foreign agents" is the new terminology. In former times, in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, of which the Russian Federation is the successor and heir, Jews were called "rootless cosmopolitans," "agents of the bourgeoisie," a "fifth column," and "traitors to the motherland." Jews were qualified as outsiders, traitors in disguise, insincerely presenting themselves as Soviet people. The climate of ideological tension that arose during Russia's war in Ukraine gave rise to the appointment of a large number of so-called "foreign agents"  that is, people who disagree with the authorities.

The Russian Federation, which is under Western sanctions, feels itself under siege, and thus needs internal enemies, scapegoats. In this situation, the Jewish Agency fits the definition of an organization that stands outside the law, since it encourages and assists emigration from the Russian Federation. But since the Jewish Agency is engaged in illegal activities, Jews intending to leave the Russian Federation are also outlaws.

There is already a witch hunt in the Russian Federation  that is, there is widespread social condemnation of people leaving the country as a result of the war in Ukraine. They are considered deserters and traitors. Jews who wish to emigrate to the West are natural representatives of the "collective West," which, according to the Russian authorities, is fighting on the side of Ukraine. The Russian Federation knows that all Jews have the right to become citizens of Israel under that state's law of return. This means that the prohibition of the Jewish Agency places any Jew in the position of a potential "foreign agent."

Such a development is a signal of state antisemitism. In general, it is a logical continuation of the policy of "inheritance": since the Russian Federation considers itself the heir of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, where state antisemitism existed, it should borrow the methods of government of its predecessors, especially in times of crisis. The gases of state antisemitism, long stored in the cisterns of the government, are beginning to come out and poison the air.

At the head of Ukraine is a Jew, President Zelensky. Therefore, the stronger Ukraine's resistance to its occupation by Russia, the stronger will be the antisemitism of the Russian authorities. Russia's war in Ukraine has increased prices. It has also dramatically increased the price of freedom  freedom of speech and freedom to emigrate, making them dangerous for those who wish to have it.

Image via Good Free Photos.
Defense: Italian contingent deployment in Bulgaria begun On 30th July

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 31 LUG - After the embarkation, from the port of Bari, of the first tactical and logistical vehicles, as well as logistical materials, the deployment of the Italian contingent that will soon be deployed in Bulgaria as part of the Battle Group 'Enhanced Vigilance Activity,' which concerns reassurance measures on NATO's eastern European flank, has begun. To be deployed will be The 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" of the Army's "Pinerolo" Brigade. 55 containers, 49 tactical-logistics vehicles and materials have been loaded at the disposal of the Italian contingent for the fulfillment of the mission authorized by Italian political authorities under NATO auspices. The deployment of Italian army units, for the first time on Bulgarian territory, was possible thanks to a complex activity of drafting technical-logistical-administrative agreements between the Allies and Bulgaria, the host nation.



Italy, after an initial phase that was purely logistical and fundamental for the start of the mission with the deployment of about 750 men and women of the army, will assume the leadership of the mission, which will see the involvement of other Alliance contingents. By joining the eVA initiative," explains a statement from the Defense General Staff, "Italy is confirmed as one of the main contributors to strengthening NATO's deterrence and defense posture on its eastern flank. Operational activities related to the mission in Bulgaria will be conducted under the coordination and according to the directives issued by the Inter-Forces Summit Operations Command. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
Turkey, first grain cargo could leave Ukraine port Monday Despite Russian missiles hitting the city

(ANSA-AFP) - ANKARA, JUL 31 - A spokesman for the Turkish presidency said there was a "high probability" that a first ship carrying Ukrainian grain could leave Ukraine's port of Odessa on Monday. That is despite Russian missiles hitting the city in the wake of the July 22 agreement on shipping grain between Russia, Turkey, the UN and Ukraine. "There is a strong possibility that a first ship could leave tomorrow morning if everything is sorted out by this evening," Ibrahim Kalin said in an interview with Kanal 7 television Sunday. But Kalin said there were still "one or two subjects to be settled in the negotiations with the Russians". "Preparations have reached a point to allow the ships to leave the port of Odessa. The ships have been loaded, they are ready to leave, but we need good logistical coordination," he said. The resumption of exports was also discussed in talks between the Turkish and Ukrainian defence ministers, Ankara said Sunday. "It is planned to begin transport as soon as possible," the Turkish ministry said in a statement. (ANSA-AFP).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
Irelands president has been urged to make a statement on the war in the Ukraine after his wife penned a controversial letter on the conflict.

Michael D Higgins has faced calls to state support for the Ukrainian cause and voice opposition to Russian aggression.

It comes after Sabina Higgins wrote a letter to the Irish Times during the week about the war.

President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mrs Higgins letter, the purpose of which was to criticise a previous editorial on the conflict, said the fighting would go on until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations.

Critics of the letter have suggested Mrs Higgins was drawing an equivalence in the actions of Ukraine and Russia.

Senators from parties in Irelands coalition government have voiced concern.

Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne said the letter was subsequently published on the President of Irelands official website  a move he described as appalling.

The letter appears to have been since removed from the website..

Mrs Higgins is entitled to her personal opinion and to express it, although I believe that she is totally wrong to try to see an equivalence in the positions of Ukraine and Russia, said Mr Byrne.

However, the decision to publish the letter on the Presidents website raises serious questions.

It is incumbent on the President of Ireland to now express clearly the strong support of the people of Ireland for the people of Ukraine and that we hold Russia responsible for the war and ongoing barbarism.

Ireland should rightly be proud of our response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Ireland strongly supports the people of #Ukraine . We must continue to call out Russian aggression. While Sabina Higgins is entitled to her personal view, as expressed to @IrishTimes , I completely disagree with it. To publish it on @PresidentIRL website is appalling. https://t.co/PxLpfwfC8G  Malcolm Byrne    (@malcolmbyrne) July 29, 2022

Fine Gael senator John McGahon heavily criticised the letter.

Sabina Higginss letter was inappropriate, unhelpful and distasteful, he tweeted.

Her views are entirely out of touch with those of the Irish people and interventions like this are seen as a tacit endorsement of the Russian regime.

The office of the President has been contacted for comment.
On Tuesday, Kansas voters will have the chance to cast a primary ballot for the governor and other statewide offices, congressional representatives to send to Washington, D.C. and state representatives to serve in Topeka.

And all Kansas votersregardless of party affiliationwill also vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove the state-level right to abortion.

Missouri voters will have the chance to cast a primary ballot for representatives in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House in Washington, D.C., and in the Missouri State Senate and House of Representatives in Jefferson City.

Polls will be open in Missouri from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and in Kansas from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting has already started in Kansas. Missouri does not offer early voting.

You can check your voter registration and find your polling place through your secretary of states office.

A lot is on the line for Kansas City area residents on both sides of the state line, and at The Star we believe that our democracy is stronger when more people have the information they need to participate in and shape it.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to decide who is most likely to make choices you believe will best serve you and your community.

This is our guide to the biggest races this Election Day:

All registered voters in Kansas can cast a ballot on an amendment to the state constitution that will determine the fate of legal abortions in the state.

Kansas constitutional amendment on abortion

The Kansas state constitution currently protects the right to abortion, but voters will be asked Tuesday to decide on an amendment that would get rid of those protections.

This right to abortion was the outcome of a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling. The proposed amendment is an attempt to have voters in effect overturn that ruling.

If Kansans vote yes on the ballot and the amendment passes, the legislature could impose new restrictions on abortion, which could include banning the procedure. A ban would not go in place immediately, but legislators would be able to pass one.

Earlier this year, a far-right state legislator introduced a bill that would have banned and criminalized nearly all abortions, but it never got a hearing and died once the legislative session closed in May.

If Kansans vote no and the amendment does not pass, the legislature would continue to be barred from passing most legislation that impedes on an individuals access to abortion. Any new abortion restrictions would need to clear an extremely high level of strict scrutiny from the court to become law, as they do now.

Current abortion restrictions could be challenged in court, but any actual changes to the current restrictions would depend on Kansas courts ruling that the regulation in question violates the states constitution.

All registered voters can participate in the vote, regardless of party affiliation.

Republican candidates running for the seat that will open when Missouri Sen.Roy Blunt retires from the U.S. Senate at the end of his current term are from top left; Eric Schmitt, Vicky Hartzler, Eric Greitens. Second row from left, Billy Long, Dave Schatz, Mark McCloskey.

Missouri Senate primaries

Senators create and vote on bills that can become federal laws if also passed through the House of Representatives and signed by the president.

Senators also hold hearings on different issues, confirm people the president appoints to certain positions in the federal government and try impeachment cases for federal officials. Each state gets two senators that serve six-year terms in Congress in Washington.

These are the candidates running for the Missouri U.S. Senate seat in the Democratic primary race. From left: Lucas Kunce, Trudy Busch Valentine and Spencer Toder.

Missouris current senators are Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. Blunt is retiring, so his seat is open this year.

The three candidates leading the Republican field to fill that seat are former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler.

U.S. Rep. Billy Long, St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey and state Sen. Dave Schatz are all vying to remain in contention.

Greitens faces allegations of child abuse from his ex-wife that threaten to cost Republicans a safe Senate seat if he wins the nomination. He stepped down as governor in 2018 following claims that he blackmailed a woman to keep her quiet about an extramarital affair.

On the Democratic side, the race is largely between philanthropist Trudy Busch Valentine and former Marine Lucas Kunce. Spencer Toder, a St. Louis area real estate agent, is also trying to remain in the conversation.

Kansas governor

The governor is the states chief executive and is responsible for carrying out state laws, administering the executive budget and overseeing and appointing the heads of state agencies.

The governor can sign bills into state law or can veto a bill and send it back to the Legislature. Governors serve four-year terms.

Democrat Laura Kelly is the current governor, and she is running for re-election. In the primary, she faces off against opposing Democratic candidate Richard S. Karnowski.

Kellys likely November GOP opponent will be Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt. He faces an opponent Tuesday in Republican Arlyn Briggs.

Three Republican candidates will face off in the primary for a chance to replace Derek Schmidt. as attorney general. They are, from left, Tony Mattivi, Kellie Warren and Kris Kobach.

Kansas Attorney General

The attorney general is responsible for enforcing Kansas laws and is the states top lawyer, bringing and defending lawsuits on behalf of the state and issuing legal opinions. The office also defends consumers from fraud.

The attorney general serves a four-year term. The position is currently held by Schmidt, a Republican who is now running for governor.

Three Republican candidates will face off in the primary for a chance to replace Schmidt: former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi, Leawood state Sen. Kellie Warrenand former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Tuesday marks Kobachs latest comeback attempt after losing bids for governor and U.S. Senate.

His aim of becoming the states top law enforcement official has drawn scrutiny of his checkered record as an attorney, which includes being held in contempt by a federal judge and serving as counsel to a non-profit whose leaders are charged with fraud.

Republican Amanda Adkins, left, will have a chance to challenge the seat Democrat U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids holds in the Kansas 3rd District if Adkins wins her primary race with John McCaughrean, not pictured.

U.S. House - Kansas 3rd District

Representatives create and vote on bills that can become federal laws if also passed through the Senate and signed by the president, and serve on committees.

The House of Representatives is the chamber of Congress that first introduces spending bills and can impeach federal officials.

The representatives for the state of Kansas serve the people of their district in Congress in Washington, D.C. for two year terms. Kansas has four U.S. representatives.

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, currently holds this seat, which includes Johnson County, Miami County, Anderson County, Franklin County and part of Wyandotte County. The district is bounded by new lines after redistricting in 2020.

Two Republicans will compete in the primary Tuesday to challenge Davids. Amanda Adkins, a former Cerner executive who unsuccessfully ran for the seat two years ago, will face John McCaughrean.

The race among Republicans vying for the primary nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler in 4th District House of Representatives seat is loaded with candidates. Those running include, from top left: Mark Alford, Taylor Burks, Kalena Bruce. Second row from left; Rick Brattin, Kyle LaBrue and William Irwin. Candidate Jim Campbell is not pictured.

U.S. House - Missouri 4th District

The Republican primary to succeed Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the U.S. House is crowded.

It includes state Sen. Rick Brattin, cattle farmer Kalena Bruce, former FOX4 anchor Mark Alford, former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks, former St. Louis Blues player Jim Campbell, retired police officer William Irwin and entrepreneur Kyle LaBrue.

Missouris 4th District stretches from the Kansas City metropolitan area to the central part of the state.

The competing candidates have made appeals to the districts large farming base and other key constituencies, like anti-abortion advocates, but the military vote could be key in deciding the primary.

The GOP candidates for Missouri State Auditor are David Gregory, left, and Scott Fitzpatrick. The lone candidate in the Democratic primary, Alan Green, is not pictured.

Missouri auditor

Missouri primary voters will decide between two Republicans who are competing to succeed state Auditor Nicole Galloway  Missouris lone Democratic statewide officeholder, who is not running for reelection.

Republican state Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in 2018 before winning election in 2020, is running against state Rep. David Gregory, a St. Louis Republican, in the Aug. 2 GOP primary.

With Galloway announcing last year that she will not seek reelection after her unsuccessful run for governor, the upcoming state auditor race represents an opening for Republicans to take back the position that Democrats have held since 2015.

The Republican nominee will face former state Rep. Alan Green, who is the only Democrat in the race.

Star reporters Katie Bernard, Jonathan Shorman, Kacen Bayless, Daniel Desrochers, Kynala Phillips, Natalie Wallington and Joseph Hernandez contributed to this report.
Zabih Khan keeps his 4-year-old brother Mojib entertained on a trip to a park. The brothers fled Afghanistan, but their parents and siblings didn't get out. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

How do you make sure a 4-year-old boy is happy when hes nearly 8,000 miles away from home  and his parents?

How do you shield him from the violence that continues to take his family and friends? How do you start over in a new country as his mother, not his older brother?

Zabih Khans life has revolved around those questions since he fled Afghanistan with his baby brother, Mojib, in tow. The eldest brother of nine siblings, only he and Mojib, the youngest child, were able to escape their country last August as U.S. troops departed and the country fell to the Taliban.

Their family, members of the persecuted Hazara ethnic minority, had gotten separated at the Kabul airport. Zabih reached Qatar three days later. He called his parents. His mother, Zakia, had just one wish, the one thing she could not have. Her baby, then 3-year-old Mojib.

Zabih Khan holds a phone as his 4-year-old brother Mojib talks about a knee scratch he got while playing during a video call with their parents in Afghanistan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Nearly a year has passed since Zakia last held her little boy.

As part of Operation Allies Welcome, the U.S. has allowed more than 80,000 Afghans to enter the country since the takeover. Their experiences are all different. But Zabih and his brother illustrate a painful truth about life as refugees: Hardship doesn't end on arriving in America. It simply changes.

Zabih, 27, has struggled to balance jobs with child care. To save enough to pay rent and buy a car. To keep Mojib from crying for the family they left behind.

"I dont think about my happiness. Mostly I think that he should be happy," Zabih said recently as he watched his brother play. "If he be happy, I will be happy."

::

On Aug. 20, Zabihs family joined more than a thousand people gathered outside Hamid Karzai International Airport trying to flee Kabul. The U.S. had announced a plan to withdraw troops, and the Taliban began seizing control of the country. The family was afraid.

A U.S. Marine grabs an infant over a barbed-wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 19, 2021. (Omar Haidari)

Troops fired tear gas to control the crowds. In the chaos, Zabih stopped to help an older woman who was being trampled near the gate. Then he carried his crying brother in his arms as he ran. He and Mojib got into the airport. Their family did not.

Once inside, his calls to his parents wouldnt go through. Then his phone died.

As the days passed, Zabih kept busy translating for Afghans who could not speak English. His younger brother, who usually had a ready smile that dimpled his cheeks and revealed a small gap between his front teeth, was listless and confused. Mojib wanted his mom.

On Aug. 23, the brothers were seated on the floor of a transport plane with dozens of other Afghans as they flew to Qatar. Zabih held the boy on his lap until his arms grew tired. A family offered a black garbage bag filled with personal items as a mattress for Mojib to sleep on. It was their first time on a plane.

After they landed, Zabih called his mom and told her they were no longer in Kabul.

Bring back my son, she cried.

::

Zabih Khan, left, and his brother Mojib have dinner in their hotel room. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Zabih and Mojib once lived in a five-bedroom home in Kabul. Zabih shared a room with a younger brother. Mojib slept with their parents. A nearly 23-year age gap separates the brothers. They lived parallel lives.

Zabih, the oldest son, worked every day running clothing stores and a nearby language center  like the one where he'd learned English  to help support his family. Hed gotten a degree in mining engineering but couldn't get a job in the field.

By the time Zabih returned home around 9 p.m. each night, Mojib was in bed. It was their mother, Zakia, who fed, bathed and sang the little boy to sleep. Mojib didn't even know his older brother's name, referring to him by his nickname, "Engineer."

Zakia worried for her children every time they left the house. Hazaras, who make up between 10% and 20% of the population in Afghanistan, are mostly Shiite Muslim  a minority in the mostly Sunni country. The Islamic State's affiliate in the country counts Shiites as apostates who must be killed.

In May 2021, a triple bombing killed nearly 100 people in the largely Shiite neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi. The majority were Hazara schoolgirls. Soon after, minibuses were blown up in the same neighborhood, killing 18 people.

Hazara people, when we leave our home, we cannot believe that at night we will come home, Zabih said. Every day they kill us. That is our life.

Zabih Khan readies his brother Mojib for a trip to a nearby park. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

It was fear for her childrens safety that eventually convinced Zakia that Mojib would be out of harm's way in the U.S. with her eldest son. Zabih found himself thrust into parenthood, a circumstance as foreign as his new homeland. He'd never bathed his brother. Or thought about how many hours the little boy needed to sleep.

One night in Qatar, he learned the hard way that his brother needed to sleep in diapers. The next morning, he bathed a soiled Mojib with a water bottle.

When the brothers got to the U.S., they spent nearly six months at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin. Zabih taught Mojib how to ride a bike, capturing video of the boy wobbling as he pedaled around the military base. On Dec. 8, they celebrated his fourth birthday with little fanfare.

Along with caring for his brother, Zabih taught English to hundreds of other Afghans on the base.

A letter of recommendation signed by a Department of Homeland Security employee described how Zabih had volunteered for hours helping his fellow Afghans to be as prepared as possible to adjust to life in the western world.

The adaptability and initiative demonstrated by Mr. [Khan] cannot be overstated, the letter said. [His] ability to perform despite the austere conditions at Ft. McCoy has served as a shining example for others to follow.

But there were tough times, too. Like the night he and Mojib were kicked out of family housing because Zabih did not have a wife and was not considered part of a family. The two were moved to lodging for singles.

Zabih marks those early months in the U.S. with a photo of Mojib on the base. In it, the boys mouth is turned into an upside-down letter u. He is staring into space. There are no dimples.

"Every picture has a meaning," Zabih said. "Can you see the sadness in his face?"

::

Mojib Khan plays on the bed in their hotel room. Zabih Khan, left, feels like he's a mom to his baby brother. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Mojib Khan plays video games. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The brothers resettled in San Diego in February. They didnt know anyone.

In early April, they celebrated Ramadan with a handful of Afghan refugees in the hotel where they were living. The two didnt stay long. Zabih didnt want Mojib to see the other children with their moms. The little boy often awoke crying for his own.

The International Rescue Committee in San Diego, which helped the two resettle here, saw the arrival of nearly 500 Afghans within a four-month period starting in the fall. The organization helps newcomers find housing, secure employment, enroll in benefits and connect with medical providers.

But when Zabih started work, he struggled to find someone to care for his brother. He needed to put the income toward an apartment, a car and groceries. They relied on food stamps and the help of local organizations, which assisted with some meals, clothes and toys.

When Zabih started his first job at 7-Eleven, he tried to get Mojib into day care. But he couldnt, he said, because he isnt the boys parent and didn't have the authority to enroll him. He found someone to watch Mojib in El Cajon. But he didnt have a driver's license or a car, so he couldnt drop his brother off at the sitters. Zabih had to cut back on his hours and rely on another Afghan family living at the hotel to watch his brother.

He was careful never to let Mojib see his frustration.

"If I'm sad, never I show for the baby," he said.

I dont think about my happiness. Mostly I think that he should be happy.

Zabih Khan on caring for his brother

Mojib Khan plays outside the hotel room where he and his brother Zabih Khan are living after fleeing Afghanistan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

On April 27, a day off from work, Zabih kept an eye on Mojib as the boy bicycled around the hotel parking lot, dressed in a red Wonder Woman cape. Mojib shared the bike and cape with other Afghan boys living nearby.

Inside their sparsely furnished hotel room, on the full-size bed the brothers shared, Mojib had piled up donated stuffed animals, including a giraffe, a gray fox and a barking dog. He'd named each one after his brothers and nephews back home.

The boy set aside clothes and shoes for his older brother in Afghanistan. They were, he said, too big for him. He did not understand how far away his loved ones remained.

Zabih kept a red prayer rug in the dresser and a California driver's handbook, in Arabic, on the kitchen counter. Although he tried to study at night while Mojib slept, when the boy woke up alone, he'd ask his brother to come hold his hand so he could fall back asleep.

That afternoon, Zabih prepared his brother a miniature feast of fried potatoes and corn. He warned the boy to stay away from the two-burner stove as the oil began to pop. Back in Afghanistan, he rarely cooked for Mojib.

"I have to learn for this baby," Zabih said, as he wedged a butter knife into a can of corn to open it. "To get better."

After he laid out the plates on the small counter, Zabih held up spoonfuls of corn and fed Mojib. Eventually, the little boy waved him off.

"I want to eat this myself," he said, exasperated, in Hazaragi.

An hour later, Zabih wrestled with getting Mojib into the bathtub.

Zabih Khan bathes his 4-year-old brother Mojib at a hotel in San Diego. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

"Ready," Zabih called.

"No," Mojib responded in English. He'd also learned "oh no" and "one second."

Once in the tub, Mojib told his brother he didn't need shampoo. Zabih washed his hair anyway, his arms flecked with soap. Zabih stepped one foot into the water to lift his brother up and out.

He pulled on the boy's clothes, a pink Tommy Hilfiger polo and socks to match, and brushed his hair into a ponytail. He smoothed Mojib's baby hairs and strapped a green Mandalorian watch that told the incorrect time on his skinny wrist.

Zabih showered second. Mojib always went first.

"All of my life became this baby," said Zabih, who describes himself as a single mom. "His body became my body. Hes like my son now. Now I'm a mom."

Like any other proud parent, Zabih's social media accounts have filled up with photos and videos of Mojib. Smiling next to his stuffed animals. Grinning inside a mini helicopter on a carousel ride. Chasing seagulls on the beach.

Those are the ones Zabih sends to their mother  of a happy Mojib.

Mojib Khan enjoys a trip to a nearby park with his elder brother Zabih Khan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

That April afternoon, Mojib and Zabih biked together to a nearby park. Mojib on his blue Specialized Hotrock with training wheels, and Zabih  in a gray Navy sweatshirt, emblazoned with "Semper Fortis"  on a black Schwinn.

When they played basketball and Zabih overshot the hoop, Mojib pointed and laughed, teasing his older brother. On the playground, Zabih held Mojib as the boy crossed the monkey bars.

At 8:30 p.m., after eating dinner, Zabih removed Mojib's Paw Patrol slippers. The two settled together on the hotel bed and called home. Zakia repeated her youngest son's name over and over, trying to get his attention.

"Ah," Mojib responded.

"I miss you," Zakia said in Hazaragi. As his mother spoke, the boy covered his face with his hands and curled into his brother. Zabih had to coax him into speaking with their parents.

When their siblings joined the call, they said they werent going to class. They were scared after a recent bombing outside Zabihs former high school in Dasht-e-Barchi. Police said at least six people were killed and 11 injured.

The family had been struggling. Zabih's younger sister can't attend school because of the Taliban. Their father had had his phone stolen by armed men on the farm where he worked harvesting cucumbers. Zakia had landed in the hospital, sick with sadness to be apart from Mojib.

As they spoke on the phone, tears ran down their parents' faces.

"Why are you crying?" Mojib asked. Zabih hung up abruptly.

"I told them to make it fun, not cry," Zabih said, shaking his head. "They should not cry in front of the baby."

::

Zabih Khan, center, who fled Afghanistan with his 4-year-old brother, gets job training at Walmart in El Cajon. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Zabih  decked out in a blue vest  scanned paper plates, frozen pizza and Go-Gurt for a customer at a Walmart checkstand in El Cajon. He'd started the job in early July.

It was his third job in as many months. The first would not accommodate his need to schedule around Mojib. The second told him he had to work Sundays, the one day he needed off because the family that watched Mojib couldn't take him. Here, he could get Sundays off.

Zabih had spent his lunch period in his newly purchased black Camry, on the phone with a representative of a nonprofit organization. They were working to bring his family to the U.S. His mom and younger sister had just gotten their first passports.

"If they be in here, they will be good," Zabih said. "Thats the biggest thing that I want."

The brothers also had their own legal status to worry about.

They had received parole for humanitarian reasons, a temporary status granted by the U.S. on an emergency basis. Zabih is trying to apply for asylum, but he hasn't been able to secure legal services. One law center said it was unable to help because of "limited resources." Others never called him back.

"A big concern for many of our families, most of the families that were working with, is what their legal status is moving forward," said Donna Duvin, executive director of the International Rescue Committee in San Diego. She said the organization is in support of a proposed Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide a pathway to permanent legal status.

After finishing his shift at Walmart, Zabih picked up his brother from a family watching the boy nearby. They returned to their relatively new apartment where they shared a small room with an Afghan roommate. Although their rent was covered through August, Zabih would soon need to pay $1,000 a month. It would eat up most of his paycheck.

If his family comes, he said, he'll be able to take on a second job to help cover rent and other expenses. His mother would care for her baby.

Until then, Zabih will continue playing three roles at once.

Mother, father and brother.

Zabih Khan and his brother Mojib in a somber mood at the end of an emotional video call with their parents and siblings still in Afghanistan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
When looking to sell your home quickly in lieu of the traditional, lengthy home selling process, Archway Homes is the one to call.

Owned by husband and wife team Jon and Stacy Bichelmeyer, Archway Homes buys houses As Is in any condition: pretty houses needing little to no repair, or houses needing everything repaired including leaking roofs, bad foundations, or cosmetic updating. They do so by providing a no-obligation offer within 24 hours, can pay cash, and close within three days or on a future date of the sellers choice. And there are no fees or commissions to pay.

Whether selling due to downsizing, a job transfer, death of a loved one, illness, facing foreclosure, or some other situation, Archway Homes has been the perfect solution for numerous homeowners all over the Kansas City area.

When Janice Biggs and her family came to the realization that their father, age 95, who had been in an assisted living facility since earlier in the year, was not going to be able to return to his home they knew it was time to start looking at options to sell his house.

They first asked a realtor friend they trusted to come over and give her opinion of what needed to be done in order to sell the house, which had unfortunately been badly neglected for many years. After her assessment, they decided to look into cash home buying companies.

We had read several articles about Archway Homes in the paper, seen ads about them in the local publication for our Catholic Dioses, and when researching cash home buying companies on the internet, saw their name again and decided to give them a call, said Biggs.

In order to obtain a thorough comparison, the Biggs family asked four different companies to come over and provide an offer. Jons offer, they said, was by far the best, not just in the price offered but, in the way they were treated.

We just felt the most comfortable with him, Biggs recalled. All of the companies that we talked to were basically going to do the same thing  allow us to sell As Is. We were aware of the shortcomings of the house because it was in such bad shape, but some of the people who came over walked around and pointed out all of the negatives, and Jon didnt do that. He seemed sincere and trustworthy.

According to Jon, a third-generation real estate investor with roots in the Kansas City community for over 40 years, Ive been buying houses, fixing them up, and selling to homeowners in the metro area for over 20 years, he said. We see a lot of homes and are fully aware of some of the situations the sellers are faced with at times. Therefore, we do our best to treat them with compassion and respect, just as we would expect someone to treat us.

Jon also feels that his extensive experience really makes a difference. We started doing this long before HGTV inspired the new investors in town, he said, and we work hard to make sure its a win, win for both parties. We even wrote the book on it. Literally! Home to Home Local Edition  Kansas City Metro outlines the steps homeowners can take to sell their home and our experiences helping people do just that, Jon said.

The fact that Archway Homes was a local company and explained in written detail everything the company thought they would do to fix the house up to resell it, were other plusses for the Biggs family.

And, although they could have closed on the home within only a few days, Jon gave them all the time they needed.

Since it wasnt entirely up to us and we had to get permission from our father, Jon understood that we needed 60 days, said Biggs. He worked with us, did everything he said he was going to do, and again, we felt so comfortable with him.

We really care about our clients and the situations they are facing and do everything we can to make the process as easy as possible, Stacy said. Thats why we tell people, with us, selling your house As Is never felt this good!

Anyone who wants to sell a home quickly for cash should call Jon Bichelmeyer at 913-599-5000 or email him at jon@archwayhomesinc.com. Or they can visit Archway Homes website at archwaypropertieskc.com to fill out an online form or to get a free copy of our book Home to Home Local Edition  Kansas City Metro, Kansas and Missouri, call our office.

Archway Homes

Location: 15301 W. 87th St. Parkway, Suite B35 in the ANB Bank building

Contact: Jon Bichelmeyer at 913-599-5000 or jon@archwayhomesinc.com

Website: archwaypropertieskc.com
Shaquila Anderson has known she wanted to be a teacher since she was a child in suburban Tulsa.

Andersons fourth-grade teacher was an important mentor in her life, she said. She showed Anderson how to work for things she wanted, and told her that she could be anything she wanted to be. Anderson knew she wanted to grow up to be just like her, she said.

In August, Anderson, a recent graduate from Oklahoma State University, will be a third-grade teacher at Bill J. Elliott Elementary School in Fort Worth. Shes most excited about forming the same kinds of relationships with her students that were so important to her when she was in school.

First-year teacher Shaquila Anderson outside of her new school, Bill J. Elliott Elementary School, on June 21, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas.

But Anderson, 25, is clear-eyed about the job ahead of her. She comes into the teaching profession at a time when many educators are leaving due to challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other issues, creating a severe teacher shortage not only in the Fort Worth school district, but also nationwide.

During her student teaching last year, Anderson got a chance to see how much teaching had changed from how she pictured it. It was a difficult realization, she said.

I kind of had a moment where I was excited because Im finally doing something Ive always wanted to do, Anderson said. But at the same time, I was kind of sad, because the teaching world isnt the same that I thought it would be.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fort Worth teachers have been stretched even thinner than usual. Staffing shortages have left teachers scrambling to cover classes for absent colleagues, even as they struggle to help their own students catch up from pandemic-related learning loss. But there are signs those staffing challenges could be even greater this year: By July 1, Fort Worth ISDs deadline for resignations, the district saw a 50% uptick in teacher resignations over the previous year. With the beginning of the next school year approaching, district officials are stepping up efforts to recruit new teachers to replace those who have left the classroom in large numbers over the past two years.

New teacher Shaquila Anderson poses with a school administrator after accepting a new position at Bill J. Elliott Elementary School during the Fort Worth Independent School District Summer Mega Career Fair on June 7, 2022, at the FWISD Teaching & Learning Center.

But experts say the national teacher shortage stems from issues that date back decades, many of which the pandemic exacerbated but didnt create. Researchers say there are steps states and local school districts can take to support teachers and keep them from leaving the classroom, and also to shore up their pipelines of new teachers entering the profession.

As a third-grade teacher, Anderson will be meeting her students at a critical time in their lives. Educational leaders often say that third grade is the point at which students stop learning to read and begin reading to learn. Researchers say that students who cant read proficiently by the end of third grade face daunting challenges for the rest of their educational careers.

Anderson knows most of her students wont be at the point where they need to be academically. Students nationwide, including in Fort Worth, lost a great deal of ground during school shutdowns and the shift to online learning. Anderson said shes prepared to work with students to figure out where they are and help them close any gaps in their learning. Those gaps need to be the first priority, she said, because students may not be able to move on to more advanced concepts if they havent mastered the foundational skills first.

If I go in and were talking about addition, and my students dont even have the prior knowledge of numbers, how can I teach them addition? she said.

Fort Worth sees uptick in staff resignations

The Fort Worth school districts first day of school is Aug. 15. By July 1, which marked Fort Worth ISDs deadline to resign, the district had received 1,084 resignations from teachers. Thats a 50% increase over the 722 resignations the district received by the same point last year.

Those resignations come after a year when the district  along with others in Tarrant County  already struggled to keep a teacher in every classroom. Because of a shortage of substitute teachers, principals drafted librarians, counselors and instructional coaches to cover classes for teachers who were absent. Other times, they asked teachers to double up classes or even called in central office staff to help.

Raul Pena, Fort Worth ISDs chief talent officer, said none of those solutions is ideal. Every time a principal has to send a librarian to cover a class or ask a teacher to double up, it represents a disruption in those students educations, he said.

Pena said the district began recruiting new teachers earlier than usual this year. Aggressive recruiting efforts typically dont begin until late spring, he said. This year, they began in January.

Cesar Chavez Elementary School principal Monica Ordaz interviews a teaching candidate during the Fort Worth Independent School District Summer Mega Career Fair on June 7, 2022, at the FWISD Teaching & Learning Center. Many educators are leaving the field due to challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other issues, creating a severe teacher shortage in Fort Worth ISD and nationwide.

The district also offered a package of sign-on bonuses designed to get new teachers in the door, including a $1,000 bonus for all new teachers who begin work this year, a $2,000 early signing bonus for those who signed a letter of intent by May 1 and a $500 welcome home incentive for new teachers who are graduates of a Fort Worth ISD high school.

One other piece of the districts strategy is working with current employees who have a college degree but no teaching certificate to get them certified to teach, Pena said. District leaders identified teaching assistants and paraprofessionals in the district who could go to work as teachers quickly once they were certified.

The district offered them a deal: Fort Worth ISD would pay to get them certified through the Region 11 Education Service Center. In return, those teachers would agree to remain in Fort Worth ISD for three years. The first cohort of 16 participants began the program earlier this year. The program focuses on getting teachers into the districts highest-need areas: elementary ESL and bilingual, secondary science, math, English language arts and reading, as well as special education, Pena said.

Texas teacher colleges struggle to meet demand

Although the teacher shortage has become more acute and more visible as a result of the pandemic, experts say its been brewing for years. Even during normal times, large numbers of teachers leave the profession each year, and traditional teacher training programs struggle to turn out enough graduates to replace them.

Its sort of like a crisis thats turned into a catastrophe, said Charles Martinez, dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

In the decade before the pandemic, roughly 10% of Texas teachers left the workforce each year, according to figures from the Texas Education Agency. Texas isnt far out of line with national trends: 8% of teachers nationwide leave the profession annually, according to the National Center for Education statistics.

That may not be a huge attrition rate, but in states like Texas, which employs between 350,000 and 375,000 teachers each year, it means schools must replace about 35,000 educators annually. That problem is a hard one to grapple with, Martinez said. The states colleges of education dont have the capacity to turn out that many new teachers each year, he said. Only about 9,000 of the states new teachers in the 2020-21 school year came from a traditional four-year program.

The number of new teachers the state gets from four-year colleges of education has been declining for years, according to TEA. At the same time, a large and growing share of the states teacher workforce is made up of career changers who got their teaching certificates through alternative certification programs. While those programs send thousands of teachers into Texas classrooms each year, many of those teachers dont stay there for long.

During a presentation to the Texas Senate Education Committee in May, state Education Commissioner Mike Morath told lawmakers that new teachers who are certified through alternative certification programs leave the profession after only a few years of teaching at a higher rate than those who come from four-year programs. If alternatively certified teachers left the classroom at the same rate as those from traditional programs, the state would have to recruit about 4,000 fewer new teachers each year, he said.

Martinez said he thinks part of the problem is the devaluing of teaching as a profession. Many of his students tell him that people around them wonder why, if theyre smart enough to get into UT Austin, they wouldnt choose a profession that pays better than teaching.

Another problem, Martinez said, is that career changers who are looking to go into teaching typically want a program that gets them into the classroom quickly. For most, that means an alternative certification program. Some of those programs are high quality, he said, but others arent. The states traditional teacher preparation programs could provide that same service, he said, but they havent done a good job of meeting those students needs.

Most of those career changers already have bachelors degrees in something other than education. Colleges and universities tend to treat all students who already have bachelors degrees as graduate students, Martinez said. But most students who are looking to become teachers after a career of doing something else arent looking for masters degrees, he said. They only want a teaching certificate. Traditional colleges of education need to find better ways of working with those students, Martinez said.

Keller ISD sees fewer candidates for teacher jobs

Tracy Johnson, the chief human resources officer for the Keller Independent School District, said more teachers in the district resigned this summer than any previous summer in the past five years. In a typical year, Keller would need to replace about 350 professional staff, including teachers, librarians and instructional coaches, she said. This year, the district will have to replace at least 500 professional staff members.

The district typically doesnt have much trouble finding the candidates it needs to fill all of its vacant positions, Johnson said, and she isnt overly worried about whether it will be able to do so this year, either. But shes noticed there are fewer candidates to choose from this year.

Chief human resources officer Tracy Johnson poses for a portrait in her office at the Keller ISD Education Center in Keller, Texas, on July 21, 2022. Even with a starting salary of $59,000 for teachers in her school district, Johnson describes major struggles to hire and keep teachers.

With declining enrollment in the states teacher preparation programs, district leaders have worried for at least the past five years that the teacher shortage was coming, Johnson said. But the effects of the pandemic have made matters worse, she said.

Many teachers walked into the 2021-22 school year feeling optimistic, Johnson said. They thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them, and theyd be able to get back to normal.

But that wasnt the case, Johnson said. School shutdowns and other educational disruptions had left students with wide gaps in their learning, and the job of helping them catch up left teachers feeling overwhelmed, she said. A labor shortage in nearly every sector of the economy left teachers who wanted to leave the profession with plenty of other options, she said.

Early in the spring, the Keller ISD Board of Trustees approved a compensation package that included a $59,000 a year salary for first-year teachers. Thats $3,000 more than the district offered first-year teachers last year. The fact that the board approved pay levels relatively early in the year helps the district retain current teachers and attract candidates who may have been on the fence about whether to go to Keller, Johnson said.

Keller Independent School District administrator Lynn Jameson plans lessons with other teachers at the Keller ISD Education Center in Keller, Texas, on July 21, 2022.

Johnson said she thinks its important that teachers understand their value in their communities. She also thinks that communities can do more to make their teachers feel valued.

I always tell our teachers, you are the teachers of all professions, she said. If theyre not coming through you, then theyre not able to move on to be future teachers, welders, doctors, lawyers, bankers, reporters, administrators, entrepreneurs. I mean, it all starts with the education that our educators provide.

Elsewhere in Texas, rural school districts that struggle to offer salaries to compete with larger school districts are finding creative ways to attract teacher candidates. Several rural school districts across the state, including Mineral Wells, Chico and Jasper, have shifted to a four-day school week in hopes of attracting teachers looking for more flexibility. Some districts add hours to the school day to make up for the extra day off, and others lengthen their school years.

Teaching during COVID-19 was a learning experience

Science teacher Lauren Begnaud is one of hundreds of new teachers coming into Fort Worth ISD in the fall. Begnaud will be starting work at the I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and Visual Performing Arts when school resumes in August. She comes to Fort Worth ISD after spending two years teaching at a charter school in Dallas. Begnaud was in her first year of teaching in 2020, when the pandemic arrived in North Texas and school buildings shut down.

It was definitely a learning experience, she said.

Begnaud finished college during the pandemic, which meant she was trained on how to handle online instruction before she entered the workforce. She did part of her student teaching in person before the pandemic reached Texas and schools shut down. That experience gave her an advantage, in a way, she said, because she was better prepared for the environment shed be working in than some of her colleagues were.

Last year, Begnaud knew many of her students were having a hard time at home. Students suffered trauma during the pandemic. Some lost family members, and others lived in households where someone lost a job. Many of those students had a hard time finding the motivation to do schoolwork with all their challenges at home, she said. She found it most helpful to try to be a joyful, trustworthy adult in those students lives.

Begnaud didnt always want to be a teacher. She had a love for science that initially took her toward a career as a doctor. But after realizing that she didnt have the personality for it, she did some career searching and eventually found her way into education during her senior year in college. Despite the challenges of the past two years, Begnaud said, she can see herself teaching until she retires.

I think Im where Im supposed to be, she said.

Survey: Teachers experience high levels of job-related stress

A survey released June 15 by the Rand Corporation suggests that American teachers and school principals are experiencing job-related stress at more than twice the rate of the general adult population. Nearly three-quarters of the teachers and 85% of principals surveyed reported experiencing frequent job-related stress, compared to 35% of the general working adult population. Of the teachers surveyed, 59% reported feeling symptoms of burnout.

Well-being was even worse among Hispanic teachers, mid-career teachers and female teachers and principals, according to the survey. Teachers and principals of color reported similar sources of stress to their white colleagues, with the addition of racial discrimination alongside those stressors. Nearly half of principals and one-third of teachers of color reported experiencing racial discrimination, often from family members of their students or from their colleagues.

About a third of teachers and principals surveyed said they were likely to leave their jobs at the end of the school year. Teachers and principals who said they worked in a supportive school environment were least likely to leave their jobs.

Sy Doan, a researcher with the Rand Corporation, said reported plans to leave dont necessarily translate into actual resignations  if a third of the nations teaching workforce left their jobs at the end of the year, that would be record-high turnover, he said. He also noted that researchers fielded the survey in January, at the height of the omicron surge. As the surge ebbed and fears of the virus began to wane, some teachers and principals who had planned to leave may have changed their minds, he said.

Still, Doan said the fact that so many teachers and principals told researchers that they wanted to leave their jobs should be a source of concern, even if most of them end up staying. Its one more indication that many teachers and principals feel that the negatives of their jobs outweigh the positives, he said.

Staffing issues represented one of the most common sources of stress teachers and principals reported on the survey. For principals, staffing shortages left them scrambling to make sure every class was covered. For teachers, it often meant taking on extra students to cover for absent colleagues. Whats worrisome, Doan said, is that stress from staffing issues could begin to compound on itself: as more teachers leave the classroom because of burnout, staffing issues are only likely to get worse.

Recruitment coordinator Christina Morrow rings a cow bell, signifying a teacher candidate has been matched with a school during the Fort Worth Independent School District Summer Mega Career Fair on June 7, 2022, at the FWISD Teaching & Learning Center.

Researchers asked teachers and principals about mental health support in their districts. They defined those supports broadly  these could be employee assistance programs, and these could be yoga sessions or something like that, Doan said. Many teachers and principals said their districts had implemented those kinds of supports.

Thats a good sign, because it means those districts are taking their employees needs seriously, he said. But many teachers said the added responsibilities of the past year left them without the time or energy to take advantage of those supports, he said. Many other teachers said those mental health supports werent well targeted at the specific sources of stress that caused them the most problems.

As part of the study, researchers recommended that districts offer support to help teachers deal with job-related stress. But Doan said that its important that district leaders communicate with teachers and principals to find out what they need most and what kinds of support would be most helpful.

Discipline issues were overwhelming, says former Fort Worth ISD teacher

Trachelle Harston-Dearmore, a former pre-K teacher at Lowery Road Elementary School in Fort Worth ISD, retired at the end of last school year after a 28-year teaching career. Harston-Dearmore said shed initially planned to teach five or 10 more years. But eventually, the job became overwhelming.

Classroom discipline issues seemed out of control, she said. Shed never had trouble with discipline problems in years past, she said, but she thinks student behavior has gotten worse recently. Students come into pre-K using swear words, she said. Last year, a kindergartener in her building soundly dressed down a teacher who confiscated the students vape pen, she said.

Why does the kindergartener have a vape pen? Harston-Dearmore said. But the kid called her every name in the book.

Harston-Dearmore said she also doesnt feel like the districts central office supports teachers. A pay raise would help, she said. Most teachers pay for classroom materials out of their own pockets, she said. During STAAR testing, when her building didnt have the bandwidth to do anything online other than administer the tests, she spent $35 on a DVD player so she could show her students a video in class. That may not seem like much, she said, but when teachers spend $20 or $30 a week on their classrooms, it adds up.

Harston-Dearmore said shed brought those issues up with administrators, but to no avail. After a while, she didnt feel like she could stay.

I dont want anybody to think Im disgruntled. I enjoyed my time in Fort Worth ISD. I liked my principal. She really did try to help, she said. I just feel like they need to be more responsive to the teachers and helpful to the teachers, rather than keep piling stuff on.

Former teacher says policies kept teachers from holding students accountable

Stacy Bogle, a recently retired English teacher at Arlington Heights High School, said some of the districts policies made it difficult for teachers to hold students accountable. For example, students are supposed to lose credit when they log more than a certain number of absences. But those students can come to school on Saturdays or before or after school on designated days and make up those absences. The policy allows students to avoid the consequences of being out of school, and it allows the district to avoid losing state funding because of those absences. But it doesnt replace the direct instruction they missed from their teachers while they werent in class, Bogle said.

Students with even larger numbers of absences can appeal to have their absences forgiven. While serving on the committee that heard those appeals, Bogle saw students have as many as 100 absences erased. When school buildings reopened and students and teachers returned in person, administrators told teachers to approach everything with grace, Bogle said. But as a part of that, schools felt pressure from the districts central office to wipe students slates clean at the end of the year, she said.

Weve caved to the point that theres no recovery, she said. Theres no coming back from that.

Fort Worth principal casts wide net for new teachers

Monica Ordaz, principal at Fort Worth ISDs Cesar Chavez Elementary School, said she got an earlier start on the hiring process than usual this year. In a typical year, shed begin looking at applications for new teachers in March or April, she said. This year, she began in January. She also cast a wider net than usual, she said. She looked at several candidates from outside of Texas, and eventually hired three: one from North Carolina, one from Louisiana and one from Tennessee, she said.

Ordaz said she also turned to another source to find new teachers that she rarely uses: internal transfers from within the district. The district keeps a list of current teachers who are looking to transfer to another campus. Earlier this year, Ordaz hired a few bilingual teachers from the list.

She doesnt like hiring transfer teachers from other schools because she knows it doesnt solve the teacher shortage problem. It simply moves it around. But this year, she didnt have many options. She felt she had to look out for her own school and her own students first, she said.

Onboarding technician Kassandra Nunez helps sign a teacher candidate to a school during the Fort Worth Independent School District Summer Mega Career Fair on June 7, 2022, at the FWISD Teaching & Learning Center.

I kind of feel like were taking from other principals, from other schools, she said. But thats kind of the position that were in.

On June 14, Ordaz only needed one more special education teacher to round out her roster. She knew many of her colleagues were still five or six teachers short of a full staff.

The staffing shortage was a major source of stress for teachers last year, Ordaz said. When a teacher was out sick or had to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 and Ordaz couldnt find a substitute to cover the class, she often had to ask another teacher to double up, or ask staff members like counselors, librarians and coaches to rotate through the class until the teacher returned. That created a heavy load for teachers, she said, and it wasnt ideal for students, either.

That is actually a huge challenge, Ordaz said. Every day that theres no teacher there, I know that kids are not getting the type of instruction that they really should be getting.
The glowing box, pulsing with rainbowy light, looks as if it was dropped into this Studio City living room from a warehouse rave.

It came, in fact, from the garage where Alex LeVine has been tinkering with fans, filters and tape, trying to bring a bit of fun to a simple tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The mesmerizing device uses fans and filters to pull contaminants  including smoke, dog dander and the unwelcome coronavirus  out of indoor air.

It can also flash in time to the sounds of Phil Collins. "In the Air Tonight," of course.

"People aren't embracing any of the other things that can avert disaster in this pandemic," said LeVine, a 49-year-old cannabis company executive with an electrical engineering degree who started building trippy do-it-yourself filtration boxes as a hobby. "Maybe I can create a way to clean the air that people want in the middle of the room."

As the pandemic drags on, cleaning up indoor air has become a passion project not just foraerosol scientists and epidemiologists, but for a grab bag of concerned citizens like LeVine.

Alex LeVine, who has a background in electrical engineering, decided to have fun with his Corsi-Rosenthal boxes by using computer fans with controllable LED lighting. The boxes, constructed of widely available fans, filters, cardboard and tape, have become popular during the pandemic as people have sought ways to clean indoor air. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

In San Francisco, parents mobilized to fund and build simple devices for classrooms. On Twitter, one woman consulted experts about how many she should assemble for an indoor wedding in Ontario. University volunteers have gathered to build them inSan Diego, Arizona and Connecticut.

It has been rewarding "to be able to feel like you're being proactive and that you're rolling up your sleeves against the virus  that you're not just passive, but you're actually able to trap it in a filter and to go after it," said Marina A. Creed, a neuro-immunology nurse practitioner at UConn Health who began looking into air filtration when her immunocompromised patients worried that their kids might bring home COVID-19 from school.

Students and faculty from the University of Connecticut's schools of nursing, engineering and other fields have since assembled hundreds of the DIY cleaners with box fans, filters and duct tape for local schools."People are hungry for something else that they can do to fight back," Creed said.

As the BA.5 subvariant barrels through the country and many people have abandoned masks, engineers and epidemiologists have argued that more needs to be done to prevent the coronavirus from building up in stagnant air. Cleaning up indoor air has long been a neglected front in the halting battle against COVID-19, experts say.

LeVine decided to have fun with his Corsi-Rosenthal boxes by using computer fans. "People aren't embracing any of the other things that can avert disaster in this pandemic," he said. "Maybe I can create a way to clean the air that people want in the middle of the room." (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

"It's enormously important for our health. It's enormously important for protection against many infectious diseases. And it is completely neglected in almost every aspect"  and had been long before the pandemic,said Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto

Changing the air in an indoor space just five times an hour  a lower rate than the systems used for some hospital wards  can cut the risk of COVID transmission in half, researchers have found.In Italy, one analysis found that ventilation systems could reduce the risk of coronavirus infection in schools by more than 80% if the air was changed six times an hour.

Improving ventilation and air filtration may not stop someone from getting infected if they sit maskless next to a contagious person, but it could make "super-spreading events" that infect huge numbers of people less likely, said Dr. Abraar Karan, a fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford University. He is also studying how such devices could reduce the spread within households.

"We're not going to eliminate COVID" by cleaning indoor air, Karan said, "but we can eliminate these big surges of infection."

As the pandemic drags on, cleaning up indoor air has become a passion project not just for aerosol scientists and epidemiologists, but for a grab bag of concerned citizens like LeVine. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The problem is that indoor air is "very hard to regulate," Siegel said. Building codes are typically used when a structure is first built or undergoes major renovations, he said, and then "it's never looked at again unless something stops working."

Federal officials pointed out that the Environmental Protection Agency has no regulatory power over the quality of indoor air. "Right now, two tools we have are guidance and funding," said Georgia Lagoudas, a senior advisor for biotechnology and bioeconomy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "We're doing what we can to incentivize people."

Schools, for instance, can tap federal relief funds to improve ventilation systems or buy portable cleaners. The EPA offers tips on what to look for when buying a portable device or filter.

And federal officials released a "Clean Air in Buildings Challenge" this spring that provides recommendations on improving indoor air, from simple steps such as opening windows to sophisticated systems that use ultraviolet energy to kill the virus.

But federal agencies have not put forward a clear standard for what it takes to clean an indoor space, said Devabhaktuni Srikrishna, an infectious-diseases control researcher and founder of PatientKnowHow.com, which provides consumer advice on protective tools such as respirators.

In March, aerosol scientists were heartened when the White House held a virtual event focused on cleaning indoor air to quash the virus, but Devabhaktuni complained that it had made no firm recommendation for how many times air should be changed per hour. He likened it to getting the right pressure in vehicle tires.

"It's one thing to say, 'Inflate your tires.' It's another to say, 'Set your tire pressure to 30 psi,'" he said.

Some of the lights in the filtration box can be synced to music for a "club" feel. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

A national standard for indoor air  even a totally voluntary one  would let building operators know what they should aspire to, said William Bahnfleth, a professor of architectural engineering at Penn State University and chair of an epidemic task force at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. It could also give rise to evaluation and public labeling of buildings for their air quality, like the letter grades assigned by health departments to restaurants, he said.

The tricky part of setting any such standard, however, is that "we don't necessarily have a common understanding of what acceptable risk is," Bahnfleth said.

Some other tools to combat the pandemic, such as N95 masks and rapid tests, have become easier to access over time, with free tests now being shipped through the U.S. Postal Service and some pharmacies tasked with handing out N95 respirators without charge.

Matthew Cortland, a senior fellow on healthcare and disability at the left-leaning think tank Data for Progress, argued that to quash the pandemic, "you need an investment of money to purchase HEPA filters or[do-it-yourself air cleaners] and deploy them on a widespread scale."

"We've just seen nothing of the sort in the United States," Cortland said. Federal money has been made available to schools, "but schools are using that money for capital projects that will take years to be realized  when children are getting sick today," they said.

Epidemiologist Megan Jehn, an associate professor at Arizona State University, said that public health officials "really dropped the ball" by putting so much emphasis, early in the pandemic, on the idea that COVID could spread through surfaces. Although the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later clarified that the risk of getting COVID from contaminated surfaces is "generally considered to be low," schools and other public settings have continued to focus on disinfecting and washing surfaces, Jehn lamented.

"There's really not as much awareness that, one, COVID can be airborne and, two, that we can clean the air," Jehn said.

Inspired by gamers who have tricked out their computers with LED lights, LeVine began experimenting with cheap, illuminated fans made for computers and sharing his colorful creations online. (Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Unlike simple recommendations about masks, "there is not one specific solution that works for all indoor settings," said Erica Kimmerling, senior policy advisor for public engagement in science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

For instance, not all HVAC systems work with high-grade filters, Kimmerling explained. DIY air cleaners may be a great tool in some cases, but if building operators can afford longer-term upgrades, that may be a better choice, she said.

"We want to give people that menu of options that work  and then figure out what works best in their environment," Kimmerling said.

In Los Angeles County, health officials distributed HEPA air purifiers to more than 100 homeless shelters and other interim housing sites, according to a county report.

The L.A. County Department of Public Health said it has connected schools with state grants to improve their ventilation systems and provides diagrams on the best places to put fans in school gyms. If outbreaks arise at schools or workplaces, its teams help assess ventilation systems and may perform a "smoke test" to gauge airflow, according to the public health department.

Los Angeles Unified officials said they had upgraded the filters in their school ventilation systems and were checking and changing them more frequently. The district also purchased more than 1,700 portable cleaners as a backup option if air-conditioning systems go down in classrooms, said its chief facilities executive,Mark Hovatter.

"We're providing the best air quality we can for our classrooms," Hovatter said.

LAUSD officials were unable to promptly confirm how many air changes their classrooms were getting per hour, however. Thousands of people have sent lettersto the district urging it to ensure safe air not just with the HVAC system, but with HEPA and DIY filtration devices to achieve a dozen air changes per hour.

As the school district has dropped masks and stopped routine weekly testing, "they're not upgrading air quality to meet the need," said Rebecca Schenker, a parent and community advocate with the group LAUSD Parents for COVID-Safe Schools.

"It's enormously important for our health. It's enormously important for protection against many infectious diseases.

Jeffrey Siegel, a University of Toronto civil engineering professor.

Many other districts have not taken the same steps as LAUSD: As of earlier this year, less than 40% of public schools surveyed nationally said they had replaced or upgraded their HVAC systems, according to a study released by the CDC.

Fewer  less than a third  had put portable HEPA filtration systems in classrooms. And although many schools did spend on air improvements, a Kaiser Health News investigation found that some were installing devices that experts warned were unproven and could even be harmful.

"There are things we could be doing immediately and not waiting to spend millions of dollars to retrofit ventilation systems," said Richard L. Corsi, dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering.

His name has become synonymous with grass-roots efforts to clean up indoor air, thanks to a do-it-yourself cube called the Corsi-Rosenthal box, which he helped develop from box fans, four high-quality filters and duct tape.He estimated that when materials, replacement filters, and electricity are included, it costs "a little less than a venti cafe mocha at Starbucks, per student, per year."

Creed, whose efforts to make Corsi-Rosenthal boxes in Connecticut were supported by a local foundation and some programs at the University of Connecticut, estimated that the boxes had cost them roughly $65 apiece. And "the amazing thing is that it actually works," added Kristina Wagstrom, an associate professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at UConn who has been involved with the effort. "It's not just one of those DIY things that makes you feel better."

In a published analysis, Corsi and other UC Davis researchers found that the simple devices had "exceptional performance relative to most commercially available filter-based air cleaners." Devabhaktuni also found that they compared well to HEPA purifiers at a fraction of the cost. The California Department of Public Health mentions them on its website as an inexpensive option.

Among LeVine's fanciful works is a blue box of a filtration device, garnished with strips of red and yellow tissue paper that wave in the fanned air like flames, which has been stationed in his living room. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

In Studio City, LeVine spotted the homemade devices on social media, watched a training video made by a fourth-grader and got to work. Inspired by gamers who have tricked out their computers with LED lights, he began experimenting with cheap, illuminated fans made for computers and sharing his colorful creations online.

Among his fanciful works is a blue box of a filtration device, garnished with strips of red and yellow tissue paper that wave in the fanned air like flames, which has been stationed in his living room. LeVine said he was pleased to discover that his daughter, who is mildly allergic to one of their dogs, was no longer bothered by them after the filter had been running.

Homemade cleaners also sit in his office, bedroom, garage and guest room, but so far, LeVine hasn't distributed them to anyone else. For now, he said, "my goal is to inspire other people."

When cholera ravaged Europe and North America in the 19th century, people "revolutionized sewage" by creating the modern sewage system, said Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine. "They could have just said, 'Boil your water.' But they didn't do that. They gave people clean drinking water."

Ensuring clean air indoors is "the 21st century equivalent," Noymer said. But "it's a long-term solution, and people are still hoping that COVID is just going to go away."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Angela Crawford at her home Saturday as the McKinney fire burns in Klamath National Forest. (Noah Berger / Associated Press)

In the 20 years theyve lived in Yreka, Calif., Vina Swenson and her husband have packed up their car and prepared to flee from fire five times  twice in the last two years.

We havent ever had to leave, Swenson said Sunday, as flames burned less than five miles away. So the reality probably hasnt hit me that this one could swallow up their home.

As of Sunday night, the McKinney fire  the largest yet of this year's fire season in drought-stricken California  had ripped through more than 55,000 acres in Klamath National Forest near the California border with Oregon, destroying homes and threatening hundreds more. It was 0% contained.

Authorities announced Monday that two people were found dead inside a car in the fire zone.

"Sunday fire personnel located two deceased individuals inside a vehicle located in a driveway along Doggett Creek Rd, off HWY 96, W of Klamath River, CA. There will be no additional info pending positive identification & notifications to next-of-kin," the Siskiyou County sheriff said on Twitter.

Swenson, 54, watched as firefighters cut down brush across the street from her home, which sits in a basin surrounded by heavily forested mountains in the Northridge neighborhood, squarely in the towns evacuation zone. The sun was trying to peer through the smoke, turning her neighborhood an eerie orange.

Its reassuring that theyre keeping us safe, but the fact that theyre clearing brush here makes me think they expect the fire to reach here, Swenson said. She said they'll leave as soon as they see flames coming over the surrounding mountains.

About 650 firefighters battling the blaze were contending with triple-digit heat and possible thunderstorms that could set off dangerous conditions. A red flag warning was in effect due to searing temperatures, which averaged about 100 degrees on Sunday, officials said.

The fire becomes more energetic, and the potential for fire spread increases, said Jonathan Garner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. It just becomes a more active fire when temperatures warm up like that.

Thunderstorms were expected in the afternoon, which he said could cause gusty, erratic winds and lightning, which could ignite new blazes.

That all makes for unpredictable fire behavior. And that's dangerous for firefighters, Garner said.

By Sunday afternoon, forest officials said, there were about 10 other smaller fires burning in Klamath National Forest.

One of the firefighters on the front lines is Tyler Johnson, 21, who checked in with his mother, Diane, on Sunday morning before heading out on a shift.

Thats their routine, she said. At the end of his rest break, hell call to say that hes headed to the command center, then back into the fray.

Its just a quick 'I love you, be safe,' Diane Johnson said, a hitch in her voice.

The 49-year-old county planner had evacuated to Placerville about four and a half hours away. Her husband, a sheriffs deputy, stayed behind to help with evacuations in Yreka and ensure that homes are not looted.

Some neighborhoods on the western side of Yreka were ordered to evacuate, though officials said they saw little progression overnight on the fires edge closest to the city.

"Definitely Yreka is of concern as is the other populated areas like Fort Jones," said Caroline Quintanilla, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service. "So were focusing on protecting the people, life and property."

Officials said firefighters Sunday were prioritizing protecting Fort Jones, Yreka and other communities in the Highway 96 corridor from the blaze, which could burn for weeks. Highway 96 was shut down along the Klamath River, where crews overnight worked to keep homes and buildings from burning, forest officials said in a social media update.

Quintanilla said firefighters were tapping old bulldozer lines from past fires in the region.

This area gets lots of fires, Quintanilla said. But the particular area where the fire is actually burning right now has not burned since the mid-50s. So thats part of the concern as well, and part of the complexity, because it hasnt burned in a long time.

Jonathan Dixon, 37, who lives on the western edge of Yreka, told The Times his home will probably be among the first to be scorched as the fire continues to spread.

He said hes fled to the Bay Area, and that he expects his collection of art nouveau antiques, sculptures and other artworks to perish.

Im terrified that my house is going to burn down, and Ive kind of accepted it, Dixon said.

Dixon, a card dealer and games supervisor at the local casino, tried to put a positive spin on his losses, saying that he was kind of a hoarder and that hes been intending to get rid of things.

Thats a problem thats solved, but not in the way I wanted, he said.

Still, he said the casino might have to close as well, and if that happens he could lose his home and a source of income. Hes been urging other reluctant relatives to leave Yreka as soon as possible and to forgo trying to save their possessions.

I was telling them dont worry about packing up, your lifes more important, just get out of there, Dixon said.

Many residents in this neighborhood around Humbug Road are elderly, Dixon said, and will probably face significant hurdles trying to leave.

Jan Williamson, 66, fled her house in the Northridge neighborhood along with her husband and 40-year-old daughter Leanne, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.

Williamson said the evacuation has been especially difficult on Leanne because she is severely autistic and has been agitated as her daily routines of watching TV and listening to music are disrupted. The Williamsons have had to isolate themselves in their motor home because of the heavy smoke in the air.

Trapped and with no ability to speak, Leanne tends to bite herself hard and often when shes frustrated, her mother said.

Jan Williamson and her husband have had to leave behind an array of equipment used to care for their daughter, including an electric lift system that ferries her from the bed to the bathroom.

Whenever its especially bad like this, we just have to take one or two minutes at a time, and just manage to get through each day, Jan Williamson said.

The Red Cross late Saturday opened a shelter in the town of Weed after closing its location in Yreka when the area was ordered to evacuate, said Stephen Walsh, a spokesman with the organization.

Twenty-two people are staying at the shelter, where theyre being offered beds, food and spiritual care, Walsh said.

They can stay as long as they need to, and obviously the shelters are open to everybody, he said.

Siskiyou County officials set up a webpage to help residents find dogs, cats and livestock rescued within the evacuation area. The animals were being cared for at various shelters.

The fire started about 2:38 p.m. Friday near Highway 96 and McKinney Creek Road southwest of the Klamath River, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The cause is under investigation.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
As monkeypox begins to dominate headlines, I am reminded of a quote from novelist Chris Crutcher, in his 2003 autobiography, King of the Mild Frontier:

Viruses have no morality, no sense of good and evil, the deserving or the undeserving.... (it) is not the swift sword with which the Lord punishes the evil practitioners of male homosexuality and intravenous drug use. It is simply an opportunistic virus that does what it has to do to stay alive.

I was thinking about this when, as a member of the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, we spoke with Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye this week. First and foremost, our questions were about the looming possibility of mask mandates in California counties to the south, but also of the virality of monkeypox, which is  currently  mainly associated with the gay community.

Opinion

In fact, America is No. 2 in the world for cases right now, with 3,590 known monkeypox cases, just behind Spains 3,738 cases. Numbers released July 29 by the California Department of Public Health show gay people account for 91.7% of all patients whove tested positive for monkeypox and 5.6% of patients are bisexual. Gay men account for 98% of cases.

Kasirye confirmed that a majority of those infected in Sacramento County with the virus are men who have sex with men, bisexual men, and the transgender communities, but that health officials already know its possible for anyone to catch it. The virus causes lesions, headaches, and debilitating body pains.

Thanks to a limited, federal supply of vaccines  Sacramento County has received a total of about 2,000 since first identifying the virus here, she said  health officials are mainly focusing on mitigating the spread within the LGBTQ+ community.

Were not keeping any vaccine back, whatever allocation we get. Were planning clinics and being able to offer that to individuals that fit our criteria, Kasirye said. I think that as more vaccine is made available, we will definitely talk with the state to look at being able to expand that. But right now, the vaccine is still limited.

This limited response has drawn some criticism from a public that is just emerging from a years-long pandemic  where health care fatigue has already set in over masks and mandates.

In the wake of devastating silence from the White House, the cities of San Francisco and New York have declared their own public health emergencies in order to divert funds toward the care and prevention of further spread. San Franciscos health officer Dr. Susan Philip said 30% of all of Californias cases are in San Francisco. WHO has declared monkeypox a global health emergency as well.

Many members of the LGBTQ+ community are relying on social media for information with no official outlet to turn to, and are rightfully angry at their leaders for yet again proving there are deep inequities in American health care for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

I may only be 32 years old, but as a bisexual woman, I am deeply aware of the queer communitys history, and this story is starting to sound eerily familiar.

It rings of the same, lackluster federal response to AIDS just three decades ago, when that virus was first emerging in those very same, LGBTQ+ communities. Monkeypox may not be fatal, but it is debilitating and painful and causes visible lesions, which can be used to smear shame and hatred on those suffering from it.

This is just another way our federal government has abandoned the LGBTQ+ community in a time of need. History is clearly repeating itself; because more than 30 years after AIDS uncovered the silent divide in American sympathies, monkeypox is proving, once again, that we are still second-class citizens.

But viruses are amoral. They have no sense of retribution  that is of human design, to make us feel superior to one another. This virus is no mark of Cain. I see your hatred and I raise you the queer community, long strengthened by adversity and exclusion.

And I look forward to the day the heterosexual community finally realizes monkeypox is not just a gay disease  because maybe then our government will do something about it.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, is pressing hard for a vote in the U.S. Senate on her antitrust legislation (S.2992) aimed at big tech. The Idaho Chamber Alliance, representing more than 10,000 business owners across Idaho, is opposed to this bill, and we have encouraged Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both R-Idaho, to oppose it, as well.

Chip Schwarze is chairman of the Idaho Chamber Alliance and CEO of the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce.

The implication of this bill would be far-reaching and disastrous for both consumers and small business. This bill is overly broad, vague and threatens to drastically alter the way the online environment is both used and regulated.

Existing antitrust laws focus on the best interests of the consumer. These laws recognize that vigorous competition lowers price, drives innovation and gives consumers the power to decide winners and losers in the marketplace.

Sen. Klobuchars proposed antitrust legislation would lead to higher prices and less convenience for consumers. It would prohibit, or make it more difficult, for some companies to provide store branded alternatives to name-brand products at cheaper prices. While common practice in grocery stores across America, these marketing practices would become illegal for select companies.

The legislation would also prohibit or create barriers to companies providing benefits like free or expedited shipping for select products. Amazon and other companies can currently offer free or expedited shipping because sellers who use certain platforms also utilize their distribution services. Popular offerings at Amazon Prime could become illegal because the bill forbids Amazon from preferencing those merchants who utilize their services.

The bill would also prohibit targeted companies from providing free ancillary services alongside their core services. The government could decide Google couldnt offer Google Maps with your internet search results because those maps would preference Google over other map service providers. Instead, it would treat all map services the same. This approach would eliminate efforts to bundle complimentary services that clearly benefit consumers.

Additionally, this bill would usher in an unprecedented level of government involvement in the economy  without concern for consumer prices. A comprehensive economic study by the National Economic Research Associates finds that proposed antitrust legislation in Congress could cost the economy $319 billion. The result would be increased costs and loss of services for consumers and small business.

On behalf of the 25 chambers of commerce from across Idaho, the Idaho Chamber Alliance encourages Idaho business owners and consumers to join us in encouraging Sens. Crapo and Risch in opposing this proposed expansion of governmental interference in our marketplace.

Chip Schwarze is chairman of the Idaho Chamber Alliance and CEO of the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce.
An Iranian resistance group has urged European leaders to stop engaging with the current regime as Tehran threatens military action against its rivals  even on foreign soil.

The Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, published a July 27 article calling on the Islamic Republic to "put military action against the MKO headquarters in Albania on the agenda," claiming that the action would help to maintain "international peace and security."

Iran refers to the group as the "MKO."

IRAQI PARLIAMENT IN BAGHDAD STORMED BY PROTESTERS

The agency even referred to U.N. Charter Article 51, which ascribes the right to "individual or collective self-defense" of a member state.

Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, denounced the Fars report and urged western allies to do more to oppose the current regime.

"The brazen threats by Iran's ruling theocracy against its principle opposition the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) reflects first and foremost the extent to which the mullahs are terrified of the growing prowess and influence of the MEK-affiliated resistance units inside Iran," Safavi said, calling the report "a pathetic attempt to blackmail western governments into offering it concessions.

IRAN GOVERNMENT AGENTS ALLEGEDLY SHOOT OVER 1,000 DOGS DESPITE STERILIZATION, VACCINATIONS

"Firmness is the only effective policy to confront Tehran's terrorism and belligerence beyond its borders."

Fars referred to the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK or MOK) as a "terrorist sect" or "terrorist cult," but the group has developed healthy relations with the United States and other countries over the past two decades.

The U.S. once listed MEK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization for the alleged killing of personnel in Iran during the 1970s, but the State Department changed the groups status following a rejection of violence in 2012. Since then, as Secretary of State John Kerry appointed a special representative to help MEK move from Iraq to Albania, and former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo each met with members of the MEK group in 2022 during a visit to Tirana.

BAHRAINI OFFICIAL: IRAN PROXIES NOTHING NEW, NUCLEAR DEAL CRITICAL TO COMBAT COMMON THREAT

Tehran has gone so far as to sanction 61 U.S. officials this month for their support of MEK, including attendance at MEK events and vocal support for the group and its opposition to Supreme Leader Khamenei, Reuters reported.

"The Iranian regime's foreign affairs ministry sanctioned 61 very senior former U.S. officials, including Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and General Jim Jones  a whole host of very distinguished Americans for their longstanding support for MEK," Safavi noted.

"Of course, the same kind of support that you see in the United States  is also happening in Europe, where many parliamentarians from different European countries, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, national parliaments  have all repeatedly expressed support for a firm policy with the regime and the need for the West to abandon the policy of appeasement and engage the Iranian people and the Iranian resistance."

Safavi argued that this more aggressive stance from the current regime indicates that leaders in Tehran "fear the impact" that MEK has within Iran itself. The West, he said, must start to take stronger stances against Iran, including the end of appeasement.

"Remember that, back in 2018, a very senior Iranian diplomat in Vienna carried 500 grams of explosives from Tehran to Vienna aboard a commercial airliner to hand it over to two of his agents in Luxembourg to try to blow up the entire annual Free Iran World Summit near Paris." He said the European Union response was a "mere slap on the wrist" that will only embolden Iran to act so "brazen."

He also claimed that the JCPOA will not prove effective and that the U.S. should abandon its attempt to resurrect a "hopeless and useless" plan that Iranian officials never stopped "cheating and breaching."

"That deal never permanently stopped Iran from galloping toward nuclear weapons," Safavi argued. "In fact, all along, while the JCPOA was in place, the mullahs were cheating and breaching their obligations.

"If Iran is interested in peaceful energy, peaceful nuclear energy, it does not need to enrich uranium just like many other countries. It can be imported from abroad."
Jerry Ceppos, a former editor and executive at the Miami Herald who also led Pulitzer winning news teams and two journalism schools, died Friday. He was 75.

He died from a severe infection that caused sepsis, according to his wife, Karen Ceppos.

At the time of his death, he was serving as a media ethics professor at Louisiana State Universitys Manship School of Mass Communication, where he was dean from 2011 to 2018. Before his time at LSU, he was a managing editor for about 18 years at San Joses The Mercury News, where led a team that won two Pulitzer Prizes.

In 1985, his team won the Pulitzer for international reporting after playing a role in exposing the hidden wealth of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. Five years later, The Mercury News won the staff Pulitzer for its coverage of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake under Ceppos leadership.

He also led a team covering Silicon Valleys early tech boom and expanded diversity efforts in the newsroom. He helped create Nuevo Mundo and Viet Mercury, expanding the papers outreach to other languages.

The paper did a great job of explaining what was happening both in the business community and in the, the diversity of the community, and was beloved as a result of it, said Joe Natoli, a former executive at the Miami Herald who worked with Ceppos. The community embraced the paper in a way that I had not seen.

The Society of Professional Journalists awarded Ceppos in 1997 after he helped correct the record on the Dark Alliance series, which tied the CIA to drug trafficking during Los Angeles crack epidemic. He assigned new reporters to re-visit the allegations after the series of news reports were criticized for inaccuracies and personally took responsibility for the misstep.

I believe that we fell short at every step of our process  in the writing, editing and production of our work. Several people here share that burden, he wrote. But ultimately, the responsibility was, and is, mine.

His career in journalism spans back to 1969, when he worked as a an editor at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle for three years.

Ceppos went on to be an editor at the Miami Herald through the 70s until he left for San Jose. He worked with the Miami Herald again in 1999 when he became vice president for news at Knight Ridder, Miami Heralds parent company at the time.

While working as a Knight Ridder executive, he oversaw the diversification of Knight Ridders 32 newspapers and led efforts to digitize the papers.

Following 36 years in the journalism industry, Ceppos started his career in academia in 2007 as a fellow in media ethics at Santa Clara University. He became dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism and Advanced Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2008, where he expanded the schools curriculum and diversity.

His time at UNR ended in 2011, when he moved to become the dean at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. There, he created a news service for student journalists, which helped expand the LSU Cold Case Project in which students helped solve Klu Klux Klan murders from the 60s.

He was obviously very successful in his career, but he didnt have a lot of ego and was very welcoming, Natoli said. He was very much a people person.

He will be buried in Miami at a private family ceremony before a public celebration is held at a later date, according to The Daily Reveille, LSUs student newspaper.
Xi stresses unity of Chinese at home, abroad to pool strength for rejuvenation

Xinhua) 09:06, July 31, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a central conference on the united front work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held from Friday to Saturday. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has stressed promoting the unity and hard work of Chinese people at home and abroad to pool strength for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a central conference on the united front work held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing.

Xi emphasized following the guidance of the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and upholding the CPC leadership and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Xi underscored holding high the banner of patriotism and socialism, balancing commonality and diversity, concentrating on the central task, serving the overall interests of the country, keeping pace with the times, and innovating on the basis of what has worked in the past.

He also emphasized giving full play to the united front's political role in rallying the people's support and pooling their strength to promote harmony in relations among political parties, ethnic groups, religious sectors, social strata, and compatriots at home and abroad.

Li Keqiang presided over the conference, which was also attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Yang delivered concluding remarks.

The united front is an important component of the Party's general line and policy, said Xi, noting that the CPC has made historic achievements in the united front work since the 18th CPC National Congress.

We have formed the thought on the Party's united front work in the new era through practice. It serves as the fundamental guideline for the united front work in the new era and must be fully and faithfully applied by the whole Party, Xi stressed.

As an important way to unite Chinese people at home and abroad to achieve national rejuvenation, the united front must be upheld on a long-term basis, he said.

Xi pointed out that the essential requirement of the united front work is to achieve great unity and solidarity, and the key lies in seeking common ground while shelving differences and seeking commonality while respecting diversity.

Xi also underscored the importance of ensuring the Party's overall leadership over the united front work.

Noting that profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly across the world, Xi said the united front is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security, and development interests.

It is also playing a more important role in serving the overall interests in efforts to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects, and in strengthening the Party's class foundation and expanding its mass base, he added.

Xi stressed efforts to truly unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation from different political parties, ethnic groups, social strata and groups, as well as those with different beliefs and living in different social systems.

The relationship between unity and struggle in the united front work must be properly handled, so as to reach a real, impregnable unity, Xi said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party Central Committee has always been attaching great importance to the united front work from an overall and strategic perspective.

Xi called for upholding and improving the system of the CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, uniting non-CPC intellectuals and people of new social groups, facilitating the healthy growth of the non-public sector and encouraging those working in this sector to achieve success.

He also called for fostering overseas patriotic elements and enhancing cyberspace united front work.

The fundamental requirement in strengthening the united front work in the new era is to uphold the Party's leadership, Xi said, calling on all relevant authorities and departments to form a strong synergy.

He also asked personnel in this regard to improve their capacity for political judgment, thinking, and implementation and carry out the united front work with better methods.

Presiding over the conference, Li Keqiang called for efforts to earnestly study Xi's important speech, and think and act in line with its guiding principles. Li also called for completing various tasks based on actual conditions.

In his concluding remarks at the conference, Wang Yang called for full and faithful understanding of Xi's important thought on the Party's united front work in the new era. Wang urged concerted efforts to serve the Party's central task in the new era and write a new chapter in the cause of the united front.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a central conference on the united front work in Beijing, capital of China. Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attended the conference, which was held from Friday to Saturday. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
Heres what you need to know to cast your ballot on Tuesday.

Who can vote

In this primary, any registered Kansas voter can cast a ballot on the proposed amendment that would remove the right to abortion from the state constitution.

Beyond that, Republicans can vote on Republican candidates and Democrats can vote on Democratic candidates in primary elections.

Whats on the ballot?

In addition to the proposed constitutional amendment, these offices have primary races that south-central Kansas voters can cast ballots in:

* U.S. Senate

* Governor

* Secretary of state

* Attorney general

* State treasurer

* Kansas House districts 79 and 101

To learn about the candidates, amendment

Go to our voter guide at https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election for information on primary candidates.

Go to our FAQ https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election for information on the abortion amendment.

When can you vote?

Election Day is Tuesday, and polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Sedgwick County.

You also can vote from 8 a.m. to noon Monday at the Sedgwick County Election Office at the old county courthouse, 510 N. Main, Suite 101.

Where can you vote?

Go to myvoteinfo.voteks.org to check your Election Day polling place. You can also check your voter registration and party affiliation and see a sample ballot.

Take your photo ID

You will need to show a current drivers license, non-driver ID card, concealed carry license, U.S. passport, government employee ID, U.S. military ID, Kansas college ID, government public assistance ID, or American-Indian tribe ID.

If you experience problems

Call the county election office at 316-660-7100.

Tell us

How was your voting experience? Did you have any problems? Tell us by emailing tips@wichitaeagle.com or leaving a message at 316-268-6216.

For results Tuesday night

Check with Kansas.com for frequent updates and a full list of results.
Wichita Public Schools could see a budget increase of nearly $5 million and a decrease in the mill levy.

USD 259s Chief Financial Officer Susan Willis presented a budget draft to the school board earlier this week. She said some numbers could change before the next meeting Aug. 8.

The mill levy is expected to decrease by 1.038. Property value and mill are used to calculate the taxes owed on a property. Because property values have increased more than the mill levy has decreased, most property owners still could pay more in taxes than last year  but less than if the mill levy stayed the same.

The increase in property value is one of the reasons for the decrease, Willis said.

Were trying to give some of that back to the taxpayers, Willis said. Theyre going to have to pay more anyway because their assessed valuations are higher. If our mill levy is either the same or higher that just compounds that problem.

Additional money in the supplemental general fund last year paved the way for the decrease.

Last years cash balance was high enough that we were able to bring that mill levy down a little bit, Willis said.

School finance is based on the number of students each district educates. Districts get a base amount for every full-time student and then additional funds per student depending on their needs  like transportation, free lunches and more. That same formula is applied to every district in Kansas. This base aid per student goes up 3% every year and is now $4,847 per student.

Combined, the operating funds  general and supplemental general  equal about $521 million.

The bulk of the general fund (which the draft has at $391,779,209) goes toward teacher salaries, and some to special education and at-risk funding. Wichita uses the supplemental general fund (which is a proposed $129,536,885) to pay for utilities, transportation, technology and business services.

Teacher raises were decided in negotiations with the United Teachers of Wichita in the spring  they include a 1.75% salary schedule improvement, 2.75% one-time bonus for eligible employees in December, 2.5% one-time bonus for eligible employees in May, and steps, tracks and longevity for those eligible.

Capital outlay will see a roughly $41 million increase, to $101,283,001. Willis said the extra money will go toward HVAC and air quality, among other possible projects.

A lot of it [is] kind of those pandemic related projects, Willis said. Were going to get kind of a really good jump start in 23 going into 24, and were trying to get all that work done.

The special liability fund  used for insurance costs  will increase by more than $2 million.

Were trying to put some money ... should we have a hail claim, or something like that happens, also things like cyber liability and those type of things, Willis said. Weve been kind of slowly throwing some money in that particular fund, at some point well probably cap it out. ... It just gives us a little more flexibility as were trying to save money in other areas.

Another big possible increase is the latchkey program, which is growing by more than $2 million. This money will go toward supplies, equipment and to cover increased costs without increasing costs for families.

The latchkey program has received several pandemic-related grants.

A public hearing and vote on the budget are scheduled for Aug 22.
Sarai Ramos Gonzalez was born in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and moved with her parents to the United States at age 5. She was undocumented and spent much of her childhood working alongside her parents, who are Mixtec, harvesting fruit in the fields of the Central Valley and Oregon.

At age 17, she earned deportation protection through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and, she said, her world opened up.

Before that, I didnt allow myself to dream, I told myself I didnt have papers. I couldnt go to school, Ramos Gonzalez said in Spanish. I didnt know what to do and fortunately when I got DACA, I had more options and the hope to go to school.

Ramos Gonzalez is now a 25-year-old graduate of UCLA. She has returned to the Valley, where her digital collection of maps, videos, photos and written narratives are on display as part of Arte Americas Boom Oaxaca exhibit. Her work  called Oaxaca, Presente!  utilizes a tablet and TV screens to illustrate the depth, strength and resiliency of the regions Indigenous communities. Its her first public showcase.

A collaboration with Elybeth Sofia Alcantar, a 24-year-old Mixteca geographer working on her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, the collection highlights the Indigenous Mexican communitys ties to Oaxaca, the routes that Mixtecs, Triquis and Zapotecs traveled to reach the Central Valley, their new roles in California and how they prosper while preserving their culture.

I really wanted to find a way to weave all of this together and show folks who may not typically think of Oaxaquenos as more than farmworkers, to really see Oaxaquenos as business owners, to see Oaxaqueno Indigenous folks, regardless of immigration status, as people with dreams, who are musicians, who are farmers, who are entrepreneurs and who are still very much connected to the Indigenous culture, Indigenous artistry and Indigenous heritage, said Ramos Gonzalez.

Ramos Gonzalezs collection, along with the entire Boom Oaxaca exhibit, could help transform popular perceptions of the regions Indigenous communities, said Sarait Martinez, executive director of the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno, or the Binational Center for the Development of Indigenous Oaxacans, an organization dedicated to serving Indigenous community members from different Mexican states living in California.

I dont want (people) to see us as a community that needs help, because I think what we need is proper access to information, Martinez said. We need to stop being seen as people see us, without power.

Rather, she said, Fresnos Indigenous Mexican communities should be recognized for their work ethic, agricultural expertise and contributions to the Valley. The community is resilient, she said, but needs better linguistic and culturally appropriate access to public resources.

Miguel Avendano blends new, organic growing techniques with the ones learned through his culture. Sarai Ramos Gonzalez included Avendano and other Indigenous Mexican community members in her Oaxaca, Presente! exhibit at Arte Americas.

Approximately 350,000 Indigenous Oaxacans lived in California in 2016 and one-third of the total Mexican agricultural workers in California were of Indigenous origin in 2010, according to the Indigenous Farmworker Study by the University of Southern California and the Mexican research institute El Colegio de la Frontera Nortes report.

The study found 23 Indigenous Mexican languages were spoken in Californias agricultural industry, with Mixtec, Zapotec and Triqui the most common ones. Many Indigenous Mexican languages are predominantly oral and some community members speak little to no Spanish.

The concept of needing help comes from this idea that we dont have things or that we dont have (resources) in a deficit way, but were really not that way, Martinez said. I think economic situations make it seem like we need support, but really we just need the respect of our work that needs to happen and the proper access to services that are appropriate to our community.

Artist embraces her Indigenous Mexican history

Ramos Gonzalezs artwork is rooted in her own experiences as the daughter of Mixtec immigrants.

She grew up in Farmersville and began migrating with her parents for seasonal work at age 10, picking cherries, oranges, mandarins and lemons in Oregon and all over the Central Valley. The work was hard, she said, but she cherishes the memories made while working with her relatives.

The beautiful thing about working in the fields is that youre always with your family, she said.

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She originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but she changed career paths after taking classes in Chicano studies, food and education at UCLA. She drew on the knowledge shed gained from her family, her elders and the fields as she worked toward a bachelors degree in Chicano studies. Her primary concentration was labor law and policy but she also studied expressive art and artivism, or activist art.

Throughout the entire time, I think I just sat and really reflected on my identity as a Mixteca woman, as an Indigenous woman and a woman from rural Central California, and how that had shaped my experience, she said. I felt very fortunate to be so tied to my culture and have so much access to my Indigenous community.

Today, Ramos Gonzalez considers herself a community archivist focused on storytelling. Shes proud of how her family has intentionally kept their culture and Mixtec language alive in California, despite concerns that they could be stigmatized for doing so.

As I got older, I really saw how radical and how special that was, she said. Not a lot of people have that connection to their Indigenous language, their Indigenous cultures, Indigenous food even.

Fresno exhibit features immigrants from Oaxaca

In Oaxaca, Presente!, Ramos Gonzalez depicts hardworking, powerful Indigenous community members who overcome biases and barriers and helped those around them prosper as well. In a digital format presented on tablets and TV screens, she features interactive stories with audio tracks, photos and videos.

Ramos Gonzalezs work is divided into three main sections  land stewards, cultural stewards and food sovereignty. She was sure to include her source of inspiration and pride: her parents.

Her mother, Emma Gonzalez, is an Indigenous activist who was part of a committee that brought potable water to her town, San Mateo Nuevo, in Oaxaca. After moving to California, she worked as a field worker until 2018, when she was injured picking eggplants in Fresno. Though disabled now, Gonzalez continues to care for the land and advocate for her Indigenous community in the Central Valley.

Ramos Gonzalez showcased her mothers story along with other land stewards in the region.

My mom has just been really an inspiration for the social justice work that I do and why I think Im so proud to come from a very community-centered background, because thats how my mom taught me to exist with other people, Ramos Gonzalez said.

Feliciano Ramos is a Mixteco citrus expert who has worked in the Central Valley for decades. He is featured in the Oaxaca, Presente! exhibit at Arte Americas.

Chapitos de la Sierra is Feliciano Ramos band. When he and his brothers are not working in Farmersville as citrus experts in the fields, the group from San Miguel Aguacates plays nostalgic chilenas, a Mexican genre from the Oaxaca-Guerrero coast, and regional Mexican music.

Ramos Gonzalez highlighted them along with other artists as cultural stewards who keep their Mixteca culture alive through their original songs about Indigenous empowerment and pride.

I think that theyre so cool because theyve played with really big people like Graciela Beltran and like Los Oros del Norte, she said.

Boom Oaxaca is on exhibit at Arte Americas, located at 1630 Van Ness Ave. in Fresno until Aug. 14. The exhibit is open to the public and costs $5 per person. The fee is waived on the first Sunday of the month and for Arte Americas members.

The exhibit will be included in Art Hop on Thursday, Aug. 4, offering a free-admission late showing from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
At least one person was injured in a plane crash Saturday afternoon a few miles away from the Ridgeland Airport, according to the Jasper County Fire Rescue.

Air Traffic Control at the Savannah Hilton Head International Airport reported the plane went missing from its radar around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Jasper County Fire Rescue officials said in a Facebook post.

The planes last known location was four miles away from the Ridgeland International Airport.

Local police and fire rescue officials went to work searching for the plane and, with the help of the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office Air 2 helicopter, the airplane was found in the woods off Almost Heaven Drive in Ridgeland where it had crashed.

The pilot, who was the only person on board at the time of the crash, was taken to a local trauma center.

The plane, a single-engine Beechcraft B-36 Bonanza, hit a tree and crashed in a field while trying to land at the Ridgeland Claude-Dean Airport in Ridgeland, according to Tammy Jones, a spokesperson with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Police and Firefighters were involved in a search for a plane that was reported missing from Savannah Hilton Head International Airport Air Traffic Control radars around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

The crash is under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, Jones said.

In March, a military fighter jet crashed on former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanfords family property in Beaufort County. In that case, two marine pilots were able to eject from the plane safely.

At least one person was injured in a plane crash Saturday afternoon a few miles away from the Ridgeland Airport, according to the Jasper County Fire Rescue.

This story has been updated.
Virginia Dale, a renowned scientist with local ties, has again returned along with her ecological research team to sites catastrophically destroyed in the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

The team in late July found more indicators supporting Dales belief that a conifer forest will eventually emerge, a future landscape that would closely resemble what was once before the explosion.

Red alder is a pioneer species that establishes readily in open areas left after natures disturbances. Mount St. Helens lateral blast and avalanche flows were certainly disturbances of the highest order. Red alder is present in most of the 62 plots that Dale and her team are studying. Alder is a nitrogen fixer and provides valuable nutrients to the soil, fostering growth of conifer seeds blown on the wind to the damaged areas.

Dales team, which included leading scientists, mentoring students and volunteers, found Douglas fir and hemlock, two common Washington conifers, on some of the plots. Three species found in understories of conifer forests also have been found in the studied plots, strengthening the opinion that a conifer forest will return to St. Helens. Those species are Claytonia sibirica (pink purslane), Rubus leucodermis (whitebark raspberry) and Prunella vulgaris (woundwort or blue curls of the mint family Lamiacene).

Lead researcher Virginia Dale records the plants observed with percentage of cover on Plot 43 during a July 2022 research expedition to Mount St. Helens.

Decades of research

Dale started her research in the early 1980s with 103 plots established as part of an effort with her then-husband, A. B. Adams.

Her recurring visit every five years for 40 years was interrupted for two years until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Back now, Dale made her pilgrimage to St. Helens this last week of July.

Dale is respected worldwide for her contribution to the International Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. It has been her ecological mission to return periodically to hike and record data from seeded and unseeded plots covering a six-mile-long stretch between the north fork of the Toutle River and Castle Creek and also between Castle and Coldwater lakes.

The blast from St. Helens destroyed all organic matter and living organisms as it moved through forested areas, toppling and burying trees in its path, coming to an end near valley walls of the north fork of the Toutle River with clumps of organic material, soil and surviving plants. The debris-avalanche deposit provided an opportunity to examine primary succession.

As a young scientist living in Washington state with a doctorate from the University of Washington, Dale was on the first team of biologists who entered the red zone at Mount St. Helens after the big blast on May 18 more than 42 years ago. She has been studying the vegetation reestablishment ever since. It has been her lifes work in what she has called a living laboratory. Dale has recorded 247 species over the years and said, I hope to find that many this time.

Dale, who now lives in Tennessee, is affiliated with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and is an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee. She was joined at St. Helens by her husband, Keith Kline, a noted scientist in his own right, who also is connected with Oak Ridge Lab.

Others on this years team included Dr. Robert F. (Bob) Holland and his wife, Ginny, from California, longtime botanists and researchers with experience working for many agencies throughout the west; Elsie Denton, a range management ecologist from Oregon who will be moving to Tennessee this fall to pursue a doctorate in Dales program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville; Brad Hensley, an aerospace engineer from Colorado who is Dales son and who recently completed a habitat experience for NASA; Hensleys fiancee, Erin Swiatek, a sales representative for Deuter Sport in Colorado; Parker Maynard, who will be moving from Michigan to Tennessee to pursue a masters degree in Dales program; and Wendy Adams, of Washington, D.C., daughter of A. B. and Virginia, who has helped her mother at St. Helens on several occasions. Al and Candy Holland, Californians, managed the base camp and prepared meals for team members. Al, brother of Bob Holland, utilized skills gained from river-running tours he led. Bob and Al are cousins of A. B. Adams. The team was well organized, under Dales plan, and up for the tasks.

Botanist Robert F. Holland measuring the diameter of the most prominent tree on Plot 47 during a July 2022 research expedition to Mount St. Helens.

Hunting for plants

On the first day, a plot team led by Hensley left ahead of the rest to locate the plots and mark them. That was not necessarily an easy task because the team was traversing landscape that hadnt been hiked for seven years and was overgrown.

Using a GPS unit, the plot team moved in the correct direction to the beginning of the series of plots. One team member marked ribbons on trees along the way to guide the vegetation team that followed. Once Hensley and his group found the plot, they looked for a long piece of steel rebar driven into the ground, which marked the center of the plot. They tagged it. One member measured the amount of canopy cover. Another took soil samples. For documentation purposes, another team member took photos looking west-to-east and south-to-north with the plot number shown.

The initial 103 plots represented a variety of geological and topographic conditions on the debris-avalanche deposit and were purposely located a considerable distance from adjacent surviving vegetation. Over the years, wind-blown seeds from the existing vegetation drifted onto the barren deposit flow. Forty-one plots were lost over time due to erosion. Each of the circular plots is 250 square meters. The plots are spaced at 50-meter intervals along transects between Castle and Coldwater lakes and between the Toutle River and Castle Creek. Once finished with a plot, the lead team used a measuring tape to find the next plot and repeated their assigned tasks.

The vegetation team found each marked plot. Knowing the area of each plot, the team used a tape to measure 8.9 meters (the radius) from the center and marked the edges along each circles circumference. Then, they performed their tasks to identify species within the circle and calculate the percentage of coverage in each plot of those species. The team members walked carefully through the plot so as not to trample plants and yelled out the Latin names for the various species.

Dale sat on a camp stool outside the circle with a clipboard containing each plots listed species. She recorded the team members call-outs. When there were some species previously recorded on a particular plot that werent called out, Dale asked team members to confirm that finding. Finally, she asked them for their estimation of the coverage of the recorded species. They responded, Trace, 5 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, and so on.

Sometimes there would be disagreements regarding a plants identity, and it would be uprooted, put into a plastic bag and taken back to base camp on the edge of the debris-avalanche deposit to have an expedition botanist make a decision, based on various references. On Monday, July 25, the scientist in camp assigned that task happened to be 73-year-old Bob Holland, whose longtime study of Mount St. Helens goes back to helping A. B Adams.

I probably know more than 5,000 plants I can identify, said Holland. And I probably have forgotten 2,000 plants that I knew in Ohio before I moved out West.

Environmental scientist Keith Kline locates an immature Douglas fir, indicating succession towards a conifer forest at Plot 47, during a July 2022 research expedition to Mount St. Helens.

Holding a grass sample found in one of the plots, he identified it as Elymus, a species that prefers wetness. He wrapped the specimen in newspaper for archiving purposes. The team has found ponds on some plots and moisture-loving plants.

The groups mission was sometimes difficult and somewhat hazardous when the teams had to ford the Toutle River to get to the plots between Castle and Coldwater lakes. Someone ventured across and set up a rope system to help the others get across safely. Then, they scaled a cliff to get to the plots and accomplished their tasks.

Dales team proved to be diligent and resourceful in continuing her work that has become the most extensive plant study of any volcano, or mountain for that matter, in North America. She wants to see it go on for many more years.

I want to keep doing this as long as I can,  Dale said, but Im hopeful that Elsie (Denton) will take it over.

Denton said, That seems to be the plan, and Id like to bring more statistics and analysis into the next phase. For comparison, I might want to look at debris-avalanche deposits at other volcanoes.

Hopefully, funding will be there. Dale has been listed as a principal investigator through funding from the National Science Foundation. She has also received funding from other scientific sources, including the National Geographic Society, Earthwatch and the Center for Field Research of Belmont, Massachusetts.

A conifer forest will return to Mount St. Helens in its own time. On a debris-avalanche deposit totally devoid of life after May 18, 1980, plants are slowly taking hold of the landscape. The study of plant recovery continues on what once was a lifeless landscape, now a living laboratory that is Mount St. Helens.

Jim Erickson covered the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens for The News Tribune and published a book chronicling the 40th anniversary in 2020, offered by The History Press.
South Carolinas tax-free weekend is coming up, and shoppers will be able to save money ahead of the school year.

The states sale tax of 6% and local sales tax, including the schools Capital Improvements 1% Tax and Myrtle Beachs 1% Tourism Development Fee, will not count towards certain items, according to a Facebook post from the city.

Tax-free weekend will start Friday, Aug. 5 at 12:01 a.m. and end at midnight on Aug. 7, the post states.

Myrtle Beach officials said the tax exemption will work on clothing, shoes, school supplies and computers.

Purchases will be tax-free even for online shopping, according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue.

During previous tax-free weekends, consumers have saved millions of dollars on purchases, according to the departments website. The states tax-free holiday began in 2000.

For more information of items that qualify for tax-free weekend, check click this link.

List of eligible tax-free items

 Clothing (including custom-made clothes) & clothing accessories

 Shoes

 School supplies used for school assignments

 Computers, computer software, printers, and printer supplies (purchased or leased)

 Some bedroom and bathroom items

List of items that dont qualify

 Items for use in a trade or business

 Items placed on layaway or similar deferred payment and delivery plans

 Clothing and shoe rentals

 Cosmetics

 Eyewear

 Furniture

 Jewelry, wallets, and watches
A South Carolina teenager was killed Friday in a head-on crash that injured two other people, the Aiken County Coroners Office said.

Yazmaine S. Rabon died of blunt force injuries suffered during a two-car collision, Coroner Darryl Ables said. The 19-year-old Williston resident died at the scene, according to Ables.

Rabon was driving a 2009 Ford Focus east on Charleston Highway in Aiken at about 4:30 p.m., said Lance Cpl. Tyler Tidwell of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. Near the intersection with Old Tory Trail, the Ford drove left of center and collided with a westbound 2022 Nissan Rogue, according to Tidwell.

Rabon was the only person in the Ford, Tidwell said.

The driver and a passenger in the Nissan were taken to a hospital in Augusta, Georgia, according to Tidwell. Further information on their conditions was not available.

No other injuries were reported.

There was no word if any of the people involved in the crash wore seat belts.

Information about why Rabon veered into oncoming traffic was not available, but the crash is under investigation by the Highway Patrol and coroners office.

It was the second deadly wreck in as many days in Aiken County.

On Thursday, 20-year-old Sara E. Lott died at the scene of a crash, according to Ables. At about 7 p.m., the Windsor woman was driving a 2007 Acura four-door sedan east on Woodward Drive when the car ran off the left side of the road, struck a tree and flipped over, Ables said. Thats about three miles west of the scene of Fridays crash.

Lott, who was not wearing a seat belt, died of blunt force injuries, according to Ables.

That crash is also being investigated by the Highway Patrol.

Through Thursday, 570 people had died on South Carolina roads in 2022, according to the state Department of Public Safety. Last year, 1,194 people died in crashes in South Carolina, DPS reported.

At least 13 people have died in Aiken County crashes in 2022, DPS reported. Last year, 36 deaths were reported there, according to DPS data.
There are nearly 800 open teacher positions in Wake Countys school system, according to their hiring website. Thats twice the number of vacancies the school system claimed to have earlier this week in an interview with The News & Observer. System spokesperson Lisa Luten says the districts site has not updated to reflect the most recent hires, but the administration seems to forget something important: 800 vacancies are a crisis, but 400 vacancies is still cause for concern  especially when classes return in a month.

Little is attracting young people to the profession, and little is encouraging veteran teachers to stay. Wake County is an indicator of the massive staffing crisis across the state. We need to treat it like one.

Cinnamon Frame is going into her 23rd year of teaching this August. Shes taught in Johnston County, at charter schools, and returned to Wake County Schools last year. She has eight years left before she can retire, so she says shes sticking it out.

There are very few careers I could switch to where Id make more money initially, but after a few years, I probably would, Frame says. My daughter has been working for five years, since graduation. Shes making way more money than me.

Frames daughter, of course, isnt in teaching; for folks her age, theres no incentive to get into the profession. In 2021, the state decided new teachers and other new state employees would no longer be able to retire with full health coverage. Younger people have seen the way veteran teachers are treated, and how their wages have stagnated in the last few years. Frame says that the high school she works at lost two science teachers, both young men, over the summer. Theres also no incentive for older, mid-career professionals to transition into teaching.

All the old ladies are hanging in there, she jokes. Younger people have other options.

For the last few years, millennials have been branded job hoppers by different polling groups and journalists analyzing those polls. The handful of working-age Gen Zers have joined those ranks since they began entering the job market around 2019. LinkedIn data shows that 75 percent of Gen Z workers are willing to switch career paths entirely. Nearly half of Gen Zers polled by the Associated Press in 2021 said that going through COVID-19 over the last few years has made it harder to pursue their career and educational goals.

If this is already a trend, it makes sense that teaching, a profession that is notoriously exhausting with little to show for it, is no longer popular among young people. The state used to have a robust teaching fellows program, which was killed off in 2015 and brought back in 2017 in a much smaller capacity. In April of this year, 119 teaching fellows were announced under the newer program; the last years of the previous iteration gave out 500 scholarships.

Aside from a lack of pay and benefits, Frame says that the political fraughtness surrounding teaching  from the CRT controversy to North Carolinas iteration of the Dont Say Gay bill  is deterring people from staying in the profession. Again, this could particularly deter young people: Gen Z is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in United States history. Other Gallup data shows that theyre much more likely to identify as LGBTQ than other generations. Those pieces of ones identity dont disappear when you walk to the front of a classroom.

Frame sees the state as more responsible for fixing the issues that are keeping people out of teaching. She says charter schools, a favorite talking point for Republicans in North Carolina, are having the same problems with recruitment and retention that traditional schools are  they just have even fewer benefits they are required to provide.

Teachers know what will help quell the staffing crisis in our public schools, and the rest of us probably have an idea of what it is. We should listen to them, and work harder to recruit and retain the people that educate the next generation.
The Duchess of Cambridge has inspired a British sailing victory over New Zealand in front of a crowd of thousands.

Kate donned a wetsuit as she joined the British racing team on their F50 catamaran in a friendly Commonwealth Race alongside Olympian Sir Ben Ainslie.

The race, which took place ahead of the official final events of the SailGP international sailing competition in Plymouth, saw Great Britain take on endurance swimmer and environmentalist Lewis Pugh as a guest racer alongside Peter Burling and Blair Tuke on the New Zealand F50.

Kates team sailed to an easy victory in front of thousands lining the Plymouth coast.

The duchess was visiting the SailGP event site in her role as the patron of the 1851 Trust, the official charity of the Great Britain SailGP Team.

Kate with Sir Ben Ainslie (Matt Keeble/PA)

She arrived to cheering crowds on Sunday lunchtime.

Shes a really good sailor in her own right, she has sailed with me on foiling boats as well and were expecting a little bit of extra help, Sir Ben said.

The 1851 Trust helps youngsters aged 11-16 gain experience of careers in science, technology and engineering.

Kate dons her wetsuit (Matt Keeble/PA)

Before the race, Kate spoke to members of both teams who explained how the SailGP vessels work.

She appeared intrigued with the tour, although the time it took led to Sir Ben to joke: Come on, weve got a race to do, mate.

Before the race, Kate met excited youngsters who told her how they were growing seagrass, and took part in activities educating young people about sustainability.

Kate joins a seagrass planting activity (Bob Martin for SailGP/PA)

Carnegie Bedlow, 12, from St Helier in Jersey, said: I was a little bit nervous but she did what I told her and she was very good.

She asked me if I was interested in sailing. I do sailing camps in the summer, I love the ocean.
YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan continues to spread disinformation, the defense ministry of Armenia said.

Units of the Armenian Armed Forces did not open fire on the night of July 30-31 in the direction of Azerbaijani positions located on the eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable and is under the full control of the RA Armed Forces.
Modi said that he is happy to note that 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' is taking the form of a mass movement

New Delhi: In his monthly Mann Ki Baat address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the sacrifices of Indias heroic freedom fighters. Offering his humble tributes to the revolutionaries who made numerous sacrifices for the country, Modi said that he is happy to note that Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is taking the form of a mass movement. He urged people to put tiranga as the profile picture on their social media platforms between August 2 and 15.

The PM said India will witness a splendid and historic moment as the country celebrates the 75th anniversary of Independence on August 15 this year.

Calling the 91st episode of Mann Ki Baat special, Modi said, The Almighty has blessed us with this great fortune. Think about it... Had we been born in the era of slavery, then how would we have imagined this day? That yearning for freedom from slavery, that desperation for freedom from the shackles of subjugation, how formidable it must have been!

The PM exhorted the nation to remember that millions of our countrymen fought for independence every single day and sacrificed for the sake of freedom.

He said imagine waking up every morning dreaming about Indias independence and eventually dedicating our lives to the freedom movement, chanting Vande Mataram and Bharat Maa Ki Jai for a better future for our country and the generations to come.

Referring to Azadi Ki Railgadi Aur Railway Station, a government initiative to create awareness among the people about the role of Indian Railways in the freedom struggle, the PM pointed out that many railway stations in the country are associated with the history of the freedom movement and urged people to visit such stations in their vicinity to know about their significance in the freedom struggle.

He said, 75 such railway stations have been identified spread over 24 states across the country. These 75 stations are being decorated very ornately. Many types of programmes are also being organised on these stations. You should also take out time to visit one such historical station in your vicinity.

Mr Modi added, Gomoh Junction in Jharkhand is now officially known as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Junction Gomoh. Do you know why? Actually, at this very station Netaji Subhash was successful in dodging British officers by boarding the Kalka Mail. All of you must have heard the name of Kakori Railway Station near Lucknow. The names of brave hearts like Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaq Ullah Khan are associated with this station. The brave revolutionaries had displayed their might to the British by looting the treasury of the British being carried by train. Whenever you talk to the people of Tamil Nadu, you will get to know about Vanchi Maniyachchi Junction in Thoothukudi district. This station is named after the Tamil freedom fighter Vanchinathan ji. This is the same place where Vanchi, 25 years of age then, had punished one British collector for his actions.

Referring to the heroism of Indian freedom fighters Mr Modi further said, Friends, on July 31, all of us countrymen salute the martyrdom of Shaheed Udham Singh ji. I offer my humble tributes to all such other great revolutionaries who sacrificed their all for the country.

The PM also expressed his happiness over Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav taking the form of a mass movement. People from all walks of life and from every section of society are participating in different programmes connected with it. One such event took place in Meghalaya earlier this month. People remembered the brave warrior of Meghalaya, U. Tirot Singh, on his death anniversary. Tirot Singh ji fiercely opposed the British conspiracy to control the Khasi Hills and destroy the culture there, he said.
During the Angelus, Francis pleaded once more to stop and negotiate to bring peace to the suffering and battered Ukrainian people. Similarly, the arms trade [. . .] is a scandal that we must never resign ourselves to. In a warning against the temptation of greed, he asks: what legacy do I want to leave after me?

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Speaking today before the faithful gathered in St Peters Square, Pope Francis centred his Angelus address on material goods, money, riches, [which] can become a cult, a true and proper idolatry. Likewise, he noted that, The lust for resources and wealth are almost always behind war.

The pontiff took the opportunity to express his gratitude for the welcome he received on his "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada, which ended yesterday, thankful also to all those who accompanied him with prayers.

[D]uring this journey, I did not cease praying for the suffering and battered Ukrainian people, asking God to free them from the scourge of war. If one looked at what is happening objectively, considering the harm that war brings every day to those people, and even to the entire world, the only reasonable thing to do would be to stop and negotiate. May wisdom inspire concrete steps toward peace.

Before the Angelus, Francis spoke about the passage in Luke's Gospel about a dispute over inheritance (Lk 12:13) in todays liturgy, inviting the faithful to meditate over Jesuss call to keep away from greed.

What is covetousness? Francis asked. It is the unbridled greed for possessions, always desiring to be rich. This is an illness that destroys people, because the hunger for possessions creates an addiction. Above all, those who have a lot are never content, they always want more, and only for themselves. But this way, the person is no longer free: he or she is attached to, a slave, of what paradoxically was meant to serve them so as to live freely and serenely.

Greed is a dangerous disease, not only for individuals, but for society as well. Because of covetousness, we have today reached other paradoxes: an injustice never before seen in history, where few have so much and so many have little or nothing. Lets consider wars and conflicts as well. The lust for resources and wealth are almost always behind them. How many interests are behind war! Certainly, one of these is the arms trade. This trade is a scandal that we must never resign ourselves to.

By contrast, Jesus teaches us that, at the heart of all this, are not only some who are powerful, or certain economic systems. The covetousness that is in everyones heart is at the centre. Hence the call to each and every one of us to ask ourselves: Do I complain about what I lack, or do I know how to be content with what I have? In the name of money or opportunity, am I tempted to sacrifice relationships and sacrifice time with others? And yet again, does it happen that I sacrifice legality and honesty on the altar of covetousness?

It is an altar, because material goods themselves can in fact become a cult. But Jesus [. . .] says, you cannot serve two masters, [. . .] he does not say God and the devil, no, or even the good and the bad, but, God and wealth.

So, should no one want to get rich? Certainly, you can; [or] rather, it is right to want it. It is beautiful to become rich, but rich according to God! God is the richest of anyone. He is rich in compassion, in mercy. His riches do not impoverish anyone, do not create quarrels and divisions. It is a richness that knows how to give, to distribute, to share.

Last but not least, the pontiff urged the faithful to ask themselves: what legacy do I want to leave? Money in the bank, material things, or happy people around me, good works that are not forgotten, people that I have helped to grow and mature?
After the execution of Tomohiro Kato, coincidentally with that of Myanmar dissidents, the Justice and Peace Council of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan warns that, The violence of the death penalty can never build a peaceful society. It is a barbarity that goes against the times and creates new violence.

Tokyo (AsiaNews)  In Asia the past few months have been marked by the death penalty. In Myanmar, four political opponents were executed last week, the first death sentences carried out in the country in more than thirty years. In Japan, the authorities on Tuesday executed Tomohiro Kato, a man who stabbed seven people to death in 2008, while in Singapore, the end of the pandemic saw the latest of five executions carried out over the past five months.

Against this backdrop, the Justice and Peace Council of the Catholic Church in Japan issued a statement that renews a broader reflection on the magisterium of the Church regarding the death penalty, starting with Japan itself.

We express our deep sorrow and our strongest objection to the execution on 26 July 2022 of Tomohiro Kato, 39, who was held at the Tokyo detention centre. His precious life, in fact, was taken away at the hands of the State.

The Council notes that in 2016, on 26 July, Japan mourned the death of 19 people at a facility or disabled people in Sagamihara. It was an unprecedented episode of murder and injury. We prayed for the victims and renewed our conviction that no life is not worth living.

Two years later, on 26 July 2018, six death row inmates linked to the terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo were executed at the same time. We are horrified by the fact that the state chose this same day once again to end life viewed as not worth living, reads the note.

In light of the Gospel revealed by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church firmly believes that the life of every person is precious and that, however serious the sin a person may have committed, their dignity is never forfeit.

"Given her mission to protect every life, she not only teaches that the death penalty is an unacceptable attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, but she is also determined to work for its abolition throughout the world.

At a time when the rigorous application of the law has made it possible to prevent the recurrence of crimes and guarantee the security of society by means other than the death penalty, we believe that the death penalty has lost its raison d'etre because of the preciousness of human life.

The Councils also notes that for the first time in decades, the death penalty was carried out in Myanmar, an act condemned by the international community. As the Japanese government stated, there is serious concern that this will lead to further isolation. Yet, we are gravely concerned that [. . .] the Japanese government set out on the same path and carried out an outrageous act of self-degradation of its international position.

The violence of the death penalty can never build a peaceful society. It is a barbarity that goes against the times and creates new violence."

Having learnt from Jesus Christ the truth that every life is precious, we nourish the hope of conversion, forgiveness and true reconciliation. Because even if this is hard, it is not at all impossible.

"In unison with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church around the world, and uniting our hearts and minds with people of good will around the world who respect human rights, we will continue to press for the abolition of the death penalty, a cruel and unmerciful punishment, and for an immediate moratorium on executions.
With the help of a higher lift cam, new heads with larger valves and higher compression, the L82 ended up being provided with a 10-horsepower upgrade, with the power output, therefore, reaching 225 horsepower.The Vettes that were produced late in the model year were also fitted with a new 85 MPH speedometer, though this particular upgrade was originally supposed to be offered as standard on the 1980 Corvette.This particular 1979 Corvette is a car that has spent its most recent years in hiding, with the owner explaining on Craigslist that it was found in a barn. Thats right, this is a barn find, or an ugly barn find, as the seller describes it, most likely based on the cars appearance.Without a doubt, a car that has spent such a long time in storage cant come in mint condition, and this Corvette really doesnt. Whats more, it also exhibits some body damage, though its not exactly clear how it ended up in such a shape.The seller doesnt provide too many details on their Corvette, but what we do know is that the engine is already gone, so youll have to come up with your own powertrain. The interior doesnt look spotless either, but the first thing it seems to require is a thorough wash to only then asses its current condition.At the end of the day, this Corvette may deserve a second chance, but the best way to figure it out is to go check it out in person. Located in San Antonio, the Vette is ready to go to anyone willing to offer $2,900.
SUV

Back in December 2021, the Japanese automaker contacted Bosch, the supplier of the infotainment system, to help with the investigation. The issue was found to occur after an over-the-air update was sent to the infotainment system. As a result, Nissan had axed the update developed by Bosch.From January 2022 through February 2022, the company investigated whether the problem affected other models with the same head unit. The supplier discovered that a software logic update to refresh all preset channels at start-up and the use of a Not Subscribed subscription setting in the SiriusXM module is causing the reboot. Whats more, a rebooting infotainment system automatically translates to an inoperative rearview camera display. These vehicles, therefore, fail to comply with a few sections of federal motor vehicle safety standard number 111 for rear visibility.Bosch developed a fix that was implemented in production during April and May 2022 for the affected models. In the interim, Nissan requested SiriusXM to continue to keep infotainment units in Subscribed mode.The Japanese automaker isnt aware of any accidents or injuries related to the subject condition, yet a recall was issued for 10,477 vehicles. Rental vehicles, to be more precise, rather than retail units purchased by Average Joes and Janes from the dealership. The list of affected nameplates begins with the 2021 to 2022 Rogue, followed by the 2022 PathfinderA handful of Frontiers built for the 2022 model year are called back as well, together with a handful of Titans. Rental fleet owners have already been informed of the issue, and their vehicles should be fixed in due time.
EV

HP

Seems like yesterday when the GM North American President sent an email warning the dealers against shameless price bumps on the 2023 Z06 Corvette. Then, with the price reveal of that same car, came with a wave of incentives to discourage bad sales practices.But Chevrolet isnt the only brand dealing with that issue. GMCs Hummer EV is up next. With a starting price of about $85,000, the U.S. Armys potential futureof choice is now being sold by one person at over 3 times that amount, with a $300,000 price tag.And the guy was so casual about it that he didn't even take the time to fill up the description.Thats just one example, but there are others. Granted, they took a more conservative approach with the pricing, if you could say so, but most of them go over the $220,000 mark, with the cheapest one costing $218,000.Hows that for a good deal, huh?That said, there might be a reason these people are swinging for the fences with the markups. Most of what theyre selling are Edition 1 Hummers, which you cant really get at the moment  the reservation list on the GMC website is currently full.Besides, these monsters have up to 1,000and up to 11,500 lb-ft of torque.Now back in the real world, nobodys stopping this guy from asking a stoopid price for that Hummer  its virtually brand-new and has no miles on it. But even if you cant get it otherwise (at least not yet), nobodys going to be throwing a $300k check at this guy any time soon, either.We get it, the market is crazy at the moment, and EVs aint cheap. But you dont have to outright extort someone to make a buck. There are other ways to make a profit , if you're smart about it. Just saying.
But even the P-47, fast, durable, and deadly as it was, routinely overshadows the airplane that, in many ways, gave it life. This is the Republic P-43 Lancer, and we're sure it's very happy to be given some recognition after all these years. The Lancer was to the Thunderbolt what the F-111B was to the F-14 Tomcat . So to say, a technological step in the right direction, but not all that special compared to what came afterward.But it turns out the P-43 was a pretty pivotal airplane for Republic Aviation of Farmingdale, New York. It proved to be a serviceable, relatively fast, and surprisingly maneuverable single-single engine, a land-based fighter plane that helped to bridge the gap while the P-47 struggled through development. First flown at Republic Airport in Farmingdale in March 1940, the P-43 took to the skies at a time of profound change for its manufacturer.Republic's previous mono-wing fighter, the P-35, often nicknamed the "Babybolt" in modern aviation geek circles, was manufactured under the Seversky name derived from the company's founder, Alexander de Seversky. The Georgian native (Tbilisi, not Atlanta) contributed to the sturdy and safety-oriented design philosiphy that'd go on to define Republic until its dying days.The P-35 would only see limited combat in its operational life but served an entirely different simultaneous role as an experimental test aircraft platform. Between 1940 and 1941, Republic produced prototypes AP-2, AP-7, AP-4 (which flew after the AP-7), AP-9, and XP-41, all took the basic airframe of the P-35 and added upgrades and design cues that'd one day find their way onto the P-43, and by extension, the P-47 too.Powering the P-43 in its early configurations was a single Pratt & Whitney R-1830-49 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine. The same unit that powered the iconic C-47 Skytrain/DC-3 , the Grumman F4F Wildcat, and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.With 1,200 horsepower and a power-boosting turbo-supercharger to play with, it was no Thunderbolt in terms of raw speed. Still, it was at least enough to reach speeds of 350 miles per hour (564 km/h) and climb to heights that Japanese reconnaissance planes like the Nakajima Ki-46 Dina often flew at.Meanwhile, delays in the progress of the P-47 led to the upgraded P-43J, of which 80 were produced with a Pratt & Whitney R-2180-1 Twin Hornet engine rated at 1,400 hp on tap. While U.S. Army generally found the Lancer's performance to me more or less acceptable, there's little to no evidence of it ever seeing combat with American forces.The same isn't true of the Republic of China Air Force, which through the Lend-Lease act, acquired squadrons of P-43s to contend with the threat of the Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the most deadly single-engine fighter of the East Asian theater of World War II for much of its early stages.With early examples having their .30mm M1919 machine gun armament with a full array of M2 Browning 50 caliber machine guns, the Lancer was nothing to sneeze at, even for a Zero pilot. By 1942, as many as 272 P-43s were produced in all of their variants.But by that point in the war, it was clear the 2800 Double Wasp-powered P-47 was ready to bring the fight to the Axis. At that point, the type was silently withdrawn from service, while the Thunderbolt became an immortal icon.
People that drive through Salt Lake City (SLC) will have to pay attention to the new speed limit signs. It has been lowered by 5 mph (8 kph). Instead of 25 mph (40 kph), all vehicles must now travel with a maximum speed of 20 mph (32 kph). The new rule will apply to almost 70% of the Citys streets.The announcement was made by SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall. The public official let residents and travelers know that the new speed limit has been lowered by publishing a picture of herself in which shes seen holding the older sign.The local administration will replace 575 speed limit signs in the next couple of weeks. Almost 70% of Salt Lake Citys streets will be subject to the new regulation. Drivers must be aware of this change. Otherwise, they risk getting fines.Even though Mendenhall said this was a priority, and it was done for people to feel safe on local streets and sidewalks, not everyone welcomed the speed limit update.The post made on Facebook, for example, attracted almost 10,000 comments and over 1,000 shares. Most of the replies arent civil, but some people living in Salt Lake City strongly yet politely disagreed.Some argued that shaving off 5 mph is only a populist idea that wont lead to any positive outcomes. Others agree that having a 20-mph speed limit imposed now will only lead to more people getting fined for speeding because they will be confused by the change. A person wittily underlined that riding a horse would be faster than using a car now that the speed limits been changed.On the contrary, a couple of the mayor s followers said the idea is welcomed, and the administration should also add speed bumps in residential neighborhoods and near parks.But the administration fought back and said that a lowered speed limit would also translate into fuel savings.Other people requested properly illuminated crosswalks and more Police on the streets.The Salt Lake City Council unanimously voted to support lowering the speed limit by 5 mph. The proposal was named 20 is plenty.
Many people consider Scotty Kilmer to be a YouTuber thats just trying to play the algorithm that runs the platform and nothing more. However, the over 5.1 million subscribers he has might disagree with those that dont like or approve of him.Every week, the mechanic-turned-YouTuber takes the time to answer his followers questions. His assistants pick some of them, and he gives short responses. His replies are generally regarded as helpful, even though they arent very specific and are not always addressing the whole issue.In his latest episode, Scotty Kilmer is asked the following question: Is a British-built Honda as good as a Japanese-built Honda? Without hesitation and with not even a sign of a smile that would indicate a joke is following, the man answers, No! And the main reason is the British drink a lot more than the Japanese do.The auto mechanic says he has been in England (part of the UK), and he saw people drinking constantly. Hes also convinced the Japanese are not fans of alcoholic beverages and underlines that he found nothing has the quality of Japanese-made cars.Kilmer also points out that America is the country that comes close to the manufacturing standard set by those living in the land of the rising sun. He gives the Toyota Tundra as an example. The pickup truck is made in Texas but has no Japanese equivalent.The auto mechanic also says he owned multiple motorcycles that were made in the UK and Japan. This has offered him the opportunity to find out that the Japanese have beaten the English in manufacturing hands down.While parts of the UK may have a local tradition that revolves around pubs and socializing next to an alcoholic drink, stereotyping isnt a good way of making a point of an argument. The UK has given the world brands like Bentley , Jaguar, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, and Land Rover. These companies make excellent and elegant cars that are regarded very well globally. Thats not an easy feat to achieve.Share with us your opinion about this down below. Were keeping an eye on your comments.
The gist of the story, as uncovered by Dan Noyes of ABC 7 Chicago is that a super-rich real estate dude ordered himself a Batmobile replica and then tried to use his connections to get the builder in trouble. Unhappy with the change in status, which delayed the delivery of the vehicle by as much as two years, he called his sheriff friend and had him raid the shop, bringing criminal charges to the owner.The shop in question is the famous Fiberglass Freaks from Logansport, Indiana, the only shop licensed by DC Comics to build 1996 Batmobile replicas. That would be the first car the Dark Knight ever drove in the 60s television series. The original was based on the Lincoln Futura concept and was built by none other than legendary car customizer George Barris. Batmobiles have gone through countless changes along the years, but the 60s original one holds steady to the title of being the most recognizable and, to fans of a certain age, the most popular. Even comedian and known car collector Jeff Dunham owns one such Batmobile, and Fiberglass Freaks helped him restore it.Fiberglass Freaks sells these replicas for prices upwards of $200,000, and demand is very high at all times. Real estate agent Sam Anagnostou, who lives in Atherton, California, ordered one for $210,000, and paid for it in monthly payments. At one point, shop owner Mark Racop explains, Anagnostou missed a $20,000 installment and disappeared for almost nine months, with no possibility of being reached. Because this is standard policy due to demand, Anagnostous order was moved at the bottom of the list, while other commissions were moved up.Thats when things got really dramatic, Racop says. Anagnostou was fuming when he heard that his order had been delayed by one and a half or even two years, and exploded. He did more than just explode, though, according to the investigative report: he went to the Atherton police and filed a report, but no charges were brought against the shop. Anagnostou then filed a lawsuit against the shop with the San Mateo County District Attorney, but the action was dismissed on the basis that it should have been filed in Indiana.Anagnostou then used his call a friend card: San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos was called upon to intervene. The Sheriff dispatched four people (a lieutenant, a sergeant and two deputies to) Indiana, to raid the shop. The raid took place on July 19, and was paid for with taxpayers money, including four airline tickets, hotel accommodation, meals, and overtime.Racop has been charged in California with two felonies, as a result of the raid: Obtaining Money by False Pretenses, and Diversion of Construction Funds. The officers took only documents from the shop, but they also read Racop his rights and took him downtown for about an hour, before releasing him. The ABC7 report notes that Racop is also a minister and, as per his own words, hed expect trial and tribulations in life as any good Christian, but not of the kind hes facing right now. He knows hes on the right side of the law, in the sense that he did nothing wrong, but hes still being hounded as if hes a criminal ABC7 tried to contact all parties involved, but neither the Sheriff nor Anagnostou was available for comment, since theyre on vacation. The DA prosecuting the case says new evidence has emerged that justifies the criminal charges, but Tony Brass, former prosecutor for San Francisco and the U.S. Attorneys Office, notes that this kind of display in manpower is ridiculous. This is a dispute over a luxury asset, and as such, it should have been settled in Indiana civil court.As the second video below shows, Fiberglass Freaks Batmobile replicas are the ultimate buy for the ultimate Batman fan (*with deep-enough pockets). Built from scratch, they have the looks and some of the functionality of the fictional TV car, including flashing beacon light, a detecta-scope, and even a working flamethrower. But if what Racop says is even partly true, this one fan went too far in his quest of getting his hands on one  in the timeframe he wanted. Batman wouldapprove.
If we are to judge by the image we have here, apparently so. The pic was snapped by a U.S. Air Force (USAF) staff sergeant back in early June, somewhere over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, meaning somewhere above dangerous places like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.We see two F-15E Strike Eagles , deployed with the 335th Fighter Squadron usually stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, breaking off in fighter aircraft usual fashion, one to the right and the other to the left.Between them, flares fly, as if the two needed to badly trick some rocket or missile into not hitting them. No rocket was launched from anywhere, of course, but the planes launched flares anyway, and they did so close to a flying gas station, a KC-135 Stratotanker, assigned to the 50th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron.Were told the flares were released after the refueling process of the two planes ended, but we are not told why the pilots of the two fighter planes did it. At least, not officially.The hard banking action we see the aircraft perform is the usual maneuver pilots use to put some distance between them and the tanker after refueling. In some cases, flares are used as a sort of thank you for an op well done.Is it dangerous? Well, youve got magnesium pellets burning at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 Celsius), right next door to potentially 200,000 pounds (90,719 kilograms) of fuel. You do the math
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EV

Over 11 years ago, Barack Obama was taking the American automotive industry forward by announcing the federal tax credit for EVs. Back then, there werent that many cars that qualified. However, it sent a strong signal of what was to come. Companies like Tesla or Nissan rejoiced, while those who had the middle ground solution  the plug-in hybrid () manufacturers  smiled as well. It was an electrifying start.Fast forward a couple of years, and now were looking at three big manufacturers whose cars arent eligible for the $7,500 tax credit anymore. Tesla , GM, and Toyota are currently in a bad place since competitors like BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Subaru, Fiat, Ford, Volvo, or Hyundai can still tap those funds that can make or break a sale.But after witnessing what Chinese automakers are doing and how theyre benefitting from having the Governments support, Congress understood its time to give those that make cars in the U.S. a much-needed helping hand. Thats why the federal tax credit for EVs isnt just set to return for everyone, its also coming in a refreshed form thats going to help with the sale of zero-emission vehicles.After over a year of negotiations, it looks like politicians from both sides of the aisle reached an important agreement that would boost the U.S. auto industry. Not only that, but it would also make buying anmore attractive for those that need a new car and dont want to rely on fossil fuel anymore.For starters, everyone agrees that the limit of 200,000 EVs sold with a tax credit per automaker should be eliminated. Its not yet clear if the amendments to the proposed bill would raise the limit to 600,000 as previously rumored or if its going to be removed entirely. Whats certain is that certain companies that tried to get ahead in the EV game wont be punished for their strategy any longer.Tesla, GM, and Toyota would be able to sell their cars with a tax credit incentive once the bill becomes law. But the novelties dont stop here. There are further complications down the road.The EV tax credit will also apply when the vehicle is sold, instead of on taxes. That would make life much easier for buyers who will immediately and easily figure out whats the best offer for their preferences and budget. It would also give dealerships and direct-selling companies a way to bring prices down without hurting their profits. But for that to apply to companies like Tesla, Rivian, or Lucid, the language needs to be changed. Right now the bill says dealers can apply for the credit.The bipartisan agreement that would send this law proposal to Joe Biden for final approval might also include certain requirements that look to safeguard American jobs. For example, companies that wish to benefit from this fiscal advantage must make sure the eligible vehicles are manufactured in North America (Canada and Mexico are included) and their batteries arent shipped from countries like China. This is how Congress is envisioning a healthy push toward bringing battery making to the U.S. More investments in this sector automatically translate into more jobs.Automakers will have to make sure that most of their components are coming from countries that have a trade agreement with the U.S or are domestically sourced and manufactured. If some criteria arent met, then the available EV credit is lowered in value. For example, a Tesla Model 3 would right now qualify for a $3,750 tax credit because the cars are assembled in the U.S., but the batteries are coming from China. Moreover, as stated previously, the language used in the bill should change to allow direct selling companies to apply the advantage.Next, we must keep in mind that sedans like the Tesla Model 3 or the BMW i4 will qualify for the updated tax credit only if the MSRP is under or equal to $55,000. Currently, the MSRP for the BMW i4 eDrive40 is $55,900. The Bavarians would have to lower their prices.On the other hand, all-electric SUVs, trucks, and vans will only need a maximum MSRP of $80,000 to qualify. Thats great news for those looking to buy a Ford F-150 Lightning with an extended battery, a Tesla Model Y, or a Rivian R1T.Buyers must also be aware of the fact that they need a gross income of a maximum of $150,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple if they want the EV tax credit. If you earn more, you wont qualify.Last but not least, a $4,000 federal tax credit is going to be added for those who buy used all-electric vehicles.This is a good outcome, even though President Joe Biden wanted the EV tax credit to be $12,500 per vehicle. Lets see it become law as fast as possible with the right wording added. Those that bought a new Tesla or Cadillac now are already hoping the changes will apply retroactively, even though thats most likely not going to be the case.For now, the federal EV tax credit system remains unchanged. If the new proposal becomes law, it will enter effect on January 1st, 2023. This means the new rules wont apply to vehicles bought this year.
Wet areas across the world, forests, and the ecosystems they create and support are incredibly important for keeping our planet from reaching uninhabitable temperatures in less than 100 years. Climate change is a real threat to humankind. Trying to destroy everything that evolved naturally to replace it with artificial infrastructure wont do us any good in the long term.The Amazon rainforest, for example, makes over 5% of the worlds oxygen, and  like Congos Basin rainforest  it constantly attracts and encapsulates carbon dioxide. Scientists and ecologists have started calling the majestic South American place a sink or, better yet, the sink! Thats because it sucks so much harmful gas from our atmosphere and doesnt release it back. This incredibly complex piece of land covers just 1% of our planets surface and it consumes or stores gasses that contribute to the greenhouse effect we should strive to avoid.The Earths largest tropical rainforest has been subject to human intervention before. Deforestation, logging, and tourism are just some of the threats this place faces. Lately, fires have started to become the norm in a place where the climate is mostly wet. As you may have guessed already, this is not good news. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Peru, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela are all trying to find ways in which their people would benefit from their nations riches. Unfortunately, one of these countries that have some of Amazonia within their borders is thinking about adding concrete, asphalt, electricity, gas stations, and plumbing in the middle of it all. Thats Brazil Brazil is approaching a very intense election season. The incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is looking to secure reelection, even though his popularity isnt that good right now. But with desperate times come desperate measures. Since the politician needed a good reason to start campaigning and telling Brazilians that a new era of prosperity awaits them under the same ruler, he decided to support and rush the approval of the infrastructure project that was looking to cut through the middle of the very important Amazon rainforest.According to the Times , the BR-319 was used mainly by the military in the 1970s. Now it links a city inhabited by over 2.3 million people with the rest of the country. However, in its current state, its inaccessible during the six-month rainy season. The unpaved road is traveled mainly by pickup trucks for five months because the distance is shorter for those living in Manaus.After Brazils Bolsonaro made the promise on his campaign trail, the countrys infrastructure minister rushed to Twitter and announced that a permit had been granted. The 50-year-old abandoned military road that was used only by a couple of people during a limited yearly period is now going to be transformed into a highway The next step for Brazil now is to wait for companies that want the contracts to make their offers. The project will first address the worst parts of BR-319. The middle section of the road, for example, will need a lot of work to remain stable during the rainy season. Pavement will shortly follow.Experts already sounded the alarm. The former Brazilian Environment minister resigned because the South American countrys allies and partners started asking whats happening with the logging in Amazonia and why it has continued climbing to never-before-seen levels. The pressure from environmental agencies and non-governmental organizations was also increasing. Still, the trees that were cut over five years couldve covered the whole country of Belgium.Instead of addressing the issue, Brazil pushes ahead now with a project thats looks like it will encourage more deforestation and illegal logging. With the permit remaining valid and a license issued, the rebirth of the BR-319 used by the military during the dictatorship era is now almost certain.Fortunately, people that care about the environment can do something to stop it. This project might turn into a menace to our common future, and it wont help at all with the need to lower the Earths temperature. Otherwise, climate change will change our lives forever  but not for the better.If you want to do your part and stop further destruction for Amazonia, you can begin by writing about this issue to your member of Congress or Parliament. These democratically elected bodies have people that are part of certain Committees which keep in touch with their counterparts from various countries. Making your voice heard about the matter could lead to a useful foreign policy change.Going further, you can also write to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in English or French. You could simply tell them about the issue, or you can ask for the professional help of a lawyer and draft a document that would most likely get the Courts attention. Environmental cases have been trialed in the past. Most recently, Nicaragua and Costa Rica went before the judges and had to accept a ruling that ended with Costa Rica being awarded reparations.Finally, you can donate to NGOs like the World Wildlife Fund or Greenpeace with the mention that they should use the money to protect the tropical Amazon rainforest.These actions might feel insignificant when looking at the grand scheme of things, but you should know that every little right thing done counts. After all, were talking about our common future here!
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Travel is one of our favorite pastimes. Learning more about our beautiful area, country and world allows us to experience the bounty each culture has to offer.

My husband and I recently returned from an extended camping trip where we visited national forests, ate at out-of-the-way diners and enjoyed boondocking at several Harvests Hosts locations. Harvests Hosts is a paid membership for RVers where businesses such as wineries, museums and farms allow you to camp on property in exchange for a small purchase of their wares. We enjoyed each location we visited!

I bet you're wondering now how Harvests Hosts helped me to advance my family research.

When joining Harvests Hosts, my husband and I eagerly browsed the options for parking our travel trailer overnight. We soon found an historic grain elevator along Route 66 in Logan County, Illinois that was near the same area my maternal ancestors had lived.

The J. H. Hawes Grain Elevator in Atlanta, Illinois had been built by John Hardin Hawes in 1903. Since Hawes is a family surname, I referenced my family tree and found that he was my first cousin three times removed.

So, in simpler terms, John Hardins father and my great, great grandfather were brothers! I began to dig deeper to learn more about J. H. Hawes, and soon found the Atlanta Argus historical newspaper online.

There were many tidbits which mentioned J. H. Hawes, and with time and patience, it wasnt long before I located his 1938 obituary. Obituaries can be a wealth of information, and this one was no different. The heading shared his name as Uncle Hardin and as I continued to read, I learned the community had thought highly of him since a description included worthy and kind.

My husband quickly booked the dates we wanted to visit so we could spend time in the area doing some hands-on research where ancestors had lived and worked.

Anticipation grew, what more would I find? In preparing for the visit, I laid the groundwork and emailed the Atlanta Library and Museum. The librarians responded quickly and were looking forward to my visit.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, we parked in the shadow of the J. H. Hawes Grain Elevator and could see the Atlanta Library was a short walk across the railroad tracks. We soon made our way to the library, and upon entering, were welcomed warmly by librarians, Julianna and Christina.

After browsing genealogy books, Julianna took me on a private tour of the Atlanta Museum. There she showed me an 1880 land plat map with property lines for my great, great grandfather. What a find!

Never hesitate to reach out to local librarians and museum directors to gain insight on your family history. They can provide a wealth of information!
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For some, college is a time to get away from their hometowns and live independently of their families and familiar surroundings.

But when the academic year ends, many have to return home, particularly those living in dorms.

The University of Texas is helping its first-year students return home with paid internship opportunities through its workforce development initiative, "Home to Texas," designed to give participants a better understanding of their home communities.

The two-month-long program began four years ago and reaches more than a dozen communities across the state.

Three students from the Southeast Texas region participated in the program this summer, wrapping up their internships with a networking and celebratory event at JW's Patio in Beaumont on July 20.

RELATED: Sole finalist named for Lamar Tech president

"We want (our students) to focus on their hometown and see what it's like through the eyes of a college student, not like when they were just growing up here," said Brent Iverson, University of Texas Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies. "In particular, we want them to understand what the great opportunities are that maybe they hadn't thought of, that they might want to look at after they finish their education."

Iverson said the program was born when he and the director of UT's IC Institute met in his office to address the issue of students needing job opportunities during the summer months where they won't have to pay rent.

"When (students) have an internship in, let's say, Houston or Dallas, they have to pay rent, right? So, that internship really doesn't provide as much money as one would like," Iverson said.

Iverson said the university was also concerned that students from smaller communities, who leave to earn their college degree, don't return home, which isn't good for the state.

RELATED: Lamar Port Arthur introduces new music degree

"One of the things that we've been doing with the same interns is that they actually do a lot of interviewing which turns into some research by UT faculty designed to take a look at how different economies around the state in different communities are acting, as to what are they doing, what are the best practices, what's working, what's not working?" he said. "There's actually this whole network of students who are providing information for a big research project that's behind the scenes of this whole program."

The internships are intended to be high profile that throw the students "into the deep end," giving them professional development.

But the program doesn't just help the students. It can also help the organizations or businesses that the students intern for.

"A lot of times businesses don't know, they think it's a lot of work and a lot of burden, maybe (to have an intern)," said Jim Rich, Executive Director of the Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation. "It's kind of opened their eyes."

RELATED: Lamar nursing school awarded $607K grant to support future educators

While the program is statewide, it's not in every community, Iverson said.

Iverson also said it's important to find organizations and businesses that can be "great mentors" to some interns, and also find students who are interested in doing internships over the summer.

"It's kind of a matchmaking thing," he said.

The Beaumont area has been an active participant in the program, providing many internships for UT students from the area, Iverson said.

In fact, the region has become one of the program's preferred partners.

As participants in the program, the students have to take a class and right a report about everything they learned about their community in those two months, along with completing all of the requirements of their respective internships.

RELATED: Local foundation aims to fundraise for science education scholarships

Iverson said many students end their internships with a better understanding of everything their community can offer, whether it's job opportunities or other things that they may have never noticed before.

One of the participants in the program, biochemistry major Langning Luo, echoed this sentiment.

Luo, who graduated from Nederland High School in 2021, interned at the Nederland Economic Development Corporation, where Executive Director Kay DeCuir served as her mentor.

"At first, I went in thinking that because this was my first time actually working, I was pretty nervous," she said. "I didn't know what to expect. Also, since (the internship was) so different than biochemistry, I didn't know if I was going to be helpful. Am I going to be actually contributing during this internship?"

RELATED: Local college receives more than $700K in grants

Luo said DeCuir guided her through the different projects she was tasked with, brought her to networking events and gave her an opportunity to learn new skills and new things about her hometown.

One thing that stuck out to Luo about Nederland is its history.

"I went to Nederland High School and the middle school, too, and we touched on (the history) a little bit, but I feel like through this program, I learned way more about Nederland -- the rich heritage, all of our traditions," she said.

Doing a lot of business-oriented work during her internship allowed her to strengthen her communication skills, she said.

"You need to really know how to talk to people," she said. "And that's not my strong side, for sure. We did a survey where I had to go around to all (these) businesses and that's for sure stepping out of my comfort zone because I had to go into each store and ask them if they would like to do the survey and then collect them. I feel like that was really hard but also, in some ways, I learned more about how business works and everything."

RELATED: Congress to consider $2 million for Lamar energy project

Luo said the paid internship was helpful to her and her family. As a freshman residing in the dorms, if she hadn't had this opportunity, she would've had to find a job in Austin and an apartment in order to stay in the city.

"I wanted to come back home for the summer," she said. "If it weren't for this internship, I probably would be volunteering, which is also good, but I feel like this internship is really good and it's also paid as well."

Luo said she totally recommends other first year UT students to participate in the program.

"Overall, it was great, amazing," she said. "I met new friends through this program and I met different people in our area, There's so much going on."

Other local students involved include Justin Lu, who interned at the Silsbee Economic Development Corporation, and Samia Sadruddin, who interned at the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.

For more information about the initiative, visit ic2.utexas.edu.
WFO LAS VEGAS Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, July 30, 2022

_____

FLASH FLOOD WARNING

The National Weather Service in Las Vegas has issued a

* Flash Flood Warning for...

Southwestern Mohave County in northwestern Arizona...

San Bernardino County in southern California...

* Until 415 PM MST /415 PM PDT/.

* At 105 PM MST /105 PM PDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms

producing heavy rain across the area between Vidal Junction and

Park. Flash flooding is ongoing.

HAZARD...Life-threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms

producing flash flooding.

SOURCE...Radar.

IMPACT...Life-threatening flash flooding of low-water

crossings, creeks, normally dry washes and roads.

* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...

Parker Dam Road, Big River, Earp and Vidal Junction.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood

deaths occur in vehicles.

...FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM PDT THIS AFTERNOON...

* WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected.

* WHERE...A portion of Southern California, including a portion of

San Bernardino County and portions of the Apple and El Dorado burn

scars.

* WHEN...Until 300 PM PDT.

* IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas.

Water over roadways.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...

- At 105 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to

thunderstorms. Minor flooding is ongoing or expected to begin

shortly in the advisory area. Between 0.5 and 1 inch of rain

has fallen.

- Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are expected

over the area. This additional rain will result in minor

flooding.

- Some locations that will experience flooding include...

Forest Falls, Hwy 38 Between Yucaipa And Onyx Summit,

Yucaipa, Mount San Gorgonio, Angelus Oaks, Mountain Home

Village, Barton Flats Campground and Heart Bar Campground.

- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood

Move away from recently burned areas. Life-threatening flooding of

creeks, roads and normally dry arroyos is likely. The heavy rains

will likely trigger rockslides, mudslides and debris flows in steep

terrain, especially in and around these areas.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Former President Fidel V. Ramos looks at familiar names engraved on the Wall of Heroes Memorial at the Capas National Shrine, in Tarlac, Philippines, April 11, 2016.

Former Philippine leader Fidel Valdez Ramos, an ex-general who turned against his cousin Ferdinand E. Marcos to help topple his dictatorial regime in 1986, died on Sunday, family members and officials said. He was 94.

The largely peaceful people power uprising came after Ramos, the head of the Philippine Constabulary, and Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile withdrew their support from Marcos following a failed coup.

The Ramos family issued a statement Sunday, saying they were profoundly saddened to announce the passing of the ex-president.

We thank you all for respecting our privacy, as the family takes some time to grieve together, the statement read. We will announce wake and funeral arrangements in the near future.

The recently elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the dictator Ramos helped oust, called on all Filipinos to pray for the eternal rest of Ramos.

I extend my deepest condolences to the family of former President Fidel Valdez Ramos who passed away today having lived a full life as a military officer and public servant, Marcos said in a statement on Sunday.

Our family shares the Filipino peoples grief on this sad day. We did not only lose a good leader but also a member of the family."

Marcos also said the legacy of the Ramos presidency would always be cherished and forever enshrined in the hearts of our grateful nation.

It was not immediately clear what caused his death, although some relatives and friends told reporters that they were informed it was caused by complications associated with COVID-19.

Ramos could be given a state funeral at the Heroes Cemetery in Manila, according to national defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong, who credited the former leader for modernizing the armed forces.

The department is one with the nation in mourning the passing of the former president Fidel V. Ramos, Andolong told reporters.

He was a decorated soldier, diplomat, as well as the secretary of the national defense, aside from being the [former president]. So his career was really sterling in all (the) sense of the word. We condole with his family at this time.

Ramos reads the program during an event at the Capas National Shrine in Tarlac, Philippines, April 11, 2016. [Jojo Rinoza/BenarNews]

From West Point to the presidential palace

Ramos, famous for chomping cigars, was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York and the University of Illinois in the United States. He entered the Philippine army shortly afterward, serving in Korea and Vietnam.

In 1972, Marcos Sr. appointed Ramos as the head of the Philippine Constabulary, in charge of enforcing his brutal martial law in which thousands of political activists were either killed or went missing.

After an allegedly fraudulent snap election in 1986, Enrile, then the defense secretary, and some military officers plotted to seize power but were found out. Ramos joined their rebellion, withdrawing his support from Marcos.

The duos defections inspired many others to follow suit, as the influential Catholic church called on its millions of followers to protect those holed up in security institutions and to protest against the regime.

The popular revolt toppled Marcos, sending him and his family to exile in Hawaii, where the patriarch died in 1989. Opposition leader Corazon Aquino came to power, though a rough transition to democracy marked her six-year term.

Ramos served as her military chief of staff and later as her defense secretary, helping put out several coup attempts by security forces still loyal to the former dictator

In 1992, Ramos succeeded Aquino as the countrys president, the first Protestant to win the top office in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.

During his six-year tenure, he set to liberalize the economy, broke up syndicates in transport and telecommunications, and saw steady growth and peace.

While chronic power outages marked his tenure, he managed to woo back foreign investors as the country again opened up for business. He also held talks with communist guerrillas and Muslim separatists.

Some thirty-six years after Marcos Sr. was ousted, his son won presidential elections in May. Also known as Bongbong, Marcos Jr. has often referred to his fathers era as the golden age of the Philippines.

In 2016, Ramos said he had more than apologized for being part of the elder Marcos regime.

In the Christian tradition, you confess, and then you atone. My atonement was leading the military and the police during the People Power Revolution, he said. Its there in history books.

Jojo Rinoza contributed to this report from Manila.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Business writer

Tony Dobrowolski's main focus is on business reporting. He came to The Eagle in 1992 after previously working for newspapers in Connecticut and Montreal. He can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224.
While weeding out corruption is a tall order, especially in the pharma industry, there needs to be a will to implement the 'checks and balances' already in place. Corruption in the pharma industry is nothing new and the recent reportage of unethical, illegal and fraudulent activities in India have, in effect, tarnished the image of the industry in the global sphere. Let's pick up a few recent threads of corruption and find out what industry insiders have to say.

Public health is in limbo and the Pharmacy of the World tag for India is in real distress with the latest happenings in Indias pharma sector. Things unfolded recently with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arresting a top executive of Biocon Biologics, a drugs inspector and a joint drug controller for alleged corruption. According to media reports, several people have been booked over alleged bribes to get approval for insulin injections for diabetes patients developed by Biocon.

Biocon, however, came up with clarifications to protect itself and tried to come out clean. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has sought clarification from Biocon concerning the firm's subsidiary being caught by the CBI for allegedly offering bribes to waive-off a trial of a new drug, according to media reports.

Recently, Micro Labs offices were raided by the Income Tax Department for tax evasion. It is notable that it is the same company which provided life-saving Dolo-650 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, however, there was no reaction from the company.

All these happenings have put to question how the regulatory body works and the in-depth corruption that is happening across the pharma sector.

Corruption in the pharma sector is nothing new and the recent episode has opened a can of worms where pharma regulatory agencies are hand in glove with pharma companies on various occasions.

It may be noted that nine years ago, in 2013, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health in its 118-page report found lapses in the way Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) functions and blamed the department citing incidences of lapses, irregularities, and opaqueness. According to the committee, it is of the firm opinion that most of the ills besetting the system of drug regulation in India are mainly due to the skewed priorities and perceptions of CDSCO.

Dinesh Thakur, Founder, Thakur Family Foundation, a pharma crusader and a whistleblower, who worked with Ranbaxy and eventually exposed frauds within the company, says, Regulatory capture, when it comes to the pharma industry, is not a new phenomenon. It exists both in India and worldwide. However, the level of capture is by far an order of magnitude worse in India compared to elsewhere.

Some pharma companies indulge in giving gifts, cash, and paying for trips to attend medical conferences. This is done to potentially influence a doctor to be favourably inclined to prescribe the company's products.

Says Girdhar Balwani, Professional Mentor & Independent Director, Cadila Pharmaceuticals said, All companies and doctors have to operate within the legal domain of the country. While various laws and codes exist, it is important to look at the best way to ensure compliance. The Prevention of Corruption Act prescribes that corporate entities have compliance procedures in place to prevent their employees from engaging in any act which may be categorised as corruption or bribery. Subsidiaries of foreign companies have to also adhere to the applicable laws of the jurisdiction where the parent company is located.

Instances

Recently the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to file an affidavit on a plea alleging unethical marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies in their dealings with healthcare professionals resulting in the prescription of excessive or irrational drugs and a push for high-cost or over-priced brands. The plea was filed by the Federation of Medical & Sales Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) seeking a Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) and making it effective by providing a monitoring mechanism, transparency, accountability as well as consequences of violations.

The Hisar vigilance department recently arrested the deputy President of the Haryana State Pharmacy Council (HSPC) for bribing officials related to some registration-related activities.

An article published in Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics talks about ghost-management of medical research, a process by which industry representatives craft and publish research in the names of doctors and psychiatrists. There have been instances where the pharma industry's sponsorship of clinical trials have influenced the results, putting a question mark on evidence-based medicine.

The Pharma City in Telangana was also in the news when a Member of Parliament from the state met the Prime Minister of India regarding the cancellation of the permission granted for setting up of Pharma City due to some corruption.

Take for instance Ranbaxy. A few years back, the company, a pioneer in Indias generic medicines revolution, had to pay damages to the tune of $500 million to settle corporate fraud related to unethical production of medicines that compromised on quality.

Global corruption in pharma

A few years back US-based China focussed SciClone Pharma had to cough out more than $12 million in fines, penalised by US prosecutors after violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Many years back, US-based Purdue Pharma was fined $600 million for misbranding its blockbuster painkiller drug, OxyContin. The recent one is the corruption charges against GlaxoSmithKline in China. The UK-based pharma giant was prosecuted by local authorities and was found guilty of bribing physicians and hospitals to promote products and subsequently the company paid $490 million in fines.

The recent opioid crisis in the US where over 50,000 people died due to overdose of drugs like oxycodone, fentanyl etc. as these were often overprescribed by giving inducement to doctors, is a classic example. Off-label promotion of a drug for an indication not approved by the US FDA is also another form of corruption.

Similarly in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) which is often touted as a model healthcare system in Europe, reported losses due to frauds in 2016-17 to the tune of  1.25 billion per annum.

The way out

Technology can play a huge role in preventing corruption in the pharma sector. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain, can help eliminate the loopholes which can lead to bribery/corruption and improve transparency and accountability within the industry. The faster AI and blockchain are implemented across the industry the more we can prevent certain corruption in the sector.

Says Dr Ajit Dangi, President & CEO, Danssen Consulting, "Elimination of intermediaries by extensive use of digitisation is one way to reduce corruption as we have seen in the success of the centre's Direct Benefit Transfer scheme. The Right to Information Act and Whistleblower policy are also other tools to reduce corruption. If the new drug approval process was fully digitised there would have been fewer chances of the recent example of approval of a new drug of Biocon by allegedly waving phase three trial by the Deputy DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) for consideration, may not have happened.

The UCPMP guidelines and newly enacted the National Medical Commission Act 2019 may usher into a new era to clean up the rot in the healthcare industry.

According to Gunjan Bhardwaj, Founder and CEO, Innoplexus, blockchain integration in the pharma industry will lead to lower drug development costs, efficient clinical trials and an effective and efficient system of secure spending, transparent data and more medicines for patients and consumers throughout the world.

Need for clampdown

There is much more to this menace and only strict regulations by the government will help to weed out the corruption. As it is known that officials from CDSCO, DCGI and some members of the pharma fraternity are well involved in these activities, more stringent laws may help in the long run. Putting the culprits behind bars will send a strong message to those who plan to indulge in such activities.

The Union Health Ministry is learnt to have been taking steps to improve compliance and crack down on corruption. There is news that the Centre has decided to introduce QR codes for ensuring authenticity and traceability for 300 common drug brands including analgesics, vitamins, diabetes and hypertension medicines etc. This step is aimed at preventing spurious drugs from getting into circulation. The health ministry has made necessary amendments to the Drugs Rules, 1945, to implement the rule.

While weeding out corruption is a tall order, especially in the pharma industry, there needs to be a will to implement the 'checks and balances' already in place.





Sanjiv Das

sanjiv.das@mmactiv.com
With a high number of neonates dying every year in the country, there is a need for quality medical devices to save the little ones. Having a majority of global players catering to the demand for this sector, Indian companies are slowly entering this space to provide the much-needed relief.

The demand for neonatal monitoring and care equipment is seeing an upward trend in India. India, with its huge population base, has the most neonatal deaths, 75 per cent, occurring during the first week of life. Preterm birth, childbirth-related complications, infections, and birth defects cause most of these deaths.

In 2021 India had an infant mortality rate of 28 deaths per 1000 live births, representing sustained progress over the past couple of decades. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)s report states that 80 per cent of all newborn deaths result from three preventable and treatable conditions: complications due to prematurity, intrapartum related deaths (including birth asphyxia) and neonatal infections.

The report also suggests that Australia, Japan, Singapore, Korea, and China have reported around 2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Although the death rate in the US is less than that in developing economies, it is still significant, with 47 per cent of 2.4 million newborn deaths (112,800) in 2019 recorded during the neonatal period. This is where the role of the medical devices for neonates comes to the fore.

The neonatal critical care market

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global neonatal critical care equipment market size is expected to reach $1.36 billion in 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 8.7 per cent. The rising number of preterm births, increasing incidence of newborn jaundice, and launch of new products are some of the factors responsible for market growth.

Another report published by Allied Market Research mentions that the global newborn screening market was estimated at $1.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit $2.0 billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 6.8 per cent from 2022 to 2031.

Some of the equipment used as medical devices to cure neonates heart or cardiorespiratory monitor, blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, X-Ray, CT scan, MRI nasogastric tube etc.

Indian context

In a developing country like India, where there is a high number of newborn deaths, both the domestic and the global neonatal medical devices industry, has seen a huge demand for their products. The rising birth rate in the nation is additionally contributing to the growth of the neonatal medical devices sector.

Key factors driving the neonatal critical care equipment market growth include growth in the incidence of neonatal jaundice, an increasing number of preterm births, and the introduction of innovative equipment for use in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU).

As per a report in Technavio, the neonatal and prenatal devices market size in India is to grow by $4 billion. The report "Neonatal and Prenatal Devices Market in India by Product and End-user - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026" suggests that the market will witness a YOY growth of 4.01 per cent in 2022 and a CAGR of 5.21 per cent during the forecast period.

The neonatal devices market in India is fragmented, and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as offering innovations and high-quality products to compete in the market.

According to the Technavio report, the rising incidence of preterm births is driving the neonatal and prenatal devices market growth in India. Premature babies are often associated with high neonatal mortality, short- or long-term morbidity, and disabilities such as cerebral palsy, sensory impairments, and others. According to the National Neonatology Forum (NNF), 13 per cent of births in India are premature births.

Nitesh Kumar Jangir, Co-founder, InnAccel and Director, Critical Care opines, Private companies are contributing to this sector by specialising in child and maternal care and paving a path for the localisation of medical devices for the Indian market. New-age startups with innovative technologies are entering the pregnancy and labour monitoring space with highly differentiated products. Remote monitoring and cloud-enabled solutions from companies are helping universalise ICU-grade physiological monitoring. Finally, new technologies in the respiratory support space have already saved over 10,000 babies in India alone, babies that would have had very poor outcomes if such technologies had not been developed and deployed in India.

Abbott, the global healthcare company, has launched its Amplatzer Piccolo Occluder in India, the world's first medical device that can be implanted in the tiniest babies (weighing as little as 700 gms) using a minimally invasive procedure to treat patent ductus arteriosus or PDA. The Amplatzer Piccolo, a device even smaller than a small pea, now offers hope to premature infants and newborns who need corrective treatment, and who may be non-responsive to medicine and are at high risk to undergo corrective surgery.

Says Payal Agrawal, GM, Abbott's Structural Heart Business in India and the Subcontinent, We are passionate about developing life-changing technologies to help people, including vulnerable infants, live better lives. It is gratifying to know that through our devices, these children have a chance at a normal life and can live their fullest lives.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur and Western Michigan University, USA, have identified significant neonatal and infant mortality predictors using multiple machine learning (ML) techniques. The study uses nationwide household survey data from India. The primary objective of this research was to identify early warning signs of child mortality that community health workers can use.

Bengaluru-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has joined hands with SELCO Foundation, a sustainable technology foundation, to launch the pilot deployment of a long-supported portfolio technology in maternal and neonatal health monitoring. The technologys USP is non-invasive diagnosis and management of neonatal sepsis. The deployment of this technology developed by C-CAMP startup and former incubator Spotsense in the tribal majority Sargur, Mysore district, Karnataka is expected to significantly improve these numbers and make quality healthcare accessible to socially and economically vulnerable communities.

Coeo Labs, an Indian medtech startup, designed a neonatal CPAP system that can help reduce deaths due to Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) during neonatal transportation. Moreover, financial assistance is being provided to local manufacturers in India as part of the government's Make in India programme.

Chennai-based Phoenix Medical Systems is a manufacturer of infant and maternal care products and assistive devices. The Phoenix range of maternal and infant care products includes warming systems, jaundice management units, respiratory care equipment and obstetric and gynaecological tables. Phoenix also makes Smartcane, an electronic travel aid, refreshable Braille readers and standing wheelchairs. The company has a presence across 32 countries in Africa, Europe, the Asia Pacific region, South America and the Middle East.

The company recently launched Brilliance Pro, a phototherapy device to treat infants with jaundice. The device has features to provide consistent intensity across the babys skin, regardless of the angle at which the light head is oriented.

Mumbai-based Zeal Medical, an ISO 13485 certified organisation, provides neonatal and paediatric intensive care equipment like radiant heat warmers, neonatal resuscitation units, intensive care infant incubators, high-intensity LED phototherapy systems, and non-invasive ventilation systems, smart interfaces and consumables, resuscitation equipment, resuscitation accessories and kits.

Ernakulam-based Ibis Medical Equipment & Systems is an Indian organisation established in the year 2008 and has been engaged in manufacturing high-quality neonatology-focussed equipment. The company has an R&D tie-up with the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-Calicut). One of the major products is LED Phototherapy machines which the company exports primarily to South Asia and Africa.

Chennai-based Trivitron Healthcare was recently conferred with the prestigious India Medical Device Award under the India Medical Device Company of the Year category at the 7th India Pharma and India Medical Device Awards 2022, by the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India. The company is also into the manufacturing of medical devices for neonates and provides a wide range of newborn screening instruments, including modular and fully automated NBS instrumentation, manual and automated equipment and reagent kits.

Delhi-based startup iNICU Medical is on a mission for early diagnosis of critical diseases and to improve the overall quality of healthcare being provided to neonates. The team of Dr Harpreet Singh, Ravneet Kaur and Dr Gautam Yadav have created a solution that captures data from diversified devices connected to the preterm infant and provides a well-structured user interface for the medical staff to perform calculations for prescriptions, nutrition, and neonatal scores. The iNICU cloud platform also integrates laboratory results, and bedside clinical observations.

Challenges

India imports more than 70 per cent of medical devices, which are not only too expensive to buy and operate but also misaligned with the infrastructure and HR availability in low-resource settings. The situation is even worse in the neonatal care space, due to the super-specialised nature of the field, which has restricted the product offerings available to the Indian market. This has led to the non-availability of essential diagnostic and treatment interventions for newborns, in resource-constrained settings in India and globally.

Wilson Ponnian, Founder and MD, nice Neotech Medical Systems said, The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has brought up the Indian Medical Device Rules (MDR) which is also posing challenges in the Regulatory Affairs of Medical Devices. Only very few devices have been announced to be Notified while there are over 1000 medical devices in the market yet to be added to the list. The delay and the initial phases of trial and error in the process of perfecting the Indian regulatory system for medical devices pose challenges to manufacturers in more aspects rather than financial aspects in particular.

Affordability issues are challenging the neonatal and prenatal devices market growth in India. The cost of NICU care per patient per day is $125 (Rs 5,450) in India. Middle-class families find it difficult to bear this cost. Hence, such devices are inaccessible and unaffordable in hospitals and primary healthcare centres, especially in remote locations of the country.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the neonatal medical sector was not that impacted. Though there were delays and unreliability at the screening centres that hindered the market, the sector continued to thrive at a high rate even with all the difficulties during the outbreak.

Says Prof. Dr R Kishore Kumar, Founder and Chairman, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, India and Senior Consultant Neonatologist at Cloudnine Hospital, Bengaluru, The lack of skilled human resources, service delivery challenges, insufficient financial resources, and a lack of community ownership are the most significant impediments to effective scale-up of neonatal interventions in reducing NMRs. Due to gaps in the public health sector's coverage and quality of services, the rural population still seeks healthcare from informal health care providers (IHCPs). Not only this, but there are numerous medical errors due to which neonatal care is affected. For instance, the amount of drug dosage is different for babies and children, since the babies are given their doses according to their weight.

The way forward

Dr Karthik Nagesh, Chairman & HOD - Neonatal ICUs, Manipal Hospitals & Manipal Advanced Childrens Centre, Manipal Hospital Old Airport Road, Bengaluru mentions, Innovations and transformations in technology have tremendously helped in providing advanced treatment and care to neonates improving their intact survival especially, these last three decades.

According to Grand View Research, increasing government initiatives in developing countries such as India are favouring the growth of the market in the Asia Pacific. Opportunities are more for medical device companies in a country like India, however, the pricing of these devices can be a deterrent for many as the question of affordability comes into our minds.







Sanjiv Das

sanjiv.das@mmactiv.com
Hyderabad: The month-long Operation smile has helped rescue 3,176 children across the state in July, the police said here on Sunday. The operation was headed by the Women Safety Wing of the police which worked with health, education, labour and womens development and child welfare departments and NGOs.

Telangana has so far rescued over 45,000 children, said Swati Lakra, additional director general of police (womens safety), in an exclusive conversation with Deccan Chronicle.

The rescue operations in July yielded major results in Hyderabad, Cyberabad, Narayanpet and Vikarabad. Police registered 471 cases against those employing child-labour or bonded labour and rescued 2,776 boys and 400 girls.

Around 19 boys and four girls were rescued from brick kilns in addition to 187 children from begging, including 89 girls while 50 girls and 401 boys were rescued from the streets.

Rescues in other categories totaled 850 boys and 146 girls, she said, providing the figures exclusively to Deccan Chronicle.

Police faced major difficulties to trace victims, who were asked to keep mum by the accused during the rescue operations. Police used the Darpan app which has details of children and a face verification system. A total of 35,000 missing children have been rescued through the Darpan app. There were some from other states, she said.

Speaking about two cases, Lakra said that they were delighted while reuniting an eight-year-old boy with his parents after two years of separation. The anti-human trafficking unit of Nalgonda visited a child care institution (CCI) and identified the eight-year-old boy who belonged to Odisha.

Another achievement, she said, was in tracing a 12-year-old girl the very day she went missing in the Warangal commissionerate. She was spotted at the Hanamkonda railway station.

Asked why the operation is conducted only in January and July every year, Lakra said not all departments can focus on the same operation throughout the year.

All the departments are trained rigorously and the task of each is cut out. There are subdivisions which are allotted in the whole state. Only then does the operation become a success. However, the anti-human trafficking unit keeps rescuing children throughout the year, she added.
The head of Judith Neilsons embattled journalism institute has officially left the organisation after months of negotiations over an exit package.

Mark Ryan, a former adviser to Paul Keating and long-time adviser to the Lowy family, led the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas since its inception, and was working with lawyers to negotiate his exit after its billionaire philanthropist founder requested his removal from the organisation.

Billionaire Judith Neilson and the executive director of her journalism institute, Mark Ryan, have parted ways. Credit:James Brickwood/Judith Neilson Institute

Simon Freeman, chief executive of Judith Neilsons family office, confirmed Ryan had left the institute. Sources close to the institute said the final package was approved at a board meeting a week ago.

Ryans exit comes more than two months after the Institutes four independent directors received a letter from Neilson outlining plans to remove him from his position, and appoint her daughter Beau Neilson and lawyer Daniel Appleby as directors. Ryan was approached for comment.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size There are very few actors whose onscreen death has been cheered as much as Ewen Leslies. That moment in The Cry, when his manipulative husband is sent crashing to his end? Never has the unclicking of a seatbelt brought so much satisfaction. People hated that guy so much, says Leslie. It keeps getting replayed on TV and you can tell when its on because people in parks go, [he whispers] Theres that guy from The Cry. Do they move their children away from him? He laughs. He was just a really well-written narcissist. Thats why it was so believable. Because everyone goes, I know that [type of] guy. [When we were shooting the first half in Melbourne], it was really great because I was like, I dont need to worry about the audience, because no ones going to go with me on this. No ones gonna go, Oh, I kind of liked him. Leslie and Backer will interact with an on-stage camera crew for Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Credit:Daniel Boud But towards the end, I started to struggle with it. Once we were in Glasgow, I was like, F---, man. I just need to get out of this guys head. I found it really challenging.

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The 42-year-old is sitting in the sun at Theatre Bar at the End of the Wharf. Hes soon to start rehearsals for Sydney Theatre Companys Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in which he will be required to get into the head of not only the upstanding Dr Jekyll but his savage alter-ego Mr Hyde. Based on Robert Louis Stevensons 1886 novella and adapted and directed by the STCs artistic director Kip Williams, the story is rooted in Gothic horror and considers the true nature not only of humans but of society. The true monster of doom is public opinion, says Leslie. He lives in this Victorian era, where there were all these social pressures and it was all about how you presented your public standing and what the public opinion was. Ewen Leslie and Matt Backer, are the stars of the Sydney Theatre Companies production of Jekyll and Hyde. Credit:Brook Mitchell But this guy, who had all these secret desires and fantasies about the person who he truly wanted to be, he felt that because of who he was in society, he wasnt able to do it. Does Leslie think we should all reveal our true selves? To a certain degree, he says. We all operate with some level of fear, right? The amount of times you look back and go, Oh, man, I wish I had the bravery to say that.

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As an actor, I feel that so much of the time. When I think back on a play, or look at something I did, I go, I wish I wasnt scared when I did that. Were all scared. So in that regard, absolutely. In terms of murdering people? Im gonna draw a line. Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde bears similarities to Williams blockbuster adaptation of Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray. That show had Eryn Jean Norvill playing 26 live and pre-recorded characters across two hours while juggling multiple costume changes, four mobile phones and an on-stage camera crew. The books were published only five years apart and examine the Victorian fascination with duality: our public vs private selves. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian makes a pact of sorts with the devil, so his true age is kept hidden, while Jekyll hides his violent alter-ego, fearing what society will make of his real identity. Kip Williams (right) during rehearsals with Leslie and Backer. Terrifying, is how Leslie describes it. Credit:Daniel Boud One thing that interests me in revisiting this story 120-odd years later is what was it that Robert Louis Stevenson couldnt overtly say, back in his period, says Williams. He was deconstructing a society that forces somebody to compartmentalise themselves. The story looks at the damages of that compartmentalisation and the injustice and tragedy of it. And it is interesting that over the course of that 120 years, society has co-opted Robert Louis Stevensons story into this notion of we all have this monster within. I dont personally see Hyde as a monster, I see the Victorian social values as a monster, and Im questioning how much we still hold on to those values.

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For his part, Leslie likens the continuing interest in Jekyll and Hyde to the craze for shows about serial killers, such as Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes on Netflix. Theres a fascination people have with the mild-mannered guy that lives next door that secretly does these horrible things, he says. And then people go, Its like a Jekyll and Hyde thing. And I think, in my head, I always thought the story was about someone who accidentally created this potion that makes up why would you want to be a monster. Whereas its actually someone who wants to do that. It becomes this addiction. Leslie with Jenna Coleman in The Cry, which was seen by 8 million people in the UK, his biggest TV audience so far. Credit:Lachlan Moore That mild-mannered guy who lives next door could easily be Leslie. Everyone at STC goes to great lengths to tell you how lovely he is. Williams gushes Ewen is one of the sweetest, nicest people you could ever meet, while Matt Backer, who plays Dr Jekylls good friend Mr Utterson, calls him friggin incredible. In person, Leslie is gregarious and chatty, a much lighter figure than the furrowed brow seen on screen. He starts a story with, I dont know if I should tell you this  (absolutely) and then checks later that Im not going to print it (absolutely not). In fact, the only person who seems vaguely unimpressed is Leslies six-year-old son, who wont let his dad walk through the school gates at drop-off and asks him to stop practising Victorian-era English accents lest anyone at school overhear.

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Nice guy he may be, but it cant be denied Leslie has developed quite the knack for playing narcissists, rogues and, well, people you just want to punch. He delivered an unhinged Cassius, one of three roles he played, in Julius Caesar at STC; he popped out of the bushes as a sinister dude in a suit in the Toni Collette Netflix thriller Pieces of Her; was called a bizarro Basil Fawlty in ABC TVs comic drama Operation Buffalo; and chilled as a violent rapist in Warwick Thorntons film Sweet Country. So much of the time as an actor, youre just trying to subvert peoples expectations of what you can do, he says. Its a trick. Like people will go, Ewen Leslie, hes that, he can do that. There were a bunch of years there where I played a bunch of disaffected, tortured intellectual people. And I was like, F---, Ive got to show people I can play an ordinary guy. And then I did The Daughter, which was based on the Wild Duck, where I played a good man in a difficult situation. Leslie as the sadistic station owner Harry March in Warwick Thorntons Sweet Country. And then on the back of that, I got Top of the Lake and Safe Harbour, and other roles like that. And then Sweet Country came along, and I went, Oh, this will be good. I can play a bad guy, I can play an arsehole. No ones seen that before. And then I got The Cry  Williams says its Leslies unique ability to plumb the psychological depths of the character that draws audiences in. He has that remarkable versatility as an actor, says Williams. Technically, in terms of his vocal dexterity, but also in the comic and dramatic interplay he has in all of his creations on stage.

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Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, BJP AP State President Somu Veerraju and others visit Bhatlapenumarru village of National Flag Designer Pingali Venkaiah as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations in Krishna District. (Photo By Arrangement.)

VIJAYAWADA: Union minister G. Kishan Reddy called upon the people to hoist the national flag on every house on August 15 to mark 75 years of Independence, and make the nations Har Ghar Tiranga programme a great success.

The minister visited Bhatlapenumarru, the native village of national flag designer Pingali Venkayya, on Sunday. He said the centenary celebrations of Venkayya would be held in Delhi on August 2. He invited Venkayyas family on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the celebrations in New Delhi.

The PM will honour Pingali Venkayyas family members. A postal stamp with Pingali's photo will be released in Delhi and the national flag designed by him will be displayed. A special patriotic song will be released on August 2 at the Pingali Jayanti meeting, he said.

Kishan Reddy said a Tiranga Yatra would be held from Delhi Airport to Vijay Chowk on August 3 in which MPs will participate on motorcycles. A programme would be held on August 14 to mark 'Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas' (Partition Horrors Remembrance Day) and a candlelight rally would be taken out at night, he said.

The minister said on August 15, people should pay their respects to freedom fighters. National flags would be available at all post offices. The government would develop the areas where freedom fighter Alluri Sitharamaraju walked, he said, and announced that an Alluri Museum was being constructed at Lambasingi at a cost of Rs 35 crore.

Kishan Reddy participated in a BJP meeting and visited the Telugu States Photographers Carnival in Vijayawada. He and AP BJP president Somu Veerraju took a glimpse of the newly available cameras and their performance in the carnival.
Just a week ago it was generally believed that the chances of the United States passing its crucial climate bill were dead, sunk by a Republican Party that does not care and a Democratic senator with a deciding vote who had walked away from negotiations, the West Virginian coal man Joe Manchin.

The potential global consequences of such a failure are difficult to exaggerate. The Democrats look set to be clobbered in upcoming midterm elections and there is little reason to expect the party will be resurgent at the next presidential election in 2024.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has brokered a deal with his Democrat colleague Joe Manchin. Credit:AP

As a result, President Joe Bidens promise to cut US emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030, with the goal of hitting net-zero by 2050, looked to be sunk too.

And without US action, hopes that the world might achieve its Paris Accord goal of holding warming to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible fade too  why should emerging economies make sacrifices if the nation that had pumped out the most climate warming gasses in history would not?
Adults with debilitating spinal muscular atrophy will for the first time have access to a subsidised treatment that has been available only to children.

From August 1, the gene therapy Spinraza (nusinersen) will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for adults with SMA.

Daniel Michel says treatment has helped him retain his quality of life. Credit:Rhett Wyman

Roughly one in 6000 to 11,000 people are born with SMA, a rare genetic disease caused by a shortage of a protein called survival motor neuron (SMN). Without this protein, muscles become weak and waste away, including the muscles used for breathing and swallowing, the shoulders, hips, thighs and upper back.

Until now, there have been no treatment options available for adults living with SMA, Health Minister Mark Butler said. Without this PBS listing, families would be well over $300,000 per year for Spinraza ... the cost will now be just $42.20 per script, or $6.80 with a concession card, he said.
If you love cinnamon doughnuts, the moment you try a cinnamon-spiked bread and butter pudding youll wonder why you havent been eating it this way all along.

August 2, 2022

by Adam Liaw
After Gallipoli, he went to France as C.O. of his battalion. At the age of 29, a short, stocky, red-haired man, he was promoted to command the 3rd Brigade, becoming the youngest Brigadier-General in the Australian or British Army. At this time, another Victorian, Thomas Albert Blamey, three years older than Bennett, was also making a name for himself in France. Fearless Blarney became C.O. of the 2nd Battalion when Bennett became a brigade commander. The two men were to cross each others paths many times afterwards, not very cordially. At Gallipoli and in France, Bennett gained the reputation of being a fearless frontline soldier, though a peppery commander who liked to have his own way.

Bennett, Commander of the Australian force in Malaya. August 21, 1952. Credit:British Official Photograph After World War I, Bennett went back to accountancy, then became a soft-goods manufacturer. Still a keen student of military history, he began writing provocative defence articles for the Sydney Sunday Sun. These revealed an undisguised contempt for the diehard professional soldier, which did not endear Bennett to the men in charge of the defence of Australia. Bennetts chief creed was: Attack is the best method of defence. Criticising the Maginot Line complex, he wrote, Any line can be turned. When the Germans attacked Poland in 1939, he challenged Captain Liddell Harts theory that defensive strategy would win the war. Bennett declared that trench warfare of the 1914-18 variety and orthodox textbook methods were dead.

At the outbreak of war in September, 1939, Bennett was the senior Major-General in the Australian Army and, as such, confidently expected an important command, if not that of Commander-in-Chief. But it was not until the 8th Division was formed in 1940 that Bennett was called upon. When the division went to Malaya, Bennett found him self once more at loggerheads with professional soldiers, this time of the British and Indian Armies. In Malaya, there were complacency and inertia, bad Intelligence, a scornful underestimation of the Japanese, and of proper co-operation between the Army and the Air Force. Bennett blamed these things, plus lack of an offensive spirit in the senior and junior leaders, for the quick loss of Malaya to the Japanese.

Bennett urged offensive methods to throw back the swiftly advancing Japanese. The war correspondent in Malaya for The Times said of Bennett: Though hard, bitter, sarcastic and difficult, he was a fighter through and through, imbued, like his men, with an aggressive and unconventional spirit. Debacle The Malayan debacle ended on February 15, 1942, by which time the Japanese had 550 miles in 55 days to trap the British forces on Singapore Island. Under terms of surrender, hostilities were to cease at 8.30 p.m. (there was to be much legal argument four years later as to whether Bennett had come under the orders of General A. E Percival, G.O.C., Malaya, after the cease-fire order).

Bennett said he believed it was his duty to escape to Australia with his knowledge of Japanese jungle tactics. He left his troops about 10 p.m. on February 15 with his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Gordon Walker, and Major Charles Moses (now general manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission). After an adventurous journey by sampan, tongkan (a larger vessel) and aeroplane, Bennett landed at Broome, Western Australia, 10 days later. At first, he was heaped with praise for a spectacular and daring escape. The Prime Minister, the late John Curtin, and members of the War Cabinet expressed official confidence in him. It was soon apparent, however, that there was a strong undercurrent of feeling against Bennett elsewhere, especially in higher Army circles. It was held that no commander should leave his troops in such circumstances. Bennett wrote two training manuals on Japanese jungle tactics, based on his Malayan experiences. They were used in the New Guinea campaign.

Then Bennett was appointed G.O.C., Western Command, in Western Australia. This was a time when the Japanese seemed poised to invade Australia, and Bennett flung himself into his new command with characteristic vigour. A dramatic painting of Gordon Bennett, with members of his staff, escaping from the Singapore waterfront. October 11, 1950. The threat passed and Bennett asked vainly for another operational command. It was obvious that he was to be bypassed. In April, 1944, he resigned from the Army and, in doing so, his long quarrel with Sir Thomas Blamey came into the open. Bennett said publicly, I did not want to get out of the Army during the war, but I have been frozen out by the Commander-in-Chief... My ambition is not to become one of the chairborne troops.

Frustrated Bitter, angry and frustrated, Bennett retired to a 34-acre orchard at Glenorie, 30 miles from Sydney, but the last had not been heard of the Malayan campaign and his part in it. General Percivals book The War in Malaya, published in 1944, contained criticism of Bennetts generalship and the role Australian troops had played. Percival said that Bennett had been out of harness for some years. He added, Modern war gives little time for commanders to learn their trade. Bennett replied hotly that it was Percivals Maginot Line Complex that had helped to lose Malaya.

Bennett was also attacked by Compton Mackenzie in the first volume of the Official History of the Indian Army at War, for being too solicitous for his Australian troops at the expense of the Indians. Mackenzie also critised Bennett for not informing Percival of his plans to escape. The Bennett controversy suddenly flared up again in October, 1945, when, after an official report from General Percival, Sir Thomas Blamey ordered a military board of inquiry into the circumstances of Bennetts escape from Singapore. General Gordon Bennetts funeral at St. Andrews Cathedral, August 6, 1962. Bennett and his counsel walked out of the inquiry after the preliminary discussion. A month later a Royal Commission (open to Press and public) into the escape was opened in Melbourne under Mr Justice Ligertwood, of South Australia.

The inquiry lasted a fortnight. It was apparent that some of Bennetts staff officers disapproved of his escape. These officers, in evidence, said they had believed the escape would adversely affect the reputation of the A.I.F, and that it was unethical for an officer to leave his men voluntarily. The Commissioner found that Bennett had not been justified in relinquishing his command and leaving Singapore. However, he had acted from motives of patriotism and had brought valuable information back to Australia. Tragedy Loading
Noticing the Dave Warner (C8) debate raging in Column 8, Dave Warner of Balgowlah writes in to assure the throng of Dave Warner from the Suburbs suburban soldiers out there that the suburbs of Australia are not safe from me yet. I am preparing for the launch of my 11th crime novel, out Monday (today), After the Flood. Book and music tour follows. Handy bit of self-promotion there, Dave.

Observing that the expression plum job has featured prominently in the news of late, George Manojlovic says that whenever I hear it Im reminded of my dear old dad. Back in the old country he had a plum job. He made slivovitz.

David Rose of Nollamara (WA) has noted an oddity during the frequent phone calls to the US he has recently been making. In Australia, we quote mobile numbers as four digits, three digits, three digits. In the US, the practice is three digits, three digits, four digits. A small change but, believe me, it does seem to flummox the Yanks.

As a very passionate athlete in the highly competitive sports of jumping to conclusions, pushing my luck and flying off the handle, Sue Casiglia of North Ryde thinks we should expand the Commonwealth Games (C8) to include these, if only because Australia will be assured a gold medal for my stellar performances.

The answer to John Los question about how Parramatta got to Texas (C8) is that it sailed, says Neil Andrews of Melbourne. It was a Blackwall frigate, rivals to the clippers, launched at Sunderland in 1866. It left Galveston, and an impact on Texas, in 1898 with a cargo of pitch-pine and disappeared.
Industry leaders and experts have rejected calls from across the Coalition to stop the risk of foot and mouth disease devastating Australias livestock industry by closing the border with Indonesia, arguing such a move wouldnt remove risks but would damage the economy and foreign relations.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and veterans affairs spokesman Barnaby Joyce demanded last week the federal government shut the border immediately, arguing the risk of severe economic damage, which the government says could top $80 billion, is too great to take any chances.

A farmer leads his cows to be given a vaccine against the highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease during a vaccination campaign in Bali. Credit:AP

Nationals senator Susan McDonald, MP Colin Boyce and former NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall have also called for border closures. Nationals leader David Littleproud has not ruled out a border closure and called on the government to stipulate what circumstances would justify it being shut.

Last week more than 100 people gathered in Colac, in south-west Victoria, for the Rally for a Response event demanding the border be closed to tourists for 120 days. Farmers drove tractors through town to attract attention to their cause.
A diner sitting in the outdoor courtyard of a small restaurant in Chinas Sichuan province happened to look down at the ground and spot something unusual. It appeared to be a dinosaur footprint.

Two weeks ago, Chinese palaeontologists confirmed that the diner was right. The depressions had in fact been left by two dinosaurs as they plodded across the region about 100 million years ago.

The 100 million-year-old dinosaur footprints found at the restaurant in China. Credit:Lida Xing

Using a 3D scanner, scientists determined that the tracks were made by sauropods - large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and four legs. According to Lida Xing, a palaeontologist at China University of Geosciences who led the team investigating the site, these footprints were probably made by the species Titanosauriformes.

The footprints are about 56 centimetres long on average, and the dinosaurs probably measured about 8 metres long and weighed more than 900 kilograms, Xing told The Washington Post.
Kyiv: A small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone has blown up at the headquarters of Russias Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula, wounding six people and prompting the cancellation of ceremonies there honouring Russias navy, authorities said.

Meanwhile, one of Ukraines richest men, a grain merchant, was killed in what Ukrainian authorities said was a carefully targeted Russian missile strike on his home.

An unusually quiet Sevastopol Bay in Crimea, where authorities say ceremonies honouring Russias navy were cancelled after an explosion at the headquarters of Russias Black Sea Fleet. Credit:AP

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone explosion in a courtyard at the naval headquarters in the city of Sevastopol on Sunday (Crimea time). But the seemingly improvised, small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility that it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents trying to drive out Russian forces.

A Russian lawmaker from Crimea, Olga Kovitidi, told Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti that the drone was launched from Sevastopol itself. She said the incident was being treated as a terrorist act, the news agency said.
London: Pope Francis has acknowledged that his ailing health may force him to retire early as head of the Catholic church after he struggled with a week-long Canadian pilgrimage because of strained knee ligaments.

The 85-year-old pontiffs six-day trip, which came to an end on Saturday, featured several moments when he was clearly in pain as he manoeuvred getting up and down from chairs.

Francis would be only the third pope in history to retire, but the second in a row. The resignation of Pope Benedict in 2013, saying his health no longer allowed him to carry the burden of his office, caught the churchs power structure off guard.

I think at my age and with these limitations, I have to save [my energy] to be able to serve the church, or on the contrary, think about the possibility of stepping aside, Francis told journalists on Saturday.
London: Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, faces new scrutiny over the financing of his charities after a report found that one organisation had accepted a donation of 1 million ($1.75 million) from the family of Osama bin Laden.

As first reported by Londons Sunday Times, The Prince of Wales Charitable Fund received the donation in 2013 from brothers Bakr and Shafiq bin Laden, half brothers of Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and architect of 9/11.

The Times reported that Prince Charles personally negotiated the payment. Credit:AP

News of the payment follows a series of recent royal scandals, including a report in June that Charles had accepted $US3.1 million in cash donations from a Qatari billionaire between 2011 and 2015, some of which was received personally in a suitcase and shopping bags.

The bin Ladens are a powerful Saudi family, whose multinational construction business and close ties to the Saudi royal family have made them extremely wealthy. There is, however, no suggestion that either Bakr or Shafiq bin Laden has sponsored, supported or been involved in any acts of terrorism. And the family disowned Osama bin Laden in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his extremist activities.
DALLAS  The George W. Bush Institute condemns the Burmese militarys execution of four democracy activists: Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw. We mourn for all of them and their families.

Since overthrowing a democratically elected government in February 2021, the military has brutalized thousands of protestors and ordinary citizens, harming Burmese society. These recent killings represent further escalation by the military to terrorize the Burmese people, who have roundly rejected the coup d'etat.

More broadly, the military's campaign of repression is an outright rejection of human dignity and the rule of law, conditions which modern nations recognize are critical for human beings to flourish. Thats why, despite threats to their well-being, the Burmese people continue their pursuit of democracy.

The Bush Institute is committed to supporting the Burmese people and helping them turn Burma into a democratic nation that enshrines freedom, the rule of law, and opportunity for all.
CIL chairman Pramod Agrawal said concluding a wage revision pact with coal workers is the "highest priority" and the public sector enterprise is committed to reach a deal amicably at the earliest.

of non-executive workers which account for over 90 per cent of Coal India's (CIL) workforce are revised every five years.

The latest wage revision which would benefit around 2.39 lakh non-executive manpower of has been due since July 1, 2021.

Beginning negotiations on July 17 last year, CIL held three meetings of 'Joint Bi-Partite Committee for Coal Industry' (JBCCI) during the last financial year to discuss and finalise the National Coal Wage Agreement - XI (NCWA-XI).

"For NCWA-XI as well, CIL is committed to conclude the wage agreement in an amicable and win-win manner for both the sides at the earliest," Agarwal said in the company's annual report 2021-22.

In the previous three editions of NCWA, he said, CIL was the first PSU in India to have successfully concluded the wage pact with the workforce.

The had earlier said that CIL maintains amicable and harmonious relations with workers' unions and strives to avoid any discordance or strikes in view of the importance of the coal sector in the country.

The negotiations are in progress and it usually takes time to conclude the pact, the ministry had said.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.

workers may go on strike in case of further delays in finalising their wage hikes, according to one of the members of the trade union of the coal behemoth.

According to industry watchers, the strike may hit the production of coal. This, according to them, may be a deterrent to the efforts being made by the government to ramp up the country's output to avoid the recurrence of the fuel shortages, which happened in the peak summer months this year.

The shortage of coal had resulted to power outages in various parts of the country in April and May.

(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.)
Open, the Google and Tiger Global-backed neobank, is planning to onboard about 10 million small businesses in 3 years as it aims to solve a series of challenges faced by for managing their business finances, using technology.

Open offers a business account in partnership with banks that help automate and run their finances effectively. The firm which work with the top 14 banks in India is aiming to onboard about 250 banks globally which would be using its platform and technology. It plans to scale up its operations globally in markets such as Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

We started Open five years back primarily to solve the challenges small businesses face when it comes to business banking because there are a lot of inefficiencies in the existing processes, said Anish Achuthan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Open, in an interview. Today many top banks in the country are deploying our solution to launch their own neobanks.

For instance, the firms BankingStack solution empowers banks and financial institutions to launch digital banking services. It is deployed at over 15 banks in India and 2 banks in South-East Asia. This is empowering banks to complement their own digital banking offerings and offer a superior experience to their customers.

We are enabling traditional banks to bring better banking experiences to their customers, said Achuthan.

Open competes with players such as Razorpay and British fintech firms like Revolut and Tide.

Open recently became Indias 100th unicorn after it raised a $100 million round led by Temasek, Google, and SBI Investments. It is now serving more than 2.3 million and processing $30 billion in transactions annually. The platform onboards 100,000 new SMEs and startups every month.

The platform enables businesses to collect payments, make seamless payouts, and streamline expense management. The other processes include managing compliance, auto-reconcile and categorising income and expense, thereby automating book-keeping.

Currently we manage deposits worth $2 billion on our platform. We aim to take this to about $7 billion by next year, said Achuthan.

Open, was founded in 2017 by fintech serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan and Mabel Chacko, alongside Ajeesh Achuthan and Deena Jacob in 2017.

As a natural progression, Open is now tapping the SME lending space as well. The platform is gearing up for the launch of three new products aimed at enhancing the capital needs of SMEs apart from its existing SME credit card offerings. The new products include Open Flo  a revenue-based financing product for e-commerce businesses, Open Settl  early settlement credit offering and Open Capital  working capital lending offering for SMEs.

Open is targeting to disburse $1 billion in lending through the new suite of products on the platform in the next 12 months.

For this Open and IIFL Finance Ltd. have come up with a joint venture to launch a neo-bank that would cater to banking and credit requirements of micro and small enterprises (MSMEs). It will offer an alternative experience to traditional banking. This includes providing a simple interface for banking and integration with accounting, finance and payroll in a seamless way.

Achuthan said that SME lending is the need of the hour as small businesses have been largely lacking access to robust capital resources. A recent IFC report indicated that SMEs take up a minuscule 6-7 per cent credit share and face a credit gap of close to $1.1 trillion.

The firm recently received a go-ahead from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its new cross-border payments product. This comes after Open completed the test phase of the second cohort under the RBIs regulatory sandbox structure themed Cross Border Payments.Open is one of the 4 entities that have completed the testing phase of RBIs regulatory sandbox.

Open has also come up with Zwitch a no-code embedded finance platform. This enables businesses from any industry to build personalized financial products and services that fit into the customer journey.
State-run has posted a 4 per cent increase in net profit for the first quarter of the financial year 2022-23 to Rs 1,311 crore as compared with Rs 1,259 crore during the same period during the last financial year.

Total income of the bank during the April-June quarter of 2022-23 also increased by 3 per cent to Rs 11,898 crore from Rs 11,553 crore in the year ago period. The banks operating profit for June 2022 was seen up by 4 per cent at Rs 3,575 crore from Rs 3,435 crore in June 2021.

The gross non-performing assets decreased by 156 basis points (bps) to 8.13 per cent of the gross advances as of June 2022, from 9.69 per cent during the same time last year. Its net non-performing assets also reduced by 135 bps to 2.12 per cent from 3.47 per cent in June 2021. Non-performing asset provision coverage ratio improved by 608 bps to 88.08 per cent during the first quarter of 2022-23 from 82 per cent in Q1 of 2021-22.

During the period under review, the net interest income increased by 13 per cent to Rs 4,534 crore from Rs 3,995 crore during the same time last financial year. Non-Interest income (excluding treasury income) grew by 37.67 per cent to Rs 1,736 crore in June 2022 from Rs 1,261 crore during the same quarter last financial year.

Deposit increased by 8 per cent year on year and reached to Rs 5,84,251 crore in April to June quarter of 2022. CASA also grew by 8 per cent. Advances increased by 9 per cent to Rs 4,25,203 crore during the quarter, from Rs 3,89,626 crore in June 2021.

The core operations of the bank have contributed to this growth. This is because our retail credit has gone up by 14 per cent, housing loan by 11 per cent, auto loan by 22 per cent, personal loan by 32 per cent and gold loan by 42 per cent. Along with this CASA has grown by 8 per cent. So the result is increase in NII and other income, said
While the is moving forward with the Metro-3 car shed project in Aarey Colony, a forest area in the city, environmentalists warn that not only leopards, but a host of other animals and birds face the threat of losing their habitat and lives.

Apart from leopards, a wide range of species of flora and fauna is found in the Aarey forest, an 1,800 acre area termed as the city's 'green lung', located in suburban Goregaon and adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi Park (SGNP).

This rich urban forest is a biotope that houses some newly-discovered species of scorpions and spiders, besides being a treasure trove of birds, butterflies, amphibians and mammals.

Forest department sources said that camera-trapping activity was undertaken at the car depot site, which revealed that this particular area is home to at least five leopards. Besides them, some jungle cats, mongooses, monitor lizards and other animals were also captured on camera.

Founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), Pawan Sharma, said, "If tree cutting process for the car shed is started by the government, it is possible for leopards to shift to some other area in the SGNP, but what about several other animals? They will lose their habitat and ultimately their lives."



Many small animals and lesser known species would directly get affected due to the construction activity and deforestation, he said.

In and the SGNP, around 80 species of birds like Asian paradise flycatcher, spotted owlet, peacock, hornbill and night jars are found. Then it also shelters around 85 species of butterflies, including swordtail, common blue bottle and oak leaf. It is also home to several amphibians like bullfrog, toad, tree frog, fungoid frog, and 51 reptile species, including Indian rock python, monitor lizard and skink, among others, Sharma said.

Five varieties of scorpions, 22 of spiders and 20 types of mammals, including leopard, deer, mongoose, wild boar, langur, macaques, civet cat, rusty spotted cat, bats and squirrels, are also found in this area, while around 30 types of wild flowers are also spotted here.

"Aarey is a biodiversity centre located right in the middle of the city. Most of the animals found here will end up losing their lives during the removal of trees and the construction activity for the car shed," he added.

Wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar, the CEO of SPROUTS, a wildlife conservation organisation, said, "Endemic creatures with small home ranges and which are highly locale-specific such as some species of scorpions and spiders described only from Aarey may permanently be lost, or go locally and globally extinct."



Other ecologically important creatures such as frogs, dragonflies, turtles, and grassland and riverine flora, which are vital to maintain the life-giving potential of the Mithi river, will be permanently destroyed, he said.

"Also, territorial creatures such as leopards, monkeys or snakes don't easily change their location and are likely to return to their original spots in the proposed yard, leading to increased human wildlife conflicts," Pendharkar added.

According to Sharma, in human-animal conflict, only human beings are not affected, but the wildlife equally gets impacted by human activity. Before taking up any development project in a forest area, which serves as a habitat for wildlife, a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment is important and it must be done throughout the year.

This exercise will reveal the number of species that will be affected directly and indirectly, he suggested.

"Developed countries are now growing forests and moving towards sustainable development, whereas we are destroying our green patches," Sharma lamented.

After coming to power last month, the Eknath Shinde government had directed the state administration to submit a proposal on building the car shed in Aarey Colony, instead of Kanjurmarg which was chosen by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation.

In 2014, the Metro-3 car shed was first proposed at Aarey by the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, which was challenged by local NGO Vanshakti in the Bombay High Court, with a plea to prevent cutting of trees in the area.

Devendra Fadnavis, who succeeded Chavan, went ahead with the same site. But green activists had vehemently opposed the cutting of trees in Aarey for the car shed.

After the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance came to power in 2019, the then CM Thackeray had reversed the decision, shifting the Metro-3 car shed to a site in the Kanjurmarg eastern suburb, but it was embroiled in a legal dispute.

(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.)
Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday ruled out reports of monkeypox in the state and said rumours of positive cases were being spread by a section of media.

The Minister for Health and Family Welfare reiterated his earlier comments that the health department has intensified the screening procedures at 13 locations bordering with Kerala and also at the four international airports present in the state.

Speaking to reporters here, he said people who come by road in the 13 locations and at the airports are checked for rashes on their face or in their hands.

There was no positive report of monkeypox in as of now while two children from Canada and US, who had rashes on their faces, tested negative for the disease, Subramanian said.

There were rumours that a man who had come from Singapore to Tiruchirapalli by flight and three to four people in Nagercoil had contracted monkeypox.

However, the test carried out on them came out negative on Saturday night, the minister said. Rumours of positive cases were being spread by a section of media, he added.

There was no need for the administration to hide if there was any positive report, as the public would be on alert and take necessary preventive measures if monkeypox was reported in the state, he said.

"However, we can not rule out that the disease will not affect Tamil Nadu," the minister said.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.

Monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting two to four weeks. The disease typically presents itself with fever, headache, rashes for up to three weeks, sore throat, cough and swollen lymph nodes.

Subramanian said he was in Coimbatore to review the status and steps taken regarding organ transplantation and the number of people waiting for such transplants, with the principals and deans of all Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals.

Since the organ transplantation process was almost standstill during the pandemic, Chief Minister M K Stalin wanted to speed up the process and the meeting is being held as part of this directive, he said.

A total of 13 donors had donated 50 organs from April 2021 and 114 donors had donated 479 organs from May 2021 to July 2022, after DMK came to power and 588 people were benefited due to organ transplantation in the last 14 months, he said.

There is also a long list of people waiting for organs -- 6,483 for kidney, 380 for liver, 43 heart, 42 lungs, 18 pancreas and 23 hands, Subramanian 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.)
Former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey has moved a Delhi court seeking bail in a case of alleged phone tapping of NSE employees, claiming that ED proceedings against him were the result of a political fallout.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on August 2 before special judge Sunena Sharma.

In his petition, Pandey said he had investigated and prosecuted several high-profile and politically sensitive cases, and claimed that the present proceedings were "a political fallout of honest and sincere discharge of his duties as a senior police officer".

"The instant case is clearly motivated by political considerations and it is also evident from the fact that an offence that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2017 is being investigated in 2022 i.e., 13 years after its purported commencement and five years after its purported closure; and that too within a week of the applicant emitting his office," he said.

The application also said that a huge delay was caused in the registration of the FIR, which raised serious doubts on the bona fides of the investigation.

"It appears that the applicant (Sanjay Pandey) is arraigned in the present case, for no fault of his own, and only to fulfil some political vendetta," it said.

The court has issued a notice to the ED on the application and sought its reply on August 2.

Pandey was arrested by the investigating agency on July 19 in the case.

The ED arrested former NSE MD Chitra Ramakrishnan on July 14 following her interrogation after taking permission from the court, where she was produced from jail on an order passed by the judge earlier.

The judge had issued a production warrant against Ramakrishnan on a plea moved by the ED.

After she was produced, the ED took permission from the court to interrogate her.

Later, the agency arrested Ramakrishnan on grounds of non-cooperation and again produced her before the court, and urged for a nine-day custodial interrogation.

The court, however, had granted four days' custody.

Ramakrishnan was arrested by the CBI in a separate case, and was in judicial custody.

(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.)